Herbert W Armstrong

   So today I'm gonna give a sermon on my coffee cup. My coffee cup says, "I know you believe you understand what you think I said. But I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant." I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure that you realize that what you heard is not what I meant. Sometimes we miss what we need because we don't hear what is said.

   I was counseling with a young man just recently and explaining to him about certain things. And all of a sudden it lit up in his mind and he said, "Well, why didn't you tell me before?" And I said, "I did." "You did?" I said, "Yes, I've told you 3 times before. And each time you had not heard me." He said, "You did?" I said yes.

   After we talked for a while, he says, "Well, I have a friend who has a problem. He can't hear either. How do I tell him?" I says it won't do any good because until you're in a condition to hear, you can't hear. Until you're in a condition to listen, you can't listen.

   And you know, many times I say something and it's just not heard. Sometimes someone will come up to me and I'll be talking to them and I'll say something and they'll think it's really funny. It'll go right over their head and they'll walk off laughing and ha ha ha, you know, what a comment, not hearing anything that I said.

   I gave this sermon in Rosita last week and after that sermon, people came to me and they said, "You know, the other day when you were telling me such and such and such and such, were you kidding?" No, I wasn't kidding. I wasn't kidding at all. But see, it sounded so ridiculous. So ludicrous what I said until you sat down and thought about it.

   Because the time that I have with you, the time that I'm able to spend with you, is very, very short because there are so many of the brethren and so much work to do. And so when we're talking and when we're interchanging ideas and information and discussing things, I have to give you something spiritual, you know, that's my purpose. We don't go out, I don't go out on a visit, go to someone's home and we sit around drinking beer and shooting pool and laughing and telling jokes. That's not a counseling situation. Situation when the minister comes to your home, he's telling you spiritual things that you need to hear that he can discern that God wants you to hear. And sometimes you just don't recognize those things.

   In counseling situations, we had one woman that she had no place to live. She said, "I don't have the money for my rent. I just have no place to live." I said, "Well, why don't you put in for this low-cost housing?" So she said, "OK." We counseled and then two months later she called and she says, "I'm in so much trouble. I haven't any place to live. I haven't got any money. I haven't got a place to live in." I said, "Well, why don't you put in for low cost housing?" She says, "OK."

   He called me up 3 months later and said, "I have no place to live. I don't know what to do. I just haven't got any money." I said, "Have you put in for low cost housing?" She says, "No." She said, "I called and they said it would take, uh, what, 3 years before I could move into a place." I said, "Well, I told you what to do. Until you do that, please don't bother to call me to counsel again because you're not taking the counsel."

   So she got off the phone with me, she prayed about it. She called up where the low cost housing, she went down, she got an application. In a week and a half, she had a home. She got a two bedroom apartment in a very nice brand new complex for $195 a month in the Los Angeles area. All she had to do was act. All she had to do was do something.

   Mr. Contari and I, when we go out on visits now, he carries a list with him. He has noticed over the past years as we have been going out to council that someone will ask a question or they will ask for counsel, and I'll give it to him. And he's noticed that if they follow the council, they don't have to call me back again because usually the problem is resolved. He's also noticed if they haven't followed the council, they usually call me back in a couple of months with almost identical or the same problem.

   So we go out on a visit now and he opens the sheet up and the individual says, "Well, I got this problem, that problem, this problem," he'll say, "Well, did you do this that Mr. Laughland told you this, this, this?" "No." "Well, if you do this, this, this and this, then maybe the thing will change."

   He wanted to give a sermon on just this one subject of coming up here to explain to you all the things that have happened, that he has seen happen that when people follow counsel, how God intervenes in their lives. Because we sometimes don't understand, we can't hear what's being said, we just can't seem to hear what is being said because maybe it's, well, I'll go into that a little later on.

   Let's go to Exodus 18. Exodus 18. In Exodus 18, it explains something that we need to know. We need to know and absolutely know that we know it, that we do not go to man to counsel. When you come to the ministry, you are counseling with God, not with a man. That's why in times past we have had quite a bit of problems in the Pasadena area. 10 years ago an individual would go out and counsel with somebody he felt good about or someone who had his same views, or someone who was tall like him or short like him, or there was something they liked about that individual to counsel with them. They were psychologists or they were this or they were that, they were architects or gardener or whatever they were, and they would counsel with them.

   And the problem with that type of a thought process, and if you think about it, you're not going to God, you're going to a man, you see. You're picking and choosing someone that you like. Well, that's fine if you're picking a man and if you want man's advice. If you're going out to talk to a psychologist, then pick a psychologist. But if you want to talk to God, then you go to the ministry that's placed over you, but you get God's answer, not man's answer.

   It says in Exodus 18, in verse 15 (Exodus 18:15), "And Moses said unto his father-in-law," says his father asked him, "What are you doing here?" He told him "because the people come onto me to inquire of God," not to inquire of Moses, to inquire of God because people today don't understand. See, they talk about the law of Moses, not realizing it's the law of God given to Moses, you see, and when you come to the ministry, you come for the answer, you come to God for the answer, and you're praying before you have a counseling session. You pray before you get your answer that you get the answer from God and not from man.

   It says in verse 16 (Exodus 18:16), "When they have a matter that comes onto me and I judge between one and another, I do make them to know the statues of God and His law." So that when you come to me to counsel or Mr. Contari or one of the elders, you're not coming to find out the answer from him. He's telling you what the statutes and the laws of God say. He's telling you what the basic principles of God say. He is giving you God's answer for your problem, not his answer. You don't get a different answer from a different minister at a different time. You get the same answer from God from your own ministry unless you're looking to a man to get an answer. And you can be in very difficult straits if you go to God and you ask for the answer, and then you refuse to hear.

   What it says in Deuteronomy, so whoever refuses to hear is in trouble. And sometimes we don't hear because we're incapable of hearing. Sometimes we're in a problem, the problem goes on for days and months and years because we can't hear what the solution to the problem is. Because if you look at the idea of your life and as Christ is very involved in your life, you know, time and chance and circumstance happens to people outside, but even the numbers of your hair of your head are numbered, the hairs of your head are numbered. And so that God is involved in your life. So when you have a trial, there's a trial for a reason. It's not just something that happens to come upon you.

   If you go to Hebrews 12, it tells you the purpose of trials, Hebrews 12. It tells you why you have a trial. It tells you why trials come upon you and how you can correct those trials and stop them and bring them up short. Hebrews 12:6: "For whom the Lord loves, he chasten or he spanks, and he scourges every son whom he receives." So if God loves you, he allows you to go through trials. He allows the problems that you have and the difficulties that come upon you so that you will be chastened and scourged for a specific reason.

   If you go to verse 9 (Hebrews 12:9), it says, "Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much more rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live?" If our human fathers corrected us, we did what they said when they spanked us unless we were completely hardheaded and hardhearted. We did just out of the fact that we want the pain to stop, we stopped doing it whatever it was that we were doing. And that's the way a man corrects you. How much more so, God Almighty, when he allows us to be spanked.

   Says in verse 10 (Hebrews 12:10), "For they, that's the fathers of our flesh, verily here for a few days chasing us after their own pleasure." If my dad wanted me to shut up in public, it wasn't because he wanted me to be quiet. He wanted me to be quiet so I wouldn't embarrass him. So I would be taken outside and I would be spanked. And then if I was noisy again, he'd take me and spank me again until I shut up, until I learned to be quiet in public because he didn't want to have me making noise and embarrassing him when we were in the 5 and 10 or wherever we were.

   See, but that's not the way God corrects us. It goes on to say further, "But he," and he's talking about God "for our profit. For our profit, we are spanked. We are chastened for our own profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness." In other words, he spanks us. He allows us to go through trials. He allows us to have those things so that we'll learn from them. And once we learn from them, then we'll change our way and become more perfect, and then we will profit by it because we will continue to go towards the kingdom of God and become like God.

   So the physical trials that we go through, the physical problems that we go through are for our profit. When we were spanked as a child, it was for the father's profit. But when you're spanked or chastened today, it's for your profit. So therefore, if you are going through a trial, you are to learn something.

   It says in Hebrews 5:7, Hebrews 5:7, talking about Jesus Christ in Hebrews 5:7, "Who in the days of his flesh," he replied in verse 7, "when he had offered up prayers and supplication, with strong crying and tears onto him that was able to save him from death and was heard, and that he feared or reverence God, though he were his son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered." If Jesus Christ could learn obedience by the things that he suffered, shouldn't we be learning in the same way by the things that we suffer?

   So we have trials that come upon us because we need to learn something. We need to hear. We need to know what it is. And when we go to the ministry, we say, "Look, I'm going through this problem. It's been going on for a long period of time." And he says, "Well, here's what I would do," and then you ignore the answer, what happens to the trial? What happens to the trial? It goes on because you haven't learned. You haven't learned what it is that God wants you to learn.

   Sometimes God backs off of the trial because he sees that you can't handle it that much anymore and he lets it go for a period of time, then he brings it back upon you again. Counseling with one individual went through 4 times the same difficulties, the same situation, until he finally learned the 4th time what the problem was. And then once he did something about it, all of a sudden the change took place in his life. But it took 4 times of God spanking him before he said, "Wait a minute, there's something here I need to learn." Christ set us the example. But sometimes we don't hear, we can't hear what is brought to us so that we can change and that we can turn.

   I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant. How many things have been said to you over the past years by the ministry that you have been unable to hear? How many things have been said to me that I'm unable to hear? It scares me because I sit there and I see it happening in other people and I say they can't hear me. I say something to them very plainly, and I see that they can't hear me. It's just on deaf ears. And then I wonder, you know, how many times am I doing this? Here's somebody telling me something. I'm sitting there and I think, oh yeah, sure, I understand. And I don't have the slightest idea what they're saying and I don't even know it. It's scary. And we should be scared, we should be fearful, because I'll guarantee you that everyone sitting in this audience today has something that they can't hear. There's some area that is impossible for you to understand. We are telling you, are you hearing? Mr. Armstrong is telling us, are we hearing him?

   You go to I Thessalonians 2. I Thessalonians 2. How much recently has Mr. Armstrong been trying to get through to us? You see him in the tapes, you see him in the broadcasts or we sometimes get a tape or you maybe even see him in person. He asked, "I wonder how many of you out there are hearing me. I wonder how many of you are getting what I'm saying." He says it in such a way that it's almost a plaintive cry.

   In the Bible where it says, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." I always thought it and looked at that statement as a statement of power that God is coming down and saying, "Come on, whoever had his ears to hear, let him hear." But I'm beginning to believe that that statement is there almost as a plaintive cry. You know, if you have ears to hear, can't you hear? Don't you hear what is being said? Can we hear what God is saying to us?

   I Thessalonians 2:1: "For yourselves, brethren, you know our entrance into you that it was not in vain. But even after we had suffered before and were shamefully entreated, as you know at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention. For our exhortation was not of deceit nor of uncleanness nor in guile." It was straight speaking. It was bold speaking. It was plain speaking, the things that the people needed to know right out front here it is. No guile, not talking about little catchy stories to get your attention, but to tell you straightforward what the word of God is.

   "But as we were allowed or approved of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God which tries our heart." You see, we have to hear spiritually to be able to hear God's word. God's word is spiritual. The parables, people think they hear the parables. They sit down, they get the parable of the sower. "Oh, that's just such a lovely story about this guy going out throwing seed around, and these bad guys are there and this guy is there," and they don't understand what the story says. It's talking about the kingdom of God, it's talking about the time of the harvest at the end, and you have to have spiritual ears to hear that. It's not something that is done in a physical manner. It is something spiritual, and the only way we can hear is to have spiritual ears.

   It says in verse 5 (I Thessalonians 2:5), "For neither at any time use we flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness. God is witness, nor have men thought we glory neither of you, nor yet of others when we might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ, but we were gentle among you." Even as a nurse cherishes a child, so that when the truth is brought out, it's brought out very gently, and this is the way that I do it. I try to explain something to somebody very gently at first. I bring a comment out and I say, "Did you know such and such" very gently. And then if the person doesn't hear it the first time, then the second time I'm more direct and more forceful. And if they don't hear it the 2nd time, I tell them the 3rd time.

   And then after the 3rd time I just go to God and I say, "God, they can't hear me." And he has to intervene at that point to help them to understand, to help them to hear, because whenever you're in a situation like that, it's a relationship between you and God that only God can bring out the information. What happened to Job? And then talk to him over and over and over again. But it took the direct divine intervention of God to make Job understand what the situation was because Job couldn't hear. Job could not hear. He heard, but he didn't hear. The words hit his ears, but that's as far as it went. About 1 millimeter down into the depth of his ear, and from that point on, it never went into his mind and into his heart. And it went no further.

   We have to be able to listen. Mr. Armstrong and the ministry are crying out. But are we hearing? I wonder, can you hear me today? Are you hearing what I'm saying? Now, Mr. Armstrong is sent by God to bring us the messages we need to hear. And the messages are coming from God Almighty. And we have to be able to hear what is said to be able to utilize it.

   In Luke 10, notice when the ministry was sent out in the original time, the apostles were sent out at this time. Look at the commission they had and what God said to them, what Christ said to them. After these things, Luke 10:1: "After these things, the Lord appointed other 70 also and sent them out two by two before his face." He said in verse 2 (Luke 10:2), "Therefore, said he unto them, the harvest truly is great. But the laborers are few. Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that we should send forth laborers unto this harvest."

   You know, I always thought it was because at that time it would be difficult to obtain laborers, but you know, we've had so many problems with attacks on the ministry lately. I called out to, I don't know if I mentioned this, I called out to talk to Mr. Frittle, yeah, I guess I did mention to the congregation here recently, and you know, there's one elder there as the associate pastor covering for what would normally be 3 ministers working in that area. The labors are definitely few in that area.

   So maybe it's not just because the laborers aren't there, it's maybe they have been attacked, maybe they have been drawn away for other reasons, and the harvest is plenty, but the attacks are so great that the job is not able to be done. We really need to be praying about that, and I hope that you heard that.

   Then in verse 16, he said, Luke 10:16: "He that hears you hears me." When you hear Mr. Armstrong, then you're hearing Christ speaking through him. "He that despises you despises me, and he that despises me despises him that sent me." That if you despise the word of God brought to you by the ministry, it's the same as despising Christ. And if you despise the word of God brought by Jesus Christ, you're despising God Almighty Himself. And so we have to hear the word of God. We have to want to submit to the word of God and listen to what God has to say to us.

   And when I say hear, I'm not talking about how you can sit there and look directly at me and be thinking about what you're going to have for supper tonight. That's not hearing. That is a physical act of being able to turn yourself off with your mind going in one direction, your body set in another direction. That's not what I'm talking about. Hearing means to hear with understanding and to act upon what is heard.

   You know, when you ask God to hear you, isn't that what you're asking for? When you cry out to God, if you read through the Psalms that talking about David crying out to God, he said, "Hear me, oh God." He means hear me, know what's happening to me and then please intervene and correct the situation. In fact, the Hebrew word does mean that. It means hearing with action. There's a Greek word, a Greek word which means the same thing or very similar, hearing with understanding and then doing something about it. And that's what happens to us. Whatever God is talking to us, we have to hear, we have to understand, and then we have to act upon what we hear.

   In John 8, John 8 and starting off in verse 47, in verse 47 of John 8 (John 8:47), he talks about the only way that you can hear is that you have to be of God. "He that is of God hears God's word. You therefore hear them not because you are not of God." You have to know the terminology. You have to be able to understand God's word. You have to be able by God's spirit to perceive what is said in the Bible before you can hear what God has to say to you. It's knowing what God is saying. It's having God's spirit so that your mind is open and you're able to understand.

   If I stood up here and I told you, "That in, let's see, OK, good for instance is whenever setting the Doppler frequency of a radar, you must set the penultimate cavity to twice the frequency that you will be transmitting for the missile to be able to decode that particular signal." Now what does that say to you? Absolutely nothing, does it? Why? Because your mind doesn't think in that way. Because you're not trained in that. You're not studied in that. You're not full of that. You don't have that information built inside you. And it's hard to determine exactly what I am saying.

   And that's the same thing when I come to an individual and I say, "Here's the spiritual concept," and they say, "Huh? Well that's really funny, Mr. Laughland," and walk off. And they completely missed what is said. And I could say, "Well, when setting the Doppler frequency, you could," and it would make just as much sense. You see, you have to know what is being said. You have to understand, you have to be of God so that when God speaks to you, you're able to understand Him.

   If you can understand cute little stories, if you can understand the concept of God by cute little stories, that's fine, but you understand the story. Can you understand the concept that God has for you? That's what is important. Can you hear what God has to say? Because if you are of God, then you can hear. If you're not of God, it's impossible to hear. If you know God and you hear the ministry.

   I John 4, I John 4. I John 4:5. It's a test. If you're able to hear with spiritual ears, then you are able to live God's life. And if you are deaf in one specific area, if you are carnal in one specific area, then that's the area you need to work on.

   I John 4:5, "They are of the world. Therefore, speak they of the world and the world hears them. We are of God. He that knows God hears us. He that is not of God hears not us. Hereby we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error." That's the sign of conversion. That's the sign that God is working with an individual.

   When I go out on a visit to a new member, new prospective member, I go to their home and I sit there and I talk to them about concepts. I start off with very physical things, get to know them a little bit and then start to bring in some spiritual concept. And then if I see a blank look or complete misunderstanding, and then after a while it becomes apparent that they can't hear what I'm saying, it is obvious to me that God is not calling the individual. It is obvious to me that God is not calling them.

   And if they sit there and try to convince me how spiritual they are and telling me what they think and how they feel and whether the church compares to their beliefs and their doctrines, then I know that they're not being called. Because he who is of God hears God. And I take him to the Bible and I show him what the Bible says, and if they say, "Well, now the way I look at it." You see, we can't do that. They can do that if they're not being called. They can do that if they don't have the spirit of God. But see, we have the spirit of God, and how many areas do we blank out that spirit of God? How many areas do we cover that up and say that's one area I don't want to hear about?

   That's one area I don't want to address. You can go out and we can talk spiritual things in any area, then all of a sudden I get to a point and he said, "Well, that's my sore point. Don't, don't touch me there. Don't hit me there because that's the one I can't handle." "Mr. Laughland, that's so funny," and then walking off. Because they missed the concept, they missed the point, and I'll tell you truthfully, brethren, some of you in the congregation I have gone to 4 and 5 and 6 times. And you still haven't heard me. And you still haven't heard me.

   And I wonder how many times have I been told something that I still can't hear. It's sad, isn't it? It is really sad, and that's why we ask God to help us to see and help us to know, and help us to understand what God wants for us. Sometimes we're so carnal in certain areas and we need to dig that out just like a bad spot in the potato needs to be dug out that needs to be gotten rid of that needs to be eliminated. We need to hear with spiritual ears.

   If you go to Luke 9, Luke 9 in verse 43. This is the definition of spiritual ears. Luke 9:43, "And they were all amazed at the mighty power of God. But while they wondered, everyone, and all things which Jesus did, he said unto his disciples, 'Let these sayings sink down into your ears, for the Son of Man shall be delivered into the hands of men.' But they understood not." They didn't understand these things. It was hid from them and they perceived it not, and they feared to ask him of that thing.

   He told them what was going to happen. He says, "Let this thing sink down into your ears." And evidently by saying that, they could have understood if they would have just thought and let it sink down into their ears, if they'd have made an attempt at understanding. He could have given them more understanding if they would have asked, but they couldn't understand. They just didn't understand that hearing did not sink far enough into their hearts and into their minds.

   And Jeremiah 6:10, Jeremiah 6:10, it tells us how we can listen and how we can hear. Our whole attitude has to be that of conversion. Jeremiah 6:10. Whenever Christ and God calls out to people, he calls out, he tells them, it's up to the person to hear and to listen and to obey. The ministry's job is to tell. The congregation, my job, your job, whenever we are told by the ministry is to listen and obey and to do something about what we hear. And so many times we don't listen to what is said. We can't listen in certain areas. We don't have spiritual strength enough to listen in that particular area.

   In Jeremiah 6:10, "To whom shall I speak and give warning?" He said, "Well, who do I tell these things to that they may hear?" Well, you can tell it to a lot of people and they won't hear, but the ones that can hear, "Behold their ear is uncircumcised and they cannot hear." If they are not converted and they don't have the spirit of God and enough spiritual strength in that area, they can't hear. "Behold, the word of God is unto them a reproach. They have no delight in it."

   And sometimes I go out to people and I give them the spiritual concept, the spiritual information, and it gets them mad. It makes them mad. I'll be out on the counseling with individuals in the congregation and some who are new, and I try to explain to them certain things and it gets them mad because they don't want to hear that. They've already made up their minds to what the belief is. That's all they're concerned about. "Look, I know what I want in this certain area. Don't tell me anything else, click." I'm gonna shut you off in that spot because I don't want you to talk to me that way.

   And sometimes it's much more subtle than that. Sometimes the individual doesn't even realize what they're doing because I'll talk to somebody and I'll say, "You know, such and such and such and such," and they'll say, "Oh yeah," and they'll walk away and that'll be the end of the conversation, or they'll shift the conversation to something else, just like a child. Sometimes when you're trying to talk to a child, the child always shifts the conversation to something else. I have great experience in that. And that's the way we do. That's the way our mind works with us.

   So we come and we say to you, "Did you know?" And then I say "I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant," because we can take the word of God, we can twist it around in our mind, and we can bring it out and have it say something entirely different than what it said.

   I'm gonna read from the New International version. If you go to Romans 10, please, Romans 10. This is what happened to ancient Israel, Romans 10. This is what happened to them. They could hear, but they could not understand. Romans 10, to start off in verse one, Romans 10:1: "Brother, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge." That was the problem with the Israelites. That was the problem with the Jews. They had a great zeal, but it wasn't based on the knowledge of God. It was based on an entirely different knowledge.

   I think it did, for instance, he had an individual who would not eat out on the Sabbath because the group of Peace Corps had taught him that it was not right to eat out on the Sabbath. And they had told him this was a clincher. This is the thing that made him not under any circumstances, eat out on the Sabbath. This is talking about 4 days and everything. He would never eat out on the Sabbath for years and years and years because they told him Dr. Hoeh would not eat out on the Sabbath. Dr. Hoeh would not eat out on the Sabbath, and so therefore, that was the clincher. If Dr. Hoeh would eat on the Sabbath, I'm certainly not going to eat out on the Sabbath.

   I preached some sermons on that. I talked to the individual 4 or 5 or 6 times, after a period of time, showing him what the Bible said, explaining to him what the Bible said. He finally came to the conclusion that it was all right to eat out on the Sabbath, that God did not hold you responsible under certain circumstances for eating out on the Sabbath occasionally.

   At this time, I didn't know that he had been told Dr. Hoeh had not eaten out, does not eat out on the Sabbath, because I would have told him, "Wait a minute, I've eaten out with Doctor Hay on the Sabbath. So something's wrong here." So that's family but he made up his mind that he was gonna take his family to a restaurant. His wife was really happy about that. They went to the restaurant and they had their first meal on the Sabbath since they had been in the church for many, many years, and guess who was at the restaurant having dinner? Dr. Hoeh. I think God's trying to tell him something, huh? You get that idea?

   You see, we can reason around. I mean, we have these walls of reasons why we can’t hear. We look at certain things through colored glasses. We kind of shade everything that's said to us so that it comes in just in the right direction and angle so that we hear just what we want to hear and nothing else.

   And that's that. I got phone calls a few years ago. Mr. Armstrong spoke one evening, it's in the morning, I forget which it was, and he said that someday it's gonna come to the point where we're gonna have to ask the minister to pass on to the congregation and not to have any more children. And I got all kinds of phone calls that day. "Mr. Armstrong says we're not allowed to have any more children. I'm pregnant. What do I do?" So I said, "Well, let me find out what's going on." I listened to a tape of the sermon, that isn't what he said.

   You see, sometimes we filter, we phase in and out of what's being said. We go through the sermon many times. You get to a point in the sermon where it's something that really applies to you. Satan steps in and says, "I think I'll distract you at this point" because he doesn't want you to hear that. And then a half hour later you come back into the sermon, you miss half of what was said. You come back in the middle of a thought and you're completely off track of what was said, and you miss something.

   And you'd be surprised sometimes some of these things that people say that the minister said, that was never said. Because they come in in the middle of the fight or they missed the fight completely. Because we don't hear.

   If we have pride, or lust, as is said before in the scripture, or self-righteousness, you can’t here. You just can't hear. If you think that you're the best father in the world, so there's nobody better than you as a father. If someone comes to you and says, "Look, you know, you need to change in your child rearing practices because you're doing this wrong." Do you think you're gonna hear them? Huh? No way.

   There is no perfect father. There is no perfect husband. There is no perfect wife. There is no perfect member of the church. Every one of us here needs areas that we need to work on. If we didn't, we'd all be in the kingdom by now.

   If we were all perfect, we wouldn't need sermons. We wouldn't need the Plain Truth, the Good News, the booklets, the Worldwide News. We wouldn't need those because we'd have made it already. The whole idea of coming to services is so you can hear. It's not for social contact. It's not for you to fulfill certain emotional needs. It's to come before God and to be able to hear the word of God so you can put it into effect in your life. That's why you're here today.

   You know, we need to be more deeply converted and think God's way. We've got to get off the physical and onto the spiritual. First Corinthians one, and I'm gonna read from the New International version again. I Corinthians one. I Corinthians 1 and let's start off in verse 18: "For the message," I Corinthians 1:18, "for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate. Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?"

   Compared to God, those people know nothing. And they think they know everything. "For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know Him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believed."

   If someone walked into this hall today, a doctor in psychology or psychiatry, and he sat, he listened to what I had to say. He'd say "Holy cow, there's something wrong with that guy out there. You mean when people come to him, they're really getting something from God, that God is speaking to the people." He couldn't believe that. He couldn't understand that concept. That's foolishness to him, for someday we'll explain that to him so that he will know.

   "Jews demand miraculous signs. Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles, but to those whom God has called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength."

   They don't understand that concept. They don't understand that principle because they don't have the spirit of God, because they can't understand what is being said. But we can understand, we can hear, we're able to take into our minds the facts that are being spoken today. And so we can put that into effect in our lives.

   So that when we have a trial that comes upon us, we can go to God and we say, "God, what is it that you want me to hear out of this trial? What is it you want me to learn? Tell me." And then you shut your mouth and then you listen. And then the answer will come. The answer will come.

   And many times the answer does come, and I'll say this is the answer, and the person will tell me what they think, what they believe, what they want to do, how they want to do it, what their feelings are, and on and on and on. And I sit there, if you see me sitting there shaking my head, no, and wondering, look, you know, you know what's happening because there's something that's been missed.

   Because I go out with Mr. Contari now sometimes I'll say, "Look, I've told him 3 times, you tell him for a while." And Mr. Contari will tell him, and he'll still not understand. And we still think about bringing in somebody else to tell him, but sometimes they don't hear and sometimes they do.

   But I'll sit there and I'll make a statement and the person will say, "Oh yes, I understand, I understand." It's obvious they don't, they didn't hear a word I've said, and Mr. Contari will tell them and then I'll tell them. Maybe we ought to just tape it on the tape recorder and give it to them, let them just sit there and just listen to it over and over. Because the trial goes on, because we don't hear what God has to say to us. We miss what God has to say to us.

   The only way you can hear in I Corinthians 2. I Corinthians 2 is to have the spirit of God. The only way we can hear is with God's help. If God is not helping us, we can't hear. And if we refuse the help, then God is not helping us and we can't hear. And the first step is submitting to God, say, "God, help me to hear, help me to see, help me to understand."

   I Corinthians 2:7: "We seek the wisdom of God in the mystery." That mystery is not just to the outside world, that's to some members in the Church of God. Because if we're not deeply converted enough, we can't understand certain things and we're all at different levels, levels of conversion. "Even the hidden wisdom which God has ordained before the world for our glory. None of the princes of this world knew, for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, eye has not seen, ear has not heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man, the things that God has prepared for them that love them. But God has revealed them unto us by his spirit."

   And that's the only way we can know. That's the only way we can understand. That's the only way we can see the way of God is by God's spirit being in us. And the only way we can have God's spirit is by obedience, as it says in Acts 5 and verse 32. Acts 5:32. It says in verse 32 of Acts 5, "We are his witnesses of these things and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to them that obey."

   So we have a chain here. We have to hear, we have to have God's spirit to hear. Once we hear, then we're able to do. Once we do, and we're obedient to God, we're obeying Him, then we hear more and then we're able to have more of God's spirit. We're able to do more and it goes on and on and on and on. We must do and then hear and then we're blessed, and then the end of the trial comes. And until we can open our ears to what we need to do, until we can open our minds to what we need to do, we cannot move forward. We cannot move forward and that trial will continue. Sometimes we will continue for years until you all of a sudden say, "Oh, now I hear, why didn't you tell me before?" And it's sad. It's sad to have that and you know, and you know what the problem is and the individual can't hear, and it scares me. How many things don't I know? How many things don't you know that are going on in your life?

   In James 1 and verse 19. James 1:19. It says, "Wherefore my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear and slow to speak and slow to wrath." You know, this is talking about listening to God, not just listening to your brother. We are so swift to speak and so slow to hear. We just don't want to hear. And so easily, so quickly do we come to wrath in this world when we're physical, "for the wrath of man works not the righteousness of God. Therefore, lay apart all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with meekness the engrafted word."

   The word meekness there in the Greek, it's not the same word that we use as meek today. Meek, we always use it like this commercial, the 93 pound weakling and everybody gets up and kicks him in his face and pushes him around. It's not what the Bible means by meekness. We receive the word of God with submission. The Greek word means it does not fight against God or struggle and contend with him.

   Moses was meek, excuse me, was meek above all men. But he had his moments where he would hit the rock, go down and throw down the 10 Commandments on the ground and break them into pieces. He was a little bit strong in many areas, but he was meek because he was submissive to God. He didn't contend or struggle or fight against God. God says, "Moses, get down and do this." He says, "Yes, sir," and he went down and he did it.

   And the very first step in hearing is submission to God. You want to hear God, you have to be submissive to Him. You have to receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save yourself. "But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own self. If any man is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is likened to a man that beholds his natural face in a glass." You look in the mirror and you see something wrong there, but you don't do something about it. You have to do something about it. Once you hear the word of God, once you understand the word of God, you've got to do something with it.

   Because it says at the end of that verse 25, "A doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." A doer of the work is blessed in his deeds. So when you have that trial, you have that problem, you have that difficulty, you find out, you ask, you search, you look, and you listen until you find out what it is that God is trying to help you to understand that is giving you the opportunity to understand. And when you hear it and you can do it, and you change your life, and you profit by it, then there's no need for the trial anymore.

   Once you've profited, then God says, "Look, I don't have to try them in that area anymore. They've already fulfilled that. They've developed the character I wanted, they've made the right decision." And then God can change that crown into a blessing.

   If you go to Ezekiel 36, you have to understand that doing is a part of hearing because it is not just hearing the word of God, it's being able to understand and put it into effect in your life. In this world, they tell you to do anything you want, which is wrong.

   Ezekiel 36. Ezekiel 36 and verse 19. Because that is the reason that Israel was scattered. That is the reason that they were sent into captivity. That's the reason that Jews were sent into captivity. In Ezekiel 36:19, "I scatter them among the heathen. They were dispersed through the country according to their way and according to their doings, I judge them."

   Judgment is now on the house of God, as he says in the book of Peter. We are at a point where we must fear God. We have no choice in the matter. We can't close our ears. We have to listen. We have to understand what God is saying to us. We just can't sit back and as we approach the end, the trials are going to be more and more, more difficult.

   Look around. Can you see what's been happening recently? Have they been listening to the announcements from the pulpit? Each week we come up here with another minister's name about something that is going wrong in their lives and the attacks that are taking place on them and then their family. One minister shot. Other ministers, cancer, wives, cancer, all these things are happening. And it's not just happening to the ministry, it's happening to the church worldwide. We walk over to a woman's house and there she lies dead.

   Can you see what's happening? Can you see we're approaching the end? Can you see we're coming closer to the Feast of Tabernacles that Satan hates that? So if you hear me today, we need to all get down on our knees and start to pray harder for the church of God. We need to get down and pray that the attacks would cease. We need to pray for all those things. Mr. Armstrong, each letter tells us to pray for something. We're asking from the pulpit quite frequently to pray, you see, because that's part of our part of doing the work of God.

   Can you hear what I said? You understand what I'm saying today? I know you believe you understand what you think I said, you know, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.