The Dream Comes True

I have been here for the last few weeks. We've been into Revelation, and I will continue there today, but I'll go to a different verse because there's something I want to talk about. I think it's important this time of the year for all of us, as not only we prepare for a feast tabernacles, as Jeff talked about, but we prepare for the last four Holy Days. Because they all lead, especially the first three, to the culmination of Christ's return, and then to the great white throne resurrection that takes place. It takes place that force Holy Days, with Holy Day. We know because it lines up with everything else that God teaches us. And when you go directly from the Bible, you don't have to make up stuff. You don't have to have a reason for this. And sometimes there's things we may get into that I don't have the answers for. Some things God does not reveal to us yet, but if you read Daniel 12, you'll realize that we will. As it all comes to fruition. But I want to look at it because the title of my sermon today is The Dream Comes True. The dream comes true. Have your dreams come true? You still have dreams. I had a dream 39 years ago, tomorrow, that I would marry the woman of my dreams. And it just so happened that 39 years ago tomorrow, that dream came true. It's been a dream for me. I think for her sometimes it's been a dream and sometimes a nightmare. Any man who has ever realized your problems realizes that a good wife helps you through those and helps you to learn. And I am the man I am today because of what happened 39 years ago tomorrow. So the dream comes true. I'd like you to join me in a scripture in Revelation 21, because this is multifaceted scripture. Revelation 21 and verse 4 I'll read from the New King James Version. It says, And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. And there shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Oh, wait! That's a dream come true. Bill may find that out with his sister. You may find it out with a relative. You may find it out with a good friend. Tears will be wiped away. There will be no more crying once the dream comes true. Except for one exception that I feel like says never to add or take away. In the Bible, I definitely do not want to do that, as I have told you many times. But I feel like there will be some tears of joy. Perhaps you've had that, too, in your life. I feel like when Christ sets everything right, and he will, there will be tears of joy. It just says no more sorrow. Think of this world. Think of all your tears. Tears that have happened, pain, agony, because of life being a certain way.

Seeing people abused, seeing life cut short, seeing people mistreated. If we look around this world, there are a lot of tears. But if you saw my sermon this morning in Fort Lauderdale, there is only one sense to say, you haven't seen anything yet. There is some sorrow, some pain, some tears down the road. But it has to be for Christ to make the world right. To create again.

How many of you have walked through a cemetery? Almost everyone. This picture here, David brought up, reminds me of where I was a couple weeks ago in Tennessee as I walked the cemetery where my father is buried. An old family cemetery. I saw relatives' names and a few that I knew. My uncle is there, my aunt is there. But my father's. I took my mother one day, just the two of us, and we walked through. And even 12 years later, there are still tears when she sees that cemetery. She sees that name. And she says her name right there. There's a double. So when she passes away, we'll bury her right there. But I just noticed her tears. I said, well, you'll see him again someday. And we looked at the beautiful hills of Tennessee and the green fields. And I said, that's going to be a great place to be resurrected. I don't know if it'll look like that at that time. It's a beautiful setting. And we walked around and we looked at the various graves, and she told me about certain people that I didn't know. But all of a sudden, there were no more tears. I think we've all experienced that. We know that there's people who sorrow. And a lot of times, they're not the cause of it. We see war. Painful. Painful pictures of people who, some innocent, some not so, as people are having to deal with a very uncomfortable part of life. They have a saying, war is hell. Ask people who have been through it. They will say that. But Christ says there will be no more war anymore. Wow! Isn't that amazing? No more war anymore. I even mentioned this morning in my message that, according to historians and people who studied, that from 1945, the end of World War II, to today, all those years, there's only been 26 days of peace. 26 days of peace. 26 days of peace. And we, who study the Bible, realize there's going to be, to start with, a thousand years of peace. In a row. A thousand years of peace. And these people who starve across this planet, we, in America, we do not really know what starvation is. Compared to Africa. Compared even to Haiti. As I think of the little granddaughter of a member there who comes every week, will hut. And her little granddaughter, she took me out and showed me the little grave. She was about three, I think, Mary, wasn't she? Three or four. She died of starvation. She didn't have enough to eat. And they just buried her in the ground in a box, a cardboard box. So she took me out and she showed me that. Because there wasn't enough food. We try to help that situation so they don't have to go through that. Her daughter brought her over because she couldn't feed her. So this grandmother tried to feed her, but it was too late. Kind of brought a lump to my throat. Mary saw the place that I did and heard the story. She couldn't help but wipe tears from her eyes. She was a very good friend. That exists today all over the world.

We don't starve here, do we? You don't have to. People give food away. Can't say it's the best quality food they give you, but it's food nonetheless. I've been to homeless shelters. I've been to homes all over Broward and Dade. I took people there, helped people, signed people up for it. Did all we could, and we'll continue to do that because of what Jeff talked about. Because we have to be like Christ and have compassion. That's why we pray, and that's why we do something besides pay and pray. Because, as Mama Cass Eliot is saying, there's a new world coming. And that's why we have hope. And the dream, it's not just a dream. Brethren, it's not just a dream. I wish the world could know. Because maybe then they would pray, Thy kingdom come too, and it would. But no, too many in this world, you know them, I know them, we see them every day. They think men, or even women, can solve this problem. They can't. They can't solve this problem. But Jesus Christ can. And it's not a dream. It's not like we're all going to show up on Fantasy Island and have all of our dreams come true. No. It's coming to planet Earth. And that is why we should be excited about it. I'd like you to go with me now to look at a little part of this dream. Because it's not just in Revelation. It's just not in Revelation chapter 21. That He says this. He wants to make sure we have a vision of what is happening. If you'll go with me to Isaiah 25, I'll read from the New Living Translation, since I like the way they put it, in verse 6. It says in Jerusalem, because where is the king coming back to? Where is he ruling from? That's right. In Jerusalem, the Lord of Heaven's armies will spread a wonderful feast for all the people of the world. It will be a delicious banquet with clear, well-aged wine and choice meat. It's going to be a feast. That's where we're all going. Feast of trumpets is one feast. For a spiritual feast, God gives us the Feast of Atonement. And then He gives us Feast of Tabernacles, if that wasn't enough. And then the eighth-day feast. Pictures all mankind getting to have their choice meats, their fine wines. Verse 7, there He will remove the cloud of gloom, the shadow of death that hangs over the earth. Man, will that ever be great! No more death. No more sorrow. That's a dream come true. Verse 8, He will swallow up death forever. People are going to live forever. And ever, and ever, and ever. My relatives, there's quite a few I'm looking forward to. That's why I always enjoy the Feast of Tabernacles, because I get to enjoy the seven days that is the Feast. And then He commanded that eighth-day assembly. It's a holy day. It's a feast day of its own. And it's the feast day that all those in the grave will come up. My relatives, my friends, some of my mentors.

The sovereign Lord will wipe away all tears. He's going to do it. He can't lie. All these tears, they won't be anymore. He will remove forever all insults and mockeries. People won't be mocked, won't be made fun of. There won't be jokes on people. I have a sense of humor. I enjoy stories, funny. I have a sense of humor. But it has to be of good, not evil, not putting someone down. That this world is so fond of these days. He will remove forever all insults and mockery against His land and the people. They make fun of Christians. Weak-minded individuals who have to have a make-believe God. That's what people think.

The Lord has spoken. In that day, the people will proclaim, This is our God. We trust Him and He will save us. This is the Lord in whom we trust Him. Let us rejoice in the salvation He brings. We're going to be able to teach salvation to people that never even knew it existed. Think about it. There's billions of people. They didn't know there was anything past this life. Or if they did, it was some made-up story. Or it was even, you're going to become an animal, take another form, and just live on that way in different forms. We're going to be able to show that and teach that. Go with me back to Revelation 7. Revelation 7, I do this just so you can see, that God's plan is going to happen. Revelation 7 in verse 13 talks about the sealed 144,000. And it lists who the tribes they will be from. Did I say first fruits? I can't say first fruits because it doesn't say that in there. It says those who are sealed when the tribulation comes. It means they're not going to die. They're going to make it through. We can understand that because we understand that God said He's going to bring people back to their original lands. That's these people. He's going to make sure there's 12,000 to start all over again in that thousand years. It's a beautiful plan. But then He sees others with white robes. I won't go through that today. But in verse 13, He said, Then one of the elders answered and said to me, Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from? And I said to him, Sir, you know you're one of the elders, right? He should know. So He said to me, rhetorical question, 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 accepted the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And therefore, they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in the temple, and He will sit on His throne, and will dwell among them. They shall neither hurt, they shall neither hunger anymore, nor thirst anymore, the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat, for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them, and lead them to living fountains of water. He's going to lead them to eternal life. And then what will He do? And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. It's going to happen. They get a chance to see that, that very powerful thing. Go with me to Isaiah 35. This is how we can help people when they want to know, when they think there is no hope, when they think that everything is broken dreams, shattered dreams. It's what the world knows. It's what they expect. Brethren, God gives us Holy Day so we can live the dream. Very small. It's a very small view, very small glimpse. As a matter of fact, it's a microcosm. Feast of Tabernacles is a microcosm. In case you don't know, up till you Oxford Dictionary, microcosm, a community, place, or situation regarded as encapsulating in miniature the characteristics, qualities, or feature of something much larger.

Isn't that a picture of the feast? This is something small. That's something so much bigger. Go to Isaiah 35 here and there, hopefully. In verse 10. And the ransomed of the Lord, redeemed, rescued, shall return. What did I talk about earlier? He's going to bring people back to their lands.

And come to Zion with singing. Isn't that nice? You can tell when somebody's having a good day because they're singing. I even catch myself in the mornings singing something because Mary's put it on, or I've heard it, or something, can't get it out of my head the night before, or whatever. But as they're singing, and guess what? I realize I'm in a pretty good mood.

And the ransom of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Oh, that's beautiful. Beautiful words. I've counseled people, a couple people in Miami that didn't have any hope.

Their life had been utterly miserable, and they were 60, 70 years old. Their whole life had been that way, and they came upon God's truth. And the reason they had me over, called me, wasn't because they didn't believe the Word. They wanted me to help them believe it was true. It was possible. It was really possible, because it's too big for their imagination, because all they knew was sorrow. How about jumping? Right? Jumping for joy? And there's a picture of Dale and Diane jumping for joy. Time when Anne won't have to worry about her hip, won't have to worry about knees. She's going to be able to jump like this.

They're jumping for joy. This is the promise that God gives us. And it's all through the Bible, and it's especially true in Revelation, where He's saying the culmination. This is where it's leading. What a beautiful scene. Go with me to one last verse. Isaiah 65. Isaiah has so many beautiful scriptures about the kingdom of God, about the promises, even about eternal life. But so many are there about what it will be like.

We sang the song. It won't be long now. I don't know how long it's going to be, but in the big scheme of things, it won't be long. I'd like to go there here in Isaiah 65 and verse 17. He said, Behold, I create new heaven and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. We're not going to remember so much of the bat. It's going to be so good that we don't even remember the bat.

I asked my mother when she was 85 years old, and I asked her if she remembered when I was born and whether that was a... And she goes, No, you were more of a problem after you were born than before you were born. And I had to agree, because I was always into something. But she said, When you have children and I... No way for me to know this.

Many of you know that. Okay, you don't remember how bad it was because it's so good when it's done. When the kingdom is here, we're not going to remember. I couldn't get my car started half the time. My battery was always being run down. I had bad knees, bad hips. It's not going to be remembered. It's going to be so much joy. That's what he's saying here. Verse 18, But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create. God's creating this. Verse 18, For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing, and her people a joy.

You see much joy in Jerusalem and Israel right now? He didn't create it this way, this purpose. Man has turned the Garden of Eden into what we have today. God didn't do it. He had another plan. But he also gave man a choice. We live with those choices. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people. Why?

Because he's going to see happy people. It's so nice. Why do we like to see young kids go out and play and just having fun? Because you go, man, I remember when I was like that. I remember when I didn't want to come in. You were playing so long and it got dark. And you were just like, no, I'm having so much fun. No, I don't want to come in. Come in and eat. No. This is what it's going to be like. The voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, nor the voice of crying. And then I don't have this one up, but I cannot ever think of a feast or think of God's plan, unless I read verse 25.

It says, The wolf and the lamb shall feed together. The lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, says the Lord. The dream becomes a reality. It's going to happen.

But he wants us to experience a little bit of it now, because it says, Where there is no vision, my people perish. And we're the ones he does not want to perish. We understand his law. We understand his commandments. We understand this stuff. And that's all good and great, but we need to see the long view. We need to see where this all comes to fruition. And he wants us to. It is why he can say to us, Christ, when you pray, pray, thy kingdom come. Because it's so much greater than anything. Anything we can even dream.

Because the dream will come true. To many, it's a fantasy. To us, it's a dream. That will be a reality.