Wednesday after the Feast of Christ the King – November 23, 2011

Ezekiel 34: 11 – 17/Psalm 95: 1 – 7/1 Corinthians 15: 20 – 28/Matthew 25: 31 – 46

Archbishop Loren Thomas Hines, D. D.

The gospel tells us what happens by the way we live our lives.  Our lives proclaim and declare what is in our heart.  We live out what we have allowed it to be established as the throne room of our hearts.  We are challenged by Scriptures to allow Christ to be the King of our lives.  He is the One sitting on the throne.  If it is Christ that is sitting at the throne of our lives, then the thoughts that we have will be thoughts that are of Him.

Sometimes, you would ask someone a question or you present something to them; and the response that they have is, “I will pray about it.”  If Christ is really in the throne of our hearts, would the response not be immediate? In the story of the slaves in Luke when they were given the talents, the first one immediately responded.  Obviously Christ was the one sitting on the throne of his heart.  He did not have to wait and weigh out what he was going to do.  He was given trust and he responded in that trust immediately.

The problem that we perhaps face today is the fact that in our lives, we have many kings.  We have many areas of our lives that we think are important to us.  When it comes to making decisions, we are not sure which voice we are listening to, so sometimes, we make mistakes.  Sometimes, we chose to listen to the wrong voice. We don’t have an understanding in our lives yet that Christ is already King.  He is not going to be King, He is!  We still are allowing other voices to speak to us from a world deception. We listen to that world and we respond to that world.

One of the major things happening in the world around us today is ecology.  They are trying to save Mother Earth.  I don’t think Mother Earth needs to be saved because Mother Earth is the handiwork of God.  According to Scriptures, it is not going to pass away.  Man has come to a point to say, “It is my responsibility to save it.”  I do not know why there are thinking this, but my interpretation would be, “God is not doing His job well so we have to take over.”  If we listen to that voice, we are not listening to the voice of God.  They are coming up with all kinds of programs.  If you are listening to the news, you will find out that many of these programs that they come up with to save Mother Earth are failing.  They are major failures because it is not God’s plan.

They just came out in with this new light bulb that they say is supposed to be more economical. Now, the scientists have come out and said that this light bulb is not eco-friendly, not helping the ecology at all.  It is poison; it is mercury; and yet, we have bitten into it.  Our lawmakers have outlawed the other light bulb saying that this is the only light bulb that can be sold in most places of the world.  Now, they are saying that it is not eco-friendly and it is going to hurt the ecology.  This is the same thing about the windmills that they are using to present or make electricity. They are now finding out that it destroys other systems and it is not feasible.  Yet, they spent million or billions putting these things in existence, and it is failing.

I say this to show us the system around is not perfect.  The system around us is leading us astray to put confidence on the things of man, rather than the things of God.  We are listening to the wrong voice.

1Corinthians 15 talks about the end coming.  Verse 24, “Then comes the end, when He delivers up the kingdom to the God and Father.” The kingdom has been established by Christ, but there is a time when the kingdom is going to be presented to the Father.  When the Father receives the kingdom, it will be perfect.  It cannot be given to the Father until such time that is has reached that perfection.  Christ has done His part, and there comes a time of putting all of this into effect.  This is where we come in, as a part of it.  There comes a time when He will then deliver the kingdom to God.

This will happen, “When He has abolished all rule, all authority and power.” We might think, “How are we going to function?  How are things going to work if we have done away all of rule, all of authority and all power?  Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given unto Me.”  It says in that one statement that there is no other authority that has God’s blessing at this time because Christ has all authority in heaven and on earth.

We still have our own system of authority and power.  We have governments; we have rulers; we have Congress; we have Senate; we have the judicial systems all claiming authority and power.  All of their authority is not based on godly principles; it is based on humanistic law and principles.  The humanistic law and principle, in most part, is contrary to the Word of God.  RH Bill is not godly and other bills we have in this country and other countries are not biblical; they are contrary to God’s law.

We have allowed or we are establishing authority and power and dominion in our whole world that is not consistent with the authority and the power of Christ.  “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Christ.”  It is all, yet we function in our own authority.   What is the thing that we believe in very strongly and that is being forced in the whole world?  It is democracy – everybody has a right, everybody has a voice.  This is not godly!  There is One voice, One authority, One power, One dominion – Christ.

There has to come to a time then when this is manifested.  I look at the Greek for these three categories: rule, authority, and power.  These are things that man has put into existence to rule, putting rules but most people don’t follow them.  In some cases, even if people are accused of violating the rules, they get away from the judgment some way or another.

The authority and power of man doesn’t work.  We think it does, but it does not work.  The ways of man are not perfect.  God is setting up a system that will be perfect.  Before he can present the kingdom that he has given his life for to God, the kingdom must be perfect. All authority and power must be destroyed, and there is only one Source.  Whether in the family, in a corporation, anytime you have several people who think that they are authority, you have confusion.  You don’t have order because one will say one thing, someone else will say something else.  The kingdom must have order.  God’s kingdom, presented back to Him, must be perfect –the way it was in creation.  All things perfect, not lacking in nothing. 

Verse 25 says that Christ must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet. He is sitted at the right hand of the Father, but all that is to come have not been completed yet because we work together.  We, being His Body, are to work together, putting His enemies under His feet. This is part of a task that belongs to us.  How we live out our lives literally displays where our heart is, what our commitments are, and what our dominion reflects.

What we do reflects the inner state.  Who is the Lord of our lives? Who is the King of our being?  How we act out our lives.   How we treat one another.  This is why Jesus said, “You shall love your God with all your heart, with all your mind and your soul; and the second commandment is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”  This is now setting the kingdom in our hearts.  When we function in such a way, we are duplicating our commitment to God, to Christ in our relationship with each other – giving much respect to others rather than judging others.

“Judgment is Mine.  It belongs to Me.  Wrath, vengeance is mine,” saith the Lord.  It is not yours, but yet what have we done?   We have taken our right that we say, “It is my right to defend myself and to revenge that which is wrong against me.”  God says, “No, My authority, My rule, My dominion will take care of it.”

We are struggling with dominion, rule and authority.  We think we have that right and this is where the confusion comes in because when we walk in the principles of God, Christ is the Lord of our lives. When He is the Lord of our lives, life will be the way He intended it to be.  We recognized that Christ will be demonstrated in all that we are as a fulfillment of that commandment which He gives to us.

To be blessed is literally nothing less to share God’s holiness.  If we have accepted that holiness in our lives, then out of our being will reflect that holiness in everything that we do. Let us be honest, we are not there yet.  We still are struggling with our selfishness. We still have great value of who we are because we think we can do things.  There is a certain amount of truth to that.  What we do should be in submission and under the authority and rule of Christ. This is when it will work.  When God put man in the garden and said, “Cultivate and keep it,” He intended man to do the work.  He was to do the work as God has ordained it to be done.  He was not to do it his way.  When man did it his way, sin entered into the world because he did not listen to God.

Ever since, man has thought he had the right to do these things, not realizing he was struggling against God, fighting against the very principles of God. It is God who judges, not man. We think we have a right to judge. There maybe a symbolism of that which belongs to us.  There are certain things that we can choose for ourselves, but these are things that are not ruling and reigning in the kingdom of God.  These things belong strictly to Him.  He and He alone!  This is why it says that He has to wait until He can give the kingdom to God in perfect unity.  Then God will be all in all.

This struggle will come because Scriptures says that all nations will come and bow. It shows us the dominion that is going to be.  Today, we don’t see all nations bowing before Him. We don’t see every tongue confessing that He is Lord, but that day will come.  It will not be far away perhaps.  This is what we will declare which will manifest His kingdom. If there is a king, there is only one voice.  A king does not have Congress or a Senate.  The king alone makes the decisions. He may have counselors, but he does not have others making the decisions for him.

We are far from monarchy. We don’t understand it.  We have come to a point where every one thinks they have a right.  Everybody thinks they know everything.  Watch the news program where they tell you everything that is happening because they know everything.  They think they do but they don’t really know what is happening because no one does except God and God alone. Events, yes, but the reality that is taking place, no.

The one thing that we must grasp in our hearts and in our understanding is: Christ is victorious; He is not losing the battle.  We have not come to understand it fully, but the day will come, the time will come that our honor to Him will be seen in how we care for each other.  This is a manifestation of how much we love God – what do we do for each other.  The gospel says, “What you do to the east of these is what you do to Me.”

We haven’t totally come to that place in our lives.  The time is coming.  I was reminded of Isaiah 2 which is a prophecy. As Christians, we need this to have in our hearts and our minds because we see the world around us with turmoil, the strife and we think, “What is going to happen?”  Verse 2, “In the last days, the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it.”  Isaiah is prophesying under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit telling what is going to happen in the last days, which is now!  We are living in the last days. Our time is not as dictated by wristwatch or our wall clocks.  This isn’t time, but how we measure it. This is not the way God measures time.  Verse 3, “And many people will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob that He may teach us concerning His ways, and that we may walk in His paths. For the law will go forth from Zion.’”  The law will not come from man’s Congress, the Senate, from the United Nations, from superpowers.  The law will come from Zion, the Church of God.

This should challenge us to know the law of God, to know His principles and His ways.  It is going to be upon the Church to teach this to the whole world.  This is what we are supposed to be doing now – showing the world how the law of God works contrary to the law of man.  Verse 4, “He will judge between the nations, and will render decisions for many peoples; and they will hammer their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war.” This is because God is the One making the decisions or setting the judgment and the law.

Things are going to happen.  In our lives, we need to understand them.  If we don’t, fear and anxiety will come upon us.  These things are happening now!  Governments of man are being destroyed as though this prophecy is being unfolded in out eyes and sometimes, we are looking at it and we are fearful and anxious.   Anarchy seems to be rising to new levels.  Our universities are teaching the students anarchy: don’t accept the things that have been; we’ve got to change them.  Thus, you see them on the streets.   The majority of the people on the streets around the world in rebellion are students, the young people.  They are being taught in the universities of the world.  For one thing, as adults, it is showing that we have failed to teach our children respect and order. We haven’t punished them for their disobedience.  We have not corrected them.  We have listened to some psychiatrists that say you should not correct them for you will destroy them.  The Bible says exactly the opposite: discipline them or else you will have trouble with them.

Revelation 18:3 says, “For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.”   We live in an age where sensuality is major in our lives.  We want to feel good. We are guided by our senses.  We are not guided by principles.  We want everything to be pleasing and comfortable. We don’t want to take responsibility. We don’t want to have difficulty.  We don’t want problems.  We are sensually motivated.   When a man they is choosing a wife, he chooses a wife by senses – she is nice looking.  She may be nice looking but her heart may be full of evil. 

We have been taught, and have submitted to the deception of the world.  Not necessarily sexually, but sensuality where our senses are ruling and controlling us.  Everything that we do basically is controlled by our senses rather than by practicality. It might be practical for whatever we are involved in to do things in a manner which is painful or difficult, from that will come good; but we choose the sensual part because we can’t handle the others.  We have chosen not to be involved in that, and this is talking about society that is ruled by sensuality, not responsibility or principle. 

This is where we find ourselves today.  We are ruled by sensuality.  We want everything easy. We can’t handle things that are most inconvenient and displeasing to us.  We want everything to be perfect.  Otherwise, we complain and murmur.  We are a society that is motivated by immorality, not sexually, motivated by senses, following principles contrary to what God says.  This is where we find ourselves today.

“The merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.” This is the commercial system that is motivated by our sensuality. They are making fortunes off of our sensuality. We don’t buy things because they are practical.  We buy things because we are sensually motivated. This is why the ads on television or on the streets sometimes don’t even show the product that they are selling.  They show a person’s body that is sensual, and yet they are selling something that you don’t even see on the ad at all. Most of the advertising agencies deal in sensuality – not in truth, not in reality, and we are biting into it.   Advertisements of food for children are sensual not practical and real.  The governments have to come up and stand against these things because they are not truth. People were buying these things because sensually they wanted everything to be perfect. 

All authority and power is in Christ, not in all these things.  These things cannot minister to our needs and they do not bring comfort and peace to us. The more we have, the more we want.  We are never satisfied.  We are controlled by this and the merchants are making fortunes out of our sensualities. 

Verse 9, “The kings of the earth who  committed acts of immorality and lived sensuously with her, will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance because of the fear of her torment, saying, ‘Woe, woe, to the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour, your judgment  has come.’” When it says one hour, it is not talking about sixty minutes, but a time which is minimal. 

It is now a great time of failure.  How many businesses has collapsed, those that have been in existence for generations, all of a sudden is no more?  This is because these Scriptures are coming true now.  Look at the governments of the world; look at the youth on the streets protesting against the governments, wanting them to fail  - United States, Egypt, Middle Eastern countries, Greece, Spain; France, Germany. The young people on the streets murmuring and complaining and in most cases this is because they are not going to get their entitlements.  They have to work for what they get rather than it being given to them.  We raise our children giving them everything they want.  We did not make them work for it.  We did not make them pay the price, and the consequence is now anarchy on the streets of the world.  They think the world owes them a living.

This is happening right now.  This is not coming in the future.  It is taking place now in our eyes, in our understanding, in our time zone.  It doesn’t mean that the end is not right there but these things are becoming a reality. They are becoming complete and being brought forth during our time.  “…Leaders and kings living sensually.”  Is this not the things that are being complained now by the young people?  That the leaders have all this extravagance all around them? I have heard that the King of Saudi Arabia has a concrete road that goes from his palace to the airport.  He had the major luxury cars only kings used while the people had nothing.  They have their own private planes.  They have their own cars.  They live greatly, but the people have nothing.

What does Scripture say?  “What you have done to the least of them, you have done to Me.”  When they haven’t taken care of the people in need around them, they are not living the way God intended them to live, and their rule and their dominion, their authority will be destroyed. This is what is happening now.  Egypt removed their “dictator.”  When he was in power, there was peace in the country; there were no big problems between Christians and Muslims.  They got rid of him. Now, the Muslims are killing the Christians. The Christians go to Church; they lock the door, and set the church on fire killing everybody in the Church.  They wanted the dictator removed and it removed him.  They got another government; now, they don’t want that government, so just recently, they had the government resigned. 

There is confusion because the youth don’t know what they really want.  All they know is that they don’t want who is in power because they have been spoiled. They have been given everything.  Parents have not held back from them, and they think this is what they are supposed to do – to give them everything.  The end product is that the children then think that is owed to them even when they get older. They don’t have to do anything.  We have trained our children the wrong way.  The consequence of this is because we have lived sensually.  The consequences of this will bring down the world.

Is this evil?  I want you to see that God is at work because all of these things have to fall because Christ must be King of the world before He can present the kingdom to God. Then, it will be God who is all in all.  Everything will be under Him.   We will not have governments any differently.  Even in the CEC, one of the principles of our structure is that we do not have a vote.  We are guided by consensus government.  Whenever we have a decision that has to be made, the one thing that whoever is running that meeting says, “What does God want us to do?”  I have run meetings and I have told some of our bishops who were just learning this, so we haven’t gotten it perfect yet. “I don’t care what you think. What you think is not important. What does God say?”This is what our government is bound with.

God must be the One giving us the instruction.  It is not my opinion; not my experiences. What does God say? We haven’t learned to listen to God yet.  We use our gadgets; we don’t give God any time in our lives so we can’t hear His voice.  We are supposed to be listening to Him.  We are supposed to be letting Him guide because if He guides us, we will not be living sensually.

We carry a signature bag, but how much money do you have in it?  A plastic card?  Why do you need an expensive bag or a hundred thousand peso bag for a plastic card?  A plastic bag will do exactly same thing. But sensually, when I carry that bag, everybody looks and says, “Oh look at them. They are really rich. They are somebody.  This is what we want. We are much better.”   It is dying now.  You can’t buy some of the big automobiles anymore.  We want our way comfortable, pleasing.

I want us to understand that these things are coming to an end.  If we are not listening to Him, if we are depending upon the world, we are going to be frustrated, stressed out because it fails.  It doesn’t do what it says it is going to do, but God always fulfills Him promise.

We must let Him be King or our lives.  When He is king of our lives, that peace will be there and we won’t care about these other things.  We may have them.  It doesn’t mean that we won’t have nice things, but they will not control us and they will not sensually build us.    We have a bag that is hundred thousands worth. Big deal! How much is in it?  What can you do?  You think you are wealthy, but inside that bag it says, “I am poor.  But I want you to think I am wealthy.  Sensually I am affecting you, not in truth and reality.”

One point of the Scriptures in Revelation says, “On the outside are the murderers and the adulterers.” One of the things that catches my attention are the liars on the outside.  These are those who are not honest.  The liars will never get into the kingdom.  Their sensualities causes to them to lie because our faith and our confidence is in material, not which is eternal. 

I know that this is not something that will make you jump and down, but it is something that we need to know.  Don’t be upset with the things around us. They are going to collapse. Whether they collapse on our day, I can’t tell you the time.  All I can tell you is that it is happening now.  Egypt for generations has been the protector of Israel.  Egypt for generations has been a strong loyal force to things which were of peace.  Now, Egypt is at war with Israel.  Egypt no longer follows the principle they used to. Now they are controlled by sensuality! It will not last.   Don’t be surprised or be shaken.  If the United States falls, its economy dropped, it is shaking because it is all built on sensuality.  It will not survive.  Don’t be foolish. Don’t think that you can get your security there because it will not survive.  Sensuality will die.  We need to be wise.  Christ is King, not these other things.  Put our faith and our trust in Him.

Information I can give you which I hope will come as revelation to you because your trust must be in Him, not in the things around us. It is only Him. He is the only One.  Nobody else can do it for us.  Trust Him. He will not fail!