A New Mind

Wayne Matthews

November 12, 2022

The purpose of this sermon is to consider the process of the transformation of our thinking, and the title of the sermon is A New Mind.

God has revealed much to His people, and one of the things that He has revealed is that we all need to think differently. Which is an amazing thing, thinking differently. But there’s also another aspect to it that God has revealed that once we are changed to spirit, which is His desire and ours, that we have a new mind.

Now, to grasp that mind is an incredible thing, and to a degree, it’s very difficult for us as humans to grasp a mind that does not think in a judgmental or a bad way, to think love. Now, I’ve tried to think what it would be like not to sin, not to say the wrong thing about anybody else, and to think love, and it’s not long to realize that it’s impossible to think that way. It’s very difficult because there are always things that agitate, different personalities or whatever. God doesn’t operate like that. His mind is a mind of love, and that’s our goal. The only way we’re going to fully achieve it is that we’re changed to spirit and then we’ll have a mind that won’t be selfish.

Now, that is almost impossible to imagine because the mind we have, which is also a very difficult thing for the natural mind to consider, is that we have a mind like Satan. Now, we can say that, but the reality is deep, deep down, whether we really believe that. That’s a difficult thing. Because personally, it’s difficult to acknowledge that I have a mind like Satan thinks. Selfish. Totally selfish. “You’re selfish, and it’s a mind of Satan.” That’s tough.

So, we’re all at different levels to come to understand that that’s our natural mind and that’s the problem we have. The good news is that there can be a transformation. If you’re called or awakened to that transformation it can happen. The most important part of that is that we enter the battle and that we continue. And yes, we will fail.

For me, it’s more difficult. My mouth gets me into a lot of trouble. I’ll say a lot of things that I shouldn’t say, and I am aware of that. I’m fully aware that I say a lot of things and sometimes with my personality I jest with people. Generally, jesting is revealing a characteristic or a trait that they may have but it’s like a put-down. And personally, I’ve got to fight that. But I do enjoy it, so it’s difficult. But that’s a weakness I’m aware of and often say the wrong thing.

We were talking before, and one of the wonderful blessings in God’s Church is that we’re not supposed to take offense, therefore if I have offended anybody it’s your problem. So, you can use scripture any way you like, can’t you?

God has revealed that we will have a new way of thinking. We will think differently than we do now, and we won’t have the natural mind, “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and pride of life.” They will not exist. But it’s hard to imagine that that’s going to be the case, that we’re going to operate without that thinking. It’s a marvelous offer that God has offered us.

And it is an offer. We’ve been called or awakened to this opportunity. Now, in the end, the choice, God’s done His part and He says He will do His part, but it’s up to us what we will do.

By nature, we think selfishly. We love self. Only someone with God’s spirit will understand what we’re going to talk about today. If you were to turn around to someone in the world and say, “You love self,” well, their pride will deny it. So, we have to make sure that we say, “Well, I don’t want to love self.” That’s our battle. We do not want to love self, but by nature we love self; we’ll put self first. That’s just natural. That’s the way we are.

Once changed to spirit we will now no longer have the lusts or those desires of the flesh, the lust or the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life. Now, we all have those things. We all have pride. I have pride. You have pride. It’s natural. If we say we don’t have pride, we have pride. By saying we don’t have pride, we’re just revealing we actually have it. Because God says we have it.

Now, I want to read Truth 56 and go through that. This is a truth that can only be understood if a person has God’s holy spirit. Because somebody reading this will see the academic side of it but can’t comprehend what we’re really going to talk about today.

56 (35) Through the power of the holy spirit, Almighty God will “dwell” IN His Family into everlasting life…

This is talking about a mind. Because God’s mind is God’s holy spirit. It’s the power of God, and we will have that, and therefore, we’ll think like God. God can’t think negatively. God can’t think sin. God thinks love, and it’s hard to grasp it but that’s what we’ll be like all the time. So, the aspect of who we are will be there but our mind and our thinking and the words, everything we do and say will be different than we are today.

…and they will always dwell IN Him.

Exactly the same mind, full unity, and in agreement. Now, it’s interesting that the issues that have been addressed by God’s prophet in the Church are actually very similar to the make-up thing. But when you stop and think about it it’s about unity. Now, what’s unity? Unity is about agreement in thinking, the same thinking. So, if we’re in unity of doctrine we have the same thinking.

We know our minds have to be transformed. We have to think differently over time, which is about repentance; therefore, our life in the Church is about this thinking differently. It’s a process from “here” to “here” to get where God desires He wants to give us, which is this new mind… a new mind to think differently.

Now, that is exciting! I find it. It’s so exciting that “Wayne” as he is with his jesting will not be done for the wrong reason. The motive and intent is right. Because sometimes you can jest with somebody, but you mean it. You understand what I’m talking about. Another time you can jest because you’re trying to draw closer to the person.

There are different ways of thinking because it’s all about the intent of why you’re doing it. It’s going to go on for a bit longer because it is a process of thinking. It’s the way we think. But I look forward to the day that we all think differently, and we’re in total unity.

So, if you take the injection, for example, this was all about unity of spirit. It’s not about needles, it’s not about vaccines. It’s actually about unity of doctrine, unity of mind, it’s the transformation of the mind. And some, it’s more difficult than others. Some things are easier than others. But that’s just one aspect of it. There’s much more.

My history in the Church is that people, in the end, have issues with lots of things, but in the end, they’ll either look to a person, sometimes it can be me, that I’m the problem why they’re leaving the Church, or it’s doctrine or it can be another minister. But there’s a reason. But that’s not the reason.

The reason is they’re not in unity. They don’t have God’s spirit anymore. Because if we have God’s spirit we come into unity of doctrine. “Let this mind be in you which is in Christ Joshua.” It’s the same mind – God’s mind, the word of God made flesh. The same mind. Thinking differently.

Therefore, that’s why we wouldn’t bother to try to say to anybody the things we believe. How is it possible that they could even begin to understand? We were talking before. I once resigned to someone and he said to me, “You’re being brainwashed.” And I said, “Uh huh, yeah.” Because that’s what’s actually happening! Our minds are being washed clean. It’s a wonderful thing. We think differently.

After a while, you realize there is absolutely no point in talking to someone else about God’s truth because they can’t understand. It’s not possible. It’s a spiritual matter, a spiritual matter they can’t understand. So, why bother? Why bother? Hence, of course, we don’t proselyte. What’s the point? They can’t understand because they’ve not been given the gift of God’s holy spirit to understand at this point.

Continuing on with Truth 56:

This will be accomplished through the power of God’s holy spirit that emanates from God and it will never cease to be “coming into” the lives of all those who are in the God Family.

Isn’t that amazing? That’s what we desire. Yet we often don’t realize (or forget) that’s what God desires. His overall desire, which is love—it’s the commandments, everything is about love—is that He desires to share what He is, that we have, and we’re offered it. Us here, and some listening, have been offered that very gift.

Now, if we could at least begin to comprehend it. Seven, eight billion people in the world and we have something that comes from God, which is called the truth, and how much we appreciate it varies on different levels. But it’s a staggering, staggering thing what we have been offered.

I mentioned talking to different people, you realize what we have been offered, in the future someone will turn around and say, “You mean you were offered that at that time and you what? You neglected such a great salvation? What were you thinking? What were you thinking?” The reason is because they’re not totally involved in unity of doctrine. They don’t really believe it. They’re believing something else.

But what a wonderful opportunity we have. Almighty God, the Creator of the universe, owes us nothing, has offered us salvation, to have this new mind. So our life is about this transformation of the mind that takes time. Some things are slower than others. I can guarantee you; some things are really slow. That’s just the way it is because of backgrounds, of the way we think, and the way we respond to things. So, everyone is different, but we all have agreed that we’re entering this battle. We know that every day there’s a battle. And yes, we will all fall because we have “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and pride of life,” because that mind in us at the moment is mainly driven by satanic thinking.

How many people would take that do you think in the world? “You think like Satan.” “Yeah, okay. You’re in a cult!” “Yeah, that’s right.” How blessed are we to be called to be here? It’s just words. You can’t explain what’s been offered to us really. You can’t explain it to anyone other than in the Church. We’re all the same. We’re all elated that we have this opportunity, and we’ll all go through stages of growth and low levels, high levels, and overcoming and not overcoming.

One thing that we always default back to? Selfishness. We all default to that. Every single person defaults to it. Just depends on the situation or circumstance or the pressure, but we default to that, the person we really are.

Once begotten of God’s holy spirit, the flow of the holy spirit can be suppressed and completely removed (cut-off) from the begotten person’s life.

Because we’ve been begotten of God’s holy spirit, not yet born. Mr. Armstrong went into that a lot. So, what an opportunity. We are begotten. Now, there are terms that are used in the Bible that we, and I say “we” because generally we don’t think about it, but we are begotten sons (man and woman), sons of God. They’re just words almost. But they shouldn’t be just words. They should be a lot more.

Begotten sons of God! It’s just staggering if we think about it. We’re begotten sons of God. Now, we’re not lifting ourselves up. The glory all goes to God because He decided (and God can’t make a mistake), to call you and me.

I was talking to someone before, “I’m sure God makes a mistake,” because how can you ever be worthy of a calling or an awakening? How is that possible? It’s not, really, when you think about what we really are. But God in His mercy said, “No, this is what I’m going to do,” and this is the opportunity that’s before us, begotten sons of God.

Now, we don’t tell anybody that, go out to the street and say, “I’m a begotten son of God,” because people think you’re nuts, and you belong to a cult.

So, once begotten, it can be removed. We can have the impregnation of God’s holy spirit, but because of our nature, which we all have, it’s all identical, it’s those three main points, one aspect of those will pop up, and yes, we can cut ourselves off from the flow of God’s holy spirit and we will rely on self again. We’ll become very self-reliant.

One thing in my life I realize, unfortunately or fortunately, I’m not sure, could be good, could be bad, is that I use measures. So, prayer life is one measure of self-reliance. So, if a person (talking to myself as well), goes all day without prayer, what is it they’re relying on? Self. Self-reliant. Because they obviously think they don’t need God in their life. Now, we all go through different stages. Sometimes we pray more, and sometimes we pray less.

Now, fasting is similar. The amount a person will fast often depends on whether they see themselves as they really are. Now, if a person doesn’t see themselves as they really are, “lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,” their fasting will be reduced because there is no need to fast, is there? Because “I’m doing pretty well. I don’t need to draw close to God at all.”

But if we really understood it we’d be fasting a lot more because we would see self and know self and realize how self-reliant we really, really, really are. We’re self-reliant by nature. That’s just natural, to be self-reliant. So, we can be cut off from God’s holy spirit.

God dwells (abides, lives) IN the life of a spirit-begotten person (a person with the holy spirit) and they, therefore, dwell IN Him.

Now, how exciting is that? That goes back to this new mind. So, we can only have a new mind, a different way of thinking if we have God’s holy spirit. And it is by choice because God can do His aspect, His part, call us, we can be baptized, forgiveness of sin, and we can rise up, as it is, and live a new life which is reliant more on God than on self, and we still have self there, but we become more reliant on God, so we talk to God about lots of things in life. We can talk to God about any aspect of our life and God won’t be bored with it because He called us for a purpose, which is to give us this new mind.

Because when you look out about a body, yes we have bodies that break down and get old, and yep, we forget things (What did I just say?), no, we forget things, that’s part of life. But the body is not important. The mind is what’s important, that up there. But we know we can’t tell other people that that’s the most important thing in life. It’s not about the house or the car or the job. Really, it’s about this, the way we think and whether or not we’re choosing when we hear things that God gives us, that we choose to follow God, whether or not we really want to live what God places in the Church. That’s all about unity again. Same thing.

So, once a person dwells in God, which means we come into agreement with God, God dwells in us, we dwell in Him? By being unity with Him, by agreeing with God. We don’t disagree.

There are always things that come into the Church that will test the Church. Always. Always, always, always. Our life is about tests and trials, what will you do? Now, understanding that often, I know I have thought what would I do in this environment and we believe that’s what we will do.

For example, we have an airplane crash, and it lands in the mountains and it’s full of snow and there is nothing to eat, but there are dead bodies around. Now, we would all say, “There is no way I’m going to eat human flesh!” We are convicted of that. Let’s hope we’re not put in that environment to find out what we really, really will do. Now, I’m using an extreme example there but often in life we’re put into environments that will challenge us because God wants to give us that experience and see what choices we make.

Now, we don’t always make the right choices. The wonderful thing about things is we can repent and be convicted that we’re not going to do that again. Often that environment will come back up to see whether what we said and thought is actually true.

Now, a lot of people are tested about the Sabbath. You can go years about being tested about the Sabbath and will you work on the Sabbath. Some are convicted, “I’ll never do it.” After two or three years the pressure gets so much and “I’ll just do it once.” But these things have happened.

So, we’re here and we’re going to have tests. No matter what in our life, we will be tested. It’s a given. It’s a guarantee. The beauty of it, the beauty of it is that test is spiritual. Because often we just look at it naturally and look at it, it’s a physical test. It’s not a physical test, it’s a spiritual one. Because that’s what God is interested in, the way we think. Using His, God’s spirit, becoming reliant on Him to get us through that environment, that’s what God wants. Then we can have a new mind. Wouldn’t that be wonderful, to have a new mind? It’d be so exciting.

Through the power of the holy spirit, the life (nature, truth, Word, way of life) of God begins to dwell in a begotten person’s life (in the spirit essence given to the human mind) …

So, we have a human mind that naturally thinks satanic, selfish. Then God gives us the opportunity to think differently. Now, the only way we’re going to find out whether we think differently is to be put in environments to see what choices we’re going to make. Are we going to think differently? So, we will be tested in certain things, and as we go longer and longer in the Church certain tests disappear.

When we look at tests when somebody new comes into the Church, God gives them that opportunity. To us, that trial seems so easy. “That’s not a trial!” But to them, it’s a trial! But if you’ve been in the Church a long time you think, “That’s not really a trial. I’ll tell you about a trial.” It’s minor in comparison, true?

A lot of those things are not. So, it’s about sometimes for example, how is it possible that two people in God’s Church could be at loggerheads (argumentative) about a matter? How is that possible that two people in God’s church can be argumentative, at loggerheads? Well, it’s possible and we know why. True? Somebody is not relying on God’s spirit. Someone is letting the natural carnal mind dominate their life. We won’t go into pride and all that. But that’s what it's about.

Because the only reason two people in God’s Church would be at loggerheads about something is one lacks humility. Someone is not demonstrating humility, which is God’s mind, God’s way of thinking, that new mind we want. No, it’s full-on satanic, selfish, pride. That’s why two people are at loggerheads.

So, the next time we ever get into any type of disagreement or at loggerheads with anybody, if that’s the case, one of us should pull back and go, “I am not demonstrating humility. I am not demonstrating the mind of God.” Because that’s the truth. That’s it. Now, pride will get in the way and we won’t admit it. “The other person is not demonstrating humility!” But we know we don’t look outward, we look inward. The problem is you and the problem is me. “I’m the problem.” So, it’s pretty hard sometimes.

That’s the truth, and with God’s spirit, we can see it. Because if we don’t have God’s spirit we can’t see it, it’s not possible. But we know we’ve got this aspect of our mind, these three main points that are highlighted. It’s deeper than that, but they’re the three things that one of those three things is driving something in our thinking.

So, by the power of God’s holy spirit that helps us to “change the very way one thinks and lives.” Isn’t that exciting? Now, it is so wonderful to see that that process is happening here today, because you wouldn’t be here unless God desired you to be here and that you have chosen to be here. So, that’s already starting, it’s helping to change the way one thinks and lives, which is you’ve got to demonstrate it.

Because a lot of things in life, the demonstration of God’s holy spirit needs to take place. It’s got to be demonstrated. It’s no point thinking it. Like, I can think there and say, “Well, I love everybody in the Church, but I’m not going to talk to anyone.” We have to demonstrate it. True? It’s many things in our life, and we don’t realize it.

Now, loving the brethren can be difficult. It can. Not to say you’re the problem. Someone like me, it can be because we can rub each other up the wrong way and we can think negative thoughts about other people. I’m guilty of all those things, but I realize that it takes time to love brethren. It does. We’re hopefully going to get time (we’re probably not going to get there), but the way that we love one another is so important to God.

To summarize it: God, the Almighty Creator decided to call this person, a begotten son of God. And he called me. Yet I choose not to talk to the begotten son of God that God chose to be in His Family, but I choose also not to talk to that person.

Isn’t there something wrong? So, something has got to change. I have to change. You have to change. We have to change. We’ve got to change the way we think.

So, if there is someone, which is always going to exist, that is more difficult to communicate with or we say, use the term, “Rubs you up the wrong way?” Yep. I’m not sure what the right way is, but rubs you up the wrong way, the onus is on the individual, “me,” to sacrifice because this is somebody that God, the Almighty Creator decided to call or awaken to place in the Body of Christ at this time. Who am “I” to go against what God is doing? It’s just insanity that we would do it. But guess what? We do it. We do it! It’s sometimes unknowingly, but we do it.

So, loving the brethren, God puts a lot of emphasis in His own word about love, to love the brethren. But it’s not easy. It’s not easy. It’s not meant to be easy. We’re all different. We’re human, and that’s the problem. We look at it on a human level rather than on a spiritual level. We’re part of one Body, the Body of Christ. Christ is the head of the Church. God has called us, given us over to Christ to bring us to this point where God can turn around through Christ and say, “Here is a new mind with a new body.” The body is spirit, fantastic, but this new mind that thinks differently all the time. How wonderful is that, to think love?

I’ve tried. I can’t get there mentally. To be able to think love all the time, like all the time, it’s not possible for me. I realize why. At some point, to be able to move around and to deal with other people in love all the time and never have a bad thought or never have a bad word, wouldn’t that be exciting? Like, for me, it’s like “Whew!” Like, “Yeah, I can’t sin!” That’s going to be fantastic!

But at the moment, guaranteed at some point during the day, we’re going to act selfishly because we love self. That’s just natural. So, it’s a wonderful thing that we know this, and we understand it, and it’s something that we can work on.

Continuing on:

This power, however, is suppressed and sometimes cut-off because of sin, as God will not dwell in sin.

That’s the dangerous part. Because sometimes we sin but we’re not aware that we have sinned. It’s not as obvious. Then it may be later on we go, “Ah, that’s right, I shouldn’t have said that” or “I shouldn’t have done that,” or “I shouldn’t have thought that.” Then we can repent. God says He will forgive.

Now, this is an incredible thing. God’s desire for us to be in His Family is so great that He gave us Joshua the Messiah as a sacrifice to cover sin, and if we repent, if we choose to repent, He will forgive, but not only that (He’s not human), He’ll forget.

Isn’t that staggering? But we forgive, but we don’t forget. Because that’s natural. The not forgetting… There’s a wisdom in that, of course. There’s a point where we can forgive and forget but we still can be wise to remember, well, that person has that proclivity, therefore, I need to be cautious. There’s wisdom in that as well.

But our sins can be forgiven. So, it’s a wonderful thing. We can continue to be in the process of transforming our mind, which is the reason we’re in the Body of Christ. It’s about the transformation of the mind. There is no other reason you’re really here or I’m here other than God has offered us something according to His plan, and therefore, that’s what I choose. That’s what you choose. By being here you’ve chosen, you want this new mind as well. Well, God is offering it. The only thing that can go wrong is that we choose something different than what God has offered.

Now, when you think about it, it’s insanity to not choose what God is offering. It boggles the mind. It boggles my mind that that’s a possibility. But I also know it is a possibility, that you get into trials and different situations that the possibility is we might make the wrong choice at some time.

God won’t dwell in sin. So, the gift of repentance is what is needed, and that’s available to us. That’s available to us.

Once given spirit life in a resurrection from death (or resurrection from physical life) to spirit life, this process of God dwelling in a “born” person’s life…

Now, this is something we desire, to be born, born again. We want to be out of this body with the aches and pains. I don’t know whether you’ve got them; I’ve got them, the aches and pains, which we don’t talk about much because that would be selfish to tell everybody my problems. “Now, let me tell you…”

I’m going to tell you something. I get spam calls all the time and so they normally start off and they say, “Hello, Mr. Matthew,” because they can’t say, “Matthews.” “…Matthew,” and some say, “Hello, Wayne.” I say, “Hi.” And they say, “How are you?” I say, “Well, let me tell you…” Because I know he’s not interested in how I am, so I said, “Listen, my knee, I’ve been having all this trouble with my knee.” The next thing you hear, clunk, they hang up on you.

So, when anyone asks you “How you going?” Say, “Listen, I want to tell you how I’m really going.” No one is interested. That’s just a throwaway term. They say, “Hi! How you going, Wayne?” “Uh, fine!” you know. “Wonderful.” But it’s not true, is it? “I’m not doing fine at all. I’ve got all these aches and pains. Let me tell you…” Well, that’s one way I get rid of spam calls. I don’t get as many, but I still get them, and I don’t have an amazon prime account and they don’t take $98 or $99.88 out of my account. Oh, dear.

So, we’ve been offered and we’re going to be given if we choose it, a new mind once we’re changed to spirit. So, we’re no longer begotten, we are born again. Isn’t that incredible? But it’s the mind that’s the important aspect of life.

… this process of God dwelling in a “born” person’s life (no longer begotten), and they in Him, [which is about total unity of thinking] will never cease nor be interrupted…

Whereas at the moment it is. It will never cease. Never sin again, which is to never be selfish again.

…but will be perpetual and continuous into everlasting life. Each member who is born into God’s Family has independent reasoning and thought…

Wouldn’t it be great to think correctly all the time? I don’t know whether you can go there. My mind can’t go there. It’s such a wonderful thing to think that we cannot think negatively or wrongly about any situation. No matter what environment we are in we wouldn’t act selfishly because there is no selfishness in God, so we won’t be selfish. It’s incredible!

… but each is perfectly united in purpose, will, and one way of life through the power of the holy spirit that will forever abide in them (which continuously emanates from God—who is the source).

So, it is God’s plan. We’re only here today because God allowed it, and God desires us to be in His Family if now we choose to follow in unity. That’s what it’s all about. It’s simply about unity. So, sometimes new truth or different administrative decisions are made. The most important thing we can remember – this is about government and unity. It’s not about the way we think or what we’ve read. This is about God’s holy spirit, and if we have God’s holy spirit what will we respond to? God’s holy spirit. Because it’s God’s holy spirit that’s giving it. So, what this is saying is that that’s what it’s about, unity of mind. The way we think is so important.

One thing in life that is guaranteed is that everybody is going to be tried and tested in a lot of things. That’s just life. I will tell you; the person will know who it is, but there’s a person that has gone through some severe trials in life and they’re looking for some guidance. Fortunately, or unfortunately, my response is “It’s the best thing that could ever happen to you.”

Now, the reason a trial is the best thing that ever happens to you, or to me, is that it’s a great opportunity to grow spiritually. That’s why it’s the best thing that ever happened to us. So, no matter what happens in life, it can be about death, illness, financial, everything, anything, it’s still the best thing that could happen to somebody in the Body of Christ because if we look at it spiritually we will realize this is an opportunity to think differently, to respond differently to the environment.

It's like turning the other cheek, isn’t it? You get knocked down one way. Well, if you’re thinking spiritually you’d say, “This is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Got punched in the eye. It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Want to hit the other one?” No, only joking. But you understand what I’m talking about.

Any trial that any of us are in, no matter what it is, it is good for us if we turn to God, if we look at it spiritually. Sometimes things happen in people’s lives, and they’ll say, “Oh, you know, it’s terrible.” If we’re not involving God or not looking to God for the answers or not growing spiritually from it, changing the way we think because we’ll naturally think selfishly, then we’ll naturally think the trial is the worst thing that could ever happen! That’s natural.

But if we were to turn around spiritually and think, “This is an opportunity that I can now change the way I think. I can change the way I respond to somebody.” So, if someone walks up and says, “You’re an idiot,” you can go, “Yeah.” They won’t know what to do. But, because that’s fine if that’s what you think. “You’re in a cult.” “Yeah, that’s fine. If that’s what you want to think, it’s your problem, the way you think, but that’s what you want to think, that’s fine.”

So, we can see we can turn things that look bad, that are trials, into something positive if we turn to God and if we look at it on a spiritual level.

Now, it’s not always easy because a lot of this is about our intent. Well, I know that the vast majority of God’s people look at everything about intent. I believe that. That no matter what happens that their intent was right. Even though something may not necessarily work out right, not always, other people’s intent may be to harm or to elevate self.

Pride can be a problem where you can look up and raise yourself up, which everybody has that potential. A matter of whether you pull it down and think realistically and to meditate on it, the greatness of God, a spirit being that has lived forever, planned for a long period of time (which we don’t comprehend), planning all of this to have a Family, and we’re in this little weeny dot of time when you consider time either way. Doesn’t exist. But here we are in this little dot, and we’ve got this potential. The most important thing is that we change the way we think because we want a new mind.

That’s what God wants, and He’s given us that opportunity. So, how incredible is that? You can’t explain that to anybody else, but that’s why we’ve been called or awakened, for that very purpose, to change the way we think.

Often I’d use a joke about how you get God’s people all together and one of the problems if they’re all using God’s spirit they’ll say, “You go first.” And you say, “No, you go first.” “No, you go first.” “You go first.” “You go first.” And no one moves.

In Australia, at the Feast we have a meeting, we all meet together at 6:00 so nobody is missing fellowship. So, you can turn up and stand there and the most difficult thing with God’s people that I’ve found is you get there and say, “We’re going to a restaurant. Where are we going,” and everybody is mumbling, and ten minutes later you say, “Where are we going?” There is more mumbling.

So, in the end, you just start walking. About a quarter past six you start walking and everyone will follow. You just keep walking, and everyone follows no matter where you go. So, in the end, I’ve learned after many years, I’ve worked out I go up to people and say, “Listen, Peter, what are you going to eat?” He says, “I’m going to eat Chinese.” You say, “You go to Chinese, all right?” You go to someone else and say, “What are you going to eat? And he says, “I’m going to eat Turkish.” “You eat turkey, go to turkey.” So, now you can go over and say, “Okay, anyone wants Chinese, go with Peter…” So at least the group will all break up because God’s people, it’s like standing at the door, true? “You go first.” “No, you go first.” “You go first.” “No, you go first.” No one will go.

Well, that’s our mindset. We want to sacrifice self. We want to put others first and let them go. But someone has to go first, true? So, you can have the indication of it, but in the end, someone’s got to make a decision and lead and head off.

So, we have opportunity to sacrifice the way we think, and it takes a battle. It’s not going to come naturally. God will give us that thought process, but we still have to choose whether or not we’re going to do what that thought is. That’s about sacrificing self.

The end of that statement says:

It is God “forever dwelling” in each member that makes the Family of God a reality in “one” perfectly united way.

So, it’s about unity of spirit.

Philippians 2:5. We’ll just refer to that one, you can look it up. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Joshua. That’s a big challenge because Christ could not sin. He had a mind that didn’t sin, but he had a human body. So much we don’t understand about that. But his thinking was so different than those around him.

Now, that should ring a bell because we have an aspect, a small aspect of God’s thinking, therefore, Christ operated in an environment where nobody had God’s thinking, until the day of Pentecost. So, he’s dealing with people that were selfishly motivated in everything. And I mean everything! Even if it looked good it still had a selfish motivation, which is sometimes difficult to comprehend, but that’s the truth. Because the natural mind can’t do anything but for selfish reasons.

Well, here is Christ in an environment where everyone is like that, but he thought differently. He thought like God all the time. So, imagine what that’s like.

Well, we should know what that’s like. It can be difficult. True? Because we have an aspect where we think differently and certain things that we would say, and they wouldn’t understand a word of it. Should ring a bell because Christ said a lot of things and they would say, “What’s he talking about? What’s he talking about he’s going away, and you know the way. You’re talking gobbledygook.” I’m sure they thought he was in a cult. That’s how we are, true? We can’t talk to anybody in the world about spiritual matters because they think you’re talking gobbledygook. It’s “let this mind be in you.”

Well, we have started the process. We have a little element of it. We have God’s holy spirit so we have an aspect of God’s mind, therefore, we should understand what it was like for Christ, in a way, because it should be happening to us. People will not understand us, and we shouldn’t expect them to understand because why? They don’t have the power from God to understand.

But we think differently, and it’s a wonderful thing. Chris and myself were talking. You get to a point where you don’t want to be associated with anything in the world because it’s just crazy. So, you don’t want that. Then you realize you want something else but nobody else knows about it, you can’t talk about it other than with God’s people, so here you are you’re isolated, and you feel out of place.

How do you think Christ felt? He had a different motivation. He knew why he was there. But we know why we’re here. Isn’t it incredible? We know, God has given us to know why we are here. We are here because God wants us in His Family. He’s called us for a purpose, and I’m saying in God’s Family at a point in time. What that point of time is for everyone is going to be different. We’re not sure. Could be 144,000. There are others.

Hopefully, we don’t have to live twice. Some of us would say, “I don’t want to do it all again.”

But we know why we’re here. We’re here to think differently and we know the only way is to turn to God through the power of God’s holy spirit so that we can think differently, and it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. It doesn’t matter whether they say we’re in a cult. It doesn’t matter they say, you know, “You’re brainwashed.” It actually is all meaningless because one day it’s going to happen to them, God willing. One day they’re going to go, “Ah.”

We have two children that are not part of the Body of Christ and one day, God willing, they’re going to turn around and go, “Ah, now I know why you were crazy.” Because it’s crazy to them. That’s what we should expect. They should expect that because we are different. We are different.

I got to tell you, there’s a friend that turns up and he turned up with fish one time. He knows a little bit about history of the Church previously from a friend, and he said, “It’s clean, Wayne. It’s clean.” Now, his idea of clean and mine are two different. His idea of clean is you’ve taken scales off and cut the head off. “It’s clean.” Well. So, you’ve got to look up whether it’s clean or it’s not. So, he realizes some of those things, so he knows certain things.

He turned up the other day and he says, “Oh, when are you going to fill that hole in? You know what, it’s a nice day, why don’t you go and do it?” And I said, “It’s the Sabbath.” “Ah, that’s right.” He knows we’re weird, but he accepts it. It’s a wonderful thing. When someone accepts that you’re weird, that’s fine. That’s fantastic. I look forward to the day, God willing, that he has the opportunity to be called so that he can see and remember a lot of the things. He’ll realize, “Ah, they’re thinking differently than the way I used to think.” That’s the goal.

So, “Let this mind be in you which is also in Joshua the Messiah.” It’s a staggering thing but that potential we have, we’re going to have that exact same mind that he had when we’re changed to spirit, but in the interim, it’s a battle. There’s going to be a lot of battles. All our battles are going to be different. There are no two battles necessarily the same.

Our purpose in life now is to choose to think differently to the way we think naturally. Now, I put in there and underlined the word “choose,” because there is a choice. It’s like sitting in front of a computer knowing that the majority on the internet is driven by pornography, but for a male, in particular, to sit there and know there’s a choice to be made or not. But that is a choice. But it’s our choice, individual choice.

There are all types of things that a person can get on to, conspiracy theories and lots of different things. But it’s a choice to go that’s the choice. Am I going to read this garbage or not? Choice. Well, God willing, everybody here has made a choice not to go like that. Because, I mentioned someone before, just because somebody doesn’t talk about certain things doesn’t mean to say they don’t believe it.

So, a person can believe in conspiracy theories, or the injection is going to be like a chip in the mind; you can believe all these things and believe them, but don’t talk about them. So, what’s that really saying? They’re not in unity. Because God has clearly told us conspiracy theories are a load of garbage. It’s His plan. It’s not about what men can do. God can do whatever He decides. He’s got a plan and it’s perfect. That’s the truth. Conspiracy theories are irrelevant.

Do we love the brethren or don’t we? Action required. This is not hard. This is a spiritual matter. It’s not about a needle, is it? This is a spiritual matter. Do we love one another? Answer yes or no. That’s about as simple as it really gets.

Because it’s spiritual. All these issues are challenges for us, brethren, but they are spiritual in nature. They’re not physical. It’s not about needles. It’s not about what men can do. Because it’s what God allows to happen. But they’re all irrelevant. We know the plan of God. We know about Joshua the Messiah returning to this earth. The things we know and what God has given us is staggering. Just like that truth. Absolutely staggering.

Well, we know the purpose of life. It’s to change the way we think.

Romans 8:5. We’re going to look at some scriptures we know well but with this in mind. It’s about our minds. It’s not about our physical bodies, what size they are, how tall we are, how short we are. That’s all irrelevant in God’s plan of salvation. But it is about our mind and choices that it makes knowing that it’s satanic thinking from the beginning. Its foundation, the way it thinks, which is natural. So, we know those things about lusts, we know about pride, we demonstrate it, I demonstrate it. I have pride. I know I have pride. I don’t see all the pride that I have, and I do feel when it’s rising up and I do know when I’ve made a mistake, and I know that because of God’s holy spirit.

Otherwise, if I didn’t know I had pride I wouldn’t have God’s spirit. Because a person without God’s spirit doesn’t know that they have pride. You go to someone and say, “You’re full of pride.” “You’re joking. I’m not filled with pride, you big head.” Because they can’t see it. Whereas they’d say, “You’ve got a lot of pride.” You say, “Yep, got a lot of pride.” We all have it, but we struggle to admit we have it. But we do have it and that’s a battle for the rest of our life. I’m getting older, it’s coming to an end.

Romans 8:5—For those who live according to the flesh, which is this carnal mind of selfishness, set their minds on the things of the flesh. Now, this has been given to us by God as a warning about priorities. If you go back and look at some of the sermons we’ve had, it’s about what does this natural mind focus on?

So, if (remember that building the temple) the focus goes on over here to building our own house, building this and building that, and there is God’s creation, the temple, the spiritual temple which we are, here’s God’s creation, we neglect that, but we look over here and say, “Oh yeah, I’ve got this house and I need to add to this and I need a better job, I need…” Because the focus is no longer here, building the spiritual temple, which we are. We’re part of the temple. That’s what’s been offered.

So, our focus can be over here. Well, this is the natural mind. This looks at the flesh, looks at the physical things of life and they become the priority.

Now, when we look at idolatry, in the world people would say idolatry is to do with idols. We know that in God’s Church idols exist. Pride. I, me, Wayne, my idol is me. Your idol is you. Because we put it first. That’s natural. It’s going to be first. It’s what we pamper, it’s what we look after, and it’s about self. It’s my highest priority, my interest. That’s natural. Well, that’s what we have to fight. We understand that.

So, the mind of the natural mind goes to physical things, about jobs, etcetera, etcetera, and the neglecting of the building of the spiritual. That’s the biggest danger that we have, is to neglect the building of the spiritual, and it’s hard work. It is work. But it is work because it’s about here. It’s not about drifting. It’s about here and its work, and it is hard. Sometimes it’s very hard.

But those who live according to the spirit, the things of the spirit. So, the most important things, the highest priority in our life is what God is giving us – God’s Word. That’s the highest priority we have. That’s what we want in our life and that’s what dominates our thinking.

Now, often walking down the street, I often think it’s fortunate that everybody in the street doesn’t know what I’m thinking because we often think about spiritual things of God, the temple, and what it’d be like, and I’ve got to overcome this. Incredible things! I know and you know from experience that the natural mind thinks about nothing, really, other than what pleases self. It’s just, well, I’ve often said men don’t think until they’re 34. I mean don’t think at all.

Now, I would apologize to all those under 34, but I’m a man and I’m older than that and men don’t think at all. It’s to do with selfishness. I look at my marriage and everything else, what I did with childrearing and that, and was called at 31 or so. But it wasn’t until 34 that I went, ah, I’ve got responsibilities. Because other than that it was all me. It was all my life and didn’t matter about everything else. That’s just human nature.

Verse 6—For to be carnally minded is death. Now, that should sound out to us, brethren, it really should. That should sound out to us that if we do not choose to fight we will die, and that’s a simple choice. We’ve been called to fight, now choose to fight. That’s all we have to do, remember, “I choose to fight.” Don’t always win, fail often, say bad things often, do the wrong thing, repent, and move forward, and learn from it. Don’t do it again. Don’t be presumptuous again. Don’t do ‘this’ again. Don’t do ‘that’ again. But that’s the process of life and you learn. True?

I know there’s really old people here, that they experience it, and you know. After a while, you don’t do the things that you did when you were 30, 40, 50. You just don’t do them and you don’t even think about doing them that way because through experience, life’s experience that God puts us through, we realize, ah, that’s not right. All those things that I’ve said and done, that’s not right and I need to change. The issue is stay in the battle. Stay in the battle for the mind.

I remember once Johnny said, I think there was a sermon entitled about The Battle of the Mind. The battle is for the mind because Satan’s way of selfishness is natural and it’s easy for him to broadcast something because we’re tuned into that. We’re tuned into selfishness. That’s just natural. Well, we’ve got that mind, he broadcasts, and we give into that. But now we have God’s holy spirit that we can identify it and see it and say, “Ah, hang on. Stop. That’s the wrong way to think,” or “That’s the wrong way to speak.” “That’s the wrong way to do things. I need to do it differently.”

Now, we all make mistakes, and the beauty is we can repent to think differently. Over time, things that we did when we were younger don’t even enter the mind that you would ever do that that way. You just wouldn’t do it because you’re set in that particular way and no matter what happens, how many legs are cut off, and how many fingers they break, it makes no difference because my mind is set that’s what I’m going to do.

But there’s other aspects of our life that we haven’t been tested in yet. We don’t know. We think we know what we’re going to do. There’s aspects of things coming in time that we’re probably going to face that we think we know what we’re going to do but be ready. We’re probably going to be tested to see what we will do. Because there’s a big difference between what we think we’ll do and what we will do, but we can just set our minds and ask God’s help to get us through these environments.

…for to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life, and is added on there, and peace. Isn’t that incredible? In the first part, it says “carnally minded is death.” Well, there is no peace because there’s nothing. True? You won’t know you existed, it’s just nothing. But the God Family will live on and keep going but everything else, there’ll be nothing. There’ll be nobody sitting there thinking, “Oh, I could have done better.” No, there’s nothing, as if it never existed.

So, our opportunity is to have peace, which is to have true peace, be in Elohim. Because why? Why is there true peace? Because we all have the same mind. Isn’t that incredible? This new mind that thinks identically, which is to think love. And if we all think love what will there be? Peace. It’s a wonderful thing. Who wouldn’t want that? Who wouldn’t want that, to be able to live in peace? It’s like, phew, if there was only peace, eh?

Because the carnal mind is enmity, which is hostile, it’s against God. Because it can’t be for God. It’s satanic. It’s selfish. It’s the complete opposite. It’s against God’s way. The only way a person can live God’s way is through the power of God’s holy spirit which we have been offered. We’ve been given through baptism and laying of hands, we have God’s holy spirit, it’s impregnated in our mind so we can think differently, so we can have an aspect of a new mind now, we can be in unity now. But we have to choose it. It’s not about our view or our opinion.

We’ve been offered this mind. Our natural mind is not subject to God’s law in any way because it’s totally selfish, the natural mind, nor indeed can be. It’s just not possible. So, anybody that keeps God’s law as far as the 10 Commandments on a physical level it doesn’t mean to say they’re in unity of mind. The keeping of the Sabbath day, for example. They’re not in unity with God because there’s much, much more to it. It’s about intent. It’s about a lot of things. But we need God’s spirit.

Verse 8—So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Now, imagine if you went to a Catholic (I must admit I was), and say to them, “So, then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” “Well, what do you mean not please God? Everything I do is about pleasing God. I run through that rosary that quickly that I must please God.” But we know that our natural mind cannot please God. Why? Because it’s not able to. It’s hostile. It’s against God’s way. It’s not in unity with God at all.

But you are not in the flesh but in the spirit if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. Whew! Exciting. How many people have the spirit of God? So, how many people is God working with at this point of time? In the aspect of the world, it’s minute. We should be so—and I’m not going to use the word “proud”—but we should be so humble that God chose us. There are days you think, “Why me?” I know there are people out there that would do a lot better job at overcoming than I would. It’s in their traits.

So, you think, why me? But that’s God’s decision. I’m not going to argue with Him. It’s God’s decision. He called you. He called me. It’s just we should be in awe of that, we really should, that it’s not about being proud about it or anything, it should make us so humble that, like, who are we, really? If you knew Wayne Matthews at the age up until about 31, 32, I don’t like him. He was horrible. He was really horrible. But you realize in time he’s improved by about 10%. Because it takes time.

It’s hard work and there are lots of times that I know I should be working harder, just like you know you should be working harder at what it is. We can all do better. We can all work harder, true? We know that. Because that’s just the way we are. We default to the natural carnal mind.

So, if we have God’s spirit dwelling in us… Now if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he is not His. Now, imagine that! Imagine not having God’s spirit. I think it’s in a psalm. Don’t quote me on that. But where it says, I think it’s David that says, “Don’t take Your holy spirit from me.” That would be the worst possible thing that could happen to us, that God would take His holy spirit from us. Because without God’s spirit, what have we got? We’ve got Wayne Matthews 31 years of age. That’s what we’ve got. Totally and utterly selfish. Not knowing it but selfish. That’s not a justification, it’s just a fact. I did not know I was so selfish because I wasn’t able to see how selfish I was. If someone had come up and told me I was selfish I would have said, “You’re lying there. You obviously can’t see straight.”

Verse 10—And if Christ is in you, the body is dead… So, this mind, that we’re getting rid of it. We’re not under the death penalty anymore because we’re getting rid of it. …because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. So, we have God’s holy spirit. We have access to it. We have access to the creator of the universe.

A lot of people don’t have any access to anything. They’re just living a natural carnal life. So, here we are. I’ve often thought, how do you explain to someone if for some reason I was resurrected into the Hundred Years? How do you explain to somebody that I had access to the Creator of the universe who created everything and has this marvelous plan about salvation for mankind, that He would build a family from mankind that had satanic minds, and then someone comes up and says, “Wayne, you had access to God 24 hours a day, 7 days a week every year for your whole time from when you were called, and you neglected it. Explain that to me.”

What answer are we going to give? “Well, you see…” No, the fact is I neglected so great a salvation. I neglected what God gave me the opportunity to. I neglected it. I went back to the carnal natural mind, and I chose not to be in unity of spirit. I chose it. But it was offered to me. Now I’ve got to do it another hundred years. And if I did it once, will I do it again? Because a hundred years is a long, long time. I’m speaking from experience. I’m nearly 70. That’s gone quick.

But imagine a hundred years where the truth is there and there’s only one Church and how do we explain that after a second opportunity being awakened, how do you explain to somebody in the hundred years that you neglected it twice? I don’t think I’d even try in this current attitude. But you’d have to. You’d have to say something. Well, the answer is you neglected your calling, your awakening to salvation. A simple, “I am guilty. It was me. It wasn’t God; it was me. I did it. I neglected my salvation. I neglected my calling. It was me.” That’s the answer. I’ve thought about that answer.

Verse 10—But if Christ is in you the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit of life because of righteousness…But if the spirit of Him (God) who raised Joshua from the dead dwells in you, which it does, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His spirit which dwells in you. Pshew! Isn’t that staggering? That’s the outcome of this battle for this new mind. But we have the potential now to have an aspect of that new mind. But the most important thing is to demonstrate it. It's no use having a mind that so-called loves the brethren. And that is love, what we think, God’s spirit. We should choose it and God will do the works. It’s God that does the works. We’ve just got to give in to what God is giving us, which is same as sermons.

So, mankind has not been called to see spiritual matters. End of story. No debate. God has not called those people to see spiritual matters so the logical conclusion of that (I don’t like using the word logical), but the conclusion of that is we should not expect them to do anything other than be selfish. Just don’t tell them about it. Because they’re not being called to be anything else. But we have. We’ve been called to this new mind, the potential.

2 Corinthians 4:3—But even if our gospel is veiled, which means it’s hidden. You know, the gospel about the Kingdom of God and the potential to enter Elohim is hidden from people. We would not tell anybody that our goal is to enter Elohim, to be like God. “Sure.” Why bother? They can’t hear us anyway.

So, even though it’s veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. So, unless they are called to see they will perish. Because unless a person is called, receives the gifts of God’s holy spirit, in the Hundred Years receives it, implements the change in their life, they cannot enter Elohim. It’s not possible.

Same applies to us. We’re just forerunners. How blessed are we? We’re forerunners of what’s going to happen for the next 1,100 years. We’re forerunners. We have this opportunity and we do not want to be around during the 1,000 years or the 100 years trying to explain to people what we did wrong. Because, you know, you live into the thousand years, the beginning of it, will everybody necessarily continue on? History shows many are called and few are chosen.

That’s the history of the Church. What will happen in the thousand years and the hundred years? Will that principle apply, “Many are called, and few are chosen”? Well, we’ve got a natural mind and it takes a battle. There is no easy path for any of us to enter Elohim. It’s not just given, “Oh, yes, it’s automatic, you inherit eternal life once you die and go off to heaven.” That’s just not going to happen. It is a battle, and it will be given to those God chooses to give it to. Because it’s a free gift. God owes us nothing. We know that. True? All of us. God owes us not one single thing. We have a mind that is hostile against Him, but we’ve been called, which is an amazing thing. To be called is an amazing thing.

So, everybody that’s not called, they’re perishing. So, when you look at that there are two ways to look at it because the natural mind is actually perishing as it gets older. It perishes. Because the older a person can get the evil that can be built in the mind is there, so it’s been developed, and therefore, it’s harder. So, God could call that person, but it’s harder for an older person because they’re set in so many things that are against God’s spirit, it’s hard work. There is a lot more to overcome.

Whereas if a person is called when they’re 17, 18, it’s still difficult because there is still a lot wrong. So, all the babies that have died if they’re resurrected in the Hundred Years, how much easier is that going to be? Because the mind hasn’t gone through all this garbage that’s out here. (I nearly used another word then.) All the garbage that’s out here. Because that’s the danger of the world. It has so gone so far that it’s dangerous. It is very, very, very dangerous out there. And young kids, I feel for them in their phones and everything they have access to.

When I grew up years ago, this never existed, all this technology. I will explain in this sermon some people have desired a photo, and I explain something to them. It’s not being hard or cruel or anything like that, it’s just reality. If a photo is taken of God’s ministry, in particular, we need to be very careful that it never appears on the internet. The reason is that the technology has advanced so far that they can take the head of that person and put it into another body and put it in a position that would not be Godly. We don’t need that sort of garbage. Why? If we love one another we’d be very careful about what we distribute in emails. Photos. We need to be very careful because not everybody—big surprise—thinks like we do. We think differently.

But out there they don’t think about anything other than selfishness because that’s all they can do. So, a photo, if there is an opportunity to “destroy this cult,” what a way to do it. Get a photo, move the faces onto another body, and put it in an environment or situation that is evil. And we think, “Oh, they wouldn’t do that.” Really? Well, there is one particular photo on the internet of me and the two horns, they’re in the wrong position. And you think, well, how do you do that? Because you can do a lot with technology these days.

So, I just encourage brethren, be very careful about photos, particularly ministry. It applies to everybody. We need to be very, very careful. Because if we love one another, why would we distribute a photo that could cause an issue that’s not true? Well, if we love one another we’d be protecting them. We protect children. We love one another. Why would we even think about harming another member of the Body of Christ in any way? Why would we?

Well, unfortunately, technology has advanced so far that we need to be very, very, very careful because it’s very possible.

…whose minds the god of this age… Now, we have a mind that is satanic anyway. It’s selfish. It’s the mind of Satan. Well, Satan now has the ability to communicate to that mind and it’s not hard because of thoughts. I know you’ve all had those thoughts—I’ve had them—where you can think a particular way, a particular environment, and all of a sudden your mind is running this way. The secret is to turn around and go, “Hey, this is not right. This is wrong thinking.” Repent of it and try to think differently. Think of something else. Think of something Godly, something that’s of God. You can overcome it. It’s a battle, but we can overcome it.

…whose mind, Satan, the god of this age, has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God… which is what we’re about. We want to be the image of God. We want God’s mind. We want God’s thinking. We want to live love. We want to be love. God is love.

…should shine on them. So, the world is darkened and it’s for a purpose. It’s God’s plan. It’s God’s plan that the size of the Church is the size of the Church. God is in control of all of this. For whatever reason God has chosen you and me to be part of this end-time era—well, it’s not an era—but end-time Church, the scattered remnant. Now that should be exciting. It’s humbling. Because I know we all say, “Why me?” It’s God’s love. That’s why. God loves you and me and that’s what He wants to give us. But the choice is still ours. Doesn’t mean to say everybody will choose God and God’s way.

Ephesians 1:15. We’ll work to a conclusion. I haven’t gotten through all my notes at the moment, or pages. But Ephesians 1:15—Therefore, I, which is Paul, also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Joshua and your love for all the saints... other brethren.

Now, this is something that through experience it’s natural not to love one another. Hope you know what I’m talking about. That’s natural not to love one another. It takes God’s spirit to love one another because we see God’s plan of salvation for that individual and we desire the best for that person.

Now, in times I’ve had issues with certain people (we won’t go into who they are), but it’s natural. The real way to overcome that, I’ve found, was to set out and to pray about that person, that I would learn to love them. Because I’ll use the word “learn” to love them because the natural mind doesn’t. It will think of all the reasons why they are the way they are.

But to learn to love them. I’ve learned you’ve got to start with one good point. That’s the foundation. Start off with one good point because it should be, with God’s spirit, it should be love for the brethren. But I know that I don’t have God’s spirit all the time and I don’t always operate with God’s spirit. So, got to find that one point.

And what’s that one point? What do you think it is? They are God’s people. That’s the good point. God called them and is giving them an opportunity for a reason, and me in my pride have chosen all the other side. But that’s the good point, and if we pray about that as long as we need to pray about it, other things start to come, and then we learn to love the brethren. Because it’s not a natural thing. It requires God’s spirit, and we have to learn it.

God will give it to us if we ask to love one another. And that, of course, is proof of who we are. We are God’s people because we love one another, and if we don’t for some reason, we should be working on it. That’s one way to work on it. Choose that point and remember God called that person. Who am I to stand up and say, “God, you made a mistake.” That’s pretty bad, isn’t it, when you think about it?

…do not cease to give thanks for you, this is Paul talking, making mention of you in my prayers. So, that’s a desire that everybody enters Elohim. That’s the desire. The desire is that everyone here enters Elohim. That’s the desire we should have, that everyone does. No matter what background or personality, even if you’re American… Because that’s the desire, true? That’s God’s spirit. God desires to have a family. God desires you and me into Elohim.

So, who are we not to desire the same thing? “Let this mind be in you which is in Joshua the Messiah,” which is a mind of love, which desires the best for every member of the body. I think it’s an exciting thing.

Verse 17— that the God of our Lord Joshua the Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit… So, it’s in the mind, which is the word of God, that we understand the word of God, of wisdom, and the revelation of the knowledge of Him. We have an aspect of the knowledge of God, which is an incredible thing! Because nobody else out in the world knows God. They might say they know God. They know nothing about God’s plan of salvation. They know nothing about the love of God, the true love of God. But we do and we should be thankful for that.

…the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, which is about seeing spiritually. “Ah.” What do we see spiritually the most? What’s wrong in self individually. That’s what we see. We go, “Ah, Wayne. Ah.” That’s what we see. That’s the enlightenment we get. We see God’s word, we see the truth, but we see here, “Ah.” We see selfishness. That’s an incredible thing.

But we do see other selfishness. We’re supposed to be looking at our selfishness. That’s what we’re supposed to be doing. Because it’s easy to see everyone else’s selfishness. I say that because I know that from experience. That’s natural to look out and judge and pull down. That’s natural. But looking at self is not natural, to acknowledge there’s a problem here is not natural. It comes from God. God desires to show us what we really are and then to choose to fight it. That’s the beauty of it all.

So, “our eyes,” which it means we can see spiritually. We now see these things…that you may know the hope of His calling. That’s what we’re talking about today. The hope of God’s calling is that we will end up with a new mind, that we will think differently, we will be transformed.

Our life is about the transformation of the mind. That’s the whole purpose of life. It’s about changing the way we think. One way it’s demonstrated that we’re changing the way we think is about unity of doctrine. Because if we come into unity of doctrine, unity of administerial Church government things, we are demonstrating our love for God.

Because that’s what it’s about. A person may have different views and opinions on things, but once it is given to God’s Church, God looks to see what a person thinks and then we demonstrate it. That’s proof we are in unity. Because we live it, we demonstrate it. “Yep. Okay. That’s what we’re going to do.” That’s what we do.

The way we think naturally can only be changed by the power of God’s holy spirit and our free choice. Because God wants us to change, wants us to think differently, but at some point, we have to choose the battle. We’ve got to choose to overcome that aspect, that one, two, three we may have, that we choose it. We say, “Okay, I’m going to work on that and that’s it.”

I’ll be frank with you, my number one is my idolatry. The biggest idol. I know that my number one is my own selfishness. I’m the idol before God because I put me before God. That’s my idolatry. So, that’s my number one.

I genuinely believe – I mean I know that I’ll never overcome it, ever, while I’ve got breath of life. Because it’s natural! Put Wayne first is natural. I know I’ll never, ever overcome all my selfishness. You would be the same. It’s always going to be.

That’s my number one. Everyone may have a different number one.

Philippians 2:5. There’s a couple more scriptures. We’re going back to that because this is what life is about for us. Philippians 2:5—Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Joshua. That’s the mind we want. Now, the beauty is that we can see that we have an aspect of it, and we should be excited by that.

So, if they rejected Christ totally and his way of thinking we should rejoice when we’re rejected in part, because why? We have an aspect of the mind of Christ which is the mind of God. That should be rejoicing.

When somebody says you’re in a cult. Woohoo… Fantastic! It’s exciting. You’re suffering for Christ because I’ve got the same mind. I’m sure they said lots of things worse than that to Christ. But you know we get things said to us too. But that’s exciting. It’s the best thing that could have ever happened to you. It’s true, isn’t it? If we look at it the right way, “Oh, this is good. It hurts, but it’s good.”

Our purpose in life now is to think differently to the way we think naturally, and it’s a battle. We desire to strive to think like God and Christ, which is to think love. Now, by nature, the love we have is selfish, which Mr. Armstrong would explain the love of a mother to the child. And if we understand it, it is selfish. We would protect our family.

I’ll move over here. Somebody came into the Church, and we had this conversation and I said, “As an example,” I’m trying to make this point, “Your son is standing up here on this ledge and going to fall to their death, and there’s somebody else standing here and they’re going to fall. The wind is blowing and they’re both going to fall. Which one,” because you can only save one, “Which one will you save?” And he said, “I’m going to save my son, of course.” And I said, “But the other one was Christ.”

So, you can see that we think physically. We think, “Oh, flesh, human, children, relationship, friendship.” That’s what we choose by nature. But we’ve been called to something different. We would desire to try to work out a way to save both. We would sacrifice, “I’ll jump over if those two are going to be saved.” So, you can see it’s a different way of thinking. God the Father gave Himself, His mind, in a person called Joshua, the Messiah, for us. Same thing. It’s a sacrificing love which is difficult for us to fully comprehend. But that’s what we’ve been called to, sacrificing love.

Romans 12:1, we’ll finish up. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. So why are we in the Church of God now? Well, it’s to live God’s love. It’s to learn to sacrifice. It’s not a natural thing. It’s not a natural thing.

Now, it can be that a person will sacrifice because of pride because their intent is “Look at me. I’m standing back.” Can you understand what I mean? Because it’s about intent. Therefore, if someone sacrifices it’s not up to us to judge what their intent is. But a person can have a wrong intent in sacrificing. So, we have to be careful that it’s motivated by God’s love because we want others to receive ahead of us. It’s not about standing in pride, “Look, I’m waiting in the back of the line.” “Whoa, Wayne’s is sacrificing a lot.” No, Wayne will be second in the queue. Not selfishly.

Therefore, I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. So, we’ve been called to do this. Nobody else can. But we can. We’ve got to choose it.

And do not be conformed to this world. Well, we should be at a stage where we don’t want anything to do with it. It’s pathetic out there. It’s absolutely pathetic. So, we don’t want to be conformed to it, we don’t want to get involved in their systems. We don’t want anything to do with it. We’re separate because we don’t want it, because it’s evil. It’s of the natural carnal mind. Where we’re battling.

…but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. If we are willing to fight to transform our mind we’re going to end up with a new mind, a mind that can only think love. What an incredible opportunity we are being offered ahead of everybody else. What an opportunity! But it takes work.

So, this transforming of the mind is the most important thing we can do. That’s the most important. At this time the transformation of our minds is the best thing and the most important thing in our life. Everything else is minor. The house is irrelevant. The spiritual temple is the most important thing to God, therefore, it’s the most important thing to us. Should be.

…that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. God’s desire is to give us a new mind.

“It is God ‘forever dwelling’ in each person (member) that makes the Family of God a reality in ‘one’ perfectly united way.” I just love that. It expresses so much more how important unity with Church government, the importance of it. It is more important than we can even imagine because what it is, is really it’s demonstrating unity with God. It’s God’s Church. It’s the Church of God!

What other Church would you want to be in? The Church of Yahweh Elohim, the Church of God. We’re preparing for the Kingdom of God. How are we preparing for the Kingdom of God? Working in the mind. We want a new mind and we’ve started the process. It’s so exciting. We haven’t got long to go. Some of us have less to go than others because of age. Sorry about that, people, but it’s true! The battle that we have is about this and it will go on as long as God desires us to go on, until He says, “I know you.” For some of us, that’s what will happen.

We look forward to having a new mind that thinks love. It’s hard to comprehend that that’s the only way that a person could think, that every time you did everything that it was genuine, honestly sincere.

We look forward to a mind that will not have selfishness. It’s hard to imagine it because we are selfish. It’s the mind we have. But there’s coming a time soon that we know there are 144,000 (Christ has already got it), there are 14,000 that are going to be given this new mind. The only way that they can think is love towards God’s creation.

Wouldn’t you want to be under that government, or in that government? That that’s the only way, there’s no evil. So, we look forward to the change and the opportunity we have now, we look forward to the opportunity and the change that was guaranteed to be given to us by God which is to have a new mind.

1. Chapter 1