Do You See Your Calling?

Election season. You would have to be living in a cave or completely cut off from all communication forms to not know that in the United States. As we ramp up now toward the November election and get down to kind of the last lap of what has been a very long election season going on for more than a year now. And we have two candidates and debates and back and forth and a rather unusual election cycle that we are in. I'm not going to get into the pros and cons of individual candidates. You can do that in your own private conversations. But I think we all recognize that it's an unusual cycle and unusual period of time for America. And one of my only comment that I would make that can help you to at least appreciate the message that I'd like to focus on today is that in my short life, I cannot remember seeing a more critical period for America and the world and the saddening and surprising lack of ideas and lack of leadership that is on the world scene. Not just America, but on the world scene to deal with the issues that are facing the nations today. And we could say that about our time. Perhaps people a hundred years ago would say it about their time. But we're now, this is it, and we look at where we are. But the pace of life and the world conditions have accelerated to a point where things happen fast and things change. And the ideas to meet the challenges that are in front of the nations of the world today just don't seem to be there. Which brings me to three questions for us to consider.

Who are we? Why are we here? And where are we going? We come together on the Sabbath. We come together to worship God, to fellowship with one another. We have a calling from God. We have a unique perspective on the Bible that God, by His revelation, has given to us. And small as we might be, sometimes seemingly as ineffective as we think we might be, it's always good for us to step back away from the organization of the Church of God, or the United Church of God, or this calling that we have been a part of, and put ourselves into those questions. Who are we? Why are we here? And where are we going? And be able to answer that from the Bible with a very clear set of principles and statements from the Bible that outline exactly what it is, who we are, why we are doing what we're doing, and where we are going in the context of our life and our life within this world at this particular time. Because if we really want to understand the answer to those questions, it can probably come down to the realization that we have got to be locked in on a vision to see that God has called us at this time to learn a way of life from the Scriptures that can turn the world around and will turn the world around and produce the solutions to the problems that the world continues to face. And it takes vision for each of us to see that, and what is in front of us every day of our lives, and to not be fearful of where we are, to not be so frustrated and fearful with the pace of life, with some of the big mega problems that are out there. We get mail and responses from people that show a palpable fear of the world conditions today, of terrorism, of people's place within the world, and their inability to deal with some of the major cultural changes, for instance. And yet, the truth of God can give us, and does give us, the ability to handle that uncertainty, to keep us from tipping over into fear about those large issues of our life that we don't have that control over. And to be able then to even deal with the issues that are in front of us every day of our lives that we do have control over. The decisions that we make about how we spend our money, how we react to one another and talk about one another, how we choose to relate to God, and those matters that we have control over. We are in the midst of a live public appearance campaign with our Beyond Today productions. As Mr. Campos mentioned, we were up in Dayton last weekend. We're in a couple of weeks. We'll be gearing up and going off the three weeks. We'll be going down to North Carolina and doing a three city appearance down there to engage with our audience and our subscribers in the Carolinas.

And the approach that we have is to talk about the big issues of the world, but very quickly to bring a message down to people who are in front of us, showing how they relate to God and what their purpose is and what is necessary to turn a life around, to have a relationship with God and one that works with life today, because we are concerned with the issues that are in front of people's lives. But it comes down to being able to put our own personal life into that perspective and to understand who we are, why we are here on this earth, and where we are going with our lives. I'd like for you to turn over to Revelation chapter 19.

Revelation chapter 19.

This is a prophetic scripture of the time when Christ returns, and the heavens opened in chapter 19 in the whole sequence of events of the book of Revelation, and Christ appears, and He's on a white horse, and He is making His second coming, His appearance. But I want to focus on verse 7 that tells us, makes this statement, as this announcement here is trumpeted by the angels, and all that will accompany that moment in that event. And it says in verse 7, Let us be glad, and rejoice, and give Him glory. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. The terminology in Revelation, as well as the Bible for it, this wife or a woman, is that it represents the church. It's a representation of the Church of God, the body of Jesus Christ. Revelation chapter 12 is already talked about the Church of God portrayed as a woman. And so the symbol is interpreted internally by the Bible. But what it is referencing here is the moment when the marriage of the Lamb has come. Christ spoke parables about the marriage supper.

And all the what and why details of that particular marriage supper, to be honest, the Bible does not give us clear instruction on. All I can say is it's an event, a supper, a marriage that you want to be in. You want to make it. That's an invitation you want to cash in. All right, God will fill in all the details when we get there. But here's the critical point about this verse.

The wife, the Church, has made herself ready. The wife has made herself ready. Now, in the analogy of a wedding and a woman getting prepared for a wedding, those you ladies know what that means. There's a great deal of anticipation. There's a great deal of preparation. Flowers to buy, dresses, colors, invitations, all of it. It's a big business today, isn't it? Somebody was telling us last night of a wedding that's going to take place during the Feast of Tabernacles at one of the locations for the United Church of God this year. We were talking about it. I was thinking, how do you do a wedding in the middle of the Feast of Tabernacles? But they'll do it. I guess it'll come off. But there's a lot of preparation.

To that. Now, the preparation here is not the colors and the dresses and the food and the invitations. The preparation is the spiritual preparation. That will have come to a point of ending. Because the meaning here is that the job is done at this moment. Which means, then, as I understand it, that is being done right now. The preparation for this marriage of the lambs being done right now by the one who is the Lamb, Jesus Christ, the head of the Church. Which Ephesians chapter 4 lays out very carefully for us. And that raises a question for us. Did you stop and think and understand that it is being done right now? That this preparation is being done today? August 27, 2016. And it'll be continued on tomorrow, August 28th, until this particular event takes place in the future. Which means the crisis preparing his Lamb. Or, his bride. The Lamb is preparing his bride. Which leads me to another question to consider. Are we a part of the process of that preparation? Or are we outside the process? Are we involved in it? In other words, being prepared? Or are we unengaged? Have we called off the engagement? Think about that. Because the reality is, it's being done, and we're either involved in it or we're not in our life where we are. Who are we? Why are we here? And where are we going? Today's always a good time for us in the Church to see ourselves as the Bible sees us. And as the Bible describes it. And we could go through, you know, many, many more scriptures to fill out that process beyond the time limit today. But this is one to begin with. It is a body of people that's being prepared and is being called and chosen by God for the preparation of this event that culminates at the end of an age and the time of a new phase of God's purpose and plan that chapter 20 redefines as a thousand-year period when the saints will rule with Christ on the earth, typically called the millennium. It's a defined period of time within the larger context of God's plan, which in itself is a part of the eternity of God and the Word and what is being done. But at this particular moment, the Church, this woman, this bride-to-be is being prepared. And this Church, this spiritual body of people, are being prepared as a group in advance of this kingdom. Now, again in chapter 20, we find that these people will reign with Christ for a thousand years. Verse 6 of Revelation 20. Those that are part of this first resurrection will reign with Christ for a thousand years as priests of God and of Christ as kings and priests for a thousand years.

We'll talk more about that certainly during the Feast of Tabernacles, but that preparation is being done right now, which is why it's always instructive for us to look at the state of politics and the world and draw certain conclusions and not be careful that we don't get too far caught up in the politics of a particular period and the personalities, which is easy to do. And I think for those of us that love America are very concerned about its condition, where it's going. I looked around at us in this room, ladies and gentlemen, and we're all of an age, let's put it that way, where we recognize how much this country has changed. It is not the same country that we were born into and grew up in. It has changed. And that is what creates that tension among a lot of people who understand that much of it and other issues. We love our country and we are concerned. And if you understand God's purpose and plan, if we understand prophecy and we understand America's unique role in God's prophetic plan, then that adds in another dimension of spiritual understanding, the fact that this nation has received certain blessings of God because of the promises that he made to a man named Abraham and because we have not lived up to the terms of a covenant that was made between God and Abraham and the descendants, that there will be a day of reckoning to come. And while we look around and know that that day has not yet fully come, the clouds are always, it seems, hovering on the horizon to remind us that they can break about any time God is ready for them to break over a land and over a world. Which, when we understand prophecy should properly, use it properly, should be a motivational tool to give us a sense of urgency to our lives. Which brings me back to, again, who are we and what are we doing and why are we here? And are we being prepared? Are we a part of that process that is being done with the Church? Christ said in Matthew 16 verse 18, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Matthew 16, 18 is an interesting statement. What Christ is really saying is, to put it in a different way, he said, I'm going to call out of Satan's world disciples to grow into a new and different world which will be the kingdom of God, to prepare for that new and different age called the kingdom. I will build my church, he said, the gates of the grave will not prevail against it. Satan's world, Satan's advances, Satan's efforts, Satan's design upon the Church will not prevail against the Church. And those who are called will grow together, knit together, to be used as servants in the kingdom of God. This is another way to put what Jesus is saying. When Pilate asked him about his kingdom when Christ was arrested and before the Roman governor in John 18 verse 36, Christ said, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight so that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now my kingdom is not from here. Another profound statement to mark that moment that Christ did not arouse the Jews to resist his arrest and death because that event had to fulfill a larger spiritual component of the plan of God. My kingdom's not of this world. And yet the Bible talks about the kingdom of God. And even Christ had said, repent, the kingdom is at hand in Mark chapter 1 verses 14 and 15.

The kingdom had come in his message. The kingdom had come in the person of God in the flesh.

But the kingdom has not come in its fullness, as Jesus here showed and as he'd already instructed the disciples in an earlier parable that when they thought that the kingdom was going to appear that week, he said it's going to be a period of time. There's going to be a long gap yet before it happens. In the parable there in Luke chapter 19. That kingdom is being prepared. Back in the book of Daniel, there are two statements that help us put another dimension to this puzzle. A few more pieces together. Daniel chapter 2.

Part of my ABC duties will be to begin teaching the book of Daniel again this coming week in one of the classes and take the students through the story of Daniel, the prophecies, and show what that means to prophecy and to understanding history and certainly our world today. But in Daniel 2, the whole chapter is a dream that Nebuchadnezzar had in Daniel's interpretation of that dream of four large empires that would arise, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, and actually a fifth kingdom in this. There are five kingdoms that are shown in Daniel 2. When you come down to verse 44, it says that in the days of these kings, and this is speaking of the days of the kings of the fourth kingdom, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. The kingdom shall not be left to other people that shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. This kingdom is portrayed as a stone that is cut without hands earlier in chapter 2 that strikes this image that Nebuchadnezzar had a dream about on its feet. There's a lot of implications and background to that, but to cut it short, that stone represents the kingdom of God. It's cut without hands, meaning it is of divine origin, and it hits this beast at a particular moment in time, which is the final evolving appearance of this system that has dominated the world in many ways through history, and it brings it to an end, that fourth kingdom that is actually Rome and its various evolutions.

Verse 44 shows us that the kingdom that will be established is actually a fifth kingdom, though it's not mentioned as a fifth, but it is a fifth kingdom, and it will stand forever. It will not fade as the other four are shown to do, the earthly kingdoms. It will never be destroyed, and the operative phrase for us is in the middle of verse 44. It says, this kingdom will not be left to other people. What does that mean? It won't be left to other people. Well, it means this, that it will be given to the saints of the Most High.

It will not be ruled over by human beings who have been steeped in this world's culture, whether it was Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, Great Britain, America, South African, Mozambican, or any other ideology, religion, philosophy out of this world. It will be left to people of a different sort. Now, Daniel 7 refers to the same matter and helps to fill in a bit more detail in verse 18 of Daniel 7, an expansion of this vision of chapter 2 through a dream Daniel has in chapter 7 and down in verse 18. Again, after the culminating time of rule of all of these kingdoms, again, Daniel 7 kind of expands Daniel 2 a bit more, but in verse 18 it says, the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever. This is understood to be the kingdom of God, that kingdom of Daniel 2.44 that strikes the image on its feet and fills the earth that is not left to other people. The saints will possess the kingdom. So, in these two verses, you put them together and we have a very unique view out of Daniel, at least, that helps us to fill in what we've read about in Revelation 19.7 and could read from many other verses, again, Revelation 20 and verse 6, that there will be a time when this kingdom will be established and will be left to other people. The saints will possess it. It's going to be given to people of a different character, of a different background, of a different calling, people who have been a part of the church that Christ said, I will build.

That community of people called out who have overcome this world, who through a lifetime have learned the ways of this coming kingdom, lived by it within this world today, the people of God through the ages, not just of our current 21st, 20th, 21st century experience, but people from all of the ages whom God has called and whom he has worked with. This is a unique and very important part of the story and the vision. The church was established to train those who've been called out of this world to fill positions in this coming kingdom. This has been a unique understanding that, again, I think we need to kind of blow the dust off of from time to time and to remind ourselves that our calling is to prepare for these events. A marriage to the Lamb of a people who have made herself ready, a time when the saints will possess a kingdom that will be established and supplant all the other kingdoms and will not be taken away. A kingdom that is not of this world, but is going to be brought from heaven and posed upon the world and fill the world. The kingdom of God and the rule of Christ upon the earth and then ultimately that of the Father as it is handed up to the Father at a particular point in time. Which brings us back to the fact that we have a specific purpose and work involved in our calling, in our place within the church at this time. God is preparing us. He either is or he isn't. Again, remember, as I said, the church is being prepared. The bride is being prepared. We're either being prepared or we're not.

Which takes us to 1 Corinthians chapter 1.

1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 26.

For you see your calling, brethren.

It is a calling from God. Christ called his disciples. He said, follow me.

Be like me. Commit to a lifetime of learning as my servant, really my slave, as my disciple. And he extends that same calling to us. Paul is saying, you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. As Paul sketches out the life of a group of people in Corinth called from within the Roman world, a church made up of tradesmen, merchants, women, slaves, all brought together into a spiritual community. Not unlike ours, of people from all walks of life who would never have found themselves in the same room with the others except for that shared calling from God. I wouldn't know you, you wouldn't know me. We wouldn't know each other except for the conviction that God's Spirit and Word is given to us and the calling that we've responded to and has brought us together. It goes on in verse 27, but God has chosen.

God has chosen. It is not random. It's not like picking a numbered ball out of a lottery cage or a random set of numbers that pops up. God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put the shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to put the shame the things which are mighty and the base things of the world and the things which are despised. God has chosen. Notice how many times Paul emphasizes that our calling, God has chosen. God has chosen the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are. And the reason that no flesh should glory in His presence. I'm not going to live my life and it won't happen with my name blazined on a building. All right? A tower. I'm not going to glory in that. In a brand. What in essence is a brand, an image that is conjured. We don't glory in our flesh. This is the point. But if Him you are in Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom from God in righteousness and sanctification and redemption. That it is written, He who glories, letting glory in the Lord. God is preparing us because He has chosen us and called us out of this world.

And the question is, can we see that? Can we see ourselves within that that God is preparing? Isaiah said that God sees the end from the beginning. Before the universe came into being in this physical world and time and space and all that comprises what is the cosmos, God had in mind where it was all going to end and what it was all for and its purpose and how it would happen. And He has been preparing every step of the way, even down to the level of individuals. And we see that from Scripture. We look at the Bible, we see that He prepared a Joseph to be in Egypt years in advance of a time that would be needed to save His own family. And therefore, the seed of Abraham for the divine purpose that has been in place.

That's why Joseph was sold, betrayed by his brothers. He prepared a David. He said to Jeremiah, I knew you in the womb. He prepared parents, Joseph and Mary for Jesus Christ.

And the lineage that the Gospels show us, lay that out for us. That people were prepared, all prepared for a particular point in time to accomplish a particular mission, part of the overall mission of the Church. And the work that God is doing. The Church has a place to fit within that. Is He preparing you today? I think He is. Can you understand that and see your life as being something that God has called you, chose you, and through the circumstances of your life, and especially as you've responded to that calling, that through the events, He's preparing you for a role in His Kingdom.

That's really what it comes down to, in spite of, you know, as we roll along with all the other decisions that we make, sometimes result in dead ends, mistakes, sometimes suffering, sometimes suffering, or other decisions and events that are beyond our control that impact us.

As far as lives are in God's hands, and if we understand that that is how we have chosen to put our lives there, and God is working with us, then we see those events as part of a larger purpose and plan. And the part of our stage upon which we live at this particular moment we understand how to play our part and do our role. It's one of the secrets that is one of the secrets to life. God's work of preparing a people has not ended. It continues on, and we have to discern that. We have to see that even today and understand that He is preparing us for the future, for these future roles that He is doing. We, in the United Church of God, have laid out a very carefully worded and well thought-out mission and vision for the Church.

Mr. Campos mentioned that a recent trip that I was asked to take to go to southern Africa, the countries of Malawi and South Africa, to conduct some leadership classes with the deacons, elders, their wives, and other leaders in those two countries. And I think we landed just about the time that the Campos were taking off in Johannesburg on that particular trip here a few weeks ago. And as I was preparing, I thought, what if I was asked basically to stand before a group of people for two and a half to three days and talk to them all by myself?

Nobody else is going to present. Usually you do a training seminar, you have a team of people. So, normally, Darris McNeely, I thought, what am I going to do? Mr. Cubick asked me to go and do this. What do they need? What do I talk about? So, I started putting it all together. And I came down, I looked at all kinds of other training programs that have been done in 20 years in the United Church of God.

I've got a whole computer file full of them that's been handed off to me. And I looked at them all and I kind of just put it aside and said, I'm going to do this. What I said I'm going to do, I'm going to go down and talk about the vision and the mission of the church. And I laid that out from our documents which are based in Scripture. The mission of the church is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in the kingdom of God in all the world and make disciples into characterless disciples.

That's what we do. And because of what we do, we envision that we will become a church led by God's Holy Spirit with every part of the church acting and fulfilling their role and paraphrasing to bring together the unity of the church and the creating and bringing many sons to glory. And because of what we do in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ in the kingdom of God, we will become a community, a church led by the Holy Spirit with everybody fulfilling their role and their part for the ultimate purpose of God's plan of bringing many sons to glory.

And I just came to the conviction that probably in my mind, my view, a critical thing for the church at this point is to all be aligned with that in everything we do. There has to be an alignment of that. From the ministry, the council of elders, the administration of the church, to the local congregations, you hear to the people in a far-flung area like Zambia, Zimbabwe, or Malawi. We must all be accomplishing that mission and with the expectation that we will achieve that vision of a church led by the Holy Spirit and everyone contributing their part.

That's really Christ's vision. It's not ours. We took it from Scripture and put it together in language that we can relate to because it's the synthesized essence of what the Scriptures tell us. And that's where I built out two to three days of discussion and feel convicted that that's where we need to be. And everything else builds on that to help us to accomplish the work of the church and ultimately the vision that Christ has for the church to be brought together in unity.

You know, this matter of unity is an ephemeral quality. What is unity? Is unity, you know, all speaking the same thing? Well, that's part of a definition. All in agreement, that's part of the definition as well. But you and I both know that not every unity sometimes can elude us and we can be fragmented. You know, families could be fragmented because of offenses, because of other circumstances.

Sometimes then they could be working together in unity and harmony. Unity for the church, as I sense it from the Scriptures, I can be wrong or expand or be corrected even. But the greater parts of the unity that I've seen in my experience in the church has been when we are all committed to mission and vision.

People will have variances of ideas doctrinally and biblically about this or that. But when it comes to the mission of the church and what we are to do from teaching and Scripture, our greatest moments in the church and what I can see from the book of Acts has been when the church has been committed to preaching the gospel, taking that message of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God to the world, and making that message known. And thereby taking the steps to allow Christ to bring the church to the vision that He has for the church. It is in those moments that the greatest unity exists and has existed to carry us forward and to keep us working together as a spiritual community without the divisions and the rancor that can and will lead to fragmentation. It's the mission. It is the goals that are there. And I think that can be demonstrated from the book of Acts. The church is about what would these scriptures show us? A community of people, a spiritual community of people called and chose, preparing for an age to come.

Because there's going to come a kingdom that's going to replace the kingdoms of this world, and it will not be left to other people, which means it won't be left to the Democrats, to the Republicans, to the independents, to the Labor Party, to the socialists.

It was in South Africa. The day I landed, actually a few days after we landed in South Africa, they were having local elections. So I had to kind of get up on all of that. We had a driver that drove us out to a game park for a few days of rest after we had gone up to Malawi. And the entire three-hour trip was a political discussion with our driver. Everybody talks politics in South Africa because it's so political. And South Africa has been going through majority rule since the ending of apartheid in the mid-1990s. They went through Nelson Mandela, who's looked upon certainly as kind of their George Washington of the current phase of South African history. But the promises of majority rule have not been accomplished. And that country's fragmented. There are three major political parties right now. I forgot the names of them, but they're contending among themselves to, again, provide for a quality of life. Well, the coming kingdom is not going to be left to either of those either, any of those particular parties down there, the African National Congress or the Free Labor Party or others that spring up to try to achieve an equality and a better way of life based on a particular ideology.

It's going to be left to people who learn the ways of the kingdom of God, who live by the principles of the Sermon on the Mount, which is essentially the Constitution of the coming kingdom of God. You want a set of documents or principles that define a Constitution for that coming kingdom? Begin right there in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, the Sermon on the Mount. People who learn to live by those, you and I, it's going to be left to those people, which is why we have to begin living by it today and begin to recognize that potential. We are here in this community as part of a teacher's college to prepare, to rule, and to teach in the kingdom of God. We're here as students, which is another way of saying we are here as disciples. I believe that. I believe that. Do you? Do you see your calling? If you do, then it can help us then see the simplistic wisdom to make the wise decisions every day in our life to live by the principles, the teaching, the laws, the commandments, the statutes, the judgments of Scripture, that outline of that way of life that is going to be modeled by that coming kingdom and to live it in the details of our life today.

Whatever God decides to give to us, five cities, ten cities, you know the parable of the talents, one who's increased their talent by five, by ten, tenfold, be your ruler over ten cities, Christ said. How will Christ know what we will be able to handle? It's not because you and I have been over even one city today, but it's because we have wisely, capably managed our own life, our own household, our own budget, our own checking account, credit card statements. To be able to balance it, live within our means, make wise decisions and allocations according to the teaching of God's Word for the wealth that we have, and to be able to use it according to biblical standards. To pay to Caesar that which is Caesar's, to give to God that which is God's, to lay up for one or two generations ahead of us as the Proverbs show, all of these govern a financial plan that we would choose to live by. And when we do, then God will know our character and he'll be able to multiply that. We don't have to rule a city today and we don't meet our name on a big office tower downtown Chicago or New York City to prepare to rule for to receive that kingdom. But God is judging us now and it's being able to see that we are in that preparation phase. So who are we? Why are we here? And where are we going? We shouldn't be going toward the kingdom of God. We should understand that we have a unique calling from God and we live our lives accordingly.

And so we have the opportunity then to live with life with a sense of urgency, to gird up our loins and to advance the work of the kingdom. This is something that is very important to do. We are called to move the work of the church forward today. That's spiritual body. And it can sometimes take a little bit of, well not a little bit, to be honest everyone, it takes a lot. It takes a lot of vision to see that.

A small group of people in a classroom in Louisville, Indiana to see yourself as part of something bigger.

I'll tell you, when you gather with God's people in a larger gathering every year at the Feast of Tabernacles or on a Holy Day, and the body of Christ begins to come together on the Holy Days at other times, when you begin to see God's Spirit working among His people, you recognize that you are seeing the hand of God. When you see the unity of fellowship, the love of God's people for one another, the bonds of fellowship and friendship, dedication, devotion that continue to draw us together to worship God, you begin to get that picture. I had a unique opportunity to go down and to go to Africa to visit with people and you from a completely different culture. And one of the things I thought, what do I talk to them about, especially in Malawi, we had elders from three countries, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi. First of all, when Mr. Kubik asked me to go down there, I had to figure out how to get there. How do you get to Malawi? I can get to the Cincinnati Airport and get on a plane, but how do I get to Malawi? Well, eventually I figured it all out. You take a very long flight to Johannesburg, South Africa, and then you've got to catch the right day because the flights go up to Malawi about every other day. So you've got a time of just right, you stay overnight, and then you book it, and you land it, and you get there. I'd never been to Malawi. There are other places in this world that I'd have to study real hard. How do I get there? Places in Brazil, probably. I think now I can get to Malawi again. I can get on to Zambia. And I think, well, what do I teach them? Different culture, African culture. I'm talking about in these nations of Malawi, Zambian Malawi, and Zimbabwe. It's not first world like here. And they don't have, even the things you reference, you don't. You've got to deal very carefully with.

I said universal principles, spiritual teaching, the Bible. And you find that those are the things that connects us all. But then I get there and they find out that they know beyond today, they know jelly. And they're tuned in, and they are engaged, and they recognize the value of what is being produced, and they're turning it around and making it available in their nations, broadcasting it, publishing it, disseminating it. We're all part of the same work. And they're preparing to reign in their unique part of the world, different from yours and mine, and yet they're handling the same things. The gospel, the words of salvation. And they have to manage them accordingly, and they're being judged in the same way that I'm being judged, and you're being judged.

They're preparing. And God's preparing people there to deal with people past and present and future who will need to be taught in this coming Kingdom. And God has, through the ages, prepared people from every age of human existence, from every culture and time to be able to then give that Kingdom to the people who will inherit that and deal in the resurrections to come.

All the people who have lived and be able to teach them, because Christ has been putting together a spiritual temple that will be assembled in the most magnificent edifice yet to appear in all of human existence. The Bride of Christ, the Church of God, the people who will inherit the Kingdom, and then will work with Christ and with the Father to accomplish His purpose and His will. We're being prepared piece by piece, off-site, like the Temple of Solomon built. Every piece was chiseled and assembled and formed and crafted off-site. The Scriptures tell us that there wasn't a saw or a hammer on the actual temple platform itself. All the pieces were then brought in and assembled on that platform after having been assembled off-site. It's one of the most unique stories of Scripture to contemplate. God has been doing that through the ages with His spiritual temple that He's going to bring together. He will accomplish His purpose and His end with that spiritual temple in His coming Kingdom. So who are you? What are you doing? Where are we going? Well, we have a calling. We're being prepared to inherit that Kingdom. And we're being prepared as a bride to marry the Lamb. Keep that in mind.

We're all going to need to keep that in mind as we go through the coming weeks in America with the election cycle that we are in. Keep that in mind as you prepare your hearts and minds for the coming holy days.