The Family of God

Many times when someone is promoting a book or a movie, there's a phrase they will use. The greatest story ever told. And that's how they'll promote it. And they really put emphasis on greatest. Well, most don't and can't live up to the billing.

And when you know the reality, none of them do. None of them can, because the greatest story ever told is still in progress. It's the oldest story we have any record of. It stretches all the way into the unending future and all the way back into the prehistoric past, the way we count time. It's the greatest story ever told because it's the greatest it can be. And all the stories of God connect to it.

It's a story of family. And it's a story of fragmentation. It's a story of building a family. And it's a story of trying to bust that family. It's the story of the family of God. And if you like a title, title and subject, the family of God. It's the greatest story ever told. It's the story of the family of God. It's not all told yet. It's a work still in progress. Now, if it's the family of God, it starts with God because God generated a family. God generated a family. Now, when I say family, I'm talking about family as an institution, as a focus, as a function, as a form, as a formula.

That that is the creation of God. It's a very special creation. God created a family, a special family, the family of God. If you go with me, please, to Ephesians 3, and we'll pick it up in verses 14 and 15. Ephesians chapter 3. In Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 14, Paul writes this. He says, For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord, of course, Father is a family name, family word, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom?

The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom? The whole family. In heaven and earth is named. The whole family, in heaven and earth. That family started in heaven, first before man. You could say, well, the one we know of is God the Father, who became God the Father, and the word, who became Jesus Christ.

They're obviously part of that family. They're the beginners of that family, which is all true. But let's look at some more of the family in heaven. Hebrews 12.9. Hebrews 12.9. It began, that family began with the creation of an entire angelic host. In Hebrews 12.9, breaking into the context, but bearing this out about the Father of an entire angelic host. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh, which corrected us, and we gave them respect.

Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto what? The Father of spirits and live. See, it's not strange that the angels are called sons of God in the book of Job. That phrase is used with the angels. Now, they are not sons of God and children of God in the way that you and I, the human beings, have the potential to be someday. There is a difference. There is a difference in a number of ways. But they will not be children in the same way we are on the same plane of relationship that the Father and the Son are on.

We will be bonafide, younger brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, and we will be children in the fullest way possible for God the Father. So we know there is a difference. Yet, God can claim them as part of His family because He is the one who created them. But let's leave that point for a moment. What generated that family? What generates any family with God?

What generated the family that's in heaven and earth? What drives that or motivates that or produces that or generates that? Well, it's answered in a very simple way in 1 John 4, verses 8 and 16. 1 John 4, verses 8 and 16. Because there is one word that tells us why God has a family. 1 John 4 and verse 8, He that loves doesn't know God. Why? Because God is love. If you could pick one word, if you were limited to one word that would define, that would personify God, His nature, His righteousness, His motivation, His method and manner of operation, what drives Him?

It's that one word, love. And the word agape entails more than just feeling towards somebody, feeling for them. It carries deep responsibility, deep concern, sacrificial spirit. It's a sacrificial love. He that doesn't love doesn't know God.

God doesn't ID with Him. God is love. And then John repeats it in verse 16, and we have known and believed the love that God has to us. God is love. And He that dwells in love dwells in God and God in Him. Now, I said that's what generated the family. That's what generated the creation of the angelic host.

It's not saying there wasn't a purpose for them or a plan that involved purposes for them. But what caused God, when it was God, the one that we know of as the Father and the Son Jesus Christ, what caused them to say, let's expand. Let's create other beings. Let's expand. It's that word, love, because a being made of love is motivated to share. They're outreaching. They're outgoing. They extend themselves. It's not inclusive just to themselves. It's outgoing. It's outflowing. Notice Revelation 4 and verse 11. Revelation 4 verse 11, Such a being is motivated to share, and there's pleasure in sharing.

Why did two people, a man and a woman, why are they drawn to each other, come to love each other, want to be together, want to spend time together, want to share?

The last sermon I gave here was on God's basic marital design. I want to marry her. I want her in my life. I want to share my life with her. I want to share my life with him.

And they marry because they love each other. There's an outgoing reaching out, and they want to be together and share. But what happens many times after they've been together for a while?

They want to share with additional human beings called their children. They want a son. They want a daughter. They want children.

It's interesting, a being that operates by love is outflowing, outgoing, and there's pleasure in sharing.

Revelation 4, verse 11, You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. For You have created all things, including the angels, including us, obviously, and for Your pleasure they are and were created. And I have no problem understanding that. Such a being expands beyond himself.

There's a scripture back in Isaiah, chapter 9. It's verse 7.

Especially during the fall Holy Day season, we tend to read this one. It's among those that we go to, usually more than once.

And it's always been such an encouraging scripture to me. Isaiah 9, verse 7.

Now, if it were to read, of His government and peace, there should be no end.

That in and of itself would be wonderful enough for me.

But there's a word put in there, which, again, is a word that has to do with expansion, going out, outflowing. Of the increase of His government and peace, there should be no end. Now, I'm not saying by that that God will have other planets and put other human beings there. I don't know what God will do in the future. I don't think that this has to mean that there will be other planets with brand new human beings. I don't think it has to mean that, because you would never ever get to a point where there's no more death, no more sorrow, no more pain, no more suffering, no more tears, if that just kept going on and on. And I don't think that it means that. But of God's expansion of doing and creating and doing with His sons and daughters forever, that goes on and on. He says, upon the throne of David, upon His kingdom, to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever, and the excitement of God, the enthusiasm of God will see to it. See, when it says, the zeal of the Lord will perform this, He's excited about it. Again, a being of love, activity, planning, producing, doing. That's His manner. That's His way. That's His being. That's His nature.

You know, the pure, clean, clear, selfless love of God generates. Generated it, generates it. Produced it, produces it. Promotes it, promoted it. Puts it together. Put it together. His pristine love perpetuates it. But in that family was a being that didn't share that motivation.

He didn't share the motivation of God. And He didn't want to. He was a fragmenter. He was in the family. He was created in the family. In the family as it was to that point, that angelic family. But He set out to fragment the family of God, and He met with a certain measure of success. If you want to call it success, He had a certain measure of success. If you ever ask yourself, why couldn't God keep Him from being successful? God's God. Why couldn't He keep Him from being successful? Why did He have a certain measure of success? Well, that will be answered in a little bit.

Now, He met with a certain measure of, quote, success. If you go with me to Revelation 12, He drew a third of the angels out of that angelic family of God. He drew a third of them. It says in verse 4 here, And His tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven. Now, we don't know how many angels there are. There's no exact number of angels given in the Bible. But we do know fractions. We do know the proportions. We do know the percentages. He took one-third. He swayed. He influenced. He convinced. One-third of them to break away from the angelic family of God and follow Himself. And when you read in verse 7, And there was war in heaven, Michael, the archangel, of course, and his angels, the ones that God appointed to meet the ascending Lucifer and his angels, Michael was appointed. There was war in heaven in these terrestrial skies, space, around us. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought in his angels. Now, verse 7 is talking about a historic event. It happened long, long ago. But it's also a prophecy, because what happened long ago is evidently he's going to try it again, evidently. So it's both historic and it's prophetic and prevail not. Neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceived the whole world. He was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And we live on a rebel planet. We live on a planet that was run by angels at one time, went to try to take God's throne, got cast back, and those little critters are around us. They're there. But they became known as, and there's a phrase that applies to them. It's here in 2 Peter 2, 4. 2 Peter 2 and verse 4. Those particular angels became known as, as Peter says it, For if God spared not, and here's the phrase, the angels that sinned. Michael has never sinned. Gabriel has never sinned. They never will. Lucifer did. And seduced a third to sin with him, to join in with him with sin. For if God spared not the angels that sinned, they became tagged with the title, demons. And of course, their leader, the devil. But you think about it. He wasn't motivated like God. He didn't hold the same attitude. He didn't have the same outlook. He couldn't be defined with the same word that you could define God with. New words. New words had to be invented and used to define him. Words such as what we find in John 844. You know, there was a time when these words that we find in John 844 had no application in the universe.

The words didn't exist. There was no application for them. They didn't define anything because there was no reality that these words defined until the reality that the words defined came to be the reality then these words, if you want to say invented, created, however you want to word it, that defined it.

Where Christ said here in John 844, You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer. People say, well, he didn't kill any angels. He murdered their relationship with God. He completely killed. He was instrumental as his own instrument.

He completely murdered any and every bit of relationship that that third of the angels had with God. It was killed. It was dead. It no longer exists. And plus, Christ shows in the Sermon on the Mount that the spirit of murder is murder. The spirit of murder.

Now, obviously, if my neighbor hates me and he's in the spirit of murder, but he doesn't carry it out, I can still drink my coffee. I can still live and go about. So I would prefer him just to hate me and not carry it out. But the spirit of murder still makes you in spirit a murderer. Anyway, he says, A murder from the beginning and abode not in the truth, because there's no truth in him. When he speaks, a lie. He speaks of his own, for he is a liar. Well, the word lie didn't apply until him. There was no liar until him. It says, and the father of it.

Again, there was a time when these words had no meaning, no application.

See, I said, why didn't God, or why couldn't God, who is God, stop Lucifer from self-corrupting and for having, quote, success with a third of the angels turning them against him?

You know, we live in a day and age where some people don't really want to believe that there's such a thing truly as reality. That reality is just what you want to make it. Like truth is just what you want to make it. There's such a thing as reality. And when reality is reality, you can't make it not be reality. One of the unavoidables, one of the unavoidables in building a family of fully involved, interrelating individuals, is mind power. Mind power. A family is not things.

How big is your family? Well, there's me and all the things I own. No, I was asking, how big is your family? Well, I just told you, it's me and all the things. I've got a million acres, I've got three houses, I've got 30 barns, I own half a million cattle. Yeah, but you, your family, it's me and all these things I have. I have a big family. No, you don't. No, you don't.

A family is not things, it's beings. Things are used, and they're intended to be properly used. Beings relate.

Things are just there, again, for proper use, but beings share. They communicate, they relate, and there's a conscious cooperation or opposition.

You don't create a mind, you have a robot. You have a computer. You have an automaton. You give a mind, you have a being.

See, with a mind, each has separate, unique mind power. Each has separate, independent, decision-making power. Each has independent thought capacity. Each has power of decision. That's what goes with having a mind.

Each has free, moral agency. Each is a free, moral agent. Not with the right to decide or determine what is right or wrong, because God's already determined that, but with the right or the allowance to choose whether they will follow right versus wrong.

Lucifer was at the throne of God. He saw all that went on. Angels coming and going. He was a covering carob. He was trained. He was trained in the light. He was given great capacities for the light and for functioning in God's plans and purposes.

He knew better. He was trained to what is right and good. He chose to go differently.

So I would ask you this question. How do you prevent a mind from corrupting itself? How do you stop it?

Lucifer had a mind. How would God say, Lucifer, you're beginning to think down the wrong direction. I'm going to stop you from corrupting your thinking. I'm going to take your mind away from you and make you a robot.

Then you've got a thing. You don't have a being. Again, how do you prevent a mind from corrupting itself? You can't. If it's set on corrupting itself, again, free moral agency has to do with choosing. It has to do with choosing right or not, not determining it because God has already done that.

But with the creation of man, in a very special, unique way, in a tremendously potential way, God was going to expand his family in a way that the resurrected, glorified sons and daughters would be on a higher plane of relationship by far than the angels ever were.

That we have the opportunity to be on the God-plane relationship with the Father and the Son. The Father will always be the Father, the Son will always be the Son. They have no beginning, we do. But we'll be on that same God-plane relationship. But with the creation of man, and with a plan that God had thought out for expanding and having a family at such a tremendously higher level, with what God thought out, it would obviously require the Father taking on the role of the Father and Christ taking on the role of the Son. And a pattern would be set. And we're very familiar with that. But don't go back to Ephesians 3. With the creation of man, God began expanding His family into earth. Because again, it says here in verse 15, "...of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named." Well, if He began expanding His family into earth, and of course human beings were the raw material for the eternal sons and daughters of God, it's part of the process, we understand that.

But where on earth today is that family? If God has any...I mean, He's got to...it says, "...of whom the whole family..." Jesus Christ of whom? Referencing Christ. Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. So who on earth is the family of God by the name of, in the name of, in, you might say, Jesus Christ. Where is that family on earth? Well, we know the answer, don't we? It's the church. Simply said, it's the church. And when I say the church, I'm not talking about whatever number of, quote, "...bonafide organizations of the body of Christ there might be." I'm talking about the living organism. United is not the only part of the body of Christ. United is not the only organized part of the body of Christ. There is no part more bonafide part of the body of Christ than United. And as I told a man one time, I said, if you can go find another part of the body of Christ, organized part, that there's more a bonafide part of the body of Christ than United, let me know. He said, there's not one. And that was said by a man who was leaving us. He said, there's not one. We're not the only ones. But we're definitely a very bonafide part. The living organism. The living organism. It's what I'm talking about. It goes across organizational lines. The church, the living organism, is the expression and form of that part of the family. Notice with me here in Ephesians, Ephesians 2.

In Ephesians 2, in verse 19, Paul writes, Ephesians 2 verse 19, Now therefore, you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, talking about the Gentiles that are being converted into the church, and of what? The household of God. The household of God. And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. And whom all the building, fitly framed together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. And whom also you are built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit. The household of God. The household. Okay, let's add to that 1 Timothy 3.15.

Let's connect that with the Scripture in 1 Timothy 3 and verse 15. Where Paul wrote to Timothy, But if I tarry, or I wait long, that you may know how you ought to behave yourself, and what? The house. The house or the household of God. Okay, the house or the household of God, which is built up as a dwelling place, a holy temple, a dwelling place for God's Spirit. For His family is on earth, of course, at this time. Which is what? Paul says, which is the church, the living organism, the church of the living God. Which happens to be the holder of, the preserver of, the foundation, the stay of, has a responsibility to preserve, you know, the pillar and the ground or stay of the truth. And as I have said many a time, and I'll probably say it again on Thursday at a funeral that I have to do in Chattanooga, in giving more or less kind of a nutshell, brief outline of certain things, especially in regards to in a funeral where it's someone who's the first fruit, and I'm speaking of their future, and this happens to be a lady's funeral, lady member that I'll be preaching on Thursday. I like to go to 2 Corinthians 6, 18. Because when you talk about the family on earth, and you talk about the church, and you talk about us as members, and our potential, and in one sense, our destiny, our future, I like this verse because it uses both genders. And I'm a firm believer there's only two genders. And this is a quote. The Apostle Paul is quoting. It's a direct quote of God here. And will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. And, of course, you could go to the very next to the last chapter of the Bible. I'm not going to turn there, but Revelation 21 verse 7, right next to the last chapter, almost. Chapter 22 is the last one, but in chapter 21 and verse 7, where it says, And I will be his God, and he shall be my son. And, of course, again, God means sons and daughters, and that's part of the beauty of the way it's worded here in Corinthians. But God is putting together an eternal family, eternal family, that will never, ever be fragmented again.

See, beyond resurrection, there will never be fragmentation. No resurrected son or daughter of God will ever lead an insurrection, will ever rebel, will ever sin. No resurrected, glorified son or daughter will ever corrupt their own thinking, will ever self-corrupt. Beyond resurrection, there is no fragmentation, because God is seeing to that now. He is securing that now. He is making sure of that now. He is in the process of handling that now. God is pretty smart. He's pretty wise.

He really does know how to work things for future peace and happiness and joy. He is dealing with that now in this time of our mortality. He is eliminating that possibility now, and He will only be taking into His eternal family, into eternal life, those in whom He has instilled His mindset, His motivation, His nature, His spirit, His makeup, His righteousness. Because Amos 3-3, can two walk together except they be agreed? He will not spend eternity having to watch everybody step to see if they're going to be willing to be on the same page with Him.

No, that all gets worked out now because by processing that now, with such who have His mindset, His motivation, His nature, His makeup, His righteousness, where that's been processed now, with such there's permanence. With such there will be no surprises. And as I said, never again will there ever be a fragmenter in the family of God. That will be forever avoided.

But, in a very important, realistic, but, and that's with one too, not two. But, the family on earth now is fragmentable. It is fragmentable. It is susceptible to being affected in a negative direction. It is susceptible to being corrupted from what Paul refers to as the simplicity in Christ.

I'm going to turn back to, or actually turn forward here. I'm still in 2 Corinthians 6, and we're going to go forward to chapter 11. In 2 Corinthians 11, and picking it up in verse 1, he says, Less vain he means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, he slick. He has to be slick. If he could convince a third of the angels to go with him in his ways, contrary to God and God's ways, and even eventually to charge off with him up to heaven to try to take God's throne, he slick through his subtlety.

So, your minds should be corrupted from, and this phrase that we use, the simplicity that is in Christ. All my life, from the time that I was old enough to really listen and pay attention. You know, we have a, we have a, in our prayers many times, we'll say, and inspire the hearing. Let's take it a step further. Father, please inspire the hearing. We need to hear the sounds and the words, and inspire the understanding of those words, and then inspire the application of the understanding of those words.

From the time I would pay attention and listen, and hear and register, and hear with my mind as well as my ears, there have been certain things taught throughout my lifetime, throughout my lifetime, that I call trunk of the tree. And if you move away from those, as Mr. Armstrong used to say, you get out on a limb out there, way out there. You know, anybody's climbed trees, and I climbed plenty when I was a boy growing up, and I fell out of a few, too.

I learned, you get out on the limbs too far, they won't support you, and down you go. Never broke any bones that way, but got jarred up pretty good. Had my vision on one side, just blanked out on me for a time.

It almost knocked me out, but not quite. Anyway, I learned, you know, just from climbing trees, the closer you are to the trunk of the tree, the safer you are, the stronger the limbs are. But I learned that there are certain things that are trunk of the tree, that you've got to keep that in place, and then you can tie everything else tied to that. It's kind of like this building right here we're in. Inside these walls, you don't see it, but there's that structure in there that everything is attached to, and that's the strength of the building.

Just like the strength of your body is the skeleton. If somebody could just reach and pull your skeleton out, you'd collapse into a quivering mass of flesh and blood, and that's all. You know, there are certain things that are structural and necessary for strength and for maintenance. Well, the simplicity of Christ really does deal with the trunk of the tree, and I'm not going to go through the trunk of the tree, I'm just acknowledging there's a trunk of the tree that all God's truth ties to. And the family on earth, which is yet mortal, can be corrupted from the simplicity in Christ.

It can be corrupted from, it can be broken away from the family of God. It can be broken away from the church. And when I say the church, I mean the living organism. It can be broken away from the living organism. And sadly, and unfortunately, there will be fragments.

It's been a present pattern for a long, long time. You read in the New Testament, and you can see that pattern showing itself. And it's going to continue to be so until, number one, the foremost fragmenter is bound and banished. And number two, the mortality of mankind passes away. But until then, it is an ever-present concern. And a part of the knowledge and the understanding, a part of the light, a part of the awareness that we are to walk in. You know, again, in Ephesians 5, in Ephesians 5 and verse 8, Ephesians 5 and verse 8, it says, For you were sometimes darkness. Yeah, until God called us and called us out of darkness, we were sometimes darkness. We were involved in ways that in some cases we didn't see or recognize them as darkness. In some cases we did, but it was darkness. But now are you light in the Lord? The whole family of heaven and earth, you know, of Jesus Christ, you're light of the Lord. Okay, what's the admonition? Walk as children of light. Walk as children of light. We're to function. Think about it. We're to function with our eyes open. Now, if I walk into a dark room, pitch black, there's no light on. And especially if I walk into a room that I haven't been in before and it's pitch black, and I try to move around in that room, and I don't even know what's in that room, I shouldn't be surprised if I'm going to stub my toes, skin my shins, put a goose bump on my head, whatever. Well, guess what? I can reach... I can fill along the walls, let's say, and finally find the light switch and throw the lights on. Hmm, I got light. I think I'll close my eyes again and put a blindfold around my... over my eyes, the lights are on. But now I'm walking in darkness again because I'm not opening my eyes, I'm closing my eyes and putting a blindfold on. There may as well be no light on. I'm still going to stumble around, bang into things. See, when he says, walk as children or light, we're to function with our eyes open. And I don't mean that just as some metaphor or illustration or analogy. I mean, literally, spiritually, we're to operate with our eyes open. Light does no good for us if our eyes are closed. We are to be alert. We're to be aware. We're to be vigilant. There's a lot of things through personal experiences and working with members and all that sometimes I would love to share with you. But due to confidentiality, due to a number of things, I can't. But I can tell you, I know what I'm talking about. We have to be alert. We have to be aware. We have to be vigilant. We have to be armored. See, again, here in this book of Ephesians, just across the page in my copy of the Bible, in chapter 6 and verse 11, these aren't idle words when it says, put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. I don't underestimate my adversary because my adversary self-corrupted, and he's brilliantly insane, but he is brilliant.

He got a third of God's angels. Can he ever defeat God? No. Can he ever stop God's plans and purposes from being fulfilled? No. Will God have an eternal family? Yes. Do I want to be part of that family? Absolutely. Do I want to be standing in a lake of fire someday and have the devil have the last laugh on me? No. And I don't think that's carnal. I don't want to give him the final laugh on me. But it's more than just not wanting him to have that. I want to be part of God's eternal family. And I realize when it says, put on the whole armor of God, I'm not exempt from that admonition to put it on. But you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

You know, we are to do spiritual battle for the family of God. We will fight for our physical families, won't we? We will fight to provide for our physical families. We'll fight for their benefit. We'll fight to keep them intact. We'll fight to stay intact with them. Well, we're to do spiritual battle for the family of God, to be a part of it and to remain a part of it. We're to do spiritual battle. And you know where we have to start with that spiritual battle? Who's likely to take me out as far as human beings? Is it somebody else or is it me? If somebody said, eh, do you recant Jesus Christ? No. I'm going to pull this trigger and there's going to be a 30 out of 6 bullet, a 220 grain bullet, go through your head. You're going to recant? No. Bang. Guess what? I hear the trumpet blowing. I'm rising to meet the return in Christ. I wasn't taken out of his family. I was taken out of the land of the living for a time, but I'm not taken out of the family. Yeah, hey, whoa, whoa, hold on, hold on. Take your finger off that trigger. Whatever you want me to do.

You want me to recant? You want me to curse God? Whatever, I'll do it. I'm just taking myself out of the family of God. My point is, and I just, you know, that would be, you know, classic, let's say. That'd be at a very high level if that were to happen with any of us. But my point I'm making is we are to do spiritual battle with ourselves and the forces that would fragment us from the family of God. See, verse 12, when it says, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood.

Now, it may use flesh and blood to try to get at us on something. seduce us, tempt us, upset us. But really, seeing through the flesh and blood, so to speak, maybe human instruments sometimes, we're really not wrestling against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world. Now, I want you to notice this phrase, against wicked spiritual wickedness in high places or wicked spirits in high places. Let me ask us a question. Where is the highest point of your body? Is it your little finger? No. Is it your ear? No. It's what's in your cranium. It's your mind. It's your brain. It's your mind. I want my hand to lift and turn. It does because my mind controls that. My hand doesn't control my body. My feet don't control my body. My body doesn't control my body. My mind controls it. Where is the highest place of your makeup? It's your mind. We are to fight for the family of God in our rightful, God-given place in it. As Peter said, and again, put the weight on his words in 2 Peter 1.10, put the weight that goes on these words of a man who has spent his lifetime serving God, who knows his days are now almost up, and he is writing to the church, and he knows probably that he's not going to be writing anything after this, and he wants to really press upon the minds some of that which is most important to be aware of. And he says here in 2 Peter, I mean for the entire book of 1 and 2 Peter for that matter, but here in 2 Peter 1, verse 10, he says, Wherefore the rather brethren give diligence to make your calling, your calling, and election sure. For if you do these things, you shall never fail. Fight a good spiritual warfare. Fight for the family of God, and again, your God-given, God-ordained rightful place in it. Fight the good fight of faith. Finish your course as Paul told Timothy he had. Because there's laid up for you then a crown of righteousness that will be there forever in your permanence forever. See, someday, and believe me, someday does come. Again, I've commented about how I left home at 17 and how 70 was an eternity away. And as I've said, the numbers on age have just flipped. 17 still got the same numbers now, but they're reversed. Someday does come. Someday does come. And someday permanence will replace temporary. Someday, immortal will replace mortal. Someday, fullness will replace any and all fragmentation. I look forward to that day, and while I do, I fight. And I fight the good fight of faith, and I don't turn my back on the fragmenter. I do not.

And I've had to deal sometimes with his henchmen, and I don't turn my back on them. I fight for the freedom and future that's in Christ. I fight for the family of God. And I look forward to the time when the fight is finished, when it's over. Is there the time when I can take my permanent place in God's family that's even now reserved and waiting for me? And, brethren, may we all take our place permanently together in that family, the joyous, wonderful, eternal family of God in due time.