Dangers To True Fellowship, Pt. 2

Ronald Weinland

June 12, 2021

This will be Part 2 of the series entitled Dangers To True Fellowship.

We’re going to jump right in by continuing from where we left off last week, by viewing the last few verses that we covered, and that was in Ephesians 4, and we’ll begin in verse 20. Very powerful chapter because it goes through and explains more vividly than any other place in the Bible the structure that God gave to the Church, the reason for that structure, and the process whereby He would strengthen that structure. So, it’s really quite an incredible chapter, of what’s covered there.

Ephesians 4:20 says, But you have not learned this of Christ. So, going through here in context here that we are to learn within the Church and to live by, and obviously, understanding there are things we are to get rid of in our life, which this also covers as we continue on the sermon today.

But it says, if indeed you have heard Him. So again, it goes back to this age-old thing, the ability to hear. And that has to do with our relationship with God. It has to do with our desire to conquer and overcome this, to come out of sin, to be forgiven of sin on a regular basis because that’s the primary focus for prayer in the first place. It’s recognition that we need to have repentance on a regular basis and to be thankful that we have a High Priest that we can go to, go to God and ask for that help and blessing of that Passover sacrifice that was given in our life.

So again, awesome what God has given to us so that we can have a relationship, fellowship with Him and His Son, that they can live and dwell within us. And that’s what’s being covered here.

So, “if indeed you have heard of Him.” So, that’s up to us individually, how we’re living our lives, because we know that there is only one way that this can be interfered with, and that’s by our wrong choices in life. We can’t hear. We can’t hear if there is sin in our life. We get cut off from God’s spirit. And if we’re cut off from God’s spirit, we’re not going to be able to hear what He’s telling us. And the primary format that He tells us is, as an example, in Sabbath services week by week by week.

…and have been taught by Him. So, always bringing it back to the reality that if sermons were to be given only by, as we experienced in the Church in times past as people began to drift away, as the ministry began to drift way in many regards as far as being faithful and loyal to what had been given to them through, basically, Herbert Armstrong and those of Ambassador and what was raised up within the ministry. But as people began to drift away from that there were things, obviously, that weren’t taught properly, and ministers did begin to drift away, and we had a whole lot of problems that led up to the Apostasy

So, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him. So, what an awesome thing that God is the one who teaches us. It’s what it goes back to. It’s given by God first and foremost in and through Christ because Christ is the head of the Church. He is the one given the responsibility, the power to do those things as far as inspiring the ministry, working with the ministry to give timely needed messages and so forth.

Unlike what we were told in latter meetings as far as what was taking place in the Church when people, ministry would be brought into headquarters (probably every two years on a rotating basis) to have a week or two of update of refreshing. It was called a refreshing program for that very purpose, to refresh the ministry and help, hopefully, to bring us into a greater unity. Which didn’t really happen but that was the effort, that was the purpose behind it. And began to be taught reliance on ourselves using books, using in some cases those things written by a protestant world, commentaries and so forth, their opinion, their ideas about what’s in scripture. And on and on it went.

And so, we were encouraged to use some of those kinds of things. Well, they have use to a point. But to use them to help with ideas for sermons, even that was given as far as an outline, telling us that there were certain times of the year, or you needed to make sure you included certain kinds of sermons on a regular basis throughout a year. And it didn’t ring true because it omitted God. And that was the problem.

Because God is the one who knows, Christ is the one who knows exactly what we need in the Church and when we need it, how to mold and fashion us. The creation is going on by what God does. It’s God’s creation, and we are that creation. The creation that continues on is what God is doing in those whom He calls. That’s what it’s called in scripture – it’s an ongoing creation – because the ability to transform the mind once we’re begotten and begotten into God’s Family, not yet born, that’s a creative process just as much as a child is growing in the womb of a mother. Awesome, to understand those things.

So anyway, led by God, Christ leading and guiding and directing the Church, giving us those things we need when we need them. No human can know those things of and by themselves. You can’t sit down and decide, well, I think, see, what do we need this week to give? If anybody does that, which began to happen, we go off course because it’s not looking to God, it’s not relying on God.

If it comes out of an individual, a human being by what they put together, it’s worthless, absolutely worthless. Truly!

If indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Joshua. So, God has given all that to Christ to give to the Church – how to live life, that truth that begins to be exercised in our lives that we begin to learn. And as I brought out, it was brought out last Sabbath, it’s not just talking about the truths specially that have been outlined, that have been given to the Church by number. It’s much broader than that. It has to do with being truthful in life, in learning how to do that.

That you put off, concerning the former conduct, the old person, who we were, what we were like. And that is to be ever changing even in our lives. We shouldn’t retrogress in the Church either. We shouldn’t go back to what we were like five years ago or ten years ago. In other word’s go backwards. Because it doesn’t work that way. And the only way it works that way is if we get cut off from God’s spirit. And we’re going to go backward all right and we’re going to retrogress and we’re going to become like the person that was way back there that should be changing and growing constantly. Growth is a constant thing in our life, and we can’t go backward.

…which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. We are incredibly deceitful human beings, we really are. We deceive ourselves. And that’s so hard to see in ourselves. And candidly, it’s God that has to show us where the deception is, how we think, how we reason that isn’t right. And it happens all the time in our lives. It happens depending on where we are in our growth, our maturing process, and what we’ve conquered and overcome. It just, it happens. And we have to cry out to God to help us to see ourselves, our motivations and so forth. He’s the only one that can reveal it to us. Him and Christ is what I’m talking about.

So again, incredible what we go through, this process. But it’s deceitful thinking, deceitful desires. In other words, it’s what “I” want. And when “I” want something, when an individual, they want something above and beyond something else that’s being given to them and they’re trying to hold on to something different, God will let us have it. But it’s just not right, it’s deceitful and we’re going to deceive ourselves.

Just like this last couple of weeks, this last week even, because of this sermon series and certain things that have been said there are… I’ve heard excuses. It’s amazing what we can begin to make excuses and justify what we’re doing. It’s almost like sometimes we have to make comments to let someone know or let the ministry know or whatever it might be, why I am making the choices I am. “It’s because of this, this, and this. And I really need to do blah, blah, blah.” And when it’s all said and done it doesn’t agree at all with what has been given in the Church! Blows my mind! Think, I just stood up there last week going through this and you’re doing the very thing that you’re not supposed to do, justifying, making excuse.

And so, this is what this is talking about. And it’s a very difficult thing to see and that’s why we have to continue to cry out to God to help us have our eyes open constantly, to be able to hear what He gives on the Sabbath, to be able to drink it in, digest it spiritually, and then to work on it in our life. Because it’s incredible how far the human mind will go to justify itself. It’s just a proclivity we have.

…and be/become renewed in the spirit of your mind. I love that kind of a verse because it reminds me of Romans 12 where it talks about this process that’s going on in our minds, the metamorphoo, the transformation of the mind, of what’s taking place, of God changing the very way we think, helping us to change because we want to change, we want to be in unity with Him, we want to think in the same way, which is one of love, which is outgoing concern. It’s not selfishness. It’s not wanting our own way. There is a battle there. We have a constant battle as human beings with that in the Church.

Verse 24—Even as you have put on the new person… So, that’s a process. We’re putting it on. Because we want to live what He’s teaching us, what He’s giving to us. …which after God is created, it’s a creation process, in righteousness.

So that is what God is creating within us. The more our minds come into unity with God the more that righteousness is created. What an awesome thing. The more we can think right the more we can make right decisions, right choices, our judgments being true, being correct.

That’s why I love what Christ had to say about judgment. He said he doesn’t judge anyone, but when he judges his judgment is true. A lot of people in times past used to be confused by that. What is that? What does that mean? He doesn’t judge, but yet he does judge. How is that…? What is that…? Well, it’s very clear. It’s because it’s about being in agreement with God. So, the judgment is true when it’s based upon what comes from God. And for him, everything was based on that. What is God’s way? What is God’s will in this?

And so, we grow in that. Takes time, a lifetime, and then we never get all the way there until we’re changed. And finally, He gives us the ability to do it all the time. Awesome!

Therefore, putting away, the word is “lies” … put away lies. Put away what is not truth, what is not true. And so, we have to be very careful in that. And so, a lot of the context of this sermon has to do with things we take in out of the world.

Today we live in an information nightmare. Absolutely bombarded in ways that mankind has never been bombarded, because of technology. And if we’re not careful we take it in and depending on how we look at it… We had a conversation on the way up here today that I’d had in part with my son here a week or so ago and we were talking about different news groups out here in the world and readily recognizing the importance of making sure that we know their prejudices, where they’re coming from.

So, you can glean from a lot of what’s out there in putting things together of what’s given from different organizations, but you’ve got to know their bias. Because they all have it. Every one of them has bias! Every one of them has prejudice! And they can report on the same things and report differently because they want you to agree with them, to think along a certain line, whatever it might be, whether it be political or whatever the motivation is, to be in agreement with them. And we have to wade through that, we truly do, to get closer to the truth, to what is the truth.

You can’t just drink it all in without knowing these things. And so, that’s a challenge for us in our life. All the information that’s out there and whatever your proclivity is to believe, you will tend to believe it. You will tend to lean in that direction. So, we have to be careful; you have to be on guard against things that are out there, you really do, and not just believe everything is absolutely scientific fact!

Wow! This table makes good noise. I love it! I didn’t have to hurt my hand doing that. It’s loosely connected here so it makes a walloping noise. Anyway.

Getting across the point here, even more so, more forcefully, what we have to be like, what we have to do, the battle that’s in us and being on guard, being alert and recognizing the importance of striving to have truth in our life. Get rid of the lies, wade through all this cesspool and garbage that’s out here, all the…

It’s like walking through a… Well, talked about it a little bit—Was it last week or the week before?—about these places that have tons and tons and tons, hundreds and hundreds of cows, cattle, steers, whatever it might be, whatever the… Anyway, the feedlots. It’s just like wading through that, the stuff that’s all over the place, especially in a rain and it’s just…

I don’t want to get too descriptive but that’s what our lives are like in this world. We’re trying to come out of all that that mankind is walking through, trying to get our lives cleaned up, trying to take the smell out. And everything that’s false, that’s what that pictures, that smell, that rotten stuff they…and trying to be clean in here. And that’s a job in this age.

Therefore, put away lies. That’s the doo-doo in the feedlot. Try to get away, try to get rid of the stench, try to get rid of all that’s unclean, and strive to become clean. And that’s reflected in what is true in life. It’s a beautiful thing God gives us, truth, what is true, absolute.

Everyone is to speak truth… it says, “his neighbor,” but as we talked about, with those near them. Who are the nearest to us? Well, right now we know who that is. It’s right in here. And that’s what it’s talking about. It’s talking about fellowship – to those who are nearest to us.

You know, we may have physical family, we may have friends and neighbors or whatever it might be in a locale that we’re in and people know each other and they have conversation. But there is nothing… Those that are nearest to us, that should be indeed the nearest to us, are those who are growing with/in the same mind because this is what gives us a closeness that family can’t have. Physical family cannot have what a spiritual family can have because it’s supported by, strengthened by God’s spirit. Awesome! A spiritual family is far, far beyond that which is physical.

Now, you can have both and be a part with that, and that’s an awesome thing to experience and to have. But the reality is that which is spiritual is the most powerful, the most needful, what we should latch on to with all of our being. Because even that will determine whether or not physical, the physical part can be right, true.

Everyone speak truth to those near them, for we are (clarifies it) members one of another. It’s the Church. It’s fellowship. What we have is powerful, it really is. It’s a powerful experience. It’s a powerful relationship. There are to be no prejudices, no biases, nothing in this Family but total acceptance, desire, and love toward one another. Awesome!

So, going on from there. Question was asked then, “So how do we learn the truth?” And part of that was given, obviously. We understand it’s given by Christ (we already touched upon that), given by God to Christ to give to the Church. He is the head of the Church and God leads and guides and directs us in those things. He gives us a mind where we are to learn how to judge.

That, to me, is an awesome process, too, and we’re really only touching upon that in many ways in our lives. What’s coming beyond this when Christ returns is going to put us into an area that goes so far beyond where we are now, it truly is. About judgment and the ability to judge and so forth. And yet we’re growing in those things, we’re learning how to do those things more as a body. But there is so much more ahead of us – always learning, always growing. It’s a beautiful thing, it really is. Never getting to a point where life stagnates and becomes dull and boring.

And so, God, as we talked about last week, gave us a ministry for that very purpose, to mold and fashion us so we’re not carried about with every wind of doctrine, as it talks about, different ideas. And doctrine is about teaching. It’s not just out of the Bible or scripture, ideas that people have about. It’s any ideas, anything that’s taught.

And so again, today you’re bombarded with that, everybody out here wanting to teach us. Turn on a TV, turn on the news, they’re not giving what I grew up with when things were reported on of what happened somewhere. Now, they want to give a scenario with it, they want to give a story with it. They want to paint something to get you to try to get you to try to think in a certain way. And there’s no end of it. And it’s just…

I don’t know about you but it’s sick. It really is sick. It’s disgusting. And yet they’re very successful at doing it, molding and fashioning ideas and thoughts out here so people get to a point where it’s like dumbing the world down. You just sit there and listen, and you soak it in. And whatever it is you like to listen to, you know what, that’s the channel people turn into because “That’s what I want to hear, that’s what I want to be fed, from that channel, because I don’t like the other one.”

And then it’s just like this brain, there’s no personal thinking anymore and judging of things. It’s just soaking it up. You’ve got to be careful when you do that with the internet and all the garbage that’s out there, all the news, all the things out there that are supposed to be factual.

Philippians 4:5—Let your… I love this verse here because it’s not a matter of “gentleness,” as it’s sometimes translated as “moderation.” It’s not “moderation.” That isn’t the word at all. Let your yielding or your yieldedness… To what? What do you mean Let your yieldedness, if you will, be known to everyone? Well, we should be known by how we think, by how we live, and much of that should be seen by our attitude. Attitude says so much. And yield to what? To God’s word. To God’s truth. To God’s way of life. That it should be obvious that we’re yielding.

Because you have to fight against this carnal nature very often in your life. And the larger we are as a body and the more often we’re able to be together the more you have to fight that. It’s a reality. Because we’re all so different.

I love it, how God has called us. There are so many differences in the Church. There always have been. Now, when you had an area where maybe there were 350 or 600, like some of the congregations I came from, came through. You know, you’d find others – tendency is for human nature to gravitate toward some who were a little more like you in thinking. It’s just what people do. Whatever, ever how you think your conversation, it’s easier for people who agree to come together agreeably. But if it’s a little different it’s a little more challenging. So, it’s whatever. We take the easiest road, basically, is what it amounts to, whatever is easiest for us.

But when you have a smaller group you have more challenges oftentimes. But when you’re larger like that it’s easier to become divisive and have cliques and so forth where people are… And I hate that. And I hope you do, too.

But anyway, what an awesome thing that God blesses us with, fellowship, and we’re to learn these things to become more of one mind, to be in agreement with God. And the more we are the better our fellowship is. Beautiful.

Let your yieldedness be known to everyone. So, it should be obvious that we want to have fellowship, that we want to change. Because why? Because people see you’re making changes in your life, you’re yielding to what you’re being told. They see this growth process taking place in your life. It’s beautiful. What an awesome thing to be that kind of an example.

The Lord is at hand. Well, that’s important because that’s the reason for the change and why we yield. We’re yielding to what we know we need to live by. We want it. We pray about it. We ask God for help to receive it.

Be anxious for/over nothing. Now, this becomes a challenge because as human beings we can tend to be anxious. That’s where the drama comes from. That’s where all the drama comes from.

I was just thinking of someone here that passed along a saying to us recently to my wife, and she shared it with me. She said, basically, “Not my monkey’s and not my circus.” I love that expression. And it wasn’t too much later I heard it again in a different area. I thought, where have I been? This is the first times I’m hearing this and all of a sudden it’s out here. I don’t know where it came from.

But anyway, that’s kind of what I feel about drama sometimes. It’s like I don’t want any part with it. I’m not going to become a part. We have choices like that to make. I’m not going to become a part of that drama. You can have all the drama you want but I’m not going to be a part of it. Anyway, choices, choices.

Be anxious for nothing. It has to do with anxiety, tension, contention, worry. That shouldn’t be a part of something that has great pressure in our life or great influence in our life. It reflects how we’re dealing with everyday life and relationships. Because most of these have to do with relationships.

If you’re by yourself it’s very difficult to have contention. You can be upset with yourself. Happens to me once in a while – quite often, actually. But anyway, I don’t sit around having a conversation and chew myself out. Well, not verbally, anyway, because then you have to start wondering.

So again here, there are things that people get into. What is it that stirs people up? What is it that causes worry or anxiety or confrontation or contention or tension in life, drama if you will? And today we’re bombarded with it all around us, and then it interferes, if we’re not careful, it comes into our fellowship, it comes into our families. It comes into our homes if we’re not careful. We have to fight against it. We can’t let it in because it can hurt relationships. It can hurt fellowship.

That’s why we’re addressing some of these things, like Covid. I don’t care what it is out there, there’s been a lot of tension because of that in the world. They’re still mulling it over. They’re still fighting over it. They’re still debating over it and all the things going on related to it, and politics being a big part in the midst of it all. And so, we have to make decisions and moderation as to what we’re going to do.

And so, that’s why some of this series is being given, because it applies to many other aspects of our life, too. If we can learn it in this we should be able to learn it in other things. It’s so important, it truly is.

Now, I want to go back to the thing about Covid and about this thing of “shedding” because I’d made a comment last Sabbath, I read a particular report that had to do with what I believe was an individual reporting on that which he was referring back to other material that had already been written concerning the two vaccines that have been approved in the United States, basically Moderna and Pfizer, and made this comment about the mRNA.

So again, a particular type of process here of these vaccines, and anyway, it kind of took some of what I was saying out of context in the sense of what the purpose of all those articles I read was. But I’ve had to address something in the Church because certain things began to be passed around within the Church concerning divisiveness of ideas about a subject of that which we’re living through right now, having to do with Covid, and then vaccines.

And people have gotten into horrible debates and contention over masks. And a lot of it comes back down to who is right and who is wrong, what I heard, what I believe. Now, that should never exist in God’s Church. What a thing to get upset about. What a thing to get at odds about with one another and whether we do or whether we don’t. Free to wear them, free not to wear them, especially now. We weren’t always.

So, we tried to follow certain guidelines because of community and so forth and because of going in and out of hotel, as an example, because we set an example. Are we yielding to guidelines being given, in a sense, by government, and trying to cooperate? Because there’s that part in life we have to do, too.

You can’t just be obnoxious in life and do things opposite. There is a get along that we need to apply in life even in community. They’re not called. All the more reason we should be a little more careful, a little more thoughtful, and give the light of being in unity in the sense of striving to live by various laws or whatever it might be to a point. Okay? And that has come out. And if you watch the Church, candidly, you can know what that is.

So again here, it’s a matter of striving to have balance. And that has been in the Church ever since I’ve been in the Church, a need to strive for balance and how we’re able to attain to balance, and especially within the Church anything that might affect fellowship. We need to ask why? How is it? How is it affecting fellowship? And the only way it affects in an adverse way is when it’s not in unity, when it’s not in agreement, when we’re striving to do our own thing for our own reasons. And that prevents us oftentimes then from following the kind of examples that we should be following.

Because we have examples in God’s Church, always have had, of what we should strive to follow. It’s always been in God’s Church, always been told, “This is what you should strive for, strive to accomplish, strive to live by.” Those who reflect yielding, and those who should within the ministry, those who teach us.

So, we’re being brought back to that which is, should have always been common knowledge within the Church but it hasn’t been. And a lot of that was hurt because of examples that weren’t right and because of what we went through during Laodicea especially, and on it goes.

So, tasked always before us since the Apostasy has been to recapture much of what was lost and to go beyond. And that’s what the Church has been doing. God has blessed us to be able to go beyond, to grow, to be able to grow faster, to have a level of faith that because of all that we’ve been given, if we’re yielding to that truth and it’s becoming a part of us that we have the opportunity of becoming stronger than any other age of people in God’s Church. What an awesome blessing that is. What an incredible blessing.

But it’s hard for us to recognize that because we didn’t live in some other age, we just live now. And sometimes we don’t grasp all that we have been given, all that we have.

So anyway, I want to read some comments here because the point is, is that the mRNA only has to do with Pfizer and Moderna. It’s not a Johnson & Johnson thing, okay? So, when I made comment that “shedding” can’t come through this process of mRNA — which why do we even have to know such things? But we do because somebody has jumped on to a part of it, began to talk about some of this, and it’s preventing them from fellowship, it’s preventing them from attending the Feast of Tabernacles.

And I say that if you miss the Feast of Tabernacles because of that you’re not longer in God’s Church. I can’t make it any simpler. If that’s the reason, because you want that, because you believe that and you don’t hear what’s being given in this sermon series, that’ll be the answer. God isn’t fooling around with us. The closer we get to the end of this age the closer thing are coming. I see another cleaning of the Church taking place, another refining. And that should be moving to us.

So, we have to understand Christ is in charge of this Church. He is the head of this Church and there are things going to be done, taken care of, and things brought into a level of unity and oneness if it takes us down to twelve people. That’s my point. It’s not about numbers, it’s about the quality, it’s about the yielding to God. It’s about those who are in unity and oneness with God.

Now, I don’t believe that’s happening, obviously going to happen, but I’m just giving that as an example. I want to be on board. You want to be on board. You want to be, I want to be in unity and oneness. That should be our greatest desire. So, in sometimes we have to recognize that we’ve been getting weak or let down in a particular area and just let God know “I’m wrong and I’m repenting of this. And I’m so glad You’ve revealed this to me and helped me to see my thinking.”

Because that’s a beautiful thing, for God to work with us in such a way to bring us into unity and help us to see things in our life. So, we do it sometimes individually. Well, that, we do it a lot individually if we’re yielding to God. But as a body, what a beautiful thing when it happens even within the Body then. It’s good. It’s positive.

Anyway, I want to read this. Just got a couple of articles. Again, “Can Covid-19 Vaccines Cause ‘Shedding?’” Again, that means that you can catch it from someone else because someone else has been given the shot and because they’re breathing and because you may touch them or something, that somehow it’s going to be able to be passed along to you. Not so.

[1]“While there is an extremely low risk of viral shedding from some vaccines causing harm to others,” like if it’s a live flu vaccine, as an example, or if it’s the live polio, as I brought out, there are cases when they’ve been live. And from my knowledge now they don’t even have those anymore in the United States in any kind of vaccine, the live kind of virus like that, what’s classified as that, except for that little flu shot that I know of. But anyway, there may be some others. But those are the examples.

But it’s saying here, “there is absolutely no danger when it comes to the Covid-19 vaccines. That’s because none of the Covid-19 vaccines used anywhere in the world contains the live virus.” Neither does Astra-Zeneca or Johnson & Johnson. And that’s why I’m reading this today, because it goes on and talks about the others.

So again, someone correctly pointed out what was said as far as what was reported about the vaccines that was in the context of two vaccines, of what he said, but again, that was Moderna and Pfizer.

[2]“According to anti-vax conspiracy theorists, vaccinated people can shed the COVID-19 virus (specifically, one of its proteins) simply by breathing. But all of the COVID vaccines are mRNA-based vaccines…” That was the point. That is not true. They can’t be shed, but this was just strictly for two of them, Moderna and Pfizer, that had been approved for the States. “…meaning that they work by instructing your immune cells to create proteins that help your body recognize the virus and create an immune response. In other words, when you’re jabbed, you aren’t infected with the live virus the way you are when you receive, say, the flu shot.”

So, that’s what I read last week. So anyway, going on here, another article: [3]“COVID-19 vaccines do not contain a live virus, so there isn’t a biological path for a vaccinated person to “shed” the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to those around them.”

“Yet several online posts falsely claim that vaccinated people are “shedding” the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which is what the virus uses to enters cells, through their “breath” and “pores,” and that this is causing a number of reproductive problems in unvaccinated people.”

“In a video that has been viewed over 100,000 times and its accompanying blog post, herbal medicine author,” I’m not going to give the name even, “falsely claims that the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines can “cause death and disease through GMO shedding.”

Now, it’s too bad that we almost have to become an expert in scientific jargon in order to understand what’s being said. So, I have to repeat some of these things because it came out in the Church and is causing some division and decisions of why someone may or may not go to a Feast of Tabernacles. That’s a big thing!

“The messenger RNA, or mRNA,” it’s almost like Greek, “vaccines produced by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, and the adenovirus viral vector vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson, prompt the body, through different mechanisms, to produce one of the proteins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus called the spike protein.”

Now you, to read something like this and to really understand it – and when you’re hearing it I’m sure it’s very much a part of like the Greek language, you don’t know it. Anyway, I don’t know it, but I have to become familiar with these terms. What a horrible thing to have to do but we’re doing it.

It goes on to say, “It’s just one protein, it’s not a virus.” Big difference. It’s not a live virus, it’s a protein within it. …“It’s just one protein from the virus and all that protein does is induce antibodies against it, so you then make antibodies to that protein. That’s it. You don’t shed the protein, you don’t shed the antibodies, you just make antibodies to one protein. So it can’t possibly affect somebody else because proteins aren’t shed.” Science.

That’s why sometimes we can listen to what other people have to say, and they might sound factual, and they’re very authoritative sounding, they may be doctors, they may have degrees, and they come across as authoritative. And so, sometimes if we’re not careful we listen in because if we’re not careful we’re hyped up by all that’s going on out here, of all the hype in some of these things and we begin to choose and make sides, and we begin to judge what is true and what isn’t true.

How can we be experts in these things? So, if there are questions, hmm, before making a giant step that says, “I cannot go to the Feast of Tabernacles,” I would want to check with the ministry. And somehow I know that eventually it’s going to get to me and I will get an answer. Because I know the greatest thing that God wants for us is to be able to be together where we can if it permits. Sometimes because of age or health situations and so forth people aren’t able to do some of these things and can’t come together in some fellowship right now. Even when we come together, when I go into certain areas, sometimes people can’t come together. And I understand that. And people in those cases shouldn’t feel guilty that they’re not able to be together in fellowship in what I’m discussing. But sometimes people do. So, I think you understand that.

But as a whole for God’s Church we are to be together as much as we can whenever we can in fellowship with one another, because there is a power there. It’s like saying, “I don’t need to have prayer on a daily basis.” Because, yes, you do. Or other such things. Or, “I don’t need to listen to Sabbath sermons every week.” Think, “Oh!” Wouldn’t that seem absurd to you? Well, the same thing is true about fellowship. To think that we don’t need a tool that God has provided, the primary tool that God has given us in order to learn many of the things we need to learn that can’t be learned in other ways?

Now, for someone who is not able to, and in most cases they’ve been around for some time anyway and they’ve gone through the process of learning so much of those things. It’s like God saying, “Now I know you.” And what we can’t do, we’re not judged by. But what we can do, we are judged by.

So, that’s why we’re going through things like this, because something like that should not keep us away from fellowship. Because what is the greater thing? What is…? And it’s hard to convey these things sometimes. It’s judgment. Judgment from God. What is God’s will? What is God’s desire for us? Let’s see… What would be more important? Being at the Feast of Tabernacles or not because others may have a shot, because “it may affect me”? Hmm, well, that’s really a no-brainer as far as I’m concerned. But anyway, those are judgments. It is absolutely a no-brainer.

There are certain things we should grasp, we should comprehend on a spiritual plane, and anyway… There are some things that just aren’t hard. There are some things that just aren’t difficult when it comes to seeing them in a light of what is important to God. And it’s important to God that we’re together.

So, I’m going to come back, circle back to this in a little bit here because it fits into some of the examples I gave last week about Herbert Armstrong and things he did and didn’t do, and so forth, and how one can learn from those kinds of things and how we can weigh things, what is more important.

See, that’s why I got a shot. Because it’s more important to me to be able to have fellowship wherever I go with God’s people, without causing any level of stress or concern or anxiety in other people’s lives. But then it hits another group who doesn’t want that because if they’re around that they may get it. And the point is, they’re wrong, so that has to be changed. And so, it really comes down to, in a lot of ways, even love toward one another.

It comes down even to a matter of faith. Sometimes people think that it’s a matter of faith not to have help in this world, not to have… Matter of fact, it’s better if you can handle this herbally. There are a lot of things you can do in life to better your diet. There are things you can do sometimes perhaps to help a certain area of your life. But if you begin to look at it in a form of beyond moderation, probably ought to look at it again. Same thing with drugs or something of that nature. We have to balance things out and everybody has to make their own choices and their own decisions.

So, what’s more important? It’s not a spiritual thing. Because… And we have people in God’s Church because of the past who have problems with this thing of healing and faith and whether to rely on or look to a doctor in any fashion or form, whether or not to take aspirin, whether or not to take a Tylenol or maybe something herbal that can do the same thing. Because obviously, that’s the better path for all of us to take! And then people get really strong about that. Leave it. If that’s your choice, that’s fine, but don’t spread it around in God’s Church that this is the right way of doing it, that your way is the best way. Because I’m telling you right now it isn’t!

I’ve known of many people even in God’s Church that have done herbal things in their life that have screwed up their bodies to the point of being at the edge of death! And yet… I hope you understand what I’m saying. You can go too far in something. You can take certain things that can kill you out there in what we would call an herbal world, okay? You can mix things out there that aren’t healthy for your human body. You can overdo them. They can hurt your health. They can destroy organs in your body. They can kill you! Okay?

So, let’s see now, how many people are dying from taking aspirin? Well, it can happen if you take too much. You can bleed to death. It can cause internal bleeding if you were to take large amounts on a regular basis. That’s why my doctor said I should take a baby aspirin every day. Well, I made my own choice I’m going to do it every other day. I’m going to lessen the amount because that’s my choice. So, everybody has to decide how they do things and so forth.

And I had to decide whether or not I’m going to take certain medications for cholesterol. Because you know what? It’s killing me! It’s been killing me. I’ve come close to death four times, five times, and wasn’t sure what was going to happen. And it is what it is. I’m in God’s hands and I knew that. So, you know. And when you go out in some of those instances, you don’t know it. You come back; you don’t have any thinking about it. When you’re out, you’re out. It helps you to deal with things when you come back. You realize, well, that’s what it’s all about. You don’t know whether you’re going to come back or not, and if you do your life is in God’s hands and God’s not finished with you yet.

We in God’s Church are unique because we are in God’s hands. Our life is in His hands. He’s going to finish and complete a work in us if that’s our desire to yield to that process. He will complete it in us. He gives us that opportunity.

So, I’ve have problems taking… I’m just going to share this with you whether you want to hear it or not. So, I have been taking what they call statin drugs for cholesterol. Because you know what? It’s kind of like (and no offense to the Russians), Russian Roulette, you know, where they put a bullet in the revolver and spin it around and [shoot it.] And sooner or later it’s going to get… And so, that’s kind of the way I’ve had to look at statin drugs.

It’s like, I know my life is in God’s hands, but I got to make a choice here too as to physically knowing that… Because the doctors made it real clear to me the last time they took the artery out of here [one arm], and they’ve taken them from my inside here all the way down to my ankles in both sides, all the way down. And basically, he came in and told me afterwards really don’t have too much more we can take. There is one here [other arm], if it’s a good one they might be able to use. And they are actually talking about where they might be able to get the next one, out of the stomach area or whatever. There’s a place there where you can…

And it’s like, I really don’t want to go through that again. I really don’t want you to go “harvesting” and finding those and having to go through another open heart. I’ve had two cracking of the whole, cutting through the whole area twice now and that was one too many – actually, two too many. But because my arteries, it runs in my family, our liver produces cholesterol, and so what do you do? So, what do you do? Well, statins bother me. Some people are highly allergic to them, can’t take them at all. So, I was able to take a little bit and brought it down from 305 to… And for someone like me that’s pretty much a death sentence. It’s going to happen quicker than later. So, my arteries keep getting clogged up and they have to keep opening them up, put a stent in there where you can… But can’t get too many in there because it’s like a highway, it gets congested, and they block up too.

So, anyway, they have to go in and put new arteries in then to bypass it all. That’s why they call it a bypass. So, now I’m on another medication where I have to take a shot every two weeks. Have to give it to myself. And it’s brought it down now to 177. And my bad cholesterol is actually, the number is actually higher than my… My good is actually higher than my bad now, which is an unusual tipping of  a scale when you talk about cholesterol.

My whole point being is that I’ve had to make decisions along the way. I know my life is in God’s hands, but I have to use some wisdom in this process too. And I really don’t want to go through the process of having to go back in again and having it done a third time and them searching around for arteries and having to [recover]. Because it’s a long process to recover. And personally, I just don’t want to go through that again, so I had to make some choices.

And you all have to make choices when it comes to things like that in your life. It’s not a matter that one is wrong. There is a time when people in the Church believed (many) to have a bypass would have been wrong. To get to, look to – and that’s a play on words there – but medical profession to take care of you, to… No, God gives the healing of the human body. He’s given it.

It’s a marvel after they go through all that and everything is able to heal. Scars even almost disappear over time. You think, what an incredible creation, a physical creation! We get cut and the body has a way of you put some pressure on it and it starts closing up. It’s incredible! And blood doesn’t just ooze out of our skin but it’s right there. And you think, it works through certain things, and it won’t go past that. You think, what a marvel! Incredible! But it doesn’t change how we should see God or begin to weigh things out and think that we shouldn’t take medications or whatever.

And I hope we have no one in the Church like that anymore, that you think it’s a sin or wrong or a lack of faith to take a medication. If you do, I’m just telling you you’re just wrong. You’re just wrong. Your thinking is wrong. Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! And if I’m God’s apostle, you’re wrong. That’s from God. I hope everybody received that. I can’t be much clearer.

So anyway, we’re going through this because “shedding” is a bunch of hooey. It’s a bunch of barnyard you-know-what, okay? And to use that in any fashion or form to cause division within God’s Church is wrong. That is a sin of and by itself. It’s divisive because it doesn’t agree with what is being taught in the Church.

I don’t have to go through that anymore. One protein! And you can’t get Covid through a protein like that, okay? It’s one that helps your body to fight against that one. If something were to come along and it begins to fight against it then, builds up an antibody to that. Don’t want to explain that anymore. Hopefully, we understand it.

No, I just remembered I have it in another place. I had something else written down, but it’s the next page. I thought I might have to go get my paper off the floor.

But the point being is that God has given a process in the Church whereby we’re able to measure things and judge things. And be careful of making our own decisions that affect our relationship with others and with God. We have to be very careful of that. And to do those kinds of things, they’re exceedingly dangerous. Because anything that hurts and destroys on a spiritual plane, that is the most important thing of all. Physical things come and go, but that which has to do with that which is spiritual and relationships within a body, those are the things that are so important.

I just want to jump ahead to that, make a comment about that. Because I had referred to Herbert Armstrong and that example that he set in the Church and yet we had some evangelists that came along that began to teach their own ideas about medication and medicines, and you shouldn’t do ‘this’ and you shouldn’t do ‘that,’ and you shouldn’t look to doctors to heal you. And that was kind of one-sided and narrow and off base anyway.

But an evangelist, and more than one, but especially one was the spearhead of all that, and really did a lot of damage in the Church. Taught students who went out from Ambassador and they felt the same way and it kind of grew within the Church to where it’s a lack of faith. And it’s because in large part the Church was so young back in that period of time of the 60’s and 70’s that that teaching then began to take root. And it was hard to get rid of then because it was equated with faith.

And because of that, people in God’s Church weren’t really able to grow in understanding what faith really was. They saw it on a kind of a physical plane, of something you have to work up inside. You don’t work up faith. Just like God’s love, agape, you can’t work it up. You can’t decide today I’m going to go out and I’m going to be loving everyone and I’m going to practice God’s love, agape.

Now, please understand what I’m saying. The point being is that love doesn’t come from inside here, it comes from God. You can pray to God and ask God to have more of that mind and that spirit and that attitude toward others in the world and to fight against selfishness – and because that’s the enemy to God’s love, selfishness is, and grow in God’s love. But the same thing is true with what we’re talking about here. It’s a matter of understanding these things have to come from God. What is spiritual is from God.

I don’t want to go back. I want to go on here and mention about this thing of healing. I mentioned that last Sabbath. I mentioned how Herbert Armstrong, if he was going into another country would take shots. But you know what? There is something else I knew of. There was actually a “physician” within the Church who would give shots but not give shots. In other words, if a student went to a dig in Jerusalem and they had to have so many shots to go into Israel at that time, vaccinations against certain things, it was like, well, we’re told that we have to… Basically, it went something like this. And I may not have it perfectly right. “We can put the vaccine in the syringe, and we can put it up there by your skin, but nowhere does it tell that it has to be pushed into the skin, or if it is it doesn’t have to be necessarily then injected all the way into the skin in the sense that…” But you had a shot, so the skin was maybe pricked with a needle, and you got a shot, “so, that’s not really lying, and we can write down that you’ve had this shot.”

Now, that’s going a long way around, and lying, candidly, to do something because you have an idea, concept that taking a shot is a sin because it’s the lack of faith. Now, for a lot of you hearing some of this you probably think, “Were you all nuts back then?” You have to live through it to understand it. Because it’s a growing process. It’s where we were. We were young. We didn’t know. There were things that weren’t known. But we had to struggle through those things.

So, I have to acknowledge that some of that kind of thinking affected me in the sense of having to deal with various answers then later on. Well, what do you do under certain circumstances? It’s one thing if you have a wreck on the freeway and you’re all cut and they put you back together again the best they can, but what if something is wrong in here and they have to go in and take it out, like, say, an appendix? Is that wrong? Is that a lack of faith? Because God could heal that right then and there.

But you know what? My understanding, my experience is that God has never intervened for anyone who had an appendix that burst, and He intervened to save them. Because it can become septic. When an appendix bursts it becomes septic and it’ll kill you. You get those poisons going through your body and you will bend over…

Happened to me in Sydney, Australia. Actually, it started happening when I was in New Zealand. I just didn’t know I had burst; my appendix had burst. But about five days later all of a sudden in a hotel in Sydney I was rolled over in a ball with pain… My heart attacks never felt like that did. I was hurting bad! And it’s because of all the poisons that were, had been going into my body and now it had got to a point where your life and death type thing. So, they went in there and took it out.

Now, what a horrible thing to think that you would be there on your bed and tell the doctor… “Why did you even go to the hospital if you’re not going to let us take it out?” So, you stay at home and either you’re healed or you’re not. I’ve known of people who have died in times past in the Church because they didn’t have something taken care of. I believe it was a young girl at a Feast site in Big Sandy, minister’s child, who didn’t have an appendix taken out, and died, because they believed that God would heal.

What a horrible thing. What a horrible thing to have to learn that that way, to not think that God gives us the ability to learn about the human body and even though so many things have been done in archaic… I don’t have… That’s not the right word, but in kind of grotesque ways in times past. But there was a process that mankind has gone through to learn about the human body and to learn there are things we can do ourselves.

And it’s not rocket science, but it’s moving in that direction. But to go into a body and take something out like that and sew it back together again, God lets us experience things like that and do it. Has nothing to do with faith. So, I really hope as a Church we’re becoming more unified in those areas. I really do.

Another one, eating clean and unclean meats. I have seen this one so abused so much. But the reason I’m going to go through it is because there is a lesson to be learned here that is unique that we can learn from, but not to use it as an excuse to sin. Not to use it as an excuse to justify something that we think we need to do when something a little bit similar happens in our life.

That it happened on an occasion when Herbert Armstrong sat down at a meal with some dignitaries (and I’m pretty sure if I’m remembering rightly here, one was a king), and here they put this spread out and there was unclean food there. That’s all they gave him. He ate it. He never ate it again, but he ate it on that occasion.

Now, some people in the Church were absolutely horrified when they heard about this. “Herbert Armstrong ate unclean… He ate pork!?” Or whatever it was. I think it was pork. And it was like he weighed something out. He knew that the gospel was to go into all the world, and he was doing that then and there by what he was accomplishing by that visit that would promote other kinds of visits where the gospel would go into leaders of different parts of the world, that you couldn’t just go into the population, it had to be done through leadership. That was the only way to acknowledge or to fulfill that scripture, which, another story.

Anyway, the point being was he had to make a choice and a decision. Here is a king, do not want to be offensive to him, God says not to eat unclean foods. And it’s kind of like the showbread that David ate that wasn’t lawful. It wasn’t lawful for him to do, and God didn’t attribute that to him as sin. And neither did He this of what Herbert Armstrong did. Okay?

He made a choice of something because, you know what, it’s just physical. You’re not going to die from it. It’s the attitude toward it. It’s the attitude toward something that God says, here are clean and unclean meats. Your diet is to consist of that which is clean. So, he made a decision in the midst of all this to eat something not to offend a king, but he made sure that this never ever happened again, that people went before him and visited with those of the staff or leadership there who would be preparing the meals to let them know he can’t eat these things, whatever it might be, shrimp, lobster, whatever, that he can’t do it. So, he had clean meat from that point on.

So, learned from that experience, caught in an awkward situation. But I’ve heard people in God’s Church use that as an excuse. Well, you know what? Sat down at my aunt whatever it is, Sally’s or grandma whatever her name is, and she didn’t know my beliefs and she put this in front of me so I ate it because Herbert Armstrong ate it because he wouldn’t… It was a king.

Think, you know what? There is a huge difference between his job and yours. Shouldn’t even have to go there. There is a huge job between what he was doing and what you’re doing by visiting your aunt or your uncle or your grandma or whatever it might be. And there’s a huge difference between saying something of that nature to a leader or saying something of that nature to someone who is your family and whatever and letting them know, no, and taking a stand and being an example in that regard, “I can’t do that.”

Because you’re never going to see that king again and the importance of that visit is more important than digesting the meat and letting your body go through that in eating something of that nature.

I hope you understand what I’m saying. It’s the spiritual principle of it all and it’s not a matter of black and white. It’s not a matter of absolute yes or no type of thing. It’s not about that whatsoever. I wish we could have the ability to always have soundness of mind and balance in or lives. But we don’t, and we go through a lot to get where we’re going.

So again, I just gave that example because at a time like that you have to start weighing out what is the most important thing? Well, it was his job, it was about where he was going, it was to whom the gospel was going, of that which God had given him as a commission. And so, if something were to happen of something of this nature, eating something like this, in his case, is not like going out and stealing. It is not equated with laws of the 10 Commandments, if you will. You could look at it in a refining part it goes back to the first four, an attitude toward God. And no way on earth he was ever going to allow that to ever be a part of his diet. Saw to it it never happened again.

So, sometimes people come up with these things and then they have to make their own decisions as to what they do. Well, sometimes we do well in that and sometimes we do poorly. And I wish I could give everyone here spiritually what I said, but I can’t. Because I know it’s been received in different ways.

Anyway, let me go back to Philippians here. So again here, it talks about don’t let tension, contention, worry, anxiety interfere with your spiritual life, your spiritual welfare, with fellowship, as an example. Shouldn’t be a part of that whatsoever.

[Philippians 4:6] …but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. So again, it’s about this relationship with God. It’s about being thankful to God for giving us those things that are right, that we can live, that we can exercise in our lives, because there is incredible freedom within that.

…even the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding… The peace of God. The peace of mind that comes from doing what is right, knowing that you’re right before God in choices and decisions you make. But if you do it against God because your conscience isn’t right when you do something, that’s another matter.

…which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds. What does it mean “surpasses all understanding?” Well, again, it’s something that God has to give. It’s not something you can give to people in the world. You can’t tell them how to have this way. You can’t explain to them what human beings are like. You can’t explain to them our selfish, human nature, and that to have peace you’ve got to get rid of all these lies in your life and all this drama in your life. They’re not going to comprehend your thinking in what you communicate so there is no point in doing it, obviously.

And so, there is this peace that God gives to us that when you have it and you’re experiencing it it’s personal between you and God. You know you have it. When you know you’re free of drama, you know you’re free of drama. And there is a peace in that. There really is. What an awesome thing to experience the peace of God because of living right before God.

…even the peace of God, which surpasses understanding. It’s not a matter of knowledge and understanding, what you can do on your own. It’s something that God gives through living right. …will guard your hearts and minds through Joshua the Christ. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true… So, that’s what we’re talking about.

And this is so hard in the world today. Be careful of the garbage you let into your mind out there of the internet or out of the news or whatever it might be. Be careful. Make sure that you’re striving to have a sound balance of mind and thinking toward it and being able to see.

I mentioned that a while back, and I don’t know to what degree everyone would understand that. That you can look at something on TV and learn from it. You can see something that is wrong, not be a part of it, to know it’s wrong, to hate it, and yet… Or you can just say “throw it out the window.” If you’re on the second floor, throw it out the window because I don’t want it. That’s fine, if that’s the choice, but I prefer to grow to be able to see things, to recognize things in this world, to be able to spot them and quickly know what has to be changed and have that experience then of longing for, as it said about Lot, he vexed his righteous soul, because he was able to see something. He could see clearly what was wrong. He wasn’t participating in it.

That’s our choice. You don’t participate in it, but it’s there, and you know that’s the world. But if you’re shut off from that and you don’t know what the world is and you don’t recognize it you lose something in that that you can’t gain any other way except through the experience.

And the same thing is true today in news. I torture myself sometimes by watching a little bit of it. It’s torture because you see all that’s wrong in it. But I’m learning in that. I’m becoming more deeply convicted of what has to change. I can sense and see attitudes coming. You can catch people more quickly. The more, the sharper you become in this the better you are spiritually, you really are.

Because when you can pick up immediately someone’s prejudice, you can see their… By what they’ve said you know. What an incredible thing to be able to pick up on things quickly like that, to be able to see by something that is stated the error of what they’ve said. To me, that’s a beautiful thing. I hope you understand what I’m saying.

So again, Finally, whatever things are true. So, we’ve got a lot of stuff to wade through today. That’s what I latch on to, what is true. That’s what gives me encouragement to realize this is going to change before long. This is something else we get to tackle. I don’t know exactly how we’re going to address parts of this but it’s something that needs to be addressed, it needs to change because this is wrong.

It’s this thing of coming into greater conviction that everything out there is wrong. Everything as far as the system, as far as a process, because they’re not based on God’s way of life. They’re just flawed. And if you can pick up those flaws you know what you do, by perceiving those things, by seeing them where they are? You’re learning how to judge. You’re growing in your ability to discern quickly.

If we don’t have those experiences, how can we discern? They’re there for that reason. That’s why God has allowed a spirit being to be on this world, and all the demonic beings to be on this world, so we can have experience even with that of what it’s like, that they exist, that they’re there. Sometimes to bombard us. We experience what that’s like. We know what others in the world have to go through.

Now, if we’re totally void of those experiences we’re not growing to a point of usefulness, of ability, of talent, of things that God can mold and fashion within us unless we go through that. It’s learned through the experience. And all along the way you’re making choices, constantly choices right or wrong, wading through it all. It really is, if you can grasp, if you can see it more fully, it’s a marvelous, awesome, beautiful process that God takes us through to transform this mind, our thinking.

Whatsoever things are true, whatever things are noble… So, we wade through things. That’s noble, that isn’t, something, you know, we can point at and look at in the news or whatever it might be, or society. And we’re able to see that doesn’t have anything that’s noble in it. That does.

…whatsoever things are just. It’s pretty hard to find in this world for sure, whatsoever things are just. So, we see the weakness of the world and everything that exists out there. What is just? Things are gone crazy in the world today.

…whatsoever things are pure. Again, you have to really search to find those things.

And the greatest place for them that we have opportunity to share in those things is right here when God’s people come together. This is the greatest opportunity throughout a week where we have the opportunity to experience something with one another that has purity in it, that has nobility in it, that has beauty in it, that has truth in it. You don’t experience it out there.

Now, seeing what is wrong is a great teacher. As I’ve told you many a time, the things I have learned as far as a minister, that have made me who I am, is because of all that I saw that I knew, that God brought me to to see, this is wrong, don’t do it. Don’t do it that way, that’s wrong.

And so, you don’t do it that way. You strive to do it, then, because then you can more easily see the right way. And the same thing is true in our lives. So, fellowship is a beautiful thing. We don’t really put as high a value on it as we need to. And hopefully, even after this series, we’re able to do that more and pray about that more and recognize the need more to come together.

That’s why I’m crying out to God’s people of the important of being together. Last week someone driving ten hours to be together. And you know what? We were the closest ones to them. But a young family, two children, willing to drive that. Normally, as they brought up, it would take eight hours, but with two children took ten. So, you can equate with that, you can understand that; you can appreciate that and the sacrifice that went with that. And you know what? It’s very pleasing. It’s a rewarding…it’s an encouraging thing to see that.

So, I think of part of what was brought out earlier about this yieldedness, a yielding to God’s way, of desiring something. And to do that you have to fight against this. Because it’d be a whole lot easier just to stay at home and listen to it on TV or whatever, to see it on TV, then to drive that ten hours. Because you know what? They had to turn around then and head back another ten hours. Twenty hours on a weekend.

Now, they can’t do that every week, obviously, they can’t come together every week. But this was counted to them as valuable. Because knowing that when God’s apostle goes into an area more people are going to strive to be there. That’s the way it should be. And that’s a good thing to experience because it shows we’re fighting, we’re striving, and we want this. And a willingness to even go farther, whatever it might be. So, some visiting here today come a long way to get here.

And you know what? That’s encouraging to me as God’s apostle. It gives me encouragement. So, thank you. I don’t, probably, say that enough. But I am thankful because I see that in others. And how do you describe that? It’s a beautiful thing. You use the sacrifice of God’s people, the giving, the willingness of God’s people. And we can learn that from each other. We see that.

Isn’t that an awesome thing? It really is. That kind of spirit, that kind of a mind, that kind of an attitude, it’s infectious, it rubs off. It feels good. It’s right. It’s encouraging. It motivates. It stirs. Beautiful! Exactly what scriptures talk about.

Like we read last week in Ephesians, the building up of itself in agape, God’s love. That’s why the Church, the unity, one body, one spirit, one truth, one faith, all the things that are spoken of there, in essence, it’s about one faith. And one baptism, one God and Father above all, through you all, and on and on it went. And then in talking about the ministry and those things that are needed there and why God has given it. And that no one that for the purpose, for the sake that people aren’t, you know, moved away from the truth by different thoughts and ideas, teachings that exist in the world. We’re bombarded by them today.

And then this, this being knit together, if you will, being bound together then by this love that God lets…giving strength to one another. We help each other, we really do, just by being together. We live in a hard world, we really do, and the blessing we’re able to have by having one another, you can’t put a price on that. And to let something else interfere with that? That’s not God’s will.

If it be that, so be it. I’d rather have faith in taking it as having some kind of distorted faith to think that I shouldn’t take it because it’s got this buggy thing in it, and I don’t know what it’s going to do to me in ten or twenty years. Well, that’s not my concern for me. Now, it might be for you, and I would be if it was a young child. That’s why I gave caution in some of that because there are things just not known about young children in some of those kinds of things. There’s wisdom in that.

But when it gets to a point of being an adult, an adult life and so forth, then you have to start weighing things out yourself and that’s your choice, that’s your decision. But be wise in them. Not prejudice. Not holding on to something that you believe to be true that you really aren’t sure that it’s true or not true. But generally, we are because we’ve already made that decision. Anyway, human nature, what a mess.

…whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely. That gets rid of a lot of drama in life. If you feel any drama, it’s just… What’s lovely? This isn’t. It’s nerve-wracking.

Drama is absolutely nerve-wracking. I hate it with all my being. I hate being around it so I choose not to. If I can be away from drama, going to go as fast as I can in the other direction. Or if it’s something I can be a part of to help correct or to help be a better example in, I’m going to strive to do that. But drama in life, why would we put ourselves through that?

And you know where it comes from? Not obeying God. It comes from not obeying God. Somewhere there’s a breakdown in obedience to God. Somewhere God’s spirit is not involved. Somewhere we’re not yielding – yielding ourselves to God’s spirit dwelling within us. Because we’re holding on to something. Usually, our way, usually something that feeds us, that isn’t healthy for us.

You know, sometimes people are fed by drama. That is such a perversion of the mind. Why won’t you think about that. Living on drama. Because there are people who live on drama and it’s almost like if I can’t have some of that in my life what am I going to do? Well, anyway, you can have peace. That’s what God says. That’s what I prefer, God’s peace.

…whatever things are of a good report. You know, if it’s worth talking about, if it’s worth stating, if it’s something that is worth repeating, well, if it has value in it, that’s good. But if it isn’t, why pass it along? Why focus on it? Why dwell in it? I know why, but it’s frustrating.

…if any virtue, if anything praiseworthy, think on these things. Meditate, think on these things. If we let things cause anxiety and we’re holding on to something and perhaps wrong feelings and wrong feelings generally toward others and those things build up in us, we begin to experience stress, we begin to experience tension, we begin to experience this old drama thing, and that’s what comes out of us then. Peace comes as a result of the fruit of God’s spirit.

Notice verse 9, the admonition here, The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do. Now, that’s saying a lot. And it wasn’t done egotistically. It wasn’t done haughtily. Paul didn’t write these out of haughtiness. He wrote them out of truth because it’s just true. It was a reality. He was telling, in essence here, concerning the Church, that you have seen me, you have heard me, you have read what I have sent to you. These things that you have seen in me, even the way he lived his life and what he did and how he conducted… It includes all those things. That’s what he’s talking about here. Everything that reflected what he was, how he lived as an apostle of God.

The things which you learned and received. Because there is much more than a certain number of truths. They didn’t even speak in those terms back then, obviously. We didn’t start using that until the latter part of Herbert Armstrong’s time. And so, it’s much more than that. It’s much more than the things we’re taught about the Holy Days and the Sabbath. It’s about everyday life and how we function as a people.

The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do. That’s why if people had looked more to Herbert Armstrong as God’s apostle, knowing what that means, knowing how Christ, how God works in our lives, knowing how God leads and guides and directs His Church, that that would be the source to look at for examples of what to do and what not to do. It would be the examples for what is sound and balanced in virtually everything of life.

So, people that began to find fault with things he was doing, like flying in a very nice jet or riding in a Rolls Royce or having a Rolls Royce sent to pick up a king or a leader of a nation, we should be able to understand that.

Now, I don’t drive a Rolls Royce. I thought somebody might laugh at that, but no. Anyway, what we’re doing today is totally different than back then because of that job, because that responsibility and the example he set.

So, there have been so many times in God’s Church that people think because they send in tithes they can determine how the money is to be spent. No, you don’t. No, no one has ever been able to do that. That’s not how God functions. God leads and guides and directs it as to what’s to be done and how to do it, and it’s not a simple thing, it’s not an easy thing. And to have balance in all that and so forth, to be an example in all those things as well because it’s very easy for human beings to find fault.

“How could you stay at a nice hotel when some are sending in tithes and they’re having a hard time feeding their children?” Now, if you ever hear a comment like that… Well, anyway. I’ve heard those things in times past so much, concerning what’s happened in the past, and even in the recent past of how people sometimes judge. And when people begin to judge that way and to think that way there is something else going on. Sad.

Hope you understand what I’m saying. Sometimes I think that there is this concept that, well, you could probably be driving that old ’59 Volkswagen you used to have and do just fine. (Not even a chuckle. Hmm. Okay.)

I’m saying some of these things because people out there today are still judging things that they have a lack of wisdom in doing. Because we should be able to look at things and say and have an answer to it that comes from God as to why there are differences in the Body, how God administers differently, how some things take place, why they happen. Just as with Herbert Armstrong.

You see, I never had a problem with that in times past. I can say truthfully in every facet and form never ever, ever had a problem with anything that Herbert Armstrong did or said, because I knew he was God’s apostle. I knew he was God’s apostle as much as when God showed me the Sabbath day, the Holy Days, and I knew it was true. And those are things we as human beings sometimes have to work through.

Anyway, going on: The things which you have learned and received and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you. You know what? That’s a pretty powerful statement. I can say the same thing in God’s Church with confidence, with boldness.

Anyway, James 3. So again, fellowship must be based upon what is true. Our lives are to be based upon truth, what is true, living what is true, striving to be true, and getting rid of the things that aren’t true, that are false in life.

So often we judge things… It’s amazing how we are as human beings. So often we judge things because of – you know what they come from? Our own prejudices, our own wrong thinking, our own way, the way we grew up judging. It’s because we tend to think that others have done those same things or think that same way. And so, we judge by those misconceptions oftentimes. And that’s a totally false way to judge. It must be based upon what is true that comes from God and God’s way of life.

James 3:13—Who is wise and skilled with knowledge among you? Let them show out of good conduct their work with meekness of wisdom. So again here, what a beautiful thing here. So, where does wisdom come from? Well, to me this is synonymous with the word of God. Wisdom, the truth, the word of God, it comes from God. God is the source. And it’s to live within us. It’s to live through us because we’re striving to live by that, to do that.

Let them show out of good conduct their works with meekness of wisdom. So, in other words, even what I said earlier, striving to teach those things out of meekness, out of humility, if you will, but the reality and truth is the truth. And nothing to draw back from that, to have a confidence in it.

But if you have bitter (sharp) envying… In other words, a strong feeling of something, a zeal toward something. And that’s what’s happening today so much in the world and happens a lot of times in the Church. Because I hear so many times of these little things that start going out in different areas or it come out of different areas that have to do with, really, conspiracy theories and things, and ideas that people have in the world out here that are just they’re out there. I mean sometimes way out there!

And why, we in God’s Church ever fool with any of that stuff? I don’t understand why we let that through the door or why we would listen to something that is supposedly an authority or trying to move people to think in a certain way. Wear a mask. Don’t wear a mask. Get a shot. Don’t get a shot. Don’t use this. And they miss the mark, miss the mark totally.

We as human beings have a horrible thing of thinking people need to do things the way we do it because you know why? Because we do it the right way. I know. If I agree with something on TV, it’s because it’s the right thing. I know it’s right. If I hear it, that’s… And so, you know what we can start doing? We start telling other people in the Church the same thing, because this is authoritative, you know it’s true. It’s science. It’s fact. Be careful.

The greater thing is unity and oneness of spirit. No matter how factual you might even actually be by accident. Sometimes we are accidently right by something we’ve seen and heard. Just be careful. Be careful when it comes to fellowship. Be careful what we spread. Be careful of what we pass along to someone else.

We’re going to stop there today. Now, I’ve been trying at times here to be humorous, but today I haven’t had much feedback along the humorous line. So, I’m going to work on that this next week because I try to put a little levity in some of the things I’m saying because it’s not meant to be totally serious in certain things and I’m trying to use certain examples here that should be seen as to be a little humorous. But then it worries me a little bit if they’re not, so I’ll examine that this week and try to see what I might be saying or doing that isn’t coming across in the best way. So, with that we’ll continue next Sabbath.

[1] No, There's Absolutely Zero Chance of 'Vaccine Shedding' From the COVID-19 Vaccines-Here's Why - amis-childrenshome

[2]No, COVID Vaccine Shedding Is Not A Thing (yahoo.com)

[3] COVID-19 vaccine shedding: Myths and fertility concerns debunked (inquirer.com)