The Body of Christ

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Okay, here we go. Thank you to everyone for joining me.
I'm about to open with prayer. I want to pull up.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
One more.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
Verse that I've thought of for this, so I'm doing
that quickly.

Speaker 4 (01:05):
Okay, excuse me, please, Lord Jesus please help me.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
There we go.

Speaker 5 (01:25):
Okay, I've found the passage I'm looking for. Thank you
everyone for your patience. My apologies for the delay. Okay,
let's see. Let's open with prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you
for your word.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
I pray, Lord Father, your word your commands contain the
power to carry them out. We don't have to do
your word in our own strength. And so I pray
Father that your power you're anointing, your grace is imparted
to people who are listening, Father, those who are open,

(02:01):
those who are willing to receive. I pray the people
who listen would open their hearts to you and receive
the impartation of your grace, your love, your goodness, and
your power.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Lord.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
In Jesus' name, I petition you for the spirit of
wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of God to enlighten
the eyes of people's understanding. In the name of Jesus,
I thank you Father, that Satan's works are undone and destroyed. Lord,
just as your word says, in Jesus's name, I declare religion, Father,

(02:32):
and pain and rebellion, empty, shattered and defeated in Jesus' name. Amen,
Glory be to God. So glad that you're here and
going to get started with truths about the Body of

(02:56):
Christ right now. And I'm going to list of few
of them and then read a passage where these things
are found, because it's very important to understand where things
are now according to the Lord. Right we've got lots
of noisy people who want an audience. It's important to
seek God and know what he has to say. So things,

(03:19):
A few truths about the Body of Christ right now.
One is that for all of us we have one Lord,
one faith, one baptism, one God and Father. That's according
to God. That's his view of the Body of Christ
right now. Second, the five fold ministry, gifts, apostles, prophets

(03:43):
of angels, pastors, and teachers are all given by Jesus
for this purpose, for the equipping of the saints, for
the work of ministry, and to bring the Body of
Christ to maturity. And I'll get into the specific Actually,
I'll just share now the specific way that God describes
the body of Christ getting into maturity for the building

(04:06):
up of the body of Christ, until we all attain
to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge
of the Son of God to a mature man, to
the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness
of Christ. Now, when it talks about knowledge there, it's
important to understand that in Greek philosophy, knowledge is like

(04:32):
you can repeat it from the memory of your intellect.
You can use your intellect to repeat something from your memory.
The Hebrew understanding of knowledge is you know what you do.
So that's important to understand is that the Biblical view

(04:54):
of knowledge is different because American philosophy is based on
Greek philosophy. So it's important to understand we are not
talking about an American philosophy in the Bible. Okay. The third,
the proper working of each individual part causes the growth
of the body for the building up of itself in love.

(05:18):
So that's the Lord's you. This conformity culture that you
encounter with certain groups, ministries, churches, et cetera, this is
not scriptural. The Bible says the proper working of each
individual part. Now, of course, the Bible also talks about
unity of faith and unity of the Holy Spirit, but

(05:41):
conformity is different. Outward conformity is actually pretty much the
opposite of the proper working of each individual part. And
it's the proper working of each individual part that causes
the growth of the body for the building up of
itself in love. Period. So excuse me, you guys, I

(06:08):
am getting a phone call and I just am going
to send them a message that they can join me
on spaces. Okay, here we go. So let's look at
Ephesians chapter four, verses four through sixteen. There is one
body and one spirit, just as you also were called

(06:31):
in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith,
one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is
overall and through all and in all. But to each
one of us grace was given according to the measure
of Christ's gift. Therefore, it says, when he ascended on high,

(06:57):
he led captive the captives, and he gave gifts to people.
Now this expression he ascended, what does it mean except
he also had descended into the lower parts of the earth.
He who descended is himself also he who ascended far
above the heavens, so that he might fill all things.

(07:20):
Excuse me, I correct myself, far above all the heavens,
so that He might fill all things. And He gave
some as apostles, some as prophet some as evangelists, some
as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints,
for the work of ministry, for the building up of
the Body of Christ, until we all attained to the

(07:41):
unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the
Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure
of this stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
As a result, we are no longer to be children
tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by
every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of people, by

(08:03):
craftiness and deceitful scheming. Ever met somebody who's trying to
get to the top of the heap. Ever met somebody
who knows how to manipulate social dynamics so that they
can have leverage within the group weight of a majority,
increasing weight of increasing followers. Yeah, let me get back

(08:31):
to the start of the sentence. As a result, we
are no longer to be children tossed here and there
by waves carried about by every wind of doctrine, by
the trickery of people, by craftiness in deceitful scheming. But
speaking the truth and love, we are to grow up
in all aspects into Him who is the head, that

(08:53):
is Christ, from whom the whole body being fitted and
held together by what every joint support lies, according to
the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth
of the body for the building up of itself in love.
So that's what the Lord has to say about the
body of Christ. Number one, number two. Just thinking about

(09:18):
what it says here about the body being fitted and
held together by what every joint supplies, that is exactly
what people need. They need human to human connection. They
need somebody who is willing to be generous, who's willing

(09:39):
to give of themselves in a particular situation. And as
the every joint supplies, it causes the body to fit
together and to be held together. Wouldn't anyone and an

(10:00):
normal healthy situation automatically fit in and adhere when they
are receiving life generosity. I'm not even talking so much
about financial things. I'm talking about somebody who's generous with

(10:21):
their time, generous with their attention. I'm not even talking
about spending hours. I'm talking about people willing to be
present with a person who is wanting to connect, sincere sincerity,
sincerely wanting to connect. I'm not talking about, you know,
people trying to infiltrate and do their crap and garbage.
I'm just talking about in a normal, healthy situation where

(10:44):
people are looking for a group, they're looking to belong.
Can we all see how every joint supplying, every joint,
being willing to put out more than they receive, being
willing to be generous, being willing to extend their self,
being willing to take that time, be present in the

(11:05):
moment with another person would automatically cause people to fit
in and adhere to that group, that that function, that
that area of the body of Christ, to be able
to then participate themselves in bringing a supply. And can

(11:27):
we all see now or can we all see that
this proper working of each individual part is so necessary.
Conformity is not what is appropriate or needed or helpful.
That's the stuff that people want when they want followers,

(11:50):
That's what that is. People want conformity when they want
to build their own group. They want to build their
own kingdom is my terminology. Okay, let's move on. First Corinthians,
chapter twelve. This is beautyful, and the next chapter is

(12:10):
even better. Let's go well, I shouldn't say better, but
the next chapter is also good, so I will read
starting with on Corinthians twelve. Now, concerning spiritual gifts, brothers
and sisters, I do not want you to be unaware.
You know that when you were pagans, you were led
as straight to mute, to the mute idols. However, you

(12:30):
were led right. We have different people that end up
in bondage, lies deception in different ways, but that's where
they are, regardless of all the particulars of how they landed. Okay,
verse three. Therefore, I make known to you that no

(12:51):
one speaking by the spirit of God says Jesus is
a cursed and no one can say Jesus is Lord
except by the whole spirit. This is really powerful. This
is really powerful to understand and to live by. One
of the things that I've noticed is in patriotic circles

(13:13):
in America, some people who have faith in God are
doing things like saying Christ is king, quote unquote. So
there's an issue with this because this is not actually
a verse, and so it has no promises attached. Jesus
is Lord has one of the most significant promises in

(13:36):
the Bible attached to it. You can't even say it
except by the Holy Spirit. Guaranteed, if you say Jesus
is Lord, you are saying the right thing. Guaranteed you
are speaking by the Holy Spirit. These are powerful truth,
powerful promises, and all the other promises concerning the Word
of God automatically apply because the statement Jesus is Lord

(14:00):
is in the Bible. For us to say Christ is
King is like a cobbled together, like an assembled portion
of a verse joined to another portion of a verse,
put together and used as maybe a type of a
rallying cry or it's terminology, but it's not Bible. The

(14:30):
Bible does say that Jesus is the Christ, the son
of the Living God. So kind of take one word
out of that Christ, and then the Bible says that
Jesus is he has a name written on his thigh,
king of kings and Lord of lords, and Jesus is
the King of the Jews, and things like that. So
there are statements in the Bible that Jesus is king.

(14:53):
So then they take the king part, and then instead
of putting the name of Jesus in there, which also
has divine power, by the way, they don't do that.
They take the word Christ the word king, and they
stick it together on either side of is and equate it.
Because the Bible does say that Jesus is the Christ

(15:13):
the sin of a living God. The Bible does say
that Jesus is the King of the Jews, and Jesus
has a name written on his thigh, King of kings
and Lord of lords. But this sort of this sort
of practice of here's something I think is cool, tricky
fun that I came up with, and I would like
you all to agree with me and join me and

(15:36):
congratulate me and make me feel good about my inventiveness.
This is the type of thing that has caused problems
for the Body of Christ in the past, Like we
can look at other times when people have done things
like this, and it's cost us as believers. So for
what that's worth, I'll just share that right there and

(15:59):
just remind us all myself included that right here one
Corinthians twelve, verse three. Therefore I make known to you
that no one speaking by the spirit of God, says
Jesus is accursed, And no one can say Jesus's Lord
except by the Holy Spirit. So there we go verse four.

(16:20):
Now there are a variety of gifts, but the same Spirit.
And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord.
There are varieties of effects, but the same God, who
works all things in all persons. But to each one
is given the manifestation of the Holy Spirit for the
common good. For to one is given the word of
wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of

(16:42):
knowledge according to the same spirit. To another faith by
the same spirit, and to another gifts of healing by
the one spirit, and to another the affecting or the
working of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another
the distinguishing of spirits into another various kinds of tongues,

(17:06):
and to another the interpretation of tongues. This is quite
the day for having extra additional comments. I'm seeing I'm
going to take a moment and talk about the gift
of the discerning of spirits. This translation i'm reading says
the distinguishing of spirits, but most translations talk about the

(17:27):
gift of the discerning of spirits. This is an actual
gift of the Holy Spirit. When people say they have
the gift of discernment, there is no such gift in
the Bible. There is I think one verse in Proverbs
that talks about crying out to God for discernment, but
it doesn't say anything about the gift of discernment anywhere

(17:51):
in the Bible. There's a gift of the discerning of spirits.
What that gift is is the Holy Spirit reveals what
specific spirits are in operation in the situation, and primarily
that in my experience, primarily the use or purpose of

(18:13):
that information is to bind and loose and to cast out,
just address the spirit, command it to go, just bind
and loose according to the wisdom the discerning of spirits
that the Holy Spirit gives one. So most of the
time in my experience, when as I might term them,

(18:35):
Internet Christians or even Church Christians claim quote unquote the
gift of discernment, what they're talking about is a critical
spirit where they decide that the thoughts that arise in
their imagination that are negative concerning others, the negative conclusions

(18:55):
that they jump to about other people, that this is
supernatural knowledge from God. So I would just like to
point out that what the Bible actually says is that
there is a gift of the distinguishing of spirits or
the discernment of spirits, and that is for a specific purpose.

(19:18):
It's not to go round and have conversations with ten
different people all about these negative assumptions that this person
imagines to be true of this other person. Most time
it's an individual or group. And to go through this

(19:39):
multiple times in different conversations with different people, just a
bunch of talk and assumptions from their imagination that they're
now spreading and depositing into other people. That is not
a gift from God. So okay, let's go back over
what the Bible actually says. Now, there are varieties of gifts,

(20:02):
but the same spirit and their varieties of ministries, and
the same Lord. This goes back to again that proper
working of each individual part causes the growth of the
body for the building up of itself in love. There
are varieties effects, but the same God who works all
things in all persons. But to each one is given

(20:24):
the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For
to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit,
and to another the word of knowledge according to the
same spirit, to another faith by the same spirit, and
to another gifts of healing by the one spirit, and
to another, the working of miracles, and to another prophecy,

(20:44):
and to another the discernment of spirits, the discerning of spirits,
to another, various kinds of tongues, and to another the
interpretation of tongues. But one and the same spirit works
all these things, distributing to each one individually just as
he wills. Boy, today is the day for this kind

(21:05):
of thing, isn't it?

Speaker 6 (21:06):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (21:06):
I've seen another verse that brings to mind something, So
let's take a little trek here again. I have heard
a number of people by now claim that this verse
means that God decides what local church you belong in,
and that you shouldn't join a church unless God has

(21:29):
told you to be there, and that you shouldn't leave
that church because you are put there by God. Let's
go with what the Bible actually says. The context of
this verse is spiritual gifts. That's the context, and the
statement is that the Holy Spirit is working all of

(21:52):
these ministries, gifts and effects manifestations of this spirit. That's
what it says. The Holy Spirit is working, and that's
what it says. He is distributing to each one individually,
just as he wills. So let's stick to the Bible.

(22:16):
I'll give a personal testimony from my life.

Speaker 6 (22:20):
I was.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
Newly deciding to live my life for God, and I
had been invited to a church I was attending in
the morning, denominational church that my parents were going to,
and I had been invited in at my job to

(22:45):
a church and they had an evening service. So I
had been attending the evening service at this other church.
And the day came where the Lord dealt with me
to choose one. And I was going to the memory
ship class at at least one of them, and maybe

(23:06):
both at the same time, something like that. I don't
I'm fuzzy on the details in the moment, but anyway,
when the Lord talked to me about this, he told
me to choose, and it really opened my eyes that
because I'm frankly speaking openly and frankly, I would have

(23:28):
been quite open to this stuff that I was hearing
from people, this stuff that isn't even in the Bible.
Telling us that you know, just the things I mentioned
before that you don't you shouldn't be going to a
church unless God told you to go there. He shouldn't
leave a church because God's the one who put you there.
All this stuff, I would have been open to it

(23:50):
if it hadn't been for this experience. And I'm not
saying that to my credit, because we're supposed to check
what we hear from people against the Word. But I've
been typically pretty open to things that I heard and
not always diligent as I should have been to check
things against the Bible. And I'm thankful that the Lord

(24:14):
dealt with me directly, because that's how I knew that
actually that's not the case. God does have us pick
and choose what church we go to, and if we
ask for his help and ask for his direction, he'll
meet us there as well. It's according to our faith.
It's done unto us, and we also need to be

(24:36):
pursuing God and obeying him. The Lord came to me
and told me to choose, and so that's what I did,
and the Lord blessed and helped me, and he was
very gracious and kind to me over the years, and
I ended up being very thankful that I chose the
church I chose. So, Okay, that's that's kind of an

(24:59):
ex in an anecdote. But I want to go back
to and actually read again what that verse says, just
so we can all be clear what the verse says.
But one in the same spirit works all these things,
distributing to each individually just as he wills. So that's
the verse verse twelve. For just as the body is

(25:23):
one and yet has many parts, and all the parts
of the body, though they are many, are one body,
so also is Christ. For by one spirit, we were
all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, Gentiles
meaning people those of us who were not previously in
covenant with God like the Jews were. Whether and salvation

(25:47):
is first to the Jews, and then to us, whether
slaves are free, And we were all made to drink
of one spirit, Glory to God. Four. For the body
is not one part, but many. If the foot says,
because I am not a hand, I'm not part of

(26:07):
the body, it is not for this reason any less
a part of the body. And if the ear says,
because I'm not an eye, I'm not part of the body,
it is not for this reason any less a part
of the body. It's interesting the mindset that they were
dealing with at the time that these letters were being written.

(26:30):
Because now the mindset I've observed is people more saying
because you're not this part, you're not part of the body,
which is really crazy and a what an a about
face or turnaround from what mindset they were dealing with

(26:51):
back then. But still, of course contrary to scripture, Okay,
let's go back to verse fourteen. For the body is
not one part but many. If the foot says because
I'm not a hand, i am not part of the body,
it is not for this reason any less a part
of the body. And if the ear says, because I
am not an eye, I'm not part of the body,

(27:13):
it is not for this reason any less a part
of the body. If the whole body were an eye,
where would the hearing be. If the whole body we're hearing,
where would the sense of smell be. So this is
beautiful because it tells us every part is needed. Every

(27:33):
part needs to be functioning properly. We need the proper
functioning of each individual part so that it causes the
growth of the body for the building up of itself
and love. Praise God. But now God has arranged the parts,
each one of them in the body, just as he desired. Now, again,

(27:54):
this is not talking about where in what local church
you go to. This is talking about function. It's the
reason why I say that is because the physical body
is being used as a parable for the body of Christ,
and the parts of the physical body are put where

(28:18):
they're put based on function. And so to say that
this means that you should go to this particular church,
or you should hear from God about which local church
you should attend. You shouldn't go to any other local church.

(28:39):
You shouldn't leave your local church. This is not what
this verse is saying. Whatever, however much wisdom there is
in that for this or that person, or this or
that amount of people, let's stick to what the verse
is actually saying. This is a parable in between the
physical body and the spiritual body of the Body of Christ.
And just like in the physical body, the parts are

(29:02):
placed where they are on the basis of their function.
The Lord is saying that God has arranged the parts,
each one of them in the body, just as he desired.
In other words, the design the placement of our physical
body was arranged by God. So it is with the
spiritual body of Christ. Where he is putting the different parts,

(29:25):
the different members, into the function, into the purpose, according
to his design, what he wants them to be doing.
And it's a beautiful thing because when we see how
the body of Christ is ministered to by the function
of each individual part, we see how it causes the

(29:47):
growth of the body for the building up of itself
and love. And God gets the glory because we all
know that that person could not have done that in
their self, in their own humanity kind of thing. Get
back to the passage verse nineteen. If they were all
one part, where would the body be? But now there

(30:10):
are many parts but one body, and the eye cannot
say to the hand, I have no need of you,
or again the head to the feet, I have no
need of you. So this is extremely serious in our time,
because we have people speaking and behaving as if they
did not need a particular member or a particular portion

(30:33):
of the body. This to act like that and speak
like that is against God's word. On the contrary, it
is much truer that the parts of the body which
seem to be weaker are necessary, and those parts of
the body which we consider less honorable, on these we
bestow greater honor, and our less presentable parts become much

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more presentable, whereas our more presentable parts have no need
of it. But God has so composed the body, giving
much more abundant honor to that part which lacked, so
that there may be no division in the body, but
that the parts may have the same care for one another.
And if one part of the body suffers, all the

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parts suffer with it. If a part is honored, all
the parts rejoice with it. So I think this whole
passage is again highlighting the importance of the proper functioning
of each individual part, the proper working of each individual part,
and that's where the emphasis lies. And to rejoice when

(31:40):
a part is honored. Let's see twenty seven verse twenty seven.
Now you are Christ's body and individually parts of it.
And God is appointed in the church. First apostles, second prophets, third, teachers,
then miracles, then gifts of healings, help, administrations, and various

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kinds of tongues. All are not apostles? Are they all
are not profits? Are they all are not teachers? Are
they all are not workers of miracles? Are they all
do not have gifts of healings? Do they all do
not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret,
do they? But earnestly desire the greater gifts. So this

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is important to understand. And the thing that I'll take
the time to highlight is that we want each individual
part to be working properly. We want the apostles to
be doing their function in the right way. We want
the profits doing their function correctly, properly. Same with the teachers,

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same with the workers of miracles, those that have gifts
of healings. Okay, And I will highlight as well when
it's as all do not speak with tongues, do they?
This is talking about tongues with the interpretation of tongues
that's done in the publicly, in the corporate worship setting.
This is not talking about the private prayer language and

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the understanding that comes to us as we go ahead
and pray in tongues. So this is talking about something
specific spiritual gift that's done for edification of the body.
And I can say from experience, I pray in tongue
a lot, but I don't think I've ever walked in tongues.

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Are the interpretation of tongues in my life before? And
I enjoy and honor people that do have that gift,
and I just love it when they function in their gift.
It's wonderful. I get edified and encouraged. It's a tremendous blessing.
So okay, let's get back to the text. And yet

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I am going to show you a far better way.
If I speak with the tongue of mankind, and of
tongues of mankind and of angels, but do not have love,
I have become a noisy gong or a clanging symbol.
If I have the gift of prophecy and know all
mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith

(34:21):
so as to remove mountains, but do not have love,
I am nothing. And if I give away all my
possessions to charity, and if I surrender my body so
that I may glory, but do not have love, it
does me no good. Love is patient, Love is kind.
It is not jealous. Love does not brag. It is
not arrogant. It does not act disgracefully or unbecomingly, depending

(34:45):
on your translation. It does not seek its own It
is not provoked. It does not take It does not
keep an account of a wrong. Oooh, that's convicting me
right now does not keep an ad out of a wrong.
It does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth.

(35:05):
It keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes, all
things endures, all things. Love never fails. But if there
are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away with.
If there are tongues, they will cease. If there is knowledge,
it will be done away with. For we know in
part and prophesy in part. But when the perfect comes,

(35:28):
the partial will be done away with. When I was
a child, I used to speak like a child, think
like a child, reason like a child. When I became
a man, I did away with childish things. So the
analogy is that these spiritual gifts are us as believers
engaging in the behavior of a child, And the analogy

(35:51):
is us, as believers walking and love becoming grown up adult.
Verse twelve. For we see in a mirror dimly, but
then face to face. Now I know in part, but
then I will know fully, just as I also have
been fully known. So, in other words, these speculations by

(36:14):
believers from time to time of all the questions they
think they're going to ask in heaven. This is a
false understanding of what eternity will be like. We won't
have questions, and you can hear that when you hear
testimonies from people who've been to heaven and come back.
That's not how it works in eternity. It's not like that.

(36:39):
We will know fully just as also we have been
fully known verse thirteen. But now faith, hope, and love
remain these three. But the greatest of these is love.
So is that awesome or what we are commanded by
godard not to say or behave as if we have

(36:59):
no need of any other member of the body of Christ.
That's a big takeaway. The future of the believer, of
all of us believers, is to be one with one another,
as Jesus and the Father are one. The prayer of
Jesus in John seventeen, the Gospel of John chapter seventeen

(37:19):
will be fulfilled. We are either part of making that happen.
Participants expectant of this, or we're not. So let's look
at a few verses out of John chapter seventeen. But
now I am coming to you, and these things I
speak in the world so that they may have my

(37:40):
joy made full in themselves. This is Jesus praying to
the Father while he was on earth, shortly not not
too long before he was crucified for our sins. I
have given them your word, and the world has hated
them because they are not of the world, just as
I am not of the world. I am not asking
you to take the out of the world, but to

(38:01):
keep them away from the evil one. In other words,
we should not repeat what Eve did or and what
Adam did. We should not repeat that they are not
of the world, just as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. Just

(38:21):
as you sent me into the world, I also send
them into the world, and for their sakes, I sanctify myself,
so that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
I am not asking on behalf of these alone, but
also for those who believe in me through their word,
that they may all be one, just as you, Father

(38:43):
are in me, and I in you, that they also
may be in us, so that the world may believe
that you sent me powerful Huh. The glory which you
have given me, I also have given to them, so
that they may be one, just as we are one,

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I in them and you and me. That they may
be perfected in unity, so that the world may know
that you sent me and you love them just as
you love me.

Speaker 6 (39:16):
Father.

Speaker 1 (39:16):
I desire that they, also, whom you have given me,
be with me where I am, so that they may
see my glory which you've given me, for you loved
me before the foundation of the world. Hollylujah, Praise God. Okay,
So I also want to talk about the future of

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the Body of Christ. One of the reasons why I
want to mention it is there's some type of hullabaloo
that's taken place on the Internet from time to time
regarding the rapture. And I mean there's always been disputes
by people who are willing to get into this sort
of thing as to when the re capture will happen

(40:01):
or what sequence of event, what the sequence of events
will be. Actually, I'll make an observation about that. When
Jesus came the first time, there were two people the
Bible records recognizing him upon his arrival, the Holy Spirit

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making the introduction and not human beings, and that was Simeon,
who was interceding for the Messiah to come forth. He
was putting God in remembrance of the consolation of Israel.
That was a specific promise about the Messiah that Simeon

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was honing in on and bringing up before the Lord.
And he recognized Jesus when Jesus came into the temple
with his parents as a baby is being brought in
to be circumcised. I think the other one was Anna,
the prophetess who served in the temple night and day

(41:08):
with fasting and prayer. Those two, the intercessors, recognized Jesus
in his first coming. They were in tune and on
track by the Holy Spirit with the times in the
seasons and what God was doing. Other people passed him by.
Let's talk about this for a second. There were people men,

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maybe probably mostly men, if not all, who were in
the temple who were people of stature, importance, political influence
in their group, power, perhaps political influence even outside their group.
These were people of social power who were in the

(41:53):
temple and got into debates with each other over when
the Messiah would come, what would be the circumstances of
his coming. A couple of things we know from history
is that there was a debate about how the Bible
says that Jesus would be called out of Egypt that

(42:16):
that out of Egypt, I've called my son. That was
one prophetic word. Another one was that he would be
born in Bethlehem. That was another thing that people grouped
and clustered around. And then there was one about he
I think is he shall be called a Nazarene something
like that. And so these different groups, these different men

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in leadership, in possessions of power within this religious system,
would argue and debate with each other, and they I think,
I think I'm comfortable saying that. I expect they all
outranked and other prophetess the intercessor socially, and they were

(43:04):
totally unaware, totally unaware. And she's the one who recognized Jesus.
Here's the Messiah. Here he is coming in with his
parents as a baby. That's so miraculous, so awesome, and
so for on the subject of Jesus the Second Coming,

(43:27):
I would say probably the most important thing is to
be a person of prayer. Probably the most important aspect
for being in tune with the Holy Spirit about the
sequence of events and the timing of God is to
be a person of prayer. That's my thought and observation.
So okay, So talking about people, it's pivoting somewhat from

(43:52):
the debate about their debates that that people get into
about what the timing, what the sequence of events might
be is. We have people who actually say it shall
not happen, which is totally false and against the Bible.
And the Bible literally tells us to remind each other,
comfort each other with the words of God concerning the rapture.

(44:13):
So I am going to read this passage about the
future of the body of Christ and the interests of
comforting with these words as the Bible says to do.
So let's go to first Thessalonians, chapter four, verses thirteen
through eighteen. But we do not want you to be uninformed,

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brothers and sisters about those who are asleep, that means
physically dead, so that you will not grieve, as indeed
the rest of mankind do, who have no hope. For
if we believe that Jesus died and rose from the dead,
so also God will bring with him those who have
fallen asleep through Jesus, meaning they passed away physically died

(44:59):
as a belief in the Lord Jesus. Okay, verse fifteen.
For we say this to you by the word of
the Lord, that We who are alive and remain until
the coming of the Lord, will not proceed those who
have fallen asleep, For the Lord himself will descend from
heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel

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and with a trumpet of God, and the dead in
Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive who remain,
will be caught up together with them in the clouds
to meet the Lord in the air. And so we
will always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another
with these words, Amen, say lah, Glory to God. So

(45:46):
I thank you so much for listening. I pray this
has been a blessing to you. In fact, let me
pray a quick prayer over you, Holy Spirit. I pray
that you minister to the heart, soul, mind, spirit of
every person who listen. I pray for those Father who
have been hurt in various ways, Lord, dealing with just
dealing with all types of different things. I pray for

(46:08):
those dealing with hopelessness, pain, the minister to them, comfort them,
Holy Spirit, and I pray for their healing Lord in
Jesus's name. I pray for the healing of people's heart's Lord,
the renewal of their minds, the renewal of their faith
and their hope in You, Lord, and that they would
be strengthened Father to put their trust in you once again.

(46:30):
In Jesus' name. Amen, God, bless you guys, Thank you
for joining.

Speaker 2 (46:35):
Bye.

Speaker 6 (47:05):
Hey I couldn't.

Speaker 2 (47:21):
My phone kept pitching. Okay, I'm praying it with my
just my phone and it happened about three times