Change for Good

If you could change something, what would you change? Would you change a law? Would you change a rule? Would you change the future? Would you change your past? Would you change your wealth? Would you change taxation? Would you change other people? Change threats of war, the economy, or the ecology? What changes would you make? When you think about it, that's what society is trying to do now. It's trying to change all of those things. It's trying to change, really, the results of the bad choices that it's making without God's direction, without following the Word of God.

And we see many, many changes that are coming along supposedly for equality or for inclusion, or to better fix things that got messed up by society previously. And you have this continual, ongoing change, trying to change the results of actions of people who do not follow God, don't submit to His laws and His ways. The consequences of breaking God's law of love, love for God and love for each other, are not good. They are bad consequences.

And this world is just piling up those consequences more and more. When we look in 2 Timothy 3 and verse 1, which is probably a very familiar verse, 2 Timothy 3 and verse 1, we find where these changes are taking the world. These changes are actually dangerous, and they have dangerous results. 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 1, But know this, that in the last days, perilous, or as the margin says, dangerous times will come, because, or for, men will be lovers of themselves.

Not love God with your heart, soul and might. Not love your neighbor as yourself. This is a different change, a different mindset that humanity is having. It's based on the tree of self-knowledge of good and evil, of what seems right. And humanity is going pell-mell to make changes that fly in the face of what God teaches. And so, men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers. They'll blaspheme the God, the Creator God. And they will be disobedient to parents, authority, unthankful of what others do for them, including the God who created them, and the environment, and unholy.

Not godly behavior, but rather unloving, unforgiving, slanders, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good. And traitors, and headstrong. Now, what these are, these are changes to society, changes to ethics, changes to morals, changes to values. And these are what society is getting drunk on. And the results of those things causes problems that society then, in turn, is making more changes to try to solve. Do you like change? Some people say, I don't like change. God promotes change. The Bible is all about change.

The future is about change. God's feasts are about change. Personal change. Global change. Future change. But what changes are good? What changes are good? Man, by himself, does not know how to direct his steps. He doesn't know which way to go without God. And so, as man makes mistakes, he then tries to cover his mistakes with other solutions to change things, change rules, change laws, change perspectives. And it just digs the hole deeper. Let's examine the end-time rush that humanity has, including you and me, towards a future, a future of change.

We see technology changing very, very rapidly. Elon Musk recently announced that, soon you won't have a smartphone. Soon you won't have a tablet. You won't have apps. You will just have a screen with AI behind it. And you will interface with AI. Some of these things might be a little scary at the same time. Wow! Think of the productivity. Think what you can do. Is change good? Is change bad? Is AI good? Is AI bad? With each thing that humanity comes up with, it causes complications, followed by other changes.

Like it or not, we are all hurrying into the future with change. Let's look today at this sermon, Change for Good, as the title. In my last sermon, it was entitled, How Much Time Do I Have? I mentioned that we'll look at some specifics about the end-time challenges and the problems that exist in the world. So let's examine some core issues that society is right now struggling to deal with and wants to make changes in in order to survive.

One of the biggest challenges that society sees as something it needs to fix is that there's too much of itself. Imagine that. Society has come to the place where it says, there's too much of us, and we are complicating things too much. We're drawing down resources, building up war, build all these things. It's just not going to work. I'd like to put a graph up for you. I didn't bring it because it's too small to really see. It's kind of pointless in a way because the graph is the population of the world over time.

They've gone back and assessed and tried to figure out what's been the world's population down through time. It's kind of a boring graph because it's basically a flat line.

It's a flat line that runs along for thousands of years, somewhere around 250 million.

And that line just runs along right up to the time of Jesus Christ, the New Testament, the writers of the Bible, the Roman Empire is guest to be about that. But at the same time, there's others that say, it's not been much more than that. And that time then runs on and on and on. You get up to a thousand AD. Hasn't changed much. You get into the little ice age and some of the difficulties that humanity went through. And it's kind of flatlined from appearance, a little bit of change. But when you get up to about the time of the Reformation, about the time of the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, all of a sudden, up comes the population of the world.

And right around 1800, 1803, 1804, they figure that the world finally reached one billion.

And at that point in time, Thomas Jefferson was the President of the United States. Right then, the Louisiana Purchase took place, and there were one billion people on the earth.

Now, if you go forward in time from there, from about 1804, you come to 1927, the Roaring Twenties, and you get to two billion people. Two billion people. What's really interesting about then is when movies began to be made and you can begin to see moving pictures more of people and environments, not many people were there then. If you go from 1927 to 1960-61, you have President Kennedy. It kind of comes into our age. Guess what you have there?

You've come all the way up in 1961 to three billion people. Wow! Now, think of this. You've got all of history flatlined, and all of a sudden up it goes in a pretty sharp upturn. 1960-61. In 1974, my wife and I got married. Population in 1974 was four billion. Four billion.

And I remember growing up and seeing cities like Los Angeles or Phoenix as a city, and you drove through some country, some farm fields to the next town. And, you know, there were crops out there.

You can fast forward to today, this month, we have 8.25 billion people on the earth.

8.25. And you look at those old films, any old films, and you say, wow, there's hardly anybody on the street. There's hardly any cars. Today, everybody wants a car. 8.25 billion.

Everybody wants a car and a place to live and food to eat. And remember, the 0.25-250 million was the old earth's population throughout most of time. We've stacked 8 billion on top of that, and it's still climbing. So with so much of these things, so much travel, so much congestion, we now begin to see we've got some challenges here for humanity based on how humans have been living.

In 2022, scientists warned about the population, published the Science of the Total Environment, stating, environmental analysts regard a sustainable human population to be between 2 and 4 billion people. Hmm, that's interesting. From Ugov.survey, the most common view across the U.S., France, India, Japan, Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, and Nigeria is the current world population is too large. We begin to see now when we think about end-time events, you start to see some pressures, not because there are too many people in God's image, but how humanity has been living and what it's been doing, and how some of the changes that we've seen over time are mounting up with problems that are becoming insurmountable. Let's go to Revelation 18 and verse 3. Revelation 18 verse 3 talks about the compounding of bad choices.

For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, speaking of the old Babylonian system that has been rampant. They've drunk of that way of life. They've changed from God's way of life. And it says, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.

So these are the issues that are causing the problems. The contrasting message of change for good is what we're about to celebrate in God's annual Holy Days. We start with a whole different mindset that we need to change to. That of Jesus Christ, who gave of himself everything, who loves, who serves, who gives, who creates, who blesses those who follow Him and God.

In verse 4, I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her, my people. So we're not supposed to be part of this society, and it's change for betterment. But rather, come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. So here's a little insight going forward. Society's changes are not going to work out what Well. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.

Satan's worship gods today include the economy. It's all about money. When you think about the economy, all those people we need to sell to. Everybody needs a car. Everybody needs a little of everything. And we just need to sell that to them. In order to sell that to them, we have to manufacture that. In order to manufacture that, we have to take the environment down. We have to pull from the environment. And once we've sold these things, those things will go in the trash and we'll do it again. We'll continue to deplete the environment, and we'll continue to sell junk that is time-based, time-related, temporary stuff. And so here we are in a world awash in the pollution of bad choices mentally, spiritually, physically. And it's just mounting up more and more. When we think of food choices that violate God's law, people are eating things that they shouldn't eat. Can God bless that? What happens to the food supply? Well, it is in peril.

The UN Secretary General this year said, the food crisis is another unflinching indictment of a world dangerously off course. So the choices, the changes, he himself says, the world is dangerously off course. Hunger is not an emergency confined to certain pockets of the world or periods of time. It is fast becoming a scar etched into the lives of millions of people around the globe, fueled by conflict, geopolitical tensions, climate chaos, environmental vulnerabilities, economic upheaval, and food and nutrition crises. Every one of those are choices and changes that humanity has decided to pile on to itself. And now it's trying to come up with more changes and more fixes. When you think, for instance, of the fish populations, a lot of people like fish. However, you might remember orange ruffy. That was a popular fish until that was gone. There was cod, such an abundant fish off the northeast part of the United States and Canada. Gone. There are traces of those fish still around, but the abundance are gone. Wild cotillapia, not there. Abundant wild salmon, not there. Consequently, a shift now to replace those things in farming. Farming, quote-unquote, feedlots full of unhealthy animals eating things that animals were not made to eat, be it beef, poultry, whatever, fish, etc., etc. And those things come with warnings. Scientific American and the World Wildlife Fund said, the amount of fish in the oceans has plunged to the brink of collapse, caused by overfishing and other threats, driven by rampant overfishing, pollution, etc. Science warns that all currently fish species should collapse or could collapse by 2050.

Does that sound alarming? That study was a quarter of a century ago.

So humanity is making choices, making changes, trying to patch things up, GMO crops that are weak, that are not really sustainable. One little thing that takes them down, that would be very, very difficult on humanity. Fresh water is evaporating. The United Nations said, fresh water, which is less than one percent of the Earth's total water, is in crisis. From the American West to Eastern China, more than three-quarters of Earth's land became persistently drier in recent decades. The shift is a global extenial peril. Worldcounts.com, growing deserts are threatening an area larger than the combined areas of the United States, China, Russia, and India.

Now, 1.8 billion people are expected to experience absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world is living under water-stressed conditions.

See where society is going? I'm pointing this out. It's not to scare us, because we're not to be part of society. We're going to find out in a minute. We're in a different category, because our choices are for good. Our change is for good, and God supports that. When we think of fertile soil, it's being paved over everywhere and mismanaged at the same time. Earth.org says approximately 52% of the Earth's agricultural land is degraded, with about four football fields worth of heavy, of healthy soil lost every year, decade, month, day, minute, none of those.

2. Every second. Then we have environment Europe says invasive species pose a critical growing threat to global agriculture, causing hundreds of billions in damages annually through crop loss and reduced yields. The control fixed for that requires heavy chemical use, bringing further ecological and health risks. So the point here is, society is going a certain way, and it kind of presents itself as good. And some of the new things that are taking place, some of the changes that it is making appear to humans as good on the surface. But in fact, they're creating real problems, and change is needed. What's coming to agriculture? Let's go to Revelation chapter 8 and verse 7.

Well, there's always the promise that society is going to fix things while it says there is no God. We invented ourselves. God didn't create anything. This word is considered by a growing number as being toxic or hate speech. We don't want anything to do with that, society says. But notice here what's coming. The first angel sounded, Revelation 8, 7, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. See, God wants people to change to Him, and when they don't, He has to correct them. And events in the future, whoever is causing this, and it's probably largely mankind, coupled and led by Satan the devil and some demons, are causing that which humanity so relies on fixing to go quite the opposite direction. It says in verse 9, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, as if there were enough of those. Verse 11, a third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the water because it was made bitter.

During the end time, will society have a concern for fellow humans?

Will they mind if some of humanity gets killed in their changing way of operating? Let's go to Revelation chapter 9 and verse 16 now. Revelation 9 verse 16. Now the number of the army, okay, so here's humanity, they are changing from peaceful society to exploiting, maybe trying to grab the last things that can sustain them as things get scarce, no matter what it is. They've got an army, and the number of the army was 200 million.

200 million. It shows a mindset there of what they're after. Verse 17, breaking out into the last part of verse 17, and out of their mouth came three things. One, fire, two spoke, and three brimstone. Verse 18, and by these three a third of mankind was killed. A third of mankind was killed.

They're not, that's a third, maybe of nine billion by then. It might take out three billion people, and no one seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. But is God concerned? You know, in evolution, back in when Darwin came out with it, one of his cousins is said to have developed eugenics, which is, you know, we can suppress certain humans from being born, and we can enhance others being born, and we can sort of create better quality humans. The United States, at one point, began to pick up on that and actually use sterilization in that regard.

The Nazis then picked up on that and applied it to their own nationalism and developing a super race, as it were. And in World War II, there wasn't too much of an outcry when people were being exterminated. We fast forward here and we see a third of mankind gets killed by an army. Not sure how all that works, but the key for us is in verse 20. But the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent. They did not change of the works of their hand. See, it's not really about what's coming. It's not really about fear of the future. It's not really about what man is doing. It's what man is not doing. They're not repenting. We're coming up to the Passover.

The Passover is a time where we can become free of all manner of things that would enslave us to bad futures, to bad results. We can break free of that. We can be washed of the past. We can't change it, but we can be washed of the past. And we can go on and change the future with God's help and be part of a changing future. But these did not repent of the works of their hands, what they made, that they should not worship demons and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, wood, which can neither hear, see, nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders, their sorceries, their sexual immorality, or their thefts. Those are important four statements there, four words. That is what makes up the bulk of society's mind today. We could just walk through those. They did not repent of their murders. One thing that society just relishes is entertainment based on murder. Whodunnits or killings, things about murder. Children in society are almost praised for their ability to play video games, which are all about salacious killings and gamers just it's embraced and supported by society. All of this stuff. And then they wonder, after saying there is no God and God's way should not be followed, they wonder why people, after playing games and pretending they're killing, carelessly walk in and start shooting each other. This is a universal byproduct of change and society embraces it. Not the murders, but the act of vicariously being involved in them. You go on to the second one and so it goes. Murderers, sorceries. Huge part of entertainment now is the mystic, sorcery, futuristic, fake God powers and spirits and you know this is from children up. It's just infested, really, society. And there's sexual immorality. All about sexual immorality. Enforced, taught in schools, brought up in every form of entertainment to where it's just how it is today. And if we're not careful, we can look at society and say, oh this is just society, you know, I'm not really doing anything. This is just society. Or they're thefts. They're thefts. You and I need to change.

These are elements that tend to be in our carnal human nature that need to be discovered and rooted out. Not taken as, well, that's the way things are. It's kind of the status quo. That's society.

Whether you're in school, in grade school, or high school, or college, or in the workforce, or retired, we really, each of us, needs to focus in on what this world is doing and say, I am not changing. I'm not changing to those things. I have the principles of God's Word in its rock. It's solid. I am welding myself to the rock and I'm not going to move.

God's desire for change is very different than humanity's. You'll probably recall in 2 Peter, chapter 3 and verse 9, the Lord is not slack concerning His promise, but He is desiring that all men come to repentance. Where do we hear that? That's change. That all men change. That's what God wants. That's His will, that all should come to repentance and change.

When we think of the Passover and Jesus' example and the gateway for us to come out, as we heard in the special music today, to be redeemed and to change from puffed up bread, in Feast of Unleavened Bread, from that nice smelling puffed up bread that we all love to slap butter on. Yeah, that's great! It just shows us that unleavened bread is kind of not our thing. Anybody eating unleavened bread this month? Probably not. It's not our thing, right? But we need to change into that. We need to change into what Jesus Christ is. When we look at, again, what this world is doing and where it's going, it is headed in a direction based on just gobbling up things that are temporary and transitory, kind of like what Paul, sorry, like Solomon wrote of in Ecclesiastes. I won't turn there, but let's go to Revelation 18 and verse 12. Let's see what all of this is about. As it comes down to the end, it says here, I'm talking about the merchandise or the merchants, the economy, right? And it's merchandise of gold and silver and precious stones and pearls and fine linen and purple, silk and scarlet, every kind of wood, kind of object of ivory, every kind of object of most precious wood, bronze, iron and marble. You know, all those things go right out of style, don't they? Remember buying some of this stuff and you put it at home, you stuck it on your wall, and then your kids laughed at you later and you throw it away? You know, it's clothing styles, the wood, the things you carve, all that stuff. It's just temporary. And then things you eat, cinnamon and wine and oil and flour and weed and cattle and sheep and horses and chariots and people that are slaves. Although that is so temporary. I mean, what you eat, it doesn't last very long. God promotes change that results in eternal, rich lives, ultimate riches. Let's go to chapter 21 and verse 7, Revelation 21 and verse 7. I like to say this is my favorite verse in the Bible, although the Bible is my favorite book. But I like this one because it's direct, it's succinct, and it's very pointed.

It says, he who overcomes, you look at that word overcomes, it is translated conquerors in other places, such as the, I believe it's the first horse that rides, he comes conquering and to conquer. Zach's same word. He comes overcoming and to overcome. But what he's doing here, it's kind of a military term, he who conquers, conquers what? It's human nature, Satan, you know, carnality, sin. He who conquers shall inherit all things. Wow! This is following verse 1, where as new heavens and new earth, we're going to inherit everything that's permanent, it lasts forever. And if you conquer that, I will be his God and he shall be my son.

That's what God wants us to change to. That's where change is going, ultimately.

Everyone anticipates a change in government. You just think of it now, everybody's saying, wow, we need a change in government, we need better leadership. There are political people and political parties. There are individuals who are expected to come in the future, like Jesus Christ. Most of the world that's Christian expects Jesus Christ in some form to return.

And then you have the Arab world, and they expect the Mahdi to return, some of them.

And then you have others who are wanting a one-world government, and that one-world government needs a leader. And so you will have a beast power that everybody will say, wow, look at this beast power. There's an image there that you worship.

All expect a change in leadership, but the beast's temporary power actually is a false security for civilization. It's a false short-term security. It thinks, oh, with just what's left here and with all the chaos going on, all the wars, if we go with this, if we change and go with this type of government, there'll be security. We'll do fine. Let's go to Revelation 13 verse 1.

It's important that we understand some of these changes that are going on are not of God. They're not going in a direction that is going to benefit anyone. Chapter 13, 1, then I stood on the sand of the sea and I saw a beast rising up out of the sea. And in verse 2, it was like a leopard. And it says here, the dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. You see, that is going to be a massive change for the world, but it is not good. Verse 4, So they worshipped the dragon who gave authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, Who, who is so powerful? Who is able to make war against him? I think we're secure here.

Concurrently with these things, God's elect right now are making changes in their lives.

Their changes are nothing to do with this stuff, nothing whatsoever. We are making changes to be less like the world, less about self, more about serving God and serving others, more about loving and concern than anything society is doing. Even though it says, oh, kind of goes under the masquerade of kindness. Those who are changing have something else going on than what we've read. Let's go to chapter 12 and verse 6. Revelation chapter 12 and verse 6.

And then the woman, the church, fled into the wilderness. Oh wow! Remember the deserts that are coming? Wilderness just means it's uninhabitable. It's a place you can inhabit.

There's nothing there to sustain life. And so that's what God did. He took the Israelites out of Egypt into a wilderness, a place that did not support human life. And so she fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God. This is so important for us to understand, to have the trust in God, the confidence in changing to be like Jesus Christ and God the Father has a place prepared by them that they should feed her there for three and a half years. That means we have something totally different. Notice verse 14. But the woman, the church, was given two wings of a great eagle. How could Israelites get out of Egypt, out of the most powerful country in the world with the military force and the dominant? They were slaves. How could they possibly get out? Sometimes people will say, I don't know if the place of safety is real. Maybe God will just protect me in my grave. There's a lack of trust that this could actually be done.

And so notice what it says. The woman was given two wings of a great eagle. Same thing that the Israelites were. That she might fly into the wilderness again to an uninhabitable place, to her place. Wow! Where she is nourished for three and a half years from the presence of the serpent. Jesus wants us to be there. Jesus wants us to not go through these end-time events. You recall, he said, pray, be a person of prayer. Pray that you are counted worthy to escape these things and to stand before the Son of Man. Counted worthy means we have changed into something God can harvest, we're Christ-like. So don't worry about what society is doing. We're not of society. Rather, through what the festivals picture, we're about something changing for the good.

Every element represented by the feasts are for something good.

In January 2026, January 27, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists presented the atomic clock.

They've reset the time. It's a metaphor for how close society is to self-annihilation.

In the picture of that clock, the hands are 12 o'clock, the little hand, and the big hand is getting very close. They moved it to 85 seconds to midnight. Its closest point to catastrophe since the clock made its debut nearly 80 years ago. What that really says is society is saying this. Of all the changes we've made from this, we are now to the point of global annihilation by ourselves. We're that close. So make no bones about it. Society understands that its choices are leading it to ultimate destruction if something doesn't happen.

God provides us with a different clock. I would call it the longevity clock.

And the longevity clock, we can see in Isaiah chapter 32 and verse 17, the longevity clock isn't approaching midnight. It's adding years. It's spinning backward. It's like a fan. It's adding so much time. It's just adding time to year in my life that will last for eternity. Why?

Because it's an effect of change for good. In Isaiah chapter 32 and verse 17, the work of righteousness, or the effect of righteousness, as one translation says, the effect of doing right according to God's Word will be peace. The effect of righteousness, quietness, and assurance forever. So that is our clock. That's your clock, my clock, if we are really changing for good. We don't have to worry about what society is limiting itself to. Society, again, is trying to change the results of bad behavior. Don't be tricked into thinking that. Let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 33. Don't be tricked. Kids in school, adults, don't be tricked. Come out of those things that you see are changing society's thinking. Get away from that. 1 Corinthians 15 verses 33 and 34.

Awake to righteousness and do not sin.

Verse 33, do not be deceived. Don't be deceived by this. Evil company corrupts good habits. Come out of the world. Awake to righteousness. Do not sin. For in the church some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. So that's something that you and I—don't put your finger on anybody else—but pointed at yourself and say, you know, some don't have the knowledge of God to the degree that we should. We're picking up the knowledge of good and evil as something that feels nice, sounds nice, and if we're not very, very careful, we will drift. Jesus said as humanity lurches forward to its ultimate annihilation, unless the days were shortened, no flesh would be saved alive. That's Matthew 24, 22.

So God, in fact, reinforces the atomic—or the clock, the annihilation clock.

Humanity will annihilate itself if God doesn't intervene, but you and I are speeding forward to something else. It's called glory. It's the brightest thing probably that exists anywhere or ever has existed. The bright glory of being who is in the Godhead. That glory, that power. Let's read of this in Romans 2, verses 6-8. Romans 2 and 6. If we are speeding forward, and we are, we are praying, we are requesting the return of Jesus Christ, and we are preparing for the judgment that each one of us will receive at that time. So here in Matthew—or Romans chapter 2 and verse 6, when Jesus Christ comes, notice, He will render to each one according to His deeds.

And we are praying to hasten the day that He comes with that reward, because we are desiring glory. Eternal life to those who by patient continuance or perseverance in doing good, seek for glory, honor, and immortality. Those are the changes that you and I are to be about, and the changes that you and I are working on, all of us. My point isn't to say that we're not. My point is to say, hey, another festival seed is coming. Let's stay on point. Let's stay focused about change for good, and not sort of get swayed or deceived by the good-sounding things of this world. Because notice the next verse. But to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, He is bringing indignation and wrath.

So we don't want to be part of that. Now, society's future is not looking good.

That's their future. Let's set that aside. Our future is looking really bright. With God in support, Jesus Christ said, I'll always be with you. Never leave you or forsake you. As we promote this message to the world of obedience, repentance, as all the apostles and Jesus Christ did, as we promote that, we try to exemplify that, we are doing the work of God.

Something's got to change, though, in the future. The problems of society are piling up to a point. Something's got to give. What will society attempt as its ultimate solution to everything that mounts up even through the end time? It finally comes to a point where nothing has worked. It's all bad. So it comes up with one more change, right? One more giant solution. Let's read of this in Revelation chapter 19 and verse 19. You've got to understand that if you start down this road, this is where you end up. Revelation 19 verse 19.

And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against him who sat on the horse and against his army. This is their ultimate solution to all the problems that they've had. Let's go back to verse 11.

Now I saw, who is this one on the horse? I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse and he who sat on him was called faithful and true and in righteousness he judges and makes war.

In verse 13 he was clothed with a robe dipped in blood and his name is called the word of God.

And the armies in heaven clothed in fine linen. You might just check that in the previous verses about who has the fine linen. They came following him on white horses and out of his mouth goes a sharp sword that he would strike the nations. Wow! So attempted societal change has really bad results and it just gets worse. But it's time for real change. At that point, okay, enough's enough, right? Enough's enough. Let's go to verse 20.

The beast was captured and with him the false prophet by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped his image. And these two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeds from the mouth of him who sat on the horse. Finally, that whole change that went against God's way of life, down through time and culminated with him actually trying to kill Jesus Christ and the saints, goes absolutely nowhere. Nowhere but death. We are not of this society. Don't get aligned with this. You can see where it does. If you go in alignment with society, you see where it's headed and that is not the place anybody really wants to be. Let's go to Amos chapter 9 and verse 13.

On the way, let me ask you a question. Anybody say, where are you going to the feast?

Everybody's talking about, hey, where are you going for the feast?

We don't even say what feast. Just, where are you going for the feast? Why do we do that?

The feast. Everyone's excited about the coming millennium. Everybody's excited about the change that ultimately Jesus Christ and we assisting him will bring to this earth. In Amos chapter 9 and verse 13, Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when the plowman will overtake the reaper.

Wait a minute. I thought we had a bunch of deserts and bad water and no fish and on and on and on and on. Well, when God, when people are following God, God blesses. God's a creator. Jesus Christ is a creator. God beings, if we're like God, will have creative abilities. Now, maybe he'll tie our hands behind our back and say, now don't you create anything. Not during that millennium. Or maybe he'll say, you know, if there's something you'd like to do to help restore the earth, when people obey and people live right, look what happens. The days are coming, the plowman will overtake the reaper, the treader of grapes, him who sows the seed. The mountain shall drip with sweet wine. The hills will flow with it. I will bring back the captives. They will build the waste places and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them. They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them. You know, God doesn't have a problem with people. He's going to resurrect maybe a hundred billion people after the millennium. Everybody's going to be just fine.

Problem is humans need to obey and follow God.

Now, nobody can change the future. You and I can't, but we can change for the future. Again, that's what the holy days, that's what the Sabbath, that's what this calling is about, changing for the future to fit in with God's future. If we look over in Acts chapter 1, in verse 7, Acts chapter 1, in verse 7, Jesus said to them, it is not for you to know the times or the season which the Father has put in His own authority. It's not up to us to know the times or the seasons, what's ahead. I'm not trying to describe the future world for you in detail. It's not our business. It's God's business.

Our business is to be changing right now for good. Verse 8, But you, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

We read of that over in Acts chapter 2, in verse 38, Peter said to them, Repent and let every one of you be baptized, and you will receive the Holy Spirit, the gift of God. That Holy Spirit will change. It'll help change us.

For us, this process of salvation is moving on. All of you, young people, children, God has put His Spirit with you. That's why you're here. That's why you understand. That's why you know what you do. Once we repent and are baptized, that Spirit, Jesus Christ, and God the Father, will dwell in our minds and us in them if we really are connected, he says. In the end times, there will be some individuals who have changed for good. Let's see them in Revelation chapter 7 and verse 13. Revelation chapter 7 and verse 13. You know, there's a group of people who are in heaven, and it keeps saying their clothing is white. You'll see several instances, and they're always spirit beings, maybe angels that are represented now, but they always have white, white garments. We see in Revelation chapter 7 verse 13. Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where do they come from? They've been doing something, been changing their outfit, at least the outfit color. And he said, These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. They purified their lives in the blood of the Lamb through the forgiveness of Christ, and then through the Holy Spirit that's in us. Wow! It says, Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne will dwell among them.

Wow! We find that in Ephesians 5 that Jesus Christ is, he loves the bride, and he's washing her with the water of the Word that her garments would be clean and bright.

In conclusion, the United Church of God and International Association teaches this, and we promote to humanity change, repentance. We say, Jesus Christ is a way, he opens a way for you to change your way of thinking, God calls you. You and I are advocates of that in our own lives, and we need to be strong advocates, alight, salt, whatever you want to call, an advocate that says, hey, live this way, live this way, because it's good. I'd like to conclude with a synopsis that Paul gives of the message, the gospel that he preached, and the change that God desires for all men to have. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 4, 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 4, 2 But as we have been approved by God, Paul, Silas, and Timothy have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak. And you'll see the words of the gospel by those, by Jesus Christ, by the ones who wrote the gospels, by the apostles sent out, Peter and Paul, you'll hear them talk about this. And here he describes, even so we speak, dropping down to verse 11, as you know, we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father does his own children, that you would walk worthy of God who calls you. That's what we're to be doing.

Calls you into his own kingdom and glory. That's where you and I are headed. We're called to glory, into the kingdom of God, and we're to be walking that way. For this reason, we also thank God without ceasing because you received the word of God which you heard from us. You welcomed it, not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God. Focus with me on this as we go forward the rest of our lives, as we go forward into the Holy Day season. Focus on the truth of the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believed. For what, verse 19, for what is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing? Is it not you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? That's what this is about. We have an awesome, awesome calling. We have great changes to make, and those changes will result in us being with Christ forever at his coming.