God’s Heartfelt Desire for Us

They were counseled all through the feast, and then on one day they decided to baptize them all. So we baptized them. They came right through our room. A couple elders there laid hands on them. And it was sort of an assembly line that we had. So it was a tremendous opportunity. I'd like to thank Rick Shavey and all those who put together these wonderful musical videos. I think that's the way the feast should start. It's a tremendous uplifting. You hear music. You hear the Word of God being read. You see beautiful scenes. All of your senses come into play. And it's just a wonderful way to kick the feast off. So thank you for that. That would be something I think would be good to do everywhere. That we hold the feast. Since I'm responsible for all the feast sites here in the U.S., we might do that. We'll see what happens.

You know, today or tonight we're here by invitation from the great God of the universe. And you're sitting here not because you chose to be here, but because God chose you to be here. He wants you. And He's the host of these annual meetings. What if you had gotten an invitation a month ago from the President of the United States saying, Come spend a week with us. We want you to spend a week with us. Sit down and talk. Tell us what's on your mind.

And we'll take you up to Camp David or whatever he might want to do with you. What would be your reaction? I'm leaving politics out of it. What would be your reaction? Well, you have tonight, for this feast, a personal invitation from the greatest being in the universe. There is nobody any greater than God Almighty. He is supreme. He is the Almighty. He is the great God. And He invited you to come here and meet with Him and His Son.

And He wants to meet with you individually. There are seven special occasions throughout the year that God meets with us on these special Holy Days. And there is a special invitation from Him to us to explain the meaning of salvation, the plan of salvation, to give us a part in it. And He wants to give us insight. Now, you stop and think. The Almighty God, the sum total of all wisdom, all knowledge, all power, all insight, is here to share that with us.

And who to better teach us than the Almighty God about His plan and His purpose. We've got members here that I know have been here for 60 years plus. We've got members who've been here for 50 years plus. I've already talked to a few of them. And we have some who are here for the first time. And that's amazing. The first Feast of Tabernacles and those have been 60 plus. Do you think that God doesn't notice your faithfulness? Those of you who have been here 50 or 60 or 40 years, 30, whatever it might be, do you think that God doesn't know that He's not aware that He doesn't take into consideration who you are, what you do, and what you have been doing?

You're still here year after year. That it's not old hat to you. It's not something that you just say, oh, well, it's the Feast. I've done that before. I can truly say that every year when Norm and I get ready for the Feast, it's as exciting as it was to the first Feast that I attended back in 1959. She attended back in 1953. It's still an exciting time to come and to meet with God. I'd like to make a suggestion to everybody here, a goal. Go around and see how many people you can meet who are here for the first time.

See how many that you can find in this audience. Then, while you're doing that, you might look and see and ask, how many have been here 60 years or 50 years? Just try to find out who these individuals might be. You would be surprised how many are here that long. We're here because God called us. God used others before us to help spread the gospel. I heard the World Tomorrow broadcast back in 1958. Back in 1958, somebody had prayed for me, not by name, but they had prayed and asked God to send co-workers, to call members.

They gave their tithes, they gave their offerings, and they asked God to add to the church. And God did. We sit here now, and our prayer is the same. Every day we pray, God, please call more people, add more people, open their minds, give them the opportunity to see and understand your truth and your way of life. They're going to be called because of our part, because we get down on our knees and we pray daily.

We pray heartfelt prayers to the great God and know that He hears us. He will answer those prayers. He's concerned for us. And we pray. We give our tithes and our offerings. That's what our offerings and our tithes do. They get other people involved, and they help us to become perfect. God appreciates our faith in saving our festival tithes to attend these feasts, these occasions. Just being here shows faith, doesn't it? The fact that you were willing to take off from work.

Our children were willing to take off from school. Many made sacrifices to obey God. Some of you may go back home, not have a job. Some of you may go back home and have some difficulty from school officials. You don't know what you might face. But God is very much aware of each one of us individually, our circumstances, our struggles that we had to be here. God looks on us not as a collective. We're not a board to God.

We are here, and He looks at each one of you individually. I could go around the room. I think I'm almost everybody I met before His services. I've met before at some point. You begin to look and you begin to see people. God individually is concerned about you. Yes, He's concerned collectively about us as a church and as a group. But we're here, and He's individually concerned for you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for putting forth the effort.

Thank you for obeying God and doing what is right. I'd like to also welcome any non-members, spouses, and families who might be attending with us. We consider you a part of our overall family. This is a time to have family closeness individually. Norm and I flew over yesterday from Panama City Beach. We're going to fly back over there because we've got two of our children and six of our grandchildren there.

And we're looking forward to spending some time with them. But we really look forward to the opportunity to come to Jekyll Island and to be here, especially since we kicked our marriage off 50 years ago. And we're back here at this point. We appreciate all the visitors who might be here with us, and we extend a deep welcome to them likewise. We are here for this eight days to celebrate the thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ and then the eighth day when God will extend salvation to all mankind.

We never had that opportunity. God is going to give every human being who has ever lived an opportunity for salvation. And you and I are going to have a big hand in that. We're here to obtain a preview, a foretaste of the coming Kingdom of God and our individual part in it for all eternity. Before this feast is through, you will find out what we will be doing not only for a thousand years or eleven hundred years, but for eternity that God has picked for us. Let's go to Revelation 20. Revelation 20, beginning in verse 1. Revelation 20, verse 1. We read this.

But after that, He must be released for a little while. Now, verse 4. Satan the devil is going to be bound. And for one thousand years, he's not going to be free to influence mankind. He will be locked up in the spirit of this world, as it's called, in 1 Corinthians 2. He will no longer be there influencing. He will no longer be broadcasting his wavelength. He will be chained there for a thousand years. Then verse 4 says, I saw thrones, and they sat on them. Now, this is talking about you. Hopefully me, all of us. I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus, and for the Word of God, who had not worshipped the beast, or his image, and they had not received his mark on their forehead or in their hands. And they lived, and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years. So, you and I are going to reign with Christ for a thousand years. We will judge and sit on thrones. But the rest of the dead, those who have not had an opportunity yet for salvation, did not live again till a thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. So, here we have the millennium articulated. Christ comes back, resurrection takes place, and you and I are going to reign for a thousand years. And I think it's amazing here in verse 6. We will no longer be subject to death. You will have eternal life inherent within you, and you will be able to live forever. Notice God's attitude toward us, toward every human being. Luke 15, verse 4, we'll begin to read Luke chapter 15, picking it up in verse 4. What man of you, having a hundred sheep if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he is found that he lays it on his shoulder, rejoicing, and when he comes home he calls his friends and his neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. And I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just people who need no repentance. This summarizes, I think, God's attitude towards each one of us. We may be struggling. We may go astray occasionally. We may do things that we have to really repent of you later on. But Almighty God does not give up on any one of us. Each one of us has been hem-picked by him. He has selected you to be a part of the firstfruits. And that's an awesome calling. You're here not because you are more righteous than anybody else, or greater than anybody else, or you're intellect is superior to anyone else, or you're more spiritual. You're here because God looked down and God said, I want you, and you, and you. And he called you, and he opened your mind, and you responded to it. God doesn't have any unexpected children. He doesn't say, oops, this one slipped in there. Where'd this one come from? No, God has called every one of us. And we're all sitting here because he wants you in his kingdom. And he wants you to assist him in ruling in the world tomorrow, and to be a part of that government. We are his sons and daughters because he chose us, he called us, and he made us a part of his family.

Now, the big question that always comes up is, why me, Lord? Why did God pick me? Why did he pick you? There are other people out there more brilliant, more intelligent, better looking. Any criteria you want to use to evaluate, you would say, hey, they had it made. But I want you to notice something about God, his plan, his calling. You may not have thought of before. It has to do with the will of God. You sit here today because of the will of God. Let's go over to Ephesians, chapter 1. And we'll begin in verse 4. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 4.

Let's read verses 4 and 5 here.

Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4. And as he chose us and him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ, to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. So you and I have been called according to the good pleasure of his will. Notice verse 9. Have he made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself? And he says the same thing in verse 9. So when it talks here about the will of God, that you and I have been called according to God's will, that conveys the idea of desire, even God's heart desire. The word usually translated as will, referring to the will of God here, has a meaning that many times we don't stop and think about. You don't know about it unless you look it up. The Greek word is primarily an emotional word. God's will is not so much just God's intention. It conveys his intention, but it could be translated God's heart's desire.

God's heart desire is for us to be here tonight. We were called according to his desire. And it's not just a random desire. It flows from his heart. It flows from his very being, who he is. We're not here by accident. We're here because God selected us and he put us here. And so God's intention was to call us. God has an intention, a purpose, a plan. That word for purpose literally means that he laid it out beforehand like a blueprint. Before you can build something, you've got to have a blueprint. And so God had a plan. And in that plan, he was going to call some now and this age, the first six thousand years. The vast majority would not be called till later. And then God looked down and he said, I want you. And I want you. And he began to call different individuals. The plan of God was created by his counsel. And it was something that he thought out, that he designed, that he created, and he put together. And it flows from a heart of love and of good pleasure.

What motivated God to create the plan of salvation? Well, it was a heart of love and good pleasure. Only a mastermind with brilliant intelligence could plan and devise such a plan. You stop and think about it. At one time, there were two beings. The one we know as the father, the one we know as the son. They existed. Nothing else existed. And they decided that they wanted to share their existence. How do you go about doing that? So they had to sit down and think through the whole plan of salvation. Nothing existed on the physical level, as we know. And so God had to start that plan. He created angelic beings. He then designed and thought out the whole plan of salvation. And how you could take dirt, mud. That's what we are. God created us out of the ground. And how God can take those beings, us, give us the spirit in man, and then give us His Holy Spirit and devise a plan. So the two beings sat down. They counseled together. They thought it out. They devised it. And they came up with this plan of salvation.

And you find here this notice in Ephesians, chapter 1 here, and verse 5 again. That is, verse 5, it says, "...having predestinated us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will." So it's God's good pleasure that He thought this out and He brought it about. God knows us, and He is sharing with us His plan. He made known to us the mystery of His plan. Let's notice here in verse 11. It says, He made known to us the mystery of His heart's desire. Now I'm reading here from a different translation. But He said, He made known to us the mystery of His heart's desire, according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Him. Then in verse 11, God operated all things according to the counsel of His heart's desire. God had a desire, a heart desire, to share with us His life, His level of existence. So God's desire to share with us eternal life flows out of a desire to share and to give to us, a level of existence that we can only begin to imagine. The Bible tells us that God is love, that God operates according to grace and mercy and forgiveness, that flows out of a heart of love. Everything that God does, all of His actions, all of His thoughts, flow from love. They don't flow from hatred and jealousy, self-centeredness, or vanity. God can tell the end from the beginning. Notice that from the very beginning, God has laid out His plan for us. Let's go back to Genesis 2. Genesis 2. And I want you to notice here, in verse 20.

Genesis 2.

And we'll read in verse 20.

So Adam gave names to all the cattle and birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper comparable to him.

Wasn't anybody like him. He could look around and you'd see dogs and cats and chickens and frogs and whatever. But you don't marry them. So the Lord God, notice, caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept and he took one of his ribs, closed up the flesh in its place. So the woman was taken out of the man, as we see here. And then the rib, which the Lord God had taken from the man, He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said, notice, this is now bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Now the woman was taken out of the man, flesh and bone, took the woman from Adam. And as verse 24 says, therefore a man shall leave his father and mother, be joined to his wife, and they too shall become one flesh. So we're to leave father and mother. We become one flesh, start another union. Adam and Eve literally were one flesh. Eve was taken from the flesh of Adam, and God molded and fashioned and shaped. Of course, He added a little more to it, but she came from Him. God established right from the very beginning that marriage should be a one flesh relationship. One flesh relationship. Now, we are baptized into one body. We become one flesh with Jesus Christ. We are members of His body. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 6.15. 1 Corinthians 6.15. I want you to notice something here.

Beginning to read in verse 15.

It says, Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?

Shall I take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not. Now verse 16. Or do you not know that He who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For the two, He said, shall become one flesh. But He who is joined to the Lord is one Spirit with Him. So if you and I are joined to God, we have the Spirit of God dwelling in us. I want you to notice, as it says here, we become one Spirit with Him. Just like a man and a woman become one flesh, you and I become one Spirit with the Father. Now let's notice here in Ephesians 5, the book of Ephesians, chapter 5, verse 28. We read of a great mystery. Verse 28, says, husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. See, when a man and a woman become one flesh in marriage, if you love your wife, you love yourself because you are one flesh. Verse 29, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. We become members of his body. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother, shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

So in the physical realm, husband and wife become one flesh. But notice verse 32. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Now, he's speaking about the church. You love your flesh as yourself. You love your maid as yourself. You become one flesh. You find here that it very clearly says this is a mystery concerning Christ and the church. Genesis 1 clearly explains everything reproduces after his kind. Dogs produce dogs, cats, cats, chickens, chickens, you know, and so on. I think we all realize that. In Genesis 1.28, I'll just refer to that. Genesis 1.28. God told the man and the woman when he created them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. Fill the earth. They were to be fruitful. They were to multiply. They were to have children and family. They were to create a family. You had male, female children. God's intention from the very beginning was based on the model of the family.

He created Adam and Eve. He told them to multiply. And what is God doing today? Well, He is creating a family. It's called the family of God. And God is adding members to that family. And He will do so through the resurrection. And as we found back here in Ephesians chapter 5, again, that when He was talking about marriage, He was speaking concerning Christ and the church. So, you and I, when we received the Spirit of God, when hands were laid on you, you became a part of the body of Christ. And as part of that body of Christ, then you and I are united with Christ. We have His Spirit. We have the Spirit of God living within us. The purpose of marriage, many have forgotten, but the purpose was to rear godly children. And you and I are the children that God Himself is in the process of rearing. Let's go back to the book of Malachi. Malachi 2, verse 15.

Malachi 2, verse 15. Sis, but did He make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit, talking about getting married? Why one? Why does God make a husband and wife one? He seeks godly offspring, therefore take heed to your Spirit. The emphasis is on character development. Why are we called now? Why did God call you now, when the vast majority of people are not called? Why do we come to the Feast of Tabernacles and observe it every year? Well, we come here to help further our training and to learn, to grow, to be taught, to learn to serve, to learn to give, to learn to fear, to be inspired by God, and to be inspired by one another.

We can only do that, rather than if we attend services every day. If we pray and we study while we're here at the Feast, if we stay close to God, God has called us as a family, a big family reunion, to come here every year. And God is in the process of training you, training me, teaching us all how to govern, how to rule, how to love one another, how to serve, and how to carry out His plan.

So we're here to learn to fear God. We have come to worship God. You realize the very fact that you are here right now, you're worshipping God. That you are here because God said, I want you to come and come before Me. God is here with us. When we come, we attend the Feast. God Almighty is here. He is here among us. He's with us. He guides us.

He sees what goes on. He sees our attitude. So we're here to honor Him, to rejoice before Him, to pay homage to the Father and to Jesus Christ, our Savior. We show our love to God by serving one another. One of the greatest lessons that we can learn when we come to the Feast, we're not just here to take care of ourselves. We're here to serve one another. And every one of us, it doesn't matter what our age is, it doesn't matter who we are, we can serve, we can give.

We can do something to help make this Feast a better festival. We're here to rejoice, but our rejoicing is based on understanding God's purpose and God's plan for us. Think of the Millennium as a thousand years training ground to help bring many sons and daughters to glory. And then we will train them for the last great day. You realize that during the Millennium that we're going to be training millions of people.

And those people, those ones who come into God's Kingdom in the Millennium, are going to turn right around and they're going to help all of the billions of human beings who will come up out of the graves and who will come up in the white-thrown judgment. We are being trained as trainers for the world tomorrow. You and I are being trained to lead and guide and direct those who will come up at that time.

Let's notice Isaiah 2. Isaiah 2.2. It says, We are being prepared today to assist Jesus Christ in teaching His way in the world tomorrow. When you are resurrected, changed, made immortal, given a spirit body, and you no longer are inhibited by the flesh, by the limitations of the flesh and of our physical minds that we have, and we are changed, we will then be with Jesus Christ.

And He will tell us, go over here, and He'll give us direction. He'll explain what we need to be doing. We are the firstfruits. We are being trained to train others. So let in the millennium those individuals can be trained. And then they will turn around and assist us in training in the great white-thrown judgment. In Genesis 2, verse 18, our purpose is clearly defined. We are being created as helpers, comparable to Him. If you go back to Genesis 2, verse 8, he created a man, he created the woman to be a help-meet or to be comparable to Him.

Notice the ESV translation. The ESV says, God is making us fit for His Son, Jesus Christ. And when Jesus Christ comes back, He's not going to marry an inferior wife. His wife will be resurrected, changed, made immortal through the resurrection.

We will be in the family of God, and we will be made comparable. We will help Jesus Christ in the millennium, in the family of God, in the great white-thrown judgment. So we're being made comparable to Him now of His kind. Jesus Christ will not come back and marry somebody of a different kind. One of the laws that we learned from the book of Genesis is that everything reproduces after its kind.

Dogs reproduce dogs, not cats. Cats reproduce cats, not birds. Birds reproduce birds, and so on. And so God is in the process of creating His own kind, the God-kind, the God-family. He wants us in that family. And so through the resurrection, we will be made immortal. We will become comparable to Jesus Christ. We will become a helper corresponding to Him, or equal to Him, in the sense that we will be on the same plane. Not an authority, not knowledge, understanding, but we will be on the Spirit-level plane. Among the animals that were created, when God created Adam, there were none that were equal to Him, or none that were adequate to Adam.

That's why God had Adam to name all the animals. He looked around, he could see rhinoceroses, and he could see lions, he could see cows, chickens. Nothing looked like Him. He could look at orangutan, and that wasn't Him. You could see a monkey or an ape or something. That wasn't Him. There was nothing equal to Him or adequate to Adam. And we're not adequate as humans to rule in the world tomorrow, either. We're not adequate as humans to rule the nations. We're all mankind, not the way we are presently. But God is going to elevate us to a higher plane. He's going to elevate us above the angels to help Him to assist.

We will become, in a sense, a bride to Christ. And just as a bride fulfills, you know, it's an analogy, but as a bride fulfills a function, she's a helper, she assists her husband, so we will assist Jesus Christ in bringing salvation to this whole world. Can you think of a greater calling? That God has handpicked you? He's handpicked every one of us here. We're not here by chance. We're not just here because we happened to luck into this. God called you to be a part of His family. And He wants you to assist Jesus Christ. And we will do that. Let's notice in Hebrews 2. Hebrews 2.

You read here beginning in verse 5, For He has not put the world to come, of which we speak in subjection to angels, but one testified in a certain place, saying, What is man, that you are mindful of him? Or the Son of man, that you take care of him?

You made him a little lower than the angels. You crowned him with glory and honor. And you set him over the works of your hands, and you put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he puts all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not see all things put under him. One day, all things will be put under us.

Why? Because we will become a part of the family of God. We will be a part of God's family. And we will be joint heirs with Christ in ruling over this universe. So we're not adequate as human beings to rule the world, the nations, all mankind. We're not adequate because we're limited. We must be elevated to a higher plane, one above the angels to assist our future husband in the world tomorrow to help all mankind to achieve salvation. This is why we're here at the feast right now. That's why you're here tonight. That God has called you to be trained, to be prepared, to help Jesus Christ offer salvation to all mankind.

To give everybody an opportunity for salvation. And He's going to use us. I mean, I look at myself. You look at yourself and you say, well, not in this flesh, but in the resurrection. Something glorious takes place. We will be given a new body. We will be given the Spirit body. We will assist Jesus Christ. Our minds will be elevated. We will now have the mind of God.

They won't be limited by the flesh. We will be able to go here or there, zap, wherever we want to, wherever God says to go, we can go. God loves all people. Every human being, every baby, God loves everyone who's ever lived or tried to live. The Feast of Tabernacle shows the love that God has for all people. We're here to rejoice in the time when God ends the rule of Satan the devil and his empire, and then God will bless all the earth, all people, and extend salvation to them.

Satan the devil and his cohorts will be locked up, and they'll no longer be free to influence mankind. Let's notice in Zechariah 14, Zechariah chapter 14 and verse 4, we find in that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem. Christ is going to come back to the Mount of Olives. Verse 5, we find the last part of verse 5, then the Lord my God will come, and all the saints with you.

So the resurrection takes place. Christ circles the earth. He gathers all of us together, all of those who are resurrected from the first 6,000 years of human existence. There will literally be thousands, who knows, millions who may be resurrected at that time. And we will come back down to this earth. And in verse 8, in that day it shall be that living water shall flow from Jerusalem, as we saw in the video. Living waters that will heal the land, the environment, the oceans. But living waters, God's Spirit, will flow from Jerusalem.

And Christ will be king over all the earth. Verse 9, And that day it shall be, the Lord is one, and his name one. Then in verse 16, we read, it shall come to pass, that everyone that is left of all the nations which come against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.

All nations are going to keep this feast. Can you imagine when millions and billions of people are keeping this feast? They won't all be able to come up to Jerusalem. You can't put 100 million people in Jerusalem. But the feast will be kept in all nations. Let's notice Isaiah chapter 25 and verse 6. Isaiah 25 and verse 6 sort of summarizes what this festival is going to be like and what you will hear as you hear the sermons and the sermonettes as you go through this feast.

Let's notice, beginning in verse 6. And in this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast of choice pieces, a feast of wines on the leaves, of fat things full of marrow, of well-refined wine on the leaves. And he will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all the people, the blindness, the deception, and the veil that is spread over the nations. God is going to lift that veil and He will swallow up death forever. And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces.

The rebuke of His people He will take away from the earth for the Lord has spoken. And it will be said in that day, Behold, this is our God. God will be here. We have waited for Him and He will save us. This is our Lord. We have waited for Him and will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.

So, brethren, there's going to come a time that there will be a feast of choice, peace, and wine. And you and I will be there. And at that time, human beings, once their minds are open, Satan the devil is bound. We're there to lead and guide and teach them. And they're going to rejoice. And they're going to say, this is what we've been waiting for.

You know, the whole world is waiting on us. We are the sons and daughters of God. They're waiting for us. They're waiting for the resurrection. They're waiting for Christ to return. So, you and I have come here at this feast to rejoice before God.

But our rejoicing is not just physical rejoicing. It's spiritual. We come, as Deuteronomy 14 tells us in verse 23, to learn to fear God. Every year we should leave this festival with a deeper all, respect and fear for God, for Him, His plan, His purpose. That's the reason why we need to be at every service. We need to attend every service. If we're not sick so that we can learn from God's Word, that we can be inspired, we can be motivated, we can be lifted up, we can become excited, we can go back home with a greater determination to obey God, to serve Him, to follow Him.

Services are more important than going fishing or going to Disneyland. When I used to coordinate the feast in St. Pete, I had people tell me, God doesn't mind if I take a couple of days off and go fishing or go to Disneyland. I'd say, shame on you. You're giving up the greatest thing on the face of the earth to meet with the great God here before Him and to worship Him.

And you want to go off and play with a mouse. Are you some goofy? Something. Well, brethren, we should be here. It is wonderful to eat, drink, and rejoice before God. God is happy that we do that. He makes abundantly clear that we come here, we take our tithe, we buy whatever our heart desires. But it's not just the physical rejoicing. The ultimate rejoicing is spiritual. Because we are getting a foretaste of the world tomorrow.

We're living here like people will all over the world. Stop and think about a hundred years into the millennium, five hundred years into the millennium, what it's going to be like when the whole world, all nations, keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And how will they know how to keep it? Because you came and kept the Feast. And so you're going to be organizing your own Feast sites. You may have a dozen that you oversee and that you instruct people on how to keep the Feast. You and I are in training right now, brethren, for that job, that responsibility. We are developing the character of God now.

We're making right choices. That's going to determine if we'll be in the family of God or not. We will be teaching mankind in the world tomorrow. Guess what? How to pray, how to study, how to fast, how to rear their own children, how to have happy marriages, how to serve, how to give, how to show love to God. Now, where will we learn all of that? Well, isn't that what you're doing every day?

Isn't that what this Christian life is about? Isn't that why we come here to the Feast? We're learning to do that. And when God looks down and He sees the heartfelt desire that we have to obey Him, to serve Him, to give to others, then God will reward us. God's law, way of life, and righteousness must be written in our hearts, be engraved in our minds, become a part of us. It doesn't matter if we didn't have a Bible. If every Bible were burnt, we didn't have it.

It's written in here. It's in our heart. It's in our minds. It's engraved in us, and so therefore we worship God. Those trained in the millennium are being trained to assist us so that when the eighth day comes around, we will be able to help us. Let's notice one last scripture, Revelation 22, verse 14. Revelation 22, verse 14. Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the city.

It's talking about us, anyone who responds to the right way. Now notice verse 17. And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. You're the Bride. We will be the wife of Jesus Christ. So the Bride says what? To everyone in the millennium. And then the Great White Throne judgment. Come. Let Him who hears come. Let Him who thirsts comes.

Whoever desires, let Him take the water of life freely. So, brethren, we will be assisting Jesus Christ in offering salvation, the water of life, freely to all nations. You see, this has been God's heart's desire from the very beginning. God has a heart desire. And that desire flows out of a heart of love to share His very existence. You just stop and think of that. One time, nothing existed, and God thought this whole thing up because He wanted to share with others His way of life and made it possible for us to do so.

Out of a loving heart, God put the plan of salvation together. And what a wonderful plan it is, what a loving God we worship, what a privilege it is to be called now, to assist the Father and His Son to eventually extend eternal life to all humanity.