Enter Into the Joy of the Lord

I presume between your applause that both you and God want more from young Nicholas. We appreciate that. Thank you very much.

Jesus often used parables as a means of being able to teach and instruct people. One of the more famous parables that he used was the parable about the parable of the talents. Even as I mentioned that, that's not really what we're going to be talking about. I'm just going to extract a phrase out of that parable. But in Matthew 25, it is a parable that deals with talents. It speaks to those that would follow Jesus Christ to understand the value of their calling and thus prepare accordingly and with utter certainty know that there is a future encounter with their Master in which he offers judgment, both in blessing and in punishment, that he rewards us according to our works. There are three phrases that I just used in that brief moment of speaking to you that I'd like to center on today. You might want to jot them down, if you would, to be able to follow along, to be able to see where I'm going to be taking you in the minutes ahead. One is to understand or appreciate the value of what is offered us, just to understand and to appreciate it. But not only that, but to then prepare for it. And then, number three, to know with utter certainty that our Master is on his way, and then that indeed we will be rewarded. Very interesting in Matthew 25 that there are two mentions here of what he speaks to those faithful servants. And it's actually in that mentioning that it's going to become the title of this message, and then we're going to spring. And that is simply twice he mentions to those servants that multiply their talents. That is, they understand the value, they do prepare, and they do understand with utter certainty that he was going to come back. He simply uses this phrase, enter into the joy of the Lord. Enter into the joy of the Lord. My question to you this afternoon is, what does that mean? What does it mean to enter into the joy of the Lord? What does it entail? Well, like with any topic, any subject, there are many facets to consider regarding any jewel of thought of any scripture that is shared. So entering into the joy of the Lord, I can certainly appreciate that if you were behind this pulpit, you might give another aspect or look through another facet as to what that might be. And today, I want to enter through one particular facet of this blessing. The blessing of entering into the joy of the Lord, I want to explore it in depth, and the meaning to encourage you about the preciousness of your selection and your election as a child of God towards that ultimate future relationship that he so readily desires with each and every one of you. A relationship that is bound up in the holiness that Mr. Zajac alluded to in the first message, and that God's vision—are you with me?—God's vision needs to be our vision. And I want to bring those visions together because God uses a figuration of life's experience for you and I to understand what it's going to be like to be able to enter into the joy of the Lord. This thought is spurred on with a thought of something that I am often involved in, and that is in the aspect of matrimony. Not personally, I'm only married once. I hope I don't want you to get any ideas. Sounds bad, doesn't it? I've been married almost 40 years. But I'm involved in many other marriages that are in formation and help plan weddings. A pastor is not only a counselor, but oftentimes becomes a wedding planner. So I've been involved in many weddings. And when I think about it, weddings are wonderful, and weddings are beautiful. But they do take a lot of preparation.

Just ask some of our ladies out here and some of those brides-to-be. They plan, and they plan. And of course, we know with our ladies from the time that they're little girls, they begin to thinking about a house and making a home or a wedding dress or this or that.

It's something in the feminine psyche that they look forward to. And they prepare all their life towards that. And then the wedding comes. And normally at any ceremony, because it is a ceremony, there's a certain beautiful stillness, and there's a solemnity to them. And then there's a kind of a pause before the I-do's. And you're hoping they're both going to say I do because they've gotten that far. I haven't heard too many that say I don't. Most of them say I do, I do, like an echo. If I don't, uh-oh, we have challenges. But nonetheless, but after the solemnity, after the ceremony, then comes the wedding reception. And then comes the dinner. Oh, boy! Exciting, wonderful, fantastic. Now with that formalized ceremony all over and all of the legal documents signed, it's real. They are married. It's done. They have made it. And now the folks celebrate and relax with good food and music and dancing and laughter spilling all across the floor. And they catch up on the family that they have not seen for such a long time. And also, you know, I know, they also meet the family that they're going to be spending the rest of their life with that they've never met before on... Are you with me? The other side. Weddings are rich. Weddings are wonderful. They're meant to be. Because after all, they're the booster rockets for marriage, recognizing that indeed there are going to be challenges. Marriage is not for the cowardly. Marriage is for the brave. It's for those that are going to hang in there through thick and thin, better and worse, richer and poorer.

Health, no health. And on and on and on. But then there's this wedding party. All the effort has paid off. All those anxious moments between the frustration and the prayers, the joy, the disappointment, things that you wanted, things that you couldn't do, things that you hoped for, things that didn't happen.

And they are all eased and tucked aside in the wake of the reality that indeed a marriage has occurred. A special union has been given birth. It's come to life.

In the truest sense, that is how God reveals our future with Him in the terms of a wedding.

That's the picture that He wants us to understand how it's going to be for the bride of Christ to marry Jesus Christ in the future.

Allow me to make it very simple. Let's take a note if you want to stay along with me. There's just three very easy aspects here.

There's Christ, the groom, we, the bride, and there is a wedding supper that is spoken about in Scripture.

I believe that our Heavenly Father thinks of it constantly, without hesitation, without reservation.

And, dear brethren, here in Los Angeles, I think we ought to also. And thus, this message.

Today we're going to focus on the wedding of the bride of Christ and the wedding feast and, or we can call it the supper, that follows to appreciate specifically what it means to enter into the joy of the Lord.

There's a lot of things that are happening out in this world all around us right now. It might be happening in your life, your world, your marriage, your job, your neighborhood, your classroom, wherever you might be.

I want to lift you today by the Scriptures that are before us and to recognize that God has, are you with me, invited each and every one of us to enter into the joy of the Lord.

To begin with, let's take a note of one of the great, triumphant, prophetic declarations of all Scripture.

Join me if you would. Let's open up our Bibles. Go to the end of the book in Revelation 21. Join me in Revelation 21.

And let's pick up the thought in verse 1. Revelation 21, verse 1, where we note this great, triumphal, prophetic declaration of sharing what is going to occur.

It declares, Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and also there was no more sea.

In a sense, the curtain is drawn. The veil is lifted. When the Bible speaks that there's going to be no more sea, that's not talking about the issue of water.

This is understanding that there's going to be no more barriers. There's going to be no more gulfs.

No more seas. No more oceans. No more gaps between man and man, and God and man. All is going to come together. All is going to become one. And it says here, And also there is no more sea, than I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Talk about a grand entrance.

I remember marrying our oldest daughter in this building, and I remember when Laura and Brian were in the rear, and those doors that are now closed, you don't all have to turn around and crank your neck, but those doors open.

Ta-da! Many of you have been through that. The doors open. Ta-da! And here is the bride and all of her beauty, coming down the aisle, and we all get up. We all wait. We try to wait for the mom to stand, but sometimes the audience beats mom to it, and the audience rises and turns to the bride.

And it's her day, and the groom is up here, and he's going, None of you guys have ever been through that, have you?

It's wonderful! It's fantastic!

And this is why God says, through Christ, enter into the joy of the Lord. This is the figuration that He uses for us to understand what that kingdom experience is going to be like.

Here we have, literally, coming down from heaven, a cosmic procession, towards spiritual consummation of oneness. Now, you know, and I know, that the British are known for majesty and pomp and a little circumstance.

But let's understand what this is going to be like when the whole sky is filled with all of this.

And just imagine the size of the wedding party. Let's allow our minds to flow and to go with this a little bit. Imagine the size of the wedding party, much less the audience watching and marveling. Here are the citizens of the New Jerusalem.

That's synonymous with the first-fruits saints of God, are going to enter into a deep and forever-lasting relationship.

No longer just until death do you part.

That's not written in this ceremony.

What's written in this ceremony of the bride of Christ to the groom is forever.

And not for just simply better or for worse, but for immortality, as that bride is allowed to enter eternity where the Father and Jesus have always existed.

Just imagine that.

These individuals, past and present and future, have entered into a compact with Jesus Christ. Not a contract, but a compact. Not just simply a contract, but a covenant towards this ultimate end to be a part of a divine marriage union. The Apostle Paul speaks to this. Join me if you would in one of his epistles, 2 Corinthians 11. 2 Corinthians 11.

Let's pick up the thought here.

Paul brings this into remembrance, and that's what we need to do sometimes, brethren.

Especially as the world outside more and more moves away from the institution of marriage that God ordained from the beginning with Adam and Eve.

Let's understand. Are you with me? It's harder and harder at times to reach people now as to what God is striving to accomplish because it's not happening down here as oft in our neighborhoods, in our communities.

People are no longer binding and bonding themselves for life. They're not in covenant relationship. They move into a contract.

And more and more, they don't even sign the contract because they're just simply living together.

You should be called sinning together.

Allow me to be blunt.

But to recognize that we no longer just simply live in an immoral society, but an amoral society, people just don't even know what it is anymore, what commitment means. 2 Corinthians 11, verse 2.

Paul speaking personally then expands on it. I am jealous for you with godly jealousy, for I have noticed betrothed you to one husband that I might present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

And thus we notice the relationship is given more depth there, that there is a betrothal, there's an engagement.

When you are engaged to somebody, and we recognize there's what, 3.7 billion of the other gender on earth, women have a little advantage on us. I think there's more of you than us.

But when you become engaged to someone, you say, it is you that I desire to spend the rest of my life with, to commit myself to, to give everything that I have. And I'm going to put off limits now. I'm going to put the blinders on everybody else during this engagement process. And I'm going to stick with you to see that we have what it takes for the marriage union.

You will be my darling. You will be my only one.

That's what engagement means. That means preparing for marriage, and that's why Paul brings this out.

He says, a chaste virgin to Christ.

Again, simply put, in modern terms, as Christians, we're engaged to the very Lord of the universe. Now, here's what I want to share with you. Some of you may not, in this lifetime, ever be married to a physical human being. Some of you have been married to a physical human being. Perhaps they died. Perhaps for one reason or another it did not work out at this point, and you are separated. Perhaps you are not, at this time, thinking of coming back together. Those are all sorts of different sermons that we could go elsewhere. But here's what I want to share with you right now. All of you, whether you are married or non-married, are part of a very real engagement process. If you are under the New Covenant and you have been baptized in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you have given your life to Him and to His Father, you are espoused. You are engaged. You are betrothed. And thus your eyes and your hearts are to be set on Him. He is, are you with me? He is your spiritual fiancé. And He's coming back to make good on His pledge. He is coming back. Just like that good Master, He is that good fiancé that is coming back to collect on His pledge to you and your pledge to Him. But the book of Revelation not only speaks of the bride, but also describes the marriage itself. And something very special that comes with it, a blessing. Join me, if you would, in Revelation 19. Let's peer at this for a second. Revelation 19. And let's pick up the thought in verse 6. Notice how the invitation is sent out and what it says. I'll wait for you for a moment to be able to all get there. Because this is your invitation card, and it's sealed in Holy Scripture. And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters, and as the sound of many thunderings, saying, Hallelujah! For the Lord God omnipotent reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory. Notice, For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready, And to her it was granted to be a raid. Notice, In fine linen, clean and bright. For the clean linen is the righteous acts of the saints. And then He said unto me, Right! And this is something we can be thankful for on Thanksgiving weekend and every day of our life. Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And He said, These are the true sayings of God. No, sometimes in the United States of America we can get excited if we somehow get an invitation from the White House. And there on an envelope, or something else has sent some other parcel from the White House, You have the presidential seal, or you have the White House aficionado, expo-dida, whatever. And you go, Wow! And you go, and show, Look what I got! It's right here! I got an invitation from the White House. Or again, you go to your mailbox and you find an invitation to a wedding of somebody that you knew long ago and far away.

Sounds like Star Wars, doesn't it? But long ago and far away that you thought had forgotten you and you get this invitation, You go, Wow! This is really neat!

Brethren, each and every one of us, under the New Covenant, called of our betrothed father, have this invitation to be a part of this wedding.

Beyond that now, weddings and the accompanying festivities are always special.

But why did God talk about a wedding feast or a wedding supper? I'd like to let you know a little bit about this, please. Weddings are always special. I think I've already shared that with some of the many, many weddings I have been to over the years. But back in ancient times, when this was originally written, these activities took on an even more incredible status. Allow me to explain why, okay? This was a time before people traveled for pleasure or had a 24-hour entertainment brought into their homes. Surround sound and anything and all things that come from all stations and all gizmos all over the world. You can bring the whole world into your room, into your house, whether you should or not, but you can. You can have a circus. You can be going down a river in the Rockies. You can be watching this. You can be watching whatever. You can bring it all to yourself. Excitement and surround sound and color and venture and all sorts of people invited into your home through modern media. Didn't exist back then. Neither did Disneyland. Neither did Disney World. Not even Chuck E. Cheese.

But when there was a wedding supper and a wedding feast was known, the whole village stopped. Everything was going to change in this society that basically did not live to eat, but ate to live. There was going to be a wedding. There was going to be a festival. And it was going to be special. It was going to be a showstopper. Everything else would come to a halt. And God uses this analogy to enliven our hearts, to raise our hopes, to lift our eyes, to see what our God has in store for us. Allow me to share for a moment from Mr. Ralph Gower in his book, The New Manners and Customs of Bible Times, from pages 66 through 69.

I'll drop in and out and paraphrase some of it. It's under the heading of the wedding and the wedding feast. And it grants us a glimpse at some of the biblical revelations we have read so far. I want to extract a few thoughts here. Help picture what the wedding feast was like. Or the wedding. The wedding involved dressing up. The bride was literally adorned like a queen. We've already seen that in that procession that comes down from heaven. Revelation 21 verse 2. She was bathed, and her hair was braided with as many precious stones as the family possessed or could borrow. Well, you could say, well, I hope she was bathed. But you're looking at it from 21st century perspectives.

People didn't take as many baths back then as we do today. This was special. My bride's taken a bath.

This was special. This was preparation. Things were going to be happening. The bridegroom was dressed in finery and jewelry.

The dressing up for the wedding was so important that it was designed to be unforgettable.

Jeremiah 2 verse 32. But I'm going to come back to that a little bit later, so I'm not going to draw your attention. The dressing up, the finery, all of the preparation was designed for one thing.

That you do not forget in the preparation and what you said that you were going to be to the other person. So there was all of this preparation towards this moment. Now, another important element of the wedding was what we called the procession at the end of the day, as illustrated again in the book of Revelation. You see this procession of coming down from heaven and you're seeing the union. The bridegroom set out from his home to fetch his bride from her parents' home. At this point, the bride was wearing a veil. Ladies, some things don't change. At some point now, hear me, the veil was taken off and laid on the shoulder of the bridegroom.

And the declaration was made, the government shall be upon his shoulder. Isn't that interesting? Where have we heard that before? Isaiah 9 and verse 6. You begin to see a seamlessness. You begin to see a cohesion of what God is doing.

It goes on further, then, that a procession then set out for the bride's home, from the bride's home to the couple's new home. And the dark roadway would be lit with oil lamps held by the wedding guest. Now, these villages were not very big back then. You know, it was not like coming into Los Angeles today.

You know, villages were very small. Sometimes even a town would maybe be no more than a hundred acres, maybe even a couple hundred acres, but they would wind through the alleys and they would wind through the lanes. And the guest would be along the lane with the torches to illuminate. Because, after all, it is a time of joy, isn't it? A wedding is happening. A union is coming together. There's a birth that is occurring that is destined to stay together. The guest would have oil lamps. In the story told by Jesus, one that we're familiar with, the bride and the groom, were later than expected, the famous parable about the ten virgins.

So the oil in their lamps began to run low. Only those who brought that reserved flask of oil were able to refill their lamps and welcome the bride and the groom. You can jot down Matthew 25, 1-13, and give that focus on another time and another day. Not only that, but there was singing and there was music along the way. And sometimes the bride herself, being in that Middle Eastern culture, would just, in the middle of the procession, begin to dance herself.

Everybody was excited. There was a wedding! There was joy! Is it any wonder, then, that we're looking at this today as to entering the joy of the Lord and what it means? Now the couple, along with their guest, spent a great deal of time in eating and drinking. Oh, let me go back a second. They would come to the wedding feast or the supper.

Pardon me. And the bride and the groom entered under a canopy when they arrived at the house. Kind of like if you've ever seen the musical, The Fiddler on the Roof. In very wealthy families, guests were actually provided with wedding clothes. All of Matthew 22, verse 12. Certainly you would have been insulting to the host, insulting to the host, not to wear what had been so thoughtfully and freely given. The couple, along with their guest, spent a great deal of time in eating and drinking. Festivities often lasted for seven days. You can go to the story of Samson, and when he gets married, that wedding feast lasted, at least.

Are you ready? Seven days. Now I have three daughters and paid for all the weddings. I'm kind of glad it lasted seven hours and not seven days. But they knew how to party back then. After all, it was a wedding. It was a union. The guests were there to witness that the marriage had also been consummated, and that the bride was, indeed, a virgin.

There had to be that spot of blood. Don't mean to be more graphic than that. But you see, back then, there were, in that sense, an entire society that was geared towards being pure for marriage. People understood what a virgin was back then. And when Scripture says about a chaste virgin, and not only a woman, but a man, that they be chaste for one another, that they were going to come together in a union that was special, that sex was created by God to be enshrined and encapsulated in a loving and in a permanent union.

It wasn't like for Disneyland to get on the ride and get off. It wasn't designed for pay-perview television or movies. To where today America goes as a voyeuristic society and pays money to watch other people do what should only be behind closed doors. And perhaps as Christians, we ought to give thought as to where we put our money, where we put our time, and where what seat that we place our rear end and bring our children and our family along, so that we as well do not lose as the world is losing day by day the understanding of what chaseness and purity and holiness is inscribed in the marriage relationship.

Because you do want to, you do want to enter into the joy of the Lord. Anything down here is a cheap substitute. Because what God is offering us is forever. It moves beyond the senses. In fact, it is so neat. Kids, I've got to tell you something. It is so neat that even you and your youth can't take it in with your eyes, with your ears, with your youth, with your touch, with your feel. That's why God has to give us an entirely new body, a glorified body to even be able to get into and to understand what He's preparing for us.

It is so incredible. It is so wonderful. And He wants you to be a part of it. Let's pick up the thought here as we go along a little bit further. Much like the village of Zantiqui today, again, let's understand that we too live in a world of drudgery and survival. Oh, we don't think so. We're excited with our gadgets and our toys.

I think sometimes with all the gadgets and the toys that have come out the last 20 years, if time went on about 5,000 years from now, archaeologists would dig us up and they'd say, look at these little black rectangle-grade boxes. I don't know what they are. Everybody had them, and they had buttons on them, and everybody had them.

They must have been very special. They must have been items of worship because everybody has one. But that's why God lifts us up by this understanding. God lifts our sights. Because here's what I want to share with you. Kind of put it in your heart, tuck it in there, ponder on it. Each and every one of you that are Christians under the New Covenant, each and every one of you that have surrendered your past, your present, and your future to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, each and every one of us is going to be carried over the threshold of eternity.

The threshold of eternity. I remember carrying Susan over our threshold. But God the Father is going to allow His Son Jesus Christ to carry you and me as bride. Guys, get used to this Bride of Christ thing we're in. We're a part of this whole, and God is going to allow His Son to carry us over the threshold of eternity.

You know, He's been preparing to—I'd like to just share a few verses with you here to let you know what our bridegroom is like. Exodus 34 and verse 8. Exodus 34 and verse 8. Notice what it says here. Oh, that's not what I wanted. Let's see if I can find it here. I may have to call upon Mr. Garnet because he knows where all scriptures are. I'm actually looking for the verse where it says that he is a jealous God. Thank you very much. Oh, Mr. Garnet, your voice has changed. He's gotten into this bride thing. Oh, for you shall worship no other God, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. He has claims on us. We're the apple of His eye. God can't take His eyes off of us. He loves us. He's a jealous God. Hebrews 12 and verse 1. The author of Hebrews tells us this in Hebrews 12 and verse 1. Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by a great cloud of witness, lay aside every weight in the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. In other words, as the bride of Christ, let us prepare. Let us be sober in approaching this incredible opportunity. Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy? Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despised in the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God? I suggest to you, friends here in Los Angeles, a part of that joy that He saw, even on the cross, was that joy of the wedding between Him and His spiritual bride. I suggest that it was in part the joy of what that wedding supper means to each and every one of us, especially He and His Father. That that union that was broken at Eden because of willful sin and wrong choices could now be reconciled, could now be restored, and that that special creation of the Creator and that Creator could once again be consummated once and forever through Jesus Christ. And that there was a wedding in the future, that there was a wedding feast and a wedding supper in the future. John 14 and verse 1. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me, and in My Father's house are many mansions, many offices. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. Ladies, in this lifetime, you want a man as your husband that will let neither desert or mountain ranges or a billion people get in the way between He and you, wherever you are. Wherever my wife is, if she is ever lost, I will find her. And she does know that, because I love her. But that's only marginal compared to what Jesus is saying here, that He has gone the distance, gone over the mountain ridge, crossed the river, as it were, from life to death, and now ascension. And is now preparing the nest, now preparing the home, to come back, to fetch the bride, and to be at one together. Now, as this prophetic yet personal event moves her way, let's conclude considering two verses with two different outcomes.

Just as we went back to the parable of the Talons, we recognized there were people that prepared and did, and there were people that were asked to prepare and did not. Join me if you would in Jeremiah 2.32. I alluded to it earlier, Jeremiah 2.32.

Remember how I mentioned that all the preparations for a wedding were to indelibly etch that into the heart of an individual? Well, notice this. Jeremiah 2.32, Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? And yet my people have forgotten me days without number, as if our patrothal did not exist. Much rather, let's look at Isaiah 61. Isaiah 61, and let's pick up the thought in verse 10. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its bud, as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. It's not our righteousness. It's God's righteousness that he lays upon us, that we wear knowing from whence it comes from, not by our works, not by our doings, but because God loves us, because we have a heavenly fiancée who can't keep his eyes off of us, as Scripture alludes to and affrails the apple of his eye. And he closes us, and he gives us all that we need. And not only that in the positive sense, but over in Ephesians 6, 10-18, we just jot it down. We also recognize that he gives us, as that chaste virgin, that bride that is striving to be pure and to be holy. He speaks of putting on a shield of armor to protect our spiritual virginity. A shield of armor. He gives us that shield of faith. He gives us a sword that is both an offensive and defensive weapon in this sensual world. A world that pulls us more and more away, friends, from God's original intent. You see, allow me to be blunt, may I, to make my point. There is one that is out there. His name is the adversary. We call him Satan. We call him the dragon. But he's also, in that sense, a spiritual pimp. He is a spiritual pimp. He wants to give your all, your body, your life, for his cause.

And he doesn't want to let you go. But our Father above gives us this spiritual armor called his spirit, called his son in us, called the Bible before us, to keep our moorings in this world. A world that is moving away. Do I dare say, friends? I've seen a lot in my 50 years of, not 50 years, I'm 61. But to recognize that this is a different world than I was growing up. Now, when I say that, the world's never been right since Eden. Let's get that straight. But to recognize how quickly the world is turning with the gifts of God when it comes to marriage. A marriage between a man and a woman. Families that are intact. Whole families. And then it's going to be harder and harder and harder then to understand. Are you with me? To understand the intent of the Bible and what lies before us. We have to cling to those values. This is a values-based church. Now, I did cast my vote. I'm a Christocrat. I cast my vote for Jesus Christ every day as the sovereign of my life, and as my sutur, and as my betrothed, and as my champion. And much more so, hopefully, every day as the day comes. Let us conclude with these thoughts. Let's fully appreciate that God wants us to enter into the joy of His salvation. Into the joy of the Lord. He uses the analogy of marriage and a wedding feast to give us a hint of what it will be like when faith and sacrifice and relationship and longing and fulfillment all come together in divine nexus. And He wants you, are you with me? He wants you and me to see ourselves in that picture. He wants you to see Christ the bridegroom, not meandering down some dusty village road in Galilee or Judea or Samaria, but coming down from heaven from His home to ours on earth and fetching His bride. He wants us to not only then, but also now lower our spiritual veil and say, The government be upon your shoulders. He wants us to picture a time of celebration and quality feasting that has no end. After all, how do you turn out the lights on eternity? He wants us to remember and rejoice in the fact that our groom is the same one whose first miracle was at Cana, who turned the water into quality wine that the feast might go on. Remember what Jesus Christ said? Kind of interesting, especially when we recognize some of the challenges that are happening in America today. Sometimes people say, well, you know, this isn't the world that we grew up in and or things aren't quite as good as they used to be. Will things ever return to the same? And you know what Jesus said in John? He says, I have come that they might have life and what? Last? No, I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly. What a tremendous joy! What a marvelous thing that I can talk to you about today about something so special about entering the joy of the Lord, being a part of a wedding, being a part of a wedding supper. Brethren, I think this is what is alluded to in the Bible.

I realize today that there are those in our greater Church of God community that want to, in some way, figure out who is on the wedding list or exactly when the wedding might be. I will leave that to them because I don't think that is where Christ was leading us with this. I think He just wanted to grab our hearts and our minds, if but for a moment. Do I dare say forever?

And to bring into this concept into our mind that it is something that you don't want to miss.

Because Jesus Christ did not miss you when He died for you on that cross. And then at the right hand of His Father said, Father, they are now a part of my body. And we are going to unite together again one day. Look down. See my people here in Los Angeles. Look how they are preparing. Look how they are remembering. Look at how they are keeping those bright clothes that you have given them of your righteousness, of your law, of your love, of your grace, of your truth. And look at that. And they really do believe that you and I, Father, we really are coming back. We are coming back. We are going to make good on that promise, sealed with my life. Jesus Christ speaking. And the Father says, Son, that sounds wonderful. And we say wonderful as we turn to the end in Revelation 21. In Revelation 21, let's pick up the thought. In Revelation 22, pardon me, verse 17. Interesting how the thought of wedding flows throughout the book of Revelation. Revelation 22 and verse 17. Speaking of God's gift and God's blessing to each and every one of us. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him who hears say, Come. And let him who thirst, Come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. Look forward to seeing all of you after services. May God bless you, keep you. In these days, Susie and I will be apart from you. And we will get back here just as quickly as we can after we visit some of these other congregations.