How to Be Spiritually Prepared for Persecution

On the first day of Unleavened Bread, I gave a sermon where I said that the church, the whole church, no matter where it is in the world, but even specifically as our congregations, local congregations, we are going to face a different world. It's already changed, and it's not going back. And in some ways, we're not affected by it, but as time goes on, we will be. And just to show you how it's beginning to already carry out through society, we had some people visit here during the days of Unleavened Bread from upper state New York, which is a beautiful area of the country. But they are thinking of moving out of New York because they said in the town where they live anymore, or live, there's just almost nobody that has any kind of Christian beliefs. And they said it's just they got to go someplace where there's a totally different viewpoint. I mean, they said the viewpoint of life is so different. I received two phone calls in the last two weeks from people in California that said, we have to move. We have to leave. What's happened in the areas where we live is we can't live here.

There was some concern that the state eventually will come take their children because they home school and they won't teach, you know, transgenderism. They won't teach. It's okay to have two daddies. And they're actually faced with loss of jobs or loss of children. And so they were asking me what the area was around here. Now, you know, the United Church of God is what, 8,000 people in the United States?

I've got three phone calls in the last three weeks from people saying we have to move because of what's happening where we live. Now, those aren't alarmist people. They're dealing with the reality of what it is to live in a society that's changed and is in the process of changing. Well, if you remember on that first Holy Day, and we're going to be talking about this a lot, so you're going to hear these four points a lot over the next year, I said there are four things that we have to do individually and we have to do as a congregation to prepare to live in a different world without panic.

Just, okay, the world changes. We have to be prepared for that to live in that world. And of course, I didn't start with store up food and buy guns, okay? Because that's not what we're about. Actually, storing up some food might be a good idea, but that's something else. Always tell people just go to do what FEMA says. FEMA has a whole list of things you should have in case of emergency, including three months worth of food.

And that's what they suggest for everybody in the United States. They've suggested that for years and years. So that's not a bad idea, but that has nothing to do with what we're talking about. We're talking about what are we as God's people supposed to do to prepare for a world that in all honesty is more like the world most Christians have lived in for 2,000 years.

We have been the exception to the rule. We've lived in a world that allowed religious freedom and didn't basically persecute us. Oh yeah, somebody might lose a job once in a while over the Sabbath, but you weren't persecuted in the way that it could come. I'm not saying they're going to put us in the gulags. I'd guarantee you you're going to be re-educated. And some of you, and I just got an email this week from someone. Some of you know what I mean because at the places where you work, they are doing education classes to prepare you for the new environment in the workplace, which includes a change of values.

It has nothing to do with the workplace. It has to do with changing your values in your belief system about very important things that as Christians, we can't compromise on. That's going to become more and more normal. How do we prepare for that? So that we're not filled with anxiety, so we can face what's happening and face it with God's help. And the four things I said we were going to do, and we'll hear over and over again, we must live by humility before God and His Word.

So we must know the Bible and live by the truth. And the challenge for all of you who grew up in the church is to learn your Bible over the next year. To actually know your Bible. To be able to defend your beliefs. Now, I thought what was mentioned in the sermonette was really good. There's a time when even defending your beliefs doesn't do a lot of good, but you still have to make a stand. Making your argument is meaningless.

You might be shouted down, but you still make your stand. So we need to know the Bible. We need to have an internalized, have a relationship with God and with Christ that leads us to stability in our lives. We also must become disciples of Jesus Christ. He shows us how to live in a world that can be antagonistic against you, because that was His entire ministry. He was living in a world that was antagonistic against Him. And His disciples, who went on through the stories of the book of Acts and all the letters that Paul wrote, they lived in an antagonistic society.

So we see how to be disciples of Jesus Christ in a world in which just going to church isn't enough. God's going to require more of us. The third point is we must build strong marriages, Christian marriages and family. The marriages are being redefined and families are being redefined. The whole definition is being redefined so that marriage can be whatever you want it to be.

And the traditional heterosexual marriage with children is actually seen as, and I'm not making this up, as a detriment to society. It's called family privilege. Interesting concept. So we have to realize there are changes that are coming, and then the fourth thing is we must be actively involved in the congregation as the family of God. We must be actively involved in the congregation as the family of God. We're going to talk a lot about that too because the reality is over the next couple years, there are going to come some times where here's what you have. You have God in each other. That's what you have. You have God in each other. Oh, you might have some friends to stick with you, and you might live out in the country and all your neighbors will be affected. But as far as interacting with society, as I said before, you think you have lots of good friends, simply make a biblical statement on some social media platform and see what happens to you. I've had people do that just to prove me wrong, and they were surprised. And what happens? So we're going to have to work on building a stronger congregation. We are the church. You know what church means. I mean, if I asked any of you, what is church, you would all say, it's not a building, it's the people. You would all say that. It's probably one of the few Greek words you know, ekklesia. Ek, which means come out. Klesia, which means called. So you're called out of something into something. So you have been called out of the world into a special assembly. When I say assembly, there is a movement that we have to resist. And the COVID crisis made it worse because some people should be staying home because of the COVID situation. Some people need to make health decisions. We support each other in our health decisions. But what's happening is church means getting up in the morning with a cup of coffee, not having to get dressed up, not having to worry about the kids, and watching it on a webcast. And that's fulfilling church. But understand that's not what the word means.

That's not what ekklesia means. There's no concept of that in the word. So you can't find that concept in the New Testament at all because it doesn't exist. The ekklesia was in Greek the citizens of the city-states who were called. There was a special calling that went out. Harold's went out and said, everybody's called. And they came together because it was there that they exercised what it was like to be a citizen of their kingdom. Here's an interesting use of the word in Acts 19. Acts 19. So we have to be careful that we have been affected by the crisis in the world that we've gone through, and we'll continue. And this crisis will just be followed by another crisis. That we don't begin to actually sort of twist the viewpoint of what the Bible clearly says about certain things. Acts 19 verse 39. It's breaking in the middle of the story, but I just want to show you how the word used. But if you have any other inquiry to make, there had been a sort of a riot going on because people were upset in the city. It shall be determined in the lawful ekklesia. Now that is not translated church there because it wouldn't have made any sense in English. The lawful assembly, that's ekklesia. It was a call that was made, and people came to that ekklesia where there was work that was done. There were conversations that happened. There were teaching. It was a big thing. That's how the New Testament defined the church. And you can see that whenever they were persecuted and they went out and had services even though they had to hide, they did it in the sewers of Rome. That's where they had church services. We know that because they wrote on the walls. May Christ come soon. They're written on the walls of the sewers because that's where they had services. So let's understand what it means. The church is us. You were gathered together. You were called to the assembly of God on the Sabbath day. Fortunately, the webcast allows us to connect to people who couldn't be here, who can't be here. That's good. No, you can't be here and we connect. That's good. So I'm not saying that's a bad technology. I'm saying the technology can't become... lead us to a misunderstanding of what is supposed to happen here. When you leave here, guess what? You're still the church. You're just not at the assembly. You are the church whether you're here or not. This is the assembly of the church, the God calls. So you are here by the call of God. Now, what's interesting is when you look at, which I do regularly, I'm always doing research on Christianity, what's happening in the Christian world, it has dramatically changed. I've watched the changes over 20 years, but is it accelerated in the last two years? Over 50% of all Christians now believe that the Bible really isn't the basis for moral truth. Now, there are only 50% of the population and 50% of them, so that means only 25% of the population of the United States believes the Bible is the basis for moral truth. 75% of all people don't believe that. Now, where you work or where you live, you may just be in a nice place where most people still believe that. It's not common in a lot of places. If you believe that, and if you're going to be part of this congregation, you're going to have to believe it. Because what's going to happen is you either have to know what you believe to live the way you know God wants you to live, or you'll have to give it up. The stress will be, give it up or pay the price and live the way. That price may be loss of friends, it may be loss of jobs, it may be all kinds of things.

So we're going to have to be prepared. I'm not saying it's happening next year. Of course, I have no idea. For the first time in my life, I love to study trends as a lover of history. I have no idea what the world would be like six months for a year, for an hour, a year from now, or two years from now, or three years from now. I have no idea. It could go in so many different directions. It's not possible to actually plot it out.

So we have to be prepared, though, to live by our faith and be challenged in a way that we may not have ever experienced. And we have to prepare for it. But one thing I found in surveys, it's interesting, why do you go to the church where you go to? And people say, I go there because of the sermons. I mean, these are just general surveys among Christians. I go because of the sermons. I go there because my friends go there. I go there because they have great music. I go there because they have babysitting. There's all these reasons. I have never yet found a single survey where the person said, I go there because God called me to be there, not one.

You are here because God called you to be here. Now, you may have other reasons. You like being here. You like each other, your friends. You like the choir. You like, you know, you like whatever. Maybe even like the pastor. A few of you. But that's not the primary reason you're here. You're here because God called you to be here.

That's who you are. You're the ecclesia.

Now, we come here, we sing, we praise God. We have a little bit of fellowship with each other, and we go home. You're here to worship God. You know, if you say, what's the number one reason for the assembly coming together? It is to worship God and to learn about God. So today, you've worshiped God, you're going to learn about God. But there's another reason, too. There's another reason there are things that God expects you to experience as the called out people of God, both individually and as a group. Let's go to Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2.

Let's go to verse 19. To set this up, Paul writes to the church in Ephesus, which is primarily a Gentile church. It's a Greek church. And the Ephesians, obviously, you can sort of figure this out as you read through it, felt a little bit like, wow, we're not as good as the Jewish people are, because the Jewish people who are in the church, you know, that Abraham was there, and Isaac and Jacob were their fathers, and Moses, and they are the ones that got the Ten Commandments, and Jesus was a Jew. And so, there was this sort of, where do we fit in this? Are we sort of secondary Christians in the church? This would have been important. This would have been a Greek city. You know, Greeks always thought they were the best people in the world. Now they're questioning, maybe we're not, maybe the Jews are the best people in the world, which is the wrong question to even be, discussion to even having. But where do we fit in here? And that's what he's answering. So we're picking this up in the middle of this answer. He says, now therefore, you, talking to these Greeks, are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints. Now, fellow citizens is real important. They understood to be a citizen. You had obligations and duties. You were called to the ecclesia in the town where you lived in as a citizen. And that didn't mean the church. It meant where you had to go as a citizen to perform what you were supposed to perform. You had duties to be there. You had to vote on things. You had to interact with things. There were speeches given.

The lawful ecclesia. And so he says, you're citizens with them in this new kingdom, and then notice the rest of this, and members of the household of God, household of God, members of the family of God. When they came together, it wasn't just because they had been called to come to the Sabbath services. They didn't come together as Greek and Jew. They came together as members of the household of God. He goes on, he says, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, and whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. So let's understand. He tells them, you are part of the family of God. You are the citizens. You are citizens of the kingdom of God, and you are bricks in a temple. When Kim and I were looking for a house when we first moved here, I found this house I really wanted. Oh, man, I wanted this house so bad. It's a big brick house. I couldn't figure out why it was so cheap. It had over an acre of ground. It had its own basketball court. It had a barn, a metal barn nicer than my house I have now. It had its own cemetery. How cool is that?

The upstairs was an unfinished upstairs, the attic. I looked at it and I asked the agent, the real estate agent, I said, how much would it cost me to refinish this? Oh, she says, I can figure that out for you. And she doesn't look like it. She's about $20,000. I said, wow. She says, but immediately you could sell the house for $50,000 more than we're offering it right now. I said, oh, I want this house. And we walked around to the side and my wife's looking at everything and she says, what's that crack? And from the roof, all through the bricks, down into the foundation was a crack and all the bricks were moved just a little bit. And I had walked right by it because I was so enamored with the house. And the real estate agent said, I think you should come work for us as a real estate agent. You see things that nobody else sees. And she looked at me and said, you don't want to buy this house. The bricks have to fit together. Understand the imagery of what he's saying here. The bricks must fit together. Why? Each of us is just a brick. Because we are the dwelling place of God on earth. That's why. You have to understand this is so much more than what you're, you know, oh yeah, for 20 years I show up, I go to the Presbyterian Church in Brentwood, it's sort of nice, and we get together. And afterwards we go over to someone's house and we have some food. And I meet with my friends. I don't know half the people there because, well, I just basically stick with my friends. But it's okay because it's a great place to go and I like it. And, you know, it's just what I do. You can't live Christianity like that anymore. Because if you do, you'll give it up.

You'll give it up because it's going to cost you something to be a Christian. It's going to cost you something. It always has. We lived in the most incredible time. Who are we to think that it won't cost us something? What an arrogant people. We think it won't cost us something to be a Christian. It's always cost something. We were just lived... God blessed us in an incredible way. We have to understand this. So how do we do that?

Well, you know, the first thing I do is say, how do I help the church, you know, become more the household of God? Well, my personality is, I can tell you what, as I thought through this, what I would do. First of all, I'd sit down and I'd work out a program where we have lots of more socials. By the way, we're going to have more socials. As you saw, we asked. I asked this week and they asked. They said, yes, we could take down the tape. We still want the downstairs for masks, you know, for people who need to wear that mask, but we can fill in here a little bit more. We are going to be able to, at some point, be able to start using the downstairs and have some, you know, start having Bible studies and socials again. I want to have a picnic this summer. These things are going to be talking about next week as we talk about how do we do those four things that we need to do as the leaders in the church? What do we need to teach and talk about? But you know what? That's not how Paul answered this question. I would say, let's make sure we have more programs for the kids. And that's not how Paul, where Paul went. Now, I'm not saying we shouldn't do those things, but understand we can do those things and be good friends and still not accomplish what the New Testament requires of congregations to accomplish. Now, really, this should be throughout the entire church of God, through all the different corporations, you know, that are part of the church of God. But the truth is, it's not. And you know how you build this? One congregation at a time. That's the only way you do this. You start where you are and you build it there. You let God do it there. It's all you can do. We have no power in anything else. But we are required to do it here. Let's go to Philippians 2.

So I have my way of doing this, and then I look at Paul's way. It's a little different. Now, I'm not saying Paul would say, don't do those things, but that's not where he would start. And that's why, I mean, we're going to be working on all these different things. I'm going to be meeting with the choir probably in May, sit down and talk about what are we going to do with the music program. We've got lots of things we're going to do. But of themselves, that doesn't solve the problem. So my way of just, okay, I say my way 30 years ago, but you learn over time, okay, we've been through a crisis and everything's disheveled. What do we do? Put everything in order. No, no, no, that's not where you start. That sounds strange, but that's not where you start. Look at verse 2 here, because this is where Paul leads to. And then I'm going to show you how he gets there, because it's not how anybody I know would get there. Okay? Paul does this in a unique way. In verse 2, chapter 2, he says, fulfill my joy, a very personal thing to the church in Philippi. He says, by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord of one mind. He says, so here's what you have to do. You have to become of one mind. Now, that doesn't mean Paul expected everybody to be like yellow pencils. We're all not going to have the same levels of understanding. We're all not going to have the same levels of conversion. And the truth, there's just different things that God doesn't tell us that we have different opinions on. I've seen churches, congregations, where they tried to enforce everybody had the same opinion. Of course, in order to do that, you have to eventually kick out half your people and have the other half so scared that they can't say anything because there's people dominating them. And that's not what a congregation is supposed to be either. There are certain doctrines we have to agree with. If you want to keep Christmas, you need to go to another congregation. But there's other things that we can't accept each other over. We have to know where that line is.

So how do we become like-minded? Well, let's go up to verse 1, because this is how he leads into this. So to understand verse 1, you've got to read verse 2 first. He says, therefore, if there's any consolation in Christ, he's going to give four things. To achieve this like-mindedness, you have to have consolation in Christ. That means encouragement and comfort and support in Christ.

You and I, in order to face what life's going to throw at us, are going to have to have encouragement and support in the knowledge of what God is doing through Jesus Christ in your life. You're going to have to know you've been reconciled to God and you have a relationship with God.

So, you know, well, that's not how you start to deal with the issues in the church. Notice where Paul did. Because it's a spiritual group here. We're not here just because we're friends. We are here because God called us to be here. So if there's any consolation in Christ, if you find any encouragement, and he's going to say, this brings you to one-mindedness, how would that bring you to one-mindedness? Well, if I experience encouragement and strength and support in the knowledge of what God is doing through Christ, I mean, we just kept the Passover, right? And that God is, I've been reconciled to God. I have a relationship with God and I come here and I sit next to you. I have to see you in the same way.

I have to see you. Oh, no, I'm going to see that person as, well, they're not very nice. Oh, that person's stuck up. No, no, no. We have to say, if we have support and strength in the consolation of Jesus Christ and we are the people of God gathered together in the holy assembly of God, we have to look at the person next to us and say, there's a person who's been reconciled to God. Oh, but I know there's sins. There's a person who's been reconciled to God. I said, how I would start the discussion, I'd say, let's have more socials.

But then that's why God's going to never use me like He used the apostle Paul. Then he goes, and he comforted of love.

Love brings us comfort. You know, there's a great falsehood that got propagated by the American system ever since the founding of America. And that is really the goal of life is the pursuit of happiness. Well, it's not. It's the pursuit of God. Happiness is a byproduct of following God. You want to be miserable? Spend your whole life just centering every moment on being selfishly trying to be happy and making everybody else make you happy. And then you find out, why am I so alone?

One of my, I won't say, I'll just say, one of the grandkids tends to be that way. Why is everybody being so mean to me? Actually, most people don't even know you're there. I hate to tell you that, kid, but we have these talks. You know, we have these talks. They're not being mean to you. You're not the center of their world. And until you're not the center of your world, you'll always think that. You can't be the center of your world. Or you'll think everybody's doing it. They have to be doing it on purpose. Right? Then the next statement, if any fellowship of the Spirit, that is a remarkable statement. If there's going to be a like-mindedness, if there's any consolation of Christ, if there's any comforted love, if there's any fellowship of the Spirit, we are in fellowship with God through what? His Holy Spirit in us. The basis of all fellowship in the Church is the Holy Spirit that we all have. That's why every time we try to come up with a human solution to unity, all we bring about is disunity. In the Church, the unity is bound together by the Spirit of God. Everything else has to encourage that. Everything else is a byproduct of that. You don't have fellowship of the Spirit because we have the nicest hall, or we have, you know, fill in the mic. We have the greatest music, therefore we have the fellowship of the Spirit. No, the fellowship of the Spirit is what comes first. Those other things will eventually divide.

Running a feast, a feast of tabernacles for numerous years, I've seen good choirs tear themselves apart.

Music can tear people apart faster than anything. It is amazing to me. Because it's so emotional. It's so felt, right? I mean, you don't sing because you don't feel it. You sing because you feel it. So we have to think about, first of all, it's the fellowship of the Spirit with each other. You know, John says this a very concise way. Keep a marker there. We're going to come right back to this. Let's go to 1 John 1.

1 John 1.

And let's look at verse 5. John says, This is the message which we have heard from him, and declare to you, that God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. In other words, God is goodness, and in him there is nothing bad. There's nothing evil in God. 2 John 1. So he says, Our lives are filled with sin. Now, that doesn't mean you don't have some sin. He's saying that we practice it. We're not struggling against it. We just live lives of sin, of evil. And yet we say we're in fellowship with God. You can't be. If we're in this kind of true fellowship with God, that His Spirit is in us, then we have to be growing. Now, that doesn't mean we don't have sin, but we're struggling against it. We're moving forward. God is taking us someplace.

And in the same context, he says, But if we walk in light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we have fellowship with God, see, to John, there's no question. If we have fellowship with God, we will have fellowship with each other. That's why I always get real nervous when a person says, Well, you know what I've decided? I decided I'd rather stay home, and I watch two or three sermons from three or four different churches, and I really enjoy doing that more than going to Sabbath services. I said, Well, who do you fellowship with? Well, I don't need fellowship. Ah, you have a spiritual problem. That's the last thing they want to hear at that point.

If we have fellowship with God, we will have fellowship with each other. So, when we go back here to the Philippians, we pick up if there is any fellowship of the Spirit. If we are in fellowship with God through the Spirit, if that's there—remember, because there's these—if these things are there, then like-mindedness should be being produced in the group. And then the last one, if any affection and mercy, any affection and mercy. And it's interesting in the Greek here, affection is an emotion. If there's any feelings towards each other, you have to show mercy to each other. So, they're actually connected together. These feelings towards each other—now, here's the problem. Coming together as the family of God is just like any other family that comes together. Eventually, you know all the dysfunctions of each other. You know each other's sins, right? Either that, or you've remained so distant from each other, you really don't even know each other. So, we either have a surface understanding and a surface relationship, or the relationship is dysfunctional because we know each other so well, we're in conflict all the time. Oh, I remember 15 years ago when he said that to me. I haven't talked to him since. I'm making that up. I mean, I don't know anybody here that's done that, but I have known people have done that. He says, if we have any of these things, we can't go there. We'll come back here in a minute. Let's go back to Ephesians 4.

Because I'm just picking up where Paul would write these similar statements to other congregations. Just shows that every congregation he was dealing with had the same problems as far as the internal structure or relationships with each other. They had the same problems. Now, I'm not saying we're rife with all these problems. I am saying we have to grow stronger as a congregation if we're going to help each other.

Or what we'll do, we can become so self-righteous that somebody else is having a problem. Or someone else is weak in something, we just sort of push them away. It's like the old saying, we've seen all we're Christian soldiers. The Church of God is like an army. That's the only army that ever shoots its own wounded. Do we do that?

Do we shoot our own wounded?

Ephesians 4, 29. Let no corrupt word. Here Paul is giving all these different statements that have to do with the world, have to do with personal life, have to do with the Church. He mixes them all together as he's just listing instruction after instruction. He would do this. He says, Let no corrupt word come out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification. They may impart grace to the hearers, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, for whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. Now, we think, okay, that's my character, and that's how I have to treat people. But he ties this in now directly to how we treat each other in the Church. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. We go back to, he said, if you're going to have one-mindedness, you have to find consolation in Christ. You have to understand what God is doing in your life. And you have to look at the next person beside you and say, God's doing that in that person's life. You know, that's what makes the Passover so amazing. At the Passover, as we watch each other's feet, everybody is exactly in the same boat. Everybody is before God washing each other's feet, humbly doing what Jesus Christ instructed us to do so that we could be part of the household of God. And at that point, you know all we are? We're just brothers and sisters, right? And, you know, what this person did doesn't matter anymore. Now, this person, you know, none of that stuff matters. I mean, it's very rare that a person says, yeah, I was washing somebody's feet and thinking about how rotten they were. Or looking over there and saying, that person is a rotten person. That's not what happens when you wash feet.

We're all brought into the understanding of who we are, not only as an individual, but as a group. I mean, if God just wanted us to be an individual, we'd wash our own feet. But that's not what He does. We wash each other's feet. We have to realize that the congregation can't just be a place to go and have Sabbath services.

And you know what's happened over the last year?

Congregations have been broken by it.

They've been broken by it. Well, we can't have that. Now, let's go back to Philippians, because here, now Paul says why this is so hard to do. Philippians 2. So he gives us these four things, consolation in Christ, comfort of love, fellowship of the Spirit, affection and mercy. And then he tells us why it's so hard. He says, Verse 3, Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, that in the lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interest, but also for the interest of others. Of course, we have to look out for our own interests. I mean, we can't do things with particular health, but to take care of our own spiritual nature, we have to take care of our own emotions. I mean, so he doesn't say just become a workahol, acre, whatever here. That's not what he's saying. What he's saying is that each one of us must look at the person next to us and say, why are you here? And come to the conclusion that person is here because they were invited by the Almighty God. Or do you look at them and say, I don't know. I don't think God would invite you here. Just remember, he's probably thinking the same thing about you.

Can't to esteem others. This is why self-esteem fails, the idea of self-esteem. Eventually, our worth has to come from God. I tell you what, if God says you're worth something, there's nothing in the universe more important than that. And if you are here, because God said you have value, that's why you're here. If He didn't say you have value, He wouldn't have called you out and put you here. He would not have sacrificed His Son for you if you do not have value. Where does our value then come from? It comes from God. It comes through consolation in Christ. It comes through fellowship with the Spirit and with each other. This is where the value comes from. So I know people come to the church, I have no value, I have no value, I just feel like I'm rotten. It's been years feeling that way, and you have to stop it because your value comes from God. And we have to see each other that way. Yeah, but I knew in this person, does that change God's value? Does that change the fact that God has called that person to be here? Does that change the fact that God has reconciled that person and forgiven that person? Well, that person hasn't repented yet. Well, then let's pray for their repentance. Let's see their value. That's what it says here. I mean, Paul's pretty explicit in what he says. Let each of you not look out for his own issues, but also for the answers of others.

Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but a lowliness of mine. Let each esteem others better than himself. Now, the reason we do anything is for the betterment of everybody else in the congregation. That's why we do it. It has to be for their benefit. If we do anything for our benefit, we have not fulfilled this. So our goal is to esteem others better than ourselves. In other words, put their needs above our own.

If you ever want to see the perfect marriage, you'll never find one. But I can tell you what the perfect marriage would be. It would be when both people do everything they can to fulfill the needs of the other person. You get two people doing that, and you have the perfect marriage. As human beings, you might have little periods of time it works that way, and then one person and the other person back and forth. The thing is, in the really good marriages, they keep trying. They keep trying. They keep recentering on, I am here to help you. And you also realize there's certain needs only God can fill in a person. We can't fulfill each other's. Everybody can't fulfill other people's needs. Only God can do that. And sometimes, my wife knows, go out with a bunch of guys, eat whatever weird food you want to eat, and watch a guy movie, because you'll be a better person afterwards. Thank you, dear. All right, that's an understanding of, that's a need I can't fulfill. Go do that, right? Paul actually says something similar to the Roman Church. Let's go to Romans 12. This is interesting because, once again, we're just finding places where Paul's saying the same thing, little different ways, to different churches. Romans 12.

I find there's a certain comfort in that. It's like, oh, good. Anytime you get a group of people together, and God calls them out to come together and be the assembly, you have these kinds of social issues and problems.

But we have to work to have them solved. And it starts with Philippians 2.

Romans 12.9. Let love be without hypocrisy, of whore what is evil, cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another. Sounds similar, doesn't it?

Look out for the other person. Don't, even when they're wrong sometimes.

Okay. Let them learn.

Don't shoot the wounded. Not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer. And then it says, distributing to the needs of the saints and given to hospitality. Given to hospitality. We're going to talk about that this summer, too. Two or three things that we're going to in this sermon that we'll be expounding upon. What does it mean to be hospitable? I mean, really be hospitable to each other. Because this whole last year has about broken that up, to a certain degree. I mean, some people continue to be hospitable, but you can't. I mean, I was talking to someone just this morning in Murfreesboro. They said, up in Pennsylvania, it was one of the other churches of God, but they can't even have services yet because some of the people are in West Virginia and some are in Pennsylvania, and the people in Pennsylvania, they don't allow anybody to cross the border.

So they can only have services in West Virginia with the West Virginia brethren.

Maybe the people from Pennsylvania... I don't think they can cross and come back over. It's the same thing in Michigan.

The governor there has it so shut down, that she said you can't even cross the border.

So what do you do? I mean, we're looking at some very strange things. We're not having that here. Some next crisis will come along. It'll be something that none of us can even make up.

Is that to fill everybody with fear and anxiety? No. He's to get us centered on God, on what's important, and each other. And life can be good and happy, but it's going to be different.

And sometimes it's going to be difficult.

He goes on, he says, let's go down to verse 16. Be of the same mind. He's making the same point here. Be of the same mind towards one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. And do not be wise in your own opinion. So he explains what keeps us from being one-minded. It's selfish ambition. It's conceit. It's setting our mind on high things, having too high opinion of ourselves so that we think we're wise in our own opinion. Our opinions are all that matter. We can't do that. You know, that's why with the whole issue of masks, as I said here, in this building, if they would have said to wear masks, I would have said you have to come in with a mask because ethically, we don't own this building. And we have a moral right if we rent this from them. They have a moral right to tell us to wear masks. They told us to take our temperatures, which we did. But at the same time, they said you don't have to. I have no doctrine of masks. I've never said this, but I'm going to say it now. You know why? I've been wearing masks for 37 years. Every time I go into hospitals, have you ever seen someone with MRSA? It kills you. I've had to go in and annoy people with it. I mean, you've got to wear masks, feet coverings, face coverings, head coverings, I mean, shoe coverings, scrubbed down before or scrubbed down afterwards. Have you ever seen somebody with 80% of their body burned? You can't take in a germ. They die. They don't live anyways. But, you know, when you go in to pray for them, you don't want to be the perfect reason for their death. So you know what you do? You do all that stuff. I've been doing that for years. But whatever is not as faith as sin, and that's why I honor both groups who think they should and think they shouldn't, I honor it as equal. Because why? Because whatever is not a faith is sin. And I, according to the Scripture, the Apostle Peter says, I have no authority to lord over your faith. So I will honor your faith. So I have. And people got mad at me.

That's okay. Because that's what we're supposed to do. That's the only way I know how to fulfill these instructions. So I know how to fulfill the instructions you've given to me as a minister. I can't lord over your faith. So what's my opinion? I've finally given it to you. I have no doctrine on math. And that's why I wear one with people who do, and I don't wear one with people who don't. And could I get COVID? You bet. Do I want to get COVID? No. Am I stupid about it? No. I mean, I wear masks a lot of times in public places. But that's my choice. And if you don't want to, if it's a matter of faith, it's your choice. Just make sure it's a matter of faith and not a matter of I'm showing the government that I don't have to submit to them. Because that's not an issue of faith. That's a different issue. So that's what this means. You have to we have to esteem each other as having value. Right? There was one way to do that that I knew. So that's what I did. I just didn't explain it. We just did it that way.

I said the four goals that we are set up with for this year that we'll be talking about at the leadership meeting. That we're going to start, it's going to be part of our speaking. It's going to be my pastors' updates. You'll probably get tired of hearing about some of this.

It's going to be reasons for our socials when we really get things started up again. I said we must live by humility before God and His word. We must know the Bible and live by the truth. These are so simple, but man, we have to go back to these.

We must become disciples of Jesus Christ, period. How to live in a world that can be antagonistic against God. We must build strong Christian marriages and families because there is going to be further attacks on Christian families and marriage.

We have to be strong in those relationships. We must be actively involved in the congregations of the family of God. We are the household of God. This just isn't a place to come and have church because we don't have church. We are the church.

We are the church. So now I'm going to give you your goals for the month. You're going to be getting monthly goals, too. Here's what we're going to do this month. Seek. Whenever I say seek, that means you're going to have to pray about this. You're going to have to study the Bible about this. This has to be part of your life. Seek encouragement from God in Christ's work in your life. Consolation in Christ. But when you do that, you also must seek to see that in others. You must acknowledge that those around you have received, that if they're here, they have received that consolation in Christ. How do you not esteem somebody who's received consolation in Christ? So you have to know that you've received it, and then you have to look at everybody else and say, well, if they're here, they must have received it, too. So how can you not see each other differently? Secondly, we must seek comfort from God's love and resist being offended by others. I've had a couple of people ask me to give a sermon on how not to be bitter, and we'll be talking about that this summer. I'll give a sermon on how not to be bitter. I gave a sermon a couple years ago on that, but I'm going to cover a couple different points in it this time. We can't become bitter because we're the household of God.

Three, ask God to help us have the fellowship of the Spirit. That means He's going to have to stir His Spirit in us. We're going to have to go ask God, stir up your Spirit in me.

Now, if you do those three things, there's a fourth thing that will happen, and you need to ask God. You need to ask God to open your heart and mind to make sure that you are not being motivated by selfish desires or too big of an opinion of yourself. Because only then can you esteem others in the way that you're supposed to. Only then. That's four tough things.

Pray about these things this week. I'll post them in the pastor's update at the end of this week. Think about them. Pray about them. Your own personal study—I mean, I'm not going to give you handouts for this. This is nothing we all need to do personally. The calling of God is a personal experience. The household of God is a community experience.

Right? Being called by God is a personal experience. The household of God is a community experience. And it's not an American corporation, by the way.

Corporations are great. American corporations have given the church the ability to do things we could have never done throughout history. But I tell you something else. The church is not an American corporation. It is the body of Christ. Americans' corporations are simply some means of administration.

That's all it is—means of administration. Sometimes I think we've implanted on the church American corporate thinking so much that we've missed biblical aspects of what the church is supposed to be.

Let's finish by going to Ephesians 4.

Verse 1. Paul writes, He says, bearing. You know what that means? Getting along with each other is not always easy. For a whole month, I have been in a house with two little grandchildren, and sometimes they stink.

But I wouldn't throw them out.

Sometimes God looks at us and says, man, you stink. But He doesn't throw us away, does He? We're part of the household of God. So we bear with one another.

There is one body, one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. And then I love this last part of this sentence. One God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all.