He Who Has Begun a Good Work in You

Well, good morning, everyone! On this Sabbath with all men, or mostly all men. And if you're a lady, why are you here? Anyways, good to see everybody here on this day. It was very, very beautifully done. Seemed to be the right words to be sung today and praising God before the day we... until the day we die. It is very, very beautifully sung by Mr. Browning. Mr. Luker did return to Seattle yesterday. He arrived just a few minutes before 6 o'clock in the evening.

We received a text through a friend that said that the flight was hard and he couldn't get any sleep, but they're home and they're glad to be with their son, Stephen, and to be with their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren as well. Certainly, your prayers are for the Lukers. On Thursday morning, or Thursday 1 o'clock, Leanne Luker came to read a farewell message from Denny Luker who was not able to make it to the home office.

He really wanted to come. He was just so very much wanting to be able to come in person to say goodbye to all the people that he truly loved. And I think that every one of us felt very much loved by him. He expressed it so very, very generously and approvingly every day. He was just a tremendous force in this office that will be very, very hard to match, where he made everyone feel like they could do their job. We all felt good about the work, the church, about our mission, about ourselves.

He was extraordinary in that way. And that was the thing that the home office needed more than anything. He gave up three years of his life that he didn't really have to. He talked to me one time. This was before the president was selected last time. He said, do you think I should put my name in for president? I said, well, who am I to tell you whether you should or not? And he got to call the few friends and just said, you know, should I? He said, well, he said that maybe I'll be of some value. I'll just put it in, you know, and see what happens.

As it turned out, he was the person that was chosen. And I truly feel that he was divinely chosen by God to be the right person for the right time to bring a sense of not only stability, but a sense of love and a sense of cohesion and a sense of purpose, which ultimately has resulted in strength that we have.

And I just pray to God that that continue. But Leanne read the following short message, which I will read again here. Some of you have read it in different venues here. But he writes to the Home Office staff March 7, 2013. And it seems like this was about a year ago, just two days ago.

I love you all very much. It's been a great pleasure to serve with you in God's church and God's work here. You have been of great encouragement by your example of dedication to God and your faithful service, especially under difficult times. I will be praying for each of you that God will keep you strong and filled with His love and faith, so that you can help the United Church of God continue to move forward.

And if I don't see you again in the flesh, I look forward to being with all of you in God's kingdom forever. So God be with you until we meet again. Your friend and brother in Christ, Denny, then P.S., I would never have accomplished the work God has given me to do without incredible love and faithfulness and support of my wonderful wife, Leanne. She was there to love me, encourage me, and support me through thick and thin, no matter what happened. I know we will be together forever in God's kingdom. Peter Eddington happened to be over at Denny's home, and he said that Denny said those words with real strength.

And he said, those are the words that I want. And as you notice, he wasn't talking about himself. He was talking about the church, about the home office, the employees, and wishing them the very best. And talking with Leanne, she said, not once, as Denny said, why me? Why am I the one? And woe is me. He set a tremendous example of facing a very, very difficult trial.

When I visited him at the hospital the first time that I saw him after he heard the news that his cancer was very, very serious, I thought, what's he going to look like? What's he going to say? And what would be his demeanor? He had the same look that he always did when he walked into the office.

And he said, Vic, he said, our life is in God's hands. I said, Denny, do you know what you're saying? I mean, you look so good. You are so hopeful. You are so positive. The conversation continued to be very positive. He says, I know that my life is in God's hands.

He has a purpose for our lives. He has given us the days that we have, and he has a purpose, and he's fulfilling it. And the kingdom of God is ahead, and God has this all pretty much under control. And the conversation continued to be very, very positive until I could give him a hug and kiss him goodbye. Truly, truly a person of tremendous example in life and in facing moving on into the kingdom of God, because that's what is on his mind. And that's where he has brought us all to, to be able to feel that sense of really wanting to be there.

I truly have been very touched and moved by him. So let's continue to pray for him. I'd like to read a statement, you know, that Mr. McLean referred to it by our chairman, Robin Weber, about a day of fasting. But I thought that Robin particularly stated it well.

I'll just read that one paragraph from the chairman's letter that was sent out here just a few days ago. He writes, I am asking that all of us consider setting apart a day to fast between today and Wednesday, March 13th. The ongoing legacy of the Lukeurs to all of us is to pray and fast often when times of challenge come upon us, to appeal for God's wisdom and direction that his perfect love might be known. Denny and Leanne would not want us to pray for them alone, for they are concerned about the many others who also suffer physical and emotional challenges along with them.

They would want us to seek God's direction in this transitional period of selecting a new president, and that all of us would work together in love, humility, and patience and harmony. They would want us to consider the words of Isaiah 58, 6-12, that each of us might be spiritually renewed in our fellowship with God, the Father and Jesus Christ, that we might proclaim as the prophet did, then shall your light, shall them, your light, shall dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday, verse 10.

Thus let us fast and pray as a spiritual family to our heavenly Father above. So I felt that was very, very well stated. The Lukeers did not want a special day of fasting for them, because there are others that we heard about today from Mr. Eakin and other people who are suffering that we should also consider. So I wanted to give you that update. Pray for the Lukeers.

They're in the Seattle area where they are at home. Things are pretty much under control. We work together at the home office. We are in touch with the chairman of the Council of Elders, Robin Weber, and things are operating normally. But I'd like to bow our heads and to ask a special prayer at this time. Our Father in Heaven, we thank you very, very much for life.

We're very thankful to you for giving us understanding of its purpose and also giving us a plan and a blueprint of a world beyond. A world beyond this terrible, sick, hurtful, and temporary decaying world. We're so very thankful to you for your kingdom. When it's events like this, when people are very, very sick and when people are in the process of going through terrific suffering, that the kingdom of God becomes even more real to us.

So we ask for your loving grace and your loving kindness to be upon the Lukeers, to give them peace, to help them to be able to enjoy the time that they have with their children, and to help them in every particular way. So we ask for your blessing. We ask for your healing. We ask for eternal healing that comes through you, through Jesus Christ, who has given life and is the source of life.

And we're so very thankful that we can learn all this together. So we thank you for this and give praise to you in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. My just mention is that when we were formulating the first prayer request for Denny Luker, it was just very interesting how Lianne wanted it worded.

She wanted it worded in such a way that it was not just a very desperate plea for healing, knowing the seriousness of the disease. And she was reading from us from another source, you know, of a person who had gone through that type of thing with the death of their 12-year-old daughter. And she said that they prayed for broader things, for God's love, for God's mercy, for God's plan, for understanding, for wisdom and all those things. And if you heal me, that would be a wonderful benefit.

But it was for a broader picture. She said she wanted that first prayer request that was sent out to be in that mode and in that tone. So continue to pray for the Lukers. For me personally, this has been, you know, very, very difficult because they have been very, very dear friends, and we have done so many things together.

It's just unthinkable how quickly this happened and turned from what was even two weeks ago. And it's only a little over a week. It's only a little over a week since we've really learned that he had the seriousness of the disease that he's had.

I'd like to give a sermon that I have given before here, and I see some of you sitting here who have maybe heard it before. And apologies, sort of, maybe, for having to hear it again. But I do feel that there are certain things that I can say, and I felt it was the message for today in the midst of the trials that we have and in preparation for the days of 11 Bread and the Passover, which is a milestone that we pass every year in our recommitment to God, and saying, yes, we're on board. Yes, we renew our membership. We renew our relationship with you this year. But I wanted to talk to you about a characteristic and a value that God has that really determines and guarantees our success in life and salvation. And this is what Denny Luker has lived with all throughout his 50 years of ministry. And this is something that I think that all of us who have been around and been around the block in the church and have been through the ups and downs and the upheavals and the good times and the bad times and the crisis times appreciate that we will get through things. We will get through whatever it is that has to be gotten through. And he that endures to the end will be saved. Now, when we use the word endure, it isn't just meaning to fill out your time. Endure means you've got to suffer. When you endure something, you don't endure a good meal. You don't endure a vacation. You don't endure things that you enjoy. Don't endure your days on the earth. You endure hardship. You endure relationship difficulties. You endure problems on the job or you endure problems in the family. You endure problems with, you know, whatever. You endure a disease. And he that endures to the end will be saved. There seems to be a message in that, in getting to the end. And as I look back over the people that I have graduated with or my cohorts in the church of who's survived up to right now, it is a very, very sorry group. And I know that God has different plans and a different way in which he might be working with these people. I don't know what God is doing. It's not about business. My business is me and what I do. And I know that I must endure. I must get through this and I must get through to the end. But I have seen people fall away. I've seen people fall away over another person because of another person, because of a shift in organization, a transfer, a move, any number of things. A shift in doctrine, you know, whatever. People have had to make moves for different reasons. And it's not been an easy process, not been a pleasant process. And a process has been extremely painful at times. But those who endure to the end are going to cross the finish line. But I wanted to talk to you about a quality that God has stated that is important in helping us understand how he values the work that he's begun in you and what he says that he will do for you. And something that really ought to be a faith builder and something that gives us greater hope. Because of this quality, we have hope. And because of this quality, we are having our faith fueled. And that is found in Philippians chapter 1 and verse 6. Philippians chapter 1 and verse 6, we read about this quality that we may already know. But I wanted to bring it out and highlight it in my sermon this morning. Philippians chapter 1 verse 6, being confident of this very thing that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

When I was at Ambassador College, I had a couple of scriptures on my little cork board in front of me. They were both from the book of Philippians. One was this one, is that when God has started a good work that has begun in us, He will complete it. That's a promise. That is something that He says, you know, if you want to go along for the ride, I'll make sure you get there. He says, it might be bumpy, and there might be times that we, you know, crash into something, you know, but we'll get there. I'll make sure that you make it to the end. He who has begun a good work in you will complete it. And the other was from Philippians 4 and 13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. You put those two together for the book of Philippians, you've pretty much got the look and feel of a book of great encouragement, which is really a book of great encouragement that was written to the Macedonians in Philippi. What God has begun, He will finish. God knows who you are. He knows exactly who you are. He was working with you before you even knew that He was working with you.

We had a time when several of us, when we were first called into the church, reminisced about what events took place that we could see where God's hand clearly was working, that indicated that God was working in us. And the stories are phenomenal about how a person was saved from an accident, a person recovered from an illness, a person happened to come into contact with something at the right time that brought about life-changing thoughts in their mind. And God has called us, He especially worked with us, He's been individually working with us in a very specific way in our journey towards the kingdom of God. There's nothing more that God wants than to see you born into His kingdom. He wants it more than you do. He said that He will get you there, and if you endure to the end, you will be saved. It's a very, very inspiring process, if we can just put our mind to it. And there are times when trials bring us to remembrance, or to clearly focus this in our minds more. In Luke 12, verse 7, The very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear, therefore, you are more valued than many sparrows. Now God sees a flock of sparrows, thousands of them flying, and if one falls, He notes it. So what of value is a sparrow? Isn't your life more than that? God has every hair of our head numbered.

He knows that I have 127,383 hairs on my head. He knows that my cook is easier to count. He has less hairs on his head. But He knows how many hairs we have on our head, the point being made that He is very, very personal. He has very personal knowledge of you. He knows your thoughts. He knows your habits. He knows what's happening in your life. He sees your record. He sees your potential. And He has plans for you. Our most popular booklet, Over Time, was Why Were You Born?

I like that title. Actually, I like it more than any title that we've had. Because it really makes you say, you know, there may be a purpose to my life, especially if you're out there in this world and wondering, what's it all about? I talked to a very good friend of mine one time. After a funeral, I hadn't seen him in a long time. And he was an engineer for Honeywell. And he was working on a little guidance system for the F-16. And he was a brilliant scientific person. But he was kind of a melancholy person, and I would like to philosophize and talk.

And I was talking to him about my church and my faith and so forth. He said, you know, there's got to be more to life than to be designing guidance systems for F-16s. And just the way he brought it up, you know, it was something very important. It was a very technical thing.

It was something that required a lot of scientific acumen. But he said, there's got to be more to life than this. There's got to be a purpose to life. And as I was talking to him, just a few years after that, he had a brain tumor and died. And I don't think he ever understood. But I said to myself, you know, I'm so thankful that I have a purpose to life. That I see a much broader picture. I see God calling me, working with me. And I see him very clearly showing me scriptures that have been hidden to the masses, even though 10 million Bibles a year are sold in America.

That these concepts are all clearly spelled out to me. I can see where I'm going. I see what God is doing with me. I can see the bigger picture. I can kind of step away from my life and its minutiae and see a broader plan and purpose. That booklet, actually, our number two booklet was Seven Laws of Success, but our number one booklet was Why Were You Born? Because it really spelled out what is most important. Not only that, but also what God is wanting to do with you.

And it talks about man entering into the family of God, becoming born again in the family of God where we're brothers with Jesus Christ, and that we'll be ruling over worlds without end, and so forth. It just really broadened your mind and made it very practical. It didn't just kind of stuff you into heaven someplace and some kind of a scary position and nobody and all this kind of thing, but it made it feel like it was real and that you'd be doing real things and creative things, and there was life beyond. And that's what has given us and fueled us with that hope. When I brought over some literature in the Russian language to the Ukrainians back in 1991, we had about a dozen booklets, 10 to 12 booklets in the Russian language from our previous Russian department at Ambassador College.

And one of them was Why Were You Born? The Ukrainians who had just come out of a communist government and control, had no literature, all they had was the Bible, and they were very, very poor even in explaining concepts. We're just hungry. We're just hungry. It was just so interesting to be with people that are just hungry for the truth. They believed the same things you do, the Sabbath, the Holy Days, not so much the Holy Days, but the Sabbath, they believed in the nature of God as we did.

They believed what happens after death. Virtually, most everything that we believed. And when I showed them the booklet about Why Were You Born, and they read it, they said, Wow! Whoever wrote that booklet is a genius! That just opens up new worlds to us. And they have reprinted that booklet many, many times. It's so interesting to see it. When reprinted, it has on it copyright Radio Church of God still to this day. You know?

As they said, whoever was this Gerbert, you know, Armstrong, as they called him. But anyway, that's... I'm just saying is that we have a broader picture and understanding, you know, where we are going. And God is very personally interested in us and wants to see us get there. He really does. And He's going to help us. And this is what gives us hope. And this is what gives us a sense of joy, if you want to put it that way.

That no matter what the trial is, we know where we are going. Hebrews 12 and verse 2. Hebrews 12 and verse 2. The description that Paul makes about Jesus Christ as the author of our faith. Looking unto Jesus as the author and finisher of our faith.

It only gets us going. And He doesn't just get us going and walk away. But He is the finisher of our faith. He's around there to support us, to help us, to give us the water bottle, you know, as we go along on the trail towards that marathon, towards the Kingdom of God. He is there to help us. But part of the struggle is the suffering.

Part of the struggle is our efforts. We're not just being carried into the Kingdom of God on a float or on a gravy train. The Kingdom of God is a journey. The road to Kingdom of God is a journey. And it involves many decisions that have to be made that come to you. Do I do this?

Do I do that? Do I continue? Do I stop? No, I can't stop because I see the bigger picture. And God wants us to be strengthened and to be able to make those decisions. But the ultimate, the ultimate, the good news at the end is, and that's why we have the good news.

That's why we call ourselves. So much of our identity is, let me talk about the good news, is salvation and the Kingdom of God. Luke chapter 14 and verse 25.

When I was trained to counsel people for baptism, the minister who mentored me always made a big point of this, and so have I, when I've talked to people about baptism. This point about completing the job that has been set before us, of finishing, of making a commitment, this is part of the commitment, but part of the commitment is not just feeling committed. Part of the commitment is doing things and going on in spite of setback, in spite of situations that may appear to be negative and reversals. How many people have turned away? Because they were sunny day Christians, everything looked so good, the truth was so wonderful, they felt a euphoria of knowledge of the truth.

But then when the first blaze of heat and the first fire that has come into their lives, they couldn't take it. They ran, and they ran without thinking. How sad! And yet the instruction to us is to endure and to continue. In Luke chapter 14 and verse 25, great multitudes followed Jesus Christ, and He turned to them. And what He's doing is answering a question, so we can guess maybe what the question is. Christ was a very popular individual, charismatic from the standpoint of being popular.

How He talked and what He said really clicked with the audience. It was no doubt part of Christ's personality. I think that He really was a gifted speaker who engaged audiences, large audiences. And people were no doubt asking Him, how do I become part of this movement? How can I become one of yours? How can I become a disciple of yours, if you will? And He said, verse 26, if anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.

And we know what that means. We've said this so many times. That he who doesn't put in second place all other relationships, all other family relationships included, he cannot be My disciple. You've got to put me first. I'm number one. Sorry about that. But in order to be a Christian, or to take this route, I've got to be number one, because I am God. I am the source, and I am your ticket to salvation. I'm going to get you there. So you've got to put me first. Others may fail you. Your wife, your husband, your parents, your children will fail you. But I will never fail you, is what he's saying.

Okay. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be My disciple. Bear his cross. Robin Weber gave a sermon here in December when the Council of Elders was here about the cross and the crown. We have to endure by picking up our cross as we go. And that cross could be any number of things, which I've already kind of elucidated, that come across our paths that we have to carry. They're not just step over, but carry. The cross could be health.

The cross could be bad relationship. The cross could be any number of things. The Apostle Paul had some type of cross. We don't know exactly what it was, but some type of malady, some type of disease, whatever, that he had to bear. All of us have something in our lives that we have to bear. And it's something that you've got to carry. You can't say, God, I want you to get rid of this for me. You could ask that, but it may or may not be gone, because it's necessary as part of your strengthening to be able to endure and to be ready for the kingdom of God. Okay, now we get to the actual question that I'm making the point of in this section.

Which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he have enough to finish it? Have you counted the cost and really figured out that this is what I want to do? And in the counseling that this minister who mentored me said, and made a big point, of people who were baptized, he said, you know, have you thought ahead about the things that could happen in your life?

You may marry somebody who you dearly love, they could die. Your parent might die very, very soon. You might have a child who dies. You know, all of these things that I just brought out, these trials, have led to people leaving the faith, because they didn't count the cost of all the things that might have to happen in their life that would be a decision-maker. Do I stay with this? Where is God? Why doesn't he answer me? That type of thing.

Are we ready to go through when we are going through difficult situations and make it to the end or not? The minister, again, who mentored me, made a real big point of that. He impressed that upon the lives of these people so strongly, he made it a big part of the baptismal counseling. Are you really willing to take the road, the easy, the hard, and the very difficult road to endure to get there? Do you have enough to finish it? They said, do you really want to be baptized? Do you really want to be? What's your motive for being baptized? Is it because your friends are being baptized? Is it because you want to marry somebody? Because it's a cool thing to do? Because you're 19, 20 now, and it's time to be baptized? I really want you to know exactly why you're being baptized and what road you're taking and what it's going to cost you. And you know what's going to cost you, he said? It's going to cost you your life. Because you will have to give up your life to be a Christian.

So I made a big point of it. That's an important point of God teaching us, but it's also a characteristic of His, is that He won't quit. He won't quit on us. And He'll be encouraging us until we get there. Now, one thing I really appreciated about Denny Luker with people, actually something that even irked me about him at times, is that he was so believing in people. He was so, you know, giving everybody another chance and believing the best of anyone. And when there were times when I said, Denny, we can't go on with this situation as it is. You know, let's give another chance. Ugh! Just walk out of his office. He really gave everybody a chance. That was godly. Now, obviously, if there's somebody who's going to be throwing grenades in services, that's one thing. But if there's somebody you could give one more chance to, one more visit, one more phone call, one more opportunity, you could put up with nonsense. You could put up with different things because you see the good, like God sees in all of us. How many times has God, you know, worked with you where he's given you just another chance? How many times? When you know what you think, and you know how you act, and you know how you slip back.

I'll really give a lot of credit to Denny for the way he was and the way he dealt with people. Certainly something that I told him that I have learned a lot from him. I tend to be a softie sometimes, too, but not as soft as he is. And, you know, he truly showed me and taught me a lot. In Psalm 15, verse 4, Psalm 15, verse 4, this is called God's Gentlemen. That's what the Jews call it. It's the second most popular psalm after Psalm 23, which for Christians is number one. If you were to take a list of psalms that are popular, but this one here is number two. It's called God's Gentlemen. And the question here is, who shall abide in your tabernacle, and who shall dwell on your holy hill? Who's going to be there in the kingdom of God? He's asking. Well, I've given whole sermons on this subject, including last week. But, you know, he talks about things, but one thing that he brings out here in this verse, which I will focus on, is... verse 4, the latter part, Okay, we don't swear, but we certainly give our word. And Christ in the Sermon on the Mount said, That what you say you're going to do, do it. If your yes is yes, we expect it to be a yes. And these are characteristics of somebody who will be in God's kingdom. These are very, very important things to God. A person who will fulfill what he promises. How many of us have been sickened because somebody promised us something, or said they would do something, and they don't do it? And they just kind of pretend like they never said it.

I think that all of us have been hurt by people who said, I will do this for you, I will give this to you, I will pay this back, I will do such... And they just plain forget about it. And one of the important aspects of God's character is that he will fulfill what he promises. And that's what I base my faith and hope in the future on, is that what God has promised eternal life, when God has promised to me salvation, that God has promised redemption, that it's as good as happened, and that my eternity is sealed if I continue to endure on that road. He wants to give it to me. He wants it far more than I even believe that I can have it. He really wants that. But are you a person who will fulfill your word? I have what I write in graduation cards, the thing that I write most to graduates. One time a parent said, could you write some words of wisdom? Instead of just, hey, congratulations graduate type of a thing, write some words of wisdom. Probably the thing I write most of anything is this, is that may you fulfill your promises, and may you finish what you have started to work on. That what you start to do, finish it. What you promise you will do, fulfill it. Now that seemed like the most important thing, but it is very important. It is very important to do what you say you will do. I think that we rely on our salvation and eternity, and the fact that God said He would do something for us, we really expect Him and want Him to do it.

Jesus Christ, when He was here on the earth, said in a number of places that He was here not just to do the work of God, He wasn't just to kind of dabble in the work that God the Father had given Him to do, but He came here to finish it. John chapter 4 and verse 34. John chapter 4 and verse 34, Jesus said to them, My food, my meat, as is in the old King James, or the thing that keeps me going, my fuel, is to do the will of Him who sent me, and to finish His work. Christ had a three and a half year timetable in which He was to complete a particular mission that had a starting point and had an ending. Christ had a vision of what had to happen after three and a half years, and He had a strategy that led to Him completing that mission. He came here to finish the work of God the Father. In John chapter 5 and verse 36, similar thought, But I have a greater witness in John's for the works which the Father has given me to finish. The very works that I do bear witness of me that the Father has sent me.

So Christ was here on the earth with a mission not just to kind of do a lot of good things, but to finish a particular mission that He had come to. Lee Strobel, who was a Chicago... Let's see, the main newspaper in Chicago, which I just can't remember right now, Chicago Tribune. He was one of their feature editors for a year and was an agnostic at one time. And because of his wife's nudging and so forth, he took an interest in Biblical things and said, You know something? I'm going to look into this. I'm going to try to prove it. Prove it one way or the other. See if I can take a look as to what is being said and what evidence I can see and what results I come to if there is a God, if there was a Christ, if there is anything to this thing called Christianity. And he's written a number of books, some excellent books, The Case for Christ, and another one, which I actually even touches me more, is The Case for Faith.

He is able to, in a very poignant way, express his thoughts about godly things. He did a survey. One of the surveys he did was just people. Of course, surveys are a big thing right now. Any time you buy anything, you do a survey. Oh, not again. But he did a survey in which he asked a question. If you were to talk to God and have one question that you would want a direct answer from him, what would that question be? And by far, the question was, why is there so much evil in this world, and why is there so much suffering in this world, if there is a god? That was the number one question. And actually, the number one deterrent he felt to people making more commitment when they see natural disasters and thousands of people dying that really weren't particularly at fault at that time. When you have people who are born in different economies and historic times that had no chance, and when we in the United States have every opportunity, you know, why us and why not them? What kind of a god, what kind of a fair-loving god is there? And when you see all the terrible things that happen, how could there be a god when there is so much evil? The Feast of Tabernacles in Estonia, this was in 2005, and the tsunami had just swept through and killed about 300,000 people. And we were at the Feast of Tabernacles, and we actually had a public campaign that was part of our Feast of Tabernacles event, where we had some of our sermons were open to the public. We invited the public in for, I think, two or three of our sermons to be like a kingdom of God seminar in a way. And one of the days, I noticed that in the convention center that we were at, we couldn't have lunch one day, and I thought, well, how come? Well, it's because the Rotary Club of Estonia, of Tartu, Estonia, had their weekly meeting there. So I thought, oh, well, I'm in the Rotary, so I'm going to go over there and talk to them. And so I was introduced, you know, they always ask members from other places, introduce themselves and tell a little bit about themselves. I said, hey, I am from that group across the hall, and we're keeping the Feast of Tabernacles here, and we invite you all, you know, like to come to our services, you know, if you want, to the next several days. Well, I identified myself as a minister and one of the organizers, and I had, and the club was mostly at Tartu University professors. And one came to me and said, I want to talk to you. He was nasty. I mean, honestly, this was a nasty Estonian. He said, you tell me, if you are a man of God and a minister, why did 300,000 people, including many tens of thousands of children, perish in that tsunami? How could there be a God? Tell me, how could there be a God with all that terrible thing happening? You know what I told him, I said, I would be very happy to talk about this subject with you. In fact, this was just the day before the last great day. I said, our sermon for tomorrow is actually designed to answer some of those questions. We'll talk to you about a greater plan that God has and what God has in mind. You know, and I told him to come and everything, you know, but he, you know, nobody came. People don't believe us.

You know, God has a broader plan in how he works. Having trial and having hardship has led to many people leaving God. On the other hand, interestingly enough, there are people who have gone through hardship, who have gone through intense suffering, who have shown examples of great devotion to God and to his presence in their lives and to God's working with them.

Not to which, at least, are the Lukeurs. I'll give a little plug. I cannot believe how, in the midst of having this great trauma take place in their lives, how positive they are about the coming of Jesus Christ, about how compassionately they feel about other people.

And one thing that struck me about them more than anything else is that they have not been thinking about themselves. They think about others who suffer. Do you realize that the greatest good that is going to take place in all of eternity is because of the greatest evil that's ever taken place, where humanity collectively killed our Messiah, tortured him, and in the midst of this crucible came out the greatest good, the greatest grace of God in giving eternal life.

That is the truth. I'm telling you the truth. It's in suffering that we learn the love of God, that we learn compassion, and we learn an important aspect of the progression of events that take place in our journey towards eternity. It was never designed to be easy, or that we would be baptized, and we would just be kind of Teflon all the way through as we zip into the kingdom of God. We would have no strength. We would have no experience.

We would have no feelings of others, unless we went through that experience ourselves. It's interesting, again, that's often the ones who are disadvantaged that show some of the greatest and not the greatest and most valiant examples of endurance and carrying on. You've seen The Bumper Sticker, Be Patient, God Isn't Finished With Me Yet. There's actually four different books that you can get on Amazon, if you go to Amazon, that kind of focus around that subject. And they often, a couple of them, there's even one for teenagers.

There's actually one for teenagers that's about the fact that people who think about, why me? Why do I have to go through this? And kind of show some things. One of them is by a young lady who had an accident at age 16, car accident, lost functionality, or she became a paraplegic. They call them aphasiax people, aphasiax people who live without the normal things that we do. It talks about how she was able to carry on, how she was able to do things, and how she actually thought about others and got her mind off herself.

Another example, you know, we know very well Helen Keller. I could talk about a woman who was born deaf and blind, who could certainly sit in a home of some sort and just live her days out, die in death, ending up in death. She became a well-known author and a person that truly showed the greatest example of being one who was able to work with great disability.

One of my favorites is a woman by the name of Johnny Eric Centada. You probably have heard of her, but Lee Strobel in his book, The Case for Faith, interviews her. The interview is so beautiful. She is a beautiful woman. She was 16 or 17 years old, in a car or diving accident. She broke her neck and became a quadriplegic. Now, believe me, that would be somebody who would have every right to say, why me?

Why me? Why am I the one who has to go through this? Why all my friends who will be married and have children and grandchildren and enjoy life? And I will not have any of that. My life has ended, but I have to live it anyway. She is interviewed in this particular thing. I mean, the interview is so touching. I've watched it numerous times in The Case for Faith. She talks about the fact that she wakes up every morning in pain. She says, why do I...you know, I want...this is so painful.

But she saw in this the love of Jesus Christ, of working with her, of seeing what Jesus Christ himself had to go through and understanding things in a deeper way than she could possibly ever have for humanity. As a result, she's been able to form a foundation for disabled people. She has her own so-called, you know, as they say, ministry that she has for disabled people. She has a radio program. She's written books. She gives lectures. And she is extremely lucid. A person of great admiration. This person has learned a lot.

You know, I would like to know that when I come into God's Kingdom, that I'm not just average, but that I have really excelled at those matters that have to do with character, that have to do with understanding spiritual concepts. That have to do with love and the way I treat my fellow man and the way that I think about others other than myself. I would want to go into the Kingdom knowing that that's the quality person that I am.

You know, God does that. You know, helps us to kind of get going that way. If He made it very easy, all we would do is just talk about and think about ourselves and enjoy ourselves. Especially those coming into the First Resurrection. They have a very special job to do in preparing the world for all the miserable people that will follow in the White Throne Judgment Period.

Or even in fixing this earth in the Millennial Period. We have a lot of repair, a lot of thoughtful work that we have to do to repair this earth. And to do this work. Johnny Erickson said, there is a God who cares. He has an intended, merciful purpose. And it's only through suffering that you understood how deeply He feels about people and how much He loves them. She makes that statement that makes me cry every time I see it.

It's through suffering that she understood how deeply God loves people and how much He loves them. He cares and feels about them. She said that she's learned a dependence on Him totally, completely. Because there's nobody else. There's nobody else who can give those right words of encouragement. There's nobody else who can help her. There are no doctors who have another cure for her. She's totally dependent upon her Savior for salvation. And she says, there are purposes for suffering, and they are good.

I had an accident a little over two years ago in South Africa where I fell over in a hotel room and fell back on a very sharp bench. And I was just about to leave for South Africa on a flight from Zambia and broke three ribs. Or two ribs. I didn't know that, though. And Major Talama took me to the airport and I said, I banged my back up pretty bad, but she said, I'll take you to the hospital. I said, oh no, not Zambia. Just get me to the airport. And so I did get down to South Africa. It was about a two-hour flight. Then I had to go through an hour in immigration line. I said, something is really bad. And I was taken to our little Sisters of Mercy hospital there in Pretoria. And they said, yep, you broke your back. You broke your ribs clean through, two of them. They said, but you know, you're going to be flying back to the States in two days. Come back for another x-ray and you should be okay. It was very painful. Well, that day, something happened where one of those ribs punctured my lung and it started filling up with fluid. And I was in a horrible state, pain that I cannot describe. And they took me to the hospital Sabbath morning. And the next thing I hear is emergency. I hear I'm on a cart. I'm being wheeled down hallways. I'm in an ambulance. I'm taken to the big hospital in Pretoria. And there the surgeon sees me. They're talking about, what should we do? I hear them talking among themselves. Should we do this procedure or should we do that procedure? I'm saying, I said, you know what I'll think to myself? I go to hospitals to visit people. I don't go to hospitals in this condition. I was in denial. This isn't happening to me. And they decided to put a hole in my back and put a tube and drain the lung. And I was in intensive care for five days and about six, seven days, six days total in the hospital. The pain was terrible for me. Of course, I'm just a big wimp, you know, with the pain. But nonetheless, the pain was terrible. It wouldn't go away. And they would give me this drug and everything. It was a horrible pain. That tube in my back was like a knife stuck in my back. And, you know, thank God I recovered. But then I came back, and I was still a pastor of churches up in Indiana, where a person called me and said they were in a hospital and they were in a lot of pain. You know, I thought about that pain so differently. Oh, I see you're in pain. Let's pray. I felt that I had experienced pain where I could really be compassionate to her, because she was going through some horrible pain to know whether to take this drug or to just to grit her teeth or what to do. But you know something? I learned something from that. And I'm glad I did. I wouldn't want to go through the experience again, but I'm glad I did. And if you take a look at the trials that you have gone through, including death, including some horrible loss, which you might say, what in the world was that all about in my life? I thought that when I gave my life to Jesus Christ, I would be spared from those things.

Well, there are certain things to learn from that. There are many, many hurting people for which we need to have compassion for, and the only way that we will have that compassion is through some of the trials that we have.

Again, the greatest evil of mankind was killing the human incarnation of God.

Can you imagine, you know, in the plan of God, how ugly that is? Now, we think about all kinds of ugly things, but there's nothing uglier than killing the human incarnation of the true God.

And from that, God created the greatest good in giving His grace to mankind. Remember that. It's through suffering that we learn.

Let's make sure that we don't give up in this life.

You know, in the trial of Denny Luker, while we may cry, and I have, I did at his home, and those of us at home here, but you know, I sense a great joy, too, of the example that he and Leanne have set in how to face life and how to face death. A tremendous example of great joy. When he told me how sick he was, you know, the level of angst that he had in his voice was about as much as getting a bad email. You know, he was just, well, this has happened, you know, and this is where I'm at, and this is what I'm going through. But Christ is in charge, and Christ knows everything about every cell of our body, and he knows us and what we do, and he knows his church and what our plan is, and he knows what he's doing, and our life is in Christ's hands. He would not stop talking about the envelopes that we have of Christ holding our hands and holding our lives for a greater purpose. He did that without blinking. There was absolutely no regret in his voice or in his statements, and not a single twinge of bitterness. I wish it didn't have to happen this way. He said, this is what the plan of God was. He knew it because some of the symptoms of what has come on were there some time back, even before he came to Cincinnati. And yet God brought him here. He sacrificed, then he sacrificed, his grandkids' time, because he was to take those years and be with his children and grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. That's what they were going to do with them. And he basically turned that in to be here, to be a very special influence, the very special influence for all of us here. And that legacy is certainly going to continue, and remember it as the high point of morale here at the home office. After a period of low morale, he really brought a lot here. Let us not give up. Let us look at the bigger picture of what God is doing for us. Look at chapter 18, in verse 1-8, talking about not losing heart. This is a very, very important concept that is spoken of in a number of places, not only by Jesus, but also spoken by the Apostle Paul. He spoke a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. Now the point of this parable about this woman who was imploring this judge and banging on his door and not giving up, was that she didn't give up. She didn't lose heart. That's what happens. Tough, bitterness, regret, and so forth. There was a certain city of judge who did not fear God and regard man. Now there was a widow in that city. She came to him. Get justice for me for my adversary. He would not for a while, but afterwards he said within himself, Though I do not fear God, nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her. Lest by her continual coming, she weary me.

Because she was persistent and because she did not lose heart. Are we that way as well? 2 Corinthians 4, 1, Therefore since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart.

If there was anybody that could lose heart, we could talk about the life of the Apostle Paul. It would be him. He'd go into a place and... He was one where the Macedonian call. He's to not stay in Asia Minor. He's to go to Europe. The Gospel goes to a new environment. He goes to see Lydia, the seller of purple. There's a group that meets at her house. The church is off to a great start. After that, he's stuck in the prison. He says, God, what in the world is that about? I was to come here to start the church and now I'm thrown into prison. But he used all those negative things that happened to him for the good. Went down to Thessalonica from there. You know, the bad guys followed him down there. He could have said, what is all this about? God, give me a break. And God did give him a break. God was with Paul the entire time. But was his journey easy? No, it was a hard journey. And for some, the journey is very hard. 2 Corinthians 14, 4, verse 16. Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. Do not lose heart. Don't quit. Be committed. God is finishing a work in you. He wants you to be with him. Stay with me, God says. Galatians 6, 9. Let us not grow weary while doing good. Don't get tired of doing good. We can get tired of helping people. We can get tired of all kinds of things. You know, people don't always treat us back nicely when we do good things for them. But let's not grow weary while we do good. Ephesians 3, verse 8. To me, who am the least of all saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. And then dropping to verse 13. Therefore I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. Now, they heard all these stories about Paul. He had to go, don't lose heart! Don't quit. Go on. That's what he wanted. So as we live our days in this world, let's see a much bigger picture about why we were born, about a commitment that we made at the time we were baptized to count the cost, to finish the building that we had started to build, so that people don't laugh. Our life doesn't laugh at us. This man began to build and was not able to finish. Let's continue, in spite of difficulty, to continue to move forward, in spite of trial, to move forward. That Jesus Christ is right with us in helping us, in helping us, helping our families, helping our church accomplish what it does. I take a look back, and I won't be saying much about this right now, as to how God has directed and led our church. And I can see in retrospect how he helped us here, how he helped us there, how he got us through a hump there. It's an amazing story about how God has protected and been with us. So, what God has begun, he will finish. The Greeks, in their Olympic Games, had a race that they don't do now. It was a race that was unique. The winner was not the runner who finished first. It was the runner who finished with his torch still lit, and he got a special award. Because no matter what, he didn't just... the marathon, after 20 miles, just... it's not worth it. But he crossed the finish line. And the one who crossed the finish line last also got some type of award, because it represented a certain aspect of character that was important. So God will finish what he starts. The question is, will we?