Panel Discussion – 1 Corinthians 15:59

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Short Summary
The panel discussion centered on First Corinthians 15:22-28, emphasizing the ultimate goal of God’s kingdom where “God may be all in all.” The speakers highlighted that Jesus consistently acknowledged God as his supreme authority, modeling perfect submission, and that believers are called to follow this example by consecrating their lives, cultivating love for God and others, and actively seeking to align their thoughts and actions with God’s will. Practical ways to make God “all in all” include heartfelt prayer, meditation on scripture, diligent study, loving service to others, and prioritizing spiritual goals over worldly distractions, all demonstrating a deep, ongoing commitment to God as the supreme influence in one’s life.

Long Summary
Detailed Summary of Panel Discussion on 1 Corinthians 15:28 and the Concept of “God Being All in All”

The panel discussion, featuring Brother Larry McClellan, Brother Komi, Brother Homer Monte, and Brother Rick Serasi, centered on a deep exploration of 1 Corinthians 15:22-28, especially verse 28, focusing on the meaning and implications of God being “all in all.” The session aimed to stir understanding and provide practical spiritual insights for believers.

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### 1. Context and Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:22-28

Key passage read by Brother Komi:
> *”For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive, but each in his own order: Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. Then comes the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.”* (1 Corinthians 15:22-28, KJV)

– This passage outlines the resurrection order, the kingdom’s completion, the abolition of death, and the ultimate submission of the Son to the Father so that God becomes “all in all,” a phrase the panel sought to unpack.

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### 2. Overview of the Theological Framework

– The panel discussed the atonement made by Christ, paid at Calvary, which is legally effective but applied progressively over time.
– The development of a “mystery class” (the church) as the bride of Christ and part of the Abrahamic seed to bless all families of the earth.
– The kingdom age will restore mankind, transforming the world from sin and death to peace and righteousness.
– Christians are not the end product; they are the means to an end—the restoration and blessing of all mankind.
– The ultimate joy will be witnessing humanity’s restoration and recognition of God as supreme, accompanied by universal praise (e.g., singing “Appendix B”).

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### 3. Key Focus: What Does “God Be All in All” Mean?

Definition and Perspectives:
– Brother Rick: God being involved directly with creation with no intermediary; mankind having a personal relationship with God as in Eden.
– Brother Homer: Emphasized God’s eternal self-sufficiency, existing “from everlasting to everlasting” (Psalm 90:2), never lonely despite being alone before creation.
– Brother Komi: Quoted Deuteronomy 10:14 about God’s sovereignty over heaven and earth; noted a temporary “interregnum” where man is being perfected until God is all in all again, restoring harmony.
– The phrase implies God will be supreme, the ultimate source and sustainer (“the mainspring of everything that exists”).
– Scientific analogy: God as the nuclear force holding the universe together.
– The term “all in all” interpreted as God being everything to everyone, supreme over all, echoing the Amplified Bible and New Living Translation versions.
– Brother Moral added that God’s dominion and revelation will expand eternally, including all intelligent beings across the universe and beyond, not just limited to Earth.

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### 4. Jesus’ Relationship with God: Was God Always All in All to Jesus?

– Affirmative consensus: Jesus always acknowledged God the Father as supreme and His all in all.
– Scriptural supports:
– Job 38:7 referencing “morning stars” (Jesus is the “bright and morning star,” Revelation 22:16).
– Colossians 1:16-19: Jesus as the firstborn of all creation, fullness dwelling in Him.
– John 17:22-24: Jesus glorifies the Father and prays for unity and love to be extended to believers.
– John 14:30 and 12:49: Jesus acts only by the Father’s command.
– Proverbs 8:22, 30: Wisdom personified, linking Jesus to divine creative work.
– Contrasted Jesus’ submission and humility with Lucifer’s ambition to be “like the Most High” (Isaiah 14).
– Jesus modeled perfect love and submission, desiring to make God supreme universally.

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### 5. How Do We Make God All in All in Our Lives Now?

– Starting point: Love God with all heart, soul, and mind (Matthew 22:37), and love neighbors as ourselves.
– Following Jesus’ example of love and obedience (John 15:12-13).
– Consecration is essential: presenting ourselves as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1), the first step toward making God supreme.
– Acknowledge the need for an advocate — Jesus Christ — between humans and God until the resurrection and final restoration (1 John 2:1; Revelation 8:1-2).
– Practical living involves:
– Renewing the mind to God’s will (Romans 12:2).
– Walking by the Spirit and demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-26).
– Enduring trials and mortifying fleshly desires.
– Meditation and prayer:
– Meditation involves quiet reflection, contemplating Scripture, and integrating spiritual lessons.
– Prayer as continual, sincere communication with God, with an attitude of gratitude, not just requests.
– Study and preparation:
– Engaging in Bible study, ecclesial meetings, and personal research to deepen understanding and be a blessing to others.
– Preparing to contribute helps strengthen faith and fellowship.
– Loving and serving brethren:
– Serving others and showing brotherly love (Romans 12:9-21) fosters spiritual growth and edification of the body.
– Balancing spiritual devotion with family and societal responsibilities (1 Timothy 5:8).
– Using music and hymns to soothe and uplift the soul, reflecting heavenly worship.
– Setting affections on things above, not earthly distractions (Colossians 3:1-2; Matthew 6:33).

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### 6. Practical Tips and Encouragement

– Never give up; be persistent in faith.
– Invest discretionary time wisely in spiritual growth rather than worldly distractions.
– Cultivate the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5).
– Accept trials as refining tools to develop patience, humility, and righteousness.
– Recognize the privilege of being called children of God (1 John 3:1-2).
– Look forward to the ultimate union with Christ as the bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:22-32; Psalm 45).
– Maintain an attitude of gratitude for God’s love and the sacrifice of Jesus.
– Foster a personal relationship with God, where He becomes the “heartbeat” of all life.

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### 7. Closing Thoughts

– The panel emphasized that while we cannot yet fully make God “all in all” due to the present imperfection and the need for Jesus as mediator, we can strive to make Him supreme in our hearts and lives now.
– The ultimate goal is unity with God and Christ in a restored creation where God is universally acknowledged as supreme.
– The discussion was intended to be both edifying and practical, encouraging believers to deepen their commitment and love for God daily.

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### Key Bible Verses Referenced

– 1 Corinthians 15:22-28
– Psalm 90:2
– Deuteronomy 10:14
– Colossians 1:16-19
– John 17:20-26
– John 14:30; John 12:49
– Proverbs 8:22, 30
– Revelation 22:16
– Matthew 22:37-39
– Romans 12:1-21
– Galatians 5:22-26
– 1 John 2:1; 1 John 3:1-2
– Revelation 20:7-9
– Hebrews 12 (chastening)
– Ephesians 5:22-32
– Matthew 6:33

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This comprehensive discussion reinforced the profound theological truth that God’s ultimate plan is to be universally supreme (“all in all”), modeled perfectly by Jesus Christ, and to be progressively realized by believers through love, obedience, consecration, prayer, Bible study, and service to others.

Transcript

Have this panel discussion this afternoon at this lovely convention. It’s a joy to be with you. We have as panel members, for purposes of the recording, we have Brother Komi adjacent to my right, your left, Brother Homer Monte, Brother Rick Serasi, and myself, brother Larry McClellan, and we are hopefully going to stir up your minds as to special blessing in the context of First Corinthians 15 this afternoon that our assignment was, and we’re particularly going to hone in on First Corinthians 15:28.

So we’re going to ask, let’s see, Brother Comey, would you want to read for us? Would you want to read for us the, say, verses 22 to 28 just to get a context?

And basically, I think you’re all pretty familiar with this. This is the resurrection chapter, right? And the part we’re into is the part about the kingdom and the whole goal of that kingdom, what’s going to happen and the ultimate result we’re going to get into. But there’s a special key phrase in here that we’re going to really zero in on that should be hopefully a blessing to you. So, Brother Comey, if you could read for us 1st Corinthians 15, 22, 28.

Please be glad to. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive, but each in his own order. Christ the first fruits. After that, those who are Christ’s at his coming. Then comes the end when, when he delivers up the kingdom to the God and Father, when he has abolished all rule and all authority and power.

For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death, for he has put all things in subjection under his feet. But when he says all things are put in subjection, it is evident that he is accepted who put all things in subjection to him, and when all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself also will be subjected to the one who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all.

Very good. Thank you, Brother Comey.

As we look at this, and, you know, in a nutshell, we see that God provided, in a legal sense, the atonement when His Son came and paid that price at Calvary, right? And so from a legal aspect, the price was there, but now at some point in the future, that price would have to be applicable for the world of mankind, right? So in summary, we fast forward over the next 1800 plus, you know, years, and he also develops a class, a mystery class, which is us, right? Christ in you, the hope of glory, to participate with him as his bride and as part of the Abrahamic seed, to bless all the families of the earth. Now, we look at this context, that’s just what he’s going to do.

He’s going to. Once the church is completed and all those things take place, we know the glorious faith of the kingdom will take place and the restitution and restoration will be in full swing, and ultimately we’ll get to that point at the end of this period of time. Right, and the goal is what the goal is, you know, we’re not the end.

You know, the world of mankind out there, the churches, they think all, you know, Christians, you know, we’re the end. We’re the end product. We’re not the end product, are we? Mankind is the end product. We’re the means to the end.

And the end is what the end is making a man’s life more precious than the golden wedge of Ophir. Every single person out there, for the person that’s out there pushing around Meyer’s food cart with baggies in it, not knowing where he’s going to sleep tonight, to the person that’s on Wall street, it doesn’t matter who it is, but we’re going to transform this world by the power of our Heavenly Father and in conjunction with our Lord and King Christ Jesus, to. To change this whole world in a way that they’re going to be so excited. One of your biggest joys are going to see the elation of humanity when. When they’re tickled pink, seeing what God has in store for them and their full restoration.

That will be a moment. That will be a moment probably everybody will bring out, break on and sing in Appendix B at that point. I’d love that. Heaven and earth together, that would be amazing. So, so right now we’re going to hone in on something very special here.

And that’s in verse 28 that dear brother Comey read. He says, and when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be what all in all, and that’s what we’re going to focus in that all in all. Do you know what it means? Well, you might have an idea, but by the time we’re done with these dear panelists, I think you’re going to have an even better idea of what it means, not only from the standpoint of the four questions that we’re going to go over, you know, namely, let me get A mirror.

One is. Please define what it means for God to be all in all. What does that mean? Number two, Jesus goal is to make God all in all. Was God always all in all to Jesus throughout his life?

And I would add, and why would you say this Right? Number three, how do we make God all in all in our lives now? How do we do that? Right?

And if it was Jesus Question for end goal. It should also be our end goal. How do we practically achieve this? Practical ways of achieving this? And that’s what our assignment is, dear brother.

So we’re going to. We’re going to start off with our first question because we know our time’s going to go by quickly here and we’re going to. We’re going to open it up and maybe somebody be the spark plug and help us get going. Question number one. Please define what it means for God to be all in all.

Who would like to start us out?

Brother Rick. Thank you. Bless you. For God to be all in all, I think from a perspective, means for God to be involved in his creation with no need for anything or anybody to be in between. We go back to the Garden of Eden and we saw that God had a personal relationship with his creation.

For God to be all in all. I think that’s the big picture of what it means. We’ll just start with that.

Okay, very good. So for God to be all in all means for mankind to have a direct relationship with the Heavenly Father. Once again, very good. Brother Homer, you have a thought. So let me suggest, and I’ll try to be brief.

When I try to reflect upon the Creator, I often say there was a time when God was alone.

And I point out, as we properly honor the sun, that the time from the sun’s creation to today is much shorter than the time from the sun, the Logos creation backward, because God has no beginning. So if you think about Psalm, the ninth Psalm, that he’s from everlasting to everlasting, what is everlasting in the past? What’s that all about? And we use the word all. We use the word all.

And I love your choice of an opening hymn. I was thinking about things, but we won’t have time. But you know, when we think about God and that he existed and I think about his attributes, why did he create not just the human family? Why did he create angels? Why did he create all kinds of intelligent beings on various planets, in various planes?

Why did he create everything? And when you begin to think about that, God was never lonely. Do you think God was lonely. Sometimes he said, no, I think I’ll hate something because it’s here. I don’t have anything to do.

I don’t think so. So there’s a scope of trying to put into words God being all in all to everything to everyone throughout eternity and even in the past when he was all alone. How far back that is, I can’t fathom. So he was always self sufficient. So we’re talking about the Creator.

The Creator and trying to, in our feeble way, describe what that means. Over. Very good. Thank you, Brother Homer. Appreciate that.

Very nice thoughts. Brother Comey, have a thought on this? Yeah, I think it’s very like Brother Homer said, it’s really hard to wrap your mind around it when you’re dealing with an almighty God who has no beginning. I’m reminded of there’s a text in Deuteronomy 10. I was just looking it up, that if I can just quickly read it, this is 1014.

It says, Behold the Lord your God. Behold to the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth, and all that is in it, and when I think about that text, the reason it comes to mind is there is an awareness of the surpassing greatness of God. We have no words to describe it, obviously, and we’re reminded in Colossians one that he then created the Logos, through whom all things were created from then on, the first fruit of all creations, and that’s from that beginning that we have come to be aware of because of Scripture.

That’s enough to just blow your mind in terms of God’s creation. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament’s hand work, and we have this sense of God’s creation. Yet we also know that this Scripture is suggesting that there will come a time when God will be all in all, as if there is now a time when he’s not all in all. Because we do in fact have an interregnum in the history of God’s creations.

There’s a very short blip in time because God has no beginning. But this short blip in time is where man is being perfected. Because when God made everything, when the earth was created, it says it was good. We’re working towards that process of when we return, as the apostle said in Acts 3, that there will come a time of restitution of all things, again calling to mind the sense that there is a need to return to a certain place, which is the creation, the original creation of a perfect earth with perfect man, and that restitution of all things, I think is what this is talking about, that we’re going to get there where God then is all in all, but with man, with his free will in tune with God.

And that’s the part of all in all that I think is missing, where man is not in tune with God, and so the return to all in all I think is going to be. It’s an interesting conversation to, to start. Very good. Appreciate that, all those thoughts as well.

So for, you know, for man to be in tune with God, which is like what both you were saying, and you know, here we are, here we have the Creator of all things through the Logos, right? And we, we, we appreciate the fact that his character is being revealed to us more and more.

Jesus and his church are going to subdue all things in this earth that’s out of harmony with the Father and with his principles of righteousness and love, his main principles, and the whole object is not only to bring mankind back into almost like a kingly domain within them, you know, their own realm. They will be doing the right thing for the right reason, they’ll be doing righteousness, they’ll be living in love, they’ll be living in peace because they’re going to be self operative by the principles that God has taught them through Christ in the church, right? And eventually because of that, because of that whole process of restoration, as you say, a restitution, human restitution, mankind will be, will be like we’re being conformed now during this gospel age to the image of Jesus Christ, and we’re being conformed to the principles more and more as we’re transformed by the renewing of our minds and the application of that, you know, God wants to first put us in tune, you know, or in harmony with his thinking.

His principles of mercy as you talked about earlier. So, so well, brother Rick and all those other principles so that we will teach mankind as we’ve learned compassion ourselves through the various hardships of life, and we can identify with a tear in our eyes as some of their experiences. But then we can share and teach them these principles and lift them up the highway of holiness to where eventually Christ can turn the whole world over to God for inspection and say here, heavenly Father, I’ve done my job. We have, you know, we have changed, transformed the thinking, the heart of man, given him a heart, flesh now instead of their stony heart sometimes.

And now I think they’re ready for inspection. So now, you know, the inspection comes, right? But eventually to go back into what you were saying originally, Brother Rick. I think the idea was to bring him back into that. Into that harmony they once had.

Right. It’s kind of like a full circle. Brother Rick. Yeah, and just to sort of put a timeline on it, you know, when does this happen? It was in the context that Brother Comey read earlier.

I just want to reread that verse there and then go to another scripture very quickly. In First Corinthians 15, 25 and 26, he, Jesus, must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death. So that’s the last enemy. Fast forward to Revelation chapter 20, verses 7 through 9, Revelation 27 through 9.

When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war. The number of them is like the scale stands at the seashore, verse 9, and they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints in the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them, and we’ll add the words, the end, because that is when all of the mediation, all of the testing, all of everything is done, and in Corinthians said, the last enemy to be destroyed is death.

And that’s the last vestiges of death that we see in scripture that shows us then God is all in, all over, and hallelujah right at that point. So when we, you know, when we look at some of the like from the amplified version, this phrase, all in all is to be everything to everyone. Like that, to be everything to everyone. Another one is from the nlt, to be utterly supreme over everything everywhere. Brother Russell’s comment on all in all was the supreme overall.

So that God will be the supreme over all things. That’s what the Master is going to do, is bring everybody into that understanding, appreciation that that’s the only way. Because God is the wisest of all. He’s the king of the universe. I mean, he, you know, Jesus is the light of the world.

God is the light of the universe. Right? There’s a difference. So one is a good shepherd, Jesus Christ, one’s a great shepherd, and all mankind will understand this, that just like a loving parent, you know, like God knows what’s best for you, right? And whatever you think may not be the best, but God knows what’s best.

So once you get that, in some cases, excuse expression to the world of mankind through your thick skull, you know, of rebellion that we talked, that brother Rick talked about last night, right? Once you get over that and realize that you are going to be happier and we’re going to show you this through the kingdom, and as a result of seeing the joy of universal peace and love, righteousness on this earth, you’re never going to want to go back to that again. You’re going to say, you know, if a temptation comes to your mind, you know, that would just be utterly stupid for me to do that because I can see the effects. Intelligence will help, right?

They’ll be brought back to perfection. They’ll be able to make good choices. But God will be the heartbeat of all living things. Let me repeat that. God will be the heartbeat all living things, the mainspring of everything that exists.

The mainspring of everything that exists, and all will be subject to him, and so he will be supreme overall. I don’t know if people realize this, but from a scientific standpoint, every molecule that’s in here, every atom, right? I mean, there’s only two things in this room right now, actually.

There’s matter and energy. That’s it. Two things, matter and energy, and when you have, when you have an atomic structure and you have a nuclear force, right? Is what holds all these things together.

That’s if it wasn’t for that, you got, you got electrons and you got protons, positive and negative, right? But if you have, you know, two that are the same, positive and positive, I mean, they can repel each other or whatever. So a nuclear force is what holds all the atoms in this whole room and all the matter together. This is what God is. He’s the nuclear force of the whole universe.

And Christ wants to have everybody come to that full appreciation. So I think we got an idea, don’t we, of whatever what all in all means. We got some pretty good ideas. Are there any other comments on that before we go on?

Moral comment. We’re talking to humans. We’re humans. I think we’re humans and you know, go back to eternity past, to eternity future, the 6,000 years plus of sin and death, it’s just a tidy blick and all eternity just a tiny blip, and so when you talk about all in all, because we know we interact with humans, we read the scriptures and we think about the human family.

We think about the process by which, if we’re obedient and faithful, we may attain the divine nature and help bless the human family. Do you think that when that’s all over, that there are going to be. Think about the planet, how many planets and galaxies are there? Do you think if the scriptures tell us that he created the Earth not in vain, but for it to be inhabited, do you think that all these other places, do you think that there’s going to be no work? Do you think that we’re going to be, as they say, sitting back after the kingdom is over?

Well, I’m glad it’s all over. All in all, I relax for all eternity. I don’t think so. So I think that we need to focus all, all, every intelligent being that from past to the future that we can’t even conceive of. That’s what to me, all in all is all about.

And it’ll take. They say it’ll take all eternity to know God. So just because you have the divine nature does not mean that you’re going to know, oh, I’m beyond the veil. I. I have immortality. I got it.

Oh, no. He’ll be unfolding, revealing throughout eternity. He’s. He’s the master architect, planner. Very good.

Thank you, brother. Wasn’t that kind of like when Moses approached the burning bush and he said, who shall I say? You know, send me. When he was told what he was to do, and God, you know, basically in the Hebrew was like, just tell them I am becoming where, you know, they have, I am in there.

And the churchianity, you know, messes with that word in so many ways. But that word is just tell them I am becoming. What did he mean? Isn’t he becoming more and more to you? Don’t you understand the Father’s thinking, the convolutions of his thoughts more and more as you internalize these words of truth, he’s becoming more and more right.

You know him more dearly and you love him more dearly as a result, and so what I think Brother Homer’s saying is this is going to continue to expand in the universe, right? It’s not going to just stop, you know, with the Earth. It’s going to expand, and all of us are very privileged to be able to magnify the name of Jehovah God, not only on this earth, but we don’t have all the answers on this, but Brother Homer and I can give our opinion pockets.

We think other worlds might be created someday, right? And that we could be blessed in the opportunities and privileges of magnifying God’s name in other galaxies, perhaps. We’ll see. Okay, let’s move on. Thank you, Brother Homer and brethren.

Let’s go on to the next one. The question is, number Two, Jesus goal. Jesus goal is to make God all in all. Right? Was God always all in all to Jesus throughout his life?

So was God always his all in all throughout Jesus life? And why. Why would you say that? Do you think he. Do you think he was his all in all throughout his whole life?

Or did that expand or change or what do you think? Brother Rick?

Unequivocally, yes. At every stage, in every circumstance, I had a ton of scriptures. I’ll just start with just with one. Because when we look at the different phases and responsibilities of the Logos, of Jesus, of Michael, you have scriptural evidence that puts it all in perspective of what the relationship was. For instance, just with the.

Just with being the morning star. Okay, we’ll use one Old Testament scripture. There’s scripture in Revelation, but we’ll start with job 38, 3, 7. Now gird up your loins like a man. God talking to Job, and I will ask you, and you will instruct me, where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?

You know, the literal planet. Tell me if you have understanding who set its measurements, since you know, that’s why Brother Larry, you said, tell them I am becoming. Because he is talking to Job about, were you there when all of this had its beginning and had its formulation? Who set its measurements since you know, or who stretched the line on it on what its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

That scripture tells us. Now we know. In Revelation, Jesus says, I am the bright and morning star. What it tells us is that they were the sons of God, and the sons of God in the heavenly realm are directly connected to the Heavenly Father. So yes, God was the Logos all in all, as the morning star.

There’s lots more, but I’ll just leave it at that for now. Okay, very good. Anybody else like to comment on that? Brother Comey? Yeah, I appreciate that because I think there is an acknowledgment across the plane that our Lord always acknowledged the Heavenly Father.

And I want to use the text in John to. To talk about that. But before I do that, in Colossians, going back to Colossians and just reading clearly, verses 16 through 19 of chapter one of Colossians, it says, is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. So we know that he is the Heavenly Father’s very first creation and says, for by him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or Rulers or authorities. All things have been created by him and for him.

And it goes on if I jump to verse 19. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him. Now, our Lord in. In relating to the Heavenly Father before the disciples and the apostles always showed very clearly the preeminence of God in his life, and I just want to read John 17, if I could read John 17 from 22.

Now it says, and the glory which Thou has given me, I have given to them. So there’s an acknowledgement that he did not have the glory by himself. That this is from the Heavenly Father. The glory which Thou hast given me, I have given to them, that they may be one, just as we are one. I in them and Thou in me.

That they may be perfected in unity. That the world may know that Thou didst send me, and didst love me even as Thou didst love them, even as Thou didst love me. It says, father, I desire that they also whom Thou hast given me, be with me where I am, in order that they may behold my glory which Thou hast given me. For Thou didst love me before the foundation of the world.

O righteous Father, although the world has not known thee, yet I have known Thee, and these have have known that Thou didst send me, and I have made Thy name known to them, and will make it known that the love wherewith Thou didst love me may be in them and I in them, and so the point this kind of cuts across to me is this is our Lord clearly identifying and acknowledging the supremacy of the Heavenly Father in his life, and that everything that he has and the wherewithal that he had to come and be the Savior was the agency of the Heavenly Father.

And none of what he’s doing is without the agency of the Heavenly Father. So to the question, was God always, all in all, in Jesus throughout His life? I think without question, we know that, and he acknowledges it. Excellent. Okay.

Thank you so much for that, Brother Homer. This is the easiest question because we could just say yes and move on. There’s no question about it. But since you want a scripture, I’ll refer to. I’ll make two comments.

Number one, you know, Proverbs 8, 22, 30 talks about, you know, how he was possessed when he was there, wisdom possessed me when he was alone with him, so forth and so on, and here’s a question you didn’t ask.

Was Lucifer, Was he always? Was his goal always to be make God all along and the Answer is no, because he was created perfect. But you know, in Isaiah he decided, I will ascend, I will be like the Most High God, etc. So the point is that, you know, to be. We talk about intentional, deliberate making choices.

Our Lord Jesus made the deliberate choice that it doesn’t get any better than this. There’s no way even, even when he came on earth as a young lad, wist he not that I must be about my Father’s business. As a child, he was always in connection and then when he was spirit begotten every step of the way. So yeah, our Lord Jesus, he was always all in all to him. Amen.

I mean, it’s pretty plain. I mean, your point is well taken, brother Homer, that, you know, Jesus never had any ambition to be on the same level or higher than his father. Never that thought that never came into his mind. Satan, on the other hand, as you’re bringing out his, his problem was that he wanted to be, you know, higher than the most high or as high as the most high, and so he had an unholy ambition.

And there are holy ambitions, but this was an unholy ambition, and so Jesus, who always wanted to make his father supreme overall. My Father is supreme overall. I mean, that was the rudder on his ship that helped him navigate through all those trials and experiences that he had because it was always, always, always to glorify his Heavenly Father. He was so tight in a bond with the Heavenly Father, it was unshakable.

And that’s what God wants to do with each of you brethren. He wants to make that bond between you and him so tight, and he’s going to test you and test me to see if he is supreme overall. Right? If he is our all in all, which we’re going to get into.

And so when we look at the comments, for example, that dear Brother Comey was reading here in John 17, I asked Sister Marge Hagenseck one time what what her favorite scripture was, and Marge said, John 17:3. She said, and this is life eternal that they might know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou has said. The question is how? How much do we want to know them, right?

And then once we do know them, we more fully respect and see how beautiful that relationship is, and then we’re humbly to our knees saying, and you’re asking us to be part of this divine family. This is incredible. This is just unbelievable. This is the best bargain imaginable.

Are you serious? You want me to be a son? And yes, you know, because I Don’t want any flesh to take glory in itself. Yes, Larry, I want to show him I can take a challenge on like you and make you a son and any of the rest of us. Right, because it’s his power working through us.

And because of that we love him more and want to make him supreme like Jesus did more.

But Jesus ultimate goal was how to make Jehovah universally recognized, where our Scripture comes in universally recognized and where we go on into maybe other worlds someday. Brother Homer. Universally recognized as all in all, utterly supreme over everything and everybody. That all that which all things are subject to, in which all things exist. So yeah, the answer is simple.

Yes, but expands because we see that expansion in the life of Jesus Christ. He modeled that for us, didn’t he? He modeled for that to us. He modeled for us what the Heavenly Father wants to see in us. So with that, unless there’s another comment.

Yeah, okay, I’ll give you some fellowship comments. Okay. So I mean, the brethren know, Boaz know my view because I had an assignment a couple years ago, whatever it was, as to whether Jesus was forsaken, and yeah, I have to go there with you. You absolutely have to go there with you.

And if our Lord did not have this relationship with his Father, there would have been some doubt. Maybe he has forsaken me. That’s how close they were. He knew the promises, he knew he had been obedient. So if you want to know if I think Jesus was forsaken, we could talk about why hast thou forsaken me?

Means we can have a thousand different interpretations. But I for one will say no, no, no, he never felt forsaken by his Father. There are too many other scriptures that indicate that he was assured of no breakage. No breakage. He was tested, he had pain, etc.

He was obedient. Would be that we could be as obedient. End of comment. Good, good, good fellowship. Discussion to be continued.

Right. Thank you for that. Brother Rick. Yeah, Just a few more scriptures to put how God has always been, all in all, to Jesus in order because it’s not for me. We all agree and it’s an easy question to answer.

Yes, of course. But when you begin to look at the why and the details, I think it just opens up in a much grander sense, and the brethren have already mentioned a few of these things. This is very quickly. Just touch on.

Jesus is the Logos. You know, in the beginning was the word, John 1:1, and the word was with God, and the Word was also a God. The Same was in the beginning.

And we know that through him all things were made. You have that connection that, and that was brought out in Proverbs 8, that connection of working together. You have Jesus as Michael the Archangel, going on missions, sent from the Father in Daniel. I won’t read it, but Daniel 10, 10, 14, this archangel went to Gabriel with Daniel because I go when you have Jesus here on earth as a man and brother Comey, you know, spend some time on this.

But in John 14 he says, In John 14:30, I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in me. But so that the world may know I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commands me. That’s not the only time he said that. In John 12, I did not speak on my own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent me. I speak just as the Father has told me.

That shows you all in all. He’s continually saying that. So as the Logos, he’s all in all, as Michael, he’s all in all as our Master, God is all in all to him. Look at the tender connection in John 15:1 3. I am true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.

I am the vine, and I am taken care of directly by my Father, and you grow out through me. That’s what he talks about, about branches growing and bearing fruit. So this all in all is not just a yes answer. It’s an illustrated yes answer at every stage, in every circumstance, throughout everything we know of the past, everything we know of the present and the future. You have these examples that say, yes, he is all in all to our Lord Jesus on levels that we can just barely scratch the surface.

Very good. So our Master really modeled for us that complete submission. All of us have submitted our lives in consecration. We are all to be fully immersed, right? Planted together in the likeness of his death that we can be likeness of his resurrection.

And through all these things, and we’re going to get into more and more that we can show, just like Jesus who modeled this for us, how we can show God that He is our all in all. Because as we’ll get into in our next question three, Jesus modeled this very well for us and showed us what that meant to him and how we need to follow in his footsteps. Very good. Thank you, brother.

Let’s move on to question number three, and question number three is this. How do we make God all in all in our lives now so we understand a little better what all in all means? We understand how Jesus Modeled that all in all in his own life, in that relationship, that bond that he had. But now we’re looking at how do we make God all in all in our lives now?

How do we do that now? How can anybody do that? Especially of course, right now, and again, I think we’re looking at this. Are we looking at first because we’re the first fruits, right?

First, he wants us to internalize this understanding and application and, and demonstration of making God our all in all. Right? But then later on the after fruits, they’re going to be also brought along in a similar process. Not the same, but similar, as they walk up the highway of holiness to where they will be demonstrating how God is there all in all. Right, but the question is, how do we make God all in all in our lives now?

Anybody want to start us out? Well, I can start Comey. I think the easiest place for me to start is when our Lord was challenged by the lawyer and asked him a question about what the greatest command is, and Jesus answered and said, you shall love the Lord with the Lord your God with all your heart. That’s the word again.

Heart. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. Of course, the second is, like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. That is a good starting place where we need to figure out what it means to love the Heavenly Father with all our heart.

And the Scriptures give us examples of how we do that. In the letters of John, Epistles of John, it talks about, you can’t love God if you don’t love your brethren. So it sort of goes full circle in attempting to live up to this first commandment. We’re beginning to make God all in all, and I feel, you know, our Lord having.

We just talked about the example that he had laid for us. We are footstep followers. We profess to be footstep followers, and he’s given us examples of how he. How he has shown his devotion to the Heavenly Father.

And if we’re following in his footsteps, he says, this is good. Going back to John 15, John 15, reading from verse 12, he says, this is my commandment that you love one another just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends. If you do, I command you.

Being like Jesus is an example of how we can do this, and I say this because it’s very intangible to imagine. You know, the Heavenly Father for us, for the most part, because we don’t see him. But our Lord has kind of given us something tactile to attach onto his life, his example, his words, he’s been given to us such that we can begin to follow those breadcrumbs towards the Heavenly Father, and to the extent that we’re living according to his will, then we are moving the direction of making God all in all in our lives.

Very good. So that primary commandment, right, to love God with all your heart, your mind, your soul, your strength. Right. I’m almost wondering if, you know, in the Ark of the Covenant and the Most holy, you know, we had, we’re studying this in our class in Orlando and you know, you’ve got the tables of the law there as well as the bowl of manna, and you got errands around it budded, but the two tables of the law, and you know, you wonder if in a sense, because the ark shows the embodiment of the purpose of God through Christ and the church.

And at least my understanding is, and you wonder if those two parts of that are not loving God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and loving your neighbor as yourself. Right. You got two parts, and so how can you make God your all in all?

Well, first of all, it’s important that you learn to love him with all your heart, all your mind, all your strength, all your soul, your being, and that’s a very good start. Right, and because you do that, you’re also doing something else along those lines. Usually the two are going commensurate together.

Are you thinking what I’m thinking or not? What else can you do? For example, you consecrate. Right? Right.

You consecrate. How do you make God your all in all? Well, first you got to consecrate. So anybody want to elaborate on that a little bit?

Brother Rick? Okay, I’m going to elaborate, but I’m probably going to throw a fly into the ointment. Sure.

That’s what the ointment’s for. Good. I’m glad. It makes me feel better. Well, when I looked at this question, I thought, okay, if in fact God being all in all is the absence of death and everything is in order, then we are not yet in a position to make him completely our all in all because we need our advocate.

So there is a step in between us and the Heavenly Father. We can pray to the Heavenly Father in Jesus name. So in our approach, I was approaching it from a little bit of a different perspective, saying, okay, here’s what we can do, and this is as far as we can go until in first Thessalonians, when it talks about the change in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and that’s when God becomes our all in all. Because the need for an intermediary, for an advocate has now been taken.

But so little bit different approach to the question. But now in relation to your. You’re talking about consecration. There is no greater way, no more profitable, no more beneficial way to expend someone’s life, to invest someone’s life than into honoring our Heavenly Father. There’s just.

You can’t. You can search all you want. They can do all the studies they want. They can. You can look at all the history you want.

But there will never in history, past, present or future, be a better way to spend your life than in full dedication, seeking God to be your all in all. I just think at this point we need the go between. Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, can you read for us, brother Rick, first John 1:921. Can you read that for us?

That’s very important, and I don’t know if anybody would want to comment on Revelation 8:1 and 2, which also talks about somebody who offers a purse on our behalf. But it boils down to that we need to have an advocate with a Father, right? We have an advocate with a Father and it’s essential in this relationship. But consecration would be, to me, one of the first steps, right?

So, you know, present your bodies, a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and then be not conformed to this world, but be transformed. How? By the renewing of your minds, right. To prove what is an acceptable word of God.

So we have to first consecrate, right? Step one. We consecrate our lives to him, and in that process we have an advocate that as a result of that, because he brings us to the Father, he is the door, right? And then thirdly, as we progress, we’re on a continuum of sanctification, right?

We’re justified like that, and then sanctification is a process, and as a result of that process of working with our advocate, helping to take our prayers to the Father and plead our case to the Father and be our yoke fellow with the Father, right? You know, we have this relationship that builds, that God can be more all in all to us in our lives, and we eventually come more and more to feel and demonstrate that we do love God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength.

And he has to prove that on each of us brethren, we’ll never make our calling. Election. Sure. Without proving to him with a red badge of courage over anybody and anything, wife, mother, sister, children, anything, that we love God supremely. He is our all in all over anybody else or anything else.

God has got to know that. He’s got to know that he is our all in all and that we love him with all of our heart. Not some of our heart, all of our heart, all of our minds and strength. Right. Anybody have another comment?

Yeah. So another question for your fellowship.

So I want to ask you a question. Do you think that Jesus grew after he was at the mark of perfect obedience? You know, we have a scripture that he said he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. So does that mean that because he suffered and he had to learn obedience. What I would suggest, though, is that there’s so many scriptures.

We talk about consecration, we talk about sanctification, the process. You know, our Lord Jesus was at the mark of perfect love when he consecrated perfect love. Do we have perfect love when we consecrate? That’s something to think about. Do we believe?

Do we do the work that the scriptures indicate that we need to do? I’ll give you one of my favorite texts also. It’s also from the Gospel of John, and the question is really, what do you really believe? And here’s the scripture I want to read.

And it’s the last night of his earthly ministry and his prayer. I mean, beginning with John 17:20, it says, neither pray I for these alone, but for them also, which shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us. That the world may believe that thou hast sent me, 22 and the glory which Thou gavest me, I have given them that they may be we are one, and verse 23 is a scripture. I in them, thou and me, that they may be made perfect in one.

And that the world may know that Thou hast sent me and has loved them as Thou lovest me. So the question I’m going to ask you is, do you think that you know Jesus? Do you think that God loves you as much as he loves His Son? I mean, think about it. He.

He never did anything wrong. We have to repent. We’re going to. We don’t go to the throne of heavenly grace. Asking for Brother Rick gave some thoughts about forgiveness and other topics.

We don’t go enough. We could spend all day at the throne of Heavenly grace, father, forgive me, I repent. So he never said, father, forgive me. He never said, I repent of my. Because if he did, what would that mean?

Yield perfect obedience. He had the capacity to give it. He chose to do his Father’s will. He was in love with his Father. That’s how much he loved.

So if we have that kind of relationship and appreciation for the words of Jesus, he’s our master, talked about, he’s our advocate. Okay, so take it from our advocate who stands next to us. This is what you do. He’s telling you. Yeah, God loves you like he loves me.

That’s incredible. Very good. Yeah, it’s a remarkable, you know, a remarkable thing to have that kind of relationship with the Father, and, you know, the fact that we’ve been invited, you know, to such a. Is just mind boggling.

I mean, you know, when you do look at scriptures like in John 17 that Brother Comey brought up and, and you read, you read the words of the Master and He says, verse 21, that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us. That the world may believe that thou has sent me, and the glory which thou givest me, I have given them, and the glory. Think about that, brethren.

And the glory which thou has given me, I have given them. That they may be one, even as we are one, I in them and Thou in me. That they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me. Now catch this.

You listening? And hast loved them as thou hast loved me.

That’s incredible. Now I’m like brother, like Homer. It’s hard for me to. It’s hard for me comprehend because you know, I’m a sinner. We’re all sinners, right?

We all make mistakes constantly or constantly. You know, Christian runs most of the race course how on their knees, right? And so we’re always going and asking the, for the Father for forgiveness. You know, like Paul, I say the things that I don’t want to say. The things that, you know, I do, I don’t want to do.

Oh, wretched man. Who should deliver me from the bonds of this, this body of death, right? And Jesus gave perfection every, every day of his life. Perfection. It was incredible.

And that relationship, that bond that he had. I don’t, I don’t really think that we really understand, understand, fully understand the unselfish love that these two are extending. First of all, God extended the most precious thing in the whole Universe, that he could have given in sacrifice to redeem the world, mankind. Then, right then we’re given not only an incredible sacrifice that Jesus demonstrated, but they offer us to be part of their family. You know the unselfishness of that.

And to be part of the intimate divine family where Jesus says, and has loved them as thou has loved me. Jesus is like unselfishly saying, I want to share everything I have with them. Brethren, Jesus wants to share everything he has with you. What are you and I will sacrifice for that? What are you and I willing to do in mortification of the flesh?

Of fighting the fight of faith against the world of flesh and the adversary, of bringing every thought into captivity day by day? And it’s not easy. He never said it was going to be easy. Conquering those Philistines of our flesh, as well as the adversary’s temptations, snares and allurements that he puts in front of us because he is playing hardball with us, and then there’s the worldly elements.

Sometimes he doesn’t even attack us through opposition. He attacks us from within. He comes from within our own families, the ones we love dearly are our children, and he’ll attack through them. Or maybe a spouse, a husband, a wife, like he did with Peter.

He tried to get to Jesus through Peter. Remember that in the garden, Jesus said to Peter, stand behind me, Satan. How would you like that if Jesus said that to you? He said that to Peter because Satan had gone to Peter to try to trip Jesus up in the path that he was going. Don’t ever underestimate the deceitfulness of the adversary.

He’s good and he knows what he’s doing. But he that is for you is greater than what? Than he that is against you. So this is how we continually become part of this family, in this relationship, this bond, and how God becomes our all in all to show him that we have this mind. Let this mind be in you, which.

What? Which was in Christ Jesus. Right. Okay. Thank you for those thoughts.

Another thought? Well, I just kind of. I appreciate the point that was made by brother Rick. I think it’s an alternate reading of the question, which is. Which is important to note that if we read the question, how do we make God all in all in our lives, one answer could be, well, we can until.

Right? And I get that, and I think that makes sense. I think the reading of the question that I feel might be important now is, what are we doing? According to what Brother Eric just said, what are we doing now to be in a position to claim this love that is so lavished upon us.

First John 3, 1 says, See how great a love the Father has bestowed or lavished upon us, that we should be called children of God, and such we are, and that always resonated in my head about such we are. It’s such an awesome thing to think. It’s not such we will be, but such we are, and so there we’re already there.

And what are we doing, I think, to be able to be accountable for what that is, and you know, the Heavenly Father in His fellowship, we read that in First John chapter one, where whatever we do, if we don’t follow the light that he set for us, then we will not be in the fellowship with Him, and I want to read verse seven of chapter one, First John. Well, starting with five, he says, and this is the message we have, we have heard from Him, John writing about the message he has heard and announce to you that God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin, and I always appreciate this idea of being in fellowship with the Heavenly Father because of the scripture in Hebrews 12 that talks about being chastened as a way of allowing us to share in his holiness, and this is something that’s here for us now because of this incredible love that the Heavenly Father and His Son have sort of lavished upon us, and so for us, we have this opportunity to continue to work on making God.

All in all, I don’t think it’s a once and done deal. I think it’s a process deal where we’re working to the point of one, appreciating that we have this lavished love on us, and secondly, understand that the experiences that we encounter are experiences that the Father out of his love has allowed us to have, such that we cherish each one of those, and then that then affords us to be able to share in his holiness, as it reads in Hebrews 10, 12, 10.

Very good. Thank you, Brother Ray. Yeah, and I really do appreciate the thoughts about, you know, what do we do here now? And that’s really what your next question is going to be.

But one other thought about this, this love lavished upon us, and I think, I don’t remember. I think it was Brother Homer might have Mentioned this in his discourse. I can’t remember who, but the relationship that Jesus had with his apostles. They called him Master.

He, the night before his crucifixion, called them friends, and then after he’s raised, he tells the women, go to my brethren and tell them, he tells Mary that I am ascending to my Father and to your Father, to my God, and to your God, and you can see that once the sacrifice was paid and the resurrection was in place, this relationship escalated. Now, obviously it took root at Pentecost, but it escalated to a position where it was completely unheard of before, and so he is our Father.

And that’s why in the Lord’s Prayer, it’s that simple. Our Father who art in heaven, that’s Jesus gives us this incredible loftiness, and from that perspective, I’m in hearty agreement that, yes, we seek to make him all in all, as best as we can within the context of our humanity by recognizing him as our Father, and there is no space between that. We just come to him through Christ, but he’s still our Father.

And until we have our spirit birth, we. We just have that extra peace that’s in place by God’s grace. So it is a wonderful, amazing, lavish, amazingly lavished gift that is beyond expression. Yeah, Very good. You know, brethren, just for a moment, take.

Open up your Bibles, if you will, or your. In your cell phones or tablets or whatever you have, and just wrap your head around this scripture in First John 3:1:2, where it states something really powerful, and I think, you know, the brethren mentioned here, you know, appreciation, appreciation of what we have been given. I think some people don’t make their calling. Election, sure, because they don’t appreciate it enough.

It’s like when our kids, right, when we do do things, or we did things for them when they were little. You know, like, moms don’t ask for money. They just want to be appreciated. Right, Moms, you just want to be appreciated. That’s all.

Just say, hey, Mom, I love you. This was great. You know, that’s it. Just. But if they don’t say anything, you know, if they eat meals after meal, after meal, they never said, well, thank you, mom.

That was good. I really enjoyed that. You know, like, appreciation is important. I think it’s important that we really appreciate what God is offering us, and as a result of that, we will make him more and more our.

All in all. Think about this. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called what the sons of God. Yet it does not yet appear what we shall be like. But we know that when he returns, catch this phrase, it’s powerful.

We shall be like him.

Think about that. What is Jesus like right now? And it’s saying that if you continue to demonstrate day by day with concentrated efforts and goal settings of developing patience, love, humility, righteousness, you know, faith, all these things, right? Day by day, continually, to show God in experiences that we have in our lives that God is our all in all. He’s everything to us.

He’s supreme in our lives. There’s nothing that comes close. I told Brother Rick today, I said, you know where heaven is? Heaven is anywhere in time, space and dimension where the Heavenly Father is looking directly into your eyes with a smile on his face. That’s where heaven is to me.

And that’s when you know more and more that he’s your all in all. So in this scripture, what is. I mean, is it sinking in that when he returns, right, we shall be like him and the two shall become one flesh? That’s the picture of Christ in the church. That’s the picture of the bride in Psalms 45, right?

That’s the whole thing of Ephesians, what, 6, which talks about Christ in the church. You are going to be. Now, you’re never going to hear this again, probably, and you’ll probably be like, oh, that didn’t. I never heard that before.

That’s going to sound kind of strange. But brethren, you’re going to be Mrs. Jesus Christ. Am I right? Am I right? Aren’t you going to be the bride of christ, right?

Debbie’s Mrs. McClellan, right? You’re going to be Mrs. Jesus Christ. Think about that, and you’re going to have that relationship. The two shall become one flesh.

Is Jesus going to be your all in all? So you can be there because he wants to share everything with you. He wants. He’s been, He’s. He’s made mansions, right?

I go to prepare a place for you that where I am, you may be also in my Father’s health are many mansions. Do you realize? Do I. Do I realize? What are, what are we being offered along with all this beautiful relationship of being in this divine family?

So now we’ve saved kind of the. I think one of the best parts for last, with our last half hour, right? We have half hour left. So in this question, question four, it says if it was Jesus end goal, it should also be our end goal. How do we practically achieve this?

So now we’re going to step apart from the theory which we’ve been giving you, and we’re going to say, give us some practical ways we can accomplish this in our everyday lives. Okay, so how can we practically accomplish this of God being our all in all? Who would like to start us off?

Brother Homer? Since I didn’t make another comment on the last one, I’ll start. Okay, yes, I had something to say, but I’ll let it go. Okay, so, you know, if we really believe what the scriptures say, then we will do. We will recognize that we must do, despite our insufficiencies, what they instruct us to do.

For example, in Colossians, chapter three, you can go as far as you want. It says, if he be risen. You know, if, and I’m going to say that since we have risen, this is what we must do. We must set our affections upon the things that are above and not those that are here in the earth.

For you are dead. Your life is hid with Christ and God. So the question is, are we really dead? I mean, I’m still breathing. Am I dead?

When we head back home, what are we going to be thinking about? Are we going to be thinking about, gee, those are some wonderful lessons that we had. I really got to try to put them in practice more. Or we’re going to say, you know, I got to get back home because I got to take care of this. I got to do this, and so forth and so on.

So that’s one of the things that we must do. That’s one of the things we must do. In other words, we can study the Scriptures, we can rehearse them, we can encourage one another, but we have to put into practice those things that we are required to do. Look, I’m going to make one comment that I didn’t make that I’d like to make sure, and it has to do with something that Brother Rick said before, and he was talking about, I think Peter.

And I thought about when Peter, you know, when our Lord was resurrected and he appeared to Mary and he said, go tell Peter. He didn’t say, you know, don’t tell Peter this, because after all, he denied me at that crucial point in time. Let him suffer a while. You know, we didn’t say that. But the last one that I appreciate is, it’s a comment in the reprints.

And, you know, our outlook about those with whom we come in contact with, especially our brethren. Yeah, we see our flaws. We have flaws. You know, we have blind spots. We don’t see our flaws, and others see them.

So there was this Story that someone said, you know, grandmother, I don’t remember who it was. She did a good thing in something, good in everybody, and so somebody said, well, what’s good about the devil? What’s good about Satan, the evil one? She said, well, I wish I had as much persistence as he does.

So if you think about that, how persistent are we in doing what we need to do? Do we give up? Never give up. Never give up. Never give up.

Very good. Okay, so setting your affections, right? Brother Homer is talking about setting your affections on things above. That’s a practical way from the standpoint that, you know, how do we demonstrate that every day in the selections and the choices. You see, what this is all about is this studying the scriptures stuff.

What this is all about is gaining the know how the knowledge and empowering your mind to be able to make the choices that God would be pleased with. Is it not. Is not the reason you go to meetings? You go to meetings to learn more about the word of God so you can think more like he does and make the kinds of choices, because it’s all about choices that he would be pleased with you making to show that he is first in your life, right? But then he gives you experiences throughout your life.

You’re like, as far as perfections go, you can show him where your affections go by what you buy, by what you like to read. Like if you watch tv, what programs do you watch? Maybe you don’t watch any tv. Ball games? How much time do you spend on them?

Right. How about your family? There’s a certain amount of just fairness you can be to your family, but some people can just completely almost idolize their family or a member of the family, and it’s like God says, no, you know, you’re not to have any other idols before me. Right?

We can make a lot of things our idols. You can make the TV your idol. Whatever you spend your most discretionary time with and attention to. God can look at that as an idol because it’s in competition to what you said you’d give him. So God looks at and he scrutinizes us every day of our lives to say, why did brother Michael Castelli make that choice?

And he can read his heart like a book, right? Why did Larry McClellan make that choice? And that’s what he’s doing. He scrutinizes because after all, he’s going to trust us with the divine nature. If he can’t do that, he’s never going to give us that right.

He’d be in big trouble if he gave the adversary that. So God wants to see, where are your affections? I want to know, and I’m going to let the adversary put some temptations out there in front of you to see what are your motivations for choosing that? Is it me?

Is it seek first? I asked Carl Hagen one day, I said, brother Carl, what’s one of your favorite scriptures? He said, seek ye first the kingdom of God. Right, and God wants to know that.

You say, I want to know. Is that your first and foremost desire to seek first the kingdom. So these are all things that we can demonstrate. What else, Brother Rick? Thank you, Brother Homer.

Sorry about that. Yeah, and I had to comment because that’s one of my very favorite scriptures. Matthew 6:33, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all of these things will be added to you, and you said something that.

That was kind of stimulating. So, you know, where are we going to spend our discretionary time? And really the question is, am I going to spend my discretionary time or am I going to invest my discretionary time? And the difference is we spend it on worldly things, earthly things. We invest it into the development of the new creation.

That’s where our absolute, positive, most fruitful investment needs to come from, and at the, at the, at the risk of making it sound almost too simple, we talked about this scripture in our last. In the last service. But Galatians 5, I want to read. I’m not going to read 22 because we always read 22.

I’m going to read 24 and then 25 and 26. I’m going to go back. Galatians 5, 24. Now, those who belong to Jesus Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Pause and consider.

Have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. It goes on. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Walk the talk. You’ve been given the Spirit.

Now, it’s supposed to actually guide you through your life, and then let us not be combosful, challenging one another, envying one another. So you’ve got those pieces in place. Now let’s go back to verse 22, the fruit of the Spirit, because that’s what it’s about is love, joy, peace. It’s not patience.

It’s forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. Against such things there is no law. This is where unequivocal investment is required, not sought after. It’s required. We.

If you’re given God’s spirit and you have become a new creation. That means that new creation to live, has to live in accordance with its own life giving force. So if we want God to be as far as we can make him all in, all in our lives here and now, we have to, we have to feed the spirit that has been given to us and let it guide and drive us. When I say feed the spirit, what I really mean is give it permission to be the decision maker. We react to all of our life circumstances, but we don’t necessarily have to respond based on our reactions.

We can react. We need to stop and consider and pray and let the Spirit drive our responses and, and that changes things. That’s how we strive for God to be all in all, and that’s just the beginning. Very good.

Wow. That’s really, really quite empowering in our thoughts to think about how we, how we accomplish this right and so important. Brother Comer. Comey. Yes, I think that’s, that’s really beautiful.

And I’m thinking, why am I following that? But seriously, I think all the brethren would agree that the most important work going on today is the completion of the church, and so when our Lord said to love one another, and the apostle writes in Ephesians about every joint supply, and this thing about the edification of the church becomes part of that investment that I think you’re talking about. One investment is in the new creature to be sure that we’re living in the new creature as much as we can. But the other is to be sure that we are in fact looking for and looking out for the brethren.

John talks about that. We know we are passed from life unto death, unto life, because we love the brethren. What does that really mean? What does that mean? I believe it’s in Romans 12 and brother Larry quoted the opening of that chapter.

But as you read through the chapter, it talks about this service to the brethren. Verse 9 says, Let love be without hypocrisy, abhor what is evil, cling to what is good, be devoted to one another in brotherly love, give preference to one another in honor, not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted in prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality, and bless those who persecute you, and bless and curse not. So these are all activities that are practical things that we know that we can get into in terms of helping to hasten. We look for and hasten, as Peter said in Second Peter three, that coming of the kingdom, and you know, it’s always been a debate as to can we really hasten the kingdom.

I don’t think it’s talking about changing the time frame of when the kingdom is flowing established. I think he’s talking about spending our time to have the kingdom realized in our hearts because we are living in heavenly places, and to what extent do we truly live in those heavenly places and appreciate the tasting of the power of the age to come over? Yes. Very good.

Thank you, Brother Comey. Brother Homer. So you know, this is a rhetorical question. So you know, to Heavenly Father, and of course, you know, we have to balance scriptures.

I think, I think the scriptures do not conflict, and I cannot imagine, you know, perhaps the closest bond among the consecration among the consecrated property is the marital lawn, your spouse, and I cannot imagine anyone saying, well, dear, I cannot spend any more time with you because I have to focus upon the things that are above. So you have to fend for yourself, and of course you have to balance that with First Timothy five, eight, that if anyone provide not for his own, he hath denied that faith is worse than an unbeliever and provide for his own.

It’d be a number of things, and certainly appropriate time and affection and being with them and communing and encouraging one another is part of that. You cannot say, you know, I need to go into full time service time with you. So those are the kinds of things you talk about practical. That’s practical. You can’t just take scriptures out of context and say, oh, no, I can’t do this, I must do this.

Right, Exactly. So we have to try to do these practical things in a context of fairness to our mortgages and obligations. You know, we have jobs, we have families, we have husbands, wives perhaps, and we have to be fair. I mean, that’s showing righteousness, fairness. Right.

And so God wants us, as you bring up the Scriptures, to show these very important aspects of the love of Christ in demonstrating our all in all as far as of him by the principles that we are fair to our wives or husbands or children, and give them our love and give them our affection in fairness. Brother Homer, you mentioned, you know, you had that talk on prayers and I think you ran out of time, so you might have some more to say in it. But the thing is, how can we show that that is our all in all in a practical way with our prayers? Do you have any thoughts on that? So, yeah, no.

The scripture says pray without ceasing. Well, do you ever Fall asleep in the middle of your prayers. So the point is we’re talking about an attitude. We have to recognize that he’s the ultimate source. We need on the one hand to express gratitude, thankfulness, that we even we have a relationship that we could not even conceive of.

Me, Me, you, the God of the universe, you’re calling me to sit on the throne with your son, who did everything righteously, who gave us all in obedience to you. So we have to recognize that strength is one of the things that comes from the prayer constancy. In other words, knowing he is the source, and you talk about the precious promises. I mean, I don’t know if you got the list, but we got a list during the intermission that there were like 8,000 precious promises.

Someone gave us that list. They checked them out and said over 7,000 of them were given by the Heavenly Father. Wow. So we have to recheck that. Yeah, I guess.

So there’s lots of promises. Lots of promises, brethren, and claim as many as you can, but do the work. Absolutely. So in prayer, I mean, as far as practical ways then, that we can show the Heavenly Father that He all in all is the appreciation factor, right? To have an attitude of gratitude.

I mean, the world out there, you know, when they pray, it’s like, can you do this for me? Can you give me this? Da da, da, da, da. It’s all about doing things for me, right? Or whatever.

But when we learn how to pray, Lord, teach us how to pray. We learn that we really want to show God an attitude of gratitude, number one, an attitude of gratitude for all that he’s given us, right?

If God is our all in all, will we be wanting to enhance that relationship by praying to him more often? Often more frequently, right? I mean, look at Jesus as our model, right? I mean, he was all night in prayer sometimes. When was the last time any of us spent all night in prayer?

Right? I mean, that’s a long time. So, you know, do you have a walk and talk with the Heavenly Father? Maybe take a walk and it’s maybe a 15 minute walk around the neighborhood. Open up and pray to the Heavenly Father, talk to him.

You know, you don’t always have to be on your knees when you pray, right? Sometimes you pray right in your car when you almost get hit and your prayer immediately goes up being instant in prayer. So you know, you’re continually to cultivate, right, this prayer relationship, this umbilical cord with the Heavenly Father. It is an umbilical cord like we had with our Mothers, but now it’s with our father, Father, and that’s what he’s.

He’s given to us. I was going to say don’t close your eyes when you pray. When you’re driving, though. Yeah, yeah, don’t do that. That’s a good idea.

Let’s be careful about that.

Okay, so. So from a practical standpoint, then, what about speaking about prayers? What about meditation time? How. What would you say about meditating, Brother Rick?

Or Brother Comey? Do you ever find yourself meditating a lot? Okay, go ahead, Brother Comey. Or more and more.

I don’t know that I know how to meditate. I think maybe it’s the first honest answer to that. But I also understand there’s a need for quiet time, and maybe that’s what meditation is, being able to be quiet and not be attacked by all of this sense of all of the things that are around us, images and noise and news and things like that, just to be awake, and in fact, sometimes I think coming to a convention affords that time where being away from home and being in fellowship and then walking away from that fellowship, the evening after having some time to just kind of think through all of the discourses. I think it’s an important thing to have because it’s the gestation period you need for the ideas that you’ve just acquired.

And we don’t spend too much time having that gestation in the course of the week, where we go from study to work. For those of us who still work, study to work and to the cares of life, there’s not enough of that gestation. But being away at a convention, at a general convention, I think affords that kind of time where you actually have the luxury of what might be a meditation, where you just sit quietly and think through and try to contemplate on how might I execute on these things that I’ve just acquired. Very good. Thank you.

Good thoughts, Brother Rick. Yeah, I think that there’s different levels or different kinds of meditation. There’s meditation on scriptures from, for instance, to solidify a thought. I personally do that frequently with the requirements of the podcast. There’s always something else to be thinking about.

And one of the ways that happens is to just look at the scriptures and just read scriptures, not worry about writing anything down. Just read them and just let them talk to you, and for me, that’s a meditation period, and it helps to open things up. So that’s one kind of meditation. Another in my own experience.

And this might sound silly, but it kind of works. Outside of prayer, we do a Christian question study on Thursday nights with many brethren, new and old, and it’s a topical study on zoom, and at the end of the study, we record it, and so at the end of the study, and it’s late in the Eastern time in time zone, we end at 11 o’ clock Eastern Time, and then at the recording, I have to let it format, and it usually takes 25 minutes.

And so when the study is over, I have to wait. I wait for that, to finish it that night so I can get up in the morning and do new things, and there’s just that time, the time to reflect, and it’s kind of almost a forced task that becomes a quiet time, and I’ve begun to appreciate that in terms of.

Of being able to put first things first. But meditation is important because it is the processing of the experiences. It is taking all of the input and taking a breath. It’s a selah moment, pause and consider and saying, where has this brought me? And it’s a time for thanksgiving prayer and a time for reflection and regrouping.

And it re energizes quietly, very, very calmly re energizes. So working at keeping our perspective, all of these pieces, wherever we can, we want to try to fit them in as best as we can. Yes, absolutely. Sometimes, you know, Sister Debbie will say, where are you going? And I just, you know, I’ll go out and say, I’m just going to go out front and sit, you know, on the.

The front porch area, and I just go out and meditate, and I meditate about all the wonderful things the Heavenly Father has done in my life, the things that he’s given me and the appreciations, the honor of being with all of you. I just, I meditate upon, you know, those beautiful things that have come into my life as a result of Jesus Christ coming into my life, and I meditate on perhaps what, what kinds of things can I do to demonstrate, you know, like it says to do good to all men, whereas you have opportunity.

And I know you all are looking, you’re looking for ways constantly. How do you show God, you know, he’s your all in all? Jesus said, well, you know, you’ve done it. If you’ve done the least by meditating. What can I do better?

How can I improve upon, right, my opportunities of service, whether they be a discourse or whether they be just making some soup or whatever for a convention or taking over some meal to some sister or brother that, you know, is ill. How about a comfort card? I Know, some of you put out comfort cards. There’s a sister, you know, Debbie Stewart, which many of you know that you may get cards from her from time to time, but that’s her little way of supporting and encouraging the brethren, and so, you know, you sit down and you meditate upon actively proactively thinking how and what can I do more to show God he’s my all in all? How about this?

How about, Father, you know, as you, as you reflect, open my eyes, say this, open my eyes to the lessons learned that I might understand better your expectations of me and how I can better comply. Right? So I asked the Lord in my prayers, you know, and this will be a time for not just meditation, but as you say, meditation and prayer. Sometimes I’ll just go out and I’ll throw this out on here on YouTube and you gotta watch out. There’s not some good stuff on, but there is some good stuff on YouTube.

Arnold Scorby, ever hear of him? Arnold Scorby, he’s a narrator. He reads all of the New Testament and the Old Testament. So I’ll just go out and I’ll turn on, you know, Philippians the first. I’ll go through the whole four books of Philippians and I’ll meditate on the things that the, the apostle was talking about there and how they relate to me in my life.

Right? I’ll go on and I’ll listen to the experiences that maybe Paul had with the Corinthians, or I’ll meditate on, you know, some chapter in Galatians. But you, you’ll find yourself meditating on the Scriptures. Can you do anything better? Getting rid of some of the distractions of this life?

Do we have a lot of distractions in this life? I see a lot of heads shaking. We do find some time to meditate. Listen to Arnold Scorby. It’s straight out of the scripture, no comment stuff.

Or is it Alexander? Thanks, Alexander Scorby, and just meditate on his readings. He does a wonderful job and it really penetrates the heart because those scriptures as he reads them, will come back to you and say, yeah, I remember that one. Yeah, that one’s one of my favorites.

You know what I mean? And then have a prayer about it. Right? These are all ways that we can practically show the Heavenly Father that he’s there. All in all, by daily making a daily effort, setting small goals, setting large goals.

Right. Anyone else about music? I’m sure that some of us listen to music that it soothes, and you can just, you know, sometimes you just need to listen to the beautiful hymns wherever they may be. I know there’s a scripture, somebody can give it to me.

But scripture says that Jehovah sings. Yeah, and can you visualize him singing lead? And the mighty angels are, you know, in the chorus. You think you’ve heard beautiful music.

How’s that sound? So all kinds of things, and we have, you know, that’s part of our likeness, you know, in volume six. It tells us that our ability to appreciate music. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

That’s a high order. A celestial choir. Absolutely. Yeah. So listen, you know, find some good singers.

Now there’s those out that, that are, you know, they have, they have, you know, various lyrics that they, they tie in doctrines on the Trinity and whatever else. But, but find some good singers, and if nothing else, I mean, I mean I’d probably go right to Christian resources and, and, and listen to a lot of the hymns that are there first. There’s some beautiful hymns that you can meditate on and just let the music soothe you, soothe your soul. Because we live in a very stressful environment, do we not?

And so let that happen. What about study time? How can you show the Lord that he’s your all in all by your improvements of study? Any suggestions on that?

Well, I’ll give you a practical illustration. Put yourself in a position where there are requirements and watch what happens, and I’m serious.

One of the greatest challenges of my entire Christian walk has been Christian questions. One of the greatest blessings of my entire Christian walk has been Christian questions. Why? Because the challenge said, okay, put yourself in a place where now you’re ready to over the subject and the next subject. Now, brethren, we all don’t have that opportunity, but you all do have meetings that you attend and you can all decide.

I want to walk into the next meeting with preparation. I want to walk into the next meeting with a gem that I can give. Because there’s can go to the meeting. Because we go to the meeting and we’re going to meet with the brethren and we’re going to feel refreshed. But when we can go to the ecclesia meeting because this is God’s arrangement and bring to that ecclesia meeting some of our own.

Even if it’s something that you may think is small, but to want to contribute, things change, and so that’s just one small area. Think about it as next class study. I want to be a little bit extra prepared. I want to have a scripture, I want to have a reprint reference.

I want to have something so that I can give to what I’ve been given. It’s a beautiful way to elevate the brethren, and you get this incredible blessing yourself. Absolutely. You know, we go a lot of times to meetings, you know, to receive, right?

To receive. I want to receive a blessing. Give me a blessing. What did you study? You know, but let’s go to be a blessing.

What can we study from Scriptures or volume page or reprints? What can we study to bring to the meeting to add to what has been given? Right. So that we can show God he’s our all in all. By uplift your brother.

Right. So these are all ways that in our lives we try to improve upon. If you’re doing wash, right. If you’re doing clothes, right. You know, do you.

Sometimes I put earbuds on. I don’t know about you. Maybe some don’t believe in doing that. It could be harmful. I don’t know.

I got to check it out. But the thing is, is I try to, you know, have something going on a lot of times. Not all, all day long, but sometimes I’ll have some freedom of time and, and I’ll listen to something while maybe I put some clothes in the wash or dryer or maybe if I do dishes or if I’m doing something more perfunctory in the yard, yard work. Can you show God that you want to spend every minute you can think of more and more in your life to want that transforming influence of the Holy Spirit and of his word and heart and your mind?

Listen to a good talk while you’re doing the dishes or whatever, you know, like show the Lord that every fiber of your being is more and more being aligned with the Heavenly Father, his direction for you in your life through Jesus Christ, and so these are all maybe some very practical ways that you can demonstrate your love for the Heavenly Father. Show him that he is your all in all, and as far as the, I guess the term Brother Russell used, he is your supreme overall. Right?

That’s what we want to make him him. We want to make him our supreme over all things and show them that, and then teach other people in the kingdom that someday, right. That’ll be the real joy, is to show them how each and every one of humanity can make God their all in all as well. So just one quick.

And I want to piggyback on what Brother Rick said about study and being prepared for studies, and one of the things that I enjoy about the DYS ecclesiastical because they have a study convention in Boaz and they have all Studies, and I’ll talk about our own ecclesia. We have, believe it or not, four elders. We have a small class.

We have four elders. It’s a zoom class. Zoom Ecclesia, and we have one discourse a year, one Memorial discourse. They’re all studies.

They’re all studies, and so, you know, the concept that every joint supplieth is what I believe, and so I love studies. I would never give it this course unless I was asked to give you this course. I would lead a study because the joy about it is that I’m going to ask you the questions.

I’m going to give you the information and I’m going to listen. I’m going to go and ask everyone. What did you get out of this? Share with us, and all of you have that opportunity sharing and being a blessing to me, to one another.

So to me, a study is the greatest. It’s the greatest. So. But you have to prepare. You have to prepare.

Yep, absolutely. Study is so essential so we can improve upon our studies. I don’t know about you. How many here can improve upon their studies? Anybody?

Okay. We’re all in that, you know, we can, like, maybe get rid of more and more things that are, you know, taking up our time and studying. Not just studying by reading, but that’s important. But we can also study by listening, too, can’t we? So you can listen at times when you can’t read, you can listen.

And in all these and many more ways, we’re showing our Heavenly Father that he is our all in all and how much, very much we love him and that we love his son, Jesus Christ, our Savior. We thank the panelists for their participation today and for the many wonderful comments they gave. We hope it’s been a blessing to you and it’s been edifying to you and giving you even maybe some more practical ways that you can show in your life that God is your all in all as well. Lord bless you, Brother Brandon.

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