Give Him the Pre-Eminence — Norman Meeten

See you all this evening. A very warm welcome to those of you who have joined us, not only from the Boca, but from elsewhere. If you're just a visitor, I'm sure that on behalf of Gary and all the others who facilitate this conference, you receive a very warm welcome from everyone.

Paul’s Prayer for Growth in the Knowledge of God

Pays palms. Now, if you have your New Testament with you tonight, I'd like you to turn with me into the epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Colossians, and again to read in chapter one from verse nine down to the end of the chapter.

For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.

Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness, giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.

For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created by him and for him, for he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things ye might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell, and having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself.

By him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven. And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh, through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight.

If you continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you have heard and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I call and made a minister, to now rejoice in my suffering for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church.

Wherefore I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God, even the mystery which hath been hidden from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints, to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ, whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working which worketh in me mightily.

Increasing in the Knowledge of Jesus Christ

Amen. And how I would love to read on and on, as they would have originally done when they received this letter from the pen of the apostle, via the hands of Alessanus and Epaphras, who were the two postmen who carried this letter, along with the epistle to Philemon and the epistle to the Laodicean church, all written at the same time from the same place where Paul was a prisoner in Rome.

As far as we know he never visited Colossae, his main contact there was through Epaphras and he was obviously familiar with Philemon, the master of Onesimus, and had a real heart earned for the people who lived there and fellowshiped together there in Christ.

He had a great longing, in fact he expresses the same longing for the Ephesian church and the Philippian church. It's at the end of verse 10, he says in the context of his prayer, increasing in the knowledge of God.

That was his great concern, that they should increase, that they should grow, that they should develop in their knowledge and understanding of Jesus Christ. And he wasn't talking about intellectual information, he was talking about that knowledge that would find incarnation within their own flesh and blood and outworking in their daily living.

That's what the apostle understood by knowledge, insight, understanding, appreciation of the person of God. And all that you and I will ever know of God, beloved, has been revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

And it's through Jesus Christ that you and I will know and understand all that there is to know of God. That's why Jesus, when he came into the world, was called the Son of God. He came to reveal God, he came to display God, he came to show us what God was really like.

In terminology that we could understand, in a form that could be felt and touched and handled and known. Glory to his name. And of course Jesus prayed that, he said this is life eternal, that you might know him, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent.

And it's your knowledge and my knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, beloved, that gives us the most profound insight into God that any man or any woman can ever know. And again, by the inspiration, revelation of the Spirit.

Giving Christ the Pre-Eminence

This is why later down in the chapter, at the end of verse 18, he says this, that he might have the preeminence. Modern translation of that, of course, is that he might have the first blood. That he might have the preeminence, that he might have the first blood.

That coincides with the lovely exhortation of the Lord Jesus at the end of the sixth chapter, relating to the sermon on the night when he said, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And the kingdom of God, beloved, is all about God in Christ, revealed and displayed to ordinary men and women like you and me.

That in all things he might have the preeminence. I love that word because it has wonderful associations for me. Some of you heard me share it before. I had a dear elderly, serially owned friend in Liverpool, came to our wedding.

I used to go and visit him. He was in the parish where I worked when I was an Anglican minister. And I used to go and he used to mend my shoes and make me tea, and bring me up in desperation when his wife, who was always collapsing, was rushed into hospital.

He was one of the loveliest people I'd ever known. His name was Mr Golly. Amen. Mr Golly, what a lovely name. He had a lovely black face and white curly hair, always wore a big red rose or formation on a Sunday night when he went to church in his frock coat.

Amen. Had a terrible voice, couldn't sing, but loved singing. In fact he was thrown out of one church because he wrecked the choir. He wouldn't stop singing and sometimes he'd have his book upside down, not at the page of the hymn that had been announced, but the page, beloved, that happened to fall open and inspire him at that moment in time.

And he'd open his mouth and he'd sing. Ruined any singing, beloved, but he sang from his heart unto the Lord. And when he joined us I said, Golly, sing. Sing, Golly, sing, Golly. And he'd sing, he'd sing, and he had one big tooth and a big pink, lovely pink tongue.

And every time he prayed he'd say, and let the Lord have the pre-eminence. And his tongue would do a sort of dance around this one remaining tooth, he said. Whenever I read this verse, beloved, I always remember God.

He's in heaven tonight. Glory to his name. And that was his one great desire, beloved, the Lord should have the pre-eminence. Amen. Is that the desire of your heart and my heart tonight, that we might know him, that he should have the pre-eminence?

That's the proof that we know him. Amen. That takes us beyond the realm where everything becomes real. Blessed be his name. I want him to have pre-eminence, beloved, as we gather together these days.

Not just in the meeting, but in our conversation, in our communication, one with the other. In our living, he should have the pre-eminence, that he should have the first say. Is he your waking thought, beloved?

Is he the last thought at the end of the day as you lay your head down on the pillar, having cast all your care upon him? You don't lay there, wracked with worry and anxiety over this and that and the other.

You've relinquished it all unto him, beloved. You can't handle it, do you know it? You try. It baffles you again and again. It's beyond you, but you can cast it all over onto him, beloved, so that your final thoughts at the end of the day are all focused in him.

Glory to his name. I knew another lovely lady, she was Welsh, maybe not African, Welsh. I remember once preaching down in a place called Mousetag in the South Wales, in a place where the Geoffrey brothers originated from.

Bless God, this little lady had sat incarcerated in an oppressed adherent church for years, years. Stroke, beloved, locked in at the end. You got in, they locked the doors and there you went, straight line.

And one night I was there ministering, beloved, and God came and met that woman. She was so ecstatic, I thought that she'd run a leap over the hill. And the end of the meeting, beloved, she didn't know what to do with herself.

And the next morning she rang me up and said, please will you come and see me? I was disdained. I was a visiting preacher. And I went to see her, and there she was, she was crying, crying. She said, I'm not sad, I'm not in fact, I'm so happy, I don't know what to do with myself.

She said, God has come. Some time later I visited that place again and preached again. And again she asked me if I would visit her. And she said, is there something wrong with me? I said, what do you mean?

Well, she said, when I get up, all I think about is Jesus. She said, when I'm cooking my hubby's breakfast, all I'm thinking about is Jesus. She said, I go out with a bread bag, with a bread bag, to purchase bread.

And she said, all I want to talk to the man about is Jesus. What's wrong with me? I said, you're the first right person I've seen for a long time. Glory to God, she'd become so preoccupied, so obsessed, so enveloped, beloved, in the glory and the wonder of Jesus.

Not only what he's done for us, but what he was. And it's because of who he is, beloved, that he's able to do what he does. Life had just become full of Jesus. He wasn't just an appendage. He'd been an appendage for her for years, beloved.

He sat in that pew and endured Sunday by Sunday. She was a good religious woman. Not many people like that, beloved. Mary was talking about it, you know, it's this sort of enduring it, putting up with it, going through with it, gritting your teeth.

When it should be joy, to use the words of Peter, it should be joy unspeakable and full of the Lord. That which emancipates you, beloved, and sets you free. Blessed be his name. And in all things he might have the preeminent.

Christ as the Center of Paul’s Life

Beloved, he had the preeminent in the heart of the apostle. He was absolutely obsessed with Jesus. You read the or you keep, I used to think that the Philippian epistle, beloved, was punctuated with the word rejoice.

It's an amazing letter. It's all about rejoicing. And of course he didn't have anything to rejoice about, did he? He was in jail with a death sentence hanging over his head. But all he could do was rejoice.

Why? The explanation, beloved, is the word that predominates over against rejoicing. That was the explanation that he rejoiced in, and that was Christ. He mentions the name of Christ in the Philippian epistle 38 times.

Amen. And the Colossian epistle, beloved, is very similar. He mentions the name Christ 27 times. It is one little letter. He keeps saying Christ, Christ, Christ. He was obsessed with it. If you look down in the third chapter of the Colossian epistle, this is what it says.

This gives you the indication, beloved, that he was giving Christ the preeminence. It says, there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, but Christ is all and in all.

Isn't that wonderful? Again, we've been reminded, as we were this morning, beloved, that all the barriers come down in Christ. There's neither Greek nor Jew. There's neither Gentile nor Jew. There's neither Irish or English or any other person, beloved.

We're all one in Christ Jesus. Blessed be his name. Christ is all and in all. It is much in your pocket, beloved, in your heart. As that famous preacher, shining preacher said, you could discern the state and condition of a man's spirit by examining his pocket.

He was a realist, a dreadful realist. Of course, he had to be. I don't know how many years he was in prison. Watchman Dee, do you know? Almost the lifetime. A friend of mine met his nephew in Exeter some years ago and said, if your uncle could escape, would he?

He said he would never, because he believed that the powers that be are ordained of God, even communism. His nephew said, yes, he does. He'll never run away. They could let him free, but he wouldn't run away, because he believed God.

He believed his word. His life wasn't tintered in anyone else or anything else, but Christ. Glory be his name, beloved. There's the proof in the life of a man that something's taken hold of him, beloved, that's expelled virtually the effect and influence of anything else, no matter how powerful it might seem to be.

He believed God. His trust was in Christ. Christ was all in all to him. Amen. Look at this lovely scripture in chapter 2, verse 10. No, in chapter 2, verse 9,. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead body.

The Fullness of God in Christ

Everything that God was, was in Christ. You don't need a few isolated texts, beloved, in the Bible to prove the glorious reality of the triune nature of the Godhead. From the very beginning, God addresses himself as we.

We. We. We'll read it in the Genesis. He keeps referring to himself as we. Plural, not singular. Hallelujah. Jesus was all the fullness of the Godhead body. Father, Son and Holy Ghost found their embodiment in him.

That's why you read in the first chapter, the following verse, verse 19, it pleads the Father in him should all fullness dwell. And the miracle it is, beloved, that all that was in Christ by the Holy Ghost seeks to come and live in you and me.

All the fullness of the Godhead body by the Holy Ghost desires to come to live in you and me. And that's the only way, beloved, whereby he will get the preeminent in our life. It's not us reading this scripture and trying to live up to this magnificent standard of life that is set for us, page upon page upon page.

Not just the Sermon on the Mount, although that is a tenfold, great beloved, of normal Christian living. Not a state in heaven, but a state down here on the earth to be realized and lived in by the grace of God.

But the only way that that's possible, amen, is that all the fullness of the Godhead personified in Christ by the Holy Ghost should come to live in you and me. Now that's the mystery spoken of in verse 27.

To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. All that God is in Christ Jesus by the Holy Ghost coming to live in you and me.

Beloved, that's the mystery, that's the wonder, that's the secret. Amen. And it's hidden is what the wise and prudent, beloved, it says in the scripture, let us reveal the month of Babe. And unless you're prepared to become a babe, beloved, you'll never know it.

Because again, beloved, there's violence to the intellect. You can't work it out. All that you can do, beloved, is open yourself up to it and believe God, that the answer of the prayer is possible, that you might increase in the knowledge of God through Jesus Christ.

Blessed be his name, that in all things he might have the preeminent, that he might have the first place. Amen. Is he first in your life? He's not first, worshipping an idol. You've allowed something or someone to disperse that place of supremacy that belongs to him and him alone.

You don't have to create an image, beloved, and bow down before it. You're an idolater. That's the wonder that God has in your life and my life. And in order to obtain it, beloved, he was prepared to extend the life of his son, to deal with everything that would obstruct it and prevent that from being the truth in your life and my life.

And in this first step, I want to look at some of the great definitions of this glorious man, Christ Jesus. Amen. As we contemplate him, beloved, we'll know what he's done for us. Here's the first lovely truth.

I'll stop when our time runs out, at a reasonable time. Amen. Verse 13, says, he has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the son of his love. Now, the word delivered here, beloved, means rescued.

Christ the Great Deliverer

There are many translations of the word delivered from the original Hebrew and Greek, and this particular one, beloved, is the word rescued. He has rescued us from the power of darkness. In other words, he's rescued us from the clutches of Satan.

He's delivered us from the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that works in the children of disobedience, and has translated us into the kingdom of the son of his love. He's our great deliverer.

Isn't that wonderful? He uses exactly the same word in the second epistle to the Colossians in chapter 1, verse 10, where he says, he has delivered me, he is delivering me, and he's going to deliver me.

Isn't that magnificent? Past, its present, and its future. Nothing static. He has delivered me, he is delivering me, and he will deliver me. All the doctrine of salvation, beloved, takes that position.

It's not just a static experience. Praise God for that, and it must happen. There must come a time when you and I know that God has come in the person of his son and delivered us. He set us free. Glory to his name.

But we must know the ongoing continuity of that glorious position, maintaining us and sustaining us in the reality of it. He has delivered me, he is delivering me, he will deliver me. The only proof that he has done it, is that he is.

And the only proof that he is, that he's going to deliver me, is that he is. Come on. This present moment. Jesus Paul says, he's delivering me. Come on. He's delivering you. Lusting you. That's why you need never capitulate to him.

There, Jesus, that is, delivering you. He's flushing you up out of the kingdom of darkness and translating you into the kingdom of the son of his love. Not having once done it, beloved, but he's going on doing it.

He's predicting we live in an evil and a perverse generation. We need deliverance all the time. So many people, beloved, latch on to a past experience and trust in it. And that becomes the thing that usurps, beloved, the supremacy of Jesus.

They're trusting in experience, something that happened once upon a time. You ask them to give their testimony, it sounds like a fairy story, once upon a time. And the tragedy of them, beloved, it doesn't end happily ever after.

Because there's deterioration. Because the moment you start trusting, beloved, in a past blessing, you move subtly from that glorious position where he is having the preeminence. It's not what he's done, beloved, it's not what he promises to do, it's what he's doing for me now.

A pleasant relationship with him in the ongoing wonder and glory that he's my rescuer. Isn't it wonderful to know that you're rescued, beloved, and he's going to maintain you in that position. He's the great deliverer.

When he presented his credentials for his own public ministry, this is one of the things that he reiterated. He uses a slightly different word, but conveys the same lovely truth. He's quoting from the prophet Isaiah, in Luke chapter 4, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me.

Isaiah could say that, it was true for Isaiah, part. It was true for Jesus, glory to his name, and it can be true for you and me. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and that's not presumption, beloved, that's faith.

Believing that it is relevant for you and me as it was for the Lord. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and the recovering of sight to the blind, the effect of liberty, or to deliver, the same word, them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

And he closes the book, and gave it to the minister, and sat down, and the eyes of all men that were in the synagogue passed on him, and he began to say unto him, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

Marvelous, beloved, this day, not yesterday, not tomorrow, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. He said, I'm here to rescue you, I'm here to deliver you, I'm here to set you free, I'm here to take you out of the clutches of Satan, and translate you into my own kingdom.

And of course he brought that all to perfection, beloved, when he mounted the hill of Calvary, and dealt with the imposter, Satan, bruised the serpent's head, fulfilling the first-rate prophetic metaphoric essence, beloved, recorded in Genesis chapter 15, verse 15, chapter 3, verse 15, where it says, the seed of the woman will bruise the serpent's head, and also bringing to perfection, beloved, the great doctrine of circumcision, when Jesus was cut off out of the land of the living.

You know, so often when you hear people ministering in this realm of deliverance, they talk about cutting people off from their ancestry, cutting them off from their parents, cutting them off from the influence of the mother.

It's the language of circumcision, beloved. The doctrine of circumcision was brought to perfection at Calvary. That was the most magnificent act of circumcision that ever took place in the flesh of a man, beloved, in the flesh of Jesus.

God cut him off, as he hung there, beloved, as your great substitute and mine, not only in dealing with our sin, beloved, but separating us from the cause of all sin, the intrusion of Satan into the lives of men and women that held them and bound them, fettered them and enslaved them for generations upon generations.

Many people, beloved, have been enslaved for generations, and they live, beloved, in the slavery of what they've inherited. And that's compounded by their own willfulness and sinfulness, beloved, that's essential in the things that they were born into.

He's our great deliverer. Isn't that wonderful? Give him the pre-eminence, beloved. He's triumphed gloriously. If you want to be delivered, beloved, the deliverer is here tonight. Not in me. Yes, in me.

But not me. That's what I meant to say. Not me, but in me. Praise God, the deliverer is here. And he's not confined to me, beloved, but the deliverer is here by the Spirit. And if you know that you're in bondage, if you know that you're still trapped with Satan, if you know that you're still the victim, beloved, of the malicious manipulation of the wicked one, you can be free.

That's a part of the great doctrine of salvation. Glory to his name. Men and women don't have to go on in bondage, beloved. There are people who've endured it, suffered it all their lives. Some people love it.

They trust it to them. They're comfortable in it. They don't want to be free. They can't bear the thought, beloved, of placing up to the responsibility. Being normal men and women, they love their sin.

They love their bondage. That's why houses set apart from deliverance, beloved, shouldn't be too attractive. They'll get settled in. You know, that's why when they built workhouses in days gone by, beloved, they made them those dreadful places on earth.

It was a sort of the last place of last rewards. You didn't want to go to the workhouse to live. They'd made them palatial and comfortable, beloved. People would have moved in. Amen. They would have been full of the squatters.

Christ the Redeemer

Glory to God. God's here to set us free. He's our deliverer. His glory is Jesus. Secondly, beloved, he's not only our deliverer. In verse 15 it tells us that he's our redeemer, in whom we have redemption through his love, even the forgiveness of sins.

He's our redeemer. Oh, glory to his name. Now, when Jesus Christ died upon the cross, he provided redemption for the whole human race. That doesn't mean to say, beloved, that everyone's saved. You can say, I'm redeemed, but I, knowing that you're saved.

What Jesus did at Calvary, beloved, was total and absolute and sufficient to deal with and pay for the sin of the whole world. No one can say that wasn't enough for them. Redemption. Peter talks about it, doesn't he, in his lovely first epistle.

Chapter one, verse 18, for as much as you know that you will not redeem with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain manner of living. Doesn't matter how much money you put in the offering, beloved, or how many offerings or sacrifices you bring, let all be to no avail.

No virtue in anything that man does. That's the great emphasis of the Apostle Paul, beloved, nor so the Apostle Peter. It's not what you do, it's not what I do, it's what we do. And he comes to do for us, beloved, what we can't do for ourselves.

You cannot redeem yourself. You cannot deliver yourself. You cannot redeem yourself, not by silver nor by gold from your vain manner of living, received by the tradition of your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world and was manifest in these last times for you.

Now at that point, beloved, I'd like to go round the room and look into everyone's eyes and say, for you, brother, for you, brother, for you, sister. This is the application, the personal application of this wonderful provision of redemption.

Peter says it's for you. Glory to his name and the currency, beloved, that purchases your redemption is the precious blood of the Lord Jesus. Isn't that magnificent? It's the only currency, beloved, that's valid at the throne of grace.

That's why Jesus went there and presented it. And when he presented it and the father saw it, beloved, he said, I'm satisfied. Glory be to God. It had all been done in heaven before. We read in the 17th chapter of the book of the Revelation, he was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

It was all done in heaven, beloved. Nothing took God but surprise. Calvary, beloved, was an afterthought in the economy of God to deal with our sin. Blessed be his name, the Lord done in heaven. But then for the benefit of you and me, beloved, it was done down here on the earth at Calvary.

And then it was all reenacted again in heaven. And then by the Spirit, beloved, it comes down out of heaven again and is applied to your life and my life individually. It goes round and round and round.

Isn't it magnificent? Done in heaven, done on earth, done in heaven, done on earth. I love that scripture, beloved, it's all settled in heaven. You'll read it in Psalm 119 verse 89. It's settled in heaven.

The word of God is settled in heaven. Of course it has to be settled in our hearts. And the word of God settled in heaven, beloved, means that God has made provision for the redemption of the human race.

And everyone who responds to that and receives, beloved, knows that they are redeemed. And on the basis of the redemption comes into the great salvation. Those of you who are familiar with the writings of Oswald Chambers, beloved, it's the foundational stone, it's the foundation stone of all of his theology.

He keeps saying, on the basis of redemption, on the ground of redemption. It's a phrase, beloved, you find almost in every page of his writings, on the ground of redemption, because of redemption. He's on faith, beloved, he knew that it was total, he knew that it was absolute, he knew that it was sufficient, glory to his name, he knew that it was all-inclusive and all-embracing.

God didn't want to leave anyone out. Peter says that, doesn't he? And they argued about God's integrity. He said, God is not slack concerning his promises, some men count flatness, but he's long-suffering to us, we're not willing that any should tell us that it all should come to repentance.

Glory be to God, he's our redeemer. Turning to the Corinthian epistle, beloved, the first one, in chapter 6, verse 19, what know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own, for you are bought with a price.

Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's, and so important, beloved, he reiterates it in the seventh chapter, verse 23, he says you are bought with a price. Amen, now you know how valuable we are, don't you?

God doesn't bargain, bless the Lord. God brought an end to all bargaining, doesn't bargain, beloved, God has paid a price, a fair price. The price that he paid for you and me was the price of the life of the Son of God.

Now you know how valuable you are, now you know what redemption is really all about, beloved. Doesn't only redeem you from what you were and deal with your sin, blessed be his name, but it puts a value on your life that is inestimable.

God has to bring you and me to a place, beloved, where we realize that we're nothing, but if you stop there, beloved, you're descending to despair. But rising above your despair, beloved, with your eyes fixed on him, giving him the preeminence, you will see for the first time in your life how vital, how essential, how precious your life is to him.

God was prepared, beloved, to extend the life of his own Son in order to redeem you, in order to redeem me. That's why you can't mess about with your life and do what you like, beloved, you're not your own.

Most people like to think that they are my life, I can do what my life, it's my time, it's my money, it's my clothes, it's my house. If you want to go out east, beloved, you couldn't get dealt with on that level.

Amen. Nothing's your own in India or Nepal, beloved, you'll ride in Nepal and you open your box. It's not yours anymore, it becomes common property, especially if you go and live with the Nepalese. Of course, if you live with Europeans, they're far too respectable to interfere with your belongings.

Amen. But you go and live with a group of Nepalese. I once went to and shared a little room with five Nepali lads. It was an amazing little room, it wasn't much bigger than this area. Amen. And there were two beds about that wide in it.

There were already five residents and I was the sixth. Given usual imagination how six people slept on those two beds, but we did. You have to know a Nepali or an Indian, beloved, how to sleep in that sort of position.

Amen. There was one table and there was one chair. When I arrived, I had my box, and what was in my box was beer, as much as it was much. When we went away into the hills, beloved, we took one little rucksack, one toothbrush, one change of clothes, one towel.

The beer is precious. It's going to be 140 kilometers walk up over the mountains, because the roads disappeared down the club, back down the hillside, during the monsoon. Lots of people say, I'd like to carry your luggage, but when they know the implications, beloved, it's amazing how quickly they drop out.

Glory be to God. You're not sure, oh, you've been bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which I love to be audible. It doesn't say in your spirit and then in your body.

It says in your body and then in your spirit. He's a realist. That's why Paul says, present your body. You know, we talk hypothetical nonsense, beloved, and spiritualize truth right out of existence. When we give him preeminence, beloved, it includes our body.

Amen. Glorify your God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. You're not your own. We like to think that we are. We like to think that the lesson, which we put away for a rainy day, is ours, beloved.

Watch as it might disappear very quickly if God puts his finger on it. And you do know it all belongs to God, don't you? The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. So if you think that you own something, beloved, you'd better have another think.

That nice new car, that nice new house, that nice new suit, that nice little nest egg that you've got stowed away for a rainy day, beloved, I want to tell you tonight is not yours if you are Christ. Or you're fiddling around, beloved, with the truth of giving him the preeminence.

You're saying that that's more important to you than that, than him. That's why there was an equality in the early church, beloved. That's why they had all things in common. These were not theories, beloved, that they messed around with and theorized about and preached about, beloved.

These were things that they lived because, by the coming of the Holy Ghost, there's been such a radical transformation in their life, beloved. They think that they were not their own. They weren't playing the fool with truth.

Most of us do. We speak to one thing, beloved, we live another, for it is God. He's our Redeemer. He's our Deliverer. He's our Redeemer. He bought you, beloved. You're precious in his sight. You see, keep finding that word in the writings of the Apostle Peter, beloved, in reference to Jesus.

It says he's precious, he's precious, he's precious. Then he talks about the lifestyle of women. He says that's precious. You'd better read the context. That's the Spirit of God applied. I made reference to that scripture, beloved, in Italy and a woman laid him to me like a viper afterwards.