Entering the Kingdom of God, Part 2

Well, thank you once again. We're going to begin Part 2 of the Kingdom of God seminar today. So we are going to take it after we get to the brief review of what we covered during Part 1. Review, first of all, salvation is a gift from God. It's not something that we can earn all the works, all the obedience, all the good things we can do, will not provide us salvation. Also, all the faith alone that we can have could not provide us salvation. That's something that comes from what Jesus Christ did. He emptied himself of his divinity. He was God. He emptied himself of his divinity. He walked on earth as a human being, and he shed his blood. And because he was God, his one life was of greater value than all the creation, than all human lives that could ever be born. And because he was God, and he shed his blood on that cross, that atoning sacrifice could cover all sins that human beings could possibly commit, and that provides for us salvation. We know the Scripture saying, Ezekiel, chapter 18 verses 4 and 20, that the soul that sins shall die. We are not immortal souls. We do not inherently already have eternal life. Eternal life is something that has to be given to us. It itself is a gift from God. And eternal life is possible for you and I, as a result of an act of faith that understands and accepts who Jesus Christ was, demonstrated by living a life as God wants us to live, accepting God's value system as our value system, and becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ. Again, the word from James himself, faith without words is dead. It's not alive. It's impotent. It's not valid.

So let's talk a little bit about the will of the Father. Remember when Jesus taught us disciples to pray there? Matthew, when we looked at that earlier, he said that part of the things that we should pray for, thy kingdom come, thy will, that is the Father's will, be done on earth as it did in heaven. So what is the will of the Father and is it important? Well, Jesus said in Matthew, chapter 7 and verse 21, He says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven.

You see, Jesus Christ is not like a Disney character. We're not saved. We're not entering the kingdom because we have a magic word. He's not a genie. We could rub a lamp and marvelously, automatically, something happens. That's not the way Jesus Christ is. And just uttering his name does not provide us the key to be able to enter the kingdom of heaven. What provides the key is to discover what the will of the Father is and to live a lifetime of fulfilling the Father's will for us as individuals.

So let's talk about the will of the Father. And yet, I want to emphasize that simply calling out the name of Jesus or proclaiming or praising the name of Jesus, and certainly in balance, it's a wonderful thing. We have a number of great hymns in which we praise God, in which we certainly use the name of Jesus. But calling out the name of Jesus will not get us into the kingdom of God.

Do we? The will of the Father is what will get us into the kingdom of God. So again, what is the will of the Father? Peter wrote in 2nd chapter 30 verse 9. He says, the Lord is not slack concerning His promise. People say, even today, well, where is God? Why hasn't Jesus Christ returned yet? Where is Jesus Christ? Why hasn't He fulfilled His promise?

And Peter says, the Lord isn't slack concerning His promise. As some count slackness, in other words, when you look at it in the realm of eternity, it's really a short period of time before Jesus Christ will return. So He's not slack. He hasn't violated His promise, but He's long-suffering towards us as a race of people, as mankind, as the human race. He's patient. He's long-suffering. He's getting time so that the human race would come to its senses and say, you know, we need our God. We need to have a relationship with our Father. We need to restore this world as it was in Egypt, when we had a paradise on earth, when everyone, everyone and everything lived in peace and in harmony.

He says, not willing, He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. So what's the will of the Father? Well, the first thing the will of the Father has for you is that you repent of your sins, that you come to see yourself as a sinner who needs its only blood of Jesus Christ, that you come to say to yourself, I need to clean up my life, I need to change my habits, I need to change my lifestyle, and I need to turn around and repent in the direction of God's values and God's will. So it's God's will that we all come to repentance, and if you're hearing this message, you obviously are being led by the Spirit of God, and we have a choice.

So again, God's desire is to give all of us to give them eternal life. Now, he does that in stages. In this lifetime, God is calling a few. That's represented by His holy days, where there are first fruits that God is calling throughout history, a small number compared to the overall population. So God begins by calling first fruits, and then later on, after the kingdom is established, there will be, after a thousand years, beyond where the kingdom of God was established, there will be a general resurrection, and all of those throughout human history who never heard the word of God, who never even heard the name of Jesus Christ uttered, let alone understood what He did, will have their chance to attain the gift of eternal life.

For you and I, we live in a unique generation. And again, repentance means realizing that we have not lived God's way like we should, and determining to change our life around. That is literally what we call God's way of life. So God indeed has a very profound purpose for us. But this isn't a new revelation. This goes all the way back, even to God's relationship with ancient Israel. When God brought those people out of Egypt who were a slave people, and there are a lot of parallels there, Pharaoh was representative of Satan. Pharaoh was demanding. Pharaoh treated the people like slaves.

Pharaoh wouldn't let the people go. Satan is also a slave holder, right? He owns the human race. The human race primarily does Satan's will, not the will of the Father. Satan doesn't want to let us go. Even when we become converted, Satan will do everything to discourage us. He'll do everything to make us want to turn around and go back towards spiritual Egypt. He will do everything to make us want to quit and die in a spiritual desert. But going far back even in the book of Deuteronomy, God gave his loved ones, those who he was called to a choice. And here's what Moses was inspired to write.

I call heaven and earth as witness today against you, that I have set before you two choices. Life and death. Blessing, part of life. Cursing, that leads to the death. He says, therefore, he says it's because he loves his people. Choose life, that both you and your descendants may live, that you may love the Lord your God. You see, God wants us to love him. He wants to have a relationship with you that is as close as any parent, any sibling, any relationship you've ever had with another human being. He wants to have that kind of relationship with you.

He wants you to love him as deeply as he already loves you. That you may obey his voice. Again, that's God's values. We call him his laws, his statutes, his judgments. It's his value system, that you obey his voice and that you may cling with him.

You see, God is a God who's affectionate spiritually. He wants us to have a deep, intimate relationship where we can share our feelings, our fears, our thoughts, our hopes, and our dreams. We can tell him everything that's going on in our life. We can vent and tell him every frustration that we're struggling with. And he'll listen, that we may cling to him, for he is your life. And you see, it hasn't changed in the 3,000 years since this was built. It's such an important message that God wants us to love him.

He wants us to choose life. He wants us to be obedient to the value system that he established. And his law is what can help make us happy. You see, his law is all about love. His law regulates human behavior. And obviously, if everyone kept the Ten Commandments on Earth today, all wars would cease. All sexual promise, human being would end. All murders would stop. All thieving and all covetous would die and go away. There would no longer be any more family, because out of love, people would make sure that food is evenly distributed throughout the world. Little children wouldn't be dying of terrible diseases, because out of great love, people would make sure that the wealth is distributed fairly, so that medical care gets to every part of the Earth.

And those areas that have need would be helped by those areas that have plenty. This in the whole world would be dramatically different if immediately began keeping something as simple as the Ten Commandments. And I say that in front of the chief, because obviously keeping the Ten Commandments is a difficult thing to do. And mankind creates all kinds of laws to try to regulate the Ten Commandments. I think it was Jay Edgar Hoover who once said that mankind has created 10,000 laws to enforce the Ten Commandments.

That's just the kind of thing that men do. We try to regulate things. We have laws that do enforce the other laws. That's just our nature, but it's as simple as God says, is having a relationship with Him, choosing life, choosing love, choosing obedience, choosing to have a relationship and clean the Lord our God. And the end with all of that is He becomes our life. We become His disciples. God wants you to have eternal life. Jesus said in John 10, verse 10, He says, I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.

He didn't say, I have come so that all they'll do is give, give, give, give until they shrivel up the bride and blow away, until they sacrifice, until they don't live anymore. No, He doesn't say that. He said, I've come so that they can live abundant lives. He came so that His disciples could have a satisfying, meaningful life both physically and for eternity. Let's talk about physically for a second. How can we have an abundant life physically by understanding Jesus Christ? First of all, we accept His value system. And accepting His laws begins to provide happiness and balance in our lives.

Because those are eternal laws. And when you keep them, they serve you and they make you happy. When you break God's law, it breaks you. So the first way that we live an abundant life is when we begin to develop God's value system within ourselves. It provides a creative degree of happiness. Secondly, we meet people who share the same values. We have an instant extended family. We meet brothers and sisters who share those same values whom God has called. And we begin to share our time with them. We begin the fellowship with them.

We begin to network with them. And that gives us, certainly, a more abundant and meaningful life. And for eternity, obviously we're given the gift of eternal life. We can serve with Jesus Christ as a priest and as a king. We'll see a scripture a little bit later. And serve along with Him for all eternity. Jesus Christ came so that His disciples could have a satisfying, meaningful life, both now, both physically, and for eternity.

Another physical blessing is the added purpose that your life attains when you understand that God has a plan for you. God no longer, not only has, I should say, work, a world-wide work. God is doing an individual work in you. And He is preparing you. He's developing unique talents and gifts and abilities in you that no one else has. That the person sitting next to you doesn't have. He is making your life more abundant by developing those skills and talents and spiritual traits so that you can be of service to Him in the future. So our life takes on added meaning, added zeal, and added purpose that we don't have otherwise. God is a loving. He's a caring. And He is a concerned patient, creative. Here's what He said way back in Old Testament times. Again, this is hundreds of years before Jesus Christ even walked through the earth as inspired through the prophecies of Luke, chapter 33, verse 11. As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of a wicked. But that's a wicked. He says, here's what I have pleasure in. In fact, the wicked turn from His ways and live. What does that mean? That's just another way of saying that He should repent.

He should change from His evil ways, turn from them, and choose life, and in the right direction, being guided and led by the Spirit of God. That He should turn from His ways and live. He says, turn, turn from your evil ways, for why should you die, O house of Israel? In time, together, the Scriptures are just read in Deuteronomy, choose life, choose the will.

God is a God of love. Three major words in Greek for love, three primary major words, one of them is filling up. And that's a love of friendship. The kind of love that friends have for one another. They spend time with each other. They share time with each other.

And they are friends. The city of Philadelphia is named from that Greek word. Another Greek word for love is arrows, in which we get phrases like erotic, romantic love, sexual type of love. And then there's a third Greek word, primary Greek word, and it's apopoeia. This is a Godly love. This is a selfless, ongoing concern for someone else. It is complete caring. It is acceptance. It's giving to other people, being a servant, making yourself a servant to care and serve for other people, even if they don't show appreciation back. Even if they don't thank you back, or you do it because of a topic, the type of Godly love. And this is the kind of love, obviously, that God, the Father, and Jesus Christ have towards you and towards me.

John 4, beginning of the same. He says, He who does not love, does not love God, for God is love. That's a pretty powerful phrase. God is love. And the person may say to you, Mr. Thomas, what about all the suffering in the world? What about all the bad things going on in the world?

Well, we have to understand those events from the perspective of God. And that is that God is a God of love. And He allows certain bad things to happen in order to develop within us as individuals, or develop within the human race, an attitude of humility, repentance, and an understanding that we need God.

And if you say to yourself, well, right now, there are a lot of pressures going on in my life, a lot of trials going on in my life. I saw a slogan recently. It said, No Pressure, No Diamonds. Okay? Even the pressure that you experience is because God is developing within you something you probably don't even understand or comprehend yet. He's developing within you a quality, an inner strength that you haven't fully developed yet. So you probably don't understand it. But there is a purpose in life, even behind the uncomfortable things we feel, even behind the trials that we don't like, and the pain and the suffering that we go through. It is all for a grand and a glorious purpose. Because God doesn't look in the short term of human life. He looks at us from the prism of eternity. And we may be going through things now. Maybe they've been going on the last five years. Maybe they'll go on another five years. But God looks at the long term, and those experiences that we go through are to make us better, stronger, spiritually more adopting in our hearts and in our minds so that we can serve God and serve others. For God is love. Verse 9. In this the love of God was manifested towards us that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. That we might look at Him and say, that's my model. Jesus Christ is my example. He's my Savior. He led a perfect, righteous life. And I need to use the Holy Spirit that I've been given and conform to those values that God teaches and live through Jesus Christ. Let's move on. I have to go way back to the beginning. The book of Genesis, which reads the book of the beginning. Genesis chapter 1 and verse 26. It says, then God says, the early creation of Adam and Eve. God said, let us make man in our image. The one, Jesus Christ at this time was known as the Word was communicating with God the Father. And they said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, He created him male and female. He created them. So first of all, the characteristics that we have since we were created in God's image is to look like God. We have a head, we have arms, we have legs, and we have the basic design that God Himself has. But there's something more powerful here than just looking at the outside or looking at the physical design of the human body. We were designed to have emotions and intellect like God. We are builders, aren't we? You look at human history, what do you find? You find one civilization after another. We build cities, we build homes, we build roads, we build factories, we develop our own languages, we develop our own cultures. You don't find that in other parts of God's creation. Where did we get that ability from? Where did we get that creative spark, that desire to try something new, to create, to build a design? We don't have to look at God. That's another aspect of us literally being created in God's image. There's no other being on earth that looks up to the stars at night, looks up there, ponders, what's up there? Why was I born? Why was I created? What is the meaning of my life that you need to us, that kind of intellect, because we were created in God's image? Now, Genesis, Chapter 2, verse 7.

The New Testament is often called sleep, a type of sleep. Waiting for a better time, waiting for a resurrection, waiting for another opportunity. For this, God purposely created man physical. Mankind was not created spirit, was not created to be an immortal soul. We were created to be physical so that we could long for something much better than this physical tent that we dwell in. As we grow older, as we experience aches and pains, as we go through trials in life that hurt us, as we struggle through health problems and other issues in life, all of that has the purpose of making us long for something better, making us long to be in the Kingdom of God and to be part of God's Kingdom and to not be shackled, not be a prisoner anymore to the human flesh that we presently live in.

Human beings can become spirit. We're not spirit now. We're just basically flesh and blood. And at one time, a very wise man, a leader of the Jews, Nicodemus came to Jesus Christ there, as in a belief in the New Year, but he secretly was a follower of Jesus, but he was a leader of the Jews, so we have to be very careful when he fits with Christ and what he said. But he came up and he engaged in a conversation with Jesus Christ in John 3, beginning at verse 5, and Jesus answered this question of Nicodemus about how one could enter the Kingdom. He said, I say to you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. But that which is born of flesh is flesh. And that which is the result of that flesh, the next generation is also flesh, and the next generation is also flesh. He says, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. So it takes on a totally different essence than just flesh. He says, do not marvel that I said to you that you must be born again. So how can we be born again? Being born again is a process, and the way that process begins is a conception that begins at baptism. I want you to notice what he says here. He says, I say to you that unless one is born of water and spirit, when are we born of water? We're born of water when we were plunged down into that baptismal tank, and we came out of that tank. We were born of water. The water represents the symbolism of washing away our sins. And when are we born of spirit? We're born of spirit when that person, when we come out of the water, lays their hands on us and has a simple prayer, asks God to give us His Holy Spirit.

So that is when we were born of water and born of spirit, and literally the very essence of God Himself, both God the Father and Jesus Christ, their Holy Spirit, comes, and a small seed of it literally comes inside of our minds, and it bonds itself with our human spirit. That intellect that I just spoke about a few minutes ago, that unique ability within us that makes us human, that gives us that humanness of creativity and intellect, and the Spirit of God unites with that Spirit, and that is how we begin the process of being here again. So human beings can become spirit, but we have to get to the point where we can begin that process through repentance, through faith in Jesus Christ, through realizing that we need to become a converted disciple of Jesus Christ and become baptized.

Who is the captain of our salvation? Hebrews 10. Paul was inspired to write for it, was fitting for Him. For who are all things and bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering?

Who is the captain of our salvation? It is Jesus Christ. And as much as He was God, do you know that He became even more perfect through His sufferings? He became more perfect when He was falsely accused in a kangaroo trial. He became more perfect when He was slapped. He became more perfect when a crown of form was rammed on His head and caused blood to flow. He became more perfect when He experienced nails being nailed through His hands and His feet. He became more perfect when a spear entered His side. It was through that suffering that He became more perfect.

And in a similar way, brethren, my friends, when we go through suffering in this life through health, through the death of a loved one, or using our jobs, or financial challenges, or whatever it may be, I want to encourage you to know that you too are being perfected through those sufferings.

There is a purpose behind all the things that we experience in this life. The pleasant things and the painful, challenging things all have a powerful purpose and a meaning.

So, what does God want us to be once we receive that Spirit? Well, He wants us to become joined heirs with Christ. Romans chapter 8 and verse 16.

The Spirit is the Spirit that comes from God. We call it the Holy Spirit. It bears witness with our Spirit. That is that intellect that we have. That God-like ability that we have to build for the reason of human beings. That, by the way, let us have faith in Jesus Christ. Let us, through that intellect, understand that we need a Redeemer, that we need a Savior. The Spirit that comes from God bears witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God. And if children then it is heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. What does that mean? It means that all that God has, the glory and the power, the majesty He wants to share with His children. All the glory and power and majesty that Jesus Christ presently has, it says we are joint heirs with Him. He will share those things with us. Continuing, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. So God wants all of us to be glorified with Him and with Jesus Christ. Continuing, He says, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time. How many times today have I talked about the purpose of pride, the purpose of suffering? The reason why we go through some painful events. He says, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. And of course that glory will be revealed in us. Those first groups, whom God has called when Jesus Christ returns, because as Paul wrote in Thessalonians, at the twinkling of an eye, our feet will leave this earth and we will meet Jesus Christ in the air as He descends to earth. And in the twinkling of an eye, instantaneously, we will be changed from this physical body that we have into mortality and mortality, living forever with spiritual essence, with this spiritual body, and we will return to earth with Jesus Christ. So all the things that we experience right now are not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be in us at that time.

But before that time comes, we live in a world presently with a lot of suffering, don't we? There are major areas of earth that are experiencing a drought. There are famines going on in the area of the world right now, and it continues to happen that thousands of children die every day through malnutrition or through common diseases that are easily cured in the Western world. Every day this continues to happen. There are numerous wars that are going on in the earth right now. You might read about them on page 4 of the local newspaper. They're not very important very often, but we live in a world of constant suffering and turmoil. And frankly, it's been that way since Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden and were sent into the land, were isolated into the land of Nod. We need God. As the earth, we need again to have our relationship with the Creator. We need Eden restored to this world. We need the laws of God restored to this world as well.

Many religious people are looking for a Messiah. We are at a unique time in human history. The Buddhists are looking for the fifth Buddha, and it is believed that he will return and provide complete enlightenment for the human race.

The Hindus are looking for Krishna. They're looking for an avatar to return at end times that reflects Krishna, to bring more consciousness into the world. The Muslims are looking for the Grand Mahdi, hoping that he will come and restore the glory of the Islamic Empire to the world as a conqueror. The New Agers are looking for the Maitreya, which is another version of Krishna, that they're hoping will return to earth to bring in peace and prosperity and wisdom to the people of the world. And of course, the Jews are still awaiting the return of the Messiah. They did not accept Jesus Christ. They did not understand that Jesus Christ would come two times, the first time to make it possible that sin could be removed, and so that mankind could be reconciled to God. And then the second time, he would come back as the conquering king to return the Jewish people to their homeland and to provide a kingdom without end.

But the Jews continue to await the return of the Messiah.

But for us, for those of us who understand that God is calling us so that he has wonderful blessings and a marvelous future prepared for us, we have to recall 1 Corinthians 15.

Paul wrote, I say, brethren, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit a corruption. Behold, he said, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep. There's that word that I spoke about earlier, how the New Testament continually refers to death as sleeping, as unconscious sleeping.

We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in the moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

Now, interestingly, just a few weeks, a couple of weeks away, is the Feast of Trumpets. It's one of God's seven annual holy days that pictures this literal event when Jesus Christ will return to earth. And for thousands and thousands and thousands of years, it's been called the Feast of Trumpets, and trumpets are blown on that day. And as Paul reminds us, at this last trumpet, it will sound, and those first fruits who were called and became disciples of Jesus Christ, those who depended of their sins and had faith in Jesus Christ, were baptized and received. God's Holy Spirit will be raised incorruptible and shall be changed.

And continually, he says, for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. Then shall he brought the past the saying that his written death is swallowed up in victory. This is a day that I hope we all long for. A day that when Jesus Christ returns, he can look at you, and he can say what was said in that parable in Matthew chapter 25.

He says this to the faithful servants. His Lord said to him, well done, you faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things, and I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord. Enter into the kingdom of God. Enter and receive your reward of eternal life.

And it all began by Jesus Christ simply preaching the good news of the kingdom of God. God wants us to be with him in his kingdom. And the fact that you had an interest to be here today, you were interested enough to make the effort to hear this powerful message about the kingdom of God says much.

It says that God is leading you by his spirit, and you may be at a point where it's time to choose life. It may be a time for you to consider and understand that you need to have a relationship with God. You need to become a disciple of Jesus Christ. You need to live God's way, a life, because the rewards are incredible. When the kingdom of God is established on the earth, there will be a new life.

We will shut off this chakril of human flesh that we have that ages by the minute, and we will be spirit essence. We will have a new body and a new life, and most of us will have new jobs. Revelation 5 and verse 10, it says, and has made us kings and priests to our God, and we shall reign on earth. You see in that kingdom of God, there are going to be billions of people, and then ultimately, when a thousand years are over, there's that massive general resurrection.

There are going to be perhaps a hundred billion people resurrected from the dead who lived throughout human history, who never heard of the Bible, never even heard the name of Jesus Christ once in their lifetimes. They lived their entire lives and died without hope, without purpose, without understanding that God has a plan.

And God is preparing kings and priests and teachers right now to serve Him so that they can be part of that kingdom and help mankind who will need to discover and be taught to know God. So God's kingdom is a new life. It's a new job. I wish I could explain it to you in more rich and vivid detail, but I'm going to be very honest with you. I am incapable of even reflecting through small things, the glory, the magnificence that God has planned for you.

As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 9, I hope you will love God. I hope that you will choose right now. I hope that you will make a decision and understand that God the Father may be calling you to become His disciples so that you can be prepared to be in and serve in the kingdom of God and receive the gift of eternal life. But I would like you to know that there's something that will not be part of that kingdom.

And here's what will not be part of that kingdom of Revelation 21 and verse 4.

Meaning, she passed from the living into death. But I want you to understand that in this kingdom, the things that will pass away will no longer be human beings. What will pass away is death. What will pass away is sorrow. What will pass away is crying. Those are the things that we can look forward to in this new world, the world tomorrow, that God is preparing for us to be part of and to participate in. There's going to come a time after those thousand years of the kingdom when not only the first fruits, those in the fall that calls and who understand their calling and become disciples, responds that there will be a time when all mankind who's ever learned will be resurrected from the dead. God is a great God. He's a loving God. He has a gaffe, and he wants to offer salvation to all. It begins with you and I, in this generation, to repent and believe the gospel. For you and I to understand that we have a powerful purpose in calling, that is, to be kings and priests to God and represent Him in that kingdom, when we will altogether reign on earth. But what do they say in the tele-commercials? Have you seen those late-night commercials on television? They say, but that's not all. And we get a hint of what God has planned in the future. Isaiah chapter 9 percent. It says there will be no end of the increase of His government. Have you ever looked out at the stars at night? You've seen those stars and planets. We, as mankind, we're explorers. We send face ships to various planets, comets. We try to explore everything that we can financially afford. And you know what we see when we go to the moon? When we send ships, when we send things to Mars or any planet out there, you know what we see? We see desolation, don't we? We see a lack of life, not just human life, a lack of any life. It's as if all of those planets in the galaxy are like unfinished furniture, just created in their rawest form and waiting for their maker to come back and create atmospheres and finish them, create life, and make them beautiful. Just like an unfinished piece of furniture. We could very well be that God has a desire and part of the will of the Father is not only will the Kingdom of God be established on Earth, but it could spread out into the universe to countless star systems and planets and galaxies as God begins to finish his great plan for all mankind.

And God has called you.

I'd like to thank you for attending this seminar today. I would like to encourage you to stay around and enjoy some snacks, feel free to make some new friends, meet some new people. I encourage you to visit our literature table. We have all 33 booklets offered by the United Church of God. You're more than welcome to review. But before we end for today, we're going to have something very special provided for us. And then after this special musical presentation, I will ask someone to come up and give a closing prayer. For our special musical presentation, today will be performed by a friend of mine. My wife and I have known Mark and Taya for 35 years since we all lived in California and met each other as students at that time. And again, I've known Mr. Graham for 35 years. He is an international performer. He's also written hymns that are sung in churches throughout the world in different languages. Virtually every Sabbath a composer. And he's going to be performing for us a song that he has written called One Thing I'd Like Them to Know. And that will be by Mr. Mark Graham. And after that, I'll close the prayer.