Glorify God, Pt. 5

Ronald Weinland

April 20, 2024

So again, tomorrow night we’ll be observing Passover already again this year now. It’s amazing how fast things seem to pass by, and here we are again. Again, this series has been leading up to this Holy Day season. I find that inspiring, candidly because the things we’re covering here that we will cover on Passover night as well, many of the scriptures that we’ve been going through, and we’ll go through some more today.

And I can’t help but think about timing of where things are. I was thinking about, just before services here, how that things with the Middle East, Israel, Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, all these things that are a threat in that part of the world. Which is a prophetic thing at the end-time as well because there are things that are going to happen in that region, that it doesn’t go into a lot of specifics about but we know that’s a center as well of something to watch and be aware of because there are things that have to happen there that aren’t necessarily a matter of the Trumpets but as a matter of those things building up to it.

And thinking here as well, twelve years. This Pentecost that’s coming up from the Pentecost we had focused on so closely. I’m hoping, we have hope, we have hope we live by, every sign, everything that we look at. And I have hope that maybe…maybe because of that, perfection, especially knowing what that period of time was about that followed. It was about those who are to be molded and fashioned to take the crowns of others, candidly. To me, that’s an inspiring thing to understand. And what an awesome thing if that would fit into place.

And knowing that, think the timing of some of these things is not by coincidence either, things that happened on the Last Great Day, things that led up to a retaliatory strike, if you will, on Iran, on a Friday, which is their holy day. Tit for tat type of thing that goes on. And it just ramps things up more and more until finally things come to an incredible showdown. But we live in perilous times. We know that. And we see things taking place as this world just gets a little crazier and crazier all the time.

So, thankfully, tomorrow night, Passover and our focusing on things we need to see, we need to grasp, we need to understand every year, to look upon in a way that is different than the rest of the year. We do it in a more intense way, or we’re supposed to anyway, looking at ourselves, looking at the purpose and the meaning of Passover and what we're getting ready to partake of. All the meaning that’s contained there.

So, this is Part 5 of the series entitled Glorify God.

Again, whether or not and to what degree we utilize – I love these words when you think about them and the context – utilize, employ, put into service God’s spirit in our lives is totally up to each one of us. Choices, choices, choices of bringing this way, God’s way to life. Because that’s up to us as to whether we bring it to life in our lives and to what degree. This determines the fruit or the lack of it in our lives.

This determines the level of our ability to which we are able to glorify God in our lives. And that’s what we should want. We should want to glorify God in our lives from the time we’re baptized into God’s Church, when we have basically told God, “My life is Yours. I need to change. I want help. I want Your way of life. I want to be in Your Family.” From then on to live that as a part of our lives in understanding what it means to give our lives.

It’s a sacrifice because we’re sacrificing our own carnal human nature, our own desires and lusts, and human reasoning that gets us into so much cotton-pickin’ trouble. Our own human reasoning, which is called – we’ll read some scriptures later here – but those who consider themselves in this world to be wise, which is the world.

And too often we bring the world then into God’s Church because we still have our human nature and we still have battles, battles that never end. But we’re to grow and we’re to produce fruit. And if we’re not then we’re not living this way of life like we should and glorifying God in our lives like we should.

So, toward the end of the sermon in Part 4, it was asked, “So, what are the most important tools that God has given us whereby we can grow in our ability to glorify God?” Then we ended by addressing the beginning of the answer to this. It’s totally, again, about how we utilize the power of God’s spirit in our life.

Then we looked at the definition of “utilize.” “To make use of.” That’s up to us. “To employ; to turn to practical use,” the use that God intended it to be. “To put into service; to attain an end.” Beautiful definitions that we’re to live by in the sense of the context of what we’re covering.

So, we’ve covered the following verses but it needs to be stated again because this is truly quite simple and direct. John 14:13. Again, scriptures we’re going to be going through on Passover night.

John 14:13—Whatever you will ask in my name… So again, a matter of our prayer life. It’s a matter of our relationship with God and whether we’re doing it. Because so much of this has to do with whether we really believe Christ, in Christ. …that I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. It’s a beautiful scripture.

“So that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” Because we respond, because we listen, because we understand the importance of God’s plan and why he is the head cornerstone, and to understand what it means what he did. And to so deeply appreciate that and be thankful for that, and cry out to God in gratitude and thankfulness, and to utilize what He’s made available.

He did this on Passover night. He’s taught these things on Passover night so that we might get the point that the primary thing we pray about, that the primary thing that we’re to do is to repent of this, of what we are, to repent of our own human nature day in and day out, to look for, to be aware of, to be on guard against those things where our human nature is coming through and asking God for help to change in and through the blessing of forgiveness of sins through our Passover. So that we can have God’s spirit, the life of God Almighty, the life of Joshua the Christ living and dwelling in us. Because that’s the only way we can change.

We can’t change by relying on ourselves, by doing things our own way. Awesome.

“So that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” So again, this is one of the greatest tools that God has given to us, an opportunity to have fellowship. This is the beginning of fellowship. This is the ongoing process of fellowship, of understanding how we’re able to have God and Christ dwell in us—that’s fellowship—and we in them on a spiritual plane. A relationship that God wants with us, Family. Incredible!

And this is about where we begin to utilize, to employ, to put to practical use this tool into our lives. Again, it’s about the availability of God’s spirit that’s there for us and we have to want it and need it and understand our need for it, and cry out for it. And again, this is kind of, this is the beginning part of the process. Because if we don’t do this right…

That’s why it’s the beginning before the Holy Days begin. Because this part has to be right in our thinking, in our minds, and to understand what it is we need in order to have God the Father and Christ dwelling in us and we in God so that we can be able to follow through and do the things that lead up to the Last Great Day, to be a part of that in God’s Family.

Verse 14—If you will ask anything in my name, I will do it. So again, as I’ve been mentioning, not a separate thought from what follows and to understand the context here because it’s everything he taught and was talking about on that night about God’s will is His desire to live in us, and Christ to live in us, and to give us the ability to dwell in them on a spiritual plane. And that’s what we’re to ask.

So many in God’s Church through times past have felt it has to do with every facet of your life, of things we need and want, we think we want. And it’s not about that. It’s not a promise to give you everything you want in life. A lot of times the answer is no. And if we didn’t get that answer we wouldn’t grow, we wouldn’t have the ability to grow. There are things we have to experience because we learn through that process.

Verse 15—If you love me. Whew! There is a lot more said there than so often what we really grasp. Because this is about evidence, this is about proof. And then we have to think about the rest.

If you love me keep my… So, it says “commandments,” and so often the word “commandments” is used kind of loosely because of those who translated. And it goes back to a thinking of the ten commandments because people are so carnal that’s really all they can, human beings could think about, is God’s law and the ten commandments that were given – and then not doing that well, obviously.

But to understand it on a spiritual plane, to understand a relationship with God, to understand it’s about instruction. That’s what it’s about. It’s about God’s instruction to us. God has called us to instruct us on life, on how to live life. Christ instructed the disciples that night about life and the things they needed to do.

“Ask!” And on and on it went, the things he told them about, about producing fruit and about glorifying God.

If you love me, keep my instruction. And how are we instructed? Sabbath by Sabbath, Holy Day to Holy Day, Passover to Passover.

Even I will pray the Father, and He will give you another comforter (paracletes). The word, “called to one’s side.” “Called to one’s side.” That’s what God is doing, calling us to His side, to the side of Christ, to the side of the Father, to have a relationship, a fellowship, Family.

…even the spirit of truth. So, he tells what it is, the spirit. It’s not just the spirit, it’s the spirit of truth. Because you look at the world, there is no truth. As a whole in how mankind is to live life, where is truth? What is truth? Famous example there of what Christ said to Pilate, Pilate said to Christ, and he was talking about truth, and like, Pilate looks at the world and “What is that?” basically. The world really doesn’t know. It has to come from God. The source of everything, the source of all life, that’s where truth comes from.

And so, sometimes we don’t grasp the importance of what God has given to us, all the truth, because it separates us, it helps us to understand where we are in time as well, to understand all the things that have happened since Herbert Armstrong was called at the end of Sardis. All the things that transpired in the end-time. Incredible, what we’ve experienced in God’s Church in the end-time. And God has given so much more. He gave him so much more above and beyond what was given to the early disciples and apostles, things that they couldn’t fully piece together.

Even the books hadn’t been fully written in some of those until… You think of John and the things he wrote. The Church didn’t have those things through most of Ephesus. It happened toward the end of Ephesus. Some of the most meaningful things on a spiritual plane and then some of the most meaningful things of what would happen in the end-time, what would take place as Revelation was given to John. They didn’t understand those things. It wasn’t given for their time.

It's like Daniel when God told him, because he wanted to see the things that God had revealed to him. He said, “Shut up the books, Daniel. It’s not for you.” Basically, “Don’t ask anymore, it’s for the end.” And then we get to the end and we don’t grasp the magnitude of what we have.

Because John didn’t have those things. He wrote them because it was given to him in vision, because his purpose was to write it out. He didn’t get it! How could he? Look at the world that changed in the nineteen hundred years that followed, eighteen hundred years that followed.

I think about Herbert Armstrong and the things he was so in awe of, the changes he saw as far as the world is concerned, technology, and the growth. And he only saw part of it. And you think what we have now? I think of those departments at headquarters where they had all these departments to do various things, tons of people, that now you can do it on a computer one person sometimes. You think, phew, wow, has the world changed? Man! Not all for the good because mankind doesn’t use the technology well, does he?

…even the spirit of truth, which the world cannot receive. Again, we’ve been reading this. We’re reading it again. And we’re going to read it again tomorrow night. “The world can’t receive it.” It’s not for the world, it’s for God’s Church, for God’s people. Those are the only ones that can receive it because it can only be received through being able to have that fellowship of God’s spirit.

…which the world cannot receive because it does not see it. I think of advertising we have done through time here and how much worse it’s getting and how much more the world hates. You think… Oh, some of the crazy things going on out there in the world and it’s like doesn’t matter what you do. For six thousand years it’s just amplified right now at the end-time. The world doesn’t want God. It doesn’t want to hear anything that’s true and right. It really doesn’t.

It doesn’t want to hear about what’s coming. It doesn’t want to think about those things. Even the news, they only hit little spots here and there. And the things they think are the most exciting that they report on are some of the dumbest, stupidest, most backward, most idiotic, most inconsequential things as far as the world is concerned. But that consumes our lives – or the lives of people in the world. And they thrive on it, this back and forth, this battling back and forth, who’s doing what, who to look to to save us now.

You think, every four years this… How long has this been going on? How long has this been going on? And it’s like, well, they didn’t do this so let’s put this one back in, he’s going to be…They’re going to be better. They’re going to do a better job! And then after a while? And this mindset of people, the insanity of people.

I’ll tell you, candidly it scares me to see how bad people think, how poorly people think. To think that…? Where is the mind? And can those minds even be saved? I mean, we live in the times of Noah where minds are so scrambled and set in things that are so backward and weird and far out. Even if God’s spirit is offered to them, will that mind want to change? Will it have a desire?

And so many cases, it won’t. They will never want this. In times past that’s been hard for God’s Church to even contemplate. Franky, didn’t even contemplate it. It was almost like everything is going to be like a utopia because God gives His Kingdom, His government on this world, everything is going to be hunky dory, peachy keen, and the Great White Throne, that’s even going to be peachy keener! (I know that’s not a word.) Peachier! Think, no, it isn’t! It’s going to be an absolute nightmare!

Now, it’s going to be wonderful in the sense that finally mankind that is resurrected and has the opportunity to a second physical life, yes, they’re going to see a world that after a thousand years, it’s been God’s government, and more than after the thousand years that are going to be in that government to be able to help govern the world, to have one religion on the earth, one truth.

And you think about resurrecting all the druids and all the other people that are weird and backward and all the people of twisted and distorted Christianity for how many… for how long? Centuries? And they’re resurrected? You think a lot of those people are going to want to change and accept something that’s true and right when they’ve been so deeply involved in and had their minds distorted and twisted, and twisting what God says in the first place?

You’re talking about minds that are messed up and they don’t just change like that. You talk about dragging rocks behind you, there are going to be some boulders drug then through the hundred years, giant boulders. They don’t have sacks of rocks. Horrible!

But a far better world because there are things that are not going to be tolerated. Judgment will be swift. Awesome! One truth as a whole taught. That doesn’t mean that people aren’t going to be out there that are messed up and trying to change things.

So sick of this world. And we’re supposed to be sick of this world.

I don’t know about you but prayers are becoming more intense that “Your Kingdom come.” I mean, those are words in scripture that we have read about and talked about in times past, but when you feel it more and more with all your being because you see what’s going on out here and how the thinking of people and young people that are being affected by it, it hurts!

Gives you a lot better understanding of Lot in the sense of what he saw on a physical plane when it says “He vexed his righteous soul day by day,” because of what he saw, and it hurt and it pained him, what he saw people doing and his own family doing. And today, it’s far, far worse. “Your Kingdom come, please, soon. Deliver us. Deliver this world.”

…even the spirit of truth which the world cannot receive because it does not see it, neither knows it. But you know it for it dwells with you and shall be in you. Beautiful! Something that can be in us on a spiritual… in the mind to give us help to become something different.

We’ve been given two powerful tools by God in order for us to be able to utilize, to put into practical use, to employ His holy spirit in our lives, and we’re to utilize those, we’re to use them. Prayer should be so obvious. And the one that follows should be so obvious. But do we utilize them? Because that’s the beginning of utilizing and wanting God’s spirit in our life. Because receiving help from God and God helping us to see certain things…

Just like in preparing for Days of Unleavened Bread and Passover, asking God to help us see things that we can’t see that we need to change so that we can be on guard and fight against them and be able to repent of them. “What is it I need to grow in?” We need to grow all the time. And you know to grow, you’ve got to change something. To grow, to produce fruit in certain areas of our life means that something has to change. It can’t continue on the way it is. We need something. We need help in order to change because it requires God’s spirit.

And so, prayer and fasting, obviously, are two powerful tools that God has given to us. And if we fast once a year we’re missing the mark, we don’t grasp and comprehend our real need.

And so, here we are preparing for Unleavened Bread, we want to become more unleavened. We grow in that. That’s something you produce fruit in. The ability to grow more in order to conquer this.

John 6:31, the Jews were talking to Joshua here and they said, Our fathers ate manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. So, they would go back and forth with him at different times talking about where they came from, they were Abraham’s seed. And they couldn’t help it, they couldn’t understand what Christ was saying but they had to contest things that he said because it didn’t agree with them and they hated what they saw because they saw others being moved by what he was saying.

And so there was this battle going on. They didn’t want to lose their place and what they had and what they believed, and what they thought. Just like the world today.

Then Joshua said to them, Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you that bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. So, getting to the point with them each time of things they couldn’t understand, but just showing them their ignorance, just making it… putting it out there. And the only ones would would ever be able to understand this are those who are led, drawn by God’s spirit.

…but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. That’s said for the Church. They couldn’t even begin… Things that he said like that it’s just like, “What is he saying?” Didn’t make a bit of sense. “He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world? Who do you think you are?” or whatever it might be that’s coming into their mind.

And what he’s talking about is about him living and dwelling in us. That’s what he’s talking about here, which they couldn’t comprehend or understand, that he didn’t even declare or reveal more of until he got up to what’s recorded in John 13 and 14 and in through there. But this is what he’s talking about. The true bread.

It’s about Christ, that we’re able to eat of what he gave, his instruction, and the things that come through him that God has given through him in order to build the Church. Because he’s the High Priest of the Church, besides the Passover.

“For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven.” And so, who can receive that? Only God’s Church. Only those who are called and baptized into God’s Church, are drawn to God can begin to receive of that bread, that life, that truth to live in them, to dwell in them.

Verse 34—Then they said to him, Lord, give us of this bread always. So, some of those who were there, there was always a mixture of those and those who wanted to test him and find fault and find something wrong in things that he said. And then there were others who were moved by what he said.

I think of Nicodemus, this conflict that he had of things he felt and saw but couldn’t fully receive. And you think of the beginning of that and Christ even explaining to him about the holy spirit and told Nicodemus basically, you can’t understand.

Give us this bread always. Then Joshua said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. So, it’s revealing the beginning of this process that we read about in John 14. It’s the beginning of understanding of what it means for God the Father and Joshua the Christ to live within us, and we have the ability to live in them on a spiritual plane.

So, there is that which feeds us and nurtures us and it talks about here, “He who believes on me shall never thirst.” Well again, so much of this is, the beginning of this, is to understand our need for praying in the first place. One of the most important things we pray about is forgiveness of sin. He’s our Passover and we’re never at a point where we don’t need our Passover. We’re in continual need of change. To produce fruit means we have to change, something has to change in our life. Because it comes from God as a matter of God’s spirit. It is produced by God’s spirit, not produced by us and our efforts of and by ourselves.

So it goes on, what is going on up here? “I need God. I need God’s spirit. I need forgiven of my sins so that I can receive of God’s spirit.” It’s always understanding that process.

John 6:47, a few verses down, Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me… And the beginning of that process is Passover. That’s the beginning of our belief. It’s the beginning that leads us into the rest of God’s plan.

And if we don’t grasp and comprehend that and the need for a continual repentance, which requires prayer to God because it’s acknowledging to God what He knows. But we have to be involved in that process to receive forgiveness. We have to acknowledge what we are. We have to admit what we are. We have to accept what we have done that’s wrong and we have to want to change that. It’s a part of the process. And then God is there wanting to give that help to us.

But if we don’t want it first it’s not just going to be given to us. I think of two more people. Wrote a letter to today basically letting them know they’re no longer in fellowship in God’s Church. I hate doing it. It tears me up inside. But what is right is right. And this Body is to be purified. It is to be unleavened. And God gives us time to become unleavened, and then there comes a time of reckoning, one way or the other.

…and he who believes in me has everlasting life. Well, what does that mean? Does that just mean ability to live forever? Is that what it’s talking about? It’s about God’s Family. We also have then that everlasting life living and dwelling within us in order to dwell in them until our change comes. And then it’s already given it’ll be forever.

So again, it’s a matter of believing he’s our Passover, he’s our High Priest, the Messiah, and that it’s through him we have access to the Father and the power of the holy spirit to dwell in us. Things that God wants us to grasp with the core of our being and to be ever so thankful for that we have that. They're not just words, they’re life. And God wants it to be in us.

Verse 48—I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness, and they are dead. It’s like, how much did that do?

This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. Meaning once we’re in God’s Family. Because everybody has to die once as a whole, except for a very few. And some are going to fulfill that. I don’t know how many but it’s going to be fulfilled at the very end.

Can you imagine being in a physical body and not having to experience death? Of course, sometimes you don’t know that anyway if you went to sleep and you never wake up.

It’s like going into surgery, it’s like, okay, it’s going to be one of two things. We’re either going to come out of it or not. And that’s in God’s hands. But I’ll never know it until later. And that’s the way it is.

But a lot of death isn’t like that. A lot of death is excruciating, it’s painful, and it’s drug out.

But to those very few. Maybe a handful? I don’t know. Just to be changed like that after the resurrection takes place and then those last few. Awesome!

Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and they are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. God has us focus on these things, the understanding of these things every year. That’s why it’s so important to grasp and understand Passover.

It’s not just going through the motions. It’s not just going through, listening to the words again. It’s not just a physical routine of going back and washing our feet, having our feet washed and washing someone else's feet, and then taking some wine and a piece of unleavened bread. It’s to grasp and comprehend what it’s all about, to live it, to want to live it.

If anyone eats of this bread, they will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I give for the life of the world. Sacrifice. Willing to sacrifice. And that’s one of the hardest things for us to learn as human beings, a willingness to sacrifice self for that which is so much more important you can’t even compare the two.

Going back to John 15. Again, things we’ve focused on and we’re focusing on it again, and we’ll focus on it again. It’s one thing to read it and talk about it, it’s another thing to get it within our being, to live it, to want to live it, to seek to live it.

John 15:6—If anyone does not abide in me… In other words, obeying the truth, God’s instruction, seeking to live the unleavened bread of life. If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them in the fire, and they are burned. Feast of Tabernacles on, what God has been showing us, accountability. And accountability always comes in our life.

If you abide in me, in the truth, in the true manna, and my words abide in you, that’s what this is all about. “And my words abide in you,” because we want to live it, we seek to live it, we strive to live it, we pray for help to live it because we can’t do it on our own. …you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. According to the context of what is being covered here.

By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit. So, why do we keep repeating this? We’re to get it. It’s important Passover season. Important Days of Unleavened Bread to God. He’s having us focus on things that He wants us to grasp and embrace with all of our being.

…that you bear much fruit; so you will be my disciples. As the Father loved me, I also have loved you; abide in my love. Choices, choices, choices. You can’t do that without a close relationship with God. Can’t do it on your own by your own physical abilities. It’s a focus we need to have every day of our life in crying out to God to live, to think, to fight against self, to repent of those things that come out of self when we realize it’s wrong, it’s not the way it should be.

If you keep my commandments, My instruction, God is saying, what He instructs and guides in in His way of life, you will abide in my love. Because they go hand in hand and it requires His holy spirit to live it in the first place. That’s what this is about. It means you are doing the things you should be doing and you’re going to abide then in His love. …just as I have kept my Father’s commandments (His instruction) and abide in His love.

2 Timothy 2:19—Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal, that, The Lord knows those who are His, and, Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. About repentance. It’s about wanting to become unleavened. It’s about that desire we really desire and want to live unleavened lives, we want to be without sin. And then we see this carnal human nature and drawn back to repentance continual. Continually fighting. And then out of that God gives growth, conquering, and overcoming.

But in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and of silver but also of wood and clay. It’s always been that way in God’s Church, in the environs of God’s Church. …and some to honor and some to dishonor.

And the reality is we learn from that. We experience things and have to come to certain conclusions and choices in life in the closest of relationships sometimes. And to realize what is best for God’s Family, what is right and righteous for God’s Family, because if it isn’t at one with that, won’t become at one with that, will not seek that, then it should have no part in it.

Because nothing is owed to us. God’s already given us something incredible. That’s life. All human beings to have life have no comprehension, really, of what has been given to them to have physical life. And they wonder where it came from. Some of the stupidity of human beings is a marvel. Claiming to be, in one respect, scientific, and then using everything that’s unscientific to say could happen. And you have to kind of scratch your head. Anyway, human beings don’t want God by nature.

Selfishness does not want God. That’s why it’s so easy to yield to selfishness. That’s why it’s so easy to drift away from God. That’s why it’s so easy for Laodicea and a Laodicean spirit, which still exists in the world in the sense of the scattered Churches because they’re fulfilling and are/have fulfilled the part of going asleep and being out of, separated from God’s spirit. But it’s out there and God has great desire for it. But what will happen, how it’ll happen, we’ll have to wait and see how that all pans out. But it’s not getting better. It’s not going to get easier.

But in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and of silver but also of wood and clay, some to honor and some to dishonor. Therefore if a person will cleanse themselves of these… Of what? These, things of dishonor. That’s our choice. That’s a personal choice. And the only way to do the cleansing is by a relationship with God, is by the power of God’s spirit. The ability to see things that we need to change is a matter of crying out to God for help to see what we need to change, what it is we can’t see.

Because human selfishness deceives itself. It seeks to deceive itself. And that’s why I was mentioning here it’s easy then because of human nature to give into it, to give into self—that’s what it’s about—and doing our own thing, whatever that might be. This isn’t a game, it’s life and it’s about choices and whether or not we love what God is offering us or not.

And if we can see it then we should want it and fight for it with all of our being, because if we don’t put in the fight and don’t put in the prayer, and don’t put in the crying out to God for the help to do it, then it reveals we don’t really grasp things to the level and depth we should.

…to honor, and some to dishonor. Therefore, if a person will cleanse themselves of these they shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified. Do you know what that means, sanctified, set apart for holy use and purpose? Then God can work through us to help edify others, whatever it might be within the Body even. But God lets both exist within the Body – until the end here.

For the past two thousand years these things have existed in the Body, but it’s coming to an end in the sense of this period of time. Two thousand years, as soon as Christ begins to return, that will have come to an end, that period in the past, and we happen to be living in the last part of that period. So, what has been allowed for a long time is coming to a screeching halt. That’s why I have been speaking in the way I have for several years now. And it’s getting stronger in that regard.

Just like the Feast, accountability. Accountability. This isn’t a free ride to live ever how we want to live, to be in the environment of God’s Church and somehow believe that we’re going to be in God’s Kingdom or be resurrected or live on into the Millennium and receive all those great blessings of life, the notoriety of it all. “Oh, you were one of those?” Well, if we were one of those we’re going to have a right mind that reflects, yes, we were, and we lived this way of life and we didn’t live a lie! We lived what was true.

Sanctified, meaning to be set apart for holy use and purpose, means God dwelling in us. Then fruit can be produced. It gives growth. Not just to self but even a boost in the help to others.

…and useful… Like “fit service,” “of fit service,” for the Master’s use, and prepared unto every good work. We’re just going to yield ourself to God and seek to do what is right in life.

1 Corinthians 3. Unleavened Bread. Days of Unleavened Bread, Passover – powerful!

1 Corinthians 3:5—Who then is Paul and so is Apollos, but ministers by/through whom you believed. So, they’re being reminded of how they came into understanding. I’m sometimes dumbfounded of the numbers of people who just lost that. So many in the ministry, of ministers throughout Laodicea who began to lose all that, who had training, extensive training, and opportunities.

“Through whom you believed.” Just the fact that they forgot, or it never fully registered, that everything they learned came through God’s apostle, Herbert Armstrong. I still shake my head to have heard them say, some say, “Well, he was a good teacher.” Every time I say that my blood kind of… If could boil, it’s boiling right now. You think, what is your end? What is your judgment for saying and doing such things and letting something so valuable slip between your fingers, that you’ve taken on to yourself haughtiness? Because each one of them as they went along began to change doctrines and things that had been given to them.

“Oh yeah, you can use tithes in three different ways. You can divide it up ever how you want to. If you want to use so much tithe for second tithe, so much for third, so much for first, it’s okay, it’s a tithe,” rather than it’s a first, second, and back then at certain points in time until it was administratively done, there was a third tithe every three years, except when you had seven.

So, “Who is Paul, who is Apollos, but ministers by/through whom you believed?” So candidly, a lot of the Corinthians didn’t receive that. Paul was dealing with unique things with every group he went to but the Corinthians were a real tough group. Carnality. It’s about carnality. It’s about human nature and how much is pulled into the Church sometimes.

“…even as the Lord gave to everyone.” So, it’s God who does it. It’s what God gives. And according to our desires to grow, to conquer, to overcome, what we produce then, fruit.

I have planted, Apollos watered. So, he’s showing here when they were being called and drawn, Paul was there teaching, planting. And then he moved to a lot of different areas until he was finally moved to Rome. But as you go through this then it says, “then Apollos watered.” So, Apollos came long to the Corinthians here and he was the one who was with them for a longer stretch of time to teach them, to water what had been planted in them on a spiritual plane.

…but God gave the increase. It’s about what God does. Always, always, always it’s about what God gives. And God’s there to give it to us all. What an awesome thing to understand, He wants us to have it, He wants us to have what He offers.

“But God gave the increase.” The growth, the fruit comes from God through how we employ, utilize, make use of what He offers us of His holy spirit.

Verse 7—So then neither is he who plants anything, neither he who waters, but God who gives the increase. This is all about God and what God is doing. It’s about God’s Family and about how we’re able to grow and become a part of that Family.

Now whoever plants and whoever waters are one. It can’t be any other way. That’s why we had Laodicea, because it began to break down, because people began to do their own thing in different areas and you can’t control that. You can’t know what they’re… You don’t have the ability to listen, to hear what everybody is saying. You just entrust them with the truth, and either they give and supply that or they give something else. And too many started giving something else. What a horrible thing to learn from.

That’s why the only answer is God’s Family. It has to be that which is spirit in God’s Family that can truly be entrusted, all to be entrusted to do, to be at one with God, to go out and do what God gives, at one with God. Wasn’t that way. Because of human nature, there is always that battle.

“Now whoever plants and whoever waters are one.” Otherwise, there is not going to be growth. Somewhere it’s going to begin breaking down and there are going to be a whole lot of people leave because they become weak. Because that’s how we’re fed. And if we’re not being fed?

…now everyone shall receive their own reward according to their own labor. What each one of us puts into it on a spiritual plane, that’s what it’s about. Our fight, our willingness to fight, our desire to cry out and to ask for God’s help and God’s spirit on a continuing basis, and to fight against the battles we know we have.

…their own labor. For we are labors together with God. God works and we’re to work, like we heard in a recent sermon. (Back there shaking her head.) That’s a part of work that we’re to do. We’re to learn the value and the importance of work. And here it is we’re to work together with God. God works, Christ works; their desire is to work in our lives, their desire is to dwell in us. But what is ours? Is it always that we want them to be working in us and we want to be working and doing what we need to do? Because it takes work to fight against sin! It takes work to become unleavened!

And God doesn’t… You can’t just go and say, “Please remove this from me,” and it’s just removed. “Okay, we’ll just take this hot spiritual branding thing, this little thing, and get it down in your brain and take that out of you. Ah, you’re okay.” It’s not done that way, is it? Where is the growth?

I think of someone who was put out of God’s Church who wouldn’t listen to counsel and guidance given to them in their life. Well, this repeated many times over but some things they wouldn’t do, they were told to do. “You need to do this or you’re not going to be able to fight this.” There are certain actions you need to take in your life. And if you’re not willing to take them?

If you aren’t willing to help yourself even on a physical plane to fight certain physical things in your life how can God help you spiritually? If we’re not willing to do what we’re supposed to do, even physically in fighting certain things, if we’re not willing to engage in the battle?

So, you’ve got to want it. But then you cry out to God for help to do it right, to follow through. He’ll give you the added help. But we’ve got to have the convictions and the desire up here to fight and to do it and then to ask for the help to accomplish it. That’s what God wants to give. He wants to give us the help. He’s not going to do it for us. He’s not going to reach in there with some kind of spiritual thing and… Because then we’d just be zombies.

We have our own minds and they’re precious as they’re molded and fashioned and transformed to become at one with God. It’s a beautiful thing.

…you are God’s cultivation. If we yield ourselves to the cultivation and what it takes. You are God’s cultivation, you are God’s building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, another builds thereon. But let everyone take heed how they build upon it.

So, he’s talking about him and Apollos. He planted, Apollos watered, the foundation is there, now are we building? Are we building upon what we have been given by God from God? That’s what he’s telling them here, “Be careful, take heed how you build upon.”

Verse 11—For no other foundation can be laid than that which is laid, which is Joshua the Christ. So, it continually goes back to that. And the purpose of that, the reason for that is because we have to constantly be reminded we need to change, and change requires repentance. Where there is selfishness and sin we have to want to repent, we have to want to change, and to be thankful that we can go before God and ask for forgiveness of that which we admit and acknowledge in our lives that we need help in. That we need help in so many things, that we want to fight and we want to battle.

Now if anyone build upon this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble… See, so there are different ways to build. What are we putting into it? What are we using? What materials? Are the materials that really aren’t from God, something we can do ourselves that aren’t going to last?

Well, anyway, going on here …everyone’s work will be made manifest. That’s why God is blessing us to hear the need for the Body now to go through a process that it needs to recognize, that that which has been allowed through times past is coming to a halt because of where we are, that there are things that cannot become a part of God’s Family in the 144,000. There are things that cannot be allowed to continue on as far as the Millennium is concerned concerning God’s Church. So, there is a reckoning. We are at that time of judgment that is unique to God’s Church at this time.

So, many things have been allowed through times past as it talked about earlier. Certain things have been allowed, some to honor and some to dishonor. And candidly, the majority has been to dishonor within the Church. And God has allowed that because, again, as I said earlier, we learn from that. We are to experience such things because we have to make judgments about it.

And we have to make judgments about close friendships. That you can’t let friendship override righteousness and what comes from God. That you’re willing to stand up and hold up what is right before God regardless of relationships. Right is right.

Everyone's work will be made manifest, for the day shall declare it. Because it shall be revealed by fire. And God’s been doing that. Well, I am not amazed and I am amazed how this just keeps going on. God says what He means, means what He says. And He’s been telling us this Body is to be cleansed. This Body is to be purified. This Body is to be sanctified.

And that should bear even greater purpose and meaning when we understand so many of the things that were said during the Old Testament and things that the Levites did and what they had to go through ritually as far as that which was physical. And we do that spiritually.

And this Passover may be one of the most important Passovers ever to God’s Church in the last two thousand years. How we enter it, how we see it, what’s in our hearts and minds, and so forth. I mean, we’re that close to things happening any day.

Could very easily start in the Middle East, cause other nations to do other things. Coming up to elections, that could cause nations to do certain things because they see a change is taking place in this country in a…sadly, a country that is like the handwriting is on the wall, of what we’ve done to ourselves. And you think of … Anyway. Sad, sad, sad.

Everyone’s work will be made manifest. And that’s absolute for us now. …for the day shall declare it. What day? Well, the day it comes knocking on your day whatever that trial is, whatever that test is, whatever that that hits you that… …because it shall be revealed by fire; even the fire will try everyone’s work as to what sort it is.

So, we are in a unique time of judgment in God’s Church. Because in the past two thousand years people have lived and died and people have come and gone and some have died within the environment of the Church but really weren’t even in the Church. We’ve had a lot of people who have died within the church who weren’t a part of the Church in times past. Go through the past two thousand years, just because somebody was attending Sabbath services and coming to the Holy Days doesn’t mean they were necessarily in God’s Church. There are people who aren’t. That’s just a reality of life.

And so, they have been tried in the sense of where they’re going to be. Everyone is. Those who became antiChrist, those who even secretly at times didn’t agree with what was true and what was right that was given to them by Paul or Peter or whomever, Herbert Armstrong. And you look at these things and secretly within their own heart they had friendships and relatives or whatever it might be within the Church and yet go along for whatever reason their…out of physical, what they get out of it, but not spiritually. And that was allowed. And sometimes people learn from that and sometimes they didn’t.

And we’re in that position now except this is it. I hope we understand that. This is it for God’s Church. We’re down to the wire. Could be through this Passover and Pentecost, I don’t know. But that’s what we have to look at and be sobered by and realize “I want to fight for this more now!”

It’s like when you’re in that race. Anybody… I wish that everyone had that experience in their life where they’ve run races, and that last part that is the hardest. I think of… I loved the 400. We called it 440 at one point, and then 400 meters. Anyway, loved it. It was the race I enjoyed the most. But the last part is the hardest when your whole body, you’re putting everything into it.

You don’t notice it at much when you first start out (and that’s the way it is with a long race) but your body gets more tired and more tired, and more exhausted as you go along. And it’s that last stretch. Sometimes it’s just that very last bit even and you desire, you have to, to finish it. Doesn’t mean you have to be first but to even finish it. Because you don’t want to stop.

I’ve seen what’s happened to many people and they just quit. You don’t want to do that even if you’re last. You got to do it. You got to go across that line! The reality is everyone wins that goes across the line; you made it!

Well, what we’re going through, to understand that we’re down to the end, you’ve got to put more into it. We’ve got to want it more. We’ve got to desire it. We’ve got to cry out to God more because this isn’t going to get easier as we go through some things that are ahead of us.

If anyone’s work abides which they have built upon, they will receive a reward. That should be our determination, to get through it, to go through it.

If anyone’s work will be burned, they will suffer loss. That’s just a reality of life. …but they themselves may be saved, yet so as by fire. In other words, and I’ve seen this a lot in God’s Church, comes down to a point where something has to change. Can anything shake you? Can anything stir you? Can anything draw you to a point of repentance and change? And so, it’s a trial, it’s a hardship, and everyone has to address those things in their life.

So, God has that which He allows to a point in time and then it comes to a point in time where that can’t even be allowed anymore. You’ve got to want it. You’ve got to fight for it. You’re in the last leg of the race. It’s the hardest part. It’s the hardest part! Meaning you have to fight against this. Because races are really about what’s up here. It’s about what you think and what’s in your mind. And so is spiritually.

Verse 16—Do you not know that you are the temple of God? They can just be words or it can be understanding. …and that the spirit of God dwells in you? It better because that’s the only way we can come through this. Which means we’re repenting, we’re crying out to God, we’re fighting the fight.

If anyone defiles the temple of God, them will God destroy. Been a lot of people, a lot of people go down this course through two thousand years.

For the temple of God is holy. There is nothing else it can be. It has to be this. It has to be filled with God’s spirit. It has to be filled with God's life in us. …which you are. In other words, both part of the temple and to be holy.

Let no one deceive themselves. Because it’s easy to do. It’s so easy to deceive self. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this world… I love this expression because it means we’re relying on self in this world. We build up self, not God, not glorifying God, not understanding that what we’re able to do, if it’s of value, if it’s meaningful it has to be accomplished through the power of God’s spirit living in us.

If anyone seems to be wise in this world, let them become a fool. It’s better sometimes just to become a little stupid sometimes when it comes to selfishness and self and how smart we think we are, how good we think we are, and to realize we’re nothing without…we’re absolutely nothing without God. We have to have the truth living and dwelling within us otherwise what do we have? After what we’ve been given?

If anyone seems to be wise in this world, let them become as a fool so that they may become wise. Because it requires repentance and humility to repent and to acknowledge what we really are. Nothing without God. God says, “For without Me, you can do nothing!” Nothing that has value, and meaning, and purpose. Awesome!

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. Look at it out there. I think of what’s on TV. It just makes you sick! News! Are you kidding me?! Drama! Newsbreak – Drama! More drama. That’s all it is. It’s what people think.

I’ve told you too many times probably, it irks me when I hear people calling on other people’s opinions. I don’t care about somebody’s blooming opinion, of what they think about much of anything anymore. Who cares! “Well, they wrote a book.” Oh, good, I wrote a book too. What does it mean? Doesn’t mean diddly squat if you don’t have God’s help and so forth. But the way it’s looked at in the world, except toward the truth or anybody who writes about it, they’re experts. There are publicists out there that work with TV and Radio and you get these advertisements and you can be the expert in your field because of what you’ve written. Right!

But in the world, that’s the way it’s looked at. That’s why you have so many come on there and they’re on TV or whatever and they’re asking, “Well, what is your feeling? You wrote about the Middle East, what do you think about this that’s taking place right now?” Give me a break!

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. It’s what we’re able to see. It’s just dumb. It’s insanity, unsound minds, chaos, and confusion, battling and warring, jealousies and envying. Everything you can think of that’s in the kettle. And it’s being stirred up right now.

I’ll tell you, the spirit world is stirred up right now in a very powerful way. When it starts getting stirred up around the Church it’s getting stirred up.

For it is written, He takes the wise in their own cleverness. Doesn’t matter how clever people think they are there comes a day that people are able to come face to face with in their time, in God’s time, with what is true and right and what is true about their own human nature.

And again, The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. They are empty; they’re futile. So, on a physical plane when you look at the world and how the world thinks, it’s not good.

Therefore, let no one glory in mankind. By context, don’t let anyone glory in themselves. Don’t get the big head. Because it’s just a head, and one day the skin starts coming off of it and the holes begin to turn into holes. Physical part is gone, it goes to dust, and there is a skeleton there. That’s what we are in this physical life. After a while, there is no life… unless God’s in the picture.

So, “Let no one glory in mankind,” again, in our own reasoning, in ourselves. Everybody who’s been put out of or left God’s Church has relied on themselves, relied on their own wisdom and reasoning about things. Not on God. Not looking to God for guidance, correction, direction, for help.

1 Thessalonians 5:14—Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly. A word meaning “out of order; out of place.” …encourage the fainthearted. That’s the way it’s… Because these things are needed in human life. Because we have to change. We’re to become something different than what we are.

…encourage the fainthearted, or the fearful, the timid, the held back as far as God’s way of life, support the weak; be patient toward all. See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone. So, there’s a way of life we’re to live and there’s a way we’re to act. And these are some of the kinds of things, especially in God’s Church, in the environment of God’s Church, of how we’re to think about one another and treat one another, things we’re to examine on Passover, before Passover, when we take the Passover. Because it talks about the Body and whether we understand the Body of Christ. Because it’s about the Church of God and how we see each other. This is our area to grow, develop, to be taught.

See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone but always follow/pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all. Our desire should be for others whom God has called, that they’re able to live and grow and change and be blessed with God’s spirit, but it’s got to be something that inevitably falls at each person's hand and control and abilities – control and ability.

… In everything give thanks. It’s to be of that attitude of mind, just being thankful to God about everything we have in life. We are so richly blessed, we truly are, physically and spiritually in life. Thanking God for life.

In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Joshua concerning you. Do not quench the spirit. That happens in people’s lives. What quenches God’s spirit? Sin, selfishness, reliance on self, not looking to God as we should day by day by day…by day by day. You can’t stop that.

Do not treat prophecy with contempt. Inspired preaching, teaching, guidance, and direction that God gives to His people.

Prove all things. Meaning, put it to the test. In other words, live it. This scripture here has been so misused sometimes by people in times past. Used to, I could say, irk me when there’s been this attitude that people supposedly have the ability to prove what they’re being taught is right or wrong, what comes from perhaps God’s apostle, Herbert Armstrong. That’s not what it’s talking about, that somehow he’s made each one of us a judge of the truth of God and of what’s fed and what God gives to His Church. That’s not what this is about.

It's about putting to practice, putting to use to find out. Because you have to experience living what is right, doing what is right, and see it in your life. And that’s what this is. Prove these things in your life by putting them to use. To employ them, to practice, to live it. That’s what it’s talking about. What we hear, what we receive, prove everything that’s given. Put it to the test. You find out then God’s way works, our’s doesn’t.

Prove all things. Hold fast that what is good. What comes from God. Don’t hold fast to self. It’s not good.

Abstain from all appearance, from every form of evil. Even the appearance of it we should be on guard to such things.

Now may the God of peace sanctify you completely. Set apart for holy use and purpose. But whether we are depends upon our choices to what God is doing or offers us.

And may your whole spirit, soul/life, as it is, your whole spirit, life, and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Joshua the Christ. And we’re, for us, this has always been for the Church. And that wasn’t going to happen for them until the point they die, but we have now a time where we’re alive. We’ll be alive at his coming.

Faithful is He who called you, who also will do it.

1 Peter 3. All about glorifying God. Understanding what we are, understanding how blessed we are to receive of their life living within us, to help us to change, to become something different, to become of one mind, to become of God’s mind, if you will, in unity and harmony with God and living that way of life, wanting that way of life in everything we do because that’s what we’ve chosen and we’re fighting for it until we’re able to receive it.

1 Peter 3:8—Finally, everyone be of one mind. One mind, unity, harmony. It’s a beautiful thing. And when it’s not there it’s a stain, it’s ugly, it festers, it causes problems.

Be of one mind, having compassion toward one another. Again, how we think toward one another is so important to God because it determines whether or not we’re truly seeking God’s help and spirit in our lives and how we think about one another whom He has called, who belong to Him.

…love as brethren, compassionate, courteous. Should just be a natural thing within us with God’s spirit. It’s the only way it can be natural, is with God’s spirit.

So again, these are things we can’t do on our own. It requires God’s help, it requires God’s spirit.

…not returning evil for evil or reviling, or as the word is, abuse for abuse, but on the contrary, blessing. Because we’re striving to live God’s way of life in how we think toward one another.

…but on the contrary, blessing, knowing that you are called to this so that you may inherit a blessing. For whoever who would love life and see good days, let them refrain their tongue from evil. So often, it’s what comes out of our mouth that judges us. Truly does. Reveals what’s in the mind, what we say, and how we say it.

“Refrain your tongue from evil.” In other words, it’s a fight because this is the way human beings are.

And their lips from speaking deceit or lies as it is here. Let him turn away from evil and do good; let them seek peace… So, there’s work involved. That’s what this is all about. There is work. There are things we have to do. There are choices we have to make. There are things we have to pray out for help to accomplish and do because we can’t do it on our own.

…and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous. And who are the righteous? Those who are seeking to live by what He gives, that apply those things in their life. Because then He attributes that to us for righteousness because we believe Him and do what He says.

…and His ears are open to their prayers. Because if we’re not doing these His ears… We can go to God about something and get ourselves in whatever it is and we’re wanting something, but if we don’t have a relationship, a standing relationship and it’s accompanied with repentance and a desire to change and grow then it’s for the wrong reasons.

But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. So, anyway.

Let’s go on still here, verse 15—But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Again, something that only each one of us can do on a spiritual plane, set apart God for holy use and purpose. That’s what we’re to do. He’s offered us… The desire… His desire is that we do pray to Him. He wants us to produce fruit and so His desire for us is that we grow, that we draw closer to him, that we want that because it’s our will because we’ve chosen that; we want Him.

He doesn’t force His way on us and He can’t give us fruit save that we want it and we desire it and we’re involved in the work that is associated with getting it, having it, for the right reasons.

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give a defense to everyone who asks. It’s what the words literally say. In other words, you stand up for what is true and what is right regardless of what others think about it. In a right way, in a good way, not in an obnoxious way.

…for everyone who asks you, a reason/accounting of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that whereas they speak evil of you as of evildoers, they may be ashamed who falsely accuse your good conduct in Christ.

So, that’s the way we live in this world. And we understand that the world can’t see and understand what we’re doing and so even there we’re to have certainly within the Body a certain way of thinking about each other, but even toward the world.

It’s why Christ said, “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing.” It’s set there as an example for us. One of the last great things he taught. Because it’s for us. He didn’t have to say it but it’s said for a purpose.

For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than doing evil.

I’m going to stop there. But again, all in the context of a way of life that God has offered us and a desire we should have to truly glorify God. That should be what’s in our hearts, we want to honor God, we want to glorify God by what we do, by how we do it. Even as we talked about last Sabbath, even on a physical plane about our homes, our lives, our clothing, our hair, everything we do, how our appearance. Because we’re God’s people and what we represent, whether in the world and within the Body and helping one another in those things by desiring to set a right example, these are all facets of a desire, if that’s the motivation, to glorify God. Because it’s right and because it’s good.

1. Chapter 1