He Will Finish His Work In You

And also, greetings to everybody who is listening, watching, online. It's a beautiful day here. Actually, I really enjoy this type of scenery being from Minnesota. This was some scenery that we would see quite often through the wintertime, and it brings back many happy memories. This is not bad weather. People say, oh, the snow. Well, I love the snow. Better than rain, because with snow, it's beautiful. Rain is wet and sloppy. So I just really enjoy the snow very, very much. Anyways, very, very good to see you. I was originally scheduled for this morning's sermon, and then we got the word that we were not to... that we couldn't make it here. So, oh, I'm off the hook. Then I thought, the shoe's gonna drop. And Mr. Myers texted me, and I knew what he was going to be talking about.

And he said, well, I'm scheduled for the next two weeks. You know, kind of a sob. Sorry, you know.

And being Russian background, you know, it doesn't take much guilt to get us to do things. It really doesn't. I mean, we could feel guilty at the slightest thing. We don't feel guilty very long, but we feel guilty enough, you know, to modify and change our behavior. So, after back and forth, I said, okay, I'll be glad to do it. So, actually, it was a sermon I was going to be giving this morning. What I do want to talk about today, though, is a value and characteristic of God that will determine and guarantee your success in this life and your salvation.

It's a very, very big thing about God that should not be discounted and something that should be greatly appreciated and even followed. That's what I'll be talking about today. Because if God would not be this way, we would not have hope. And because of this quality, we do have hope, and it fuels our faith. Because we could always know that God will be this way, and that God will react this way, and that God is going to be reliable in this particular aspect. What I want to talk about is what is in the book of Philippians. And I had two 3x5 cards when I came to Ambassador College back a long, long time ago in 1966. And on those two 3x5 cards, I had two scriptures from the book of Philippians. One was this one, and one was later in the book. But Philippians chapter 1 and verse 6, Philippians chapter 1 and verse 6, reads the following. It reads this way, Being confident of this very thing, that God who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. What God has begun doing, not just in the universe, but what He's begun doing in you, He will complete. What an awesome scripture. What an awesome promise that what God has determined He will do, He will complete.

The other passage was from Philippians chapter 4 and verse 13, and that was, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And I had those up there for the whole year. I lived by those scriptures. I just knew that I was at Ambassador College for a purpose, that God had something in mind for me, and that whatever I needed to do, or whatever had to be done, I could accomplish, because Jesus Christ strengthened me. I didn't really know too much about the church when I came to college, and those scriptures really kept me going because I didn't have a lot of support beforehand. I kind of came as, at that time, there were a number of students that really had very, very little orientation with the church. They just read the Good News or the Plain Truth magazine, and came to college as a result of what they had read. But God has begun something in us, and He is going to complete it. God knows you. He knows everything about you. He's working with you. He knows far more about you than you know about yourself. You might think that you're outthinking people, and even outthinking God. God is outthinking you a thousand times more than that. He knows your motives. He knows your thoughts. He knows your strengths. He knows your weaknesses.

He knows what the probability of you reacting a certain way is to certain conditions. He is the one who is by your side at all times. He knows, as Jesus Christ speaks of in Luke 12, in verse 7, God knows every hair of our head. He knows that my wife has 222,683 hairs of head.

Mr. Ed Smith was an easy one. Forgot. He knew every hair of his head. He knows exactly how many hairs there are on your head. The very hairs of your head are numbered. Do not fear. Therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows, saying that if God knows this, and God knows of any sparrow that drops from a flock that's flying, this is relatively unimportant to you, to knowing about you, about your character, about your life, and about the great plan that God has in store for you.

God knew you before you were called. God was involved in your calling long before you yourself were known. I know that there was a moment that I came to understand God in a way that was so different from the way that I had understood Him before. I knew that it was an intervention. It was not just something where I, through my wisdom, had come to see something that was a whole lot better than what I had believed. It was a change of heart, of spirit, of, no, I'm going to see this. It's so different from what I had believed. And believe me, I was very active in my former church. I was Orthodox, Ukrainian Orthodox. I was very active. I was the head of our youth group. I was an altar boy and worked with a priest for years. I had a very good relationship with him. I always asked him questions, and he was very, very knowledgeable. I really enjoyed him. He had a sense of humor. He was a great teacher. He was a very, very good person. And I had to ask him questions about the Sabbath. I had to ask him questions about our beliefs. And we both came to the conclusion that his answers were not complete or totally honest as far as the Sabbath. I mean, he understood himself that, well, it could be this way, and I don't know why they did this and why they made these changes. And he put a gloss on his answers that just simply weren't satisfying. And the reason they weren't satisfying is because God had put something in me that I hold to this day, the truth.

I know that God was working with me back then, back when I was in eighth grade and perhaps before, and he's working with me now. It's not a pretentious statement. It's just a statement of faith of what I believe about what God is doing with me and what he's doing with every single one of you whom he's called. He knows you. He knows what you're thinking, obviously, but he knows far more than what you're thinking. He knows your motives. He knows your heart. He knows the probabilities of what you'll be doing. And God has a very, very special plan and some plan for you.

Our number one booklet for years and years was Why Were You Born?

That was up and far away the most requested booklet. Number two, interestingly enough, was Seven Laws of Success. Now, we have a booklet similar to Why Were You Born? and actually quite similar, is What Is Your Destiny? In some ways, I feel like Why Were You Born really, really grabs you because it asks the question, what's the purpose of me even being here?

It's not what my destiny is, necessarily, but, you know, why in the world has God interested in me? Why were you born? Was there a purpose for your being born? Or did you just appear randomly to live an aimless life and to die randomly? The beauty of God's plan and what he reveals in the scriptures and through experience is that our life is a work of art. Our life is a project that God is working on in a very special way and that to God we are very, very important and he has a very, very special plan for us. Some ways I feel like other people have appreciated some of the things that we believe more than we after a while because we get so used to them. One of the first booklets that we had translated into Russian back in the 1950s, late 1950s, early 60s, was why were you born? And when I first came across the Ukrainian Sabbatarians in 1991, I took over what we had in the Russian language to show them what we had. They had zero literature because until 1991, that was all part of the USSR and writing religious literature was forbidden, it was illegal.

Well, in 1992, which the year after Ukraine became independent, in fact, the whole USSR fell apart, we could talk about these things and they were very curious. And I brought over a number of booklets that we had at that time. Does God heal today? What about the Sabbath? What kind of faith is required for salvation? And why were you born? Also, I had a booklet about the Holy Days, kind of a stripped-down earlier version of our Holy Day booklet. The Sabbatarians couldn't read them fast enough because this is the first time they saw literature in their own language, not only in their own language, but of people of the same spiritual leaning. They said, this is a phenomenal book. This is a phenomenal booklet. What an amazing truth! And of course, the basic premise of the booklet is that man will become part of the family of God. That man will be part of the kingdom of God, the family of God. And we've had two versions of What is Your Destiny? We had the one that included Holy Days, and that was the first version. Then we've gone to the revised version, which spun off the Holy Day booklet separately. And actually, I used it for one of the Kingdom of God seminars. It's just a booklet itself to make the point. But that is an amazing truth about God reproducing Himself and making Himself, you know, reproduced in us, making Him part of a very, very special family. Not as just subjects, not as just a group of people that have come to know Him and worship Him, but people who have become part of the same genre, the same family, the family of God that is made so clear in that booklet. Why were you born? And they said, this is truly evangelistic literature. That's the way they put it to me. In fact, back in 1992 when I visited them, it was interesting for them, because when they became independent of religious tyranny and could preach whatever they wanted to, their first mission was to evangelize. It was almost like, let's get married and have kids. I mean, it was just so natural. I mean, what do you do when you get married? What do you think about a family in reproducing yourself? And that was so much a part of their beliefs. And they said, we're going to go on to Siberia and evangelize. And the reason they wanted to go to Siberia was because that's where some of them had come from when they had been resettled there a generation or two behind, and they began to start creeping back to the European part of the USSR. And what they did was took our literature, which I found out afterwards, and had it all reprinted. They had it all reprinted. They went to the newspaper in town and say, could you reprint this booklet for us? Lay the type out. And the next time I went back there, here was printed on newsprint, you know, Why Were You Born? by Herbert Armstrong. Copyright, so-and-so, radio Church of God. I mean, they had everything just exactly right. And they printed hundreds of copies, perhaps even thousands of copies, and established churches out in Siberia. It was amazing what they were able to do, and the power of that thought, the power of what the work that God is doing was done. Part of the nature of God, the very important aspect of nature of God, is that what God has begun, and He's begun a work in you, He will finish. In Hebrews 12 and verse 2, this thought is repeated a number of times. Hebrews 12 and verse 2. Paul was on the subject of faith in chapter 11, continues on into chapter 12 from chapter 11.

Therefore, verse 1, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses of people who are faithful, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. It's not going to be an easy race. You get winded. You have to get a second wind. Well, let's run that race with endurance. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

Do we look upon Jesus as somebody who will help us get across the finish line? Not the one who has just got us into a good thing and then we're on our own, but the one who is the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despised him the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God, talking about the great sacrifice that Christ had made, because he wanted you to finish the race. He wanted you to make it. We are very, very special to God. In Romans chapter 9 and verse 27, I'm not going to cover all the scriptures about the subject, about commitment, continuing on, crossing the finish line, because there are many of them. And if there was anybody who committed himself as following Jesus Christ and enduring a great race, it was the Apostle Paul with all the obstacles that he had. Romans chapter 9 and verse 27. He's quoting from Hosea here. Isaiah is mentioned here, but it's actually the same person. Hosea also cries out concerning Israel, though the number of the children of Israel be the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved. He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness. Quoting from Hosea 1 verse 10, that God is going to finish his work. And here, the point that's being made is he'll finish it ahead of time. He'll cut it short. But the part that's important is that he will finish his work. And shouldn't we be very, very thankful for the fact that God is going to finish what he started, that he didn't just begin with you? And sometimes we may feel like, well, why is God interested in me? I have failed him so many times. I have fallen down. I have not stayed with my commitment. And maybe he'll forget me. No, he won't forget you. And we can be very thankful for that. We can be very thankful for the fact that he has a work to do and that he will finish that project, project man. That he won't just abandon it and say, it's just not worth it. I'm going to start a new parallel universe, which God can, and just say, I'm tired of those people. They've really let me down so many times that I can't stand it anymore with that group. I'll tweak my plan and make it different. No, the plan that Jesus Christ and God the Father devised before the foundation of the world, they are on track with it. They're on track with the people, the plan, the timing, the future, and the outcome. That is very much a part of what they are going to accomplish and do. The question is, are we going to track with it and are we going to commit ourselves to that plan as well? He will do his part. Will we do our part? Those of us in the ministry who baptize people, of course, comes as a pastoral responsibility, usually go through Luke chapter 14 quite thoroughly about commitment. Luke chapter 14 and verse 25.

Jesus Christ had a lot of people who really liked what he taught.

He was a charismatic person from the standpoint of being the one who was interesting to listen to.

People followed him. They didn't give him any peace at all. When he addressed large crowds, the crowds just followed him around the Sea of Galilee until his next venue to where he spoke next because he was so interesting to listen to. And some wanted to become part of that movement.

They saw his disciples with him. They saw his leadership group there, and they said to themselves, you know, I want to be part of that. That's a very, very wonderful group to be a part of. Jesus Christ points out a number of things that were requirements to be a part of that movement.

Luke 14 and verse 25. Great multitudes went with him, and he turned to them and said the following.

Now, this is an answer to a question, obviously. The question isn't asked, but the way he answers it, the question was, what's it going to take for me to be a part of this movement, of this great prophet, of this person that is calling himself the Son of God, of this great teacher? What's it going to take for me to be a part of that? And, of course, the first thing that Christ says is that you had to put him first. He goes through the explanation about he doesn't hate his father and mother, wife, and children, meaning put in second place. Every other relationship, you cannot be my disciple. You've got to put him first. Verse 27, which was brought out by Robert Webber in the sermon here when he spoke about the cross of Christ, the trial.

And whoever does not, verse 27, bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

Christianity is not an easy ride. And whenever I talk to people about the euphoria that they have when they want to be baptized, I say, that's how you feel right now. That is not the way you will always feel, because there will come a time when you will have doubts. There will come a time when you will be tried. There will be times when you will feel weak. You will have to bear your cross, your trials. He doesn't bear his cross and come after me. Cannot be my disciple. So I make the point very clear that it's the long haul that's important here, not just the euphoric blip of having this allegiance and love for Jesus. It is something which is a lifelong commitment for as long as you live. Verse 28, for which of you, and this is the verse I wanted to focus on, intending to build a tower does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it, whether you're building a tower, a home, whatever. You're embarking on some endeavor, a business. Then you sit down and count whether you have enough to finish it.

And I tell people there's much more than just counting the cost of money. Do you really want to do it?

Are you passionate about what it is that you want to do? Or is it just lackluster, which will ultimately lead to failure? Have you counted the cost? Relationships, money, desire?

Lest, verse 29, after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish.

You'll become a foolhardy person in the eyes of people. Have you ever gone by a home that was half finished? I remember at the Wisconsin Dells at the Feast one time, we had to drive every day out to services past this home that had sat there half finished. And every day, somebody in the car made some comment about it. Well, I wonder what happened there. They run out of money.

Did they get a divorce? What happened? Why is this house that looked like a nice house that was going up abandoned? But obviously, something went wrong. Perhaps it wasn't even with beyond their control, but nonetheless, it couldn't be finished and became an object of discussion. You don't want your life to become the subject of somebody else's discussion. This man began to build. This man became a growing son of God, but he walked. He turned away. He didn't fulfill his commitment.

All these questions, all these characteristics here, I tied into, if you want to be my disciple, you've got to be this way.

Let's turn to Psalm 15, verse 4. It's a beautiful little psalm. It's only a few verses long, only five verses long, but it's called the second most popular psalm after Psalm 23, both among Jews and among Christians. Psalm 23 is kind of on the hit chart, number one. But Psalm 15 is called God's Gentlemen, and it's only five verses long. But the subject here answers the question of what's asked in verse one. Who shall abide in your tabernacle, and who shall dwell in your holy hill? Who may dwell in your holy hill? To make a very simple translation, who's going to be in your kingdom? Who's going to be in the kingdom of God?

And the rest of the verses contain a wealth of knowledge as to what characteristics are spoken of there. Well, the one I want to focus on is the one that has to do with my sermon. In verse 4, the latter part of verse 4, he who swears to his own hurt and does not change. Now, we know we don't swear, Jesus Christ said, let your yes be yes and your no-no. Okay, well, it's okay. But a person who, when he says he'll do something, he'll finish it. When he commits to something, he will finish it. He doesn't change. He doesn't change course. He doesn't change his mind frivolously.

He's a person who will continue on with what he has to do.

People have asked me to write words of wisdom, sometimes in like a graduation card or, you know, some words in a book for somebody. And I had this one person especially who wanted me to write for their child who graduated with honors. And I really had a lot of respect for the family, and for the young person. But I knew that one of the characteristics was that he had many things he was interested in. He started on a project and he jumped to something else. He did real well, but sometimes he would abandon the project and wouldn't fulfill all the commitments that he had made to people, even to me. He said, I'll do this, I'll do that, and then, you know, just forgot. Just didn't finish it. I wrote to him and said this. He says, you're a person who has many gifts and many qualities. You'll be a great benefit and a blessing to many people in your life because of your love for mankind and because of your academic skills. I said, one thing that, you know, I want to ask you to do is to fulfill every promise that you make and every commitment that you make. If you say you're going to do it, then do it. To me, this is godliness. When God says that he will do something, he finishes it. He's committed to seeing it to the end.

And one of the things we'll see here is that we, as people, as our society, in this end age, are so lacking in commitment to just about everything. To work, to relationships, to marriage, to parents, to children. Things don't go the way we want them to. We change, we pull out, we just walk. We're not committed to paying off debts. We're not committed to really making things work long-term, as people may be had in different times. Are we people who will, with our yes be yes and our no be no? I wrote to this person, and I like to write usually things that express a value than just a rather glowing, mushy statement about, you know, how great you are and everything, which this person was, not taking anything away from them. Because it fulfilled the promises, and what you say you'll do, do fulfill your promises and commitments. That is so very, very vitally important. How many of us have been from irritated to actually hurt great deal because somebody said they would do something and they didn't do it?

I used to talk about the characteristics called executive amnesia.

People in high positions at times in my past who say they would do something, to say it publicly or say it to me personally, then they just simply forgot about it. Well, as an underling, it would bother me because they said they would do something. My first experience, I know it may seem perhaps even petty, but it does affect people. I remember one person who was a minister and I was just a freshman at Ambassador College. He saw me at the feast, he remembered me as a student, so I'm going to take you out to dinner. He said that at the beginning of the feast. I'm going to take you out to dinner. I'm like, oh wow, you know, Mr. so-and-so, you know, of course he said that maybe to a couple of students. Well, second, third, fourth day of the feast, I see him, talk to him, and it's like he never talked to me. I finally, about the fifth or sixth day of the feast, said, when did you want to take me out to dinner? Now, I was just a very naive 18-year-old. He never did. It's something that'd come up, but it left an impression upon me.

I've had that happen, you know, other times before. Now, that is maybe petty, but nonetheless, if you're going to promise somebody that you will do something, I'm going to meet you, I'm going to do this for you, I'd like to have you over, then do it! Fulfill your promises. That's the godly thing to do. Note that in Who Shall Do Well on Your Holy Hill, it's a person who swears to his own hurt, even if it's going to be inconvenient to fulfill a promise. If you made the promise, then fulfill it and learn a lesson from it. If you can't do it, don't promise it. Make that kind of a promise. But if you say you're going to do something for somebody, or you're going to accomplish something, or you're going to accomplish something, or you will be somewhere, or you will do something, or pay something back, then do it. Don't have people coming asking you for it. That's very, very important. John 4 and verse 34. John 4 and verse 34. Jesus Christ, when He came to this earth, as God in the flesh, feeling like you do, energy, but then at night getting tired and having to sleep. He experienced everything that a human being experiences, yet He was divine. And He knew that in this body, He had to accomplish a great purpose for mankind. He said, My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work. Christ didn't just show up, and after the first year of His ministry, He said, Oh, this is not for me. What am I being called upon to do, to die the ignominious way that has been prophesied? No, He was committed all the way through His ministry. This is in the early part of His ministry. He says, I have come to do my Father's work and to complete it, to finish it.

A similar thought is repeated in chapter 5 of John, John chapter 5 and verse 36.

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.

I just watched a video, which I've actually watched five times now. I watched it again last night.

You may have heard of Lee Strobel. He was a Chicago journalist who was an atheist, or at least a non-believer in God. And he came to find God in 1980 and has written a number of very, very fine books. One is called The Case for Christ. But the one that I have really touched me a lot was The Case for Faith. And this video is one that I really recommend watching because of a commitment on the side of God towards mankind that is so well expressed. If you can kind of tune out the theology and the pictures and the crosses and so forth, it really has a very, very meaningful message. He took a survey of people as he was writing this book. And the survey asked the question, if you were able to meet directly face to face with God, what would you ask him?

What question would you ask him where he could give you an answer right then?

And overwhelmingly, the question was, why is there so much evil in this world? And why is there so much suffering in this world? When God, you could make it different. You could make it different.

It doesn't have to be that way. You take a look at starving children in Darfur, when you see genocide, when you see tsunami. In 2005, when tsunami hit in around the world, 350,000 people, literally within an hour, were drowned and perished. The question came up just very naturally. Couldn't God stop that? And what was this person guilty of?

Why is it that a mass murderer is still sitting in prison and living his days out when you have children and all these other people who had nothing to do with anything, perished so very, very quickly?

And that's a big question among atheists. The Feast of Tabernacles was just about a month after the tsunami, and we were in Estonia for the feast. And interestingly enough, there was a Rotary Club meeting in the same building that we were at right after our services, which I went to. And most of the members of that Rotary Club were professors at the University of Tartu.

And they asked me to introduce myself and tell a little bit about myself. I told them I was a minister, that we were keeping the Feast of Tabernacles in the next hall in this center, and that we had services every day at 10 o'clock, and I even invited them to come to services. Well, I was approached by one professor afterwards that, you are a minister. We don't have too many of your kind.

He wasn't... He said, you tell me why all those people had to perish if there is a God. He wouldn't let go of me at all. I mean, I want an answer from you. Why did all those people have to perish? And if there is a loving God who cares the slightest about human beings, why did he allow those things? Of course, these are big questions. And those of you, and every one of us who has gone through trauma and tragedy, wrestle with these questions.

We can intellectually and academically find an answer, but we have to wrestle personally when we are confronted with this situation, having to deal with what good can I find in a death? What good can I find in the death of, like, my parents, who both died very young in the church? You know, how does this compute? You know, God, why did you do this to me? You know, what am I supposed to learn from this? Well, this was, I believe, just a day or two before the last great day, and I invited the professor.

I talked with him, and he said, I talked to him some, and really had a pretty good conversation with him about the greater plan of God, because that's the only way that the whole thing makes any sense. If you're just talking about short-term snapshots of life, you know, it's really hard to just find the lasting answer. You have to give what God's thoughts for mankind is, the days of salvation, you know, the broader plan of the kingdom always has to be incorporated. But I said, why don't you come to the message, the sermons that we'll be giving, I believe it was a day after or two days later, because we will make every effort to explain some of these questions.

He kind of looked at me, and I was hoping he'd come, but he never did. But people want to know why is there so much suffering when there are so many bad things happening in the world. We actually had more people that have turned away from God because of bad things that have happened in the church, because leaders didn't act the way they should. I've had two encounters with people from my past here of late. You know, one that actually both had to do with funerals, one that I saw at a funeral, and these were dedicated people in a church that I had pastored before.

I mean, they just really went down the line with everything that the church believed. And because of all the upheavals that have come up and all the smoke, they said, we've just gone back to our old church. We're happy to where we were before, and they gave up something very, very precious to them, the understanding of the kingdom of God and salvation in Jesus Christ, the way we had come to believe and understand it. Another case was another gentleman whose wife died not too long ago, and we truly was a very, very close person to us. And, you know, we talked about theological things for hours back when I was pastor in that area, and I couldn't find him because he's pretty elderly now, but I finally wrote him a letter so that we could reach him, and he wrote me back.

And it was just a very friendly letter by talking about how, you know, that was quite a thing we were into one time, you know, and now, you know, we're back to... I'm not sure if he's into anything, but it was just sad to see somebody who was so strong about his journey in life to where he was going and to turn away and to be turned away from it. Isn't it interesting how there are people who have disabilities and things going and working against them that can be stronger about commitment than people who are able-bodied and who can function normally?

There's a number of examples that are really striking. You know, you could talk about a Helen Keller type of a person who couldn't see, couldn't hear, and was able to be effective as a communicator in spite of her shortcomings. As a person who kind of is part of this movement about the bumper sticker that was out, you know, be patient, God isn't through with me yet. It's about a young lady who lost all her ability to learn, to talk, and have all her functions, and how she came back from that because she was so determined and set such an example for that.

But the example that probably is the one that really tears me up every time I see the video, The Case for Faith, is one about a woman that you may have heard, and I admire her very, very greatly because of the obstacles that she has to overcome. Her name is Johnny Eric Santada. You may have heard of her. She has Johnny and Friends organization that work with people who are disabled. But she's a woman, a beautiful woman, who at age 17 in 1967, the diving accident became paralyzed from her shoulders on down. She's a quadriplegic. She could have given up, but she's interviewed in this by Lee Strobel. And what she says is so moving for a person who is in pain, is a person who cannot use her arms and legs, a person who's had all the wonderful things and opportunities that we have, that we have at our grasp or within grasp, taken away from her. And she, in spite of this, has been able to do a radio program, write books, paint, just do a plethora of things. She has a website, Johnny and Friends. Her name is spelled J-O-N-I, like Joni, but it's JohnnyandFriends.org.

And she shows all the different things that she does, mostly working and empathizing with people who've gone through similar situations that she has. She has many, many retreats and support groups for people that have gone through just what she has and provides encouragement to go on and don't quit and move ahead and don't let this bother you. It's interesting in her interview, she talks about the fact that in her disability, in her spiritual journey, she has not, she has learned, I should say, she has learned the love of Christ in a way that she couldn't have learned it otherwise.

She has learned about how God truly loves her, in spite of the fact that she will never be able to walk like a regular human being. How it takes difficulty, it takes evil, it takes things that go wrong to understand how to do things right and to be able to pass them along.

How the greatest evil that was ever perpetrated in human history, which was mankind all ganging up as Gentiles and Jews to kill the Son of God. What a stupid thing to do. What an evil thing to do.

The Son of God incarnate in the flesh, incarnate, I should say, and kill him.

From this, God was able to create the greatest good of all, and that is to extend grace and mercy for mankind. It's often through the hardships that we have the compassion. It's through the hardships that we learn to empathize with people. Christianity is not just head knowledge.

Christianity is not only heart knowledge of just feeling good about it. Christianity is an experience and an experience of suffering as well. It is where you really learn. I had a small experience like that in comparison to any of these things. When two years ago, on a very difficult trip to Africa, I had slipped and broken two ribs. I didn't even realize that happened and had a two-hour flight from Lusaka Zambia to South Africa. And I knew something was really wrong, and I asked Monique Webster, who picked me up, and said, take me someplace to the hospital to look at this. He said, something's really not right. And after he took an x-ray, they said, whoop, you broke your ribs good straight through two ribs in the back. He said, but you know, before you fly back to the U.S., have another x-ray in a couple of days, and we'll take a look. I said, this really hurts. And the next day was extremely painful. They took me to the hospital again and found that a rib had actually punctured the lung, and one lung wasn't even functioning. It was filling up with fluid. And when I was in the hospital, they quickly put me into an ambulance, and all I saw was lights and sirens and emergency being said. I said, hey, I visit people to hospitals. I don't go to hospitals like this. I mean, I'm denying this whole experience almost laughingly. But the next five days, I was in intensive care, in the most horrible pain that I've ever had, which is probably, probably have a low threshold of pain.

But it was really, really painful, because it was like they had to drain my lung from sticking a tube in the back, which is like sticking a knife in you, and it's staying there until they took it out. It was very, very painful. The whole experience was painful. I didn't need it right then. Church was not going through a really happy time. I didn't like it. I said, God, what in the world is all this about? But, you know, when I came back, I developed some softer thoughts about people.

And I was still, at that time, pastoring churches in Lafayette and Terre Haute, and I had to visit somebody, one of our church members, and she told me, you know, Victor says, I'm in a lot of pain. You know, it made a whole different... she almost spoke a different language altogether, because I felt it. I knew what she was saying. It wasn't just, oh, that's too bad, you know, take two of these and, you know, it's too bad. We'll pray about it. We'll pray about it tonight. I won't forget about it. You know, I really empathize with her, because when she told me about the pain that she had from an injury at that time, I really felt it. I empathized with her. I could look her in the eye and say, I'm there. I feel it. So there's a purpose to the things that happen, you know, to us.

Christianity is more than just a head in a cognitive religion. When we take a look at the macro view, going back to the tsunami, I can't even explain it to you fully. Of all the carnage of all the people who died. Same thing was repeated a few years later in Haiti, where in one town in Port-au-Prince, you know, was it 250,000 people perished in that earthquake? What is God trying to do in this universe? Why is everything so insane? Why do people act insane? Why is the weather insane? Why in this orderly, beautiful universe do these things happen? And they happen to those who are made in the image of God. The Lodjans struggle with these questions. And we may struggle with them, too, if we get to where they become questions, you know, of our own. But God is creating something very, very special in his process and in his plan. And he's seeing it through to the end long term. If God was to stop every wrong action, and sin comes because people do things that hurt others, you know, every sin affects somebody in a way that hurts them. If God would stop all that by making us little robots, and then he's seeing somebody who is about to to be an adulteress, and he stops him right there. Okay, I shouldn't do that.

Somebody who's tempted to steal something from others, you know, hands pulled away. What would be created? What kind of a world would we have? What kind of character would be developed? What would we have? There's something very, very special about character that requires pain, that requires misfortune. But we understand the context of that misfortune in the whole plan of God, in the entirety of God's predetermining from before the creation of his son would die for mankind, and that that would be not a pleasant death, but one where, as I said, the Jews and Gentiles ganged up on the Son of God in the flesh and killed him, orchestrated his murder. And he turned that to good. Use that as the springboard for mercy and grace, for mankind and forgiveness of sins, where he's turned difficulties in your life and my life as springboards for compassion that we can show towards others. There are many things that we could do by the book, but there are things that we also do by the heart and also by the compassion that we feel that cannot be legislated, it cannot be taught except through hardship and taught through pain, and that is required.

When I came to understand the fact that God has different days of salvation, that human beings are important to God, that we're all special to him, that he knows how many hairs are on your head, so he's going to be very concerned about every single human being and give them every single opportunity. It really became clear to me. The point I'm trying to make here is that God will complete what he's doing. Will we complete the job, the responsibility, and walk the path that we have also and be committed to it? Luke chapter 18 in verse 1, this is the parable of the unjust judge, the widow that was bugging the judge.

Then he spoke a parable, Luke 18, verse 1, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart.

I mean, Luke writes about it, Paul writes about it, not losing heart.

There's a message in this. Don't lose heart. There was a certain city, a judge, who did not fear God, nor regard man. But there was a widow in that city, and she came to him saying, Get justice for me for my adversary. And he would say, Not for a while, he would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself, Though I do not fear God to regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.

The Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge said, and shall not God avenge his own elect, who cry out day and night to him, though he bears long with them.

How much do we pray? How much do we say, God, help me learn from this?

God avenge me, avenge my friends, and avenge by the people that I work with.

Avenge our situation. I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.

Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he really find faith on the earth?

So as we come to the end of our days, there's just less commitment, there's a less desire to really believe that. We live in this time of faithlessness. I hope we haven't become that way. You know, I really believe that God has a very, very special purpose, not only in my life, but in the United Church of God, for that matter, the extension of churches, if we want to say it that way. God has a purpose that he is working out here through his church. Now, people get all upset because, you know, things may not go as right as we want them to, and say, We're in a crisis, whatever. You know, I never am in crisis mode. I just know that things perhaps need to be improved, and we need to take evasive action, or whatever, but God will not leave us. God truly believes that when he started, he will finish. God has begun something with the United Church of God in a very special way in 1995 that I know that he will complete, in spite of some of the hiccups, in spite of some of the difficulties that we've had. He will not leave us or forsake us. That I am absolutely confident of, and that's the way I live my days. I could actually sleep at night, but I wake up in the middle of night, which I always do at 2 30 for some reason. The things I think about are not dire, but they're about what we can do, how we can make changes, how we can move forward, how we can work with what we have. Because I have confidence that what God has begun in the United Church of God, he will finish. He will not allow us to just disappear. That won't happen. And to all of our enemies who may have wanted to see that happen, it's not going to happen, guys. The United Church of God will survive. The work that God has done and is doing for the United Church of God will be completed. The work will be finished. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 1. I'll tell you if there's anybody who lived a hard life in the ministry, it was the Apostle Paul. It makes my life absolutely a dream, an easy job, a gravy train compared to what the Apostle Paul did, shipwrecked, beaten, imprisoned, stoned, everything, one thing after another. Yet he didn't quit. He says in chapter 4 of 2 Corinthians verse 1, Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart.

Would you lose heart if they just throw you to the clink tonight, you know, for three days, not knowing what's going to happen to you?

The Apostle Paul said, we have received mercy from God. We have a plan ahead of us. We do not lose heart. But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness or handling the Word of God deceitfully. Chapter 4 verse 16, Therefore, we do not lose heart. Once again, he makes this statement, Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is renewed day by day, because he talks now about the trials that he went through, which every single one of these trials is bigger than probably anything that we have gone through. For our light affliction, that's what he called the trials that he had, the imprisonment in, you know, Philippi, the stoning in Asia Minor. For this light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. So what is it that you have gone through that's been an affliction? It's only for a moment. I've looked upon the afflictions that I may have had through my life. The death of my parents probably was the most difficult, and other personal difficulties that I've had turnarounds.

And I look back on them, they were but for a moment.

They all did something to strengthen me in my work with other people. I could not do the things that I'm doing. I must have gone through some of these experiences firsthand.

While we do not look at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen.

For the things which are seen are temporary. Everything about this life is temporary.

But the things which are not seen are eternal. And that's what God is preparing us for, for eternity, for those things that will last forever. So that we can become like God, who says, God cannot lie. Can God say that about you, the victor? You cannot lie. I say to myself, no, I'm not quite there yet. Or any of anybody. Or that you're not tempted a certain other way.

You know, God cannot lie. Why? His character is so solid. It is unthinkable for Him to tell a lie. Or create everything that He has and just say, April Fool.

You know, God is very serious about what He's doing. He's very committed to it. He wants to see it through to the end. And we have to come to the point of where we are so committed, we will do right all the time in such a way that God knows our character. But we're not just marionettes or puppets that He manipulates. But that we will do what's right. We will do what's right in spite of persecution, in spite of sickness, in spite of anything that goes against us. Can we be that way? Can we not lose heart and learn from the negative experiences that we had?

Again, it's interesting that sometimes the people who show the most commitment are people who've got two strikes against them, like this, like Johnny, Erickson, tada. And when you hear her talk, with all things that have worked against her, I admire that. Shouldn't we do a whole lot better with those of us who are able-bodied, we have our minds, opportunities, families? We don't have everything that we want, but God is working with us in a very special way. Can we rise to a higher level of performance? Galatians 6, verse 9. Let us not grow weary while doing good.

Let's not grow weary while doing good. Just get tired of it all. Or ask yourself, what's it all for? There's a purpose for doing good and doing right things, special character that God is developing in us. I've given parts of this sermon in talking to young people. I've spoken about these things to our youth, about sticking with what they're doing and to finish up and to complete what they've started. Again, we live at a time when people just do not commit themselves to work, to school, to relationships, to marriage. All this has to do with just a lack of finishing what they have started. And yet finishing what you start is such an important aspect of God's character. I tell our young people to make sure to finish school. So important to finish school.

When I went to the University of Minnesota as a freshman, it was a huge campus. We had 45,000 people on our campus. And I was in IT, Institute of Technology, and I was in a big physics class. There were three of them. There were three physics classes that had 200 students each. First quarter, or the first semester, there were three such sections offered. Second quarter, there were two sections offered. The third semester, there was only one offered. And I asked a professor, I said, how is it that you qualify to get into the two when it's three to start with? He says, a third of the students drop out the first couple of weeks. There's no commitment. And of those who are in the second session, half of them will drop out. So you'll actually find lots of space there because people don't commit themselves to what they start. I had a Russian class that I was in. I took Russian at the University of Minnesota because it was easy credit. I already knew the language, so I knew I'd get an A. But I kind of became the one that the students came to to ask questions, you know. And the biggest bugaboo was the Russian alphabet, the Cyrillic alphabet. They said, what in the world does this pen scratching stand for? And, you know, within three weeks, a big chunk of the class dropped out. They just couldn't commit themselves to it. Yes, it's hard. Lots of things in life are hard. You have to figure them out. You've got to stay with it. You've got to fail, perhaps. But then you'll finally get it. And that's what Christianity is. I'm sorry. It's not a gravy train. It is something which you take up your cross and you follow Christ. And you finish what you start. You have counted the cost. I hope all of us have counted the cost. How are we as far as our work is concerned? It's interesting that in Japan, people who enter into profession, a very high percentage of them, I heard it was 80 or 90 percent, stay in the same job that they started with after, you know, they graduated from whatever. Not the U.S. How many times do people flip-flop with jobs? It makes organizations and websites like Monster.com this rich.

People jumping around with different work. Of course, I know that there's reasons why people change jobs, but in Japan and some other countries, what you start is a craft in life and a relationship with an employer is something you stay with for your life.

What about our relationships and marriage? Marriage is not an easy relationship, and even friendships can be difficult at times. But how committed are we to our friends? You know, one of the hallmarks of the time in which we live in is that they would betray one another.

There's a betrayal of a mate betraying another, a friend betraying another.

Have we done that? Or could we be true and committed to a friendship in a very, very open way?

What about money, you know, and promise to pay? That's a commitment, too. You know, some people think it's important to pay back what you owe, or simply making promises. You promise that you'll be there. I'll meet you at three o'clock. I'll be there tomorrow. We'd like to have you over for dinner. We would like to... whatever. Do you fulfill your promises? Do you fulfill your commitments? Yes, that may sound simple. That may sound even petty, but it's not, because it is one of the characteristics in Psalm 15 of a person who will dwell upon God's holy hill, a person who finishes what he's started. Now, Matthew 24, 13. Matthew 24, 13. He that endures to the end will be saved. The word endure itself is even a hard word. It sounds like a tough word. Endurance is not fun. Endurance means that you're going through something you don't want to be going through, but he that endures to the end will be saved. How many people have just quit at the slightest resistance or the slightest things that have gone wrong? The Greeks had a race in the Olympics that was unique. The winner was not the winner who finished first. I wish they had this race now, but they don't have it. But this was a special award for the runner who finished with his torch still lit. Maybe the last one to come in. But he got special applause and special note for that. I want to run this way through life. Maybe not the first, but I want to finish the race.

I want to be able to understand the trials that I'm going through. And if I don't understand, I know that God is doing something in me where he is going to finish and be the author and the finisher of my faith. Not be like those that have just quit and even become atheists. There have been some in the church that were called and baptized that have turned to become atheists because they could not see the commitment that God is making in them and in the church. May God be merciful to them to return them someday. So I'll conclude now with the verse I started with, Philippians chapter 1 and verse 6. Are we confident of this? Are we living it? And are we emulating it in our reality and the practicality of our lives? Of 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.