Focused on Planning Ahead, Pt. 3

Ronald Weinland

October 23, 2021

This will be Part 3 of the sermon series entitled Focused on Planning Ahead.

I think this is going to be the last of this particular series and I already have the other one ready so that’s good, because I’ve been planning out ahead, getting ready to take this trip now up to Spokane area, and then on to California, and in doing so hoping to get back in the book right away. So, I can’t get into the book, I haven’t been able to get into it since before the Feast. Want to get back into writing it. So, the reasons for some of that.

So, I’ll have this go out so that everyone else can hear this as well, but this is the last part, Part 3 of Focused on Planning Ahead.

Anyway, as we move forward toward next year’s annual Holy Days, which has been talked about in this particular series, it is planning ahead for that. Because that’s all part along the way in planning to be a part of Elohim. It’s a battle. It’s a fight. It’s something you have to work for. And we have to be deeply convicted of what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. And it’s not a simple thing because with this human life it’s easy to get bogged down in physical things, our physical lives, and not be as spiritually focused as we need to be, as spiritually on guard and the like that we need to be all the time. So, this is a part of that process, of looking at some of those kinds of things and planning ahead.

So, let’s add to what we need to learn from all that’s been in the process of being made manifest to us in the last several months as a result of something that happened physical. Covid. Incredible. And it’s not over. Want to put it to sleep, trying to put it to sleep, but it just keeps waking up. So, we’ll talk a little bit about that as we go along here today.

I’m reminded of a scripture that carries a very strong principle from which we should be able to learn even more from our experiences over this past year. Longer than that now, actually. And if all are able to grasp it then we can move forward together in greater spirit of unity, and that’s our goal all the time, to be one, to be at one with God, to be at one with what God teaches us, leads, guides, and directs and molds in us.

It’s in 1 Corinthians 14. Simple principle. 1 Corinthians 14:8 (I’ll just read it to you.) For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare themselves for battle? So, we understand that concept, that truth that’s given to us as far as something basic that we can see, and understand that in battle, if you look at a physical battle especially back in those times, if you go back to the times of the kings of Israel and so forth, that if you don’t hear the different signals that are being given then it’s not going to go well if you’re in a war, if you’re in a battle.

And the same thing is true with us on a spiritual plane. Hence, God gives us messages. And that portion there then is a matter of crying out as God does through His ministry at times, and a lot, obviously, of those things in which we need to be on guard. And if that message weren’t clear—which we’ve lived through that time as well all through Laodicea. It got weaker and weaker and weaker, the sound of what was being given to the Church, and really wasn’t much of a sound after a period of time if you want to talk about a trumpet and being in war. We were very much off our guard and that’s why we fell asleep as a body, as a Church.

But there’s another principle involved in this as well. And throughout this past year I can say quite assuredly that a trumpet has been in the process of being blown, quite loudly at times through the Feast of Tabernacles, leading up to it and afterwards.

However, this verse has a corresponding principle with it, and even if the trumpet is clear and loud what about those who simply cannot hear the trumpet and what is being said? And that’s a spiritual condition. So, that can be a real test at times, the inability to hear.

We oftentimes, and most of the time probably think we hear that which is being given to us, that which God gives us in sermons and so forth throughout a year and throughout the Feast, throughout the Holy Days, and yet we find that we’re ever learning and ever growing and building upon things that we couldn’t see. And so, our ability to grow, our ability to hear what’s being given has to do with our relationship with God. It has to do with our spiritual state, where we are and if we are at a place of becoming weaker, whatever that might be the result of.

So often it’s a matter of sin or complacency or letting down in our own lives, not being as focused as we need to be, especially in our relationship with God. Then this begins to happen. A trumpet can be loud, it can be strong, but that doesn’t mean we’re hearing the message. So, that’s something to remember as we go through some of this.

I couldn’t help but think today as I was going through some news articles and a wrap-up of this past week that a lot of you receive as well, in thinking what’s going on out there is absolutely mindboggling. Sabre rattling, war, threats of war, threats of WWIII, threats that are just… It’s really mindboggling how much this is going on, and yet the world only sees a little bit. Sometimes they talk about, now they talk about China a little bit here and there but it’s like there’s really no grasp of the threat that really exists there. It may be talked about. And I should say, however, the reality of the possibility of something like that, the consequences of something like that, it’s like people really can’t begin to grasp that.

Because it’s not going to be about a small war where a country like this sends in troops into a country like Afghanistan or Iraq, against a people who don’t have that kind of equipment, if you will, warfare armaments and the like, armaments of warfare. And you look at someone like China, and Russia who is very closely linked with them, and you look at some of the things there and there is something wrong with the reality of soundness of mind, of being able to see and understand this isn’t going to be a war like Afghanistan, Iraq. It’s stacked against us right now.

China is far, far—they’re acknowledging it more and more—they’re way out ahead of us as far as military power when it comes to things with nuclear weapons and armaments on the oceans and so forth. They acknowledge that their ships now have surpassed ours in their capabilities and what they have. And it’s like, don’t you see what this means?

And a nation like that and how they think, what’s coming? It should be so clear. We are very rapidly approaching a time when this world is going to be thrust into incredible turmoil and it will be nuclear. And it’s like people don’t think that way. They don’t grasp the seriousness of this. Or, if they really did, they would be really afraid right now. The things being reported would be far more serious and far more urgent, but it isn’t there.

You have been given an ability to see those things. God has given us an ability to grasp what’s coming, to grasp the time we’re in, to grasp when we read those kinds of articles week after week and how much is out there anymore and how people are talking. Because it’s economic. That’s always something that as a whole takes place first. Countries start hurting, they start trying to spread attention or take their attention from internal problems with economy and so forth, maybe even food itself and try to get people’s minds on something else.

And that’s what China is doing right now. It’s on this country. It’s on war. It’s on Taiwan. It’s about preparations for something and running exercises that they make sure that everyone sees. Why? Well, they’ve got a mindset that’s different than this country, and it seems like this country doesn’t grasp it.

And then now a ballistic missile that can go 21,000 or plus miles per hour? We have nothing to stop those things. And the speed with which they can come is so great that if they were to do something like that, it’s like don’t we grasp what will take place? But we don’t.

But those things are on our doorstep and sometimes we’re just not moved and motivated and stirred and grasp what’s there. That’s why I can’t help but look at a short period of time here. Hopefully, we are preparing, not just in our minds physically but in our minds spiritually in a relationship with God and realizing we are getting so close. And we have to be ready up here, spiritually, in a relationship with God.

This isn’t a time to mess around. This isn’t a time to let down. This isn’t a time to let physical things and other things pull us away from a spiritual responsibility we have in our relationship with God and with one another within the Body of Christ.

And then Covid. Like I said, I’d like to see it be buried but it keeps popping up it’s head. Great Britain now taking about a variant that’s different from the Delta, and the problems they’re having with it. Russia talking about a variant that is what they believe is far more deadly and far more contagious than Delta as well. So, maybe that will be with us until this is all over with.

And then we have our debates. And sometimes even within God’s Church, about, “Well, we got the shot. We had the shot and we got Covid!” It’s like, “Why did we bother?” Well, I hope we grasp a little bit of intelligence in some of that in the sense of understanding that a matter of protection for ourselves, that if you look at hospital statistics it has gone up some what, 4.5% now in hospitals (that’s what they’re reporting anyway), even if it’s 10 who have had the shot, 4.5% in hospitals and all the rest are people who don’t have vaccines yet.

So, do we grasp that if we’re able to hopefully protect ourselves the best we can, we’re doing our part at least as far as a community, as far as a body of people. Well? And maybe, just maybe there will be a need for having a boost to that called a booster. We may have to come to that point in time if some of these things from Russia, if some of these things from the UK begin sweeping across this country.

I kind of believe, I really do, what a scientist had said, some doctors have said as well. One individual made the comment that basically, everyone in the world is going to have this at one point or another. And maybe it will because it just keeps spreading. It just keeps going on.

So, God gives us things to help prepare us, to help us to be unified in matters, and we don’t know how bad some of these things are going to be or how bad they’re going to get, but we need to listen closely to guidelines that are given. That’s why I mention in looking ahead, we can plan all we want but we don’t always know what’s coming, so sometimes we have to shift as time goes along. So, we have to be ready for that, we have to be on guard and ready to turn to the right quickly or turn to the left, or whatever we have to do that God gives us and do it in unity.

Because something we have to come to grasp and understand in God’s Church is we’re being judged by that. We are judged by that, by our response and our reaction to what is given to us. And by now we should understand how that takes place in our life and embrace it with all of our being, and to know that God will give favor in that process.

So, we’re still planning ahead. Canada looks like we have a place up there this year, finally. Australia may get theirs going. They’re trying like mad down there, so they already have a placed booked for Brisbane area. Whether they can get that off the ground or not, we don’t know yet, because they’re having a terrible time down there. We’re trying to get a place for Europe right now, a new location as well.

And so I saved this part of the sermon for the announcement about this, for Europe. I don’t have time on my side for planning some of this, but we are planning ahead. We have a place there in The Netherlands where if we are able to obtain it we can invite others to that location if they want to come. Last year it was restricted. We only had a handful of individuals that we told could go ahead and come on over but this year here I can open it up totally for anyone who might want to come if I get feedback and able to continue to work with them and give them some more factual information as far as what the interest might be. Because a lot of that just depends on people from here. But at least I need to know that, so I know how to work with them.

So, I’m asking, anyone who feels they might want to go to Europe, please contact us ASAP. I’ve got about two weeks to do all this in. So, I’m limited because they’ve already given a quote and told them certain things we cannot have in that quote, and so, a lot of this depends on what I understand as far as a response. So, this is kind of a quick sign-up. And by the way, we will have a sign-up this year probably by the end of December or the first part of January for everywhere anyway.

So, we are trying for Spokane, going up there this week here to talk to two locations up there. And every year we don’t have to go with the same location. Sometimes things happen and other things open up for us. And we’re obviously going to have Cincinnati once again, some location.

But again, just so everyone knows where we’re planning on being as far as the Church is concerned in the U.S.. Then the Canadian site, hopefully the Canadians, that’s going to be up in the Oakville area south of Toronto between there and the… I’m trying to think of that city on the corner. I can’t think of it right now. Anyway, it’s between… It’s close, just south of Mississauga. Those up there know where that is. So, Oakville area. It’s a nice area where we’re going to be able to have that, and that just has to be signed and sent back to them, but it’s already been accepted.

But for Europe we’ve got the potential of having one of the most awesome, most beautiful facilities we’ve ever had a Feast in, and the hotel is awesome in itself, but the facility, the meeting room, it gives us plenty of room to have and invite anyone else that might want to come. So, anyway, please send us directly an email or send it to the Church site or whatever, to a minister closest to you and then they can send them on to me. And then we will send you the information about the hotel.

I’m not going to do that today in this announcement because there are people in this whole world that would probably like to interfere with some of that. So, anyway, we’ll give you that information by email and tell you what the costs are and the rooms and so forth if you wanted to stay there. And that’s really the kind of information I need to have. I need to know how many might want to stay there because there are other things that are within about 15 miles from there – or 15 minutes, I should say. But I know several people already that want to come and they’re going to be staying at the hotel where we’re going to be staying as well.

So anyway, wanted to pass that along. Please get that sent in this week. And that’s just for The Netherlands.

So anyway, we’re trying to plan ahead. I’ve never planned ahead this much this quickly, this fast. It’s been difficult, it’s hard, it’s not easy trying to make all these arrangements with all these different places, negotiating prices and the like. So, we’re trying to press forward on this and have this all set for the Church so that maybe by the end of December people can start making their reservations already.

It’s good to be focused forward like this because when you think about the Feast of Tabernacles, a lot of times that can stir us up to be motivated, to be excited about looking ahead and what are we looking to do, where are we looking to be, and talking it over as families etc., etc., etc.

For well over a year now as a result of seeing some of the weaknesses in the Body of Christ that were made manifest through the experience of a pandemic, prayerfully we’re becoming stronger and at one, more at one, in better unity of spirit because we’re learning lessons. This is how God manifests things to us that we otherwise couldn’t see.

I wish we’d had more of these kinds of messages at a particular time, but because of the scattering, not that they were scattered, but because of all the ministry out there teaching different things at a time when Herbert Armstrong went through some of the things that he did addressing something as simple as make-up. I don’t know that we can fully grasp not having lived through some of that, what it was like that thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people left over an issue so physical. Left the truth. Left the Church. Thousands! Incredible, what took place. And that’s just over one little physical thing.

And so, God uses physical things so often to try us, to see where we are. Herbert Armstrong’s health, physical. What did that do? Well, he was having heart problems, he was having health problems there in the latter part of the 70’s and because of that people thought he was closer to death. So, what happened? Some evangelists started taking sides with one another, power struggles on the side. Who’s going to take over? Who’s going to be in that position next? And that wasn’t pleasant. It was horrible what took place.

Something physical brought out things that were under the surface in their lives, of those who had the opportunity to remain faithful, to be faithful, but because they weren’t I have no doubts whatsoever that the majority of them had their crowns taken from them. After having gone to Ambassador College in the 40’s, sat at Herbert Armstrong’s feet, and then come to a point like that where they were rejected. God already knew that this was happening. So, He allowed physical things to happen so often to see where we are, and at that particular time because of his health it brought that to the surface, the leadership of the Church.

And so, Herbert Armstrong’s battles a lot of times, of what he preached when he came back and got stronger and stronger and stronger, yes, it was to the Church, but it was directly squarely to the ministry. Because those are the ones he knew and those are the ones he was dealing with.

So, we go through cycles like this, have in times past and in our lives, and we see these battles that can take place and God bringing something to the surface. And now, we have Covid and so it’s brought some things to the surface. It’s to help people to see themselves.

Thousands of people couldn’t see themselves when the thing of make-up came out. They were too weak on both sides of the issue – some for and some against. And then it was changed again and some for and some against. And it’s like, you’ve got to be kidding me! What about 18 Truths we have? What about one Church of God? What about an apostle through whom that truth was given to the Church, in the sense of the 18 added to the other three, 21 total? Is that why people were in the Church? Is that what they were called to when they were called out of the world? Is that what they had in their minds and given to understand and comprehend about God’s plan and God’s purpose and that He’s Elohim and wants a family, and all the other things associated with that, all the truths that were there? Incredible.

But human beings who have been begotten of God’s spirit can become so weak that they can no longer judge those things, to where here is this truth, so much sacrifice that God gave, worked for to bring back a body after Sardis, began to work through a man and open up the floodgates using technology to go into all the world starting back in that period of time in the late 30’s, but especially into the 40’s, and just grew and grew and grew. Awesome!

And yet individuals raising up more important to them what you slap on here, what you put on here, whatever, you know. You think, “That’s important. I wonder what truth that is. Must be a lot of scriptures on that one.” You think, what does that have to do with the plan of God? But that’s how weak we can become as human beings.

And so, thousands and large numbers of ministers who would leave over something like that, who would begin to become more—because they didn’t leave, a lot of them stayed—and just became more abrasive and divisive and doing things on their own and teaching whatever they wanted to. Incredible, our history and what we’ve gone through.

And here we are again having to address some things with a very small body, a very small remnant. So, how important is the remnant to God? It’s everything. Because it’s only within a remnant since the Apostasy that God is molding and fashioning some to be in that first resurrection, to complete the plan for the firstfruits.

Sometimes we don’t grasp how important our lives are and what God has called us to be a part of. For others, it’s to continue on into a new age, to be the foundation of those who went through incredible battles, through persecution, hardships, trials, and kept fighting all the way to the end – which was a beginning. Because that’s going to be an awesome beginning in a new age.

To be a foundation of that? We don’t grasp how important that is. We don’t yet because we’re not there yet. But hopefully, we have a little more vision and a little more ability to think about some of those things and to contemplate it and to realize this is awesome. This is awesome and it’s a part of God’s plan. And to be able to be a part of that?

So, we’ve been tried in this on both sides of the issue. Whether to wear a mask or whether not to wear a mask. And sometimes we get very upset about some of these things, people do. Whether to get a shot or not to get a shot. And “No man’s going to tell me what to do!” And so, here we go. It’s like, okay, you’ve just said that God’s apostle—God’s apostle—through whom God is working, “I don’t have to listen to him. I don’t have to listen to what’s given. I can decide for my own what I’m going to receive and what I’m not going to receive.” No, you can’t. You’re judged by that. You’re just simply judged. I’m just telling you what it is. It’s not about me, it’s about God. It’s about how God feeds us and nurtures us.

If that’s a stance you want to take you don’t know what you’re doing to yourself on a spiritual plane. You’re just flat cutting yourself off from God. And if you do that how do you have the strength to be able to hold on to what is true? You don’t. All you can do is repent.

So, addressing our mistakes and repenting where we need to will help us to be able to be better focused spiritually and able to plan ahead far more successfully. That’s the way our spiritual lives are.

2 Timothy 3. We’re going to look at a verse we have already examined and see what else ties in with this that has been misused much, if you will, in the environment of God’s Church in the past. First, here in this verse, again, in 2 Timothy 3, is that, again, that there is that which is fundamental and foundational to our ability to hear on a spiritual plane.

That’s why I mentioned the scripture I did before. Our ability to hear, we think we hear, we hear words, we think we understand what’s being said all the time, and we don’t. It depends upon where we are spiritually; and if we’re resisting and fighting against God’s spirit then we’re not receiving the spiritual intent in the food that He’s giving to us.

2 Timothy 3:14—But you must continue…! It’s not “If we continue.” We must continue! We must abide, remain in, that same word that’s used to describe how God’s spirit lives and dwells in us, how we are to be as a result of God’s spirit. We want to abide in, dwell in the Body of Christ, the Church of God, in God’s spirit in our lives. We want that. We desire that.

But you must continue in the things which you have learned. So, God teaches us. That’s what it’s all about. He molds and fashions us. That’s how He molds and fashions us. Because there is this response, there is this two-way street. He feeds us, He teaches us, He offers us the greatest treasures mankind has ever been given, and then we have to determine if it’s a treasure, how thankful we are, the ability, the blessing of being able to see it and understand it.

Because that comes from God. It’s not something we have by our intellect, by our own ability to grasp and comprehend. Whether it be the Sabbath, whether it be laws of tithing, whether it be the Holy Days, whether it be the plan of God from Passover to the Last Great Day, God has to put it in your mind. He has to offer it to you and then you have to decide are you going to hold on to it, grab a hold of it, and love it because you see something that He’s given you the ability to see. Those are our choices.

But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of. Again, that word “being made trustworthy; having been established.” So, God gives us those things we need, whatever we need. We can trust and rely upon Him but we’re not always faithful. He’s always faithful, but we’re not, and He establishes those things in our lives if we’ll receive it. We have the choice.

…knowing from whom you have learned them. That’s how God works. He worked with the twelve who went out after Judas was replaced, and then later on called another one to go out to the rest of the world, not just to Israel (or Judah, primarily), but to the rest of the world. Referred to oftentimes as “gentiles” or sometimes “Greek” in the scriptures, but it’s referring to the rest. Paul was sent to them as an apostle. That’s how God works.

So, let’s look at a couple of areas of scripture that many in the past have misused and misinterpreted, which is the antithesis, if you will, the opposite of the fundamental truth that we just read right here. Because this is a fundamental truth that we should see, grasp, and understand, how God molds and fashions us, how He teaches us.

1 Corinthians 11. Now, these two scriptures, or areas of scripture that have been misused in times past, which some possibly, I don’t know, still have in a part of their thinking somewhere, and even if they don’t sometimes the reality of them manifests itself in people’s lives. But total misunderstanding of these areas of scripture. Because I’ve heard different ones explain these things in times past in a distorted way, opposite of what’s really being instructed.

The first one here, 1 Corinthians 11:1—Be you followers of me, even as I am of Christ. So, some have made this comment, “Well, as long as you’re following Christ then I’ll follow you.” Now, this is a physical thing, in one respect, as far as looking at human beings, but it’s far, far beyond that because it has to do with being fed by God, it has to do with what we’re taught. And so, some have used this to say, “Well, I don’t agree with that so he’s not really following Christ.”

In other words, the individuals within the Church become the judge of what’s being given to them, if you will, by God’s apostle, whether it be Herbert Armstrong, whether it be the apostle Paul, whether it be Peter, whoever it was in times past. And this has happened in the Church from it’s beginning. It’s happened over and over and over.

Every time people leave they always have to justify themselves. They will strive to find something that they disagree with, some doctrine. And so, they’ll tell others, “Well, this is why, because…” And you think, “No, it isn’t. It’s because you went out and committed adultery, you lying…” Or “No, it isn’t…” because there is something else you did. You were robbing from God. You weren’t giving tithes and offerings to God. You were robbing God! That’s the real reason. Tell the truth!

But so often in life we don’t know some of those things, of what’s going on in other people’s lives once they are gone. But there is something else that people have wanted, but they’ll generally always come back with something they disagree with to justify to others in the Church why they’re leaving and why they’re no longer in fellowship, because they disagree with what’s been spoken. Almost always that way. Almost always that way.

And so, this is like it says that what this is saying by Paul is, Paul is telling everyone, “If you think that I’m always following Christ, then follow me. Because you have to judge that, you have to determine that.” And that’s not what it’s saying at all. That’s a lie. That’s a hideous, perverted, sick lie.

Either the individual is being used by God and it’s manifest by the truths that God is giving or not. Either it’s manifested by what we’re being fed and given and we’re able to see those things and hold on to those things, or not. There is no middle ground. And yet we’ve seen things happen in times past where different ministers within the Church began to teach different things. And so often people didn’t realize that because they weren’t able to hear on a regular basis God’s apostle.

Became too big for human beings even with God’s spirit, even ordained, to handle. It’s a great lesson in that, isn’t it? We can’t govern ourselves. If we get up to a point where we’re 20,000, 100,000, 200,000, one million, we can’t do it. We’ve proven that through Philadelphia. We can’t do it!

So again, this has been used to stress the words “as” with the concept, again, the thought that followed being that “if the minister.” Now, if it’s a minister out here not teaching what they’re supposed to be, not in agreement with what God has been giving, as an example, with Herbert Armstrong, and they were teaching something else, that’s a red flag. That’s a different matter.

Notice Galatians 3. Going to add some other scriptures here. So again, we’re still going into things that should be fundamental, that everyone should have answered who was a part of Philadelphia when Herbert Armstrong was God’s apostle during that period of time, of things for all of them that should have been learned and should have been able to go on into the period of Laodicea, but it was lost, totally lost as so many things were, as ministers went off and people were kind of doing their own thing.

Galatians 3:2. This is Paul speaking to the Galatians: This only is what I want to learn from you, Did you receive the spirit by/through the works of the law, by how well you obeyed God on your own? There are a lot of people who are, going back into Philadelphia and on, who felt like they came into the truth, or they were able to hold or have the truth because of, again, something here that they were able to do on their own because of their knowledge, because of their ability to prove things to themselves.

No, God gives us the truth. It’s either there or it isn’t. We can build upon it by things that are given to it, we can study into what we’ve already been given and strive to stay sharp and attentive spiritually, but it all comes from God, not because of our great ability to read different scriptures and put different scriptures together and come up with something. It better agree or you’re just out in left field.

This only would I want from you (learn from you), Did you receive the spirit through/by the works of the law or through the hearing of faith? Something happened during the period of Philadelphia that wasn’t good. Something happened when the printing press came along going all the way back to the period of time of the 1400’s when the Bible began to be produced in other languages. And because of that and people able to get a hold of them this thing that began to happen that really hurt the Church of God was that different ideas…

Because there was only one false church for so long as a whole that was highly organized. There were other little things at times but in a Catholic world you didn’t last very long at different stages. So, different things popped up and then slowly but surely different countries like Great Britain, king James, different things happen, and on and on you go. But it caused a lot of this independence where people had this concept that now you can read it and you can determine for yourself what is said. You think, no, you can’t.

Who has ever been able to have a Bible and sit down, and I don’t care who they are, on their own ability to come to see the truth and know the truth and put it all together? It can’t be done. God’s spirit has to lead and guide and direct us, which He did Herbert Armstrong. Gave truth through him, he gave it to the Church, and the Church grew. That’s how it works. A miracle. It’s by what we hear – “Through the hearing of faith.” We hear something.

It’s like the first time I sat down around ten o’clock at night. I heard things about the Sabbath, the Holy Days, the migration of the people of Israel, this nation was Manasseh. I didn’t have to read a thing. That’s what it’s talking about, “Through the hearing of faith.” God did it. He put it up here. I just knew it was true. It’s not a matter of what you can prove to yourself. You can build upon that, you can go back then after that and read the book for yourself “U.S. and B.C. in Prophecy” and begin to build upon that and grow in that. But it’s not that you’re going to go out and research something different, that you come up with your own decisions. “Well, I don’t believe that portion is true and I’m going to go…”

That’s not what it’s about. It’s about knowing how you learn it, knowing from where you learned it, and then striving to become strong in that by what’s already been given. Reading, whatever it might be, but not on our own, not going into scriptures on our own and trying to figure out something that might be a little different that we think we see, that God has shown to us.

Are you so foolish having begun in the spirit…? So, we can all look at this and say, what would that be like, to have begun in the spirit? What’s that mean? God did it. It’s from God. God’s spirit comes from Him. He puts it into our mind. This is how we’re able to believe. And so, we’re able to begin making choices on that, like I did, starting with keeping of the Sabbath, then tithing and so forth, and made choices and decisions by what was given to me. And that’s what we do. We start living by faith because we’re able to believe what God puts in the mind. We see it as true. Awesome!

Are you so foolish having begun in the spirit that you are now being made perfect through the flesh, by what you can do? You think, well, this was because they were Jewish. He’s talking about the Jews and those who came along afterwards and those who influenced the gentiles and what they have done and the influence they’ve had on the gentile world. Because this was something that Paul had to deal with. But that isn’t what Paul is addressing.

And for us it would be like the same sort of thing that took place, that people began to think—it’s been with us for so long—that they could begin to study on their own. They would take scriptures like “Prove all things.” It’s like, “So, it’s up to me and my studies in scripture and what I can see and what I can come up with.” No, it isn’t. We’re either taught or we’re not.

There is one apostle, as a whole, at a time, unless there is a specific purpose of what God did in the beginning because it was a different world. There wasn’t technology so we had twelve that went out because they went out in different areas. And then Paul because he went into a gentile world, different purpose, not in constant contact.

So, God made it available to them to have different ones out there through whom truth came. And we can read those things then in scripture by what they wrote, unique things that were given. I think of 2 Thessalonians 2, something prophetic given to Paul of what had to take place before Christ would ever return, about an apostasy, a great falling away. Incredible!

Going on, verse 4—Have you suffered so many things in vain? So, what’s that talking about? Well, it’s like you started in the spirit, you started a process of walk, you started a way of life, you made choices and decisions because God put it into your mind truth that you heard taught to you. Now, especially in these times all the way up until the printing press this was the way it was. As a whole, it was through what was given through the ear, through the little canals and what they were able to hear or read lips in. And then that word in the mind. Awesome! Incredible!

Which is what the hearing of faith is about. It’s understanding how you received it.

So, “Have you suffered so many things?” So, we do. We start out right away having to tell our employers, “I’m no longer going to be in here on Friday evening,” or “I’m no longer going to be here on Saturdays. I hope we can work this out.” Because you’re talking about your finances. You’re talking about major changes in your life and your budget and everything else that so often happened to God’s people. And if you have a family and you have to do that, wow, some huge changes are taking place.

Right? You were about 25 when you came in, weren’t you? 25? Yeah, see. Family? Big changes have to take place in people’s lives. What are you going to do? Well, you do what you have to do. You go through some suffering. And sometimes people lost jobs. Sometimes people had to go out and find different jobs.

And then family, oh, they were so excited by it. They wouldn’t want anything to do with you anymore. You get invited over for turkey dinner anymore on Thanksgiving? Huh. They’re nervous to be around you. They don’t know you anymore. You’re a different… You’re somebody… You’re a little weird. “They were never religious and now when they say ‘God’ it’s not in cursing anymore. They talk strange with some weird ideas. Great White Throne?! Living a second time? Man, what are they smoking?” Well, back then they didn’t talk about that.

So, it says, “Have you suffered so many things?” Have we gone through so many things through this process and now we’re ready to give it all up because we think we have certain ability, that we can judge and decide what’s given to us? Or do we understand how God has given us the truth and keeps giving us truth?

…if indeed it was in vain. Hopefully, it’s not.

He, therefore, who supplies to you the spirit… Who does that? God Almighty. God gives us, He wants us to grow. He wants us, our minds to be transformed. He wants us to make choices and decisions, but He has to give us… And He gives us more truth. He builds upon those things and continually feeds us Sabbath by Sabbath. It’s an awesome process.

He, therefore, who supplies to you the spirit, and works in power among you… I love this expression because if you become more familiar with what it’s talking about, when it talks about, when Paul speaks of this power that’s at work and he speaks about the power of preaching…and so, he’s talking about God’s spirit that’s working through that to give to the Church. It’s that power that’s made manifest to the Church.

How is it made manifest? By the truth that’s given. It’s power! Because the world can’t have it. The world can’t go and read their Bibles and figure it out. So, it’s power that God gives of truth that He gives to the Church, and to build upon that truth on a continuing basis Sabbath by Sabbath, Holy Day to Holy Day. It’s awesome!

Does He do so through the works of the law? Now, they were dealing with another matter there. Does He do it by what you’re able to figure out by your own? Does He do it by what you can study on the internet and decide what you’re going to side with out here, that you’re going to decide that “This is what I’m siding with,” or “This is what I’m deciding with and I’m going to be in opposition to certain ones in the Church because they think something different, and they won’t listen to me!” Or do we strive for unity and grasp the importance of that and understand how we’re able to receive unity and oneness in God’s Church?

So, something very physical has manifested a lot of things in the Church that hopefully as we respond we’ll become stronger in. Because we’re going to go into some pretty tough times ahead of us. We haven’t seen anything yet.

So, Does He do so through the works of the law or by our own works? In other words, any kind of anything we can do on our own by our own ability or by our own talent and what we think we know? And we raise up our own thinking of what we know sometimes in opposition to others in the Church and then have dialogue with them that’s in opposition with someone? Where does that come from? How can we ever get in dialogue with one another in the Body of Christ and be opposition about anything? Is that right? Is that good? Is that healthy? Or is it stupid and sick, perverted, divisive? God hates divisiveness and the source of divisiveness.

…or through the hearing of faith? There we go, right back to where we need to be, through the ability to hear what’s given to us, the ability to believe it and see it and know it. But sometimes even our human nature resists that because we want to believe and hold on to something else. We want to believe what some doctor has said or what “I” have researched that certain doctors have said or certain scientist have said or especially certain politicians, maybe what certain people say that are a little more sound minded in their politics and so forth, and maybe kind of hold on to what they’re saying.

They’re all nuts. They’re all divided. There is no unity. So, how do you receive unity and how to go forward and do things together as a body as God’s people in a way that’s pleasing to God? There’s only one way.

Even as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. So, what an awesome thing to understand that through everything we receive as a whole, that God gives to us, our response to it, our ability to believe and see what is given rather than resisting it, if we’ve proven to our self what we have needed to prove to our self, what we should have known a long, long time ago just by the truths we have that I went into last time in Part 2.

They speak volumes. I shouldn’t have to go through all this, but we have to because we have to learn because we don’t understand it all as deeply as we need to.

1 John 2, the secondary scripture that in times past has been twisted to say something other than what’s true, used by so many in times past—because it’s happened a lot to justify their not paying heed to God’s apostle, to Herbert Armstrong and back in Philadelphia, and on we go. Some have used this to back their own stance, the line they draw in the sand. Because people will do that, they’ll draw a line in the sand. “No, not going to do it!”

1 John 2:22—Let that therefore abide in you, which you heard from the beginning. Hmm, what’s that? It’s a lot of things. It’s narrowed down to by John as a matter of agape, God’s love, but that love is manifested through the truth that we’re able to receive, the word of God that we’re able to receive in our lives. And so, that’s what…

I know what I heard in the beginning. I didn’t grasp God’s love yet, but I started receiving it at that point, and I was able to see things that are awesome, things that no one could teach except it came from God through His spirit to teach it, what was true.

“Which you have heard from the beginning.” It’s how to live life, yes. But we don’t learn that all at once. So, we want the truth to stay in us. Everything we receive from God; we want it to abide in us. We don’t want to lose anything that God has given to us. We want to hold on to it with all of our being and to build upon it.

If that which you have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, you also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father. What an awesome thing. So, yes, of God’s spirit, because that’s how we learn that. The truth, yes, we know that, the Word of God, the mind of God that we begin to receive into our thinking. It’s awesome. And then how to live toward one another and toward God; it’s about love. So, we learn those things and we learn those things fairly early on. We don’t understand it all yet, we grow in that, ever learning in that as far as how God works in our life and things of agape, if you will, agape and how God’s love works in our life, how we have to cry out to God for it because the source is God, as all truth is. It comes from God.

Even this is the promise, that He promised us eternal life. Awesome! And so, God gave through Herbert Armstrong things to be restored to the Church about, and more, about God. God desires a family. Yes, it’s eternal life, but it’s in God’s family. It’s not up there fishing for all eternity because we liked fishing on earth – or bowling or golfing.

You know, some people go out and they golf all the time. We’ll walk up and pass this one area and people are out there golfing. I see the same golf cart, the same people, and this one cart this guy has he has this motorized thing and it’s just this little cart and he’s just… I saw it the other day and I thought, man, that’s going by itself. I didn’t realize he’s controlling that thing. Never seen one like that before. And think, well, okay, and do that for all eternity? Well, after a while at some point in the future you’re going to want to do something else too.

So here, eternal life in God’s family. What an awesome thing to understand. “Even this is the promise that He has promised to us, eternal life.”

These things have I written unto you concerning those who seduce you. So, God warns us constantly. Our lives, ever since I’ve been in God’s Church, there have always been those warnings out there of individuals and ministers or different ones that might come along when we were larger, of things that could lead you astray, or someone in the Church who comes along with a different idea than what we heard or have heard taught to us.

Like in ’72 when some started murmuring and talking about how that Herbert Armstrong because of talking about the spirit essence in man, that somehow he’s teaching the immortality of the soul. You think, why can’t you see this. It’s so clear.

I didn’t understand that at the time as clearly, obviously, as later on. It’s because of God’s spirit. Somewhere along the line they had lost that constant flow of God’s spirit and weren’t able to grasp it. So, they believed something else, different ministers did.

And then in ’74, Pentecost, a day change. Not Monday but Sunday. Whooo, thousands left. A lot of ministers left. Incredible! So, different ones come along and seduce people in different ways. This is how God uses it because He likens things of the physical pulls of human beings when it comes to sex, which is one of the greatest pulls of the human mind, to that which is spiritual because there’s that correlation on a spiritual plane. Anything that pulls us away from faithfulness to God is spiritual adultery.

And so, to be seduced to follow something else, to believe something else, to think a different way than what’s already been given to us, what a hideous thing. And yet thousands and thousands and thousands, the majority of the Church since it began have done that. They’ve been seduced either by something they were willing to do on their own by their own belief, by their own thinking or by, most of the time, someone else, “Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah” into deceitness. Something else that, “Oh, wow, I didn’t know that. Whew!” and get wrapped up in something. Horrible what’s taken place through our history.

So, here we go, “These things have I written unto you, concerning those who seduce you.” Not new to the Church. But the anointing which you have received of Him abides in you. What an awesome thing, the holy spirit at baptism, the laying on of hands that we’re able to receive. God’s spirit in our minds, an impregnation. Awesome!

But the anointing which you have received of Him abides in you, and you do not need that any man teach you. Here we go. So, some people read into that, and I’ve heard this so often in times past, especially in Philadelphia and a little bit in Laodicea. But mostly in Philadelphia because it was against Herbert Armstrong or some other ministers, or whatever it might be.

So, it was like, “Well, God’s spirit works with me too. I’m in the Church. I can see that Pentecost should stay on Monday.” Or some of the others who got upset at Herbert Armstrong because he wouldn’t change immediately, say, “See, it’s so clear! It’s supposed to be on Sunday. What’s wrong with you?” So, they were allowed to see something that was true. How are they going to deal with it?

A lot of people left on both sides of the fence, those who didn’t do it quick enough because they didn’t like Herbert Armstrong waiting a year – didn’t wait on God, to do it in God’s way, God’s time. There’s a great lesson in that. Had to come from God’s apostle. You cannot determine and decide it for yourself. Awesome.

It’s like the man of sin. An individual ahead of time (said he was a prophet) and said, “He’s the man of sin.” He was right! Then he had to change later on because “He died, so it has to be his son!” And he did it before God revealed it. He made the choice and the decision of something that God allowed him to see a portion of to try people that were scattered. What are they going to do? Incredible, the sifting we’ve gone through though time.

…and you do not need that any man teach you. But as the same anointing teaches you all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, you shall abide in it. It’s like, so people use this, “I can see what’s true. I can read my bible. It’s clear to me.” And so, different ones would get together in their little Bible study’s. How often has that happened in God’s Church? Think of Toledo and different areas. I don’t care where it’s been going back in time, different ones getting together and saying, “Well, they’re wrong about this,” or “He’s wrong about this and look here at what the Bible says.” “Yeah, yeah, that’s what it says.” I hope you see what I’m saying. Incredible what we’ve gone through in God’s Church!

So, it’s incredible what we go through in the Church from time to time, of things we have to focus upon to hopefully learn more, to be able to build more upon things that God wants us to grasp and see and understand. The ability sometimes to bring us to repentance is not an easy process. We have to go through some difficult things at times.

And there are matters looking forward to the next series, there comes a point as well where people begin then as something is being said from up here, and given to the Church, and then sometimes people go too far with certain things and they begin to judge others in a harsh way, in a way that they shouldn’t. So, people begin the to judge. “Why aren’t you doing what I’m doing? Don’t you see… Look what I did when I did it.” It’s like, is that right?

So, I don’t want to get ahead of myself but the point being is we have to be ever so careful all the time what we’re doing and how we do it as a Body, that we be unified, that we be at one, that we do it according to God’s way, God’s will, and to handle the word of truth in a right way as well. Because so often if we’re not careful we mishandle it. And so, we’re tried in those things as well.

So, the point being is that something very physical can happen to bring other things to the surface, to help us throughout the Body to be refined. I think of a statue and the pieces being chipped off. And so, each one of us can go through this process and having more chipped off. We can all learn through what we’ve experienced and not look at the other person and say, “Man, they’ve got to get that chip off. A lot of chiseling to do on that one.”

So, that’s not… It’s about us. It’s about each one of us. What am I doing? How am I doing it?

So, we need to be focused on planning ahead—it’s a spiritual matter—and desiring with all of our being to be at next year’s Feast of Tabernacles. Because I can’t help myself anymore. Every time I give a sermon at the Feast I think of at times, “Is everyone going to be here next year?” And I realize it’s not going to happen. And that hurts. It really hurts because we have choices to make.

And God doesn’t force this upon any of us. We have to make our own choices of what we want. And if we really want it, you know what? God wants to know that. Do you really want it? Do you cherish it with all of your being? Do you value it as the most valuable thing in your life? And if you do and you see it in that light you’ll be more thankful, you’ll be fighting for it a whole lot more, you’ll be willing to sacrifice more for it because you recognize the value and you won’t want any of it to slip between your fingers. But those are individual choices.

So again, planning ahead because it’s like planning to be in God’s Kingdom, different markers along the way. Every Feast of Tabernacles, every Pentecost, every Passover, one point in a race you keep running with all of your being. Because this is our life.

So any kind of things that we do – and that’s why I’m mentioning about the Feast sites already, because it’s a healthy thing spiritually to tie that in with what we’re being taught, to realize, yes, we do need to start talking about, thinking about within families or whatever it might be, thinking about planning ahead for next year. In that area and in other areas of life, what else do I need to see? What else do I need to think about? Because it takes work to make plans on a physical plane like that that result in spiritual benefit.

We need to be alert to the dangers around us because they’re growing constantly every week.

2 Timothy 2. We’ve been covering a lot here in 2 Timothy. It’s amazing to me sometimes, yet God just shows us something in a very powerful way, and not realizing there is so much here with this kind of a focus in a way that we haven’t focused in the same manner before. And over and over again there is so much that’s given to us here in 2 Timothy.

2 Timothy 2:8—Remember that Joshua the Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel. So, he’s reminding them this is where you heard it. This is where it came from, “My preaching to you the good news.” Saying, this is how God works over and over again. This is how you heard it. This is how you learn it.

For which I suffer trouble. So, we all do. That’s the point of it all. We all suffer trouble, hardship, difficult times. It’s not meant to be easy and we’re to learn from that. We’re to learn from those of times past and what they have gone through. We’re to learn that that kind of struggle is with us until this is over with in this world. It’s just the way it is.

For which I suffer trouble as an evil doer. The word means “a criminal.” So, that’s the way it’s been for a long, long time because people make judgments and decisions accordingly. That’s the way human beings are. …even to the point… And so, these things happen. God allows them to happen in cycles because it helps us as a body to learn the things that are stated here and in other scriptures and to grow and build upon that and to weigh the things that are more important and weightier as far as God’s law and God’s way of life is concerned.

So, he says, Even to the point of being bound. In other words, confined. But the word of God is not bound. It’s not confined. God’s word can’t be stopped. God’s word will continue on for as many as He calls. It’s God that does it. God’s going to complete a work. And we should be in awe of that. God’s going to complete the 144,000. What an awesome thing. Because the Millennium can’t start without it. It won’t start without it. Christ won’t return without it. It’s going to be complete.

So, there are things you can rely upon, you can depend upon, this is what’s going to happen, and be excited about and understand how important it is that God is working with the remnant and what He’s doing and why He’s doing it exactly the way He is. Awesome!

Why we’re not 5,000 people. If we were 5,000 people we would not be nearly as unified and at one as we are. If we were 2,000 people we would not have the ability to be nearly as unified as we are. This is the end of a process of training, of molding and fashioning, of completing 144,000. Doesn’t take a lot to accomplish it. And it’s being done in an environment of greater unity and oneness in a sense, in the Church has ever had in a long, long, long, long…

It really hasn’t had what we have ever to this degree because of technology. Because I can speak here, and it goes around the world. Incredible. People watching it already this morning, early this morning in Australia, New Zealand, some staying up late to watch it in the UK, in The Netherlands because they can’t wait until next week! Which is great! And then they listen to it again and build upon what they heard last week (or this week). Incredible. Awesome.

But to understand God has given us this at the end to finish something, to complete a process of construction because of what He’s constructing, it’s an awesome thing that we’re all a part of. And it’s hard for us to grasp how great this really is sometimes and our part in it.

So, God’s word is not confined. God’s going to do what He’s going to accomplish. It’s going to get done. And we have the blessing of being part of it, with it, or not. But every year people choose the “or not.” It’s hard. It’s hard to watch that. Rips it apart inside here sometimes. It really does. It rips apart. It’s difficult to watch those choices being made. To walk to God’s house side by side, counsel blended sweet. Some who were with us for so, so long and then stab you in the back. It’s human beings, human nature.

Verse 10—Therefore, I endure all things for the sake of the elect. The ones chosen by God, the elect, the select, those who are still… The “select, the “elect,” are those that are still in the process of fighting for God’s way of life. They’ve been called, they’ve been separated by God as God’s chosen called out ones, if you will. Not necessarily yet set as far as the mind is concerned and said, “Now I know you,” but in that process, chosen to continue to work with because we have chosen to be a part of that. We want it. We keep fighting for it. We don’t give up, whatever it is as an obstacle, striving to do what is right before God.

Therefore, I endure all things for the sake of the elect. And that’s the way we should think toward one another whatever it is. What are we wiling to go through, endure with one another? Something that’s said whether we take offense or not, how we look upon someone else, whether we look down upon. In all those cases we need to be looking at self. This has to change.

If that outlook, if that thinking isn’t right then we’re not right with God because it’s about God. And if we’re not thinking right toward one another in the body, we have things to work on. And I’ll just tell you right now, we all have things to work on.

…that they also may obtain salvation. That’s what our heart and our desire should be toward every person that’s together, whether it be in the firstfruits or on into a new age, and then later into Elohim.

…that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Joshua with eternal glory. If only we could see that more clearly, what it means that we don’t have to… This decays. This falls apart. This you don’t take with you, thank God. You will all get older. Your body will decay. Your thinking will change as you go through that process more and more and more. Some things you can’t learn until you get to certain stages of your life. Then you can see them more clearly, then you can grasp them more clearly.

But what an awesome thing if we can grasp it’s not in this life. And yet sometimes we want to experience more physical things rather than yet being in God’s Kingdom. And that’s okay, if we’re fighting the fight and growing in it, in time we’ll come to the point where we see that and are convicted of that, “I only want that life. I don’t want this. But I’m not anxious to get out of it quite yet.” That’s in God’s time.

So, for one another we should want these things in a right thinking and so forth.

…for which I suffer trouble, as a criminal (evil doer), even to the point of being bound (confined); but the word of God is not bound. Therefore, I endure all things for the sake of the elect, which we should all be thinking that way, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Joshua with eternal glory. This is a faithful saying: For if we died with him, we shall also live with him.

So, what’s it go back to? Goes back to going down in that watery grave. Was it really put to death? Did we really come out of that? And hopefully, at some point if we didn’t have it at that moment, come to the point where we could say, “My life belongs to God.” Everything without exception, “I am Yours to do with as You please. I want my life in Your hands not in mine.”

Verse 12—If we endure, we shall also reign with him. Persevere, endure, you just keep fighting, you just keep going. You don’t give up the race, you don’t stop. If we deny him, he will also deny us. And the vast majority who have ever been called have denied him. That’s mindboggling.

If we are faithless, he will yet remain faithful. So, when are we faithless? When we sin. We’re not walking in faith, we’re disobedient, we’re not doing what we should be doing, we’re thinking wrong, we’re living wrong, we’re acting wrong. And that has to be repented of in order for us to come back into this process here where we are remaining faithful again. So, that’s what repentance is all about.

So, the reality is God doesn’t give up on us. He doesn’t quit on us. If we quit on Him to the point we have to be judged according to it, then that happens, and people leave. Because God will not continue to give them of His spirit. He’s very patient and will carry on for a great long period of time sometimes, but there comes a point where a judgment has to be made, “No more. Not now. Maybe in the Great White Throne, but not now.”

He will yet remain faithful; He cannot deny Himself. What does that mean? Do we grasp the depth of what it’s saying there, “He cannot deny Himself?” If we have the impregnation of His spirit and we haven’t totally rejected, choked off that spirit and turned to something else away from Him completely without repentance, as long as we’re willing to repent He won’t deny His life that’s in us. But that can be a very fine line at times when we come to that point. And the vast majority of who have ever been called have gone that direction. Incredible.

Put them in remembrance of these things, charging them before the Lord that they not strive. Lesson. Lesson! The Church - that they not strive. The word means “not argue, debate, oppose one another.” And yet sometimes that has happened. It happened within the last year and a half. To wear a mask, not wear a mask. To get a shot, not get a shot. Lipstick or no lipstick. Eye shadow, no eye shadow.

…that they not strive about/over (if you will, as the word is) words. It’s talking about in conversation. We converse with one another in fellowship. God’s people do. And we talk about different things at different times. But we should be very careful what we speak, especially if it comes to a point of striving, being in opposition, debate. “Well, I heard….!” “I heard it on that…” What do they call those things? Pod-something? Podcast. “I listened to a radio station and this guy; he is really good. And he’s only been speaking the truth. I’ve never known him to speak anything but the truth.” “Hmm. Is he an apostle? What is he? I don’t know. I never heard that name.”

It’s incredible sometimes what we are as human beings, what we’re like. Choices, strife, opposition toward one another. We should never have that in the Church, in the Body of Christ toward each other.

…about/over words, and are speaking in a conversation of no profit to the subverting… No profit. What profit is there to debate various things about…? I used to hear things like this about, “Well, Jezebel wore lipstick, and she had all this rouge and red stuff all over her face so the scriptures prove very clearly that women are not supposed to ever wear make-up. Because she was a harlot, and she wore it! See, the scriptures say that.” Those were arguments by people! Think, oh, well. On and on it goes.

And then I think of Rahab and a lineage that is so incredible. Raised and esteemed in Israel. Awesome! It’s amazing how we think as human beings sometimes.

So again, Do not strive, not strive over/about words of no profit to the subverting, the word means “to the overthrowing, to the destruction,” in other words, to win, in order to get our way across. Do we ever do that as human beings? We’ll stand with someone, against them in opposition to what they’re saying because I believe something else, and I believe…

So, how are these things refined within the Church? Here. Balance is given, what we’re supposed to be doing together as one. We either do it that way or we don’t, so that there is not this subversion.

Because everywhere you go out here people do flip-flops constantly. I hope, I hope everyone can see how both major parties have done flip-flops in the process here. Only because the other party got to something first and took a stance. And because they took that stance, we have to take this one. Not based on anything else, it’s based on that. Then they have, and claim they have the science to back all that up, or claim certain doctors, and then they turn against certain doctors or against certain scientists. All these political things that go on.

Who wants to get wrapped up in that stuff? You want to get wrapped up in that swill? And sometimes we do. Elections come along and people… I’ve cried out about this. People in God’s Church get involved in their talk, in their conversation, take sides. “Yeah, this should be done. That should be done. And I agree with that and that’s a good thing.” Well, sometimes there is something that maybe is good that someone has done that maybe is going to help some others. But you know, as a whole overall, it’s the pits and it’s evil. It’s based on things that are evil because it’s not from God, it’s not of God.

If you’re in politics it means you’re in lying—you can’t help it—and compromise. Lying and compromise. And if we can’t see that on a spiritual plane we’re screwed up. It’s there all the time and yet in God’s Church sometimes people will take those sides. Why? And then debate with someone else in the Church? What are you trying to accomplish? What do you want to do? Should never be done.

…to a subverting of hearers. Study… “Oh, I’ve studied. It’s on the internet. I have studied and studied and studied. It’s on the internet.” Yeah. There’s a lot on the internet, and we make ourselves a judge of what’s true and what isn’t true, what is good and what isn’t good, what is bad. See, just pretty much flush the internet down the stool and you’d be better off. You really would be as a whole.

With all the knowledge. I think of the knowledge, it says at the end time, all the written stuff that’s there. To the books, there is no end. To the volume of things written, there is absolutely no end. You can’t even… You can’t get through it all.

And we don’t even realize now a days you’re being spoon fed. Google will feed you what it wants to feed you. There is a process they go through, and different ones will search and see what you like and what your habits are, and they’ll feed you what they want to feed you. And if it’s not working the way they’d like to, they’ll feed you something else and hope you bite. It’s like fishing.

It’s getting sick out there, it really is. And there’s a lot of power there. And if we’re stupid we’re going to listen to it, drink it all in. “Yeah, yeah, it’s right.”

Study. It’s a word that means “give diligence as in making every effort,” takes work, to show yourself approved unto God. How do you do that? Is it talking about your own kind of personal studies and your just getting into the scriptures and decide what this is saying and what that is saying and compare it? No, it’s not about that at all. Sometimes we don’t even understand what some of these things are saying.

That’s what the word is in studying. It’s not the word for “study” at all. It is that word “Give diligence.” It doesn’t mean that we open up the Bible and “This is what I‘m proving,” or I get on the internet and I look this up and I look that up and “I’ve studied into the internet and I’ve got a good hold on this. Here’s what it is. This is what you should be doing.”

I hope we’re seeing how foolish that is, to take such stance. This whole world has to be changed. Every system out there is wrong. Everything is wrong. Everything is upside down. Everything is twisted and distorted within itself.

It’s like the whole system of the economy. I hope we can see that, what’s happening out there. Makes 2008 look like a picnic for what’s coming, and yet it’s being held off by a false faith, false thinking. Think, don’t we grasp what’s going to take place when China starts collapsing and they can’t keep up their level of what they’re striving to accomplish and do? It’s already happening, their housing market down the toilet.

Shipping? Look at what’s happening out here. You think God’s hand isn’t at work in a very powerful way in this world, of what’s taking place? “Can’t get our Christmas gifts. What are we going to do?” That’s the cry. I think, “Good!” We’re getting close. We want it to come to a screeching end, and maybe as we go along in this process people’s minds being prepared to change because they’re going to get their full of it. Some are, not all.

So again here, Give diligence to show yourself approved before God. That’s a spiritual thing. It’s a spiritual matter. Give diligence. Make every effort. Draw closer to God. Make every effort to make sure you’re doing the thing you need to do. Plan ahead and thinking ahead and keeping a right relationship with God through prayer – and every day of your life in crying out to God you know you need His holy spirit. And where you need to repent, that you’re repenting and asking God for help to see those things that maybe we just can’t see as clearly as we need to and open up our minds so that we can grow.

To go through that, to be proved by God, proven by God, to live His way of life, to live that, to strive to do the things to be of God’s will. …a workman. We’re workmen. We’ve been called to work. God’s word, God’s way of life, God’s truth in our lives, to apply it. To fight against things that are wrong takes work. They don’t just happen.

…a workman that needs not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Doesn’t mean you do it on your own. But being able to see what is given, rightly dividing, being able to hear, asking God for the help to hear what He gives to us so that we can be of that same mind, “rightly dividing the word of truth,” to apply it. Applying it, if you will, then in our lives. That’s what we are charged to do. Where do I need to change? How can I grow? What is it I need to address and see? How can I do things in a better way?

[Verse 19] Nevertheless the foundation of God stands sure, having this seal, The Lord knows those who are His. Also, let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity (unrighteousness). That’s a part of this process. That’s a part of what we have to go through.

I think I jumped over some scripture here. I’m going to back up to verse 16, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun, turn around or turn away from profane, in other words, unhallowed or common. We’re going to look at that more later on because there is much we don’t understand or haven’t understood as fully as we need to there.

…and vain babblings, empty talk, chattering. What is that? Well, I think of the internet. I think of the news. People talk about… Isn’t it dumbfounding what “news” has turned into? News stations? Empty talk, chattering, blah, blah, what people think. Who cares! Your minds are screwed up.

…for they will only increase unto more ungodliness. You see the process of what’s taking place? It’s just getting worse and worse and worse.

And their word will eat as does a canker, like a gangrene, a cancer. If you let it into your life, if you begin latching on to it rather than what God gives, taking a side where you shouldn’t be taking sides, it’s going to start eating away up here. You can’t help it. It’ll start robbing you of what is true.

And their word eats as a canker; of whom is Hymenæus and Philetus; who concerning the truth have erred, “gone astray; missed the mark.” That’s what it means. So, believed to be a couple of ministers and they were addressed by name because so many people knew them. So, it’s talking about them and what they did and the impact they had upon the Church at that time.

So, he’s telling Timothy something that Timothy is fully aware of, of what two had already done. And again, leaving the truth. You can leave the truth by doing those things, by taking sides with the world, taking sides with one political party because they’re doing it and that’s why you make your choice and your decision. Mindboggling.

…who concerning the truth have erred (missed the mark; gone astray), saying that the resurrection is already past. At least that was over something on a spiritual plane in the sense of scriptural or whatever doctrine. Where sometimes we can get off on a course where it’s just physical, something physical. Make-up.

…and overthrown, means “overturned, destroyed” the faith of some. So, they had an impact upon others in the Church because others listened and so they went astray too because they chose to listen to that garbage.

Verse 19—Nevertheless, the foundation of God stands sure, having this seal, The Lord know those who are His. Also, let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity, from unrighteousness. That’s our life. That’s what we strive to do day by day. That’s what repentance is about.

But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also wood and of earth. The gold and silver has a lot more value. That’s the point. And it compares it with wood and earth, things that break easily, things that are easily able to be destroyed and have no significance and don’t last long. Gold and silver tends to last. Can be burned and it’s still there.

And so, God is showing that’s the way the Church has been from the very beginning, and it will be that way to the end because of choices we make. Thankfully, it’s getting less and less. Course, we’re getting smaller and smaller.

It goes on to say, some to honour, some to dishonour. That’s just the way it is. There are going to be people who still leave between now and the Feast.

Verse 21—Therefore, if a person purged, means “to clean thoroughly” themself from these… From what? From dishonour, from the things that aren’t right. That’s our life, isn’t it? Wanting to see what it is we need to change, crying out to God for help to see what we’re blinded to, where we need to make growth, where we need to see things that will help us to have that spurt of growth where we can get past certain things and grow on to another level of spiritual life.

…those who will purge themselves from these, they shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified. That’s the way we remain, as vessels of honour. Repentance, seeking to grow, conquering and overcome, staying in the fight, persevering.

…sanctified and meet. In other words, of use, useful. We’re of use, useful in a spiritual plane if we yield to what God desires to do in our life. But that’s by choice.

…and meet (useful) for the Lord, and prepared. Prepared, planning ahead, being prepared unto every good work. That’s what our life is about, this time of the Church, if you will, time period of the Church. That’s what it’s all about, preparing for what lies ahead of us.

2 Corinthians 9:6, we’ll end here. I’m about done. But this I say, whoever sows sparingly… Isn’t that an amazing thing; it’s a spiritual principle. It’s a choice. We decide. No one else decides these things for us. We’re the only one who decides how much we work, how much we apply ourselves to what God has given us.

Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. And that gets into a very dangerous area of life because if we start sowing sparingly it doesn’t, it’s not far from getting to a point where we just aren’t sowing anymore, we’re not growing anymore and are gone.

And whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. It’s just a law of God. Incredible! It’s about something spiritual and how we grow. And only we can determine that. That’s why it’s up to us how much you want to grow. Well, how close to God do you want to be, how much do you cry out to God for help, for strength, for His spirit every day of your life?

Let each give of themselves, of their ways. That’s what you have to give. That’s what we have to give up. It’s a matter of giving it up, giving up our way of doing things, of seeing things, of resisting. Because that’s the only thing that resists God – us. And so, we have to give up more of that.

Let each give as they purpose in their heart. So, that’s what it always comes back to. That’s why I love the series we’ve gone through when we talked about David, that kind of heart, after God’s own heart, that kind of mind, that kind of thinking, of something we want so we cry out to God for it. And God will bless us in that.

…not grudgingly, or of necessity. So, God gives us things at times that we need to do in order to be at one, to be more at peace within the Body, to have unity. And we can do it for the wrong reasons.

It’s like the Millennium. Some are going to conform because it’s not of them. It’s not their choice. It’s not what they want to do but to be a part they’ll conform.

And that happens a lot and has through the history of God’s Church, where some will conform to things because after a time they have friends, and these are the ones that… And they know that they have these friendships that are closer than physical family and they don’t want to lose that. But how do they have it? Because of God’s Church, because of God, because of God’s spirit. That’s what gives us this family. But you can’t have it if you oppose God. That’s why God won’t allow it.

Let each give as they purpose in their heart. Individual choices. …not grudgingly or of necessity. Not just because we’re asked to do or directed to do a certain thing but because we want it, because we want unity, we want us to be… We want to see things and understand things in a manner that God wants us to see them, to learn the weightier things, as we’ve gone through these series talking about what is really more important in all this.

It’s like the lipstick thing. It’s not about lipstick. It’s not about make-up. It’s far, far, far beyond that.

…not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver.  Awesome! Now, God is able to make all grace abound toward you. That’s what He wants. What an awesome thing, every favor. What could we want more than God’s favor? Blessings from God, God’s spirit, God’s mercy, God’s patience, all these things make up grace.

Now, God is able to make all grace abound toward you, so that you will always have what is sufficient, what is enough in everything. In this physical life to keep going forward, to keep going, to be strengthened, to be nurtured, to be encouraged with everything that we need to keep pursuing, persevering in this way of life.

…in order for you to abound toward every good work. It’s what it’s all about.