God's Educational System

And I'll use that word with knowledge. The whole idea is light. That's teaching and training. So we're highlighting, especially, the youth programs of the church because we're sending two of our members, and that's going to take our numbers down, you know, just so you know. We're happy to send you away for this purpose. But at this point, the premier educational program that the church has, in fact, a little bit, we just received back two of the students, and one of the counseling staff, as we just mentioned, that have just come from one of the other really important church programs for youth, that is the camp of Minnesota. This is a pre-teen camp, and we really appreciated Mr.... I talked to Ms. Trevery. So we really appreciated Mrs. Brown coming up because she made a huge impact and just added to the staff. It was all over the place. Hard-working. You mentioned several things. I can't remember all the many thousands of things he mentioned there. That's how good you were. But he appreciated that because we have so much to do, and it's enough to watch after until the goslings ran around and getting in trouble and doing everything that children do, but then to take on a bunch more is impressive. So we have five people directly involved right now. We're highlighting the youth programs done by the church, and that's a... actually it's small in one sense, but it's one of God's major emphases throughout the Bible. So I do not have time to take all the, you know, all that. I'm not going to attempt to do that. I'm going to follow Mr. Sanders' good example of speaking for a short time. And by the way, I really appreciate that sometimes it's the observations of your own... or the meditations about your own trial or difficult time. It's some of the most valuable observations we have, some valuable advice. So it's great to have that, Mark. Nice to see you here, and hear you once again in this way. So just over the phone or whatever. But in turn, so we are highlighting God's current educational system, one aspect of it today, and with several just involved directly with that as we speak. God is light for John's 1-5. You know that scripture? And I always call the numbers with it necessarily, but God is light. That is a statement that must be the greatest statement in the Bible or in all the world. God is light. It's simply giving us one physical creation that is light. And then he says God is love, learning how they are both the same. It's just astounding to think about, but God has all power and all energy. And the first thing you have is light. That's the first power. That's which goes out, you know, the outgoing idea, and goes out from God.

And there's quite an awful lot in the Bible about that, but just start off with that observation. All power, energy, love, truth, word, that is God's word, spirit, which is a synonym at times.

Absolutely all power comes up out from God. The Father who is the highest God of all, the Most High God, and the Son, Jesus Christ, Jesus 1.3. I cannot explain this, but I can tell you.

Constantly and all the time, Jesus Christ, through the word of his power, upholds all creation, physical and spiritual. That's beyond my thought process. How does that happen?

I'm just going to put it out there. I've been meditating on this for many years.

You probably have too. We just have a lot to learn. God has given us a tiny bit of penprick of light, all the information and knowledge that mankind has. You know, about one tenth of that prick. But I like it. How do you explain this? It's beyond what we can explain. God is so great. He gives out light constantly. That's the source of the beginning of all other powers, energies and everything. And all creation shouts this out. People worry about running out of energy, which is nonsense. The earth is an energy-producing machine. That's all this input from the sun, this light, and all these other energies. And there are things that I have barely heard of. And I try to look into what other possible energies they can be talking about. There are many things. The earth just continually produces energy. There is enough for everybody. So, there are people who don't believe in God, who don't understand God much about it, that have any worries about running out of energy or resources or anything like that. It's just not going to happen. God gives out light far more energy and power of any kind than all of His creation can use. It's always being recycled. My dad pointed out the fact that the Mabel puts out thousands of little helicopters, those Mabel's seeds, and they get in the way, and he has to wriggle out and all that stuff. And he just made a comment one time, too. He says, you know, God always produces far, far more than we need. We use a little bit, and everything recycles. Not wasted. It goes back into this huge recycling machine we call the Earth.

And I've been thinking about that for years, too. But it's the same thing, same terrible thing. Now, the Mabel has covered, so I went with that introduction. The creation shouts out that God just is the giver and source of all. God is, and he says, love, and light, and other descriptions, many of those descriptions. But God is about many things. There are over 700 names that God has, names and titles and appellations that God uses for Himself, and for themselves, but in the singular and in the plural, for given uses. But he's about many things. That's why he created so many physical things to teach and enlighten his family, because the physical teaches about spiritual. And one of the biggest obvious, most obvious things is there's a lot to learn. There are many, many whole realms of education. So what I'd like to do is take a look at several aspects of God's perfect educational system of necessity that's hitting the high points.

But try it anyway.

And I believe we can do it pretty easily. First of all, first aspect, I made this into sections, the first aspect of this is the origins of all that God is giving to mankind, His education of mankind. Go back to Adam Eve, he visited and he taught them. They left fairly quickly, don't know how much they learned before they left, but it doesn't really say, doesn't matter. Obviously, God taught them. It is interesting to notice the Jewish traditions, which I haven't said in deeply, but noted several of them. But it was said that in their traditions that God Himself, that would be Jesus Christ the Logos, the one who became Christ, came down to visit Him on the Sabbath for the first few months. And Holy days, and He would visit and teach. Somebody had to teach them how to cook. What's good and what's not good to eat. They weren't even eating anymore, so they didn't have those protections. And just, you know, the natural world they created for them just enhanced everything they were doing. So they had to make a lot of changes real quick, just what they first got used to. Some people say it was two or three days, or maybe the next day, other days, other speculations are a couple of months or before they were kicked out. We don't know.

But He obviously had to teach them how to cook, what foods to choose. He had to teach them a lot about hygiene. We don't know. Maybe He taught how to clean themselves up. And they had to learn all these things. He certainly had to tell them about give and get, or are married after all. And He gave them instructions on how to serve each other. A lot of instructions.

They basically knew the law of God. That's why He taught them. And that's even before any kids were born. It had to be that way. And we find that before the Flood, the whole law, that is all the major points. There were later laws added to clarify, and as mankind grew, but they had the law back then. He certainly taught about sin and sacrifice. They talked about giving. Tithing was known along with sacrifices. Wealth management. They didn't have paper money yet. Paper hadn't been invented, I'm quite sure.

I don't know when it was invented. But there's just so many things. But the idea of managing your possessions and your wealth, and as man grew, all those things, there's simply a matter of necessity for survival. So all those things, God enlightened them about as He had before with the angels, gave them teaching. And of course, by His power, created the earth and all the physical, and then life. But they had to learn how to do life, and so God gave them that. He continued to give to man, an enlightened man, from the time there were one and then two on as the population grew at first very slowly, and then of course, picked up speed later, as everybody who has grandkids knows pretty soon, you're thinking about not having great grandkids, and you say, how can this be in this short of time, like my life?

Which is, if you're thinking that, which has gone on, but so the population grew. They say sin and sacrifice and therefore repentance, the great laws. He taught them about Himself. Genesis 1 is about creation, Genesis 2 is about creation. Why two stories that kind of complement and even repeat, second repeats?

Well, because you look at the author. The author of Genesis 1, they say that that chapter, I'm not familiar with this, but has literary indications of something that was dictated, and then somebody wrote it down as a scribe. It's listed among those things that came from Adam, but that obviously had its company's value. Chapter 2 is basically the way Adam saw it, apparently, and so seems the best way to explain the differences.

So there was not right away. This seems to have been quite a few years, a couple hundred years or so before there's evidence that there was writing. But again, there's a lot of speculation in that. We don't know those things. But all the light had to come from God, and he was teaching them when it comes. You know, and I mentioned for several months, but for many years, God was known on earth. We have one example, and this is after the flood, where Jesus Christ, the one who became Melchizedek, actually came down on holy days, and sometimes other times, there was a presence in what we call Jerusalem today, Salem, the ancient city.

There is some argument about that in the commentary, and I don't think they hold water. It says he was there. They described Jesus Christ who could be nobody else but God, as they describe him. So, Abraham paid him tithes. God continued to teach mankind, which continued after the flood. And we don't know. I would know when the last sacrifice was that Christ made Esmelechizedek, Jerusalem. When did it die out?

I don't know, but he got met off to a good start, and taught even after man rebuilt, even he had to close down the world and start over with eight people. And he continued to teach and give light, and he continues to today. It's one of the big things about God. Now, it was Jesus Christ who firmly called the Logos and called that in John chapter 1.

So, that's section 1. There's a history of God teaching and giving light to man.

That's what God does. I'm going to speed up here, because we're only on section 2. I think we can do it just fine. But, secondly, God created an institution that was built for teaching, was built for training, and I tried to find where we are. You might have seen this on Beyond Today. They have just updates, and there are some articles. This is by Jim Tuck, The Prophetic Times, the oldest institution on earth. And then he goes through there, and he shows that even though Satan tried to derail it immediately, the institution of marriage was the first social institution done. The creation of man, that was a pretty big thing. But after that, he created marriage, the first two people. And, apparently, they were married the same night or same afternoon. It was Friday night, as they started the Sabbath. So, excellent article. This comes out and is mentioned. And I get those updates. You can probably do two.

You could just go on the line and ask for them to be single. So, there are two things to read. I'm not suggesting you get busy and read every single one of them. This is outstanding, though. Jim Tuck has been writing his perspective column for a long time, and it's excellent.

But God created the family, and the idea of having a family, the whole thing, has to do with the giving of life, with education. What do you do when a kid? Well, you've got to feed him. And, as has been said, I've experienced that. If you're a parent you have, you put food in one end and wipe it off the other end. And that's just the way nature works. God makes us so dependent. We have to have education on everything. And, boy, are we glad when the kid is finally potty trained. And then, when they can handle the fork and the spoon themselves, you don't have to wash the white part of it off their face. It gets pretty low percentage. It gets in the mouth at first. But they have to use the spoon. And all those joys of life are still messy. And you're glad when they're joyful. They have the responsibility, which are relieved when that responsibility is finished. It's just a fabulous. God is so great. Everything He does is for our growth and our understanding. And God gives us those gifts. And then men say, inspired by Satan, well, why do you do it that way? He could have done better. And why didn't that? But He has given us everything just for good. It's important to understand that about God. Become to know God better. In your relationship changes when you just perceive what He is doing. You know, by being thankful. Start being thankful, and you begin to see more and more and more. I don't mean that anybody here has to start being thankful. We already are. We wouldn't be here, of course. But the idea is that attitude of thankfulness, you just begin to know God better because you see all the details. Well, you worked out in advance. You know, something, this happens to me. Enough to notice, anyway. But I'll plan something, you know, get it all ready, whether it's personal or church or anything in life, you know, business or whatever. And I will have not thought about such an... I never thought about that, but it's big and important.

And so many times, well, sometimes you have to learn. So many times, God has already taken care of it.

But it's already there for you. I don't know if you've noticed that, but I sure have. And that's the way He is. That's what He said. You know, He's the parent. You have... you just imagine a child, all distressed about something, worried, and you thought it is a parent. You thought of it. You plan... you knew about it before you were married, you know. You fix it because you're mom or dad, you know. And children begin to understand. They believe. And they are.

They're correct because parents are the first God...

Parents are the first Gods, plural. But children... in that situation, commandment number five, God of your parents is the first commandment for children. That's what they learned way before. They understand the first four commandments about how to love God. It's how parents...

Parents are the giver and the taker, everything. They can create wonderful goods and satisfaction and pain. They... one sharp word can send a kid just into tears. They're so insecure.

That's how we begin. We're the source of all food, clothing, shelter, and everything they need.

You know, kiss it and make the pain go away, you know. Scrape on the arm. But parents are God to children. They learn, of course, to her. But what a fabulous thing that fathers and mothers have.

To be in the position of God, not just representing God, but much more. They are the providers and they're the trainers. So, and that's important to you, let God demand respect. Just one point. You're actually giving him such a huge blessing to be respectful of authority and of structure. Because it's all structure, all authority comes from God.

You're blessing them because it'll be a blessing to their thinking. So, turns out then that husband slash father and wife slash mother are spiritual offices of authority in the government of God. They're offices ordained of God with authority to do those jobs. And when you do those jobs, parenting, even in societies and cultures that don't know the true God at all and have very little, when you're doing that, God has this perfect educational plan. It works even if they don't know God or know what he's doing or why they're doing it. They put a love in us.

They want to take care of our children and teach them right, whatever we might think is right.

God was just giving us evidence of supreme intelligence. However, how do you say a difference from that? All intelligence, all power, all brilliance in that side.

So he made this system and we carried out as humans his directives, his plan and command to take care of our children. Watch out for them. We do it very imperfectly, but we're doing God's will, caring for God's will. And this perfect educational plan is like step one, or if you want to put it that way. So it's just a fabulous thing. God says, Why Mary? He's Malachi 2, 15. He has made you one. It's a warning not to commit adultery and to be faithful to who you're made one with by God. And he says, Why? Why has God done this? Different translations. Really great. For his purposes, not our purposes. We want to be happy and have just what suits us. Our will all the time. God doesn't care about that. And this is to learn that he doesn't care about having his way all the time. He is willing to step back. That's the fourth pillar of Godly wisdom. Willing to step back. Easy to be entreated. Don't have to have my way right now. God has been saying that since and before man was created.

He lets us, because he wants us to learn, to have our way and what he's learned from, choosing the wrong way. And then, our will changes. You mature and you have a good chance of living a good life. You can generally follow his law. It's just a fantastic educational plan that he has.

Perfect. Good News Bible. Different translations are worthy. And why has God made you one?

Good News Bible. To what purpose is this? Will? That you should have children that are truly God's people. His will is that we teach our children goodness that he has already taught us. The world has fallen into a terrible mess. That doesn't matter in some ways because parents are still trying to figure out how to do the best they can. They desire to better their children. And we will all fail as a whole human race and learn from it. Then, when we learn that God's way is right in every case and we see evidence of just in the way he is dealt with us all through, he will have a family which, like Psalm 110 says, says, thy warriors, talking to Jesus Christ and the returning King, are willing. And it's hard to translate the Hebrew, but it has the meaning of just being so absolutely devoted to Jesus Christ as our leader that we are just filled with zeal and our anxieties to go out and change the world and do the work of God. It has to do with that attitude toward God. Start with calling it unity. And then it grows into this deep enthusiasm and personal drive and desire to be like Jesus Christ, our example, to be like the Father, and to help them and do their will. So we're in that process right now. There are some other translations I won't read just to make the point here. Fifth Commandment, by the way, sits a very high bar for parents. You have to be honorable. You have to give your children reason for being thankful. They get food, so there's a start. And in all the many things we do for them. But also, it's important to teach them. You know, well, now we're driving, aren't we? Oh, well, what's that? What's the problem? Well, did you have? Where did you wake up? Oh, you got a bedroom. Great, good start. That means a house is there? Good. And very shortly as they get older, very shortly there, they became older. They come like us, and we can quickly think of, why am I crappy? I got all these bit of it because we thought it so much. So you help your children from early on say, oh, well, you just don't like, you know, such and such, your spinach or something. Well, we'll just get rid of it so you don't have to worry about it. And you take the whole plate, scrape it down the drain. They've already eaten a little bit, so they're still hungry. Wah! You know, I'm speaking of a family. I know a kid's group doing something, and so they said, oh, okay, if you feel that way, whatever you really want, kids, all four kids, you know, mom and dad, they're playing scrape, the food down the garbage disposal, and it turns on. It disappeared! Well, dinner's over. Go ahead and put it on the plate and clean that room like I told you to. And, oh, they're sweeping and whaling that household. They're personal friends, right? And they said, no, you know, no food until breakfast. That's the way it is. How cruel. Well, they did get the point. It's been changed on that little item. They cleaned the basement. They spent all day cleaning the basement, and in 15 minutes, stuff was all over the place. It kind of angered. You know, it came down to get them for for dinner, I guess. And was fuming and let them eat a little bit, and then that was, the decision was made. Of course, in their house, they could always get up early and get some cereal that they wanted. So about to a clock, I guess it was in the kitchen, all four kids. So they weren't starving, and they made that point, too. So help your children really be a Christi. You know, I didn't intend to go up on that, but it was such a good example.

Like the interview, the kid brought this when I see them, and they're adults now, of course.

So God says, Exodus, the Eradim, he got over the Scripture so many times to teach them. When they ask, well, what are we doing this? Our living bread thing, you know, why are we doing that? Well, we came out of Egypt. The eternal God brought it out of Egypt. That was a lot of lessons, so it's a teaching opportunity. So God tells us to do that. So we have marriage and the result, and child training responsibilities is a perfect example of God's perfect educational system.

Interestingly, the teacher must set the example and create a desire of the children to be like the parents. We parents are responsible for creating that desire, and that has to do with doing what God did. Not insisting on your own way, but I don't mean creating spoiled bread, either. But you do, not necessarily what you'd like to do.

Some guys really love cool, and I know one guy that just loved racing. He had to, you know, count down the, I guess, you were doing straight line racing, stock car racing, and other. And I know some people like sports. Well, I assume what sports all day is, and part of that he is, up to sundown on Friday night or whatever, you know. You give up your own way, and the parents see that. I've got a lot of examples, and I don't want to take time for it. Let's move on here. But you have a lot of examples, too. So, but the point is that there is a very high bar for parents, because you have to be way ahead of the kids, and thinking of their dinner, like a shepherd who is looking, leaves the dog with the shepherd, he goes over the hill and finds the next patchy grass, where we're going to go tomorrow, the next day. Always way ahead, because this is a hard thing you've noticed. And so, I leave it that way, marriage and child-reing just puts us in the mode, even in pagan lands, because we love our children, we want to have good life, and so on, puts you in the mode of caring for others and sacrificing yourself. Parents do that.

So, by knowing God's plan, we can see the wisdom. You know, Clint Porter's sermon at Lake Plaid last week, or the week before, means last week, but that was outstanding. He made a comment that, on this topic, of setting example for your kids, and just being that way, so your kids want to be that way, said, more wisdom is caught than is taught. The girl is negative about this net. Well, they need to hear a lot of it, but they just see your way of life, your steady way of life, serving and giving, helping them, helping you, calling them up short. There's indeed all that imbalance. More wisdom is caught than taught. I thought that was a great thing worth quoting. But the nature and the design of family, marriage and family, is teaching and learning and growing. That's what you have to do if you're married and have children.

Section 3, history, a real small section. I've been thinking about this a long time. You know, I have a lot of observations, and I'm not going to give them all.

But just to mention the highlights, the seventh day Sabbath is colon, a rest. It is a family day. It is a day for fellowship in general. It is a sign. The Sabbath is a memorial, and there are some others. I'm talking too fast. You're taking notes there.

The Sabbath gives purpose to the whole week. And so by creating the Sabbath, he created just several things. You just have to learn to understand what it is in the first place. I rounded them off. Each one is a major topic of its own. But the Sabbath gives purpose. You know why the children of Israel left off keeping the Sabbath so fast? They just would forget it. They would be a revival. They would keep the Sabbath, and so on. It's because they didn't have synagogues until after the exile.

They went into the land of promise. They were supposed to keep it as family. They don't know what to do. They set up the Levites. They were supposed to go around and teach. But if you don't go to church and fellowship with others about God's things, about His way, then you're missing out on keeping the Sabbath. People think that it's wonderful. We have. You can look online. And by the way, I will say the two that I know are online. Judd and Jeannie, Howdy. They're thinking about you. And we should be here.

But what a wonderful thing. We can be involved. We can do that bad weather or sickness or whatever comes up.

We have this technology which really helps. But the principle is, God said, Come and meet me at the door of the Daburah to the leaders of Israel. And He tells us, Come and meet with Him. He will come and meet with us.

So the idea of just hanging around when you don't need to, when you can easily have fellowship, is against the whole idea of the Sabbath. Get together and come to the education of God where we learn. Sabbath ties us back to creation. Reminds us that.

The tithes to each other. It ties us to God's Word, the part we have in it.

Sabbath is central. So that is an institution that's very early on too. Very early for man. And it is part of his educational, perfect educational system.

So I guess that I hope that's pretty obvious. I don't want to take the time to explain because you already know it. But it's so obvious. The whole idea is the spirit of the Sabbath is light. Spirit of the Sabbath and Holy Days is light. Truth. Teaching. And this leads us to God and keeps us going in there. And I'm going to skip over other comments about how specific this is. With each Holy Day. But for one exception, and that is where we're told to go to the feast and to learn to obey the Lord always.

That is how to live your life. So we're supposed to study his words. And in one place it says, well, every seven years it was to be rid the feast. The whole small section, which was the law of the we do that in spades. And now we need much more. We have the expanded Bible and we don't get together just as a feast.

We get together every Sabbath, which they did at first. There was no provision. We keep it at home, mainly. And the priests, there was some section, I don't mean to make that a blanket statement, but basically they didn't have what we, the lesson that we'd have of being able to get together every week. And so God told them to read the law once every seven years so every person would have read at least three times during their space of growing up before they were adults.

And so they had that knowledge, but it tells them to read it daily and to read every word of God. Those two statements, too. So that's why we go to the feast. That's one of the reasons we go to the feast. Okay, that's the Sabbath and the Holy Days. That was section three, section four. Yeah. As, at the time there, is that God provides teachers, He has always provided teachers, even schools, He has always had this education system going in different ways in different times from history.

Early on, there weren't very many people. The whole plan of God was gaining steam and going that way. But I'm just going to go back to the last great day, what it pictures. And the one scripture of the New Testament that comes to mind for me, or just really encapsulated, is 1 Corinthians 2.9, great quotes Isaiah 64.4, which says, I have not seen nor ear heard all those things that God has for them who love Him. And it says a little bit different in Isaiah, but it's the same subject. I have not seen or heard, as Neil Simon sang, it's not available to the mortal man.

I think he was talking about the purpose of life and even love and romance. He said, it's not available to the mortal man. What song is that? It's not getting there very well. But anyway, so now, section four, God has always had His schools going. First of all, the litical teaching. Well, early on, it was the Father's responsibility. The oldest Father in the plan was the priest, the high priest.

And then he would appoint younger fathers, heads of the plan grew. That was the way it was up until he started, he got started the nation of Israel. And then that arrangement changed. He started the litical priesthood. And this became the litical teaching class. There was a class of teachers. I remember this is a time when most people didn't need to read. You know, they would come and read once in a while. They might, they would hear it read, at least at the feast, maybe 11 times. But there was a teaching class. And as things grew, and this is true even before the flood, there were eight preachers of righteousness, 2 Peter 2.5.

He said in Jeremiah and several other places, I think there are, I don't remember how many, 20 or so places. Did I send my prophets or my servants? I sent them early and he didn't listen, that type of thing. He has always sent, had men who were ordained or appointed in vain as speakers and prophets, as teachers. And of course, God complains that people never wanted to listen. Who has heard our, who has listened to our report?

People don't listen. So, God, look at the vast 100,000 people not trying to break down the door of all the churches that just teach seven, just for one doctor. People do not want to hear that. They don't want to hear what God has to say. And of course, we realize we're in that category too. We have a natural resistance to it, and we've got to address it in our own minds.

So, there was a system during the living-old priesthood. The priesthood emphasized the teaching God's law, and later, when there was enough of population, the Levites had service at Tarenachal. But there were way too many for them to serve at Tarenachal. And so, they were traveling, a traveling class, so we'd go around and teach go to different villages and towns. And we don't have that detailed Bible. We have that by just history and tradition as well, but just what they did. We have so many cases, according to the Bible, but that's not all that is included.

And one comment, you know, it's been a long time since Israel had been without the teaching priests. The priests and Levites were teachers of the teaching class, and they had left off of that, got distracted, and, you know, gone just back to the basics of, you know, you didn't necessarily just go to work at a factory. You may leave the farm and so on. But the things of absolute necessity that survived physically, they left off what was important for spiritual growth. So, we have the time of the sons of the prophets mentioned in 1st Kings 2, 5, pardon, 1st Kings 2 through chapter 9, where Elisha, even at one point they were too small, and so they had built a new building. And for the school, the school of the prophets, although it doesn't say school of the prophets in King James. The point is that God has always provided teachers for his people. He has always done that. God is a teacher. It's part of the giving out of life. It's one of the main parts. No, section 5. The New Testament Church, is all about education. Starting with starting in Acts 2, where the church was started, and what did they start with? Well, they were keeping Sabbath and then Pentecost. That was specific day. And I'll just, let's just go to Matthew 28 verses 19 through 20. I've referenced a lot of the Bible, but I'm not quoting very nice this time.

There's the high points here. This is the last two verses of Matthew. Go you therefore, church. He's talking to the church. And what? You know that. It's a membership. Go therefore and teach. So we're supposed to go therefore and do what God does, what Jesus Christ has done from creation on the teacher. In this space, the church is told to go to all nations, baptizing them and teaching them everything. Verse 20. To observe everything. To do whatever I have commanded you. And he gave the whole, you know, the whole gospel to them. And then continued to add to the Bible, the Holy Word, during the New Testament time. So the church has been, always has been about teaching. The word there is method. You know, I think, math a teal. Matheteal. It doesn't matter. It means disciple or instruct or teach. And it can mean, if you're teaching, the other one in verse 20 is diaschos. It means basically the same thing. If you're going to do that, you have to make disciples. So a lot of translations say make disciples. But if you're teaching somebody, you have made a learner or a disciple. So the apostles were trained by Jesus. Also, we have that story. And they trained the ministry. Also, Christ, the head of the church, teaches each of us. But those disciples are apostles trained in the ministry. And the ministry taught the church. The apostles wrote books and epistles very high level explanations, very deep, and added to what Christ had said in the Gospels.

And that teaching we still use today. It was so just high, just perfect. Exactly what we need to teach the church to grow, which is just using Christ's words, putting that.

So in the water era, have we taught? Well, we have how many million pounds or tens of millions of pounds or more of literature have we put out? Mrs. Bartholomew just gave me quite a few books, and she has. I couldn't, I didn't need a lot of copies I had. We have put multiple tens of millions, even hundreds of billions of articles and booklets out alone. And we have gone on radio and TV and taught verbally. It's the day of mass teaching and all of that that the church has put out.

And somebody will say, well, there was a mistake in a book that I spied. Mistakes at all.

We have taught the Word of God in spades. And not that we're so great. God has given us the opportunity. But we've done a really good job of that. If you look at that, that we have done, spread the gospel, all the way everywhere, all continents, most islands, well, most big islands. And we've done that part of the work. We have been busy in doing that. Now we have not only radio, TV, but the internet, and now AI. I don't even know how to think about that yet. But the people that invented it don't either. So don't worry about that. But the world is, and God saw all this. I think we're so brilliant. I was interested in a carburetor. I said, why the shame that our 40-year shoe could have just been a leather. But it had three or four bends in the metal, and it moved to certain ways. Well, it's developed over the years. And so this is the latest development. It really improves things. And boy, that guy must be smart. That's about 15 or 16. He says, okay, but he had something to work with. The smart guy that was, the guy that invented the whole thing in the first place, carried that back three or four steps. It's God himself. We are so smart, we think, but he created it smart enough to understand what he does. Anyway, so we have mass teaching. And yes, we have gotten the gospel to the whole world.

The New Testament Church is all about the true values of God, because there's teaching, but there's also false teaching. So it's about finding truth, maintaining truth, by being taught by God all the time. That's the purpose of sermons. Let me go to our classes and conferences, and we learn more about how to study for a sermon, how to go after, and what to look for, and how to improve our giving of the knowledge of God. It's the whole purpose of church, so on. It's God giving direction to our lives and giving us light, in other words. It's the same thing that we started out with in the first place.

We talked about giving light to the Gentiles in Luke 2, 1 to read Acts 26-23, because it has the church, the book of Acts, by teaching 26 and 23. That Christ should suffer, that is what they're teaching, Moses did say that day we come, should come, that Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first, that should rise from the dead, basic gospel, in other words, and show life unto the people and unto the Gentiles, it's quoting, well, also quoting, as Luke did in chapter 2, quoting the Old Testament, I think it's Isaiah. But what we're doing is we come to church for two big reasons. One is to fellowship. Of course, we always talk about that, but the other is to give praises to God and, and dividing that further to learn about God. You have to be taught how to praise God, what is God like, and we learn by just studying more deeply, as Mark was talking about, all the good, as a matter of fact. So, the next two sections, I just made two points in this section. That is, the definition of light, which is a huge major, major study. It stands for truth, I understand. I'm just going to mention that for that point. The definition of food, or the purpose of food. Well, he was a lot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean the spiritual purpose of food. That is God to teach us about God leading and feeding. Leading and feeding. What? Not physical. So he does that. He provides it. We pray about that before meals. But this is God leading and feeding us forever. Like Luke 24, Christ came up to the two, walking back, discouraged, and giving them the bread of life, explaining the truth. Okay, hey, I just mentioned that I've given sermons on those topics. I think I gave a three-part sermon on food. Does anybody remember that? I hope anybody, somebody might remember. I gave a three-point that was before you came, Todd. So it's okay. Anybody else remember the study on food that I gave? I was thinking the other day, probably should revisit that. Food is very meaning in a spiritual way, and it falls into the understanding of how God, personally the father, and through the son, leads us and feeds us. Leading is the same thing as giving us the truth. So it's all God's educational program. It broadens out. And what the church is doing today, John 14, 12, it said, if you think this is great, you will do greater works than these.

So, Christ, how many people have you talked to? We have talked to millions and millions and tens and hundreds, well maybe hundreds of millions of people. We brought the gospel to it. Those are greater works. It's just astounding. And then, the Protestant church in the 20th and now this century, and this particular work that God started up in the 30s with Mr. Armstrong, is 97 years old and counted. That was in 2026 when Mr. Armstrong first understood the church by the truth and was learning. And then in 34 he started the broadcast. So, maybe seven years, the church has changed the world. It changed the theological world in the Christian realm. In several ways, they have changed the general idea of the kingdom to a great extent. To a great extent. Forced to by the force of the broadcasts. And books were changed and written in the theological world in America and Britain as a result of this work. That's not the biggest thing. The main thing is we have got millions of people to understand the truth of God and have some idea. So, we had a Master of College for 47 years until it was closed down and fortunately, but that was part of God's plan. Just like the school of the prophets, everybody knows where that is, right? I always say that and nobody knows because nobody knows. Just disappearing. The Master of College is no more. We have the Master of Bible College doing great. You know, my lower level in some ways, but it's higher and heavier. So, we've had radio, TV, literature. We've done a huge amount of educating. So, this is the work of the church and this we have done. By the way, Isaiah 55, 11. My word will not return unto me. Boy, whatever purpose I send it to do, it will come back having done by the way. The word and spirit is sometimes a synonym in that. In 55, 11 of Isaiah, that's true. He said, my word will not go up. So, God, having sent all his works of these millions and millions of people, God will accomplish what he intended to do. All these institutions and projects and works and accomplishments all the world, they will have an effect. It all goes back to what God has said in the Bible in general and also specifically that the youth, God starts when you use, the youth are called and they are a part of the covenant. I'm not going to go into this in another sermon, but Deuteronomy 29, 9 through 15, says what Acts chapter 2 verse 39 says, that everybody who is an adult and baptized is a full member of the church. Those of you who are adults and not baptized yet, excellent! You're on the right track. The children that are even thinking about it, they're in the church too. It's just a matter of time and training and understanding. They're in the right track. So there is a great knowledge, the increase of knowledge in the world, prophesied knowledge will be increased. And with AI, it just blows your mind what's happening, much more than what I thought of when I first had that explained to me. But the point here is that you and I are part of a similar increase in the Word of God and the spread of the Word of God.

We have a chance and have had a chance to be a part of God's educational system toward the world or for the world. And the idea of having a first-roots and having them called and being part of the Word that we spread to everyone is exactly part of what God had in mind in the first place.

At camp, we study what we call the zone, the Selma Tellemens of the zone. And I'm just going to hold this up. I have some pages of anybody who would like that. I brought some copies of it. It's the seven things that a child needs to get, not necessarily the specific commandments, but the children need to have these concepts. God's way is fun. Fun is the first one. He wants us to rejoice in all those things. Then secondly, success. Probably to yourself is kind of doing things that you're success. Sports, activities, various other things. Third is support.

Learning how to respond to each other's needs. The fourth is a challenge. You need to have a challenge. If you don't have a challenge, you're bored. But challenges, though, they can be grievous. If you succeed, then what happens to what you think about yourself? It becomes more like God.

God thinks very highly of himself. He's the God of the universe. That's what we've done in camps and the girls and the counselor. Just review this. I want to go through this more thoroughly, or perhaps have some of those who have gone do that.

Anyway, then the challenge is positive relationships. That's what results.

And you can do a lot by just outlawing all negative comments. You can't say bad stuff about other people. It's one of the rules of camp. It's just quoting James.

Modern translation, James says, don't say bad stuff about other people. Really simple rule, but the opposite is what is practiced around us. So for the kids to have that lesson driven home, it's just outstanding. Next is structure. You have to have something that keeps you safe and provides for everything. And you have to have authority to do that. Very important. Family authority as the starter. And then, inclusiveness, where nobody's left out. So those are the four. You get seven things that the camp emphasizes. Just wanted to mention that as part of this, the zone, because our job is to nurture each other and help each other with an emphasis on the youth. Really caring for the youth. So we're sending... we just receive back to campers and one council, and we're sending out to people amongst us to be to go to, what, one more part of God's perfect education system. Not that any one part is perfect, but his whole plan, which includes our foibles, that's just perfect for teaching the truth. And the interesting thing about the system of the rabbi and the system of God's education, like with parents, the teacher has to demonstrate the love and the care and create the desire for the youth at whatever age to be like the teacher, which God does with us. So today we are celebrating the church. It's like the Day of Pentecost. We're celebrating, and I just wanted to highlight the fact that God has this educational system that is thorough, ongoing, lasts all this time, will last into the future forever. He's always training, teaching, giving out life and truth, and feeding and leaving us. And that's what we're doing, as we have in these programs, on ABC and on camp. I was at camp, I forgot which year, I think it was 2010, and one of the ministers from the home office was saying, no, this was before that, this had been around 1995, said, you know, this is, 97, this is one of the most important or else maybe the nicest thing, the best thing that we do. So I thought, well, status service is probably more important than camp, but camp has status services. And I thought since then, he is right to put all these resources that the church does into the youth, even though you might not give a hoot about swimming anymore, and don't want to go camping, you know, at this point. It's so important that we teach God's way to youth, which we're doing, which we're trying to. So we're celebrating God's, God's chilling, as they said, we're all children before God. We are celebrating and highlighting the camps in this case in ABC. And those four of us, we're going to be, we just got back and the two of us who are going, we just are so very happy to have this and understand this part of God's work. And then remind everybody that this is a part of God's work, that all this is happening, all this goodness, and it truly is good, just so wonderful to see that working this out. Just remind everybody that we're all a product of God's perfect educational system.