God's Faith in Man

Well, good afternoon, everyone! It's so good to see all of you again. Beverly and I are very, very happy to be here. And it's just emotional to see the people that, many of the people that we have known over the years, going back to 1966, when I first attended services. In fact, my very first service was in August of 1965 at the old Laid Law Hall.

How many people were at the Laid Law Hall? Okay. That was a long, long time ago. Do you want to say it to the kids? I really was inspired by the music about the great God. That was very, very inspiring and very, very wonderful. The last time that we were here was right in this building for services. That was February of 2011. Big snowstorm here. Remember that so very, very well. Well, we hear very good reports about Mr. and Mrs. Shaw, who is the pastor here, and people have written me letters.

I really appreciate them, about how much they appreciate him, about how much they appreciate his sermons and his care for the congregation here. So I feel very good that we have a very good choice, a very good fit for a minister and family to serve in this area. Well, we enjoyed also seeing a number of you at the Feast of Tabernacles this fall. It was the first time that we had been to a U.S. feast in 21 years. And we were there and saw a number of you and visited. It was just absolutely wonderful.

It was an easier feast for us because normally we go overseas and we have to manage a lot of different things. But it was just good. I gave a sermon on the first day and then I was home free for the rest. Usually I feel guilty for a while that the guilt goes away, but nonetheless, I just remember that it was just almost too easy, a feast. Well, the highlights of the feast was stealing a credit card. Ron Golds and I, we went out to dinner one evening and we both presented credit cards to pay the bill.

They were both exactly the same kind of credit card, a Costco credit card. So we paid our bills and took our credit cards. Unfortunately, we took each other's credit card, which we didn't find out until after the feast. We all threw the feast. I was charging things and everything. And so was Ron Golds. To me, it's just a real under- how in the world? You hear all these things about security.

There's no security here. We were just ordering all kinds of things and just having a ball. And the first inkling he had of things going wrong was that, you know, you had the type of your zip code and it didn't work. He thought, well, it's a glitch. Same thing happened to me buying gas on the way home for the feast. It didn't work. I thought, what in the world does it matter with this? And then as we were driving, I thought, I'm going to call the credit card company, the 800 number in the back, and get this all straightened out.

And I turned it over and there's a picture of Ron Golds. But I mean, this was at the end of the feast, you know, so- You know, they talk about people stealing credit cards and getting caught right away. Not at all. I mean, you just steal one and it's probably usually good for a whole week. But that was quite a story. Anyway, we are having a conference in southeastern Minnesota. We have divided the countries now to eight zones where we have ministers who can drive to a conference. And we've held conferences in Cincinnati, in Atlanta, in Pittsburgh, and Big Sandy.

And now this one here is in southeastern Minnesota, which will bring ministers all the way from St. Louis, up to North Dakota, Omaha, in this area. And we'll have close to 50 people, like Mr. Shaw said. And they are very, very enjoyable. We try to make it not just a conference where we do all talking, but we have a lot of give and take. And it begins tomorrow evening. Mr. Luker will have a presentation tomorrow evening. Then we have the following subjects. And our theme is Scripture in 2 Corinthians 1, 24.

That is not that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy as the job of the ministry. To be helpers of the great joy that we have before us, which is salvation, which is eternal life in the kingdom of God. And a minister's job is to maintain an environment of joy, keep people in that joy, and to help them with it. So if you've had six bad days in the world outside, when you come to services, you come to a joyful experience.

We want the minister to provide that experience with the environment, with the relationships, with the teaching, with the programs, with the counseling, with everything that takes place. And so some of our subjects have to do with how we help with that.

We will have...my first presentation is about being helpers of your joy and the job of the ministry, the work and the service of the ministry. And then, Mr. Holiday has a good presentation on content for sermons and Bible studies. And this is not an end-all discussion about these areas.

Actually, what we're doing is we have started an online training center to drill deeper into every one of the areas that we'll be talking about, as far as speaking, as far as counseling, and that sort of thing. But for the conference, a big part of it is just getting together, seeing each other, talking, getting ideas, and using them for future things. Then we have a session by Gary Antion, which will be a video, because he made it once.

We're showing it in different places. It's about counseling, which is actually quite good. It's a two-hour presentation, but it's a very good overview of things to consider. Then we have another session about divorce and remarriage, which happens, unfortunately, in some cases, you know, in different places in people's lives.

Things that a pastor needs to consider to be prepared for and to understand the subject. He goes through a very, very interesting history. This is Vern Hargrove, which again will be a video, from what we believed in 1972 to the present, and how we manage marriage and divorce cases and marriage and divorce issues. Some of the subjects that we have brought up, or even what we have on the agenda, have been suggested by our new pastors. Since January of 2011, we've had 30 new pastors in the United Church of God. Many of them have not been trained at Ambassador College.

Some have said, well, what do I do about this and what do I do about that? We chose the subjects that they have requested more information on. And of course, one was counseling. Another one was helping the grieving. A big part of a minister's job is to be first line of defense and the first responder to many of the tragedies and even traumas and trials that come upon members of the Church.

Trials could be anything from death to divorce to bankruptcy, but also to smaller things that happen at home. Oftentimes, a minister is the first person that is called. Even before a school teacher, even before an attorney, the minister is called, and how does he respond? How should he respond to particular issues? That was very, very much asked by the new pastors, saying that, I know I should be there, but what do I say?

And how do I say it? And how do I respond to grief and trials? We will have another session on focused education issues that will be brought by Mr. Luecker. And then I have a session managing peace and... or making peace and managing conflict, of course, which is a big part of a minister's job in providing joy in the congregation. A minister is to bring a briefcase of joy to the Church every week. He's to be helpers of the joy that members have. And part of that is to create this environment of peace in the congregation.

Some are more skilled at it than others, but it's very, very important. In fact, when you take a look at the qualifications of a minister, there's very little academic said about a minister's qualifications, except that he's to be apt to teach. But other areas, there are very personal aspects of character and attributes of being one who is not a striker, in other words, not one who is argumentative, not one who is violent, not one who is a heavy drinker, you know, who is violent, and so forth.

So, ministers to create that type of environment in the Church. The ladies will have a session, too, then with Mrs. Luecker, who's coming up with her husband. In fact, they came up yesterday, and he's speaking in southeastern Minnesota. And then, Mr. Holiday has a very good session on maintaining doctrinal integrity, about the importance of us to stick true to the things that we have been taught. And teaching what we've been taught. He goes to the New Testament and shows how doctrinal integrity was protected.

You know, some of the people who have left us have said that, you know, we have changed doctrine, or we're drifting away from keeping the Sabbath. That's the most ridiculous thing that could be said about our Church. We're here because of what we believe in our core beliefs, and have maintained that.

If doctrine was not an issue, I still would be orthodox. I still go to church on Sunday. But, you know, we have very, very core beliefs that we not only maintain, but protect. And it shows to what degree we have gone to protect the fundamental beliefs of the Church of God. And then, finally, Mr. Lugar will have a session on finding mentors to find people to help our ministers in one-on-one, or perhaps small groups in matters. Right now, in the United States, we have 82 pastors. And 68 are full-time pastors. And of the 14, half of them are unpaid. They just do it because they want to do it, and don't want anything for it.

And the other six are part-time. So we have a mixed ministry in this way. When I worked in the Church Administration back in 1991, we had 384 full-time ministers. And now, we have 92 ministers who function as pastors in this country, but the geography hasn't shrunk. You know, they have bigger areas to serve. So that's the conference that will be coming up, and we're looking forward to being socially with everyone at that conference.

The subject I wanted to talk to you about has to do with a very, very important function and attribute of God. Now, we talk about faith and trust as being very important for salvation for us. And no one questions that faith is very, very important. Faith is vital. In fact, faith is so important that in Ephesians 2, in Ephesians 2, and verse 8, the following is stated.

Ephesians 2, verse 8, For by grace you have been saved through faith. And our salvation is through faith, through the beliefs that we had. So we better hang on to that belief. It's important. We better not lose that trust in God, because our salvation is dependent on it. By grace you have been saved through faith. And that is not of yourselves. It is a gift of God. Now, we know that God is faithful to perform all his promises that have been made to us. We know that God is merciful and forgiving, that he is on hand to help his people. We know that God is holy. We know that God is just and that God is loving. We have no questions about it. On the other hand, we also know that man is just the opposite. That's you and me. We are vile, evil, very fallible. We have all kinds of faults in us. We have a wicked nature down deep. Wickedness is so great that, as it said just before, the flood and why they had to be destroyed, why the whole world had to be destroyed, that every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was evil continually. And man is full of vanity, lust, and greed.

And we can have this view that we are all evil. We are no good. We're fighting our way out of a paper bag, while God is beautiful, perfect, loving, and caring. And that man is very, very evil. In 1 Peter 4, verse 18, a statement is made. 1 Peter 4, verse 18, Now if the righteous one is scarcely saved, boy, it seems like salvation is quite hard, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear? So how is it that if one is righteous, that he can barely be saved, why is this life so hard? Why is it so hard? In 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul said about one of the qualifications of one who is converted. He says, you, God, is called a foolish, the base, and the weak, the despised, and the helpless. We're even described in Luke, chapter 17, as an unprofitable servant. Now we can actually gang up on all these scriptures and all this negativism about what man is, and become quite discouraged about our salvation.

Faith and trust are something that we have to work up and have in God. That is our job. And God maybe, somehow, will save us. But we're sort of fighting, and we're sort of behind the eight ball. Sometimes we even get to the point that we try to out-rival the humility of Job, where Job said in Job, chapter 13. Job, chapter 13.

And verse 15. Job 13, and verse 15. Though he slay me, yet I will trust him. Having this very, very self-deprecating view of ourselves, as we're no good, but somehow, maybe some way, God will save me. We can develop the negative assumption that God is good, and is bound to do bad things to us, bad people, who deserve every bit of it. And actually some faiths that are quite good at that. We're bad, God is good. Anything physical is bad, anything spiritual is good. Gnostics, different views of what's good and what's bad. Now, all the mentioned scriptures and everything that I've said is true. Certainly it's true, I mean, it's in the scriptures. It talks about how man is vile. I could show you other passages that every thought of man's mind is wicked.

But we can take a look at just these scriptures and become hopeless, and look hopeless. And forget the many hundreds of scriptures that talk about, comment very positively about how God loves His people and cares for His people. And actually, if you examine it in context of what we are and what God feels about us, you will get quite a different story. Too often we think of God as being one that's just always out to get us, out to, in every way, try to trip us up. He never compliments us and never pays attention to anything good that we do. But if we trip up in the slightest way, He's there to point out fault. There was a song a number of years ago, probably 30 years ago, by George Jones, God's gonna get you for that. I don't know if you can remember that song. It talks about Bessie going to the liquor store. She comes out with a bottle. Somebody sees her. God's gonna get you for that. You know, there are several things brought out in the song about how, the point being is that don't do that because God is going to get you for that. And it shows God as a policeman, a judge, and a jailer. And forgotten are God's mercy, love, forgiveness, and concern for us.

Now, did God make a mistake when He created mankind? Sometimes in this experience of life, and taking a look at all the trials one might have, and the things that we have to go through, we could say, I just wonder why God chose me, why God made me part of this group, why God made me have the relationships I have. You know, it is so, such a mistake. Why did God go through all the trouble? And He says He's expanding His family. We are made in His image, and why is it such a mess?

Did Satan upset God's plan, perhaps? Or God really did try to expand His family, and there was a Satan who God was really unknowingly avoiding, and yet Satan was always in there to mess up God's plan. God doesn't want it, and yet Satan interferes and attacks, and God loses, and God has to walk away with His tail between His legs.

The history of man is very dismal, and it may look like what God has done is a failure. Take a look at this world right now. We've heard sermons, we've heard stories, we've had it brought out to us just how vile and wicked man is. We can go through all that, you know, we've gone through that at the Feast of Tabernacles. You know, we always, we have prophetic sermons about how God will deliver mankind. But before deliverance comes, man's experience on the earth is very bad, and man is very bad. And you kind of wonder, did God really make a mistake? Did He really regret what He's doing and what He's trying to accomplish? Well, I'm going to tell you today that God is really out to get us. God is out to get us into His kingdom. God is trying to get us to have eternal life. God wants all Israel to be saved. God's desire for mankind is success for every single one of us. And that story rings true from the very beginnings of the Bible and has a great crescendo and a great chorus and has a great finale at the very end. When you take a look at the Word of God as to how it begins, what God's intentions are, and all the reasons for what happens in between, we see God being the winner and God bringing many sons to glory in His kingdom. God is bringing many to be part of His family, many to inherit the kingdom of God. That includes all of you. In spite of anything that you see, anything you have experienced, anything you have been heartbroken about, anything that you have felt a failure about, God in the midst of it and in spite of it wants to get you into His kingdom. That is His will, that is His desire, and that's His greatest job that He's doing in doing the work of God. Let me talk about doing the work of God. Now, it isn't creating new planets. It's not doing something like God says, I want to do my work. I'm going to create another 5 million galaxies. Okay, that's God's work. Now, what God's main work right now is expanding His family, is sharing Himself with those who are created in His image, and bringing about a character-filled, obedient, volunteer group that says, I want this. I want to be like you, God. I have come to understand that your laws and your way of life is the way I should go. Who understands God's will, one who understands the philosophy that God has, to understand how God functions, to understand God's attributes, and adopts them, and becomes like God, becomes Christ-like, and has the spirit of God. That's the exercise. That's what it's all about.

It is God's pleasure to bring many sons to glory. Hebrews 2, 10. This is the vision statement of our church. A vision statement is a statement about where you want to be. The strategy is how you get there. The strategic plan is how you get there. But the vision is where you want to be.

In fact, I once took a course in nonprofit work. We had a boot camp teacher, actually very interestingly, that I took a course at the University of Indiana, the Center of Philanthropy, which is a philanthropic center for the entire world. There are people who come from all over the world to study philanthropy at the University of Indiana in Indianapolis. I was put into a class, what they said, with a very best teacher.

She found out that she was the director of fundraising at Children's Hospital in St. Paul. It was very interesting because that's home to me. She was kind of like a boot camp teacher. We had to sit at tables. It was a whole week course. We had to sit at tables with different people that we were assigned to every day. We had to express our vision, our mission statement, and everything that we had. She'd drill down until she really got out of us, where we wanted to be, what we wanted to accomplish.

She was absolutely phenomenal. Hebrews 2, verse 10, is what is the vision statement for the church. We had sometimes outside consultants that have come to help us to determine a strategic plan and even a brand. Mr. Shaw knows we've been involved in some of that. But they always wanted us to give them our vision. Where do you want to be and where do you want to go? Well, here it is. For it is fitting for Him, Hebrews 2, verse 10, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

He talks about their captain, which is Jesus Christ, and he was perfected through the terrible things that he went through. He went through very, very severe trials. He went through the most horrible trials. None of us have gone or will go through what Jesus Christ did. But in that light, in that context, is part of bringing many sons to glory. You know, I've been part of the Minneapolis Church, I feel, since 1965, and I attended my first service right next, you know, right there at Laidlaw Hall on Lake Street in South Minneapolis.

And, you know, as the years have gone by, and I have gone to Ambassador College and I've come back as a ministerial trainee for a while, and I was ordained here in Minneapolis in 1972 by, interestingly enough, Mr. Luker, that was in 1972, at one of the Spring Holy Days. And I've seen the ups and downs in people's lives.

I've seen people come, I've seen people go, I've seen people split, I've seen people blow up, I've seen people, you know, I've seen all kinds of things. And I see you, and I just am just very, very thankful for the people that we have, who have a common bond and a common way of looking at things, even after all this time. And I just realized that no matter what, our ultimate, what we leave this world with, is our relationship and our salvation with God. And it was brought up by Mr.

Wickman, you know, about the different types of, you know, salvation. And ultimately, that's what I want, even after attending services for 45 years, you know, since 1965, that's actually 47 years. 47 years. So what am I going to leave this world with? It's my relationship with God, it's my joy of salvation, it's making it. And that's what all of us need to be looking to, is to what God is doing for us, and how he's developing sonship in us, and how he wants to bring us into his kingdom. I just realized that anything that I've done and accomplished in this world, it doesn't mean anything, not a hill of beans.

We could say, we've accomplished this, I've helped so many people, I've done this, you know, we've built a hospital, we've built this, okay, that's all wonderful and good, it comes and goes. But ultimately, what we're building, and what we have been called to the ministry to help, is to help people come to this point of becoming sons of God, to be born into that kingdom, to receive eternal life. That's what I want, you know, I can just leave everything behind. Leave my house behind, leave my Prius that is 51 miles per gallon behind, and I'm going to leave all these wonderful things in life, my six-core processor computer, all that's going to go, you know, as much as I love those things.

The things that I really want is to be right with my God. You know something? He wants to be right with you. He wants you there. That is, that's his whole point. That's what he's focused on right now. And perhaps it's through hardship, and perhaps it's through learning tough lessons, and perhaps it's through being betrayed, and maybe it's through all kinds of things that happen. It should never deter us from what God is doing for us.

And what we will find is that God has not chosen the plan that has a built-in failure mechanism. Now, God didn't just kind of throw out, you know, say, well, Jesus, what are we going to do as far as this universe and going on from here? And he kind of just haphazardly said, well, let's make these little clay things, make them weak, you know, make them kind of dumb, you know, and, you know, they make mistakes, and it doesn't work out. We'll just destroy them and, you know, get another set. God did not do that.

God is very, very individual with how he works and who he works with. And his love for all mankind in a different way, in a different time with different people, to bring many sons to glory. Not just a few. Not just, you know, with a test of, you know, like a hundred thousand eggs, you know, and only like maybe four turtles come out of it. No, God wants most. He wants to bring many sons to glory. That is the work of God.

God has not created an instrument which is hopeless in the hands of his Creator. You may feel as if you're hopeless, you're not. Believe it. Trust me. Well, don't trust me. Trust God. But you are not hopeless in the hands of God. And, you know, as we are to have faith in God and what God is doing, God has perfect faith in his plan. God has, if I could say it maybe sacrilegiously, God has faith in man as far as the concept of creating and reproducing himself.

He has faith in that plan to produce those who will be working alongside with him of the same genre who are the same God. To me, one of the most beautiful things and awesome things about God is that, and perhaps one of the issues with angels, the angels were not created in God's image, but man was.

Maybe that's what bugged some of them a long, long time ago. But we have been created in God's image. You know, if you do something that really represents you, whether it be something that you write or something that you paint or something that you do, it represents you. You want it to look good. You want it to work out. You don't want it to be bad. And in the very first chapters of Genesis, whatever God created was good. God said, this is great! Adam was created on top of all the animals and everything else, and that was good. God's plan was good.

He has faith in what He did. His will is that all men come to salvation. Well, let's take a look at the measure of trust that God has placed in us. Let's take a look at just the measure of trust. Did he say that, you know, that God trusts me? Yes, He does! There are several things that he actually is kind of really hoping, you know, he's got a lot of confidence that you're going to do it, that you will do it.

As I've already alluded, man is unique and has been created in God's image. Genesis 1, verse 26. There is no other creature that has the characteristics of human beings. When God speaks of Himself, and we don't know what God looks like, but we do know that God has eyes, a nose, that God has a mouth, that God has arms and legs, and that when we think of God, we're not going to be thinking of some woolly beast. We're going to be thinking of a being that is similar to mankind. When Jesus Christ came to this earth, he was so unrecognizable because he was a human being.

That time, you know, he couldn't put his picture up on Facebook, you know, and everybody could catch him, you know, and just know who he was. You know, he was kind of blended in with society. Well, mankind has been made in the image of God to look like Him. And all the rest of the spirit world was created to serve mankind. I don't know if we just realized, just the extent of support that God has given to this operation man that God has created, that you are a part of right now.

In Hebrews chapter 1 verse 14. Talking about the angels, the angelic world, which you know is hundreds of millions, because we know that quite a few left, and it talks about millions of them. Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister to those who will inherit salvation? He explains the job role of the angelic spirit world. It was to minister, it was to serve those whom God has created to inherit salvation.

Angels already are, quote, saved. They live forever. But mankind, you and I have been called to inherit salvation. An angelic world has been commissioned. One of their jobs is to help us to minister, to serve those who will inherit salvation.

I think that's an awesome statement. You know, Bev and I often talk about the universe. We just get very, very excited about this universe. I get very excited. I used to love astronomy, and when I was in high school, I couldn't wait to rent or borrow the school's telescope and bring it home and take a look at Jupiter and Mars and all these things.

So it was just very, very exciting because it was so far away and so awesome and big. It's interesting that in a debate I heard once between an atheist and a Christian, it was a debate at this university in Southern California that my name just flies out of my head. It was between an atheist and a Christian. The Christian said, I look upon the whole universe as the handy work of God. How could this all be there? Also, as I look upon the earth and its beauty and as man is able to see out there and the promises that God makes, that God had this in mind for mankind.

And it's huge. It's massive. It's beyond our comprehension as to how big it is. And it goes on and it was given for mankind. And it just seems so beautiful, so straight, so biblical, and so obvious. The atheist said, you know, why would God want to waste all that space just for these little people on this nothing planet? Now, his view was just totally closed as to the greatness of God and what God was doing.

Now, as we look out from where we're at and as to what God is doing to populate this universe, it ought to just cause us to be so thankful about what God wants to give us and what he wants to pass on, what our inheritance is, because it's not just eternal life. It's a kingdom. It's a new world. It is a world which is called the kingdom of God. It's what I feel is our most important teaching that we can pass on to the world because it envelops everything.

It covers salvation. It covers who Jesus Christ is, what his role will be, who we are, where we're going. All this is encapsulated by the kingdom of God. And this is all the things that God wants to give to us. He wants to give us this limitless universe that's been created as a setting, as the incubator, as the birthing place, as the reward and the responsibility for all those who inherit eternal life. That's where God wants to get you into. He really does want to put you right there. Nobody goes to that much effort unless he has faith in his plan that it will work, that it will turn out right. And one of the aspects of the Bible that to me really tells a lot about the fact that it will work is prophecy.

Some people like prophecy for different reasons. Some like it because it gives them inside info into who certain beasts and horns and all that kind of thing are. Frankly, from the very beginning, even from the scary pictures of 1972, I never really, you know, was that interested? Some people are. And some people got wrapped up in prophetic things and they got to believing that certain things would happen at a certain time, and when they didn't, they took a hike.

You know the purpose of prophecy, the purpose of the book of Revelation is to show how it will work out. When you take a look at the last two chapters of the book of Revelation, that's how it's all going to work out.

The Garden of Eden will be established once again on the earth. The nations will be healed. It's going to be just fine. God's plan will work. It's sure. We just have to have confidence in that. You know why? Because God has confidence in His plan that it will work. It will work. The question is just, you're being there.

One of the greatest proofs of this being the true religion, to me. Different people have different things that really excite them and give them this true belief of, this is it, I know it's the truth. It may be a very obvious one. But do you know of any other major religion of God Himself giving His life for those who He created? It might seem just, well, yeah, we kind of know that. We've been taught that for years. You know, God, and He emptied Himself into becoming a human being, Jesus Christ. He gave Himself to us even before we recognized the need. He made it available as part of this great faith project, Operation Man. Because this was an important aspect of catalyzing the plan to making it work. To make it work so that many sons could be brought to glory. Many sons could be given eternal life. That was made possible by Jesus Christ. Do you realize what kind of faith God had to have? Wasn't He going to waste Himself on that? I'm sure that when they talked about the plan of salvation long before the creation of Adam, you know, it said that Christ was slain before the foundation of the world, meaning that they talked about it, that this was part of the plan, this is going to have to happen. Do you realize how much faith God had to have in that plan? It wasn't just one more thing, it wasn't just like a nice thing to do. If that doesn't work, we'll go to do something else. Well, that was the ultimate of giving Himself for mankind. It shows a great deal of givingness, a great deal of sacrifice, that's why it's called a sacrifice, a great deal of putting Himself into that role for you and me, because He trusts that it's going to work. And we have to trust that it will work as well. So the point I'm making is that, yes, we are to have faith, we're to have trust. But do you realize how much faith and trust God has in His own plan? It isn't something where He sits back and says, well, we'll kind of see how it works out.

When I think about this, when I think about God's greatness in accomplishing what He says will work out, it helps me to ride over all the bumps of life, of all the tragedies, of all the difficulties, all the people issues that come up. Things that happen in the Church, even this past week, is that I know that God is in charge, that God has faith in His plan, and God is going to bring about good results, bringing many sons to glory.

God also designed us to be capable of receiving His Holy Spirit. No other living form of life is capable of being the receptacle of God's Holy Spirit. Your dog isn't, your cat, your goldfish, your turtle. The Holy Spirit does not inhabit any other form of life other than human beings. I don't think we understand everything about the Holy Spirit. We should know quite a bit about how it acts and functions. As God's essence, God's presence, God's omnipotence, God's omnipresence. When you think about the Holy Spirit, your mind can kind of blow up a little bit because it's such an awesome subject. But Jesus Christ said, receive my Spirit. That Spirit that the Apostle Paul said in you will give you eternal life and make you eternal. And God is entrusting us to be receptacles of that essence that will give us eternal life. At baptism, you receive the Holy Spirit. According to the process that's laid out in Acts 2, Acts 8, laying out of hands, receiving the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is in you, and transform you into being eternal.

But God designed you, your mind, to be capable of receiving His Holy Spirit, His mind, and His power.

So parables like Jesus' parable about the mustard seed are very tiny. That it grows up to be a big tree. You know, begin to have context. That God gives us something very, very little that will grow up to be very, very big. He's entrusting us to the down payment, the earnest of the Holy Spirit. Or the parable of the leaven, to the seven parables of Matthew 13. The parable of the leaven, where a little bit of leaven, when it comes into, usually leaven is used in a bad example, but this case is used in a good example. It permeates the whole loaf. It fills everything. And it grows. It grows us out in until you stop it, you know, you start baking the bread. The point being, the Holy Spirit spreads. It's the power of God. It's the kingdom of God that spreads in that way.

He trusts us with the greatest treasure of all, His Holy Spirit. He will never give His Holy Spirit to your pets. He will only give it to you. That's why it's such a great joy at the time when one is baptized, why it is stated that the angels in heaven rejoice. You know why? Because their job is to be the nannies and the babysitters for those who are going to inherit eternal life. And they say, yes! Another one! Another one brought into the family. Great. Terrific. God gives us the earnest of His Holy Spirit. And through the Holy Spirit, He adds spiritual gifts that are very special attributes and improvements, enhancements in our life. When the Apostle, or when I should say Timothy, was spoken to by Paul, Paul said, you know, Timothy, despise not the gift that was given to you by the laying on of my hands. That was what? An extra measure of God's Holy Spirit when He was ordained. I tell ministers that when you are ordained, when one comes to the point of being ordained, that there's a special entity, there's a special essence. That is placed in you to do the work that you have, special insight. Not talking about magical things, I'm talking about improved, enhanced abilities and capabilities. Of course, all buttressed by humility, so that a minister can do his work. But the Holy Spirit and the variations of it and how it works through the various gifts is something that is given to us. God entrusts us with this. You take a look at different ways in which the Holy Spirit is given.

Luke 11, verse 9. Luke 11. God wants to give us His Holy Spirit. It isn't that, okay, here it is, it yanks out of our reach. He says, I really want you to have this. I've got to do a few things to get it, though, but I want to give it to you. I really honestly want to pass it down to you.

Luke 9. I say to you, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. If you then, verse 13, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? God so very much wants to give us something great of His essence and nature. Not something He withholds, not something He makes secret, but He wants to give it to us.

God also trusts His people to further and to accomplish His plan. Do you realize what an entrusting statement that is? Or an entrusting process that is? Ultimately, God is doing His work and doing great things. But then through the foolishness of mankind, through the foolishness, meaning in terms of something which is very weak and small, God entrusts me and trusts you, Brian Shaw, to speak, to encourage, to give a seminar about the Kingdom of God, to be part of a work that produces a great thing. He has a magazine and has a television program. He doesn't just share Himself with us. He says, don't get involved, just sit by and just be quiet. He wants us to get involved. He shares with us and entrusts us to further accomplish His plan. I know that I received the joy of salvation more than 40 years ago. As I know that you have received the joy of salvation. That's why you drove here. This is why I drove to Newport. I drove in the cold and have been doing this for a long time because there's joy in the experience of being a Christian. But, we have been called to be able to pass this on and to pass this joy on to others. And to hope and work and be a part of doing the same things that God is doing because God wants to bring many sons to glory. We should also want to participate in that process of bringing others to glory.

One thing that I pray for is that we have an acts revival in the Church. Hopefully God will bring that to us yet. To where we'll have many new people come along and add to the Church. There will be real substantive growth in the Church. I feel that they are on the bend. I want to believe that. I want to believe that I'm a part of it. That we're training a ministry. That we're having those that can share their faith. That can be salesmen for the faith. And that God will honor that work because God has called us to that. One thing is, some have said, God isn't calling many people. Right now that's why things aren't happening. It's true. God is ultimately the one who calls somebody. We're not the ones who actually turn the switches in people's minds to become believers.

Nonetheless, if God is doing all the work, what's the point of having any kind of work by human beings? Why not just come to church and then be told what to do and go home, somehow by a robot here in church? That's from God. Now, God has His work done through His instruments. He has His work financed by people all pitching in together into doing that work. The work is done by many people praying, including widows, who are praying night and day for the work of God to be done. That is what God entrusts us with. Being a part of His job and part of His work and doing those things that have to be done. We can take a look at, biblically, all the different people that God worked with who participated and did His plan. It did very important things that were historic, such as Noah, and saving people and bringing a different phase of mankind's existence to this earth. Or Moses that he worked with to bring an entire nation out of Egypt into the Promised Land. You can take a look at how God worked with Abraham and Sarah. You can take a look at all the faithful in Hebrews 11 and see how God used them to do His work. He's entrusting a lot in people. He's putting a lot of faith in people. He's putting faith in you to do your part. Because some of the faith that is put into you is not just for your salvation, but what you can do to motivate others. The example that you can set to bring others along. You have a part in doing that work. Matthew 28 Matthew 28 This is a great, empowering meeting here at the very end when Jesus Christ was speaking to His disciples and basically commissioning them to go forward.

Verse 18 of Matthew 28. All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. That's quite a statement in itself. We have all authority. That's a lot.

Go therefore And you know what He's saying here? I think it's really interesting to think this through. Because I have authority, therefore goes back to the sentence before. Therefore, because I have all authority, go. I entrust you and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Because I have authority, I'm commissioning you. I'm entrusting you to go forward and to do that work. And on top of that, verse 20, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. We take a look as to how God has worked with mankind in a very general sense. Also, we're looking to how God is working with you individually and how much He's putting trust in you as well. That ought to lift up our spirits from just being dumb, vile, hopeless. That's how we came in, but that's not the way we're to remain. That's not the way we're to live. That's not the way we're to conduct ourselves as just, I'm just nothing. Yes, there's a proper humility. Believe me, there is a proper humility. But also, there's a sense of, I am valuable to God. I am important to God. God made me in His image. He wants something to come of my life. He wants to get me into His kingdom. He wants me to be part of His family, to live forever. And also, you take in context trials that come to your life. Believe me, we've all had trials. And I don't get so worried about things anymore, because I realize that no matter what happens, that's a trial. It's for the better.

I have seen trials in my life. I don't want to go through that whole story, you know, but I've gone through trials in my life with things that didn't work out the way I wanted them to. I've had great disappointments. I've had setbacks. But in those time periods, I have learned a great deal. I've learned patience. I've learned proper holding my place. I've educated myself in different things. I have learned, hopefully, from the trials. And I hope I will continue to learn from setbacks and things that don't go the way they do. You know why? Because I believe that God has a plan, not only for mankind, but for me. And God has a plan directly for every single one of you.

God knows the hair of every hair on your head.

If you know every hair on your head, wouldn't he be interested in just the head itself, like yours? Yes, very much so. He called you, it was something that he did in your life to make you understand, later to bring you to repentance, later to give you his Holy Spirit, and it leads you to the journey of life in this four score and ten process. Where God has brought you to where he really wants to get you. And that is into his kingdom. So, let's have a view of God that is in those terms.

Of seeing him as one who is deeply concerned and deeply wants to pass along some very, very important things to us. That he's doing a work, in spite of what we see in this world, as far as, even as much as we see so much evil in this world. He makes the story clear and plain as to what it's for and what will be. I kept a piece of Tabardakos now for, I don't know, 45 years or so. And every year, I ask myself, what newer thing and greater thing am I learning about God's working in my life and bringing his kingdom to this world? Not only that, of what can I learn, but what can I do? How can I be an instrument of his hands to continue that forward? So, brethren, I look forward to talking to you after services. Bev and I are so happy to be here. We always feel so comfortable. Minneapolis, St. Paul is our home. We lived here for a long time and both of us are Minnesotans. And we are so very grateful to be here on this day.

Thank you.