Exercising God’s Love, Pt. 6

Ronald Weinland

May 20, 2023

It’s great to be back in the UK.

So, we’re going to leave this portion on the prerecorded sermon for next week for the US and Canada and everywhere else. But anyway, everything went very smoothly. Flew in from The Netherlands to Stanstead Airport; it’s in the London region. So, security, everything else, and the security people wanted to give me hugs and everything, but I said, “No, no, please don’t.” Passport control, whatever. No, they were very friendly; they were very good.

This is Part 6 of the current sermon series entitled Exercising God’s Love.

It’s about living God’s love, but I love the word “exercising” because that reflects more so that we have work to do, and there are things we can do, that we’re supposed to do. And of course, you’re going to be one behind here because of last week’s sermon that was given, Part 5, that leads into this, but we’re going to jump on ahead and you’ll be going back, I guess, next week, unless you're over there, some of you.

But anyway, this will be Part 6. We’re going to continue on with this and the interruption of jumping ahead is not going to be a problem. But I did say some things that would make this come alive even a little bit more. We’re going to pick up where we left off last Sabbath and that’s in 1 John 5:11.

Now, it’s awesome what God is giving us because He’s giving us so much right now toward the very end of this age. We see the things that are taking place in the world and the sermons that led up to this, and oftentimes reading things that are in the news showing how people are thinking, that thinking has changed drastically in the last three years, and throughout Europe, throughout the world.

And you see these different sides coming together more and more, and better able to see why we can have the kind of conflicts that are coming because of all the politics between countries and people getting really kind of fed up with one country in particular that’s had such control over other countries just through the petro-dollar or the dollar or the banking system, the worldwide banking system as it is, and they’re making great efforts to break away from that. They’re actually putting it into action now in a very powerful way; been talking about it for a long time.

We’ve known it. Awesome! God has blessed the Church to understand these things would begin to take place. They mold and fashion the way countries think, the way people think, and the way they think toward one another and, candidly, what’s going to happen here before long.

But what God is showing the Church is an understanding, an ability to see and comprehend that there is really more expected and required of us, that we grow to a point in life as God molds and fashions us, and then there comes a time we’re to grow even more and we’re to understand some of the things we haven’t grasped in the past in the same manner. And so, He blesses us by being able to make greater growth and He moves and motivates and inspires us to understand that there is more required, that there is more that we need to do in a matter of exercising God’s love, and so forth.

And so, we’re going to go into that as we go along here but 1 John 5:11 it says, Even this is the witness that God has given us eternal life. So again here, we’re moving ahead a little bit here for this area, but to understand what this witness is about the word is used as “witness” or as “testimony.” There is that which is given as a witness, and we’re supposed to be able to look at it or to understand what that is.

“This is the witness that God has given us eternal life.” So in other words, there is something we should see, that we should grasp and understand that we are a part of a witness by what we’re doing and what we’re living. That’s what John is about in a lot here, is the fact that there are certain things that are to be seen in our lives or understood in our lives that we should grasp and comprehend that with God’s spirit, with Christ living in us, we are witnessing, in that respect, being witness of God, and that Christ is the Son of God.

What an awesome thing because of what’s supposed to be reflected in our lives. And so, if it’s being reflected in our lives we’re adding to that testimony, that truth that Christ is our Passover, our High Priest, he is the Son of God. Those things are to be seen, we’re to understand them, we’re to grasp that, we’re to grasp that in one another as a fellowship.

As we go through the book of 1 John here it gets stronger and stronger in what John has to say here, what God gave to John, what Christ gave to John to give to the Church to understand that there is more here and warnings in this that haven’t been grasped to the same plane or the same level in times past. The reason is because we’re closer now to the time of His Son's coming and these things weren’t to be given before.

So, it’s a continual process of revealing more and more to us about who we are, what we’re to be doing, what we’re to be living so that as soon as Christ returns there’s been a smooth transition in as sense of what God has already given to the Church.

“Even this is the witness that God has given us eternal life.” So, we have a measure; we have God dwelling in us through the power of the holy spirit, and it should be evident. That’s what it’s talking about. It’s talking about fellowship; it’s talking about what is true in the Church and what is not true in the Church. John gets very strong in what he has to say here. Candidly, God is getting very strong in what He gave to be written, and so much of it for the end-time.

...that God has given to us eternal life. And this life is, as we talked about last Sabbath, not “in” but to understand even, words mean a lot. And in this case here “by; through; or with.” And this life is with or through His Son, to understand what that means. It’s a matter of God, of Christ, of the holy spirit dwelling in us on a continual basis. Not just the begettal of God’s spirit. Because the begettal of God’s spirit once we’re baptized, once we come up out of that water, God’s spirit, Christ, that’s about him coming in the flesh, is to be continually coming into our lives.

And if that isn't happening, the begettal, it could die, the begettal can go to sleep. That’s where the majority of the Church from Worldwide is. Those who haven’t gone too far and totally away. There are those who are asleep and there’s a time when God’s going to give many, several tens of thousands an awakening, an opportunity for that.

It goes on to say, whoever has the Son has life. So, if we’re in the Body, if we’re not disfellowshipped from the Body, if we’re not asleep – because if one is asleep this is not happening. An individual is not alive in that respect, in the sense of God and Christ through the power of the holy spirit coming into their lives on a continual basis. We have to have God’s spirit continually in our lives. It’s a very dangerous thing if that isn’t happening.

That’s why it’s so expedient, so important to repent quickly when there is sin and to seek to get away from it. Because those are the things that cut us off from God, the flow of God’s spirit so that we don’t have this life. If we don’t have this life in us, we don’t have the Son, if we don’t have the Son – John makes this very clear, and we should understand that (and I know we do) –we don’t have the Father then.

Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. It wasn’t enough to be begotten. Being begotten doesn’t guarantee someone is going to be resurrected in the first resurrection or whenever later on if they live on into the Millennium. It’s not a guarantee.

You know what? We used to have this kind of a concept in the Church of God for a long, long time, that once someone is baptized it’s like it’s a guarantee you’re going to be in God’s Kingdom. It’s like the one that God gave to help me better understand some of these things, when a young man (I think he was about nineteen) killed in a car wreck two weeks after he was baptized. People were talking amongst themselves, “Isn’t it wonderful he’s going to be in the first resurrection.” I thought, “He didn’t have time to grow. He didn’t have time to mature spiritually. Just because you’re baptized does not guarantee, it’s not owed to anyone that they be in a specific resurrection. He has growth to make,” and it was very obvious.

So, there’s a change that has to take place in our life. It’s not enough just to be baptized. We have to grow, and that takes a lot of time – a lifetime in many cases. Awesome.

Whosoever does not have the Son does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe into, in other words “toward; to,” into the name of the Son of God. I don’t like the word just “on” by itself because it’s not correct anyway. But it doesn’t give the right context of what we’re supposed to grasp and see. Because the world uses that, “We believe on Christ. We believe on his name. We believe...” What does that mean?

So, we believe into the name of the Son of God, because we are in him, and he is to be in us. We are to be in God and God is to be in us. We’re to have that life in us, and the only way that can happen is if we dwell in Him and He dwells in us. That's what it means to believe he is the Son of God.

We understand those things and we understand what it takes then to believe. Belief is a matter of the truth. And so much of what John is talking about “He is the Son of God, and the proof of that is the Church, it’s us.” That witness. Witnesses to the truth because we can’t be in God’s Church without his life in us. We can’t stay in the truth without that life continually coming into us. You can’t do it.

There have been so many through time that many of you probably have known, we definitely have through time, through different eras, and seeing some of these take place.

...the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life, even so that you may believe into the name of the Son of God. Even this is the confidence that we have toward Him, this word meaning “toward” now, that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us.

And so, in times past, again, not being as mature as what happened through time here in the Church, there was the thought that we should be able to pray about all kinds of things and if we’re living right God will intervene and we’ll have our petition. Nope. It’s about things that are important to our maturing and growing and being transformed.

It's not about the wants and desires of the world that we might have, whether it be a job or whether it be finances or whether it be sickness or anything else. That’s not what this is about. Now, we do look to God for those things, obviously, we want Him to be a part of our life, we want to share our life with Him, and we ask for favor and for help. Those things are fine. But that doesn’t mean that we have a clad guarantee type of thing that He’s going to intervene and do it just because we ask for it, that it fits this. No, it doesn’t.

What this is about is the very subject matter of what we’re going through, that we want and need His spirit and we grasp that and we’re striving, we’re fighting for, conquering self and being filled with His life. That’s His will, that we become a part of the Body in the respect of being born into God’s Family in time. For that to be accomplished this is what God’s will is all about.

God’s will is about His Family, His desire for His Family, and how we can become a part of it. So, this process of being transformed, those are the kinds of things, when you want self to change and when you want help to think differently and when you’re able to see things that you’re doing wrong or that are battles, that you pray about them, to conquer and overcome. That’s what God will give you help with guaranteed. Guaranteed!

The other things, the fluff of life, if you will, that make up life, physical life, so much of it is a means to an end. But this is more than that. This is about life, eternal life. That’s what he’s saying here. He’s given to us eternal life. As far as God is concerned, we have it if we continue to do those things that are expedient for us to do – to see Christ as our Passover, to see him as our High Priest, and to work accordingly.

Verse 15—And if we know that He hears us... What an awesome thing to have that confidence, to know that you’ve been heard, to know. And when is that the most important in your life? When you ask for forgiveness. We always have to go back to the beginning. Christ is our Passover. He died so that we can be forgiven of our sins. Why? So that He and His Son could live in us, so that God and His Son could live in us. That’s the whole reason for it.

Because God will not dwell in sin. He won’t dwell in our lives. He removes His spirit; He does not give the flow of His spirit. Christ does not continue to come into our lives when there is sin that has not been repented of. Now, as soon as we repent and pray to God to forgive us and help to fight what it is that we’re wrong about, and we acknowledge our wrong…?

I’m amazed at how many people I know of in God’s Church who will not acknowledge they’re wrong. They’re better than that. I know people who won’t even ask, haven’t even asked for anointing when they’re sick. They’re not obeying God. You think, “Is there sin in that? Something we know we’re supposed to do?” He says when you do that call on the elders. That’s a matter of looking to God’s government. That if you want help and intervention—not a promise you’re going to receive it because there might be other things that are important for us in molding and fashioning that we just go ahead and live life like we are, you know, whatever that might be. Some things He intervenes for and other things He doesn’t. That's in God’s hands.

And if we know that He hears us whatever we ask – according to His will. Remember the context of this all the way through, according to His will. His will that we remain in the Church, that we remain in the Body so that we can grow. That’s what it’s about – so that we can become a part of His Family. That’s the most important and that’s the focus of the book of 1 John.

We know that we have the petitions, or the requests, in other words, that we have desired of Him. That are according to His will, again.

If anyone knows their brother’s sin to sin not unto death, they may ask and He may give them life for any who do not sin unto death. Well, little complicated the way he’s saying this, but getting a point across about sin. There is sin that leads to death and there is sin that doesn’t lead to death. What is it? Well, the sin that doesn’t lead to death is that which was repented of. And if someone won’t repent...?

You can pray for an individual when you see that they’re struggling with something and maybe they’re close to you and they’ve shared something with you or whatever, you may know of it or whatever, and they're repenting, they’re striving to change, and you pray for them. That’s our heart and our mind toward our brother. We should want everyone in the Body to succeed in God’s Church, to be in God’s Family, and so we pray for one another. It shows our care and concern.

God wants to know, what is your care and concern toward your brother? Are you judging your brother? Are you harsh to your brother? Are you judgmental in attitude? Or is your desire to see them succeed and excel and conquer and overcome? Are we praying about that?

In other words, this gets into relationships now and how we think toward each other. Because, candidly, throughout time in the Church this matter of being judgmental, of being harsh on one another, of feeling that “My way is right and if you don’t do it my way you’re sinning or you’re just not doing it right and you need to change,” that’s not right. That's not right thinking.

...that He may give them life, for any who do not sin unto death. There is a sin unto death. The person won’t repent.

You know, it comes to that in the Church finally when someone is disfellowshipped even, there comes a point where it becomes crystal clear they will not repent. They have no desire to repent; they’re right. They’re right. Everyone who becomes disfellowshipped, they’re right in their own eyes. They won’t listen to God’s government anymore. Doesn’t do any good to talk to them or try to reason with them, their mind is somewhere else. Their mind is rejecting God, rejecting how God’s spirit works within the Body, within the Church. You can’t help that. You can’t help them.

So it becomes clear in time here they’re not a part of us anymore. That’s what John is talking about here over and over again.

I do not say that they should pray for that, a sin unto death. Because if someone refuses, some people go so far sometimes. I think of one elder that sticks in my mind. I think it was around 2012, somewhere in there, maybe 2013 where another had been put out of God’s Church, another elder, and they were friends, these two elders. And within the Church, we understand if someone is disfellowshipped, we don’t have fellowship anymore because that’s being disobedient to God. Because we have nothing in common anymore. On the contrary. And even worse is that they have known the truth, but they have rejected something in the truth; they have rejected even God’s government, how it works in the Church.

The individual made a comment, “No one is going to tell me that I can’t fellowship with someone else,” in other words, “that’s been disfellowshipped.” You think, “Whew! Tells where you are.” Easy to say they weren’t around. I mean, they weren’t allowed to stay around. They became disfellowshipped.

Because you can’t work with that. If your mind is so set against what God instructs and tells you to do, then you’re not a part. So, why play games? Why pray for them if their minds are made up? It comes to a point where someone who becomes disfellowshipped or at that point that it’s in their hands, repentance is. If they won’t repent you can’t pray against God’s will in this because they’re on their way out and they’re going to be dealt with accordingly.

Verse 17—All unrighteousness is sin. We all have sin. But the key is that we’re supposed to and desire and want to and do repent quickly. ...and there is a sin not unto death. Yeah, because it can be repented of. As soon as we repent, what an awesome thing, a confidence we can have that we know as soon as we repent of sin, and we ask God to help conquer and overcome it, God sees that desire within us, and He gives us help. He’ll give us help to fight it, to work against whatever it is that we’re battling if we continue to ask.

It doesn’t mean you’re going to conquer it immediately. There may be something that happens and you give in again at a point. But if you keep repenting, keep fighting you grow, because every time you repent you’re acknowledging God is right and “I” am wrong. “I am wrong. God is always right.” And when you repent, that’s what you’re acknowledging. It’s a beautiful thing.

Verse 18—We know that whoever is born of God does not sin. Now, you have to take this in the context of what he’s saying throughout the book. He’s not saying that just because we’ve been begotten of God that we don’t sin, and he’s not talking about when we’re, once we’re in the Family, because no one in the Church even when they die is in the Family. You’re just dead until you’re in the Family. That means God has to resurrect you. No doubt about that then.

“We know that whoever is born of God does not sin,” does not (the context) practice sin. We fight it. We seek to conquer it. We want to overcome it. That’s what we do. So, if we’re living what is right we’re not going to continue to dwell in sin. Anyone who continues to dwell in sin, which has been the majority of people who have ever been called in the last two thousand years, at some point they’ve chosen to do something else, think something else, and they get cut off from God’s spirit. They don’t fit this.

But one that is begotten of God keeps… It’s that word “watches over; guards.” You know, it’s in a battle. I love that word “to overcome.” It’s a word that literally means “to conquer.” With God’s help, with God’s spirit, we can conquer, we can conquer self, we can conquer this wrong mind and this wrong thinking that is nothing but selfishness of itself. Only with God’s spirit can we be of that mind, outward in love in care and concern for one another, growing in God’s love, if we’re exercising it.

So, exercising God’s love is a tall order because it has to do with how we think about one another, how we treat one another, how we speak of one another, and on and on it goes. That reflects then what’s going on in the mind and whether it’s right or wrong.

So again here, One that is begotten of God, so that’s the context, keeps (watches over; guards) themselves. We want to be on guard. How often are we told that in scripture, to be on guard, to be watchful, to be watchful of God’s truths, to guard the truth, not to begin to drift away from and think something else so that we see something else.

It blows my mind when these things happen in the Church, but it just goes on and on and on and it doesn’t stop, and it won’t stop because that’s the carnal human mind. It’s why God has given it very clear to see that these things are going to happen right up to the time of Christ’s coming. You think, how is that possible? to see things happening in the world, to be in a nuclear war, and yet some have their own mind of how their thinking and think, “What are you doing? You have the ability to with God’s spirit, but what are you not doing?” Well, I can tell you what they’re not doing. They’re not repenting of sin. There are things they want to hold on to that are different.

...keeps themselves, and that wicked one does not lay hold of them. You know, if an individual continues in certain sins and won’t fight them, won’t strive to conquer them and overcome them and cry out to God for help, in time individual becomes weaker and weaker because if there is sin God takes away His spirit.

They can be in the environment of the Church and going to Sabbath services and going to the Holy Days and going to the Feast of Tabernacles and that doesn’t prove whether we’re in the Body, just because we go through the motion of those things. What we live, what we think – that determines being in the Body.

Then Satan and the demonic world have no ability over us. What an awesome thing to understand that, that if we’re striving to live what is right and we’re striving to do what is right and we’re crying out to God to accomplish that, and God’s spirit continues to come into us that being has no power over any of us. No power to influence. They can broadcast at us, but if we are growing we’re able to fight against that and say no. Wrong thoughts, wrong thinking, and you just discard it, and if it’s tempting or whatever in your mind you pray to God for help to resist and fight it.

We know... Powerful. We know that we are of God. Everyone in God’s Church should know that with a great confidence. Now, if there is sin involved that someone is doing, and they can’t have this confidence. They might want to or try to fake it in their own lives in how they’re thinking.

I’ll give you an example. I’ve used these many of times. But just, it’s something that’s happened a lot where individuals don’t tithe faithfully or don’t give God Holy Day offerings, of something He commands. So simple. So basic. And if that can’t be done then what about all the other things? Because if the most basic of not robbing from God Almighty isn’t in the mind you know there are a lot of other things that are so screwed up in their life and they’re living a lie.

So, these things, I’ve seen them forever in God’s Church, since I’ve been in God’s Church, these kinds of situations. Think, how can that be? But the human mind is a very deceitful and a powerful thing and sometimes it’s just difficult for people to grasp what’s going on in the mind. But with God’s spirit you can if you’re fighting and if you’re crying out to God.

We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in wickedness. And I’ll tell you, if we can’t see that in God’s Church today? You look at everything that’s going on out there and that kind of wickedness, the wickedness that’s there is far more powerful than it was a year ago, two years ago, three. It’s so much greater, it really is.

It’s scary what’s taking place out there to younger generations and what they’re being taught and the stuff that’s on TV. They can’t deal with those things unless they’re being instructed or guided and directed and taught in ways that the world isn’t being taught. The world is just, here it is, this is what you’re to eat, this is what you’re to swallow, this is what you’re to live, and people become in bondage to it. They can’t help it. We can.

Now, we have known that the Son of God is coming, present progressive. Awesome where it pops up sometimes, and we haven’t even focused on this one in times past. We know that the Son of God is coming in the flesh. It wasn’t about him coming in the flesh as used to be thought at one time as a whole when these scriptures would be read or scriptures like this in John and other places especially. It wasn’t about him coming in the flesh or him coming in the future in the sense of coming to this earth.

That’s not what it’s about. It’s this present progressive thing. He’s coming into our lives. We know this. He’s coming in the flesh. What a beautiful thing the way it’s given here. And most all of this that we’re going through has not been known in God’s Church. To the degree John understood it, we don’t even know that because it was for the end-time primarily and for the time leading into God’s government ruling on this earth that that knowledge would be given, and the understanding of those things would be given by that time. That’s what God is doing.

Now, we have known that the Son of God is coming. What an awesome thing. Philadelphia hasn’t known that in the same degree, in the same manner of what this is talking about. Laodicea most definitely didn’t, falling asleep there, becoming lukewarm.

...and has given us understanding. Literally means (I love this), “the mind.” What do you mean “has given us the mind”? The mind that enables us to think differently. It’s what repentance means, “think differently,” to be transformed. For this transformation of the mind to take place what an awesome thing that’s taking place in our being, that God’s transforming the very way we think, the mind. Because that’s what has to be saved.

Not this body. This body just gets older and more run down and not sure how many more flights you can make. You know, you can tell it, things happen, and we start to break down. We’re not getting younger, we’re getting older. When you get old, you know you’re getting older and it’s not a secret. When you’re young you don’t think about those things as much because you’re filled with life. But I can tell you right now you’re not getting younger. It’s going a different direction and it’s not a fun one. It's a tough one.

But with God’s way of life what an awesome thing that we know these things and we see these things and know how to work with them and what really counts. The mind. How we think. And if we don’t think right toward God? Someone that could steal against God? What kind of a mind is that? It’s not the mind of Christ. It’s not the mind of God. It’s not the mind of any of God’s children either! It’s a different kind of mind. That’s why it doesn’t stay with us very long.

...and has given us the mind (understanding) so that we may know Him who is true. We’re able to understand and know things about Christ, things about God the world doesn’t understand. Frankly, at this point in time, things that those who are scattered have never understood.

...and we are in Him who is true, even in His Son Joshua the Christ. Beautiful. To know what has been given to us, to be able to have that kind of life, to have that kind of sharing. That’s what I love about Elohim and what God revealed to the Church some time back, about how that God is going to dwell in His Family forever. What we experience on a partial plane—because He doesn’t always dwell in us, He’s not continuing in us all the time. When we sin, we’re cut off. Then we have to repent. And if we don’t repent, He’s not dwelling there. He will not dwell in sin until we repent.

That’s why it’s so important as soon as we sin, and we know we’ve sinned, we repent. But what happens is sometimes individuals get to a point where they get accustomed to sin. You know, someone who is stealing from God, robbing God, they just get accustomed to that and somehow justify certain things in their mind. And you think, how is that possible? Without God’s spirit, that’s how it’s possible.

Because God cuts you off the first time you lied to Him, the first time you stole from Him. He won’t dwell in you. Then we take other sins. The first time we got in an argument with someone in God’s Church, the first time we harbored ill feelings towards someone else. Man, if we don’t see that, that we’re making ourselves weaker, not stronger, we’ve got something to repent of. We’re wrong.

You know, it’s easy to find fault in others. It’s easy to say, “You’ve done something wrong.” It’s easy to say, “You know, you called me a … a butt. I’m offended by that.” Even if you don’t have that conversation with them, don’t even at least have the courtesy to tell them you’re offended by it because your emotions are all worked up, but if you harbor that in your heart and your mind you’re cutting yourself off from God!

You have no right. No one has any right to harbor ill feelings toward anyone else. We belong to God Almighty and we need to grasp that. We are not here to judge and be judges of one another, of other of God’s people. We’re here to conquer this piece of “you-know-what.” That’s what we are. We’re not right! We’re selfish, and we’ve got to conquer this, we’ve got to continue to look into the mirror and see ourselves not other people.

It’s easy to get onto other people and be offended and wear these feelings, you know, “They shouldn’t talk to me that way. Man.” And husbands and wives, especially, if this happens with husbands and wives in God’s Church that’s got to be repented of immediately. Yet it doesn’t happen, and feelings fester and after a while they can’t live together anymore. Sad.

Now, if you have to come to a point like that and you have to be gone from each other and you have to start your life anew in the sense of repenting before God because you can’t control yourself, because you can’t do that toward them, you can’t love them anymore with God’s love... Because if you have God’s love toward another you won’t treat them wrong, you won’t treat them ill! You just won’t do it. When you see yourself and the rottenness that’s coming out and that thinking coming out that’s wrong say, “Father, forgive me. Help me to do this right. Help me to say the right things.”

That can be an ongoing battle in human life because we’re always selfish. Selfish things are going to come out of you all the time in life. They just happen. You can’t help it. But you’re supposed to do something about it when it happens. You’re supposed to repent.

So, to me, that’s one of the worst of things that can take place sometimes then, when both are in God’s Church (supposed to be) and come to a point where can’t be that way anymore. Think, well, I don’t know how much time you have or whether you’re going to be able to do it or not or whether God’s going to hear it or not but get over here, or you get over in your corner and you get over in your corner, live in different parts of the country, whatever you want to do, and hopefully you have time to get back on the right track and get your life spiritually together again. Because if you can’t dwell with each other because there is so much there, so much baggage that you can’t fight that anymore – which can happen and does happen, and then people begin to get their lives in order again. I’ve seen it.

Sad that all that had to be gone through in order to get to that point but if you go through it successfully and God’s helping you to get your life back in order again then so be it. Do we have time for that now? Might live on into a new age, you know, I don’t know, that’s in God’s hands. He judges. Hope you understand what I’m saying.

John is very strong here in what he’s been telling all through the book. And when you go back and hear Part 5 here in the UK you’ll see that even more so, things that are being said, things that are being told to us, things that we need to grasp and comprehend, of how we’re to think toward each other and how important that is that we have a right mind and a right thinking taking place, that we are repenting and striving to be different, better, exercising God’s love more. Because we have the ability to exercise God’s love.

You can’t muster it up. You can’t decide you’re going to do that all of a sudden, “Today I’m going to live God’s love.” No, you’ve got to pray about it and ask God for help of His holy spirit to help you think right toward whatever it is you’re dealing with in life and toward your weaknesses. You’re asking God for help to fight against the weaknesses in your thinking so that you can be right toward others.

That’s what exercising God’s love is about, learning to be giving to the point of sacrifice. What are you sacrificing? This, the way “I” see it, the way “I” think it should be done. “Just ask me. I know!” You’ve got to get rid of that kind of garbage. That kind of stuff has to go.

Now we have known that the Son of God is coming and has given us understanding (literally, “the mind”) so that we can know Him who is true. That’s how we’re able to know. We’re repenting, we’re changing and He’s continually coming into your life, and we are in Him who is true; even in His Son Joshua the Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. That’s what we want, that relationship.

Little children—what an incredible way to end—keep yourselves from idols. What are you raising up as being more important than the truth? What is it we’re bowing down to that’s more important to ourselves? It’s like looking in the mirror and bowing down to our self. “You’re right. You’re right. They’re wrong. They’re wrong. You’re right. You’re justified. You’re right to harbor these bad feelings toward someone else. Oh yeah, you’re right. I’m right!” Yeah, see how foolish that would be. But that’s idolatry, putting something else before what God says we should be living and doing. And yet we do it all the time as human beings.

Well, we’ve gone through the entire book now of 1 John and we’re going to finish this series by focusing on some areas of scripture that speak of the importance of God’s love being exercised in our lives. And hopefully, after going through the book of 1 John here we’re able to see those things in a sharper way, in a clearer way, in a stronger way spiritually.

So, we’re going to go, first of all here, to the book of Jude. We’re going to look at these couple of verses here, verse 20, and then we’ll come back later in Jude. I’d put in my notes “If we have time.” Well, we’re going to make time regardless of how many series this ends up being.

Jude:20—But you, beloved, building up yourselves in holy faith. What an incredible thing to know that we can do this. “You, beloved, building up yourselves.” That’s what we have to do. That’s a part of exercising God’s love. It’s building up ourselves. We are part of the construction. God wants to give us what’s necessary to grow, to be a part of the temple, whatever our timing is in our lives, to be a part of His Family, and we have to participate in that.

We have to yield ourselves to that process, so we have to be building up ourselves “in holy faith.” Holy because it’s sanctified, set apart. God set it apart and we can join in and be part of that. Which, faith is about what He’s given us to believe. So simple but sometimes it seems rather difficult to really grab hold of, to comprehend what this is, what this kind of faith is.

God gives us the truth. How? That’s part of it. So, Sabbath by Sabbath, Holy Day to Holy Day.

I feel for individuals when they get to a point where it’s happened not too long ago, that had a conversation that an individual no longer is going to be a part with us. It’s like, how can you be fed? How are you going to grow? Got it all set up. Got it all set up, the studying and so forth, and I don’t know what else is a part of that. But it’s like, where can we ever lose how we’re taught?

We’re taught Sabbath by Sabbath. That’s how we grow, by what we’re taught, which is the truth, by what we learn in the truth, by what we’re able to receive of it. Because we don’t all receive in the same way at the same time. We’re growing, depending on where we are in our growth as to how much of it we really hear because it’s spiritual, and so, we don’t all hear the same thing all the time.

And so, there are things that are different and unique in one person’s life than another, and so one thing may apply to one more than another and it takes God’s spirit then in the mind to be able to receive what we need. And so, it’s a matter of a relationship with God.

That’s why we pray about, it’s so important to pray about things we do here on the Sabbath, that we be able to hear what is being given to us, what God and Christ are giving to us every Sabbath and every Holy Day so that we can grow as we’re working to build up this. We want to grow. We want to become stronger. That’s a part of what’s being spoken of here.

And so, we have to have things that we are able to believe. God gives us what we’re supposed to believe. He tells us what we’re to believe and He warns us about things we shouldn’t believe. Sometimes that’s a battle for people because we want to believe certain things.

I think one time an individual in God’s Church wanted to believe the world is flat. How do you deal with that? Huh. There are so many ways. Flying in a plane, being on a ship, all kinds of things. Looking at the horizon. Where does it drop off? You think the insanity of the human mind sometimes to want to hold on to something so asinine, stupid, idiotic, that the world is flat.

I could tell many other things that have gone through the Church over and not just once but over and over again and people get upset about it and very strong about it. I think of Cincinnati one time shortly after we left there back in the ‘80s. Mid ‘80s, went up toward Pennsylvania. All of a sudden there were these groups down there and they’re worried about “Look outside. Do you see those black helicopters? Whoa. Stay inside. They’re coming after somebody.” Stupid stuff. The black helicopters, all these secret organizations, and what they’re doing. And it’s like, boy have you lost it.

You know, a lot of people in God’s Church left over it. A lot of people in the Church we used to attend in Cincinnati, in the South, went with that weird stuff.

The list just goes on and on and people are warned about it and it’s like, “No, I believe what I heard. I believe what I read. Don’t tell me something different and screw up my mind because I want to hold on to it!” You want to hold on to an idol? Fine. So be it. Bye. It just proves you’re not a part. Doesn’t become too hard to judge situations like that.

So, do we think that the human mind can do crazy and atrocious things? Because it can. That’s why we have to be on guard and alert and cautious and desiring to hear what God is giving us week by week and drinking it in. Because, well, it’s our life, it determines our life.

But you, beloved, building up yourselves in holy faith, praying in the holy spirit. How do you do that? Well, it has to be in spirit and in truth. So, you better, we’d better make sure that we are in God’s spirit, that He’s in us. We better have that kind of confidence that 1 John was talking about, that "I know because I believe everything that I’ve been taught! I believe what God has given to me. I believe it. I see it. Awesome! Beautiful. I want to hold on to that and I don’t want to lose any of it, and if I can grow in it and build upon that more, great, awesome!”

So, it better be the truth. So, “in spirit and in truth.” They go together. You can’t have one without the other because it has to be what is true. And where does that come from? If we don’t know those things, if we don’t have a quick answer we’re in deep something.

…keep… That word again, “watch over; guard” yourselves. Be on guard. Be alert. …in the love (beautiful) agape of God. So, we have a part in making sure that we’re in that. And you know, if we’re not thinking along those lines, if we don’t have a sacrificing love in us and we’re holding on to something against someone else, tells us right away we’re not in this love. We’re not in God’s love. Because we’re so right about something that we have a right to be against someone else, to have and harbor wrong feelings toward someone else? What is it you’re holding on to?

…keep yourselves in the agape of God, looking for, the Greek word means “to receive” here. We’re wanting to receive the mercy of our Lord Joshua the Christ unto, in other words, “toward” as that word is, toward eternal life. We want to be in God’s Family. We want to be in Elohim.

So, one area. We’ll come back to this in a greater context in the book of Jude later.

Revelation 2. Many places where agape and the importance of it in our lives is spoken of in scripture. Revelation 2:1—Unto the angel of the Church of Ephesus write… So, here is the beginning of the Church from the time of the early disciples becoming apostles, Paul being added later, and they began to work with God’s Church. God begins to raise up a Church through His Son Joshua.

It goes on to say then to that first era, These things are said by He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. So, what is this all about? It’s about the Church. It’s about what the Church is going to go through in the next two thousand years. It’s about the one who has the power to do this, that has made this, that has created it, the Church. Awesome!

I know your works… So ahead of time some of these things were spoken of and told, what different ones would go through at different times, what would be the primary identification of the Church of God during a specific period of time. However, things that are said apply to all seven eras and on. We’re beyond the eras but all these things apply to us.

I know your works, in other words, what you do, what you exercise, what you live. What an incredible thing to know that. God tells us then that we can know it, here they are. …and your labor. Well, what is it? The toil.

…and your patience. So, we’re to have these things in our life – patience, work, exercise God’s way of life in our life.

…and how you cannot bear those who are evil. Well, so it has to do with how we think toward the world around us and the evil that we see, and that we understand we desire with deep desire that God’s Kingdom come, we look forward to the time. They did. Everyone who is ever called into God’s Church looks forward, has been forward looking to God establishing His Kingdom on this earth.

You have even tried those who say they are apostles… This in this context here and how it is through much of scripture, those who, in essence, say they are sent. This has happened in, throughout. Seen it over and over again in Philadelphia, over and over again in Laodicea, and ever since the Apostasy, claiming that they have certain things sent to what? To teach something directly from God. That’s what it is.

…who say they are apostles, in other words, a messenger of the truth (and generally “new truth”). So, there are many who came along, John in the book of John was warning about some of those things. He talked about some of those things referring to antiChrist and said, “Even now there are many antichrists.” This was very early on. Exactly what age John was, in his eighties, whatever at that point in time when he wrote those things (it’s not known absolutely for sure), but it was toward the end of his life and before Revelation was given on the Isle of Patmos.

Again here, these things that are being gone through right here in Revelation itself in the different eras, they experienced this. This was the period of Ephesus, that already he was telling them, “Already we have many antichrists.” Paul had to give the names of ministers because they were leading people astray. What were they doing? They were coming, supposedly, saying that they were sent – and this has happened in God’s Church over and over again – but if you don’t teach the truth?

I think of all the ministers who began to teach false things in Laodicea, and the farther it got along the worse it got. They weren’t teaching what was true and what had been given through God’s apostle. Because nothing else had come along. The one who replaced him had no right, authority to be able to say or do those things, but to hold on to whatever he had to that point in time. But he sought to change some of those things.

So, the warning here is about people who come along who have something new to teach you. They’re sent. (They basically believe that.) They’re sent from God. They have the authority, the right to begin to teach something that is different, that’s unique to them.

…who say they are apostles, you’ve tried them and they’re not, they’re not sent from God. Boy has the Church had to go through this over and over again. And sadly, it hasn’t been handled really well. Why? Well, because people coming out of Laodicea and during Laodicea, all went to sleep. All were lukewarm and had to start repenting of those things as soon as the Apostasy took place, or at some point afterward as God gave them opportunity. Then many of them went off again.

…even tried those who say they are apostles and are not and have found them liars. So, if we’re close to God we’re going to know when something is being taught different – like 14/15. There should have been alarms going off in people’s lives. But because they knew a particular minister and he had sway over them in different things and people started grabbing a hold of that. “Oh yeah.” He’d quote scriptures and then talk about them in a wrong way and so they began to be led away.

That’s what’s being warned against here. This was happening right away in the Church of Ephesus. What an incredible thing. It didn’t take very long, and people started going astray, ministers started going astray and started leading Churches astray. That’s the way it’s always been.

Verse 3—Even you have borne, speaking of burdens and loads, in other words, what is carried, and have had patience. We should all have that, and we should all be willing to carry whatever burden that might be, suffer, willing to suffer what? To love others. And if that’s hard, you learn how to do it, you strive to do it for their sake.

…and for My name’s sake have labored, toiled, and have not grown weary. We don’t have the option of growing weary. It’s not in, shouldn’t be in our vocabulary. It’s a fight, it’s a battle all the way till you die or you’re changed. It’s a fight. This is always a fight. Always something to be on guard against because we understand its nature – it’s to be selfish. It’s about “me.” It’s about what “I” see, how “I” think. No, it’s about how God thinks. It’s about what God sees and what God tells us we’re to see, and then coming into unity and oneness with that.

Nevertheless, I have against you because you have left your first love. Agape. Didn’t take long, did it? Didn’t take long. Paul started addressing it almost from the get-go as he went out to the gentiles and talking about what was taking place. It had to be addressed by others as well. Problems in the Church, problems in how people were living their lives and they weren’t living the way they were supposed to.

Because, you see, the majority of those who were called, they left. Every era has had this problem because it’s just a part of the environment of God’s Church. “Many have been called, but few chosen,” when it’s all said and done.

Nevertheless, I have against you because you have left your first love. So important then they had something new that was unique to them at their time that had never been heard in the world about a Messiah, about a Christ, about the Son of God. Now, there are a lot of false religions and so forth that had things… anyway. But this and the stories that went with it, the things that took place, they told. Because at that time this was just the beginning, and they hadn’t heard these things.

Now, we come out of, many, out of traditional Christianity so we’re familiar with the names and some of the stories, but we just have it all wrong, a little screwed up because of what this great big church did, you know, and because of numbers. It’s like, “Oh, there are so many. This can’t be wrong, and this is small over here. It’s a cult! It has to be a cult because they’re so small and they’re by themselves and they’re so far away from anything we believe. We’re in the millions and billions. We can’t be wrong.” I mean, that’s the way of the human mind. Well, they can’t help it without God’s spirit.

And so, we get called by God’s spirit, He draws us, helps us to see the things that are false.

It says here, because you have left your first love, agape, that’s why they needed what John had to write. That’s why he wrote some of the things he did at the end. They could see what he wrote. He wrote toward the end of this era. God gave him ability to see and know things and be able to write about certain things that as a whole the Church couldn’t receive yet because it was for later.

Therefore, remember when you have fallen. This word meaning “when you have failed.” …and repent and do the first works. So, it’s always about repentance. That’s a good thing for everyone in God’s Church. Because these things have happened during Philadelphia, they happened assuredly throughout Laodicea, that that excitement, that calling, that knowing.

I was amazed by the end of Laodicea that a calling wasn’t even being taught anymore. The Church eras were not taught anymore. They weren’t even believed as a whole anymore. What happened? Well, that’s what happens when you start falling asleep and you start losing these things.

So, it says, “Remember how you have fallen.” So, when God gives the ability to see something that needs to be repented of, man, we need to jump on that quickly and repent and ask God for help to climb out of the hole that we’ve gotten ourselves into and seek to put things right and keep crying out about it.

“And do the first works.” So, hopefully, we all see things that we did even in the beginning of our calling, each one of us, as God opened up our minds and that excitement of something that was so profound compared to what you had always believed throughout your life and now to be able to see the truth, the Sabbath, the Holy Days, the Passover, and on and on it goes, to see things that you maybe tried to share with family or different ones. After a while, it’s like they’re looking at you like you have lost your mind, or they just don’t want to have anything to do with you anymore because you’re just kind of a wacky person.

But we know and we’re excited about it, and we want others to see it. We learn you can’t give it to anyone. It’s between us and God. God gave us the ability to see something that they just don’t have the ability to see. And so, what does that mean? It means you better make do with and make sure you use what you’ve been given the ability for. A lot required there, a lot of responsibility.

…and do the first works, or else I will come unto you quickly and will remove your candlestick out of its place—except/unless you repent. So, continual ongoing thing in one’s life, to repent. A desire to hold fast to what God gives us, to ask God in stirring up His spirit within us that we be on fire spiritually and not sluggish and not lukewarm like what happened during Laodicea, but to fight against that.

Another scripture here, Revelation 2, jumping ahead here to Thyatira, verse 18—And unto the angel of the Church in Thyatira write, These things are said by the Son of God, who has his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet like unto fine brass. So again, something that we can’t see but in the spirit world evidently there is that which has an appearance if you had the ability to see a spirit world.

I don’t understand that because I’ve never been there. Neither have any of you. But it’s different. There is that out there that they can see amongst themselves that we can’t, and it’s describing something here that’s I guess the best way to see something physically and be in awe.

I know your works, and agape, and service. That’s the kind of mind that agape has. Serving others. It’s a matter of thinking toward others. It’s a matter of sacrifice in order to help someone else. That’s what service is about. It’s the willingness to sacrifice to help someone else have a better life, have a more enjoyable life, whatever that might be, even if it’s on a small physical plane, which is where we are in a physical world.

…and service, and faith, holding on to and continuing to live by then what God has given us the ability to believe, faith, and your patience for God’s way of life and patience with one another. God’s been patient with us. There are things we’re to learn from that process and not become impatient with others. It’s that ability to see self.

…and your works. There are things we have to be doing. This isn’t just a ride to the end and a ride until we finally see a war begin and Christ is coming and say then you finally made it, and you kind of coast along like you’re on the train we were on today. It’s like, pretty smooth ride, you know, sitting here pretty comfortable and it’s going to get me from point A to point B. Well, anyway. We’re supposed to work along the way – all along the way, things we’re supposed to do. It takes work to fight, to change self, to be a part of self being changed, being transformed. God gives us the help on a spiritual plane but there are things we have to apply in our physical lives.

It says here, and the last more than the first. What an awesome thing here that He said of this era. We don’t know much about it, what took place. The one that followed it, Sardis, wow, began to go by the wayside. But there had to be a point in time here where they’re ending because it was one of the longest eras. It was the longest era that there was, over a thousand years. Think, whoa. And the last, they were more on fire than even the beginning. Awesome! What a beautiful thing.

Another area here, Ephesians 1. There are a lot of things in Ephesians that are said about God’s love, the importance of it in our lives. And so, there are things we should be able to see to judge by, to see, have a better inkling if you will, a better understanding of where we are even spiritually, as to what is being reflected in our lives by this kind of love, whether it’s there or not, whether it exists and to what degree it exists.

Because it all has to do with our fellowship. As a whole, that’s what it’s about. It’s not just our fellowship with God or with Christ because the human mind can play games there and think everything is hunky-dory, peachy-keen. But that’s why I love it, one scripture that says in essence here, how “If you don’t love your brother whom you have seen, how can you love God whom you haven’t seen?” Pretty powerful.

Yeah, we think we’re okay with God, but if we don’t love one another, God’s own children, and think right toward them then we’re playing games, we’re not right with God. That’s what we’re told there in 1 John.

Ephesians 1:1—Paul, an apostle of Joshua the Christ. When I read through something like this I think of one minister that was from the beginning of PKG who was well up within the government of the Church, who basically had a problem with me when I started, especially in the first book The Prophesied End-Time and speaking of those things about being a prophet. It’s like, “Why do you have to tell people these things? Why do you have to mention it?”

Well, I’m not… I didn’t say this, “Oh, I’m just banging a drum because I think I’m so important. Look at me!” No, it was something that I fought against. I even argued with God about it, but I knew I was supposed to do it. And then an apostle.

So, why? Well, they’re supposed to. Over and over again throughout the Old Testament, they’re a prophet sent by God. You know, they were to tell people, “This is my job. This is what I’m doing. This is what I represent. The message I bring to you, it’s not mine, it’s from God.” Pretty simple.

It’s not about self, and yet that’s the way the carnal mind thinks. It has to be said because it’s right and it shows the authority that’s there. It’s not an individual’s authority, in that respect, it’s God’s. “Get a life.” Anyway, sorry.

Verse 1—Paul, an apostle of Joshua the Christ. So, he told them who he was. When he wrote the Ephesians, “I’m an apostle sent by God. This is from God. It’s coming through me to you.” And if you’re in God’s Church, you’re going to listen. There are different ones that he hadn’t met, hadn’t known that were coming into the Church at Ephesus and so he’s writing to them and just helping it from the very beginning, “This is where it’s from. This is from God.”

…and apostle of Joshua the Christ by the will of God. Pshew…Whew…Okay. Now, if one, somebody can’t accept that, well, “You know, I know Paul. Why is he doing this? Why does he have to say these things?”

…an apostle of Joshua the Christ by the will of God, To the saints who are at Ephesus, in other words, “saints” strictly meaning those who have been set aside, made holy by God. We’re made holy by God, meaning set apart for sacred purpose, for holy use and purpose, for God’s purpose. What? It’s to become a part of His Family, Elohim. That’s what a “saint” means.

Look what the world has done to it. Several hundred years later, “I think he was a saint. He had certain miracles that he did.” You think, what a sad, false counterfeit of something that’s right and good. But that’s all they can do. That’s all Satan can do.

…and to the faithful – faithful, whew. Mean’s living by what is true, living by what they’ve been given to believe and they’re living it.

I think of what we did when we lived that up to 2012, and God was well pleased though we were wrong, though I was wrong, regardless of whatever the reason might be. Because we lived it. We lived it. I was very moved and inspired by that. Awesome what we lived. Even afterwards thinking back and realizing what the Church was willing to do. Some couldn’t deal with that and went.

…and to the faithful in Joshua the Christ. Grace to you and peace from God our Father. He’s saying that with authority because it’s true. That’s what God wants for all of us. He offers us grace, patience, love, kindness, favor, forgiveness of sins when we repent, all the things that are a part of the meaning of grace. We want that, we desire that from God. He offers that and peace because peace is the byproduct of it all. Peace of mind, peace with God, peace with the things that we live in a world like this, but we know where it’s going, and we look forward to its fulfillment.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Joshua the Christ. Praise the God and Father of our Lord Joshua the Christ. That’s what we should do always, always, always, day by day by day, praise, thank God. Thank Him. Be thankful toward Him. Praise Him for His greatness, that He’s called us and is working with us and patient with us and gives us His grace, and on and on it goes.

…who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavens in Christ. That’s how we’re able to receive it, in and through Christ, through being able to be forgiven of sin. This is how we have these things in our life.

…according as He has chosen us in him… This is beautiful. …before the foundation of time if you will. That’s what it’s about. Before anything was ever created, before the universe existed, before the angelic realm was created and a spirit realm Christ was determined, the Son of God was determined, that everything would be built upon His Son, built upon him, built through him. This is powerful what God has done and His choice and how He’s done it.

The more you see that the more beautiful it really is, that plan that in time there would be the earth, in time He would put life upon it – not the dinosaurs, but the life we have now – and human life, and we’d have this environment.

We’d be selfish. We’d be created with selfish human nature because it has to be that way. Because there is absolutely no other way to be transformed. It’s the only way. There is absolutely no other way for anyone that could be created to become a part of Elohim except to be done exactly the way God has done it. No other way.

He makes us with selfish human nature, “lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” It has to be a part of our nature. Then when God begins to draw us and call us, He begins to show us “Your nature is wrong; this is the nature you want. That nature there is satanic.” That’s what he did. He decided for himself what was right and wrong. He didn’t accept the authority of God Almighty. He made us with that kind of a nature that is at enmity with God. What an awesome thing to know. What a peace that goes with that.

He’s made us with a nature that’s at enmity with Him. Then with His holy spirit and His calling, we get to choose to fight against self. Because this is against Him. It’s against Christ by nature. We want to get rid of that crappy nature because it’s that and a whole lot worse and have the beautiful, awesome nature of God Almighty, which is reflected in agape, a sacrificing love, totally giving.

That’s why I love the way Herbert Armstrong used to express these things. Two ways, and it’s as simple as that. Give and get. Human nature is on the “get” side. Always has been, and always will be without God’s help. They can only be on the “give” side, true giving – not giving to where it makes us feel good about ourselves, because that’s getting. It’s with a wrong motive. Only with God’s spirit can we give with the right intent and thinking of the human mind.

What a marvel to know and see such things.

So again, which has blessed us with spiritual blessings unto the heavens and Christ. He’s there, he’s going to come back like Leviticus 16 talks about, the high priest went into the temple, and he won’t come back until everything has been reconciled to him in that Family that exists in that moment, to that moment in time.

…according as He has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in agape. That’s what God wants us to have. He wants us to live it. He wants us to exercise that in our lives and it’s all about relationships.

Ephesians 3:14 it says, For this cause, I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Joshua the Christ, from whom the whole Family in heaven and earth is named. God’s purpose, Elohim. …that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by, the word means “because of,” (literally) …because of His spirit in the inner person. That’s how it happens because of His spirit that we’re able to have that can work in our minds and in our being.

…that Christ may dwell in your hearts, in your inner being, in other words, in the deepest of desire, purpose, intent of life that’s within us. …that Christ may dwell in your hearts, again, because of, that same word, because of faith. So, God’s given us that ability. First, to believe, to see the truth, He has to give it to us. And sadly, when people get cut off they start losing it, they start losing the truth. They can’t see through it anymore. They might have a certain piece here and there of a Sabbath, a seventh day, “Oh, that’s in scripture.” Yeah, duh. But other things, to see the spirit of it, they can’t see it anymore. They lose that.

…may dwell in your hearts because of faith, that you, being rooted and grounded… It’s the foundation of Elohim, of what we are, the Family we’re called to, in agape, God’s love. Rooted and grounded. What an awesome thing to realize we’re to be rooted and grounded in agape.

The Church has had various levels of that. Phila, Philadelphia, was well named by God because it reflected a fraternal love; it didn’t reflect agape. Not fully. Now, there are many who have come through that period of time who are going to be in the first resurrection that learned to live God’s love, that experience that to various levels without total understanding of it.

I think of the Old Testament, different ones that God worked with. He worked with them on a spiritual plane. They didn’t grasp the spirit of so much in their thinking, but they were given things to understand about God. Sometimes they were the only one being worked with at a single time in history. You go back four thousand years, incredible how God worked with different ones individually, personally, working with them, giving them certain things in the mind and helping their minds to change to the point they are going to be resurrected.

Then the Church comes long and there is a maturing process there that’s to take place within us in a unique manner as a fellowship, in that respect, in time, all over the world as it’s been, scattered all over the place. It’s few as far as the world counts, but anyway.

“That Christ may dwell in your hearts because of faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love…” Being able to be. So, we have this, this to be a foundation in our lives. We’re learning it more deeply now than ever before.

Why is that? Because of where we are in time because Christ is about to come to establish God’s government on earth and the Church is to be unique to all other ages. We get to be a part of it because of a refining that God is doing that we’re blessed to be able to experience, and know things, and have these experiences that haven’t worked the same way in times past.

As with Philadelphia, it was a fraternal love, and within that God’s love was mixed. But the fraternal love was overwhelmingly the reflection of that Body. In time, troubles reflected that as to how strong that kind of love is. It’s not a very strong love. Not like agape, it sorts out what is true and what is false. Anyway, another sermon if we don’t see fully some of those things.

Verse 18—may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, length, depth, and height. Powerful things that are actually being told here, that we’re able to grasp with others. It doesn’t matter when that time was within the Church, Ephesus, it doesn’t matter when it might have been that God’s people were called into the Church and to realize we share this with one another. We’re able to share something on a spiritual plane to where whatever we’ve been taught to that moment in time we should be able to share in conversation. We believe the same thing. At least we’re supposed to throughout the Body, but that’s why it’s being refined and that which is not there, that which is not a part, is being gotten rid of. It’s being cleansed as well.

Refined. I want to be in the refining part, not the cleansed part. Now, we want our own lives to be cleansed, but not cleansed from the Body because we’re not a part of it or we’ve gone too far with other things and can’t be helped anymore in this age. Because this Church is going to be a cleansed and refined Body for a great purpose – to glorify God, to glorify Christ, to be a glory to the Church that continues on.

…also to know the love of Christ, agape that we’re able to see these things and grasp these things on a spiritual plane, which surpasses knowledge. You can’t give this to anyone. You can’t give that kind of mind and that kind of love to anyone. It can only be lived by God’s help, just as it is to know the truth can only be kept and learned by God’s spirit. That’s how we’re able to know the truth.

You believe all the truths? There’s only one way you can. It’s by God’s spirit. The fact that you are, which I hope that everyone is, but I know that everyone is not in agreement with all that truth, reflects that this is from God. In other words, that you grasp and comprehend, and you have this from God. Because you can’t have it on your own. What an awesome thing. We’re able to have then a stronger fellowship the more refined we become.

…and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge. It has to be experienced. It has to be lived. We have to understand what interferes with it and what we have to repent of when that’s not being lived. That’s what much of 1 John is about, it’s about getting our act together so that God’s love can work in our lives. Because if we’re not thinking right toward one another we’re missing out horribly and we could be very easily then cleansed from the Body. Because that’s where we are in time. That’s what God is doing.

…so that you are being filled – are being filled— with all the fullness of God. We don’t have it all yet. We’re always growing as long as we’re in this physical body.

…to now, as the word is, right now being enabled, as it is, not “unto him that is able.” You know, there are some things that are just translated poorly, and this is an example of that. It’s saying, to now being enabled to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we think or ask. Well, what an incredible thing God’s given us ability in things because of His spirit. How do you explain that to anyone except through your own personal experience in your relationship with God and where you are and what you see and how we think about it then?

…above all that we ask or think according to the power that’s working in us. So, there are things that work in our lives, in our minds, that oftentimes we don’t really fully grasp the fullness of it all. We grow and we begin to see more and more, we grow more and more through time, and it’s an awesome process, growth.

Ephesians 4:1—I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you that you walk worthy of the manner of the vocation, the word meaning “calling.” So, he’s telling us here he was literally a prisoner, and he was doing a particular job. So much of what Paul wrote he wrote from Rome in some of these cases.

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you that you walk in a worthy manner, it’s what it means there, “in a worthy manner.” We should reflect in our lives within the Church, everyone should be able to see that we’re walking in the same way, in the same direction, and we believe the same things. When someone comes along and they have some different ideas we’re to spot that immediately, and if need be, be involved in going to our brother alone, saying, you know, “That’s not what we say, that’s not what the Church teaches. That’s not what we’ve been taught.”

“We don’t believe that the jets going overhead with those plumes we see are poisoning all the citizens of the world, that their governments are seeking to poison them or spread certain things to have control in their minds.” Weird stuff. And yet that still goes on in God’s Church. It was going on last month, I know that. Amazing.

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, implore that you walk in a worthy manner in the vocation, the calling wherewith you are called. God’s given us an incredible calling. By God! That should so humble us, so move our thinking toward the love God has to us, to give us such opportunity. The fact that we share this with one another, to share that in our minds we are together in this. We are family and we better straighten up how we think about each other. And if there are conflicts, man, don’t let it happen.

If you get upset at somebody else, shame on you! I don’t care what they did to you! I don’t care if they came up and slapped you across the face and called you an “Absolute moron, you idiot, how could you be like that?!” How would you do today if somebody came up to you, “I’ve been looking for this chance!” Fwoom! “You must not be in God’s Church. You slapped me.”

You know, it’s better to be like David – having rocks thrown at him and the captain of the guard there wanted to cut his head off and David said, “No, no, leave him alone.” Basically, “God may have sent him. There may be something for me to learn.” What an attitude. What a spirit. So, somebody slaps the you-know-what out of you? Say, “Boy, yeah, I kind of probably needed that.” No, just sort of kidding there.

But what can you learn from it? Well, you can learn how to exercise love and how to pray right toward them instead of becoming so offended inside that you start getting angry inside and you start finding all kinds of reasons why they’re wrong and why they need to change and why you need to chew them out for what they just did. Because that’s probably what will happen in many cases, or you go and tell someone else, “You know what so-and-so did, he just slapped the tar out of me today! What is wrong?! Can’t be a part of God’s Church!” Whoa, wow. You know things could go so far in thinking sometimes, “They can’t be a part of God’s Church.” You want to be a judge of that one? Whew!

…walk worthy of the calling with all lowliness. “What am I?” Always remember that when you’re thinking about someone else. We’re in this together. Are we above everybody else? Are we better than somebody else? Are we, you know, whatever, that we should look down upon someone else in our attitude and our thinking?

…with all lowliness and meekness, a teachable spirit. Like David. You’d have to say that’s a very teachable spirit, ready to learn, anxious to learn. “What can I learn from this?” Rather than striking out and striking back. Nope, “Ready to learn from this.” That’s meekness.

…with longsuffering – with one another. How much patience do we have with one another? Don’t you want people to treat you with patience and longsuffering? Don’t you want God to treat you with patience? Because He has been all the way since you’ve been called to this point in time. God’s given me a lot of patience – extended patience toward me. I’m grateful for that and I want to learn from that to be patient toward others. Not to be so quick. Not to be so quick.

…forbearing one another. Oh, what a beautiful scripture because it’s a word that literally has to do with the ability to tolerate. It doesn’t mean tolerate in the sense of the negative aspect of it. We think as human beings, “Well, I’ll tolerate that but…” But it’s a word that means “allowing for the differences.” Can we allow for the differences? There are many ways of doing things.

That’s why so often when it comes to things of judgment, that people want to jump on something my first reaction is “Okay, first of all, what’s the sin? Do you know there was sin? What was that sin?” Because so often it’s not a matter of sin, just many different ways of living life. That’s why we don’t have to insert ourselves into one another’s life or think that our way is better than someone else’s. Everybody has to learn through their own personal experiences. God doesn’t come down and tell us. This is one of the things we used to believe during the Millennium. It was going to be that someone was going to come up and tap you on the shoulder as soon as you get ready to sin, “No, no, no, this is the way, walk you in it.” That’s about as protestant and barfy as can be, but we were there at that point in one time. That’s not the way it is.

That will be taught as is being taught today, “This is the way, walk in it,” and people will hear it Sabbath by Sabbath by Sabbath. “Don’t do that. Don’t go that way. This is the way.” But not someone, one of the 144,000. Oh man, they’d be busy out here all over the world, “Oh! Oh, wait, I’ve got to go over here. Don’t do that!” while they’re rushing over someplace else.

Thankfully, should be able to move very quickly from one spot to another, but you’re going to have your hands full because this is into the millions. It’s just nuts. So, we should find some humor in some of that sometimes.

…forbearing one another… The only way you can do it, the only way you can have longsuffering, the only way you can have meekness, the only way you can have lowliness of mind is …in agape, because that reflects God. That reflects the mind of God toward His creation, toward those whom He has called. Because that’s what’s needed in order to make the change. If not, we’d have been stamped out a long time ago. I would have been. Every one of us would have been. We wouldn’t have a chance. What an awesome God, the kind of love He has that we’re to have toward one another.

…endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit. That takes work and that’s a part of agape. Standing up for what is true, living what we’re supposed to live no matter what anybody else says or thinks about you. Are we more worried about what someone thinks in the world or family or whatever because we’re standing up for what is right? And so, what it is and what God calls it: “Are you ashamed of Me?” “Are you ashamed of Christ?” “Are you ashamed to be a part of the Body of Christ? Because that’s what that reflects. It doesn’t reflect God’s love.

I’ve known many people who have been ashamed of being part of the Church because they won’t stand up for what is true and right, “This is who I am. I don’t work on Saturdays. I don’t work on Friday night at sunset.” Let God fight the battles. Let Him help. Now, you don’t have to go out and blurt it out so there is wisdom in how we do some of these things and how people come to know us and through time. But in time people are going to come to know you on the job or wherever it might be, but you can’t tell them anything that they’re going to be able to learn the truth from. You’re wasting your time if you try.

So, you just live God’s way of life wherever you are, and you stand up for what is true. If it’s time to leave at a certain time you leave. If your boss says you can’t do that, you just do it because it’s right before God. Many people haven’t been able to do the things like that.

..until we… Okay, at the bond of peace. …in unity of the spirit, in the bond, in other words, just like glue, binding together, that which binds us together, to keep the unity of the spirit, that we all believe the same thing, to stand up for what is true when someone else says something strange to us about, you know, “I know this person they can… It’s called Reiki. And you can lie down, and they’ll put their hands across your back. They won’t touch it but they’re going to go across your back and you’re going to feel so much better when you’re done. You’re going to have a peace.”

That’s why I love that one comedian when he got through with that (I think I told this before), it came time to pay and he says, “Feel back here, it’s where my wallet is. Do you feel the payment coming through?” Something like that. Anyway, it’s how stupid something like that is. And yet if we’re not careful we can get caught up in things and believe certain things in the world. Then we’re warned what to watch out for and what to be on guard against.

If we were mistaken about something, we did something that was foolish, we just repent and say, “God, thank You for being patient with me and helping me stay on a right track. Thank You for blessing me and helping me to grasp and comprehend where these things come from and that You are always there warning us and helping us to see the things we’re to be on guard against,” because these are the kinds of things that lead people astray in God’s Church, get caught up in a spirit world, not God’s spirit.

And if we know certain things like that are happening and someone wants to share that with you say, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, you might want to go talk to a minister about this because that’s not what we teach in the Church and it’s really kind of…not kind of, it is very dangerous and it’s a spirit thing in the world. It’s what the world teaches, and we don’t do that in the Church.” Or do we just keep our mouths shut and let them go off and lead someone else in God’s Church astray?

There is one body, one spirit, as you are called in one hope of your calling. Awesome!

Verse 13, another one, until you all… until we all come into the unity of the faith. It’s a beautiful thing to be unified, to be of the same belief. That’s what unity of faith is. We’re all living the same thing because we believe the same thing. That’s what this faith is about, living one belief.

…and of the knowledge of the Son of God, into a completed individual – into a completed individual – into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That’s what’s being developed. Awesome!

So that we are no longer… It’s not “children,” it’s a word that means “immature; simple-minded.” So that we’re not that way in God’s Church, that we’re not simple-minded. “Feel the wallet.” “Feeeeeeel the healing. Do you feel better now?”

There are powers oftentimes that are active to work in people’s lives that they do feel certain things, they do experience certain things, just as much as a pentecostal will get down and roll on the floor because they’re experiencing something, or they start speaking in gibberish because they’re “speaking in tongues.” It’s the spirit world. They like to do things like that when someone surrenders their mind and their will to such stupidity. The world does it out of stupidity. People in God’s Church should never do it out of stupidity.

So that you are no longer immature or simple-minded because that’s the way we are as human beings. Human beings tend to be that way, willing to believe whatever they want to believe. Read on the internet certain things and getting sucked into things. Because everybody is getting sucked into something.

They have AI’s now basically that if you start doing a search on the internet it’ll lead you automatically into other searches of the same type of thing, not to something else you would really like to see both sides of the story so you can make a wise, a better judgment. You really have to search to do that.

It’s getting where you can’t even do that because they’re feeding you, spoon-feeding you what you want to believe. In the U.S., if you want to believe certain things about that which is on the Republican side, the far right, oh, it’ll feed you those things oftentimes. Then you go to the left, oh, it’ll feed you those things.

Anyway, I think they put a stop to a lot of it on the right though. Really, they don’t want anybody going that direction. I’m just talking about being a little conservative. You know, the world is so liberal today it’s better to be a little conservative and wrong than to be wildly liberal and wrong too. Which one is better? Hmmm.

We don’t have to worry about that, we’re in God’s Church. We don’t follow either one. We don’t side with either one. Sadly, people in God’s Church side with people sometimes. “Oh, he was a great president.” “Oh, he’ll make a great president.” My wife and I have joked about a desire we have of those who wanted the first king, we want to line them up in a line and go down and give them a loving spiritual kick in the you-know-what for making such a stupid choice that’s led to what we have today.

“You didn’t want to have a king who was led by God. You wanted something else just like all the other nations.” So, how high are your taxes here? Sorry.

So that you are no longer “children,” immature, simple-minded, being tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine. All kinds of things out here that people can be carried away with. Weird things isn’t it, and crazy that can happen in the environment of God’s Church. “Oh, black helicopters – gasp!” Anyway. That’s really stupid. Hundreds of people got sucked into that just in one Church area alone. Man, you talk about wacko.

Anyway, by every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of people, you know, the things that people say, the deceitfulness of certain things, and then they pull you in. Once you start listening to what they have to say, and you take a little bit of it and after a while they’re ready to feed a whole bunch more to you that you haven’t even heard yet to get you deeper and deeper.

Then it goes on to say, “and cunning craftiness whereby they lay in wait to deceive.” It doesn’t say any of that in scripture. It says, by the sleight of people unto the cleverness for wandering away. That’s what it’s about. That’s a correct translation. The cleverness that they use to lead people away, to wander away from what is true.

Verse 15—but speaking the truth in agape. That’s the way God’s truth should be spoken, out of love. What does that mean? Well, think about it, pray about it if you don’t know.

But speaking the truth in agape may grow up into him in all things, who is the head—even Christ—from whom the whole Body, the entirety of the Church, is fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies. Do you know what that’s saying? We need each other. We all do a part. We’re not better than anyone else. We all do a part.

Anything that’s in a building, if you didn’t have certain things in the wall right here that wouldn’t stay up. Okay? And the things that go across here that hold the tiles in place, if they’re not there they don’t just stay there. They’re not going to stay there. It all has a function.

We all have a function in the Body of Christ and that means we need each other. That’s how God has designed us, molded, and fashioned us.

We should be for each other not becoming impatient with each other, put out with each other, arguing with each other. Which sadly happens, and a lot of times at the Feast of Tabernacles! People arguing with one another because they’re upset about something someone else has done. Well, give me a break! Suck it up! Swallow your own pride? What is it you really want? Don’t you love them?

Say, “Well, they did this, they did that, na na na na na…” It’s just like a little child, “Na na na na na…” I’m making these expressions to show how foolish it is because that should never, ever, ever, exist in God’s Church. In almost every Feast of Tabernacles have to deal with stories of people who have had conflict. Shouldn’t be in the Body of Christ! Shouldn’t be in the Church of God, and it’s a shame if it is.

So, who is being shameful? Need to look inside. If you let it happen you’re sinning. You’re sinning against God, you’re sinning against the Church, you’re sinning against Christ, you’re sinning because you’re not looking at yourself and what you can change to love someone else.

What does it take to love and continue to love someone else? What is it going to take to not harbor something against them, to treat them ill, to speak of them in a wrong way, to judge them in a wrong way, to think you’re better than they are? What does it take? It takes God’s spirit.

That’s what we have to cry out for. “Father, help me, strengthen me to live right, to think right toward everyone, to love everyone, to not be in any conflict with anyone because I know to do that is a sin on my part. Whether they have sinned or not is immaterial, it’s sin on my part if I become a part of that.” That’s the truth of it.

That’s so hard sometimes for people to see. I’m going to tell you, absolutely every Feast of Tabernacles God’s love is not lived. Every Feast of Tabernacles someone reflects they hate their brother spiritually. That doesn’t mean “hate” if you haven’t heard Part 5 yet. Received maybe some of that in Part 4 maybe. To love less than the way John said we’re to love, to love less than the way God tells us we’re to love. If we do that.

That’s the word it uses, but it means we have no right to love less. Wow. That’s a tall order. How do we do that? God’s spirit. You can’t do it by yourself. All you can do is strive to catch yourself quickly and apologize quickly, to make it right quickly, to not let something drag out to where it carries on after the Feast and the ministry has to get involved, but we will if we have to.

…makes increase in the Body unto the edifying of itself… Did I read all that? I don’t think I did.

But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things, who is the head—even Christ—from whom the whole Body is fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effective working of the measure of every part. We all have to do our part. And if someone isn’t doing their part you know what? It’s better they’re out of the Body. If some part of a body, if some part of a building, it needs to be repaired, somebody else needs to take that spot.

If that pillar is gone, boy, God puts someone; He puts another pillar there. Get rid of that pillar because it’s not holding it up, you know, it’s going to cave, it’s going to hurt, you know, “a little leaven leavens the whole lump.” It hurts the Church. Can’t have that in God’s Church, especially not at this time.

…for whom the whole Body is fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effective working and the measure of every part, makes increase of the Body unto the edifying of itself in agape. A scripture to pray about. A scripture to think about. A scripture to ask for help in, to live it.

Because my time in God’s Church this hasn’t been lived well in the Church of God. It’s been lived pretty poorly, candidly, throughout the Church. That’s why we have such a small group today. Because everything that’s led up to this time reflects this wasn’t lived very well.

Next part next Sabbath.

1. Chapter 1