[Mario Seiglie] I’d like to say greetings from the Garden Grove congregation and also those in Latin America, different nations, nine nations that I have the honor to serve. Just recently we celebrated Thanksgiving, just a week ago, I know that’s a time when we give thanks to God for everything He’s provided us, not only the physical but also the spiritual area. And as you travel around different parts, here is Mr. Mickelson travels in Africa, Mr. and Mrs. Anastasi as well in Europe and Mr. Kubik of course was able to see a lot of the rest of the world and we do realize we have to thank God for what He has provided especially these nations like the US, Canada, Europe and Australia in comparison. And yet all these nations have also been blessed quite a bit as far as economic progress in the last twenty or thirty years, we see how economic development has spread around the earth, like never before. And as we travel in these areas it reminds me what Paul mentioned as he gave an example in Acts 15, let’s go there because certainly the Bible provides us with the guideline to follow the principles that God has laid down. In Acts 15, after they finished the conference in Jerusalem, notice what Paul said here in Verse 40. It says:

Acts 15:40 – Paul chose Silas and departed, being commended by the brethren to the grace of God. And he went to Syria through Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

So that is one of the major priorities we have to visit these areas, it’s not for entertainment purposes, it is to strengthen the churches, to help the brethren there be strengthened in the faith. We’ve been encouraged in this past year as far as the growth in Latin America, we started with 400 brethren in 2010 to serve and now it’s up to 584 so God has to provide a growth and of course we’re more interested in spiritual growth than numeric growth but it’s nice when you can have both. You see a growing group of young people, as they are developing, many of them have Life Nets scholarships that are going to the universities and that is helping them make a difference as they graduate, get a job, a better job and plan and to basically stick in the church a lot more, you see better economic situations, they are able to be more generous with others and also stabilize their family lives and be able to have a good foundation to build upon that spiritual one.

Going on in chapter 16:4 of Acts, it mentions:

Acts 16:4 – And as they went through the cities, they delivered to them the decrees to keep, which were determined by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem.

So here we see another purpose which is, as things were established in Jerusalem, at the conference, Paul wasn’t just doing his own thing, he was very careful to use those decrees as far as teaching the brethren what had been determined. That is why, one of the reasons when Paul had to deal with the Galatian churches before, he couldn’t use the Jerusalem decree because they hadn’t gotten there yet. So he had to explain to them many principles that would later be brought forth, but here the issue had been settled. And so he went there and they delivered these decrees to keep – and in verse 5, what is the result?

Acts 16:5 – So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and increased in number daily.

So where we have a united front, where we are together in teachings and now we have these twenty fundamental doctrines in our Constitution that are our basis for the rest of the teachings of the church and that helps us to keep that unity together.

Now there will be uncertainties in life, just as Mr. Creech brought up  in his sermonette, about the different trials and the need to have that forward looking vision of joy and rejoicing, although in the short term we can be going through difficulties, there will be persecutions, there will be trickery of men, there will be questions of what we believe and what we do and it can create doubt in people. We are going to go through different roller coasters through circumstances in life, where our foundations will be shaken, to see if they were built on sand or whether they were built on rock.

And I  know one technique, through life, that I’ve learned, when you have your foundation shaken by trials or difficulties that we go through, I have my four questions that we’ll go through just to get you back to the basics, back to the fundamentals. This is by way of introduction but I thought it would be a good way to introduce the main topic I have and that is, ask these four questions to see if I’m right, if I’m where I should be.

The first one is, have I proven that God exists? That is a fundamental question because if we haven’t proven it beyond a shadow of a doubt, beyond a reasonable doubt, we can really have our foundation shaken. We have had people not only lose faith but they even lose their faith in God, they go completely into the secular world, don’t want to have anything to do with God. So it is very important to first of all ask, have I proven that God exists? Now to me it’s important to look at what we have been able to understand in the world around us, certainly in the 21st century there are conclusions, through the discovery of scientific research and everything. And that is, everything that has a beginning has a cause. The universe has a beginning; therefore the universe had a cause that produced it. This is just a syllogism or a logical way of understanding this. You can’t have something that is created from nothing, something had to be there at the beginning to be this first cause, which is God.

There are five inexplicable things that science can’t really answer. One is the beginning of the laws of physics – where do they come from? The laws that govern the universe, that’s not even something related to matter or energy. Matter and energy follow these laws, but these laws had to be established even starting without matter or energy, they had to be there before that – where did they come from? Science is at a loss to explain about forty different physical properties of the universe that all mesh together as harmonious as a Swiss watch with all the cogs. Who created these forty different constants of the universe? Science has no clue, they just assume that they exist!

The second one is the beginning of matter. Where did matter come from? Again, this is a very large universe, there are at least 200 billion galaxies that have been discovered so far and they’re still counting them – that’s a lot of matter! Where did it come from? They know that matter arose at a certain time back in history but matter could not create itself, doesn’t have that kind of property and so again, science is at a loss. They can measure, they can calculate a lot about matter, how it works, but they can’t tell you where did it begin? How did it begin? That’s the second one.

The third one is the origin of life. The biggest gap that we have in nature is between organic and inorganic things there is a huge gap in between. Will a rock ever become a cell? Hardly! We know that life even in its most elementary level has a will to live, to reproduce and who put that will there? That didn’t come on its own and so again, that is the third question that scientist cannot adequately answer.

The fourth one is, how did DNA come to originate? Where did DNA come from? Now the DNA is of course the software of our cell, it is the program with all the instruction to be able to produce proteins, reproduce itself. If you took all the DNA information, which is similar to the DNA code is similar to an alphabet. If you just took every one of those letters and they have calculated it has 3 billion letters in each cell that we have in the human body of course has a nucleus, I’m talking about a blood cell which doesn’t have one but everything that has a nucleus has approximately 3 billion letters. Now you know how long that would be? If you took a 1,000 volumes of a 1,000 pages of information, it would take 1,000 volumes to put all of that information. Who put that information in there? Do you think all of that just happened to pop out, just the right amount of DNA information? And it has an error rate of one letter per ten billion that make a mistake. That’s like having three times as many volumes and you start out making one mistake in all of that. Now it has to a super intellect who has created that.

Finally, the origin of consciousness. Where did consciousness come from? How can a human being become self-aware? He is able to examine his own life, this ability to think abstract thoughts, actually observe his inner world. Science has no clue that it is valid of examination, they have no idea where this consciousness comes from. They try to look inside the brain, there is no place in the brain that they say consciousness comes from, it’s just there with the brain but it is not part of the brain, so many scientists say that, well we can’t look at it physically, we can’t discover it, so there must not be consciousness, it must just be an illusion. You can’t go through life thinking that you’re just in a dream. They don’t, they’ve got to pay their bills at the end of the month just like everybody else does, you better be conscious of that or you might end up in jail.

It’s like the old story, reminds me of these three that were in traditional hell and one was Catholic, a Jew and a Christian Scientist and the Catholic asked the two, why are you here? And the Jew said, Oh, I didn’t follow the Torah, I should have and here I am. And then the Jew said to the Catholic, Well, why are you here? He said, Well I wasn’t faithful to the Pope and the teachings of the church, that’s why I’m here. Then they asked the Christian Science person why they’re there and he looks and says, I’m not here! Because they believe it’s an illusion, he said, I’m really not here.

So you can’t go through life just thinking that consciousness does not exist. So the second question after you have proven that God does exist, Hebrews 11:6 brings up that he who has faith has to believe God exists, that He is a rewarder of those who follow Him.

Number two, have I proven that the Bible is the inspired Word of God? That’s something that we can’t take for granted. Now you look at all of the different religious books in the world and you compare them and the Bible is head and shoulders above every one of them, whether it is the Indian Vedas that have the religious teachings, usually Hindi and others, they just contradict themselves, there’s not a logical backing or foundation to them. The Bible is the only one who’s historically accurate and then you have over 100 prophecies about Jesus Christ and how they were fulfilled. There’s no other book that gives you fulfilled prophecy and there’s nothing comparable to it. So I have proven that the Bible is the inspired Word of God.

The third one, have I proven what laws I must obey in the Bible? So that’s the third question. O.K., if I’ve proven that the Bible exist, what laws should I keep in there? And twice in the Bible it tells exactly what the Church that is described there is going to be doing. Revelation 12:17 – it has the description of the Church, symbolizes a woman:

Revelation 12:17 – And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring…who are these…who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

So they must be keeping the commandments of God. And of course the fourth commandment is the one that sticks in the craw of most of Christianity but I’m sorry, you can’t have just nine commandments. It says here…they keep the commandments…that’s all ten.

So just by looking at that first part of these requirements, you’ve already eliminated 99% of Christianity because they don’t keep the fourth commandment. And it’s not a matter of 9 out of 10 and you’re able to get a passing grade – no you don’t, you need to get have ten out of ten. These aren’t ten suggestions, they are commandments. You can follow nine traffic laws and you violate one, guess what – you can’t tell the police they’re wrong, “Well, I did nine, I didn’t respect the stop light but I did keep my distance properly, I kept the speed.” Sorry, he’s going to give you a ticket for the one you broke. It’s the same way with God’s law. And then it also tells you that “they have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Testimony’s just giving witness, yes these are following faithfully My commandments, but I gave them to you as I received from the Father and I amplified these commandments, I didn’t reduce them, I actually added the spiritual dimension to them. Also in Revelation 14:12 it repeats these two characteristics.

Revelation 14:12 – Here is the patience of the saints…saints are those who have God’s holy spirit in them…here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

So it just adds, when it’s the testimony of Jesus, which is that He’s saying, they are following Me, and the other one is they have the faith of Jesus. God’s spirit in them helps and enables them to follow God in the proper way. So from just these three questions, I’ve already reduced it down because of course the fourth commandment not only deals with the weekly Sabbath, it’s dealing with the Sabbath days and so you have annual Sabbaths along with them. So again, you reduce what church you’re going to be by a considerable amount.

Then the fourth one says have I proven what are the Biblical characteristics of the Church? And these are the ones that I brought up here – it has to be a Church that is keeping God’s commandments, that is following faithfully His commission to the world. And so if you have a lack of spiritual maturity, you might end up in the wrong place, you have to go back to the fundamentals. So again, it just what laws and then the characteristics of the Church, that it is a living breathing spiritually led group of people. And so that takes us to the following which is the main message today, once you’ve gotten your foundations down.

I’d like to give you five reasons why we should be in the Church that we are in. Again, we are not saying we are the only one but we are part of God’s Church and if someone asked, why are you in this Church, here would be my five answers to why I am here in this Church.

The first reason is that it is actively spreading the gospel of the kingdom in all the world. And we better be doing it. Notice in Matthew 24:14 – Jesus Christ said that as the end times approached, the Church would be sending this gospel out. It says in Verse 14 of Matthew 24:

Matthew 24:14 – And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations and then the end will come.

There are two things here that are important. Notice that this is prior to when God says the end will come, when all of these earth shattering events happen, the Church will be spreading that gospel until that time when God decides to pull the plug on society. So there is an end-time period of 3 ½ years where God will use other means to get that gospel out, the two witnesses and there will be a time of miracles and it will be a time of great churning and unrest in the world. But before that time, there is this preparation, this Work, just like John the Baptist did before Jesus Christ would come and there would be this period of time when it would be the stage of Elijah’s preaching, with the power of Elijah to go forth and we have to be doing our Father’s business like this. We better be focusing on this and not just be focusing on social activities and just wrapping the Church around ourselves and patting ourselves on the back and thinking how spiritual and righteous we are. We better be doing something. At work we can’t just be at home saying, Boy I feel so great about my job – you better be at work, you just can’t have good feelings about how you like your work and everything if you’re not doing it. It’s the same way, we have to be about doing our Father’s business.

In Revelation 3:7-8, and I have found that this message that Jesus Christ sent to the Churches in Revelation actually has four different applications that we can have in our lives. The first one was the application that was for the Churches of that day. Obviously these Churches existed, obviously when John was inspired by Christ to put this down, all of these, the Churches at that time would have said yes, this applies to us. But just as God can do things in multiple different dimensions. Just like a tree, it not only has one purpose which would be to provide fruit, it also provides habitats for birds, it provides the wood for fire, it provides the roots for erosion, it provides many different purposes, also of course for providing oxygen for all of us to breath. It is the same way here, God didn’t just have one purpose behind it, He had multiple purposes. And so, another would be our personal application, how these all are phases in our lives, all of these seven Churches are things that we can apply and we can go through different stages in our lives. Also, it applies to the Church as a whole, that the Church can have different phases within it. But finally, it also is progressive as you get to these final churches you see that the end time is nearing as well. And so he says here in Revelation 3:7:

Revelation 3:7 – “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, ‘These things says He who is holy, He who is true, He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts and shuts and no one opens…certainly a key of David has to do with the understanding of what this whole prophecy of David and the dynasty behind it, and also that it would be entrusted with authority from God to carry out the mission…and he says…”opens and no one shuts and no one opens. I know your works. See I have set before you and open door and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name.”

And so now we have seen God opening up enormous doors to get out the gospel even if it were a small group of people, through those open doors of the media that have just multiplied. Before you had just radio, then you had TV and now of course you have internet. This past year we have been able to use the internet which our religious broadcasting and our website is #14th in the world and many of these others are either Catholics or Mormons. So actually if you joined all together, we’d be closer to the top than that. 733,000 unique visitors that we recently had a month. The Beyond Today program and many others that we finally are able to have the Beyond Today program in Spanish, it is dubbed over there in Columbia and we have it available for people through the internet, for them to be able to listen to the Beyond Today program, that was a dream that we had for many years, of having a Spanish telecast in Latin America. Well we do have one now, which thanks to the internet and You Tube that we are able to spread it.

So again, we are a Church that is actively spreading the gospel of the kingdom in all the world and a good part of our budget, we are up to 25-30% of the budget at any given time is spent on getting that gospel out into all the world. Not just around a few different communities.

Number two – it is feeding the flock through pastors and elders not the majority through CD’s or the internet, there is a Church to put stuff – live people, before the congregations much more. That is something that is very valuable. You can go just so far just receiving a CD or just listening to someone through the internet. You need a warm body, you need a pastor. A pastor can’t pastor his sheep through the internet very well at all. It is something that you have to examine the flock, you have to know the state of the flock. Notice in Titus 1:5-6, he’s talking to a young trainee that he set over the area of Crete.

Titus 1:5 – For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you.

Then he goes on with the different qualifications, but it was very important to have men right there on the ground taking care of the flocks and it’s just so gratifying to be able to see different parts of the world, again, to speak about Latin America and see how we do have pastors, we do have elders, we have leaders and they are able to keep that flock fed and protected and nourished in the way that if we were just sending out a signal out there, why people would be withering on the vine very easily.

So that is a commitment that we have done and of course you have to be creative with the small amount of people and funds that we have, but we understand that that is part of the commission, to take care of that flock and to have these leaders there in the congregations. We have over 350 ministers around the earth serving God’s people and of course deacons and leading men in all of these areas.

Then it goes to the third point here, we can go to the third reason and that is doctrinal integrity. The Church that has doctrinal integrity – that means that we have a very solid doctrinal base and you can say it’s established in the principle in 1 John2:3-4, this is sometimes called the litmus test of churches. A litmus test, if it’s acid or not, always had in chemistry classes, always had that litmus paper and it would change it to acidic or alkaline.

So in 1 John 2:3-4 John is concerned because already the commandments were being downgraded in different areas – people were saying, by grace you are saved and you don’t have to keep the law of God anymore, so he wrote this epistle, in part, because of that question. So he says here in verse 3:

1 John 2:3 – Now by this we know that we know Him…talking about Jesus Christ and God the Father…if we keep His commandments. He who says “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

And so this is a test, that you need to base it on God’s law, God’s law is His revelation for us, His commandments are not grievous, they are not burdensome, they are there to guide us, they are the guardrails. If we don’t have guardrails, you just go off either side, so these are the guardrails that keep us on the straight and narrow, God’s truth is that way.

It’s interesting how you can also have a test of how effective a religion is by determining what kind of relationship you have with God. Now if you go to the most primitive type of religions on the earth, it’s called pantheism which comes from the term anima, which we use even in Spanish for “soul.” And it actually is the term that in primitive religions, they believe that there is a soul and all these living things, for instance, forests have souls, so you have to have the god of the forest that you have to be sacrificing to or the god of different animals, animals have different souls and so in the most primitive religion, your relationship with god is actually through nature, the worship of nature. And of course you have to placate the gods, if you didn’t placate the god of thunder, well then you’re going to have thunder come down upon you. A volcano, sometimes it’s not even animate life, inanimate life you have to also take into account. So that’s a very primitive relationship and it’s one based  on fear more than anything – placating the gods for them not to come down on you. Of course the Canaanite religion had that type of religion, that you had to placate the gods, you had to go on the hills and you had to do sacrifices and fertility rites so that you would have fertility on the ground and women would be that way.

Then after that, the next stage is more religions like the Buddhist who, for them god is not even a personal god, it’s eventually just being absorbed into the universe and becoming one with the universe but that’s not a very personal relationship at all.

Then we come to the “Christian” religions and again, just from the relationships they build, I know as a Catholic I was taught that if you want to have a relationship with God, the best way was to go through Mary! And so you pray to the Virgin Mary, because after all, God is this remote figure and Jesus Christ can be a wrathful but you can always count on the good graces of Mary and so your relationship is more with a woman than with God the Father or Jesus Christ.

Now if you look at Protestantism, they went to sort of the other extreme and got rid of a lot of the idols, but now they fixated on Jesus Christ, so it’s all about Jesus Christ. If you listen to the radio and they’ll be talking about Jesus this and this is the One you have to be close too, to the detriment of God the Father. Where is God the Father in this relationship? And so they obsess with Jesus Christ to the detriment of God the Father. I want a religion that has God the Father and not only Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is at the right hand of God the Father, He is not God the Father. Nor is God the Father Jesus Christ. So again, the relationship is incomplete.

Then you have the Jewish, Messianic/Jewish which does focus on God but more on the Old Testament than in the New Testament. So it’s very important the different trappings, what you wear and that relationship is one that is based on a lot of different externalities. Got to do certain rites, you have to wear certain clothing, that’s the only way to be right with God. And again, it’s a more distant relationship.

Then finally you come to the New Testament teaching of the true relationship that Jesus Christ came to give. Notice in Luke 10:21, Jesus speaking here. It says:

Luke 10:21 – In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the spirit and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is, except by the Father, and who the Father is except…the term here would be “by”…the Son, and the one whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”

So people didn’t have a relationship with God the Father as they should have, until Jesus Christ came. That’s why Messianic Judiasm misses the point when they do not focus on this New Testament revelation of the Father as a being that you’re no longer encumbered by all these Old Testament type of what you wear and all the different ceremonies involved, like the ritual law was involved in.

Notice another scripture, John 8:18, Jesus says:

John 8:18 – “I am the One who bears witness of Myself, and the Father who sent Me, bears witness of Me.” Then they said to Him, “Where is Your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither Me nor My Father. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also.”

So if the Jews understood that relationship of God as a loving Father, they would have understood what Jesus Christ was all about. But to this day they don’t understand that. And so Jesus Christ elevated that relationship, it is the relationship between a Father and a son or a daughter, that is the greatest relationship that we can have. Just like Paul said about Abba, Father. We can call Him that, we can have that familiarity and intimacy with God that no other religion has, you can’t find that anywhere else. So we are privileged to understand that. Notice another scripture in John 17:25. Jesus Christ always emphasized the Father’s name, that is, focus on it, it’s not some Jewish sounding name, a special name, it is the Father, that is the greatest relationship, that’s what we should keep in our mind above all other things. It says here in Verse 25:

John 17:25 – “O righteous Father! The world has not known You but I have known You and these have known that You sent Me. And I have declared to them Your name and will declare it, that the love with which you love Me may be in them, and I in them.”

The name He was declaring was the Father, it wasn’t some special esoteric term that you have to know Hebrew or Aramaic, it’s the Father’s concept throughout the entire New Testament, that is the greatest revelation about the relationship with God. Notice how the apostle John mentioned it in 1 John 1:3. John is talking about the opportunity he had to personally know Jesus Christ while He was alive. He says in verse 3:

1 John 1:3 – That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.

We talked about joy this morning and for your joy to be full you need to have that relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ as a family member, that you have access to them, that He is on your side, that Jesus Christ is on your side. If God is for us, who can be against us? So yes, there are powerful adversaries out there, many of them want to undermine what we are doing and so that relationship is fundamental to our way of worshipping God. It’s not out of fear, it’s out of love, it’s out of deep respect, not wanting to disappoint God for everything that He has done for us. So it has to be a church that has that understanding, that doctrinal integrity.

The fourth reason is that it is a church that teaches servant leadership, Christ-like service. This is for the ministry and the whole church, not just for the leaders. Servant leadership should be part of every member. You are being trained to rule and so we all need to incorporate these principles of servant leadership and the church has to have this centrally located in its mission and its purpose behind it. We do everything else and you don’t have that servant leadership in our core, we’ve lost the way, we’ve lost our true purpose. After all, the Pharisees were very dedicated as far as keeping the laws, they even went to an extreme of absurdity – they had 1,520 different laws governing how to keep the Sabbath day. How many people are going to memorize 1,520 laws? But they were dedicated but they didn’t have the right attitude and spirit, they did not have that servant leadership spirit. The leadership was there to be served, that was one of their great disqualifications, why God had to reject them. Matthew 20:25 – again, this is always good to ask, well why are we where we are at? Is this important? It is one of the five elements, fundamental elements of a church that is being taught here in the Bible.

Matthew 20:25 – But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you…he wants to be a true servant leader, wants to serve God the most…let him be Your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you…

Who wants to be first as far as pleasing God as He returns at His kingdom -anybody doesn’t want to please God, does anybody here want to please God less than you can? I hope not, I hope we all want to do our utmost in running the race. Being #2 is not good enough as far as wanting to serve God the most. Again, not for our glory but for God’s glory. And so it says here:

Matthew 20:27 – “Whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave. That’s a pretty low position, you’re willing to serve people even when it hurts. Just as the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many.”

We need to focus on this and develop it more, I believe we could have avoided many of the divisions we have had if we would have had this as a nucleus of our leadership and continue to have focused on it, we could have avoided a lot of difficulties. And of course this applies not only in the Church and the leadership but also in the home. How many homes have been broken up because there wasn’t servant leadership? The man lorded it over the woman, or the woman lorded it over the man, it can go either way. But if both have the right attitude of servant leadership, things are going to work out a lot better. So this is how we develop spiritual maturity, it has to be synchronized. Authority with that servant leadership, both has to be synchronized together.      1 Peter 5 – let’s go to 1 Peter 5. I always enjoy reading this, here Peter, been now serving for many years, he was now an older man and notice how he had changed from that Peter that was impulsive – he was the first one to speak, first one to put his foot in his mouth many times right? But notice how he had mellowed, he had matured, but really there isn’t that much difference when you read all of these different apostolic letters, they all have humility at the center. Notice:

1 Peter 5:1 - The elders, who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder…notice what Peter chose as far as describing himself, he could have said, Well, I was once one of the principle apostles of the times when Jesus Christ was there, he could have said, Well, I was there at the very beginning, I was the one that had to stand up to the high priest. What did he say? I am who am a fellow elder…fellow elder, he saw opportunities to show the humility that Jesus Christ had taught him, so he kept a low profile….and a witness of the sufferings of Christ…didn’t again, talk about himself so much, but, I saw what Jesus Christ went through, you know how I feel? Rotten. I always had the shadow of Christ showing me how little I am….the witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed: Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion…not being compelled to do it, Oh this is just a job, I wish I had something else to, I wish I would have been a mechanic or engineer instead or whatever. You don’t want a minister to say that, you don’t want someone to say, well, I’m here but I would really rather not serve you or even worse, you are beneath me as far as serving, that’s even worse and yet sometimes that attitude has come out. Like, well, I’m better than you so this is why I’m telling you these things, not complete, out of form, out of Christian character. And so he says here:

1 Peter 5:2 - …not by compulsion…it’s an honor, it’s a privilege to be part of the ministry, it is not a right, it is a privilege that can be taken away and so we should be thankful, but it says…willingly…we really appreciate the chance…not for dishonest gain…not to make a buck out of it, but it says here…eagerly…serve, whether you get paid or not.

1 Peter 5:3 – Not as being lords over those entrusted to you…this must have hit him pretty hard because he could have been lordly and yet he learned not to be lords over the flock…but being examples to the flock. That’s a whole different thing, to lead by example and not by chastising or lording or compelling people, that’s not the way.

1 Peter 5:4 – And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.

So servant leadership and Christ-like service have to be fundamental. You can have all the other parts but you don’t have that attitude, that church is going to go through one after another difficulties.

Then the fifth and last reason is I want a church that is teaching me to overcome, that it’s not passive or patting me on the back or telling me that my salvation has been assured. I want a church that is telling me, I better straighten up and I better straighten up every week because we could lose it, our salvation is not assured. Notice in Revelation 2:7 and twelve times in Revelation it mentions this principle of overcoming. After he finishes edifying and encouraging the church, he also admonishes them in verse 7:

Revelation 2:7 – “He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”

Only he who is going to overcome is going to get this reward. Not the person who is overcome by the world. So it’s a church that is keeping things active, that we have to not take for granted our salvation, that we have to work, we have to overcome our difficulties, we cannot give in or give up. Notice also in verse 11 of the same chapter.

Revelation 2:11 – “He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.”

So Jesus Christ is warning us, if you want to receive a reward from Him you have to overcome. The term is nikao, and actually Nike, which are the tennis shoes, come from the concept of victory, it was the goddess of victory and so nikao is he who is victorious over his sins, over his weaknesses and he who overcomes will receive the rewards from God.

During the Feast Mr. Kubik was here and gave a message about the ten virgins and how five were not prepared, did not enter and five were prepared, they did have the oil in their lamps and so again, this is a core teaching about overcoming, we have to continually develop and have that reserve of oil, we cannot fall short.

So we should appreciate what we have. To support, to have loyalty to the organization. In Spanish, just like in Europe, their favorite sport is soccer. You go to these places and basically the sports channel is all about soccer, you hardly ever see any other sports and they love it. In Chili, we just visited recently – and Bolivia, they talk about the need to just have your t-shirts soaked with your different team, that person has got so much enthusiasm he’s perspiring over it.

How much do we have our spiritual t-shirts soaked with our church, with what we are doing? That is something we also need to appreciate as we give thanks to God, thanksgiving, to thank Him for having placed us in this spiritual body to do a wonderful work.

So in conclusion let’s go to 2 Peter 1, here we see the different virtues. In verse 5, as we build this foundation it says:

2 Peter 1:5 – But also, for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue…so we’re building on it, like what I mentioned in Revelation, overcoming, yes we have of course faith as a foundation, we talked about that, the four reasons of the foundations of our faith, have I proven that God exists, have I proven that the Bible is true, have I proven what laws I should keep and have I proven what are the characteristics of the church? And then to that you need virtue which is the right type of conduct…and to virtue knowledge…we need to be building our technical skills in the Bible, the more understanding we have in the Bible the better we can apply it in our lives.

2 Peter 1:6 – and to that knowledge self-control…the ability to control our emotions, not let them fly off the handle, be able to bite off a couple of words that might be hurtful, just bite them off, don’t say it, keep them in your mouth! That’s so valuable…and to self-control perseverance…that ability not to give up or give in…and to perseverance godliness…that ability to have that relationship with God and that God is effective in our lives.

2 Peter 1:7 – and to godliness brotherly kindness…that friendliness and hospitality and willingness to think about the others and not just about self…and to brotherly kindness love….which is the general attitude.

2 Peter 1:8 – For if these things are yours and abound you will neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted…actually the word there is myopic, just don’t have a long term view of things, it is all short sighted, we don’t have that foundation just as it was mentioned in the sermonette about looking beyond today and even that is a part of our program and looking to tomorrow…for he who lacks these things is shortsighted even to blindness and has forgotten that he was cleansed, even to blindness and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins…hasn’t been overcoming it says.

2 Peter 1:10  - Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble.

Again, we are all imperfect but it says here that we will make it, we will overcome, we will make it into God’s kingdom as it goes on to say in verse 11:

2 Peter 1:11 – for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

That is what is going to last, that is our ultimate goal. So if we just remember we should be in a place that is getting out that gospel to all the world, that is, putting pastors and elders in these areas of the world to take care of them, that it also has doctrinal integrity, that has a foundation based on God’s law and yet understands Jesus Christ as our example and also that has servant leadership as a teaching and as an example and finally, a teaching to overcome. A church that is not sitting on its laurels but is knowing that we have powerful adversaries to overcome. If we have that, then we are in the right place and we can thank God. Let’s be loyal, let’s be faithful and be thankful.