Highest Priority

Dear Brethren,

What is our highest priority?  What does God expect of us as individual Christians right now?  What does God tell us is the most important thing we should be doing?  Why is the Church becoming more and more scattered?

How can we know what Jesus Christ would have us to do?   How can we know what God's priorities are for us in these confusing times?  How can the ministers of the Churches of God be leading God's people in so many different directions?  It seems that each group has a different viewpoint on what God wants them to do.  That spiritual confusion contradicts the unity that the Bible clearly shows God has in mind for His people.

We can all agree that it is not God's will that so many ministers or groups have a different message - competing with one another for members.  Each group has an essential modus operandi - a core conviction that represents the group's priority.  Each group believes it has God's stamp of approval.  Some groups have set a priority for themselves of "doing the Work" by having the most powerful broadcasts or sending out the most literature.  Others have for their priority a "clearer" or unique understanding of prophecy.  Some want to establish the fact that they uphold the teachings of Herbert W. Armstrong better than any other group as their priority.   For others, their priority is simply make it to the place of safety.

Our priority must match up perfectly with Christ's priority.  What does God say is important?  What does He expect us to be doing as Christians?   Are some Brethren okay just because their organization has the greatest evangelistic effort?  God makes it very clear that preaching and doing many wonders is not His highest priority.

"Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not preached in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness."  (Matthew 7:22-23)

Please compare the last word of the previous verse, "lawlessness", which is not God's priority with this next verse which does describe God's priority for us.  God says that not loving our fellow man is "lawlessness".  What does God say is the opposite of "lawlessness"?   "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself." (Galatians 5:14)

Jesus Christ also makes it clear that interpretation of prophecy is not the number one priority of a true Christian.  Sure, God's prophecies are meant to comfort and encourage us.  Prophecy is given for our assurance that it will shortly come to pass - not so that we will spend all of our energies trying to figure out the "when, where and how."  Having prophetic understanding in itself will not qualify us for the Kingdom or get us into the Place of Safety:  "And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing."  (1Corinthians 13:2)

Notice how Scripture brings us back to what our priority should be!  If we are not practicing "Agape" Christian love for the Brethren, no matter what other priorities we might have - we do not have the correct Godly priority.

There are those who teach that the sacred calendar is so enigmatic and baffling that only their expertise can unravel the mystery.  They teach their followers that their priority must be to trust them for the dates.  Do we really believe that God would give us His sacred calendar with the Feast days which show His Plan of salvation - and make it all but impossible for us to keep the correct days?  Those who espouse the doctrines taught by Mr. Armstrong - but do not practice or live by them also have their priorities wrong.  "But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does."  (James 1:25)

Brethren, these are perilous times.  Let's get our priorities straight.  The completion of this next verse will give us the answer.  Here's the test from I John 3:14.  Jesus said:

"We know that we have passed from death unto life, because… __________"  (fill in the blank)

  • We are in the group with the biggest audience ?

  • We are in the group with the most literature ?

  • We are in the group that has the best understanding of prophecy ?

  • We have collected all the teachings of Herbert W. Armstrong ?

  • We have figured out where the Place of Safety is ?

  • We have correctly figured out the calendar ?

None of the above is correct.  Here is what the verse says.

"We know that we have passed from death unto life, because WE LOVE THE BRETHREN".  (I John 3:14)

OK, most would say that they love the people in their group, and thus have fulfilled that scripture.  But can we agree that all those who have God's Holy Spirit are Brethren and that many people in the various groups have God's Holy Spirit?  If so, our love must extend to all of those people and not just to those in our particular group. This is God's priority for salvation.  It is very simple.

The saddest part of all, is that most groups today either openly or subtly discourage contact with people in other groups unless there is a chance to win them over into their group.  Some groups, in discouraging their members from having contact with others, have even referred to outsiders as "polluted bread".   Recently, a man in a remote area was refused baptism by a minister in a large group for the simple reason,... as he told the man, "You are in the wrong organization."

Jesus Christ mentioned His concept of loving the Brethren over and over again to make sure we would get it.  "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.  By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."  (John 13:34-35)

1John 2:10 "He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him."  "... He that loveth not his brother abideth in death."  (1John 3:14)

This very message of Jesus Christ is especially important for the Church today.  God anticipated that we would separate into many groups with differing priorities.  This next verse in not just about meeting together for Sabbath services.  God foresaw the scattered condition of the church today - and the reason for it!

"And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching."   (Hebrews 10:24-25)

Groups of people, supposedly with God's Holy Spirit, now refuse to assemble together in violation of this Scripture.  Jesus Christ's message to the Church at the end time is hat we encourage one another.  We need to reach out to others, as shown in Malachi 3:16-17:

"Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, And the LORD listened and heard them; So a book of remembrance was written before Him For those who fear the LORD And who meditate on His name. They shall be Mine, says the LORD of hosts, On the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them As a man spares his own son who serves him."

We need to be involved with those from other groups as much as possible and to show love to all the children of God.  God does not like the idea of separate organizations.  It is important to seek out others who are like-minded in wanting to bind up the wounds of the Church and truly let Christ's love live in us.  Jesus has one Church - only.

"For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height;to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."  (Ephesians. 3:14-19)

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Sermon:  "Our Savior"

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