Memorial Preparations

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Short Summary
The discourse focuses on preparations for the memorial and highlights the significance of understanding the connection between the Passover and Jesus’ sacrifice, drawing parallels between biblical events and contemporary observances. It emphasizes the importance of self-examination, spiritual cleansing from sin (symbolized by removing leaven), and cultivating qualities like humility, kindness, and love in anticipation of the memorial, encouraging participants to reflect on their relationship with Jesus and each other. The speaker also reminds the audience of the communal aspect of the memorial, uniting brethren worldwide in their preparations.

**Keywords:** Memorial preparations, Passover, Jesus’ sacrifice, self-examination, spiritual cleansing, humility, communal observance.

Long Summary
### Detailed Summary on Memorial Preparations

Introduction to Memorial Preparations
– The time of year for memorial preparations is acknowledged, with a focus on centering thoughts and discussions around this significant event.
– A handout related to the topic was prepared with assistance from Anna, indicating a collaborative effort in planning.

Connection to Passover
– The discourse includes discussions about the memorial and its connections to Passover.
– Reference to Exodus 12, detailing the institution of Passover, signifies the importance of understanding its practices:
10th Day: The lamb is brought into the house.
14th Day: The lamb is slaughtered at twilight.
– Blood on the doorposts is essential for the protection of the firstborn.

Symbolism in the Passover
– The lamb without defect symbolizes Jesus Christ, aligning with Hebrews 4:15 and Hebrews 7:26, emphasizing His sinlessness.
– The act of putting blood on doorposts represents Jesus’ sacrifice, indicating the protection and salvation offered to believers, referred to as the church of the firstborn in Hebrews 12:23.

Historical Context
– Josephus’ historical account provides context for the timing of lamb slaughter during Passover, reinforcing the timeline of events.

Antitypical Meanings
– The entry of the lamb into the house parallels Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, highlighting the significance of Jesus’ actions leading to His crucifixion.
– The discussions provide an understanding of the typology of Jesus as the Passover lamb.

Preparation for the Memorial
– Emphasis is placed on self-reflection and preparation before the memorial, encouraging participants to remove leaven (sin) from their lives, as depicted in 1 Corinthians 5:7-8.
– Participants are urged to examine their hearts and engage in a cleansing process akin to the Jewish tradition of removing leaven before Passover.

Practical Steps for Preparation
– Encouragement to make personal resolutions to remove worldly desires, attitudes, and behaviors as outlined in Colossians 3:5-9.
– The discourse discusses practical methods for identifying and addressing personal shortcomings, including accountability and community support.

Characteristics of Holy Living
– Highlighting the virtues of kindness, humility, meekness, patience, and forgiveness as necessary traits for a sincere Christian life.
– Encouragement to embody these traits as part of self-examination in preparation for the memorial.

The Role of Love and Peace
– The importance of agape love, which is selfless and unconditional, is emphasized, alongside the peace that Christ offers, as referenced in John 14:27.
– Participants are encouraged to focus on love in their interactions and preparations for the memorial.

Community and Global Brotherhood
– Acknowledgment of the global community of believers preparing for the memorial, fostering a sense of unity and shared purpose.
– A message from brethren in Bangalore expressing love and connection among believers worldwide, referencing 3 John 1:2.

Closing Thoughts
– The discourse concludes with a reminder of the significance of the memorial and the anticipation of sharing in the future Kingdom of God.
– Encouragement to actively prepare spiritually and mentally for the upcoming memorial service, emphasizing the collective effort of believers worldwide in this observance.

### Key Bible Verses Mentioned
– Exodus 12 (Passover institution)
– Hebrews 4:15 (Jesus without sin)
– Hebrews 7:26 (Jesus as the high priest)
– Hebrews 12:23 (Church of the firstborn)
– 1 Corinthians 5:7-8 (Removing leaven)
– John 14:27 (Peace of Christ)
– 3 John 1:2 (Wishes for health and well-being)

This summary encapsulates the essence of the discourse on memorial preparations, focusing on the spiritual significance, historical context, and practical implications for believers as they prepare for the memorial observance.

Transcript

Memorial preparations. Well, it’s time of the year that we’re preparing for the memorial, and so during this time of year, the last couple years, I’ve liked to prepare something in our class in Orlando just to have our minds focused on this time. I think we all do that in our different ways. There is another handout.

I’m not trying to become always the handout guy, but I had. Anna helped me put this, put this together for me, and we’ll get to it in a minute. So again, I’ve given you a distraction for the first part of your meeting, and we’ll get there in a minute. But for memorial preparations, we wanted to make sure to focus one. I was smiling when I was listening to the question meeting, because I thought, oh, I’m talking about memorial preparations, too.

And we were talking about preparations for the memorial and preparations for Passover and how that all fits together, and so we’re going to touch on this a little bit. This is not the main focus of today, but just to remind us. Right, and I think we already did a lot of remind, talking about a number of things.

And you’ll see here in a minute this morning. So I don’t want to duplicate too much. We know Exodus 12. The Passover is instituted 10th day of the month. The lamb’s taken into the house.

Lamb without defect. Of course, that’s important in Exodus 12:5, 14th day of the month, remove the leaven from the house. Brother Richard was bringing that up. But remove the leaven, 14th day of the month, slaughter the lambs at twilight between the two evenings. We talked about that already.

And then on the actual night of Passover, they put the lamb’s blood on the doorposts. What did it save? It saved the firstborn. That was the purpose. Save the firstborn that were under that blood.

Eat the lamb, bitter herbs and the unleavened bread, and then once they were to commemorate it going forward, they were to celebrate the feast of unleavened bread for seven days. So that would have been starting at 15. Just to sort of picture it, at least for me, it helped to sort of line some things up. So what I’m understanding is that lamb is brought into the home on the 10th, slaughtered between the evenings.

Right. I think for me, twilight, that meant as the sun is going down and heading to the evening. So that’s where I put that red box there. That’s how I sort of made sense to me in my mind what between the evenings meant when they were celebrating it, and then the beginning of the Feast of unleavened bread.

And we know the Jewish day is traditionally counted from sundown to sundown. So you see, I’ve sort of, instead of trying to line it up with our calendar days, right? And I think that’s where sometimes the challenge is, okay, is this our Thursday, our Friday? Or what is, you know, we’re just trying to keep it sundown to sundown. Count the days here.

Just find. This was interesting when we were researching this subject a while ago. Josephus records the time when the lambs were slaughtered at the temple in Jerusalem in the first century A.D, and here’s a quote from the Jewish war upon the coming of that feast, which is called the Passover, when they slay their sacrifices from the 9th hour till the 11th. So I’m not saying that’s biblical proof.

It’s just a historical record of what was happening in the first century in the temple area at Passover. So I thought that was interesting. I said, well, that kind of aligns with that thought of between the evenings, doesn’t it? And so it’s just sort of from a historical record side. That’s an interesting thought.

All right, let’s talk about anatypical meanings.

The lamb enters into the house. It’s a lamb without blemish. To me, I do like the picture of Jesus entry into Jerusalem that occurs, and that’s Jesus entry. That’s like the lamb entering into the house.

Jesus entry was on. From my viewpoint, I think it seems to line up that it was on the same day as the lamb entered the house for Passover.

Jesus was without sin. We have that confirmed for us in Hebrews 4:15, Hebrews 7:26, Lamb slain, blood on the doorposts. The eating of that lamb, Jesus death on the cross was that lamb being slain. His death was, in my viewpoint, at the same hour that the Passover lambs were being slain. So when we see that Josephus recording historically, here’s the lamb being slain.

Jesus was on the cross, dying. His blood covered the firstborn, the church class, the church of the firstborn, Hebrews 12:23. So I think that’s a very important part because when we talk, you know, if you look in the sixth volume, there’s a picture within a picture that brother Russell talks about, and I used to always get confused with this, Wait, we’re talking about them getting out of the Israelites getting out of Egypt and crossing over the Red Sea. He said, no, no, first focus on the picture of the firstborn.

That is what the blood was covering, right? As a result of that. That is what allowed the rest of the Israelites to leave. So that is what is the beautiful picture, right? Because now we have the firstborn being covered, the church being covered.

Now, during the gospel age, what is going to allow and result in the world of mankind being able to be freed from sin and death? It is going to be God using the Christ head and body to bring back all of mankind into harmony with him. So that just a beautiful picture, right? But it was like, for a long time, I always said, oh, this is hard to get. Why are we.

You know, this is confusing to me. All right, now, I hesitate to tread here because we just talked about this for part of the last study, and now I’m like, oh, now Brother Jay’s going to come share his opinion on it. So I’m going to hit next pretty quick. But you’ll see and I’ll just go back the way I’m counting it.

Jesus arrives to me at Bethany and John 12:1. It says six days before Passover, there was entry. He entered into Bethany in John 12:12. It says the next day to me. That’s the triumphal entry.

If I count from the 15th of Nisan, because that’s when Passover, when they’re celebrating Passover, that’s at night. Now they’ve entered into the 15th. The lamb was slaughtered on the 14th. So if I count backwards to me, I get to the ninth of Nisan. As Jesus arrives at Bethany, the tenth Jesus enters Jerusalem.

The next day after that is when Jesus cleanses the temple. I think that’s only in Mark where you see, like, he goes in and he looks and it says, the next day he came back and cleanse the temple. I always appreciate Brother Carl brought that out. I remember as a kid, remember a lesson from Brother Carl bringing that out and saying, you know, he didn’t just show up angry, he thoughtfully went and did that work. Prayerfully went and did that work.

I always appreciated that. So this is how I think it lines up in my opinion, right? So like we said, we had how many opinions among the brethren? So you just, you get in one more or a taste of one. The lamb brought into the home, I think to me lines up with Jesus entering into Jerusalem.

The lamb slaughtered between the evenings, Jesus dying on the cross, and the end of the day on the 14th, and then the Sabbath beginning on the 15th, beginning of the feast of unleavened bread. He’s in the grave parts of three days. My son James came up and said, you know, dad, that’s wrong. Up there because it says Jonah was in the grave for three days, like the sign of Jonah. So three days and three nights.

So if somebody has a good explanation for James, I’d really appreciate it so we can share that with him afterwards. But that’s a good point, right? The sign of parts of isaiah, parts of three days, so the 14th, all the 15th, and part of the 16th, and Jesus is resurrected, so we just share that.

So that was just us remembering what we’re looking at from a type and antitype. But how can we prepare for the more when we think of Jesus entering into Jerusalem, do we think about it more than just fulfilling the antitype too? Do we allow Jesus to enter into our minds and hearts during this season now? He should always be there. I think that’s sometimes the challenge of the memorial is say, well, that’s something special.

We’re supposed to be doing that all year long. But now is a great time to renew that and refocus on it. Part of that work is cleaning out the leaven of sin and eating the unleavened bread. So we know we have that pictured for us in 1 Corinthians 5, 7 and 8, and I really like this quote about appreciating the privilege of this from reprint 5193 so I’m going to read for a little bit and I appreciate the thought on this.

We urge that none neglect this annual privilege for any reason. There is a special blessing in its observance. If you incline to feel discouraged, go partake of the broken loaf, asking the Lord for a fresh realization of your justification and a fresh appreciation of your consecration to be broken sacrificed with him as members of the one loaf, his church, his body. Let us not forget that the memorial is meaningless or worse unless thus accepted and appreciated. But let nothing hinder us, neither sins nor coldness, nor feelings of unworthiness.

Go to the Lord and make a clean breast of all your shortcomings. Go to your brethren, or any whom you have wronged. Make full acknowledgment, whether they acknowledge faults toward you or not. Get yourself right with the Lord, and so far as possible with every man, and then eat.

Yea, feast upon the rich provisions the Lord has made for all who accept now or in a later due time. Such a heart searching and cleansing, we remember, was shown in the Passover type given to the Jews before they gathered to eat their Passover lamb. They searched everywhere throughout their habitations for anything containing leaven or putrefaction, bones, crusts, everything. These all were burned, destroyed. So must we fulfill the antitype and put away the old leaven of anger, malice, hatred and strife.

That is something that is really strongly in our minds about appreciating and setting aside. If we are having challenges right now, let us address them, focus on addressing them, and then let us go to the Lord in faith that we were addressing them appropriately. You know that lamb that’s laying on those doorposts? That’s our whole point. That’s.

Then the blood spread on the doorpost. That’s the whole point. Recognizes Jesus death at the cross and what it accomplished. That’s what we’re memorializing, and you know, when we looked at that, we said, and we’re looking at some of Paul’s words as well and reflecting on it.

It says, examine ourselves in 1 Corinthians 11:28. Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup, and we’re going to talk a little bit about that, about examining ourselves in a few minutes. Let’s talk about the picture of removing leaven.

This is a picture I pulled online of. I’m going to probably get it wrong and maybe Brother Richard can help me.

Is the burning of the bread of the leaven out of the house? So not only would they gather it all out and sweep it all out, but they’re to burn it and it’s burnt to ash. I didn’t realize it. It has to be burnt to ash so that it can just not be consumed. It’s done away with.

And that reminds us of, I think in 1 Corinthians 5, 7, 8, cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you really are. Unleavened. We’ve been justified, so we are. From God’s standpoint, we are unleavened. For Christ, our passover lamb has been sacrificed.

Let us therefore celebrate this festival not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. A little more Continuation from the same reprint reprint 5193. But remember that this kind of leaven of sin cannot be thoroughly put away unless it be burned, and only love can burn it out. Heavenly love, the love of God.

If we have that love shed abroad in our hearts, it will consume everything of the opposite character. Jealousy, hatred, evil speaking, etc.

Put off all of these urges the apostle, and put on Christ and be filled with his spirit. Do not be discouraged, but learn the lesson and start again with fresh resolutions and increased appreciation of the fact that of yourself, without the master’s aid, you could never gain the prize. He knows this better than do we and says, without me, ye can do nothing. It was because of our need that the father thus arranged for us. Be of good courage is the master’s word to all who are longing and striving to be of the class called conquerors.

All right, well, you know, when we thought about removing leaven and this idea of malice and then what we’re supposed to be doing, our minds move to Colossians in the third chapter, and that’s where we’re really going to focus the remainder of our time, and that’s where your worksheet is going to come into play, and that idea of examining ourselves, and on there, we’ll get into it a little bit. But in terms of examining ourselves, I find there’s times of the year that’s helpful for me to. To re.

Examine myself. Like New Year’s, we have a watch night service, and that’s a good. Right. I’m like, okay, how did the year go?

Didn’t do so well there. Didn’t do so. Okay, what am I supposed to be doing next? How can I improve upon that? I don’t know.

For me, general convention is always an important time of the year for me. That’s when I symbolize my consecration. It’s always a time that’s in my mind, right. Listening to that baptismal discourse, that. That really is a time for me to refresh that consecration.

All right, how about, and then memorial and really taking that time. Right. So if you find for me that’s helpful, I don’t know if that’s helpful for you, but if you haven’t been doing that, maybe that’s a helpful thing to do throughout the year. Maybe you have markers in the year where you can take that time to reflect.

So how do we remove. You know, let’s talk. First we got to remove Leaven, and I summarize this, as in Colossians 3, 5:9, as things not to do. Okay, so it’s things not to do.

One is worldly desires, and we would say that’s Colossians 3, 5. So put to death. Therefore, what is earthly in you? Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

Then I think the next two verses are summed up as worldly attitudes and behaviors. So if you notice some of Those things in 3, 5, some might have an outward working, but some might only be here in our Mind and we only the Lord knows, and we know that’s something that we might have to work on, right? If we have covetousness, that’s not necessarily an outward action that occurs. That might be something that is only occurring up here, but sometimes it shows up in worldly attitudes and behaviors.

So Colossians 3, 8. But now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices. So if we have worldly attitudes and behaviors, that’s something we got to work on.

So how do we do that? First you got to identify or recognize it, right? So if you don’t know, you have a problem with this, that’s the first challenge, and sometimes that’s what your brother is helpful for your family, your friends saying, hey, what’s going on here? Sometimes it comes to your attention.

But once it’s identified, what do we need to do about it? Well, we need to remove or stop that influence. That can be really hard. We all have challenges. We all have challenges that we’ve fallen into the same trap over and over again.

How do I get around it this time? How do I get around it that time? So one of the good things is asking why? Why am I keep having this challenge? Why does this part keep occurring?

What about my attitude or my thoughts on this or my actions? Why does this keep happening? So asking why then making a choice, and at the end of the day, we have to make a choice. We can choose to keep doing the same pattern that we’ve been following, or we can make a choice to do something different.

It sounds really simple. It’s really hard.

You got two places to choose from. But because of our fallen nature, because of temptations, all those challenges we have in the world, that can be hard to make a choice. This is what helps with that. It can be accountability, right? Do you have somebody that’s going to help you, hold you accountable for those challenges that you’re facing?

How are you going to held accountable? When I was thinking through this, I was thinking of an example growing up and I played lacrosse growing up and we had a really good coach in our high school years. He did not tolerate sometimes middle school, high school boys do not always use the best language. I’m going to put it in that terms right on the sports field, in the locker room. That might be a little bit of a stereotype, but that’s not always great.

So I appreciated his example was one he didn’t tolerate that on the playing field, and two, if we did that, you know what happened. We already ran as part of our work. But he said, and this was a self reporting thing. He said, okay, if you use some bad language, this was at the end of our running, one more lap up and down, right?

And there were people. We’d line up and hear another group going up, and you know what, we had a pretty clean language pretty soon, because guess what? The consequence and us being held accountable really mattered, and so that’s a really important part.

So I want to touch on those things because that’s something we need to address in terms of getting ready for for Memorial. We have to remove the leaven, but let’s talk now about the unleavened bread, and I think that’s where we want to focus the remainder of our thoughts. In 1 Corinthians 5, 7, 8 cleanse out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. The unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Where do we find that? Well, some of it takes some knowledge first, but the rest of it is holy living. Colossians 3:10 Put on the new self being renewed in knowledge. So we got to know what’s right first.

If we’re guided by our conscience, that’s good. But our conscience has to be guided by something. What are we filling it with? If we’re basing it on the Scriptures, that’s where we need to focus. How do we know about the Scriptures?

We’ve got to study. We got to learn about it. We got to learn what Jesus taught us. We’ve got to learn what the apostles shared with us. That’s what’s got to be in our hearts.

Reprint 5686 we must grow in love the apostle tells us that we might have all knowledge and yet be as nothing. Knowledge alone will not suffice. Knowledge shows us the will of God on the one hand, and the selfishness that appertains to the fallen human nature on the other. It shows us the love and generosity that belong to the new nature. It shows us the Lord’s character, the character that we are to imitate.

So knowledge is necessary, and that purpose of knowledge is to instruct us on how to put on the character of Christ. So knowledge is necessary, but what should it be leading us to? Putting on the character of Christ, and that’s where the holy living comes in.

So if, if we stop just at knowledge. I was having some fellowship at one of the breaks, and we were talking about, well, if I put on all knowledge, I could have all knowledge, but if I do not have love, holy living, Clothe yourself with these behaviors, and that’s where in Colossians 3:12, 17, that’s where your worksheet comes in. So this is not a graded assignment.

You don’t have to feel like you have to hand this in. Don’t hand it in. Don’t feel like you have to mark it in front of everybody else. That’s not the point. It’s to be a tool for you.

So if you want to use it later in your memorial preparations at some other time during the year. There was a brother, Tim Thomason came at our watch night a number of years ago and he had a great worksheet, and I sort of modeled a little bit of this after. It’s sort of like, do I always do it? Do I rarely do this?

Right, and sort of, and then you got the perspective in between, and I know I’m just going to say I can be a self critic, and so sometimes it can be really hard grading on it.

Right. Okay. So give yourself some grace too. But this is more to say, hey, is this a personal. If you want to use this as a tool to personally check, hey, where am I?

How am I doing right now?

So the first one on that list and in the list that you see in Colossians is talking about compassionate hearts. Now that’s one of the translated versions I use, and in the King James version it says bowels of mercies, and that’s a great expression because that’s a little like, I find that a little hard to understand sometimes. Right.

What does bowels of mercies mean? And let’s look at 1 John 3:17. But whoso hath this world’s goods and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him. How dwelleth the love of God in him. Now that’s the King James and notice that it talks about bowels of compassion, but look at the actions around it.

You have the world’s goods and you see a brother that’s in need. What’s your response? Does it hit you right here? Because I think that’s the compassionate heart that it’s talking about that we’re supposed to have. So I like some of the other synonyms for this, tender hearted, pity and mercy.

But it’s really looking out for our fellow brother or sister and seeing in our heart that we need to have a response, an action. Next one kindness.

Ephesians. I’m going to read Ephesians 2:7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. Now, when I first was playing this list of guys, I said, you know, I don’t know, I’m pretty kind. I do pretty good at this, right? And then I was like, well, what’s the scriptural basis of this kindness?

I looked at Ephesians 2:7 in order that the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace. That’s God saying that in the ages to come, he’s going to show you riches that are incomparable to anything else.

We know those promises of the future. We know that they’re better than we can even understand. That’s God level kindness. So I was sort of like, oh, wait a minute, okay, here’s J’s level kindness, right? And we got to work on God level kindness.

The kindness that’s going to extend to say, I want to bless you for the rest of eternity. That’s God level kindness. That’s a big measure to stand up to.

All right, Humility.

And the next two words seem relatively similar at first. Humility talks about humbleness of mind, and really this is the opposite of boastfulness or headiness or arrogance. So we’re using some antonyms to say, okay, don’t do those things, right? If we’re being boastful, look what I’ve done.

I’m doing so awesome or can’t believe. Look at how I’m doing compared to this person over here. If those are our attitudes, then we need to work on humility. Philippians 2:3. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.

Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves. That reminds me of, I think it might have been on Christian questions about humility, and I might have heard, okay, humility isn’t thinking too highly of self and it’s not thinking too lowly of self. It’s actually not thinking of self at all. It’s focusing on others.

And that really, I was like, oh, that really helps. Because I think some of us can go to either side of those extremes sometimes. So that really helps, and do nothing out of selfish ambition. I think that’s hard in our day and day and age, right?

There’s a, there’s ambition in our world, right? Get ahead, get the next step up on the job ladder. Do this, get this, get this item, have this thing, get the next thing for the house. Get the bigger house, all this thing that’s ambition focused, right? And it’s hard because that’s for me, growing up.

I grew up in a competitive school environment, and I’m a competitive person. So that’s like, yeah, let’s keep competing. Let’s keep being ambitious. I think if we have that attitude, why don’t we turn our ambitions for what can we do for the Lord? Our ambition is what can we do in the Lord’s service, Right?

It’s not for self. It’s what can we do in the Lord’s service?

Meekness. So at first I was like, well, meekness and humility are pretty similar. But I think this has to do with more with gentleness and gentle ways, and we’ll use one. One place it’s a reference is Galatians 6:1.

Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore the person gently. That’s the same Greek word as this part, meekness in Colossians 3. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. You know, it’s interesting here that in Galatians 6:1, it talks about correction, and I was thinking about the example of Jesus correcting Martha.

Talk about the Lord sometimes giving you your object lessons, like the weeks between. I gave this discourse just a couple weeks ago in Orlando, and I said, okay, this is the one I want to share with the brother in Chicago, and I had the opportunity to offer some correction a week or so ago at work, and I tell you what, I sort of started looking through these slides. I said, oh, that wasn’t very gentle, was it?

We really have to work on gentle. I have to work on gentleness. But I like the example of Jesus correcting Martha. Do you remember when Martha is preparing everything and getting everything ready for all the meals, and there’s Mary sitting there at Jesus feet, and she says, there’s multiple lessons here. But she goes to Jesus, not Martha, Jesus, and says, why don’t you get my sister to help me get all the meals ready?

And, you know, it says, I like the Phillips. It talks about her elaborate preparations, right? And it’s saying, why don’t you go get. You know, why weren’t you addressing Martha, you know, Mary to begin with. But what does Jesus say?

He says, martha, Martha, there are only a few good. There are only a few great things to. To choose. Maybe one. Choose one.

The grace, and Mary has chosen it. I think that’s a pretty gentle correction, right? He didn’t say, martha, your preparations are overly elaborate. I can’t believe what you have done here.

He was speaking to Martha. He’s trying to connect. How do I connect with Martha and just say, martha, I want you just realize this path here. That’s a great example of gentle correction, patience. All right.

I’m really thankful to Brother Jonathan Benson because he gave a wonderful discourse. I think he might have also given it at the Phoenix Convention recently, so you might be able to find it online. On forbearing and we’re going to talk about patience and bearing with one another. Because he by listening, I’m like, okay. There’s a number of words that use patience that we translate as patience in the New Testament.

In English, this patience is meaning long suffering or enduring with good temper, somebody that bears injury patiently or shows great restraint. So when you’re being afflicted unrightfully, that’s the type of patience and not responding back in kind. That’s the patience or forbearing that this is talking about here in colossians and James 5, 10 mentions it as well. When he is talking about the prophets.

I wanted to read that real quick.

So when he’s talking about the prophets, he’s saying they serve as an example of long suffering. That’s another word that we sometimes use that long suffering. What were they bearing with? They were giving the message from God, and many times they were being persecuted for it. They had done nothing wrong from that aspect, but the people didn’t want to hear and they’re persecuted.

And did they respond and answer in kind? They kept sharing what the word of the Lord was. So that’s a good example for us in patience. Now let’s talk about bearing with one another, because I think it’s related and that bearing with one another is to bear or to endure or to suffer one another. I used the example in Matthew 17, 17:21.

I’m going to read part of it to you. It says, you unbelieving and perverse generation. Jesus replied, how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.

Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out of the boy and he was healed at that moment. Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, why couldn’t we drive it out? He replied, because you have so little faith. Truly, I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.

The point that we’re talking about here is not about the faith that he had. But that part where I read when it says, how long shall I put up with you? That’s the bearing with one another. That’s the same idea that’s captured here in Matthew. Jesus had to do a lot of bearing with the apostles and the disciples, right?

There’s times they just did not get it a lot. Is that something that we have to look at? The example that Jesus had in terms of patience and this forbearing. Are we doing that with each other, with our brethren?

All right. Forgiving each other, you know, are we readily. Another synonym for this readily pardoning each other. So we’ve talked about patience, right? Long suffering, bearing with one another.

Well, we got to. There’s a component that comes with it that means forgiving each other too. When we fail at something, when we mess up and are we ready to do that? The great example is Luke 7:41 42. Two people owed money to a certain moneylender.

One owed him 500 denarii and the other 50. Neither of them had the money to pay him back. So he forgave the debts of both. Now, which of them will love him more? The one with the most debts to be cancelled.

That is a question that Jesus asked. So are we going to forgive as we were forgiven by Christ? That’s the level of forgiveness we need to have and the level of gratitude that we received. That’s the level that we have to. Again, an incredibly high standard.

But it’s something to be in our hearts love. Now this love is the agape love. It’s a selfless love, not expecting anything in return, wanting the most for somebody we know. This love from John 3:16.

He so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. That’s the level of love, the peace of Christ. You know, when we look at that, we sometimes can look at that and say, you know, can we get anxious? Can we get worried? He says, peace, I leave with you.

My peace I give to you. I do not give you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. Do not be anxious for anything. But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be known to God.

Go to him in prayer. If we’re anxious, if we’re having those challenges, go to him. Go ask. I found that the Lord works it out more strongly and better than we would ever find that we would do it on our own.

The Word of Christ dwells in you richly. So how are we doing on this score? Do we have its Home in our hearts and our minds. How are we doing with daily study? How are we doing and meditating on it throughout the day?

And let’s talk about teaching, admonishing, singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. We kind of lump those all together. But I like from First Corinthians 14:26, when it says, what then shall we say? Brothers and sisters, when you come together, each of you has a hymn or a word of instruction, revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so the church may be built up.

When we come together, or are we coming together prepared? This is a question I’ve been asking myself recently when I show up to the study. Am I prepared for the study? Did I show up to try to bring a blessing along with receiving one? So that’s the question I’m asking when I look at that one.

If I bring something. I was thinking of one of the dear sisters in our class. Her eyesight is gone, but she raises her hand all the time for testimonies. She picks out a hymn to be sung for us at the end of a meeting. Am I prepared to do that?

Is that where my mind is ready to go to when the meeting’s over? Thankfulness, Giving praise to God. We’ll just say quickly here, even if it’s a quick word of thanks, that’s something I learned from Brother Edmund. Bleachers. Even if we’re driving along, we don’t have time to stop in deep prayer.

You can just say, thank you, Lord. Thank you for that. Do everything in the name of Lord Jesus. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters. Colossians 3:23.

That’s the end. If I can just share real quick. We had a chance to meet with some brethren in Bangalore last month, and they asked for their love to be sent to all the brethren in the United States. So we are sharing. Well, we’re going to see a lot of brethren here.

So you are brethren in the United States and their love is sent to you, and just realize you have brethren the world over. This was what they sent us as greetings. 3 John 1:2. Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health as it goes well with your soul.

Just realize that as we are preparing for memorial, your brethren around the world are preparing for memorial too. It was so heartening to go there, and they had their discourse in Canada in their local language on are ye able? That was the discourse, right? And it was just so heartening.

To see. The brethren are preparing the world over to share this memorial. So we pray that this will be a help for you in preparing for your memorial as well. Here in Chicago, we look forward to that one day that we will all be together in the Lord’s kingdom, partaking.

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