The Blessings Of God's Calling

I guess I should say that I think that the sermon today will be a little different than what I normally give. It's not going to be as different as the sermonette was. The sermonette was quite different. We don't always have all of us be artists. But I'm saying that only because, you know, what I want to cover today is more of a, I guess, of a personal nature. But it's thinking back, and I will tell you that Pat, my wife, and I have been thinking back to 50 years ago. August of 1967 was a very important year, a very important month for us.

Because 50 years ago, August 19, I looked up on the calendar, you know, the way that August breaks down this year in 2017, with the Sabbath being 5-12-19-26, this being the last Sabbath of the month. That's exactly like it was 50 years ago, at least in that month. Because, and the reason why I'm saying this is that 50 years ago, both Pat and I ended up down in Big Sandy, Texas, at Ambassador College in beginning. What I look back on is an incredibly blessed last 50 years. I, like I say, I'm going to tell you things just, you know, some of you know, some of the history, some of it will be repetitious as far as my life.

But I do that for a purpose. I want to be able to relay to you not only an awareness of what I see as being significant in our training and in our learning over the last 50 years, but I know during that summer of 1967, God, I was 18 years old on July the 4th, so I was just 18. The month before August. But during that summer, I was driving a combine or running a truck, a wheat truck up in South Dakota. And I know that through that summer, you know, God performed a miracle in my mind. He changed my thinking. From, you know, well, I applied to Ambassador College.

I would like to go. It was one of the campuses of the church, the Church of God at that time. I think they called it the Radio Church of God. Later it was called the worldwide Church of God. But it was a new experience for me. I have to tell you, you know, that I look back on my growing up on the farm and, you know, being involved in the farming community and the county 4-H and the local FFA, that was my background.

And I can't say anything of any difficulty regarding my background. My parents, my mother and father were very caring. They were greatly involved in my life. And they certainly wanted for me, and they promoted me to encourage me to want to go to college, whether it was maybe down in Ambassador College, maybe to Stillwater at Oklahoma State University, which is where my dad had graduated about, what, 40 years earlier than that. And I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do, but in mid-July I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

I wanted to go down to Ambassador College. I wanted to learn. And I began to wonder, well, what am I going to do if they won't let me go, if I'm not accepted? Because, as I recall, it was early August before I actually heard anything to know that I could actually go to Ambassador College. And I remember my parents taking me down there, probably about the third week of August, again last week, 50 years ago. They brought me down there and dropped me off. And I, of course, that was the first time I was really away from home for an extended period of time, although during the summer I had been gone.

And I was just a farm kid and hadn't really been around to a lot of things. And I wasn't terribly... I was anxious. I was, you know, I don't know anybody here. I don't know, you know, exactly... I know enough to know that I'd like to be here and that I want to learn about God and I need desperately to...

I need help. And so coming down to Big Sandy and being dropped off was, in many ways, a very wonderful, wonderful blessing for me. Now on the flip side, in talking about Pat, she ended up at the exact same time there on Big Sandy 50 years ago, last week I would say, but her experience was quite different. You know, even though her parents, they were... they lived about 60 miles from we lived in Oklahoma, so she was an Oakey, too. That was a plus. Only two Oakes, perhaps. But nonetheless, you know, she hadn't experienced the same type of upbringing.

She'd grown up in town, in town of the three or four hundred, I'm sure. Her dad was a principal and superintendent of the schools. She had seven other brothers and sisters, so her mom had her hands full with eight children. And yet they were not excited about Pat going to college. They were not excited about her going to Ambassador College.

And yet, amazingly, even though she was essentially kind of just kicked out of the house and dropped along the side of the street, somebody came by and picked her up and they headed toward Texas, she wasn't really prepared for college. She didn't have lots of stuff to take with her, nothing like you would think or anticipate, even much more so today. But back then, when you took whatever you had, and yet, she had very little, and she didn't have any real money, and certainly she didn't have the blessing or encouragement of her parents. But she had some reason to go there.

She had some reason, something that clicked made sense in her mind. I'd want to go and learn about God, want to go and learn about the truth of God, want to find out whether, you know, we certainly didn't know everything. We had never attended a church service of the Church of God at all. Well, maybe she had once before she actually left. I barely made it back from South Dakota and got in the car and took off to go to Texas.

And yet, you know, as I said, I believe that God, you know, changed my mind, and I'm pretty sure he was directly involved in changing her thinking to where she would be motivated to pursue an understanding of the Bible, a relationship with God, a comprehension of what conversion is. And to be able, then, to live a completely different life than we lived up to that point.

Admittedly, we were kids, and we were just now, at that point, getting out on our own. But I know, over the next few weeks, that we came to understand more about the college, about the church. Of course, and then, at that point, in about a month, there was this huge convention, a inundation of 10,000 people camping on the campsite there at Big Sandy and going to church services, I think usually twice a day, in a great big tent.

The biggest tent I'd ever seen. Bigger than anything I'd ever seen in any circus. But by that time, three or four weeks later, there wasn't any way that they were going to get me away. My parents were coming down, and I knew that I'd see them, but I certainly was no longer thinking, I don't know what I'm doing here, I know what I'm doing here, I know this is where I want to be, this is where I need to be, this is where I desired to pursue a growing in understanding about God.

And I believe, by that time, a few weeks later, Pat thought that. But again, I was thinking, and I was expressing this to Pat the other day, I remember, I think it would have been 50 years ago, last week, probably about in the middle of the week, when we would have gotten there, and we would be starting to go through some of the orientation that they would have, because it certainly had different things that needed to be known or shown to all the students.

And there were 300 or 400 students that would be there each of the years. And I remember seeing, for the first time, the most beautiful girl in the world. Now, again, I was a farm kid. I didn't know a whole lot. And so it was nice to get together with the other new incoming freshmen from Oklahoma. And thankfully, there were several. There were several girls. And that was one really stunning girl. And I don't think she realized how impressed I was, because when I would later tell her, I remember you had this gorgeous, long, black hair. She says, my hair wasn't black.

Well, I'm sure that it was you. And of course, there were a lot of other things that I realized that I had in common with Pat. But we would later learn much more, of course, not only through four years of college, but after being married after that, through 46 years now of marriage, we, you know, she helps me remember lots of stuff that I don't remember, because, you know, she's good at that. But I point this out just simply because I look back on that as being a wonderful, wonderful time, wonderful blessing over the last 50 years had at a very young age, or at a young age, relatively, 18, having come to understand something about the calling of God. Calling of God is what we read about here in John chapter 6. And I want us to read through that. It's important for us to understand that John 6 is an incredibly wonderful chapter. There are some remarkable things that are revealed in John chapter 6.

If you read John 6, you read about Jesus feeding thousands of people with only a little bread and fish. You see him ruling over the wind and the waves and walking on the water. And you see him talking to others, his disciples and others, Jews who were in the synagogue, talking to them about being the bread of life. See, now the people he talked to, a Jewish background, they understood the Old Testament, or they had read much of the Old Testament. They were familiar with that. They knew what the Israelites had gone through. They understood manna being bread from heaven. Jesus said, well, that was temporary. I'm permanent. I am the bread of life. And here in John chapter 6, he said in verse 56, now I'll tell you, we should grow in our understanding of what John 6 says. And I know I've read it in the past, and I've read the words, but I've not understood what it said. And I would think that that could be the case for some of us, maybe for all of us. Because many times I think back, and even though I've read some parts of the Bible, I certainly don't say I understand in every place all that might be implied. But Jesus said in verse 56, he says, those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I abide in them.

Just as the living Father has sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me is going to live because of me. You can read those words, and you can say, okay, I understand what the words say. But what was Jesus really saying? Well, he was saying, I'm the only way to eternal life. He was saying, you know, if you're going to fulfill God's mission for your life, it's going to be through me. It's going to be through the bread of life. It's going to be through a connection with the Father and the Son that I am able to provide. And if we drop down to verse 60, and I'm not reading all of this for sake of time. I don't want to take all afternoon here, but we'll quit shortly before 4.30. All of you know when we normally get out, we get out between 4.15 or so. But I'm not going to read all of this, but it would be good to go back and read it yourself. And we often read this at the Passover time. We read this because it's obviously directly connected to the taking of the bread and the taking of the wine that we do annually. Because that's what Christ said, and that's what Paul said, and that's what we do from the standpoint of the Church of God. But it says in verse 60, many of the disciples heard what Jesus was saying.

They said, this teaching is difficult. This teaching is offensive. Who can believe what you're telling us? If I'm going to follow you, I've got to eat your flesh and drink your blood. They were offended by what Jesus had to say. But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, they were discussing it. And he said, does this offend you?

Then he says, what if you were to see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before?

If this offends you, what may just say in something, what's going to happen when I ascend to the Father and you're watching? Because that would later happen. That would happen, as you see it described in the first part of Acts, and certainly something that the disciples would come to understand much more fully. And he says, in verse 63, it is the Spirit that gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The Spirit is what gives life. The words that I have spoken to you are Spirit, and they are life. See, what Jesus had to say, what he was introducing, what he was proclaiming, because he proclaimed the Kingdom of God. That was what his mission was. That was his purpose, was to proclaim the Kingdom and to prepare some people for service in the Kingdom. That's what he was actually saying.

He said this, it's the Spirit that gives life, the words that I've spoken to you are Spirit and life, but among you there are some who don't believe. Because Jesus knew from the first who were ones that didn't believe and who would even betray him. He understood that. He knew that was going to happen, because that was a part of what had been predicted, had been planned, and then prophesied, predicted in the Old Testament. So he knew that.

And so he turned in verse 67 to the disciples, the 12, to Peter and the 12 disciples who were with him, who had been in a sense drawn to him by the Father. They had been drawn to an interaction with him. This is not far into his ministry. This is not all the way at the end, but within the first year or so, I would guess. I'm not sure if I got the timing right, but it had to be within the three years or so.

But what he said to them was quite interesting. Do you also want to go away? Do you also wish to leave me? And of course, Peter's answer is amazing. Peter answered and said, Lord, where would we go? Where would we go? You have the words of eternal life. And we have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God. Obviously, Peter was beginning to respond to a calling from the Father to draw him to Jesus Christ. And to understand, Jesus actually repeated up in verse 65, which I skipped. I'll go back to it. When he talked about, he knew who was not going to believe and who was going to betray him.

He said, for this reason I have told you no one can come to me unless it's granted by the Father. Now here he repeats what's in verse 65 to what we read in verse 44, which says, no man can come to me. Jesus was stating this, no man can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me. See, that's the significance of what I was describing to you of my wife and I coming to an awareness of something that we really didn't understand well. Something that we were only familiar with or exposed to, and I know and look back upon that, is God's calling.

So I want to talk about the blessings of God's calling. The blessings of God's calling is what you could describe this as, because there are four specific things that I'm going to mention. That I look back and just believe it is remarkably incredible that God revealed that, not just to the church, but to us, to my wife Pat and me, in calling us to Jesus Christ. Now, before I go through some of this, let's go back to Philippians 1, because Paul describes what actually happens in a person's life if they begin to respond to the calling that God extends.

Philippians 1, verse 3, Paul says, I thank my God every time I remember you, talking about the Philippian Christians and members of the church. I thank my God every time I remember you constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the Gospel from the first day until now.

He was grateful for the people who were there. He understood why they were there. He understood they had not just given their heart to the Lord. Obviously, we need Jesus Christ. But see, the way that God brings that about is what we just read in John chapter 6. And so it's not so much about us, it's about God.

God drawing us to Jesus Christ. And he says in verse 6, I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you or in you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. Do you hear Paul's talking about what it is to be a Christian? What it is to be drawn by the Father to Jesus Christ and then to pursue what Jesus Christ directs us to do?

Because that is what he expects of all of us to be a part of his kingdom and family. But here it talks about the good work that God begins. We need to appreciate it, we need to nurture it, we need to be thankful for it, and we need to be an active participant in that good work that God is doing.

Because there are a lot of distractions, there are many distractions actually. The entirety of the world is a distraction in a sense. But Satan is alive and well, he's still ruling. He's called the God of this world. He's called the Prince of the Power of the Air. He's the one who is and would like to deter our thoughts from focusing on the blessing of God's calling and how that that motivates us toward obedience, but more so toward a relationship with God, a close walk with God.

As I said about my wife and myself being drawn together from two different areas in Oklahoma into one location, I look back on that in a very positive way. I know that she also does, but she faced different challenges than I did. In many ways, I feel kind of bad. I didn't even understand some of those challenges for quite a while, but after we were married, after we got out of college when we were 22, we were married and sent to work in the ministry of the Worldwide Church of God at that time.

We spent three years in Portland. We went up to Portland and were there for three years. Our first son was born in Portland. He was six weeks old when we left, so we were there three years. And yet we had a church of 600 in Portland and 400 in Vancouver, so there were 1,000 people that we need to immediately learn who they were.

That, I don't know how well we succeeded with that, but we were making an effort to try to learn who everyone was. We were there. We were back in Oklahoma, Oklahoma City in Lawton, Oklahoma for several years. Our second son, Brad, was born there. After that, we later would be sent to Jackson, Tennessee, and work with the churches in Jackson and Dixon, Tennessee. That was essentially all the territory in Tennessee and western Tennessee between Nashville and Memphis, because Nashville and Memphis both had bigger churches.

Jackson and Dixon were somewhat smaller, but they were covering the whole western half of Tennessee. And then from there, we moved to Lake Ozark, and we lived in Lake Ozark for seven years. A very wonderful place to be for that period of time, to be able to work with the church in Lake Ozark and the church in Rolla, to be able to work with a lot of the feast preparation that needed to be done with a festival site there and a building that needed to be maintained.

Doing that and working with district YOU activities and regional YOU activities, those were all things that we were excitedly involved in. And then, 25 years ago, we moved to Kansas City. More than 25, actually. And thankfully, we've been able to be here for that period of time. Since then, we originally worked with the Kansas City South Church. And the church over in Topeka. And so we would run back and forth between those. Almost always assigned to a couple of different church areas. And of course, we've lived through a lot of ups and downs. As all of you have, most of you are familiar with some of the traumas that the church has experienced.

And we're not talking to hundreds and thousands of people. Right now, we're talking to scores of people. That's okay. Numbers are immaterial. Spiritual growth is imperative. We have to grow. Not just me, but we. All of us. Have to grow spiritually. And I think, as you know, I worked in the ministry for a while.

I worked for the state of Kansas. While here in Kansas City, I worked for the state of Kansas over 10 years. I've been working with the Church of God again over the last 10 years. And as you know, the Church has gone through a Dr. Nola Postasy, Ministerial Rebellions. Pat and I have dealt with different health issues. She's had some and lingers with some. I've had some, and I guess I linger with some. I think they take a toll on us as we go along. We've had financial problems.

We've had distress in most every area that we could name. But thankfully, I always think back to the constants. The things that are constant that we learned to begin with. In being drawn by the Father to Jesus Christ. There are four things that I want to mention. Of course, all of these are based on the Bible. They're based on an understanding of God and of Christ. Of how the Holy Spirit has to work with us and in us.

And of course, you know, the law is a stabilizing factor that all of us come to understand about. But I want to go through these four things and just tell you how grateful I am. How thankful I am that God revealed these things when we were very, very young.

We were not so young anymore, but these are still valid. They're still significant. They are foundational. And of course, they give us a great deal of joy. The first one, as far as just the four things I want to mention today. Let me just mention the four things because these are things that all of you should think of as well. And see how that applies to you. And see how God has worked some of these same things out in your lives. One of them is an understanding of the purpose of man. The purpose for man. God's purpose for man. It's imperative that we understand that. Secondly, God's purpose for the church because He has a purpose for His church and it is misunderstood by most people. The third thing is the purpose of marriage. A foundational thing. Certainly, when you're 20 years old, like I said, I saw the most beautiful girl in the world. I mostly saw most of the girls there. I wasn't really paying much attention to who the guys were, but I was looking at the girls. And I very much thought that Pat was a wonderful girl to get to know. A wonderful girl to learn about. And of course, she was from Oklahoma. That was a big plus. And yet, she was not only wonderful, attractive, and athletic. She could throw the softball farther than any other girl there. She was a wonderful girl at the time. She's a wonderful lady today. I cherish her greatly. Coming to know the purpose of marriage, the purpose of man, the purpose of the church, the purpose of marriage, and finally, understanding servant leadership. Those are things we were taught in college 50 years ago, exactly what it is. That gives us a constant, a continuance, a stability, a security. Of course, that does come from God. It comes from Jesus Christ. But I define those four things because it's just fascinating to think back and to know. And whenever God introduced those things to you, that was obviously a beginning point. For us, it happened to be. When we were at a right age, at least the way I looked at it, because going to college was a good time to change everything I was doing and head the right direction. I was going the wrong direction or going to what seemed right to me or whatever I happened to feel like doing or whatever occurred. Because that's what usually we tend to do, but certainly I know it was what I did. But let's go back to the first one, the purpose for man. God has a purpose for man. Man's not just haphazardly been placed here. Well, we'll see what happens. See if we can blow ourselves up because that's what, on our national level, international level, you wonder, what's going to happen. You know, there are a lot of people who are suffering. Some down here in Texas with some of this water. Others in many other parts of the world because of food and issues there because of health and maybe difficulties with disease and other things. There's a lot of suffering that God is allowing in the seven billion people that are on this earth. But see, the fact is God has a purpose for putting man on earth. The sixth day when he created Adam and Eve, you know, he had a purpose. It wasn't a haphazard thing. It was a... He had a purpose. And of course, that purpose involved coming to be aware that I need to grow in the divine nature. That I need to grow in the nature of God. Man had been created in the image and likeness of God, and yet we have to grow in the divine nature of God. And so the purpose of man involves us coming to see how we can relate to the Father and the Son, how we are to grow in a divine nature, how we are to be in subjection to God's rule, His government, His kingdom.

And how does that actually begin? There are a lot of verses I could turn to on all of these, but I can see I'm not going to have time to do that. I'm going to just tell you, you know, understanding the purpose for man is important. And I'd like for us to think about how is it that God begins that process? Well, I've already mentioned to you that I believe God calls us. He draws us to Jesus Christ. That's what Jesus says. So that's the fact. It wasn't just something I came up with. It wasn't something I had to dream about. It was something that God did.

But see, ultimately, God brings us to an awareness of our sins and our need to repent. See, what is repentance? Well, that's an understanding of the law. It's an understanding of if I transgress the law, if I defy the living God, then I've sinned. And so what is repentance? Well, repentance involves taking responsibility for my sins. Now, repentance is described as turning around and going the other way, described as moving from one place to a right direction or a different direction. But see, I think it's accurate to think that repentance is taking responsibility for my sins. And if I actually do that, see, when we read in Acts 2, as Peter preached following the first New Testament Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit in a magnificent display of the power of God, Peter then told the Jews who were there, you just killed Jesus Christ. You just killed the Son of God. And of course, what does it say about what happened? Well, some of them, I don't think I'm too concerned about that, but there were some who said, Whoa! I'm responsible for my sins. I'm responsible for fueling the crowd. I'm not the Roman soldier who was out there pounding the nails, but I'm the one who wanted him to do it. My sins involve the death of Jesus, and see, coming to recognize that I'm responsible for my sins is the beginning of a relationship with God. And of course, whenever it says those men said they were pricked in the heart, they were moved by something that they comprehended at that point, but didn't really think about before. What did Peter tell them to do? Well, he summarized and said, you need to repent. You need to be baptized. You need to be a recipient of the Holy Spirit. He didn't go through all the details of every one of those, but he did say, this is what you need to do. And I can clearly say that repentance, as we come to be responsible for our sins, we realize that we need to be forgiven. And in a sense, repentance is the first step on the road to eternal life. Without that, we're not going to head down the path to eternal life. We have got to be repentant. And of course, it causes us to understand what it says in Romans 8. Romans 8, verse 6, it says, setting our mind on the things of the flesh is death.

Setting our mind on the things of the Spirit is life and peace. And so here he makes a contrast, Paul does in this case, between fleshly mindedness, focus on physical things, essentially describe as carnality, and describe even more so in verse 7, for this reason the mind that is set on the flesh, and so here he helps us understand what it is to be carnally minded, which is just normal and natural, and everybody in this deceived world grows up with this hostile mind. It says, for this reason, the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God. It is enmity against God. It does not submit to the law of God. Indeed, it can't, and those who are in the flesh simply can't please God.

See, that's a fascinating blessing of being able to see that, to know that, to acknowledge that, to realize that on my own, I'm seeking death. But with God, with God's forgiveness, with His mercy, with the relationship with Him and His Son, then we can have eternal life with God and His family. The second thing I mentioned as a stabilizing constant in my life over the last 50 years is an understanding of the purpose of the Church.

Is the Church's purpose just to do good things? Is the Church's purpose just to have good friends? Is it a social club? Is it a Good Works project? We have Good Works projects. That's not the main thing that the Church is. See, the Church has a mission. The Church has to proclaim the Kingdom of God. All of us who know what Matthew 24, verse 14 says, the Gospel of the Kingdom has got to be preached, and then the end will come.

The Gospel of the Kingdom of God, the government of God that is going to overthrow this earth, is going to put to shame the kingdoms of men, and it's going to be established literally here on this earth for a thousand years. And beyond that, however God chooses to do so as we read in Revelation 21 and 22, but see, understanding the purpose of the Church, that it has a mission and it is and must be preaching the Gospel. And that Gospel is about the Kingdom of God without preaching the Gospel. See, there's a lot of churches who consist and they preach a Gospel that only focuses on Jesus. And of course, there's nothing wrong with learning about and following the only one who can let us be in the Kingdom of God.

But, see, that's not what Jesus taught. Jesus taught the Kingdom of God. He proclaimed and preached the Kingdom of God. And yes, he said he's the King of the Kingdom. But, see, understanding the purpose of the Church is realizing that the Church's mission is imperative to proclaim the Kingdom of God, and if we're not doing that, then we're not on the road to eternal life. People like to hear nice things, and they like to go here and there and wonder whatever they're doing. But, see, if we're not proclaiming that righteous Kingdom from God, then we're not yielding ourselves to the work that God is doing in us.

Here in Acts 28, I wanted to focus at least shortly for the sake of time on what Paul said in Acts 28. Acts 28 is about Paul arriving in Rome. Of course, not like he hoped to arrive in Rome with an entourage and with the red carpet and with sweeping into Rome with an impressive message from God. He was a prisoner.

God worked it out where he got to Rome, but he was in the prison. Verse 16, when they got to Rome, when they came to Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself with a soldier who was guarding him. So, he actually was under house arrest, but at least he was able to do the work. He talks about talking to some of the Jewish leaders there in Rome and saying, I want to talk to you.

And he explains how it is he got there, and they reply in verse 21, We've received no letter from Judea about you, and none of the brethren coming here have reported or spoken anything evil about you. We don't really know how you're here, what you're doing, how you represent God, how you preach Jesus Christ.

Verse 22, but we would like to hear from you what you think. For with regard to this sect, talking about the Church of God, that Jesus had started and that Paul had been commissioned to proclaim to the Gentile world, they said about this sect, with regard to this sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken against. So what Paul was proclaiming, what he was representing as far as the Church of God out of Jerusalem, he had been an Antioch, he had been other parts of Turkey, he had been up into the areas of Greece, as we would look at them today.

Yet he'd not been to Rome, and these people were wondering who he was, what he was doing. But in verse 23, after they'd set a day to meet with them, they came to him at his lodging, a lot of them, great numbers, from morning to evening, he explained the matter to them, testifying what? Testifying to the kingdom of God, and trying to convince them about Jesus, both from the law of Moses and from the prophets. See, he understood that they were familiar with the Old Testament, but that was not good enough.

That was only saying what they needed to really focus on, which was Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. Paul makes that very clear here. He discusses this with them, and of course, some of them thought maybe he might be right.

Others pretty well ignored what he had to say, and he quoted a section out of Isaiah 6 saying, well, people's hearts have to be receptive. They have to be turned to this message. And down in verse 28, let it be known to you then that this salvation of God, see, that was the message that Paul was teaching. He was preaching the kingdom of God, he was preaching Jesus Christ as the king of the kingdom, he was preaching salvation, how to have salvation. Let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles who will listen.

And so he was telling them, well, if you don't want to listen, I'm not going to beat my head against the wall. I'm going to just continue to go to others that I know God is working with. And so he lived there for two old years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming, verse 31, the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.

See, there are a lot of different verses that talk about an understanding of the gospel and the purpose of the church. The church is to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom of God. And as we do that, that is a stabilizing factor in our lives. The third thing I mentioned is the purpose of marriage. See, now at 18, 20, or 22, as college students, we certainly needed to know what the purpose of sex or the purpose and reason of marriage was.

And we had a lot of guidance about that. And it's something that is an incredible blessing to know a good amount about even when you're reasonably young. And yet, to be stabilized in that, to understand God's design, and we can go back to Genesis 2, because what we read in Genesis 2 is what God did with the first two humans, Adam and Eve.

How it was that he had made Adam out of the dust of the ground, he breathed into him the breath of life. It talks about how Eve was created. Verse 21, The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs, closed up the place with flesh, the rib that the Lord had taken from the man he made into a woman, and brought her to the man.

And the man said, This is at last his bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh, this one shall be called woman. For out of man this one was taken. In verse 24, you see a description. Not a man-made description, but a God-given description of the purpose of marriage, of the institution of marriage, the purpose that God has in creating male and female, and how, in verse 24, a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh, and the man and his wife are both naked, and we're not ashamed.

See, God's creation and design, not only of male and female, Adam and Eve, but also his ordination, his creation of a divine purpose in marriage, an institution, a divine institution, I guess we could say. See, since marriage is the nucleus of the family, that's God's design. That's his basis. We can't get rid of that no matter what people say. People can say everything means nothing as far as what's true. What's true is what God says, and what he says about that is that I am the one who is the author of marriage.

I'm the one who created it for reasons of my own. And, of course, as I said, it is a nucleus of the family, and that family would expand. There would be additional children. There would be a learning of what it is to grow in love and cooperation and care. There's a lot of instruction. Some of us have even followed some of it. I can say that because I know there's certainly a lot of it that I haven't followed, at least as well as I would like.

And all of us have to evaluate that because that's not something that's easy. But understanding, even at a young age, what the purpose of man is, what the purpose of the church is, what the purpose of marriage is, and finally, what Jesus' definition of leadership is.

See, Jesus said that servant leadership is the way that I want you as my disciples to learn to live. Now, we read John 13, every Passover. Read about Jesus washing the feet of the disciples. We enact that as following instruction. He says, if you follow this, then you will be happy, you will be blessed. But see, it's not just that one act that's annually done, but it's an entire attitude of servant leadership. We could look at Luke or Matthew. Let's look at Luke 22. Because whenever there was a discussion and debate, the disciples couldn't figure out. In Matthew, it's talking about John and James' mother coming to Jesus, wanting something for them. Here, it isn't described that way, but it would seem to be at least a similar account, or at least maybe another time when this was brought up. But in Luke 22 and verse 24, dispute arose among the disciples. So which one of them would be regarded as the greatest? Who's the most important? Who's the most significant? Who's the most impressive? Who is in charge? Now, in this world, you've got multiple types of democracies and bureaucracies and dictatorships, all different types of orders and disorders in the kingdoms of men. And you don't find that those really solve all the world's problems, do we? But see, the type of leadership that Jesus says that he wanted his disciples to learn, and as he was laying a foundation, for this is what we will do. When my kingdom is established for a thousand years and the rule of Christ exists on earth, this is the pattern. He said to them, the kings of the Gentiles, lorded over them.

Those in authority over them are called benefactors. But this is not to be so with you. Rather, the greatest among you must become like the youngest, the leader like one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table, or the one who is serving? Is it not the one who is at the table? But he says, I am the one among you as one who serves. See, that was his pattern of leadership, and it wasn't just a matter of leadership, it was a matter of the entire mindset that is required for Christian development. We're going to become like Christ. Well, then he was the perfect example. He was the perfect pattern, what it is to be a servant of God, and what it is that we're going to be able to learn in preparation or service in the future. That's what we often celebrate at the Feast of Tabernacles. That's what, you know, it is a wonderful blessing to know that there is such a thing. See, this is foreign information to many people. There isn't very many companies that want to adopt servant leadership as their approach to doing their work. They just simply wouldn't do it. And certainly many governments would not even, you know, it's who can yell the loudest, who can gather the most support, who can put down the other side the best. Now, unfortunately, we suffer from that inexorably here in this country right now.

Like I said, Pat and I have been thinking about this for 50 years, or we thought about it the other day, to think back. It was 50 years ago when God began a good work. That's what Paul calls it in our lives, that we deeply appreciate, that we're grateful for and we're thankful for. And I think most of you can relate to some of the same things. And yet it is important to know that God does draw us, the Father draws us to Jesus Christ. And whenever he chooses to do that, it's up to him. It's not up to me, it's up to him. And we think back in understanding the purpose that God has for man and the purpose that God has for the church, the purpose that he has for marriage, and understanding Jesus' servant leadership is an incredible blessing to have known all through these years and to have learned some about, to try to apply, to try to grow in those qualities that are clearly biblical, and yet in most cases unrealized by many. There is a mystery that God reveals as we yield to him. I want to conclude just with one verse because I've thought about this as I've been considering and even thanking God for what he has done in my life and for us. But in Romans chapter 11, you see Paul, a lot of different sections in Romans as we went through, have gone through. We went through last year sometime, I think. We've gone through all of Romans and there are a lot of different topics that Paul addresses. But I want to just remind us of one thing that he mentions, and this is really ties together with what I've been saying here in chapter 11. As he describes how it is that God has chosen to deal with people. He has chosen to deal with Abraham and with Israel. He's chosen to deal with the Gentile world and non-Israelite world. He has brought all of those and will bring all of those to a recognition of his great power and might. He concludes what he was talking about regarding that in verse 33. O, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments? How inscrutable is ways?

See, who has known the mind of God? Who has been the counselor to God? Who has given a gift to him to receive a gift in return? He quotes from Isaiah, but he says, we didn't come up with a plan. We're recipients of the blessings of God's calling. And as Paul describes that, how incredible that is. How remarkable that is. And I think how appreciative we should be, each of us should be, as we think back over God working in our lives, as we think of how it is that God has chosen to grant us understanding and that we can be stabilized, we can be secure, we can be grateful, we can be thankful for what God has done in our lives and truly honor and worship him in spirit and in truth, as he said regarding his words, they are spirit and they are life.

So that's my sermon for today. I hope it can be helpful to you. I hope you can think back over those four things that are actually incredibly beneficial for us to understand. There's a lot of exciting things to read in the Bible. There's some things that are kind of mysterious, some things that are maybe yet to be known, but there are some things that are absolutely imperative to be the foundation for our lives.