The Creation of God’s Family, Pt. 1

Ronald Weinland

January 7, 2023

We finished the last series last week. We’re starting a new one today. So, we’re now going to follow up on the series we just completed last Sabbath, and this will be a continuing follow-up of the organization meetings that we had in Dallas.

There is actually much to be learned from the unique way that we organized those particular meetings down there, or that I did, I guess, for this is a process of something that we can expound upon in the sense of sermons. I didn’t really know exactly where the sermons would be going but I knew that there were to be sermons following the meetings down there and that was kind of an area to begin to have these formulate in the sense of where we’re being led.

That’s why we went through the last series. Even like, Revelation 11, touched upon those things a little bit there but hadn’t gone through it completely like it finally came out in the sermons.

We’re going to continue in that follow-up. Anyway, as a follow-up all this process of what we had in those meetings down there and the sermons we’re going through right now lead to an opportunity for us to learn in greater spiritual growth concerning how God has led the Church and how He’s working with the Church, especially when it comes to some of the things we’re going to address in this particular sermon having to do with the ministry. Because it’s been unique how God has worked with us compared to how He’s worked with Philadelphia, Laodicea, obviously, and way before that.

So, things aren’t always the same, and the reason for that is because God molds and fashions us, He does things in our lives or in the lives of those whom He calls in different ways because we’re to have different things molded and fashioned within us. We’re not all to be the same. We’re not all to go through the same experiences. God works with us accordingly.

This particular period of time is unique, as it will be unique in the temple, as it will be unique in those who go on into the Millennium as well, as a part of the Church.

So again here, God molds and fashions His Church. It’s His. Candidly, one of the great things to me that is able to be learned through Philadelphia and on is to realize that you can look at God’s Church and see what God is doing. You can learn from that process because it reflects something. If something is taking place you can learn from it because God’s hand is in it. He’s molding and fashioning His people. Just as He did with some through Laodicea there are people who had been worked with in a different way through that period of time as well.

It's a long process and there is much to learn from it. That’s what we’re going to strive to do a little bit more in this particular series.

This series is entitled The Creation of God’s Family being Part 1.

Those meetings in Dallas were all part of a preparation that God was giving and that means me, in that respect, as far as what was being given down there and what’s being given now in these particular sermons so that we could cover more deeply the things that will be addressed in the sermon series that we’re going through now and that we went through last Sabbath.

Now, I began those meetings in Dallas by saying, “The meetings we’re having this year are a little different from times past as we are made up of current leading ministers of the Church and a few who have served in the past in the ministry. So, rather than calling these ministerial meetings I’ve entitled this as Church Organizational Meetings 2022.”

So, we’d never done that before. I’d never done that before in the sense of the meetings. Even told them there at the meetings, I really don’t know why that it’s structured this way, but I knew that it was to be done this way and I have to follow those things. I’m learning more from that process and I know more now than I did then. But to me, it’s an exciting thing to go through because you’re looking at what is God doing and why.

It's like when we came to the Apostasy, why was this allowed, what took place, because this, well, there at that time, is God’s Church, we are God’s people, so how is such a thing possible? And if you follow those things and look to God for help He’ll lead and guide and direct us to the answers we need because He gives the answers. We don’t have them.

Those meetings began first with the corporate board meeting. The church has to have yearly corporate board meetings. Worldwide Church of God, as an example, had to be set up as a corporation. The reason for that within the United States, in order for people to receive benefit from the government for taxes in the sense of those being recognized, the entity to be a non-profit has to be recognized by them. That’s the primary reason for the physical organization and the structure of it. Those have to be held year by year.

Then this was followed by two separate Church organizational meetings where everyone was in attendance. Then lastly, there was a specific ministerial meeting just of the ministry, and that last meeting was geared to the primary leadership of the Church, and again, was not attended by others who had been invited to participate in these Church organizational meetings.

Now, there is something to be learned from all this and, part of that will come out in the sermon series as well, but we’ll just wait until we get there. I thought I’d mention here too a little bit of what took place and why, but those additional guests were invited for the various reasons that are unique to them. I don’t know them all. God does what He wills.

Individuals become a part of the ministry for different purposes. In times past that’s always the way it has been, even though Worldwide. Not always good. God knows what He’s doing. He has allowed different ones at different times as well in times past to do various things. So, the point being is we don’t always know why. We don’t have the answers to those things.

It’s like our calling. We don’t know why were called and someone else wasn’t called. But God does it. The primary thing is if you desire a right relationship with God, just to be thankful because you don’t have answers for that. It’s just a matter of gratitude and thankfulness that we are so blessed to be a part of something so incredible beyond human reasoning or understanding.

So, some came due to certain services in the past, and some because of what God is doing with them concerning things in the future. That’s the way it is with all of us. We go through different things. So, please understand that God is offering and molding things in all of us for things that pertain to the future. Every one of us. That’s what we’re to learn from all this. And we don’t know what He’s always doing and why.

We’re in a portion within the Church now that is in a very strong refining area, if you will. It’s just like any construction job, anything that’s being built, anything that’s being made by someone, artist or whatever, some of the main things that are done in the sense of completing a project, obviously, have to be done at the last. Not the main things necessarily all the time either. I don’t mean that necessarily either. But it all goes together to make a complete whole.

I have a painting down here I’m going to show in a moment. But you start out in a certain area and then you start putting in some of the finer details toward the end. It’s like the great puzzle that Herbert Armstrong talked about. We’ve been able to see the outside pieces and pieces that fit in between, but we haven’t always known where they’ve gone. Then it becomes more refined the closer you get to the end, and you begin to see it more clearly.

How do you explain all these things?

God does things, again, in that respect, molding and fashioning things that take place that pertain to the future. That’s what it’s all about. It’s about being in God’s Family. They’re fully in God’s hands. We can’t always understand that. We can’t always know those things, what they are.

So, it really boils down to a matter of faith. It’s a matter of faith that our lives are in God’s hands. We live by that. Not to be elevated by it. Not to be lowered by it. But to yield to the process and be thankful for it.

I thought I’d just mention up front – I’m going to mention who was invited because some have wanted to know, and whatever it is. It is what it is. I was there. I had to be. So, I’m going to go through and just talk about different ones who were invited. It’s not intended to be of any secret, but sometimes in conversation people get to talking and it’s like some don’t know whether they should say, “Yeah, I was…” or “…I wasn’t” or whatever. So, I told them don’t worry about it. Because they didn’t know what to say. It’s like, “What are we supposed to do with this?” “That’s fine, I’ll mention it in a sermon.”

Those invited to the organizational meetings were the Shockey’s and the Stephenson’s here, and the Cincinnati area, the Dalrymple’s, who had been in the Cincinnati area and vacated, went south where it’s warmer. Always letting us know that in the wintertime. As well as Greg Chipps up in the Detroit area. Now, one other individual was invited to participate in both the organizational meetings and the ministerial meetings (and this will probably just embarrass the tar out of her), but it was Amanda Jaskolski. She’s crawling under her chair right now. …who is from the Detroit area. I’m just going to add a little bit more to that. I’ve known for a long time that God is working with her in a unique way for whatever He’s molding and fashioning in her because it’s not normal in that respect that an elder is brought into those kinds of meetings either. Anyway, someday we’ll know all those answers.

So, in order to learn more deeply, spiritually, from what we’ll be covering in this new series first there are some very specific things upon which we need to focus. Before doing all that that we’re going to go into I want to show you a painting that my wife and I picked up some time ago and we showed it at the meetings down there. It’s somewhat humorous. I’m going to show you the painting, and in order to stress two very specific aspects of our calling, okay? So, here we are:

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What do you see? There is a cat doing a self-portrait. So, it sees itself in the mirror, but it’s not what it’s painting. It’s painting a large tiger, a Bengal tiger.

Anyway, loved the painting because there are a couple of things you can draw from something like that. Two aspects of it, what do we see? Well, in some ways there are times we need to ask ourselves “What do we see?” Because sometimes one can be good, obviously, and the other is not so good. Sometimes we can see something of ourselves lifted up with haughtiness and pride, of what we see. That’s not the good aspect of our human nature.

The other is, is that sometimes we don’t see what we should be seeing, what God is doing in our lives when we should be seeing something greater in the sense of the potential and what we’ve been called to, that our lives are not normal. We need to be able to see the bigger picture. There is a balance in there, obviously, of what we see.

So again here, there is always the need for humility in our lives, for every one of us, always, always, always. It needs to be at the forefront. There are so many examples of things throughout scripture of pride versus humility.

I think of, one of the big ones is Saul when he was first called they had a difficult time even bringing him forward because he didn’t see himself in any fashion or form for what he was supposed to do or what he was being told he was supposed to do. But that didn’t take long to change, and he became lifted up with incredible pride, began to do everything that he did for a wrong purpose. It was about self, haughtiness, and pride.

David, on the other hand, unique in the sense of humility and a desire for God’s way of life that is reflected in his life over and over again.

There are so many things that can be learned, in that respect. Those are the two of the most important things. One of them is humility, and the other is to understand if we see the truth, we understand the truth, that God has given us a calling. He is the one that is raising us up. We don’t have to raise ourselves up. No one should strive to raise themselves up. We’re all called for a purpose. We’re all called, uniquely so, by God Almighty.

That in itself, what an incredible thing to know and to understand. The Great God of the universe, the Great God of all creation reached down in this earth and decided to call different ones to be a part of His Family first out of different ages. Either to be the firstfruits with Christ or to be the first in the sense of being established as God’s Church in the Millennium. Incredible blessings, opportunities that we have difficulty even understanding, that God Almighty would do such a thing.

That’s why it goes back to faith. It’s a matter of just being thankful and if we respond properly then to respond with gratitude and thankfulness and do what we’re told and encouraged to do because we want it, we desire what He’s put before us.

First of all, we’re going to focus upon our need to see our calling for what it is because really far too often in our lives we don’t respond or think in those terms in the way that we have greater ability to do so. That means we can seek to draw closer to God and have more of that kind of a mind that grasps these things. Because we’re going to talk about something here that was lost during Laodicea. I mean, it was absolutely lost. A calling.

You didn’t hear things being written about, you weren’t able to read about them, our calling. That wasn’t being emphasized. The ministry began to drift away from this matter of the fact that we’re called. Everything about the Church, to be able to judge various things, if people understand you have to be called to it to understand it, it goes a long, long way, obviously, in being able to judge many matters. Because not everyone is called. Some give up their calling. We have to work with that, all of us, but we have to focus in on what God’s offered us. That’s the most important in that sense individually.

So, let’s turn over to Romans 8. Because that cat that saw the Bengal, what are we supposed to see? Elohim! That we are the begotten children of God Almighty! What is greater than that for any human being? To be able to be called by God Almighty, to be able to go under the water and come back up by choice and say, “I want to be forgiven of my sins so that they are washed clean so that I can have a relationship with the Great God of the universe, of all creation, and His Son, Joshua the Christ.”

Incredible, that God has called us to such a thing. We need to be able to see that and recognize that and keep it in the forefront of our minds. This is no small thing.

We’re not ordinary people out here. They’re going to have an opportunity in time, as a whole, the rest of the world, but that’s why I marvel even at Revelation 11 and so many things through scripture. Over and over and over again it’s about God’s Church! It’s not even about the world. The world is all screwed up and we got plenty, we receive plenty to learn that. The examples throughout history, the Old Testament and the New Testament, things of the world.

But God’s focus and God’s desire is toward His Church over and over again. So, we tend to read big, physical things into, we have, because that’s just our minds. We read things into something that’s dramatic on a physical plane and come to learn, no. Just like we did there, it’s about something spiritual. It’s about God’s people. It’s about the Church. It’s about judgment that’s taking place at the end. It’s about a final wrapping up of something that’s been going on for 6,000 years. It’s just this is the pinnacle now, this is the end of that in the sense of those who are going to be a part of God’s government, the Kingdom of God. Incredible!

That’s God’s focus. You are God’s focus. You have the begettal of God’s spirit in you. Where else would His focus primarily be? His whole creation is about this. We are ongoing creation.

So, we look at things of a physical creation and we are in awe, as we should be. But how much greater that which is of the spiritual creation, that we are a family, that we should see that! We should not see anything that causes divisiveness or strife or things of division, or things of wrong thinking or prejudice or whatever it might be. We’ve got to get rid of that kind of stuff in our lives, in our thinking.

Because we are God’s Family, and if we really understood that to the depth of our being there would never be judgment upon other people in God’s Church by individuals. You would cease to do it because you’d be afraid to do it. Because we’re all God’s people! If He’s called us and impregnated us with His holy spirit, be careful.

And yet my whole life in God’s Church has been one of knowing, of people that can’t get along, that find fault with each other. Even within marriages, of two people baptized in God’s Church. Never should be that way! It’s a shame. Why? Because if you can’t get along there where can you get along properly in life and love each other and learn the physical aspects of care and concern for one another, of life? How can you do it on a spiritual plane if you find fault with one another, find fault with what others are doing, tear them down, always focus on them, what they’re doing wrong?

I mean, doesn’t that sound shameful if we understand we’re God’s people? And yet I look at things in the Church through Philadelphia and the time since I’ve been in it and some of the infighting that’s taken place. Horrible that such things should ever happen.

Romans 8:14—For as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Now, uses the term “sons.” It’s not about sons and daughters, but that’s the term that’s used in scripture. We are all, in that respect, the sons of God on a spiritual plane. There is nothing to do with sex, nothing to do with male or female, just a poor use of language and how it’s structured. Some of those things are going to be changed later on.

“For as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” The children of God, yes, sons of God. That has nothing to do with gender. It’s a term that’s used by God Almighty. It always boils down to are we led by God’s spirit? Well, that’s the only way we can be the children of God, the sons of God in that respect, to have God’s spirit in us. So, that’s our choice.

For indeed, you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption. Now, again, not some of the best language, necessarily the best choice of explanation of what this is all about. The etymology of this has to do with “to choose for oneself.” God Almighty has chosen us for Himself, for His Family. That’s what it’s about.

So, when we think of adoption we think of going out here and things that happen in the world. We think physically. Well, they do the same thing, in that regard, they choose them for themselves for their family, yes. But that’s what we need to keep at the forefront of our mind, what’s taking place. It’s about that family. It’s about being brought into that Family and chosen for that Family. Because that’s where the great meaning is that individuals need to understand even in a physical, carnal world. You were chosen to be in that family. They wanted you. And God wants us.

…whereby we cry, Abba, Father. What an incredible thing to come to that point in time where more and more deeply within your being that you look to God as your Father. Not in a physical plane because we have to get rid of those things, physical relationships, and the thinking that’s there. Because all human beings, every one of us as human beings without God’s spirit we’re just totally selfish.

Now, even within the Church, we are still filled with that, and that’s our battle. But we have something growing and developing within us that helps us to think differently, to change in our thinking. It’s a beautiful process.

Then it goes on to say, The spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. That in itself testifies to the truth. The fact that we see things, the fact that we can grasp and comprehend. We’re either being drawn by God’s spirit, or we’ve come to the point where we’ve made that choice and we are now impregnated with God’s spirit, and we recognize there is a growth taking place and a transforming of the mind. We see and experience changes in our lives that we witness, and we begin to develop this relationship with God. Awesome!

…the spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God; then if children, then heirs—heirs of God. It’s what God wants. It’s about what God wants to give us. He wants to give us to be in His Family. He wants to give us all things along with His Son, Joshua. Now, we can’t comprehend that. What does that mean? Because we tend to think of borders, possessions, what’s “mine,” because we’re carnal, we’re selfish. But to understand fully what God is saying, that’s on another plane.

Do you think there are going to be arguments and fights in the future in God’s Family about something that belongs to someone else and, “You’re in my area,” or “my space?” No putting up fences, borders, and boundaries like we as human beings do. It’s not about that. We think about ownership, what’s “mine.” That’s not the mind of God. That’s not of the God Family. That’s not what we’re coming to in time.

It’s far greater than that and there is so much there that we can’t even begin to comprehend that. It’s all out there for a reason, even in a physical universe. You have no idea of what awaits us because I have no idea what awaits us. I can’t tell you. We can think about certain things and wonder about certain things, but we haven’t been given those answers. What’s going to take place? What are we going to be doing?

Well, it was billions of years, whatever it was of time on earth years that it took to put all that out there. Because in a Protestant world, there are some who think and believe in their own thinking that God is the creator of everything. It’s like He said it and it was all there. They don’t even understand the remolding and refashioning of the earth itself and what took place in the seven days and finally when Adam and Eve were brought to life. They can’t comprehend those things at all. They can’t until God gives it to them. What an awesome thing that we see those things.

Yet God desires to give it all to us, to be a part of it as a Family. It’s about a Family and what we’re going to be able to be doing together as a Family for all time. So, it’s all out there, we just don’t know why or for what purpose, or what’s going to be done. What are we going to do? It hasn’t been revealed. Not been written anywhere. At least not that we know of. There might be something in the Old Testament we haven’t come across yet. There might be some clues in there, I don’t know. But until God shows it to us we don’t know it’s there.

…if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. So, primarily the focus here in what Paul was talking about is what has been given to him to this point in time, the present truth, that it’s about preparation as a firstfruits. It’s about the firstfruits. They didn’t even understand all these things like what was given to Herbert Armstrong because of the Holy Days and what they teach. They didn’t know all these things yet because God hadn’t given them. But there was that which they did understand, and basically, that’s what we understand is being geared toward the first resurrection.

It's like Thessalonians. You read about the resurrection and so forth, and yet it talks about the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, and so forth. Revelation hadn’t even been written yet. So, what is it about this last trump thing? Well, they didn’t have all those pieces of the puzzle. Those pieces of the puzzle weren’t even available to them to put into a place. Anyway, I hope you understand what I’m saying.

“Joint heirs with Christ.” It’s in God’s Family, things we’re going to do together, especially at the beginning, that we are blessed to understand because we understand about a millennial period, we understand about a one thousand years, we understand about a hundred years after that, and we understand after that no more human life to exist. Incredible.

…joint heirs with Christ if so be that we suffer with him, that we also may be glorified together. So, we are taught very early on there’s a battle we go through, there are things we’re going to experience that aren’t pleasant. There is going to be suffering that isn’t pleasant. It isn’t an easy thing being called into God’s Church and going through what we are to go through, the molding and fashioning, because this carnal human nature first of all has to begin to be ripped out of us.

We kick and scream sometimes, spiritually. Maybe even sometimes physically. We go through these things, these changes, and it’s not meant to be easy. It’s hard. It’s hard. The trials and what we experience in the world, people don’t love you more because you came into the Church, as a whole. How many of you experience it? “I think so much more of you now that you’re in that Church. I wish we all were.” “I don’t want to hear it.” You don’t hear those things. Incredible. That hurts.

When you’re first called into God’s Church sometimes and you realize what happens with other friendships because they don’t see, they don’t understand, and what happens in physical families so often because they don’t grasp and comprehend the choice and decisions you’re making to go in that direction, and especially when you mix religion in there sometimes. It stirs things up mightily so to where about the only conclusion people can come to is “You’re nuts,” and “They went off the deep end religiously. They are some religious quacks.” It’s kind of how they think oftentimes.

Those things can be hurting because you love different ones and things begin to change. People who used to be your friends, well, don’t like to be around you anymore. They don’t like to have certain conversation. They don’t even want to talk. Sometimes we learn that that’s really for the best.

“Joint heirs with Christ.” It’s about what we’re called to. It’s understanding and there is an excitement and an appreciation of what God has called us to. We begin to see things and that grows in understanding what’s taking place, what’s going to take place in the Millennium, what’s going to take place during the Great White Throne, opportunities that God’s Family is going to have to do the things we’re going to be a part of. It’s going to be so awesome!

“…if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be glorified together.” So, a lot of it goes back to the fact that God is the one who raises us up and glorifies us. To be in God’s Church, to understand what that means, if we could really grasp that, we really have a difficulty ourselves grasping the depth of that and the importance of that sometimes. We really do. We really can’t hold on to that fully one hundred percent all the time. It’s just not a part of our carnal human minds that we still have to deal with.

God lifts us up, but we find a struggle within ourselves that too often if we’re not careful within the Church we try to lift ourselves up. We seek to be important. We seek whatever it might be. The Church has gone through those kinds of things forever, in that respect, and there are battles. But when we can see what they are because of our human nature that’s a good thing. We mature more and more to where we can recognize the weaknesses inside of ourselves and different things happen at times to help illuminate that so we can deal with it. Beautiful! Awesome!

Verse 18— For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. We have a glory in us now if we can grasp that. If we can grasp more deeply, which I know we know, but to grasp it more deeply that we have the impregnation of God’s holy spirit. How many have ever had that in 6,000 years?

None of the angels have ever had that. None of the angelic realm has ever had God’s holy spirit dwelling in them. They’ve been given the truth. They’ve been told the truth about various things at different times, some of it not until these times. They’re ever learning as well about things that God is doing and why God is doing it. They’re a part and share in that, those who have been faithful to Him. Incredible, to understand that. But what an awesome thing to understand that a portion of God Almighty that is so awesome is in us enabling this mind to be transformed.

The longer you’re in God’s Church, and especially in the world we live in today with technology rampant like it is, and you see all the division, all the craziness, all the insanity that’s taking place, and lack of soundness of thinking and mind of people, and the sides that people take. Be careful what you believe that you hear from others.

We should always grasp that there is a motive behind nearly everything that’s ever said and spoken. There is a motive behind it. Some true, and much of it is just false. We catch ourselves if we’re not careful beginning to take sides. That’s a big mistake. We ourselves can get worked up and begin to be in disagreement about something with one another because we’ve heard one story of one thing and another story from another direction, and we tend to believe one or the other.

Be careful. That’s not the point of anything in this world. Because the world is wrong. The world is screwed up. The world doesn’t understand God’s way of life. So, when it has to do with news or anything else, politics, anything, we don’t take sides. We understand that everyone is in error. What a horrible thing that we could find ourselves in opposition to one another in the Body of Christ because we’ve heard something and choose that while someone else has heard something and chooses another thing, and they’re in opposition to each other.

That’s a horrible thing. It shouldn’t take place. We have to be careful. We have to be on guard spiritually. Again, I hope you understand what I’m saying.

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. So awesome! For the earnest expectation of the creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of God. It does.

You think of this sick, evil world, and this world is so evil. I got sidetracked from what I was saying there a moment ago. But you think, these minds, this mind of human beings is just vile because it’s selfish. That’s a hard, hard thing to grasp and comprehend because that’s all we can do as human beings – be selfish – apart from God’s spirit within the Church. That’s separate. I’m talking about something different.

But in the world, it’s about individuals and themselves, what they’re able to do. God created the ability to do “good and evil,” (quote and unquote), if you will, by human beings. Have the choice of those things.

But when it talks about good it doesn’t mean good because it’s based on something God has said and given, it’s just that some things human beings are able to agree with that God has stated, like, “I don’t want to be murdered so I think it’s a good thing that that’s a law, that you really shouldn’t get by with murdering each other.” That’s good. It’s good that you realize it’s not a smart thing.

We should know that it’s not a good thing to go in and smash and burn and steal. But we’re losing that, you know. “Defund the police!” Anyway, I’m sorry. Such stupid things in the world. Until you need one. What’s wrong with the thinking of human beings, to be so stupid? To say such stupid, dumb things? I’m getting sidetracked.

Anyway. But that’s the world. Some things, communities, different ones do well within the system that’s there. I think of what we’ve seen in the wrangling as far as the democracy is concerned. It’s maybe the best that democracy can do, and for the world and for mankind it’s maybe some of the best that mankind can do, but it’s sorely lacking. We can see that, but they can’t.

We know what’s needed. Just the right way, God’s way, when it rules, judgment is made easy. Not with mankind. It’s complicated. It’s written up in drafts and files that you pass, and people vote upon it. Well, they don’t really vote upon it, they just push it through, and they don’t even have time to read certain things and it’s just volumes and volumes and everybody has their special little, they call them pork barrels. It’s a sick world.

Yet God’s way is very basic based upon love, His love, not man’s love, based upon Ten Commandments. Pretty basic. Then everything else should be easily placed upon that if we grasp it.

For the earnest expectation of the creation waits on the manifestation of the sons of God. That’s our only hope. That’s mankind’s only hope that has any true meaning in it, of anything that’s really worthwhile. Because otherwise, everything would just be for the moment of time that you live your physical life. That’s self, selfish. It’s just that that’s in.

But if you have a calling then your vision changes. If you have a calling by God Almighty He beings to reveal things to you that are far, far greater and far beyond that. Then if we respond properly in our thinking how blessed are we to be the begotten children of God, to have a measure of God in our very minds that we can respond to, that we can seek to be a part of, to yield to and to listen to what God gives to us, and to choose to enter into battle to fight against self.

It's the greatest battle of all time. It determines whether or not we’ll be in Elohim. Truly does. It determines whether or not you’ll be a part of Elohim.

If we grasp these things about our calling, if we believe this then there is nothing to be vain about. Yet from the beginning of being called into God’s Church, that’s all I’ve seen, things that people begin to be vain about. There are some things that illuminate that more than others. Now, these are here for a purpose because this is where we’re to learn. It’s our arena for learning, God’s Church.

So, there is nothing to be haughty about, to have, to lift ourselves up. Why do we do these things as human beings? Well, because we’re carnal. It’s pretty simple; the answer is pretty simple. But we should learn to detest that and realize that there’s a battle to be fought there. Those are the things that should reflect to us, like in a mirror, “I must change. I can see this and it’s ugly.” See it in a mirror, see what’s really there. What is it?

Is it low self-esteem and that “I don’t grasp that I am a child of Almighty God, that I have opportunity to become part of Elohim, and I need to rise to the occasion and hold my head high and be thankful to the Great God of this universe!” and do so with boldness and confidence? Awesome! Sometimes we have that in our nature, in our backgrounds because of our lives and what we’ve experienced in times past.

Others are a different extreme where there is this need to be lifted up, to be recognized, to be seen in a certain way, whatever that might be, or to feel a certain way about oneself. If we grasp what God is showing us and what God gives us in these things we don’t need that! We don’t need any of that junk because it’s—I was just going to say it’s poop. It’s dung. That’s all it is, a dunghill. Who wants to do that? It stinks. That’s what it is. Some of those things are stated in the Old Testament. I like them when it calls a spade a spade – when it calls a turd a turd. I don’t care what kind of language you use. Some get upset because I use certain words. Well, what’s wrong with it?

Now, you don’t want to use it in cursing, “Oh… turd!” you know, or whatever you say. Now, if you’re using it because you’re disgusted and you’re outraged, well, you need to work on that yourself. We all have to work on certain things. May not be those but it’s maybe some other area. But it’s going to be similar.

So, are there not such things in life? You know what, we’re all made the same. We all have to go poop. What’s wrong with people that we get so righteous that somehow to say that is like, “Oh, what did he say?! … Ooops, I have to go to the bathroom right now.” We all have to do it. Who doesn’t have to wipe? I’m sorry but sometimes we get lifted up with pride and we think we’re better than others.

Who hasn’t had gas? Now, do we just go around and let it go? No, we shouldn’t do that. We learn love for each other. Anyway. But if we can’t laugh at certain things. Think how God created us. Incredible! I think of this little cartoon where these little creatures are running around and this one has a little gas and it’s a little green ball of smoke type of thing. What a horrible thing if it was like that.

Anyway, we’d be very embarrassed people. Of course, that might be good for us as human beings, I don’t know. But God didn’t do that. But He did make us this way.

What a marvelous system that we have what goes on inside of our stomachs and yet we’re supposed to believe it all evolved, this ability to take in nutrients into our system, and somehow it changes, and it gets in the blood, and it gives us energy. Awesome. But it also does other things as it works in down here.

The point is, is we should be humble human beings. Because we’re all the same as human beings. We’re physical flesh. We all have “lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” Not a one of us who is guiltless. We all have sin. We all have things to conquer and overcome. We all make mistakes. None of us have all the answers.

You know, it didn’t used to be that way in Worldwide. It was expected that the ministry had all the answers. Something above that is that every minister, as a whole, felt like they had to always give an answer and whatever they said was right. Not true. But that was kind of the thought and the expectation of what it was supposed to be like.

The reality is no physical human being has ever had all the answers. God hasn’t given us all answers for a reason. He has to reveal it. He has to give it. We can’t be lifted up by how much we think we know.

I think of that book called The Compendium written by Dr. Hoeh. Now, I mention that because he did some appalling things in God’s Church as an evangelist and he deserves this, or his memory deserves it. A big thick book covering time and things that God has done and humanity. And anyway, it was pretty thick. I think it had a green cover if I remember rightly. A few years later had to come out with another one that was about a third of the size because it had to correct all the mistakes that were in there that people found.

You think, okay, that had to be pretty hard for him to do. Well, the reality is we don’t have all the answers.

It’s like The US and BC in Prophecy. We feel like we have all the answers to all the ten tribes and where they were scattered. We don’t know all there is. We don’t know all of that. But some would feel that, no, we had every bit of that, and we knew every one of them

No, we still don’t know. I know we don’t know. How do I know? Because I know how God works with me and what He gives in my mind at this end-time. I know we don’t know all the answers yet to that. There is more to learn from it. But we think we have every country pinpointed.

We have the major ones pinpointed for sure, Ephraim and Manasseh. After that? And we might have a bunch of the others. But sometimes God lets us have various things and do various things and lets them continue on for a long time.

Just like “the great tribulation.” It’s taken me a long time because of my past, because of things we had in the Church, to come to a point in time to understand things about the great tribulation. Now, to me, one of the most beautiful things that God revealed to us is that we all have to go through great tribulation to enter His Kingdom.

It’s not just a physical thing just at the end-time. But that’s how we thought in times past during Philadelphia and Laodicea, that the great tribulation spoken of in scripture was about a moment in time that would last for 3½ years at the very end before Joshua returned. Then later on God revealed that no, everyone with whom God has ever worked that comes through all of this has to go through great tribulation.

Because this way of life is hard. Changing is hard. In this world, in the first 6,000 years, the hardest. Because in the Millennium it’s going to be made easier. In the Great White Throne, the way is made easier. Not that everyone is going to respond to that.

But the point being, when you have God’s government established around the world and people are born into that, can you imagine? When you’re only taught one truth about what is right concerning God? Not all the false religions there again? God’s not going to allow those things to exist. People want to build a big fat body sitting on his side somewhere and people want to go in and worship that? You think, have you lost your marbles?

You want to go turn this wheel up on this big ole mountain? Just push, “Those are the prayers going up to God!” “What are they saying?” “I don’t know, but they’re all going up to God!” Some of the stupidest ideas that human beings get in their minds.

You grow up in a world where you only know the truth about God and where judgment is fast on the earth. You don’t have to wait for long trials and guess who did what to whom, that someone murdered someone and not knowing who it was right away and deal with it quickly. On and on it goes. You think things won’t happen in the future? Huh. Human beings are human beings. Not a utopia.

What a different world, though, so much easier. But in this world in 6,000 years where carnality rules, where the laws and the ways of mankind rule, the governments of mankind rule, where wars and evil exist, it’s hard. It’s been hard, and depending on what you have to go through at different times, because that’s what we’re called to, so be it. Everyone has had to live through different things.

I can’t imagine what some of those had to live through during the period of Ephesus, Smyrna, and Thyatira, some of those, when this great church especially began to gain momentum and people were persecuted for what they believed in ways… tortured. Think some of God’s people were? That God allowed certain things to happen?

I can’t imagine being stoned and pulled out of the city like you’re dead. Paul went through that. Shipwrecked like he was? Of a truth, very powerfully so, if I ever feel like when I’m traveling, “This is very uncomfortable,” I generally think back and like to slap myself. I don’t do it in public. “What’s that guy doing over there? That guy is crazier than a loon.” But mentally. We have it so easy. Jets. Cars that have these rubber tires so that you’re not jarring your teeth out with some kind of steel wheels or something. Or the fact that you have some wheels is an awesome thing. So, what do we have to complain about?

But there are people who have gone before us, they’ve gone through some great tribulation that we’ve never had to experience. Some of ours have to do with that which is mental in our thinking, which to me some of those are great as well in a different sort of way. But some of the physical things that people have had to go through, it’s been very difficult. Things that are hard to imagine.

So, I’m thankful I didn’t live in those periods, candidly. It’s much easier nowadays. Really is. It’s always a matter of understanding what God has given to us, how blessed we are. What an incredible thing to be called by God. You go through 6,000 years and we look at where we are and where we are about to be and that’s what we have to keep our focus on, the blessings we have.

There’s never a reason to feel down or inferior or not loved, because we are some of the most loved people on earth if we could grasp that because God Almighty loves us and His Son Joshua loves us, and as we grow within the Body in the Church we learn to love one another with that same kind of love and willing to sacrifice whatever it takes…whatever it takes for that kind of love. Because that kind of love, God’s love, is a sacrificing love.

We learn those things over time. We learn that those are the most important, the more important thing of life, one another, to have such a family. Things that pale into insignificance physical family. Now, physical family is important. I hope you understand what I’m saying, but God’s Family is so much far beyond that. Because one thing we learn in the Church is we don’t have real meaningful in-depth family until it’s in the Body of Christ, in the Church of God, and especially when it’s in Elohim. That’s what our goal is. That’s what our desire is.

And so, the flip side of that, if we don’t see ourselves in the light we need to see of our calling is that being raised up in a way that we shouldn’t be. But that’ll come later in the series here.

So again, we should be moved deeply by the greatness of our calling, what God has offered to us. This means that whether or not someone is in the ministry, again, that’s not something to be vain or haughty about, that one might be, or even if someone is not. So, the point of all this is that we’re to learn that we’ve been organized different in the Church in the end-time for a purpose. Within the ministry, we’ve been organized for a purpose differently. Because we’re to learn from this, from one another. This is going to come out, especially in the next couple of sermons.

But God wants us to learn from the things we experience and things that have happened in the past within the Church, things that have happened in Philadelphia, things that happened in Laodicea, and then things that happened after the Apostasy and what happened in scattered groups. So much to learn.

So, the reason we’ve begun here in these verses that we’ve just gone through in Romans is to help us begin to address some things that are incredibly unique to the Church of God—PKG. I’m saying this over in another way but saying the same thing. There has never been a time in God’s ministry like this one, that’s been organized in this manner—never, that we’ve been organized in the way we have been. There’s never been a time, in that respect.

Generally, when someone has been ordained, it’s been for life. Not so in God’s Church in this time. There are things to learn from that. What is a marvel is it’s a speeded-up process of molding and fashioning God’s people, and molding and fashioning us in a deeper way, to understand things in a deeper way that God is going to use in His Family. Because that’s what it’s all about. It’s about what He’s molding and fashioning in each one of us that we’re to come to see, that we’re to come to grasp that others aren’t being molded and fashioned in the past in the same way.

They weren’t molded and fashioned in the same way. One day you’re going to understand in a deeper way and you’re going to look back and say, “Now I understand,” in a way that you can’t understand even now. But we can begin to learn from what God shows us. It’s a beautiful thing.

So, God began leading us, me, as His apostle, in that respect, in this process that would be different than at any other time in the Church. Because this had never been done in God’s Church, that we’ve done some of the things we have, let alone women being ordained. Never been done! Never been done in God’s Church ever! 2,000 years. Incredible.

That’s why it was so very hard when I had to say I was a prophet. I remember being out in the area of Patmos and these things come flooding into the mind about a prophet and what it meant. To say that or to do that was a very difficult thing because in Worldwide there were no prophets in God’s Church.

Anyway, very hard thing to change some of those things of the past in order to become refined. But God teaches us, He reveals things to us, and we address them.

We’ve gone through some things at times that I’ve had some battles with, had to fight with in the sense of in the mind. Not directly with God but knowing that it was being given in the mind, of what to do and how to do it, that I had to do certain things, and finally you yield to it and do what’s right.

There are a lot of things in the past that we began to deal with early on after the Apostasy that I did not want to address. But because they were coming through the Church in different ways had to address them. One was about heaven. I really had a battle with that. Because different things being taught, ideas out here, and in the scattered Church, and I thought, “That shouldn’t have to be addressed!” Then you find out what some people were saying, some of the ministers out there and you think, “You’ve got to be kidding me!” And so I find myself addressing something I kept fighting against. Anyway.

If God’s Church needs something, God’s going to give it to His Church, and you, or we at that particular time, weren’t going to be led astray from by some of the stupid things that were being taught by some of the ministers of the past out here.

So, as I’m saying some of this again I want to mention that as far as the structure, even the things at that meeting down there, it’s done differently. I don’t fully understand that. I’m starting to understand it more now. But it’s to the point to get to some of these sermons and talk about them so that we can learn more. That’s what God leads us in.

I think of this process of so many that we’ve had serving within the ministry within this Body and not serving within this ministry within this Body and different things that have taken place and people who have left over some of those things. But anyway, I’ll get back to that later on.

So, there is nothing to look to to show a path in this as far as an organizational structure within the Bible. You can’t find it. It’s not there. Now, some of the structure in Ephesians is there as far as the ministry is concerned, apostles and prophets and so forth, and evangelists and then those who teach and so forth or in different ways they serve. It’s really a word that means “to serve,” ministry.

Anyway, there is no one that could show us the correct thing to do here. There was nothing there as far as Herbert Armstrong was concerned and the past in Philadelphia, so what could we look to as a format for something to follow? So, we’ve been different and we’re to learn from that.

God began, again, leading us through a process here that we really haven’t understood. But He’s showing us more now of something that started clear back in 2004, 2005, 2008 especially, in through there, 2007 and 2008. Things started changing drastically as far as some of the structure of God’s Church and how things were done in the ministry. The farther we go in this I think it’ll be more and more exciting.

So, for us, we were to do something totally different in God’s Church than had ever been done before. Because God’s molding us differently than He did those in Philadelphia, then He did those in Sardis, then He did those in Thyatira, different parts of the Body, different parts of the temple, different things that each one of us is being molded and fashioned in.

1 Peter 2. I keep jumping ahead to the things about the ministry that are really for later here. But that’s where it’s going, and we need to understand that in the context of things we’re covering now. Because if we really grasp our calling those things don’t matter on a spiritual plane in the way that we tend to look to them sometimes in the Church or the way the Church has looked at some of those things in times past because they’ve been highly abused.

1 Peter 2:1—Therefore, laying aside all malice, in other words, all that’s evil, all that’s bad. This is part of our calling. We’re to get rid of those things in our life. We’re to focus on those things and seek to get them out of our thinking, out of our minds.

…and all guile, which has to do with deceitful practices, is what the word means here, as “in trying to manipulate or control others.” So, that’s a tendency of human nature.  We like control. Sometimes, people, there’s the expression, “They’re a control freak!” That’s a part of human nature sometimes and some people like to control various things. They like to be in control.

What does that mean? Well, it’s like you’re judging what should and shouldn’t be done. Sometimes even trying to insert yourself in there to say this is the way something is to be done, and some of these things we’re guilty of in times past and we probably have some of that in our lives where we have to weed out. But not like it used to be to the same degree. So, we’re to learn from these things, we’re to see these things.

…and hypocrisies. In other words, “play-acting; pretending” is what the word has to do with. Why would we want to do that as human beings? It’s trying to project something that isn’t true. We want this projection of ourselves. We want others to see a certain thing of ourselves and it’s hard for us just to be ourselves. Because we think we’re trying to protect self, is what we’re trying to do. We sometimes are very much on guard to that as human beings. Sometimes it’s hard just to be ourselves. And yet we have to go through that process as human beings.

So, that’s what it’s talking about in part when it’s talking about hypocrisies. That’s why the word in the Greek language has to do with play acting, pretending. In other words, not being true. That’s bad. So, we have to find out in our lives where we’re not being true in what we project. Just be yourself. There are times you just have to ask God for help. Just be yourself. Don’t try to project something that you think others should see or you want them to see. Be careful of those kinds of things. We’re all a part of God’s Family.

…and envies. Jealousy is what it’s about. Jealous of others. Now, see, I’m just going to mention here, sometimes within the ministry that’s what people were to learn. Both of these things. Because the ministry can bring out different things in people’s lives within the Body who haven’t been ordained, others who were ordained. These are the things that sometimes then help to bring these things to the surface so that we can see them and that’s a beautiful thing, that we be able to see the things that we need to get rid of. Because if we don’t see them, how can we get rid of them?

We have to be able to see the things that aren’t in unity and oneness with God in ourselves. That’s what repentance is about, asking God to help us to see the things we need to repent of, that we need to change. That’s what we should all want, fight for, desire with all of our being. But sometimes that can hurt human nature. Why? Just let it go! It’s not worth holding on to.

So, the play-acting, the pretending sometimes, being something that we’re not, being lifted up by it, not a good thing. The other part of it being jealous or envious of somebody else that you think, “Well, why am I not that?” or “Why wasn’t I given that opportunity?” or “I deserve that, and they didn’t.” I’ve known of too many people who left God’s Church over that. Even within the ministry, who were jealous of others who were ordained. It’s like, they couldn’t take it.

Now, see, I hope you understand what I’m saying, what it’s about. It’s not the ministry, it’s what you’re to learn from the fact that it exists and how it’s used and misused either by the ministry or by brethren, as a whole. Because everyone can learn from this and is to learn from this. That’s the reason it’s structured in the manner that it is. It’s been a speeded-up process in PKG. I hope by the end of this series you’ll understand that in a deeper way. Beautiful, how God’s worked with us.

…as newborn babes. What does that say? Well, people could say, “Well, Peter was addressing a Church that’s just getting started.” No, it’s for all of us at all times, an attitude of mind we need to have, to realize we’re pretty small. We’re not even that because we’re not even born yet in God’s Family, in Elohim.

So, we need to see ourselves in a little bit different manner. He’s saying, “as newborn babes,” and so it’s an attitude. It’s about the mind and how we think. It’s about an attitude. So, that’s why he’s saying this in the manner that he is.

…as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word. What is true. You know, just like a baby. Why do we get lifted up with greatness in ourselves, how we see ourselves as human beings? It shouldn’t exist.

…desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby. That’s what we should desire and want, to desire to grow spiritually. That should be our goal, to grow spiritually.

…if so be that you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. So, we’re called into the Church, we begin to make changes, we begin to learn a different way of life, we learn things about God and about Christ that can only be understood spiritually. That kind of mind, that kind of being, that we want to become a part of, to be at one with.

My greatest desire in those things is to be at one with God. That means to agree with everything that God reveals that is true. That’s the mind that I desire with all of my being. That’s what we should want, to have a mind that’s in agreement with God. Because where we’re not we’ve got some things to learn and we’re generally going to learn in a hard way. More tribulation. Because we’re going to learn to the point where we need to be before we’re there.

That’s why it’s important to yield to those things, and not only yield to them but cry out to God for help to see them. That shouldn’t be an embarrassing thing. We are what we are. If we’re striving to live this way of life and striving to do it right, that’s what it’s all about. That we’re a family, that’s what it’s all about.

To whom coming as unto a living stone, I think it says “lively” in the King James there, but it’s a living stone, something that God has made alive that otherwise has no life in it, God makes alive.

…disallowed indeed of men, speaking of that chief cornerstone, speaking of Christ, speaking of Joshua, and using that example, this particular rock, this particular stone, if you will, that’s alive and has life in it in a very powerful way because it’s about God’s temple and he is the chief cornerstone of it. That’s what he’s talking about here.

To whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men. The world doesn’t see it, can’t grasp it, can’t comprehend it. But we do. How blessed are you with a calling from God, with a spirit in your mind that enables you to see things that others can’t see? I mean, how blessed are we? Do we grasp it, our calling?

If we do there is nothing to be haughty about. If we do there is nothing to be jealous about. If we do there is nothing to be backward about or moping around about, you know, our head down because we’re not worthy. God makes us worthy! God is the one who raises us up! He has done that already and we have a portion of Him in our being. Nothing greater a human being has ever had, or human beings have had.

…disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God. So, speaking of Christ first here. That’s what Peter is doing. “But chosen of God.” What more could we desire, that God has done the choosing?

Of everything that’s out there we marvel when we see things, pictures that have been taken by the Hubble or whatever it might be, and we look at some of those things and the massiveness of it and things that are out there, or we can look at other things that are so minute and so small and nano and they’re talking about using for measurements. It’s like, whew, things of the atom and comprehending that these walls are moving, we’re moving, our whole body is moving. Not just by this but every little cell. We don’t understand those things. They’re little things circling around keeping us together, so we don’t fly off in pieces!

And most of it, what’s the even greater marvel, is most of it is space. Space! Most of that, most of that, this, is space. You just can’t see it. It’s moving so fast, and it feels pretty strong, but most of it is space. We can’t even grasp that totally.

How great is our calling? Whew!

“As living stones … are built up a spirit…” …disallowed indeed of men but chosen of God and precious. There is not a value you can place upon it it’s so beyond anything that you could compare it with.

You also as living stones, those whom God has called. Just like stones except alive, living, a place to be in the temple whether now or in the future. It’s all a part, different parts of the construction. There is a certain part being molded and fashioned as far as the 144,000 and then it just continues to get bigger later on, much bigger. Doesn’t stop there.

You also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house. A Family. Again, something we can’t fully comprehend so God’s given us physical things to look at and compare by looking at something and thinking, oh, that is incredible. You look at some of the things about the temple later on and all the different stones and the different layers and the four sides and it’s like, “Oh, this is …” But it’s spiritual. It’s not about physical things.

…a holy priesthood. Every one of us in God’s Church. Now, which is greater? What is greater? Is it greater to have a certain level of ordination in the Church? Is that what’s important? Is that what we esteem? Or is it a fact that God has called us all to be a part of a royal priesthood and we should see ourselves there?

Because what God has called us to makes this look pretty puny. But it’s a necessity to get us where we’re going. We’re to learn from that process no matter where we are in the Body, where God has placed us in the Body for a purpose we’re to learn and be united and working together, functioning together.

…a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices. What are those? Mostly self because it’s become spiritual when you say “This is bad. This must change and I want to be transformed in the mind.” It’s a sacrifice being made. “I chose it. I don’t want this crap of human life in me. I don’t want lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. I don’t want any measure of it because it’s all evil. It’s the mind of Satan.” That’s what he is and that’s what he has been able to foist upon all of mankind because mankind is physical.

God made it that way and we have to learn to hate it, to hate that mind, that it could be in us. Well, it is as human beings and then we choose to fight it. You have to fight this thing. You have to fight those wrong things that rise up like they do. Incredible.

…to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by/through Joshua the Christ. So, we know how it’s accomplished. Why does it say, “by and through Joshua the Christ?” Because it starts with Passover. It starts there. We have to repent. We have to change. We have to think differently. Then he is our High Priest, and he intercedes for us. We’re thankful for that process whereby we’re able to become a part of God’s Family.

That means we’re yielding ourselves to God’s way of life, we want God’s way of life, we pray for help in God’s way of life, we pray for help to change and conquer and overcome.

Therefore, also it’s contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone that is chosen, selected, selected by God. Christ was chosen before anything was created. The structure was there. The plan was there. The blueprint was there. Then it came time after about 4,000 years, time for him to be born, time for him to grow up, time for him to come to baptism, be impregnated with God’s holy spirit, though he was born of God. He was able to have spiritual things in his mind before his baptism, but he had to go through the same process physically as a physical human being, but unique and different, as we understand.

…chosen and precious. What value can you place on it? Because see, there is nothing else. If this wasn’t there, there is nothing else that can be. God’s Family wouldn’t exist, wouldn’t come to pass. But it’s going to come to pass because God has the blueprint and He’s following it, building, creating.

…and he who believes on him shall not be confounded. So, that’s how we get rid of confusion and stupidity, dumb ways of mankind, unsound minds, unbalanced minds, unsound thinking. We learn what soundness truly is because God’s way is sound. The more we’re in unity with that the more sound and true we are.

Unto you, therefore, who believe, he is precious, but unto those who are disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed... So, there has been that part of mankind because unless they’re called that’s going to be their automatic response. They’re going to reject him.

The world doesn’t accept Christ. They have their christ, but it’s not Christ. It’s not the Messiah. They accepted something else and it’s all false. Incredible to understand that. And doesn’t that win friends and influence people? Doesn’t that make people want to love you and care for you?

The stones which the builder disallowed, the same has been made head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense. Even within the environment of God’s Church that’s been true. What a horrible thing, that especially when individuals have gone under the water, come back up, been impregnated with God’s holy spirit, that such a thing should happen. That’s far more hideous and sick. Because the world can’t help it. That’s why Christ said, “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing.” That was for us to understand.

…a rock of offense. To those who stumble at the word. Who stumbles? Everyone who lives a carnal life. They’re all disobedient because they can’t be obedient. You can’t begin to be obedient until God calls you and reveals the truth to you. Then you have choices to make. You have to have help from God because you can’t do it on your own.

That’s why you have to have God’s holy spirit. You can’t change without God’s help, so we have to have God’s spirit dwelling in us. Awesome!

…thereunto also they were appointed. That’s the way it’s set. Carnal human beings without God’s calling, without God’s help, that’s the way they’re going to be, “Lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” Nothing about God in them.

But you are a chosen generation. What an awesome thing to be part of that! Not many have had that happen to them. A chosen generation at this time. At other times it’s been others who have been a part of that chosen generation of people.

…a royal priesthood. There we go again, “royal priesthood.” So what’s more important if we really understand it? Is it to be ordained as a minister in God’s Church or is it to be as every one of us is called to be a part of a royal priesthood, Elohim forever and ever into the future? To be a part of God’s Family, there is nothing greater.

But we as human beings tend to esteem certain things in ways that we should not. Now, to understand that God has given an order of things and to submit and yield to that government, that’s one issue. But to look at it in a wrong way, to put people on a pedestal, and ministers were guilty of that.

I loathe and hate what happened in our past. To know that within the ministry there are those who had various things that took place. I see it right now in that building down in Erlanger when we had our potlucks and we had to have risers and we had to have tables up there with white tablecloths, and they just weren’t just white table clothes. They had better not have any wrinkles in them. Somebody had better have gone through the trouble of making sure they’re all white and ironed. No paper plates, it better be china, and it better be crystal, and it better be silver.

And I think, “Barf.” Let me barf on that one. Then the rest of the Church out there not on risers but out there having, well, you didn’t call it a potluck. If you did you’re going to get shot. Well, almost.

Now, we lived through things like that in our past. Hideous, perverted, and sick, but we couldn’t see it back then in that manner and we had to go through experiences to learn that’s not of God. That’s not right that people should in their minds think somehow the ministry should be up there – because the elders had to go up there. I had to go up there. My wife had to go up there. We had to sit up there. Oh, you want to talk about uncomfortable?

Now, sometimes people like that. “I like this. It’s where I belong. I’m glad all of them can see me up here.” That happened. Even the one who led it liked it, liked having people see this because “You need to know I’m up here, you’re down there. Don’t you forget it.” Does that sound like that’s of God?

What a horrible thing to experience. But you know what? We have to experience it to learn this is not right, this isn’t of God. The point being is then what every one of us are called to is far greater than the position that that pastor held at that time. Whoop-tee-do! Now, please don’t misunderstand me. As far as ordination and government you were to yield to it. There were things I yielded to because of that government.

Anyway, I don’t want to go further with this.

So, you have to do what is right until God reveals what is right. In God’s time, He shows us, He reveals things to us. So, the point being is we’re called to a royal priesthood. Physical minister, being ordained as a minister is not what it’s all about. It’s about Elohim. It’s about God’s Family. It’s about what we’re being called to. We’re all a part of something far greater than what we comprehend, as a whole, as human beings. That needs to sink in deeply in our minds.

…you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation. Awesome! Awesome! Awesome! …a special people, that you should show forth the praises of Him. Now, that’s “the virtues.” In our lives we can change, we can grow, we can begin to change in our thinking, in our speech, and everything else, in that respect. We are to change in those things and our lives then are to reflect more and more of the right way of living toward one another, of loving each other, of judging and not judging. Because there are some things we must judge and there are other things we’re not supposed to judge but we tend to judge. Well, I hope you understand.

…the virtues of Him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. So, by God’s spirit He reveals what is light and what is true and helps us to see things that are in the darkness, of things like I just spoke of that are bad.

…who in times past were not a people. What does that mean? Well, not the people of God, just people in the world. Until we have that opportunity, well, we’ve got to go through a lot. A lot of them, most of them in the Great White Throne.

What an opportunity that many of us don’t have to live through that. Those of you who go on into a Millennial period don’t have to live in that one hundred years, depending on your choices. If we grow and change. There’ll be a resurrection before the Great White Throne begins, just as there’s going to be a great resurrection as Christ returns.

…who in times past were not a people but now are the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. The world hasn’t been called.

Can we grasp how awesome it is that we’re called? I wish we could grasp that in a lot deeper way, I truly do.

Well, I see I’m going overtime but it gives me encouragement because I know I have more things for next Sabbath that are already done. They’re in my notes.

Anyway, we’ll stop there for the day and begin Part 2 next Sabbath.