Hold On To Hope

You heard me announce, well, it was back in July where I did the funeral for Mr. Lou for Cory. How many here knew Lou for Cory? Just a couple. He was an elder for a couple of years in Nashville. He had some deteriorating health and, of course, his wife was a very vibrant woman. You heard me talk about her because she came from over in the Middle East and she can make the best Middle Eastern food I've ever had.

But, you know, she died and then he is health deteriorated. And at the beginning of last year, he was put into a facility, which was a nice facility, at his own apartment. You know, it's one of those where they give you care but you really are on your own to a certain extent. And then COVID happened. And Lou spent, from that point, somewhere about March of last year, to the day he died where his own family couldn't come in to see him. Nobody could. They wouldn't let me in to see him. He was alone.

They'd come to the window, knock on the window, and the family, and they sort of shouted each other through the window. It was, well, I won't go there. But, you know, it's not right that that happens. But what was so amazing about Lou, because we talked on the phone and I was talking to his son Roger. Roger and I were good friends at a master college. And Roger said, isn't it amazing? He never got despondent. Every once in a while he'd say, you know, this is tough being here alone, but I make it through.

I do okay. And he would talk about God. And when I think of Lou, one of the things that always amazed me in the time that I knew him, he was one of the most emotionally stable men I've ever met. He had his highs and lows like the rest of us, but it wasn't real high and real low.

He was in this stability. And I asked Roger, I said, was he always like that? And he said, Gary, when I was a little kid, he said, my dad was just Lou. Everybody knew him. He went to church and was a servant to everybody. And he said, one day he said, hey, I'm gonna take you to work with me today. He said, we went to downtown Los Angeles, because they lived in Los Angeles at the time, went to the big government, you know, it's skyscraper there, and went up to one of the top floors. And everybody we walked by said, hello, Mr.

Fercori, hello, Mr. Fercori. And he says, we went into this office that was huge, had its own like little kitchen and everything. And he says, I realize my dad's a real important man, and I never knew it. He said he just was, he treated everybody the same.

And that's how I remember Lou. That even being locked in for over a year, Lou was always somehow focused. Of course, when we talked on the phone, he would talk about how God was taken care of. Now, he was very focused on God. The church of, or the people of God, are facing some enormous challenges. We have been now for, what, a year and a half. And those challenges are going to continue.

They're going to continue. And when this challenge is gone, another challenge is going to come. The world as we know it has changed. Now, I say that and he says, oh, I know people are sitting here thinking that's very negative. Because it is. I mean, we had a very comfortable life, and something has changed. Because we have spiritual challenges, and it's the spiritual challenges I want to talk about.

Because we can get so distracted. I wrote down three things that the people of God, no matter which church they're in, but the people of God are facing. And we're going to have to face those things. So there'll be a couple sermons over the next couple of months. We're going to talk about these challenges. Part of the problem is, is that what we hold is foundational truths that are solid. They make our lives solid, are under attack, right? I mean, who would have thought that you could be in this country, and if you're anti-abortion, you're a person filled with hate?

Who would have thought that homosexuality would become considered so normal that the traditional family is considered abnormal? Which, by the social scientists, as they call themselves, it is. Who would have thought that transgenderism, which you can't find throughout history? Transgenderism is unique. I mean, well, no one had the hormone therapy and surgery to do what they're doing to people.

But it literally is an attack on what it is to be human. It is a very, it is an evil that is an attack. It convinces people to change what they are than what God made them to be. And no matter what they do, they can't change their DNA. They are what they are. Who would have thought that just, you know, what we, our practices, how we live our lives would be so disrupted on so many levels?

If we're not careful, and I want to zero in on the holy days we're about to keep, because if we're not careful, we will get overwhelmed with what's happening. You know, I've talked to, in the last two weeks now that I'm sort of back to working, you know, I get phone calls from ministers, I call ministers, and about different things, and everybody has the same stories to tell. My congregation is filled with people. Some of them are very anxious. Some of them are very fearful. Some of them are very angry. You know, just emotionally, everybody's all over the place. And we always talk about those people like Lou, and they're just sort of, it's okay. It's okay. And why they are like that? So, you know, those kind of conversations I'm having all the time. I call it world weariness. World weariness. We get so overwhelmed by what's happening in the world around us, and how it's oppressive to us. And it's so oppressive that it causes us deep spiritual problems and deep emotional problems.

Because we come, we actually become weary with what's going on, and overwhelmed with what's going on. And what happens is we lose hope. Now hope, I gave a sermon about hope, of course, that was three and a half years ago now. But hope in Greek, when we look at the Greek language, is the same meaning as the word hope in English. It is a favorable and confident expectation. In other words, you haven't received something yet, but you're expecting it, and you know what's going to happen. You know what's going to happen. You know, one of the sermons I'm working on is, we're always thinking about what we don't know, right? We're always absorbed into what we don't know.

And what are we, what do we know? It's very interesting because we'll go through in the book of Romans where Paul actually says, and we know. He says it over and over again, and we know, if we don't know certain things, we're not going to spiritually survive. What's going to happen? It's that simple. And we will become more and more emotionally driven, which is the zeitgeist, right, of the world. Everything's driven by emotions. And we have to find a way to get right with God so we're focused correctly. Or this world weariness is, it's a great danger to the people of God. It's a great danger to the people of God. The politics, all the things that are going on. Of course, I always tell people, well, at least you don't have to live like the Apostle Paul or Peter or James under the Roman government. At least you don't have to live like people did under the Middle Ages where the Catholic Church killed you for Sabbath keeping.

The Christian life has a struggle to it, and there are dangers to it.

You know, our Christian life is based on this hope. It's a personal relationship with God that is really personal. It is prayer time. It is time in the Scripture. It is humility before God. The Christian life is filled with, it's supposed to be filled with what? Well, according to the Scripture, love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. And yet, it's easy right now to see where people are just throwing that all out.

Why? Because the heavy burden of the evil of this world gets too heavy. And we get world weary. World weary is a term I found. I was looking for a synonym for something, and it came out world weariness. And I thought, wow, what a word. World weariness.

And if we're not careful, we concentrate on the world so much that it affects us spiritually. And those things I just said aren't part of our lives anymore. When we're not bearing the fruit of the God Spirit, we're not being Christians. And then, of course, the Christian life is to be lived in hope. We expect something. We're expecting something to happen that will happen. Now, you know, it may not happen in my life. It may not. I never thought of that before. Of course, when you realize when you're laying in bed in a hospital and saying, three days more and I would have died.

Just from lack of oxygen. Didn't know it.

And then you realize, yeah, this is fragile. We say it, but now it's real. It's fragile. But God is God. And if you expect something, your life is best based on that expectation. So we must have this favorable and confident expectation. And here's the problem. I'm going to read. Let's go to Romans 1. Because here's how Paul describes the world he lived in. The Roman world. And this is the world you and I live in today. And you know, it doesn't matter who gets elected. It doesn't matter what happens in this country. It's broken. It is spiritually broken. But remember something, and we're going to go through this. The whole world has been spiritually broken since Adam and Eve were kicked out of Eden. So we're going to go through basic material today. Because if we don't get refocused on God and what he's doing, we're in danger of this world weariness that just crushes us. And they're basically emotional wrecks. Let's go to... look how he describes the world they live in. And as you read through this, you'll say, that's the world I live in. Yes. He says, for the wrath of God... this is verse 18 of Romans 1. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unguidliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness. So here, Paul is showing some anger here, and he's talking about the Roman world. Now, he's going to talk to the church later in this book, but he starts here with, this is the world you people live in in Rome. This is the world you and I live in in the United States. He says, because that what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. God has shown himself to the world. How could he do that? Well, here's Paul's argument. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, because they are without excuse. I did there for a while when I was sick. I couldn't read for some reason. I mean, I could read a little bit, but the Bible some, and that was it. So I was watching television, you know, flipping, and I watched some really great nature shows. I was watching some of those, and I kept thinking, how could you believe in evolution? And Paul's argument is creation itself teaches you there's a creator. If you study creation, how could you think anything differently? And I'm watching these animals interacting with each other. I'm watching things they do that if you it was the law, this, you know, that the strongest, the fittest would survive. You would never do that. You would never create an adaptation. They would have all died off. And I'm watching these, and I over and over again, how could you not believe in a creator?

And that's Paul's argument here. So he's going to lead this into the development of paganism, which we're going to talk about in this country. But first of all, evolution, which has been taught in this country in schools for a couple generations, is a denial of the creator. That alone was going to destroy this country. Which it has. Although it is interesting, a major university, I want to say University of Michigan, but I don't remember. I just read it this week, did a survey.

And they were shocked with the results of their survey. Now, I don't know how scientific their survey was, but they said now a small majority of people in the United States believe in some kind of creation. They're just saying evolution doesn't work. Now, it's not a majority, very big majority, like 51 percent. But since the mid-1980s, the majority of people in the United States just, and those numbers were growing and growing, just believed in evolution.

And now there's some people saying, wait a minute, that doesn't work. Now, that doesn't mean they're all turning to God. They're just realizing it doesn't work. And Paul condemns the Roman world because of their denial. And they had all kinds of creation myths and paganism. None of them are even just, they're just bizarre. I mean, they're myths. You know, a god sneezed and the world came out. Now, I'm being facetious, but it was about that bad. Some god sneezed and the world came out, and he said, look at that! And then he all fought over it. I mean, it was just bizarre myths. Only the Bible makes sense in terms of creation. That there's a creator God, and this was all designed by him, and that human beings now have a purpose in this. He said, let's go on. Because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were they thankful, but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were dark. And he's just talking about the history of humanity here. He's looking at the Roman world and saying, yeah, this is just humanity. This is the history of all humanity right here. This is what the world has become. You and I live in a place just like this. Professing to be wise, to become fools and change the glory of the incorruptible God and to an image made like corruptible man, and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.

When they, as humanity, and at this point, had been going on for thousands of years, 2,000 years now since Paul wrote, humanity denied God. But inside every one of us, we're designed to have a relationship with God. And that, when that relationship isn't fulfilled, human beings make up something else. And you know, perfect proof of that. After generations of teaching evolution, how many atheists are there in the country? Still a small-minded army. They can't give up a need for something. So what we now live in is a world where all religious ideas are equal. That's exactly what the Roman world was. They accepted all religions. Remember, I've told you this before. The earliest Christians were persecuted because they denied all the other gods. Well, we believe in your God. Why don't you believe in our gods? All religious ideas are equal. It's good for everybody to worship the gods because you want help.

So we now are in a society that's just like the Roman world. Everybody, because of evolution, because of just changes in the Christian world. Modern Protestantism isn't anything like Protestant was 35-40 years ago. The changes in the world have created left people without God. So they've got to make up stuff. Everywhere from Mother Earth, the Hinduism, to whatever. Do you have to pray to God as a female? It just goes on and on and on. He says, therefore God gave them up to uncleanness in the lust of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshiped and served the creature, rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. So he let them believe these lies. Now, this is 2000 years ago. We're no different today. We're no different today. And you can see here Paul's upset. But Paul doesn't live his whole life centered on this. He talks about it. He exposes it. And then if you read Paul's writings, the center of his life is something else. It's not the evil in the world. I mean, you just think about it. You become what you think. You spend all your time on the internet reading about how corrupt our government is, and you're going to be pretty miserable. Now, we all know it's corrupt. I'm not saying to ignore it. But that isn't what we think about all the time, because that's not our calling. He says, for this reason, God gave them up the vile passions, for even their women exchanged the natural use of what is against nature. Likewise, also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their own lust, one for another. Men with men committing what is shameful and receiving of themselves the penalty of their error, which is due. That's our world today, right? It's practiced and it's forced. I read something this week about a...

I can't remember what state it is in, but there were certain books the teacher was using at the kindergarten level. And the reason it came out was because some of the parents, there was a meeting and said, you can't do this with our children. And the school said, oh yes, we can. And part of the book supported homosexuality. One of the books supported that your real family are your schoolmates. Your school is your real family.

And the school board supported that this teacher could use these books.

Verse 28, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind. That's a real debased mind, incapable of true logical thought, understanding consequences. So he ties in, not knowing the creator leads to paganism, leads to all kinds of sexual freedom, leads to the inability to actually function in a logical way. He says, to do those things which are not fitting, then he gives this list. I mean, we could talk about this list for an hour. But this list, it describes the world you and I live in. And not everybody's like this. You're not, not everybody in the Roman world was like this either.

But it was the common average, especially in Rome itself. He says, being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness, they are whispers, backbiters, haters of God. Sound like the headlines? Proud boasters and venders of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful. Does that sound like the role we live in? What's scary is we get into this, where that's all we think about. That's what we study. That's what we do. We start to take on some of these characteristics, because it's what we think. And we all become what we think. Our emotions become trapped in this. And without even knowing it, we start to become a little bit like this. Who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, then he goes on and says, you know, God's going to judge these people. So it's easy to say, oh good, I need to read that, so I can tell people how God's going to judge them. What is to be our focus? How do we not lose hope? How do we not become world-weary, or become emotional wrecks over all this? How do we have love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, mercy, faith? How do we have all that? Self-control. Because that's what God says he's going to develop in us. Well, let's look at the biblical view of the world you live in. Okay, nothing new today. But if we think of this, what we're going to go through today, we're going to tie it into the holy days. If we think on this, if we meditate on this, if we live our lives on this, it will be different. We won't be world-weary.

We're not going to like living in this world, but we will have a different approach.

Genesis 1 through 3. That's where you start. Genesis 1 through 3. God made human beings in his image. I'm not going to read all of Genesis 1 through 3, but I'm going to read a couple verses.

You were made for a special purpose by God. Every human being, every human being, we're all the same blood. Male, female, it doesn't matter what color you are, your ethnic background. We're all made in the image of God. We all have purpose. This world has no purpose, right? The reason people get so caught up in certain issues is because they have no real inner purpose of living life. You've got to have a purpose, so saving Mother Earth becomes your purpose. When you get into that deep enough, that drives those people. They're not insane. That has become their purpose. No, I'm not saying we shouldn't take care of the environment. God actually commands us to do that in Genesis 1-3. We're supposed to, but I'm saying this almost worship of Mother Earth is a lack of understanding God's purpose. So you just substitute paganism.

You've got to have something to get out of bed for. Now, some people, it's easy. It's making money. Well, welcome to that empty hole, right? So we were made in the image of God, and that's special purpose, and that's in chapter one. Of course, by the time we get to chapter two, chapter three, we have where Adam and Eve are in the Garden of Eden, the first two created beings. Yes, I believe this. I believe there were two people that God made, and they were in a relationship with God. And as long as they were in that relationship with God, they had no problems. They had no anger. They had no arguments. They had no depression. All the things that we deal with, you know what else they didn't have? Measles, bubonic plague, COVID. They didn't have any of those things, right? And we know that Satan comes along, and Satan convinces them to do something different.

That God really doesn't have their best interests at heart. They listen to him, and God kicks them out in Eden. And you read chapters one, two, and three, and one of the things God tells them is your environment is going to not work. You know what they didn't have in Eden? Tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanoes. They didn't have anything like that. He said this decision of yours, God was not going to sustain the earth the way he had been sustaining the earth. And he hasn't since then. And that's why, you know, just not too far from where we live, south of Murfreesboro, a couple years ago, the house was literally upside down. The woman was killed. The tornado went through. It was the only house that had hit. The house was flipped upside down, and it killed her. Adam and Eve never even had dreams of that. They wouldn't even know what that meant. Understand. Before Satan comes along, that would have meant nothing. Disease meant nothing. Once God stopped controlling the environment, now he controls it some, so we don't all die, but once he stopped controlling the environment, disease became natural. Disease is not natural. It is the result of being kicked out of Eden, and you and I have to understand that, accept that. And sometimes diseases are man-made, because we're all messed up. Human beings seem with the best of intentions and government and so forth. It all turns. It all doesn't last. People say, isn't it terrible what's happening to our country? And my answer is, I am absolutely amazed this lasted this long. It's amazing. If you understand how God sees this, it never could last, ever. It's a human government. It fortunately had some biblical principles, and that's what made it last longer than it should have, probably. There were some biblical principles. Those biblical principles have been just thrown out, so guess what? It won't work. It can't work. But then God said, no, you might not. It's not going to work. It's going to work. But then God said, no human government would survive, because there's another element here. Once they followed Satan, we must remember. Ephesians, once again, nothing new. But let's remember to refocus, because Mr. Trump or Mr. Biden are not the real enemy.

That's all I'm going to say about either of them. Ephesians 2. Remember, this is what happened. They got kicked out of Eden. He's talking here to the church. He says, and you who were made alive, I want you to understand you were dead, and God made you alive. Spiritually, you've been made alive. This is the center of who we are, not all the other stuff happening around us.

Not the disease, not the government, not the craziness, not the violence, not the hatred.

We were made alive. We were spiritually dead. Who were dead in trespasses and sins, and which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also, and he reminds us, we all conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, just as the others. Understand, under Satan's rule, it is normal to be filled with anxiety and anger and worry and fear. Now, every human being experiences those from time to time. All of us do. You know what's amazing? So did Jesus Christ. So did Jesus Christ. But we're talking about how we, you know, what is our norm?

Is it the fruits of the spirit?

Because our nature, we still struggle with a corrupted human nature. Because when Adam and Eve got kicked out of Eden, it wasn't just the environment, they themselves became corrupted. And we're all corrupted in the inner person. And I've talked about this over and over again, because our outward show of religion, if the inner person isn't being converted, doesn't mean anything. Now, the outward show is important because the inner person creates fruits, right? You are here today because God led you here. You're here because God said, come to this holy convocation. That's why you're here. If you came here, I can't imagine it, but if somebody came here because for some a personal grandizement or look how righteous I am, then you're here for the wrong reason. If you're here because you love God and you love the Sabbath, you're here for the right reason, which I know all of you are.

Satan affected us. He still does. And if we don't focus in on God's plan, we will not have that expectation. And a life without expectation. I don't know about you, but yesterday all I could think about was the feast. I spent a little time late yesterday afternoon. I said, I'm going to take a little time off. Kim was preparing dinner and I sat down and started planning out on Google Maps our trip to Utah and how many little parks and national parks and state parks we can see on the way. We thought it'd be great to get out and get some fresh air and move around a little bit and travel Route 66. We've taken Route 66 from Oklahoma City to Chicago. Now we can take Route 66 from Oklahoma City out to Utah. Yeah, sometimes you're driving through little towns and you'll see Route 66 Museum and you go in and there's an old house filled with pretty amazing stuff. You know, it's a dollar or there's a restored gas station. Looks like 1933. Or what I like is the restored diners. You know, you talk about chicken fried steak and taking six months off your life, but you know you got to stop at least one of them. Now that expectation isn't because that's taking away from the feast. It's getting us, Kim and I, prepared, our minds prepared, by resting before we get to the feast. Because between being sick and then just the overload of the last two weeks and what the next three weeks are going to be, we're going to be saying we got to have a preparation time. So we're going to take preparation time for the feast.

I wouldn't have said that 10 years ago. I've learned it. I've learned it.

Here's what God then says to them. And I am going to read this verse. Gave a whole sermon on it sometime in the last six years I've been here. But Genesis 3.15. We refocus. God told them, you're kicked out. God told them the environment won't work. God told them you're going to be under this evil task master. And God told them, your own nature is going to be corrupted so much that you are going to die. All the hopelessness in the world is because of this. And you and I have been called to say, no, it's not hopeless. Though almost everybody in this room now had COVID, right? There's a few that haven't. It's not hopeless. Although some of you probably at one point said, oh, I feel so bad. This feels hopeless. Right? And some of you haven't. And I pray that God doesn't let you get it. But you know what? You may. God may protect you, or he may let you get it. God doesn't promise to protect us from everything. I got exposed to COVID. I don't know how many times over the last year and a half. I had to quarantine myself a couple of times. And then I got it, I guess, here. I don't know. Because we all came, what? A bunch of us came down with the same, like within the same three days. So we just gave it to each other somehow. And God didn't stop it. He could have. Is this his holy Sabbath day? Are we the people of God? Yes. Why didn't God stop it? Well, I know my reason because I learned something from it. I learned something from it. I learned something spiritually from it. So I know my reason. I don't know what your reason was. We'll have to talk about that, too.

What God does with each of us. And it's very personal. It's very personal.

Genesis 3, 15.

God says, I will put enmity between you talking about Satan and the woman between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. And we know from the New Testament that this is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was sent by God because a plan was put in place. Christ appeared exactly when it was supposed to. And Joseph and Mary were there exactly when they were supposed to be there. The world was exactly what it was supposed to be. Under Satan's rule, but God was working through it. He worked through Noah and Abraham and Sarah. And you look at the Old Testament, it's all God working through and saying, I fixed this in the end. Do you believe me? Do you believe me that I fixed this in the end? Because if you do, then live like you do. Live like you believe it.

And many of the things we think are important aren't really that important to God because he sees this huge picture.

I think about how we're just big children. Tell a child that's building something with their Legos that dinner's ready. And watch how many times there's panic and upset and weeping and tears and crying and screaming because, but I'm not done yet! Or they're so hungry, it's like, oh man, I don't care, they knock it down and run off and eat. But either reaction's a little bit to the extreme, right?

My wife and I learned, in fact, she does this with me that really helps. So I don't have those experiences. And that is, before dinner, she'll say, 10 minutes! And I'm like, oh, okay! And I'm finishing up whatever I'm doing. But she used to do whatever one side, dinner's on! Oh no! Well, give me another five minutes! It'll get cold!

But we watch children who don't have the ability to work through that do that all the time. And we're like that.

God says, no, I know what I'm doing. You don't always, I don't always know what he's doing. Sometimes it makes no sense to us.

But we're all going in the same place. We're all headed in the same direction, if, if we understand the direction.

And you know what really explains that to us? The Holy Days.

Think about the Holy Days. Now, Eric gave a sermon two weeks ago and went through the fall Holy Days. Just an overview. Now, I'm not going to go through that deep of an overview, but I want to go through the Holy Days. And just think a minute. I've done this before.

This is God's vision, and this is our hope. And you were born in a world that was going to destroy itself if Christ doesn't come back. You were born in that. What's amazing is we've been saying that for 80 years. And now we're surprised when, oh, you mean it's going to not work?

You mean medical science isn't going to be able to save us? No. And I mean, there's some brilliant things. But when I've had some conversation with doctors, when I was sick, is one doctor said, we don't know.

We don't know. Every information we get changes, and we can give something to one person, and man, two days later, they're fine, and everything's great. We get that same medication to somebody else, and they die. So we don't know. We figure things out, and it changes. Well, welcome to a messed up environment. We were told this environment wouldn't work, and welcome to a messed up humanity who messes with things, right? And then welcome to Satan. But we've always lived in that world. We just pretended we didn't for a while, because it was so good. We had such good lies, we could pretend we didn't live in Satan's world anymore, and now we can't pretend anymore. Okay. Well, what does Passover tell us? Passover tells us that without God sending Jesus Christ like he promised, back in Genesis, we're all doomed anyways. We're brought back to ground zero.

None of us are promised eternal physical life. We are promised, if we understand God, we turn to God through Jesus Christ, we accept that sacrifice, we repent, we receive God's Holy Spirit, we are promised that he will give us eternal life. That's the promise.

Abraham, Peter, Paul, Mary, none of them are alive today.

Right?

None of them are alive today.

But they all died looking forward to that promise.

Unleavened bread. As I said before, that's really about discipleship, because you have to take something out, right? You've accepted Christ's sacrifice, but now sin has to come out of us, but something else has to come in. Something else has to come in.

And then we get the Pentecost, and you know what has to come in? The indwelling of God's Spirit. It is God's Spirit that leads us to everything. You and I cannot understand anything without God's Spirit. We can't have unity without God's Spirit.

We can't have salvation without God's Spirit. If he doesn't give us the indwelling of God's Spirit, we are zero. Just like Paul explained, if we don't have Christ's sacrifice, we're nothing.

There's nothing. There's nothing for us. Just go out and have a good time. We have to go back to Passover all the time, not just once a year. That without God, I'm nothing.

And then I have to follow Jesus Christ, but I can't even do that without the indwelling of His Spirit. They think, well, okay, we're looking forward. You know, the Holy Holy Days is looking forward. That's right. But I wanted to go back to here, because if we don't understand this, like Paul says in 1 Corinthians, what is God doing in us? We have the mind of Christ. Understand what that means. Jesus Christ knows what it's like to be a human being. He knows what it's like to not feel well. He knows what it's like to watch people suffer. He knows what it's like to suffer Himself. He knows that life is what it's like to be a human being, and it's just unfair, and nothing works right.

And that mind is being developed in us. If that mind isn't being developed in us, we're not really fulfilling what God wants us to be as Christians. It's that simple.

It's that simple. If the mind of Christ isn't being developed in us, we're not being what God wants us to be. We say, yeah, but I keep the Holy Days. Good! Are the Holy Days being internalized into your being? Who you are.

So the Passover isn't something that does once a year, but it's on your mind a lot. Having sin removed, and God changed you. You think about that all the time. Thanking God and asking God to stir up His Spirit, to give you the fruits of the Spirit, to go beg God for the fruits of the Spirit, to go ask God, let me have these things because it's who you are, because it's who Jesus Christ is, and you're making me like Him.

And then we come to the fall. A Feast of Trumpets is coming up. I'm working on my sermon for that. I had to do my two sermons for the feast the last two weeks ago. I got those done. Now I'm working on my sermon for Trumpets. Well, also for next week.

But this is Christ's return. Now we're into the hope. Passover, Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, it's about now. It's about how God is working in us now. Without that, Christ's return should be feared.

If you have not the Passover covering you, if you have not been unleavened, and if you don't have the indwelling of God's Spirit and you're responding to it so you're becoming like Christ, then you will fear His Second Coming. But we should be filled with hope for the Second Coming. It's the only answer to our lives. It's the only answer to humanity.

Because none of this will work in the end. It can't.

Atonement, God's reconciliation of human beings to Himself. The Feast of Tabernacles, Christ's thousand-year reign, that first resurrection, and those who are alive are transformed into spirit beings, or the spirit body, to do what? Why is it so important to have the mind of Christ? Because you're being created now, not just for salvation.

You're being created now by God to serve Jesus Christ and bringing His kingdom to this earth.

And each one of us is being developed for whatever specific thing God wants us to do in serving Jesus Christ for a thousand years. Every one of us is being developed for that. You see why world weariness takes us off?

Instead of considering, what is God teaching me in this? What can I learn? What positive thing can I change? Or no, God change. In me. So I become more Christ-like.

But the world weariness becomes this rock that we put on our backs, till we can't walk anymore.

And what we've been called to be.

Now I always have to laugh. Somebody, people come up to me and said, I don't want ten cities in the kingdom. I said, that's probably not what you're being designed to do. I don't want ten cities either. You know? But whatever I'm being designed to do is what God will have me do. I don't know what that is. But I believe, I hope, when in that resurrection, when I get to meet Christ, he says, well Gary, I have a little job for you. It may not be much, but I'll be absolutely happy. You know why? Because I've been prepared for that.

I've been created for that. And today, it's just, we just learn. We grow. We fall down. We make mistakes. We sin. We hurt each other. This is the family of God. We shouldn't be hurting each other.

This is the family that's going to have to work together, serving Jesus Christ for a thousand years. We won't have time for the things that we argue over now. We don't have time for that. We'll have real important work to do. And you're being created for that. There's numerous passages in the New Testament. It's going to be one of my parts, one of my sermons at the feast. How we are being prepared to reign with Christ. Oh good, I get to be over people. I don't know who's going to be over. That's not the issue.

Who you are. You are personally being developed by God to serve Jesus Christ in whatever way that you're going to be really good at. Why? Because you submitted to God's direction in your life.

This is a whole greater calling. We forget what it is. And then you have the last great day where all humanity is resurrected and given an opportunity to make a choice. And you know, we're going to be involved in that too. That's a huge number of people. And we're going to be involved in helping those people come to Jesus Christ, who's living on earth, and being prepared for the Father to come. Which happens at the end of that great white throne judgment. Father comes and lives with his family. Because all that's left is the family of God.

We are more than a group of people to just believe in a set of doctrines. We are supposed to be the family of God. That's who we are.

That's what we're supposed to be.

It's the gospel. That's why, if I can't do television, that's okay. By the way, yes, I've been chewed out by a bunch of people.

I am going up to do a TV program this week. But that's all I'm doing. Using my go up, I drive up. I spend six hours driving, eight hours working, 12 to 14 hours the next day. Then the whole morning working, then I drive back. Okay, so it's like 38 hours in three days. I'm not doing that. Okay, I'm going up to do one TV program. And that's it. Kim's going with me. I think I can do it. If I can't, I won't. So please don't chew me out after services.

So what does that mean to us right now? Those holy days. Don't waste these holy days. Don't miss what God is doing. Don't waste this.

Because the pressures of the next year, even if they change, is going to be as bad as the pressures of the last two years.

You think Satan's going to let up?

Feels like he has the church on the ropes now. At least in his mind, not in Christ's mind.

Hebrews 11. Oh, we've read this a hundred times. Hebrews 11.

Verse 8.

This is the faith chapter. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called out to go to the place which he would receive an inheritance. He went out not knowing where he was going. When he left, no, the Tigris Euphrates River Valley, he had no idea where Canaan was. You know, it's over that direction.

He went because God told him to.

Because God was going to give him a land. By faith he dwelled in the land of promise, as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob. He heirs with him of the same promise. For he waited for the city which has foundations whose building and maker is God. God at one point said, look, as far as you can see, this is all your land. You know how much land he owned at the end of his life? Zero. He had to go barter for a grave for his wife. He had to go barter with somebody. So he had a place to bury Sarah.

How much land did he have while he was alive? None. So why did he keep going? Because he understood. There is a city coming from God. You know, the end of the book is what? New Jerusalem coming down to earth. And I'm part of that. And that is what I live for.

He could have been world-weary just like us. He had to go down in Egypt. I mean, last fact, the last sermon I gave before I got sick was how Abraham messed up sometimes. I mean, just plain messed up.

This is too big for me. This is too much for me. Come on, Sarah. We got to come up with a plan. Oh, we'll get Hagar to have the baby. That one didn't work out so well.

He goes on in verse 13. Talking about all these people he talks about in this chapter. These all died in faith not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off or assured of them, and braced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. You won't totally embrace the kingdom of God until you come to grips with... You are a stranger on this earth, and you're a pilgrim on this earth. You're passing through.

You're passing through to another place, and this is really messy. It's always going to be messy.

We're always going to struggle.

We're always going to fall down. We're always going to watch another person in the church fall down. We're going to have different opinions on certain things, but if we hold to the core truths, and you have a right relationship with God, God will work it out because he says he will.

But it's always going to be messy.

Always.

But we are strangers and pilgrims on this earth. For those who say such a thing declare plainly that they seek a homeland, and truly if they had called a mind that country from which they had come from, they would have no opportunity to return. But now they desire a better that is a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. I want you to understand that last statement. The Almighty God. Does he look at you? Does he look at me and say to the angels, I'm not ashamed to be called that person's God? Wow.

That's the relationship he wants with us.

Because we're not perfect. Because we still fail. You all know the inner problems that are deep inside of each of you.

And God says, No, I'm not ashamed to be that person's God. I will say I am that person's God.

Can you imagine that? I am the God of, and you put your name in there. Can you imagine God looking at angels and saying, Oh yeah, I'm the God of your name.

But if it, do we have that relationship? Do we understand what he's doing?

So what is the relationship you have now? And I'm going to turn to a scripture I read probably three times a year. First John 3. It is my favorite passage in the entire Bible.

If we can remember this, we will fight the world weariness. If we can remember this, we will survive the world weariness. In fact, we may thrive in this.

Because love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, mercy, faith, self-control, these things are going to be developed into us by God's Spirit.

And is it going to be hard times? Yes.

But welcome to Christianity. We have been a privileged people. And we're still privileged. The life you and I live is still pretty easy. It's very easy. I had breakfast this morning. Right? I drove here in an air-conditioned car this morning.

I have a nice house to go back to.

It's an easy life.

And when we look at the times of sorrow mentioned in Matthew 24, it's a whole lot worse than this.

Verse 1.

If you can incorporate this into your being, ask God to do so. Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us. Do you understand how much God loves you?

Understanding that alone makes life a lot easier. Oh, okay.

So my husband can be stupid sometimes. I forgive him. Why? Because God loves me. If we understand the level of love God has for us, it changes everything. It gives you the ability to struggle in all the chaos of your workplace.

Because God loves you. And you have to believe it.

How much?

That he has that we should be called the children of God. Now I want you to stop right there. He's not saying you're his child in the future.

No, we don't become the children of God just when we're changed. I mean, that's when it's completed.

But you are now the children of God. You are his daughter. You are his son. That is the viewpoint. That's what you get out of bed every morning and say, God loves me and I'm his child. And Father, help me somehow today with your spirit to try to measure up to that.

Because I can on my own. You are not the child of God. I'm not the child of God because I made myself the child of God. He made me his child.

I mean, how do you make yourself the child of God?

Oh yeah, I've decided today. Hey, God, I decided I'm your child. In the sense this means. You can't do that. I can't do that. God Almighty made you his child.

And every day, if we understand this, we have to wonder, how in the world do I measure up to that?

I sure didn't earn it. God didn't pick me because I was better than anybody else. If you're one of those rare people that somehow you were better than everybody else, but I don't think so. I think we're all the small world. We're all the weak of the world because that's what he says we are, right? And he chose you. It wasn't random. He chose you and said, I'm going to make you my child. And how do I every day try to be God's child? This is true Christianity here.

He goes on. He says, Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know him. Beloved, now we are the children of God, that has not yet been revealed what we shall be. For we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. I know my child of God, John says. I know when I'm changed, I'm a real child of God, but I can even fathom what that is going to be like, because I will see Jesus Christ and God the Father as they are. We will actually interact with them, because we'll be spirit. We'll have spirit bodies. And then the next statement is so important. And everyone who has this what? This hope. This is the expectation of life. The expectation of life is God has called me, God loves me, I'm a mess, and he's in the process of healing me and fixing me. And everybody around me, if I come to church, what are they? People were called by God because they're loved by God, and they are in the messed up, are in the process of being healed. Spiritually healed. That's what we are, and that's who I am. And every morning I get up, I get up, most mornings, and I think, wow, what do I do today to make sure this is happening?

And then he says here, verse 3, and everyone who has this hope in himself purifies himself just as he, just as God is pure. Now you can't purify yourself, you submit to God. I mean, he's just saying, you're involved in the purification process. If we ever say, well, I can make myself pure, we're in trouble already. We need God's Spirit to be pure. We have to have God's Spirit to be pure. Without that, we're nothing.

We must hold on to the message, the view of God, of life contained in the Holy Days. We can't let that go.

And we have to keep these Holy Days with the hope and the understanding that you are a stranger in a foreign land.

You are. Actually, ever since God called you, you always have been. Sometimes we just didn't recognize it.

Keep these Holy Days. Don't waste. Don't waste the Holy Days engrossed in the evil of the world. It'll be there when you get back.

It's not going anyplace. And I'm saying, remember, I said, don't ignore it. We have to know what's going on.

But don't waste these Holy Days. Get on your knees. Ask God to open your heart and mind to what He's doing in your life. Set aside everything else that absorbs us, that makes us anxious, that makes us depressed, makes us angry, makes us give up, makes us feel hopeless. Set it aside and do this. Set it aside and do this. And let God—you have to ask God and ask God to fill you with His Spirit, over this Holy Days Spirit, opening your heart and mind to what He's doing in your life. And when you do, you're going to have hope.