Foundation Stones (Part 3) – Jesus w/the 12 – The Forgotten Foundation of Christian Life

The Lord knew men were like this. He knew they’d rain down fire on a village and burn it up just because of doctrinal differences. They were having doctrinal differences with that community, and they were ready to burn it to a sender. As unbelievable as that is, that went on from the year about 550 all the way up to about the year 1700. That’s 1,200 years, isn’t it, about? Christians burning up other Christians towns because they didn’t agree with them doctrinally, this is in you. I want to just pause and tell you, brothers, I want every one of you to look at me right now. I want you to stare into my eyes and I’m going to look at you.

Every fellowship of people who get together have within their group, whether it be 12, 20, or 50, some of the most ugly, the potential of some of the most ugly, vicious falling outs, some of the most horrendous conduct that is imaginable to have. That is true of any 20, 40, 50, or 100 people, and I can almost hear some sweet little lady in the back. Oh, Gene, but won’t the Lord save us from that? He wouldn’t call us out of the religious system and meet here in this wonderful place and have all this love and then leave us to have a big ugly fight and treating one another bad, would He? My answer is, yeah, He would. And if He doesn’t with your group, yours will be the first group in history He doesn’t.

When I can see another, someone very pompous saying, “Oh, but you see, brother Gene, you’re in error about our group.” Because you see, we know something the other groups, these tens of thousands, and thousands, and thousands of other groups don’t have. We’ve learned eco philia. What’s Eco philia? Well, it’s something like koinonia, or maybe it’s like ??? or maybe it’s like glossolalia or maybe it’s like cosmetology, or maybe it’s like transubstantiation, or maybe it’s like discipleship, or maybe it’s like submission, or maybe it’s like the truth of the church. I’m sorry, but there is no doctrine and there’s no truth that will banish these goats, these goblins from our lives.

Young brothers, listen to me. When you go back home, your church is going to split. Your people are going to be ugly. They’re going to do ugly things to one another. They’re going to excommunicate one another. They’re going to scream at one another. They’re going to be mean to one another. They’re going to insult one another. They’re going to get mad and leave, and when they leave, some of them are going to take a half a dozen other people with them, and they’re going to put people under the law, and others are not going to get under the law, and some are going to sin and they’re going to sin terribly, and others are going to get their feelings hurt, and others are going to pout, and others are, while all this is going on, and others are not going to understand what’s going on. What’s going on? I don’t understand what’s going on.

You know, there ought to be something that precedes church life, and that is Galilee. That’s what ought to precede church life. These 12 men living with the Lord four years from now are going to be facing what I just described, with 3,000 brand new converts. They made it. You know why they made it? Because preceding the church, there was Galilee. A time when a group of men were trained. Trained in the Christian life, trained in church life and trained to be workers. And there were others who were not workers who were also getting in on the church life and the Christian life. And if you don’t have a few people around like this, your group is doomed. It’s doomed, and all the grace and mercy, and praying, and any trick, and any doctrine, and anything you’ve got up your sleeve, and all the mercies of God won’t help you.

The foundation has got to be laid with broken men, patient men, broken men. Well, you say spirit-filled men, men who know the Bible. Oh, but brothers, just put it this way. A group of men and women who’ve lived together and then been terribly, terribly exposed for being a bunch of first-class donkeys. I want to take a little bit closer look at these three and a half or four years because they’re very important, and just two or three things.