[Gary Beam] I want to ask all of you a question basically right upfront. I know that we come from many different locations and places in this nation, and perhaps overseas as well that you've come here. We all have a home somewhere, I hope. Hope you have a roof over your head, but I want to talk about us today, and I want to talk about them as well, and those who will yet be in our future. We come here and we dwell in temporary dwellings for total of eight days, counting the Eighth Day, Last Great Day, some come earlier and stay later. And that's sometimes as well, but I want to ask you, where is your home? Now, you probably are going to say in your mind when you answer that question, "Well, I live in such and such place in this nation," or maybe somewhere in the Caribbean or wherever that might be. But I ask you again, in the sense of ask and where is your real home? Where is the real home that you dwell in?

If you would, please turn to Ephesians 2:19-22, Ephesians 2:19-22. Give you a moment. We find in verse 19, the apostle Paul says, "Now, therefore, brethren you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and the members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord,” and in verse 22, "in whom you also are being built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit." That tells each and every one of us that God Himself is dwelling with us. He is tabernacling with each one of us and even the children out here today, let us never forget that in 1 Corinthians 7, the apostle Paul tells us clearly that our children are sanctified by our belief as well. We are dwelling here, not only with each other but also God's presence with us and the place where He has placed His name. As I told someone yesterday in a conversation, God's name is placed in you and I. You and by the habitation of His Holy Spirit.

We find in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3, 1 Corinthians 3:1-3. I won't turn there, but just quote from it, the apostle Paul talking to the church at Corinth. Someone said the other day in the message that Corinth was a messed-up church. Oh, yes. Sometimes do we ask ourself, how much do we resemble Corinth at times? I'm sure if we're honest with ourself, we might ask that. I bring this point up in the moment only to illustrate and say that we must become a grown-up, mature church. As Paul said, he wanted to talk to them as spiritual, mature, but he could not do that because they were yet carnal. We must make sure in this day and age, as the times are urgent, that we are becoming a very spiritually mature, grown-up church at this time. We find in John 14:23, John 14:23. You can write these scriptures down. Turn there if you want to and write them down if you take notes for later. "Jesus Christ said, 'If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him."

God, there again, is tabernacling with us by His Spirit and we are home with the Father and Jesus Christ. We each are here dwelling eight days. There, again, total of the Feast of Tabernacles and the Eighth Day. And we come here and dwell in these temporary dwellings. All of us have permanent homes back home. Did you catch what I said? Do you really have permanent homes back home? Do any of us really have a permanent home in this world? Someone said yesterday in the message that, quoting from Psalms, that we live 70, 80, 90 years and it's gone. As James says, "Like a vapor, and we are no more." Our homes back home are only temporary dwellings. This life, this physical life is only a temporary dwelling place while we're here. You know, I love to say and kind of put the analogy to it that we're all just renters down here. We're all just occupying rental property because the earth is just that for us as humans. What you have now, possessions, you will leave behind one day. One day, you will leave that to your children, or grandchildren, or whoever. And that's the way life is down here on this earth. And yet as we go back home, we're all going to be very thankful, are we not, to have physical homes to go back to. As we go back, though, we must keep the lessons of this, another Feast time, in our minds and hearts.

My family and I journeyed down to Big Sandy, Texas in 1961 for our first Feast of Tabernacles. And it was mentioned the other day, the question that was asked, and it was asked almost every year after that, that I went to the Feast, "Why are you here?" And then I think of the added question I would ask all of us, who are you? What is your true calling? Your true calling and who you are is a child of God, dwelling with God, our heavenly Father. Here recently, Mr. Kubik in a recent e-news wrote about the homeless in this world. And in the e-news, he quoted from National Geographic Magazine, the title, “A World on the Move.” I was moved by that reading it. I had already prepared my sermon and then he wrote this and I thought, well, you know, how… and now I guess I’ll go ahead and also just mention it here today again that one in seven in the world is basically homeless, on the move. That is an astounding figure. And it's going to get worse as I'm sure all of you know. Look around the nation today. Look around our own nation. Look at the problem with the homeless. And it is growing. If you've been watching the news and you've been watching, especially cities like Los Angeles, and see the vast amount of homeless people, and the problems, and the issues that are being what? Come to the surface because of it. People who have no hope. This message today is titled, "Beyond Today, Hope for the Homeless."

I love our logo and the more I see it on your vehicles, and I see it and here, I love the logo Beyond Today, because everything we do in this life now, for those of us called now, is looking beyond today to a world coming and it's about us now, but it's going to be about them when that world comes and us, as was just said, as kings and priests teaching. I look at the world and I look at the problems with the world on the move, as was said, the homelessness here in America getting worse by the day, the week, the month, the year, government has no true solutions. Our government here truly has no real solutions to it. The only hope for the homeless is, there again, a time coming.

This is not an easy world to live in. Would any one of you, if I could survey any one of you and ask any one of you in the room, do you think this is a good world to live in? If you said, yes, I want to counsel with you. This is not a good world to live in. We are here picturing, again, a time coming when the world that we're going to live in, that old cliche, is going to put this one to shame. Yes, there will be some problems as was said in the message before, but it's going to be so far beyond. And it will take 1,000 years probably to begin to just pretty much get a lot of things situated, organized, and in place. And that world is then going to be prepared for another world that's coming called the Great White Throne Judgment, and that will be spoken of on the Eighth Day by those who will be speaking.

Brethren, this world, this home we call home in this world is not, is not a sanctuary. This world no longer is a haven. Where you live, where I live, no matter where each one of us lives, I don't think can any one of us say it's a safe haven because evil, and crime, and depravity, and any word you might want to use in the negative sense is, what, encroaching in on all of us more and more. It's like evil is circling us and it's closing in and we're beset by evil everywhere we look and turn. There's a story in Luke 15. You don't have to turn there. You can jot it down, remember it. Luke 15, the story of the "Prodigal Son," perhaps, my favorite parable story of Jesus Christ. I love the story and what it pictures, the prodigal son. It is a fantastic, profound story. I told someone here the other day, Christ was the greatest storyteller that ever lived. It seemed that He couldn't make a point right without telling a story, and do we not all love stories? And Christ told the best ones of all they call parables.

This story, the "Prodigal Son," a son that left the Father's home and household and struck out on his own, left his father, rejected his father's teachings, and went to make his own way in life. This whole world, in essence, speaking in a spiritual sense left God, humanity did in the Garden of Eden. This world has been a displaced world in that sense, a homeless world away from God, in that spiritual sense, since the Garden of Eden. And the whole plan of God is to ultimately bring all humanity back in relationship with He and Jesus Christ. This is what the whole plan of salvation entails. I love this story and the son became destitute when he left his father's home, as you know if you've read the story. He was eating with the swine. See, I used a good word for "pig." Destitute. And he remembered his father's home.

If you know the story, "I will go back to my father's home." And it's a story of repentance when you understand what it's talking about. An errant son that went astray and came back home to the Father, a beautiful story. When his life hit skid row, his life spun out of control. Brethren, let me speak very honestly today, America, Great Britain, especially the birthright sons, the ones who received the birthright blessings have become prodigal nations. This time that we celebrate and keep today and this Feast of Tabernacles pictures a time in that sense that the prodigal son will come home. It's a beautiful story when you study the story of Israel from start to finish, a lot of rough stretches in the whole storyline from the beginning, from the time that God came to Abraham. And by the time you come from that point, all the way down to the time of the Millennium and Israel is restored, that prodigal nation of Israel will be restored with all nations and Israel will once again become a blessing to all the nations of the Millennium. An errant son come home. I cannot read the "Prodigal Son" story without the words framed in my mind, "My son, my son, why have you gone astray?" Israel is the prodigal son that went astray and God's going to bring them back to the fold.

I would like for you to do something. Turn to Isaiah 46, Isaiah 46. This message is about what, "Beyond Today," title, "Hope for the Homeless." Turn to Isaiah 46. We find here, verse 3, "Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been upheld by Me from birth, who have been carried from the womb: even to your old age, I am He, and even to gray hairs I will carry you! I have made, and I will bear; and I will carry, and will deliver you." And we come on down to verse 12 of that chapter. "Listen to Me, you stubborn-hearted, who are far from righteousness. I bring My righteousness near, it shall not be far off; and my salvation shall not linger. And I will place salvation in Zion, for Israel My glory."

There are so many different scriptures throughout the Bible, the Old Testament about how God is going to restore Israel in the world coming because God is going to restore Israel as His, what? That promised seed and all the nations around His will, and Israel will become a blessing, once again, to the nations around them. You can check me out on history, never in the history of man has there been two nations that have been more of a blessing to mankind than Great Britain and America. I don't know how anyone could argue against that. They brought so much to the world, and yet now, they are failing so miserably in their example before the rest of the world. God meant Israel from the beginning to be a shining light, to be a blessing to the nations around them. Picture this. There is a time coming, you read about it in Revelation, you have the seven trumpet blast, you have the seven seals, seven trumpet blasts, seven bowl judgments, you're going to have complete destruction, you're going to have catastrophic events, pestilences, diseases, war, calamities, you name it. All of this is going to happen at a time in the future and you're going to have a displaced humanity. We are literally going to have a tithe of humanity left that will walk into the Kingdom of God when Christ comes back and we are going to be there with Christ. Have you ever thought about that?

Humanity will be homeless. There will, no doubt, be no homes probably much to live in. I don't know how it's going to work specifically and I don't know that any of us do. I just know that when Christ comes back, we're going to have to roll our sleeves up. A lot of work's going to have to be done. I don't think Christ is going to wave a magic word and say, "Hey, everything, just be fixed," and it's fixed. It's going to take a lot of effort, a lot of work. And I think about the remnants from the nations that are going to be there looking for just a place to live. And we're going to be involved in helping to place, and restore, and to build because we're going to be building a new world. That's what we're going to be doing. We're going to be building a new world with Jesus Christ and His government and we assisting Him will be a government that will be fair and equitable for all, but He will start. He will start with bringing the prodigal son home. And that is the nations of Israel. You know, you think about that nation that God gave all of His laws and commandments to, and precepts, and judgments, and they turned from it. I think we can each in this room understand why I use the term "prodigal son," "prodigal nation." They were home with the Father and they left, and they're going to be coming home one day. They're sitting there in the future. They've been through Great Tribulation. All these calamities have struck them. They're going to be sitting there in places in dire straits, and they're going to probably think all hope is gone. Think about that. And then Jesus Christ comes and hope is restored.

Those of you who have watched the movie, Shawshank Redemption, if you have watched that movie, Shawshank Redemption, you may be like me. I love the scene when the character Ray tells… Red, he says, "You know, hope is a good thing. Maybe the best thing." Hope helps to anchor our faith. If we do not have faith, if we do not have faith in the future, I don't think many of us or any of us should have any faith in the present. There is no basis anymore for faith in this present system of the world system that we're living in. The only true hope and faith we have is anchored to the future. We are literally in symbolism and almost literally building a bridge to the future. These days, what we are here representing, why are you here, is, again, to picture and symbolize that we are bridging the present to the future. And God has been so merciful and gracious and blessed us, the most richly upon us of any peoples on earth to give us the opportunity to be firstfruits, to be those who are going to be there with Jesus Christ, to help those who have been displaced, the homeless, and to help restore their hope. A hope that will be restored and remain restored forever. A beautiful time that is coming.

If you would now turn to as Ezekiel 36, book of Ezekiel 36. Ezekiel 36:1, a time, a prophecy coming at where God speaks of Israel restored. Ezekiel 36:1, I'm reading from the New King James Version. "And you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel, and say, 'O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord! ‘Thus says the Lord God: 'Because the enemy has said of you, “Aha! The ancient heights have become our possession.”’" And this is from the scattering that will come one day of the sons of Jacob during the time called "the time of Jacob's trouble." “Therefore,” verse 3, “prophesy, and say, 'Thus says the Lord, God: “Because they made you desolate and swallowed you up on every side, so that you became the possession of the rest of the nations, and you are taken up by the lips of talkers and slandered by the people…”’” They're plundered. There will come that time where the nations of Israel are going to be plundered and scattered.

And verse 4, "therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God! Thus says the Lord God to the mountains, the hills, the rivers, the valleys, the desolate wastes… rivers, valleys… and the cities that have been forsaken, which became plunder and mockery to the rest of the nations all around,” verse 5, "therefore, thus says the Lord God: ‘Surely I have spoken in my burning jealousy against the rest of the nations and against all Edom, who gave My land to themselves as a possession, with wholehearted joy and spiteful minds, in order to plunder its open country.’" God is showing rebuke and punishment to these nations that have done this to Israel in that future time. And He says there again in verse 6, "Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel, and say to the mountains, and hills, the rivers, and the valleys, 'Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I have spoken in My jealousy and My fury, because you have borne the shame of the nations.” And therefore thus says the Lord, God: “I have lifted My hand in an oath that surely the nations that are around you shall bear their own shame, but you, O mountains of Israel, you shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to My people Israel, for they are about to come.”'"

We're talking about the second Exodus. When the remnant comes home, they return to the Father. They left and it's the second Exodus. And it's going to be quite a homecoming. Verse 9, "For indeed I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be tilled and sown. I will multiply men upon you, and all the house of Israel, all of it; and the cities shall be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt." Verse 11, "I will multiply you man and beast; and they shall increase and bear young; and I will make you inhabited as in former times, and do better for you than at your beginnings. And then you shall know that I am the Lord.” “That I am your Father. I am the Father who begat you. I am the Father who blessed you. I am the Father that you were at home with and you rejected Me and struck out on your own and did it your way."

If you look at verse 24 of the same chapter, "For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land." And verse 25, "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean; and I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. And I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you walk in My statutes and you will keep My judgments and do them." God will make His home once again with Israel.

Remember Christ's words, "Those who keep My commandments, We will come and dwell with them." Go over to Amos. Amos 9. Amos 9, sandwiched in between Obadiah and the book of Joel. You know, sometimes we use the term "minor prophets." The older I get, I almost am repulsed by the usage of the word "minor." These prophets, even though we call them the "minor prophets," they are rich, profound, and very revealing of the future. We see in Amos 9:13, “'Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘When the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows seed; and the mountains shall drip with sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.’" Verse 14, “'I will bring back the captives of My people Israel; and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them; and they shall also make gardens and eat the fruit from them. I will plant them in their land, and no longer shall they be pulled up from the land that I've given them,’ says the Lord your God." Home for good. Finally home, never to leave the Father's bosom again.

God as we know from the Old Testament times and going back and studying those Old Testament times, God was protector, provider, and sometimes do we not maybe ask in our minds, "How could they have rejected the God of heaven?" Forty years in the wilderness and He poured out miracle after miracle. He fed them daily with the manna and the quail and they griped and they grumble. Two of them from that former older generation went into the Promised Land, Caleb and Joshua. I think sometimes all of us, maybe most of us, look back at that story and, "How could it have been?" Why? Because as Ezekiel tells us in chapter 2 and 3, Israel can be stubborn, a rebellious people as we read throughout. God designed Israel, as a nation, to be a special nation dedicated to Him. And He did so as well to be a blessing to all the nations around, and they have failed miserably in that. America has left the bosom of the Father, by and large, Great Britain. Many of the other nations are the modern Jacob. It's a subject that we sometimes don't talk about as much anymore. And yet you cannot read through the Old Testament prophecies without seeing this storyline everywhere. And God is going to bring all humanity, the remnants from all humanity in the world to come, and He's going to bring them into relationship with He and the Father. And God, the Father on His throne will be doing what? Will still be directing things through Jesus Christ, His Son on earth. When Christ came the first time and said, "I came to do the will of the Father." When He comes the second time, He comes to do the will of the Father. And Jesus Christ will, for eternity evermore, do the will of the Father. And we will do the will of the Father. We shall abide with our heavenly Father.

My physical father died over, well, I guess 22 years ago now this coming December. My physical father was a man that, when dad was home, you felt safe. You felt protected. There's a few of you in this room that remember my father. When you were in his presence, you felt safe and secure. We feel and should feel ultimately at peace, and protected, and safe with our heavenly Father every minute, every hour, every day, every week, month, year as long as we abide on this earth because He is dwelling with us. And He is dwelling with us, as Paul said in Ephesians to Ephesus, “He is dwelling us there again by His Spirit.” And we come here, yes, we come to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. We come to picture a time that represents most of all them. I appreciate Mr. Martin the other day, appreciate what you said. And this is what you said. You said a lot of things. I appreciate when you said, and I thought very profoundly put, "This is not our Feast. Our Feast was at Pentecost." Meaning, and I hope everyone in this room understood what He was meaning, this Feast is so much about looking forward to their time. Pentecost is a Feast looking to our time of being firstfruits. So, when we think about why are we here, we're here most of all to honor. If you want the most supreme reason you're here, you came here, in the most profound way to say it, to honor our Father in heaven and Jesus Christ alongside with Him.

I'll give you something as I begin to close this message. I bring it back to us now in the present. We know that judgment now is upon us, as Peter says. Our day of judgment is now. We don't get a second opportunity. For all of those who may have said it in the past that we teach a second chance, that's been said many times, we do not teach that. We have one time to come through the door and that door is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the door. He is the only door of entrance into the Kingdom of God. And may I remind us the title again, "Beyond Today, Hope for the Homeless," the true hope for the homeless coming is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the whole hope of all to come. Without Jesus Christ, there is no hope in any future. There would be no future without the lamb of God, without that sacrifice, without Him being willing to lay His life down, there would be nothing in the future for any of us. How much thanks do we owe Jesus Christ?

We find In John 14. John 14:2-3. John 14:2-3. How many times have each one of us been to a funeral? Maybe a funeral as we might use the terminology out here in the world and we hear these scriptures read and we go to heaven. How many times have I been at funerals in my lifetime and heard these scriptures read? Let's get the true meaning of what is being said here. Jesus Christ, verse 2, "In My Father's house are many mansions,” that is "rooms," the Greek word. "If it were not so, I would have told you… I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, you may be also." In verse 3, "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also." Our inheritance is being prepared now. Our place of abode, eternal, permanent is being prepared yet ahead of us. Yes, we dwell in these temporary places. The Bible speaks of them as booths. It all translates into the same meaning of we're here occupying temporary places of abode to picture that we are here today, gone tomorrow, but yet shall inherit an eternal home with God and Jesus Christ. And the hope for all the homeless is Jesus Christ who is coming again. There is no answer by governments of this world for the homeless, and there will be no answers. And one reason, again, is because most are too corrupt to administer proper help and aid.

I would leave all of you with these words of encouragement. I remember watching the movie a number of years ago, The Patriot. Some of you probably saw the movie, The Patriot, a number of years ago, Mel Gibson. If you saw the movie based on the American Revolution, trying to gain freedom, the character, main character of Mel Gibson was Benjamin Martin. It was actually taken from the story of Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox in real life, but Benjamin Martin in the movie, he's lost everything. He's lost his home, the British have burned it, he's lost two sons, he is spent. If you've seen the movie, he is emotionally, mentally, physically… he's spent. He's just spent. And he tells his commanding officer, "I have run my course. I have run my course." If you've seen the movie, it's a very moving scene. And his commanding officer says, "Benjamin, stay the course. Stay the course." I say to each one of you today as I close, no matter what this year brings for any one of us, stay the course, stay home with the Father and you will find the safest, most protected haven that any of us can find.