How to Prepare for What Is to Come, Part 1

Daily headlines warn us about financial uncertainty here in the United States. Of course, terror threats are always not far away. Not long ago, we had a bombing in Boston at the marathon. We have continuing cultural wars here in the United States being fought all the time. So the question I have for you today is, how can you prepare for what lies ahead? Now, brethren, we know what the Bible says about what lies ahead.

We know that there are some cataclysmic times coming before Christ returns, and there is something that we can do, that we can all do to prepare for those times ahead of us. God wants you, He wants you and your family to survive, He wants you to succeed, He wants you to thrive. So today, let's learn how we can all prepare for the challenges and opportunities that do lie ahead for us. This seminar will give us all hope, which comes from living by God's laws, by God's principles, by His way of life. Today, we're going to ask and answer four essential questions. First of all, why don't we have world peace? As hard as man has tried, we just haven't been able to have world peace ever since Adam and Eve.

Second question is, why is the Kingdom of God the solution to our problems here on this earth, and to world peace, to the wars that are continually going on today? A third question is, what is a major underlying crisis of our time, which frankly goes unrecognized by most people on earth today? And the fourth question, what is Jesus Christ's plan for your success and your future in His Kingdom? Understanding the answers to these questions from the Bible and the wonderful news about God's Kingdom will enlighten us, it will empower us, it will encourage us.

So, whether or not we have anyone extra here today, we can all be encouraged by God's truth. So, in Part 1 of today's seminar, we will cover the first two of those questions. Then in Part 2, after a short break for some refreshments, just some beverages, I believe, then we'll also cover the last two questions in the second part.

So, the first question again, why don't we have world peace today? Peace is something that has been elusive throughout history. Worldwide permanent peace among all nations and peoples has been an ongoing hope and dream of mankind throughout history, but it has never been realized. It's the stuff of countless stories, of countless sermons and songs, and a lot of wishful thinking. But the reality is that there has been no peace here on this earth. Endless strategies to promote peace have been proposed. They've been tried. Just think of all the peace demonstrations back in the 60s and 70s, the peace talks, the peace treaties throughout the ages.

And there have been many sincere negotiations, but frankly, most of them have been very fruitless. And even those that were successful really didn't last all that long. So, peace has been very hard to come by here on this earth. God inspired the prophet Jeremiah to write a poignant portrayal of world history. When he says here in Jeremiah 6, verse 14, speaking of mankind, he says, "...they have also healed the hurt of my people slightly," which means superficially, "...saying peace, peace when there is no peace." So, people have claimed peace is coming.

It's just around the corner that, frankly, there's been no peace since mankind was created. Human beings on their own cannot discover lasting solutions to these problems. In Isaiah 59, verse 8, it says, "...clearly the way of peace they," speaking of mankind, "...have not known." Sadly, people are spiritually blinded today, and the conduct of nations reflects the behavior of its people. War is always rising up against other... I'm sorry, nations rising up in war against other nations continually. The fact is, international relations will be peaceable only when all people learn to be at peace.

Now, we know the inspired Scriptures do promise that there will come a time of peace, but that's not yet here. It's not going to be accomplished until Christ returns. What is it going to take to achieve peace? It's going to take, frankly, a new heart and a new spirit. And God is the one that has to place a new heart and a new spirit in each and every one of us before there will be real world peace.

Only God can give us that new heart and that new spirit. For the people God is calling now, He is offering a change. A change in our hearts, our minds, our attitudes. When Christ returns to the earth, that offer is going to be extended to all people.

But frankly, it's not going out to everyone now, but it is going out to you. God is changing our hearts and our minds. He is calling a few today to be among the firstfruits. When Christ returns, He will extend that offer to all people. We should be very, very grateful that we are privileged to know God's truth today. Unknown to many people, during Christ's first coming, He was not trying to bring peace on earth.

Usually around Christmastime, we hear a lot about peace on earth and good will to men. But Christ did not come the first time to establish peace on the earth. World peace will finally take root when the Prince of Peace returns to the earth. He is coming back a second time for salvation, and He is bringing peace with Him at that time. In Isaiah 9, verse 7, speaking of God's government, it says, "...the increase of His government and peace, there will be no end." So when God establishes His government here on the earth, there will finally be peace, and it will last for all eternity. Christ's peacemaking will absolutely not be by appeasement.

That's what Neville Chamberlain tried with Hitler back around World War II. He never got their desired results, that's for sure. Appeasement is granting concessions to enemies in the hopes of buying them off. God isn't going to do that. Christ is not going to do that. There won't be negotiations. He will forcibly put down rebellion and forcibly establish His Kingdom. He will rule with a rod of iron. However, He will also rule in love and injustice and equity for all people. After crisis has set about re-educating all humanity and bringing about their spiritual conversion, again there will be peace for the first time ever.

Nations will be led into great peace, contentment, and joyfulness. War will be utterly banned in God's Kingdom. In Isaiah 2, verse 4, it shows that Christ will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, and nations shall not lift up sword against nation. Neither shall they learn war anymore.

It is going to be a marvelous time when everyone will sit under his own vine or sit under his vine and under his fig tree, and at that time no one will make them afraid. There will be no fear. Yes, one day the people of the world will finally witness and experience genuine and lasting peace.

Did you know that this is a central aspect of the message that Christ and his apostles preached? For example, the Apostle Paul referred to the Good News or the Gospel of Peace in Ephesians 6, verse 15. But why is humanity in the terrible state of suffering, of discord, and upset that it is today? Why is there so little peace today? Christ came. He spoke about a gospel of peace. Paul spoke about a gospel of peace, but again, there is no peace. Why is there so little cooperation among people? Why does fighting, conflict, and confusion often prevail in human relations?

Well, I think we know the answer to that. It all has to do with our sinful human nature. It isn't in man to do these things. As human beings, we have what the prophet Ezekiel refers to as a heart of stone, rather than compassionate hearts of flesh. Now, we in this room are having our hearts changed. We are becoming more and more like God in Christ as we learn to yield and surrender to God.

But there are even times when our heart gets a bit hardened, doesn't it? And we find ourselves doing things that we know are wrong, that we shouldn't do. Our corrupt human nature and our weakness, combined with the devil's influence, has led the whole world into a world of suffering, of hurt, of agony. Paul explained in 2 Corinthians 4 that Satan is indeed the God of this age. Satan has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul reminds us in Ephesians 2 that we all once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and we're by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

We're all sinners, we've all sinned, we've all fallen short of God's glory. We all have to battle our corrupt human nature. Because of Satan's deceptions and the sinful tendencies of human nature, the apostle Paul wrote in Romans chapter 3, verse 23, that all have sinned and everyone has fallen short of the glory of God.

We must understand, however, that the devil cannot force us to sin. It is a choice that we all make. Satan simply influences us through our fleshly weaknesses and our carnal desires. There are major areas of our human flesh that are easily manipulated by Satan the devil. First of all, our selfish physical desires often get us into trouble. There are things that we desire that we ought not desire, because God doesn't desire those things.

But because we're human flesh, we do desire them, and they can get us into trouble at times. We're familiar with Galatians chapter 5, beginning in verse 19. Now, the works of the flesh are obvious. Fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.

Paul says, I'm warning you, as I warned you before, those who do such things, in other words, those who continue to do these things and don't repent, others sense they will not inherit the kingdom of God. You cannot inherit the kingdom of God when you're on this course of carnality and of following your own selfish human nature in your flesh. You've got to come out of that.

You need to be an overcomer, as the Scripture clearly tells us. The Apostle Paul graphically describes the effect physical desires have on our human behavior, where Paul says in Romans chapter 1, in verse 24, going on through verse 32, Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts, speaking of mankind, to sexual impurity, for the degrading of their bodies with one another. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. And, you know, frankly, that is becoming more and more prevalent today. It's more and more a problem. In the same way, the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another.

And we're seeing that, too, a return to Sodom and Gomorrah. Men committed indecent acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. So there were penalties called AIDS, called sexually transmitted diseases of all sorts. The Bible clearly shows why these things are happening on the earth today. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, He gave them over to a depraved mind. Now, that's pretty clear, isn't it? Pretty blunt, pretty straightforward. A depraved mind to do what ought not to be done. God says this is depravity. Homosexuality is depravity. That's what He calls it. He doesn't say it's an inclination or something, you know, that we can't battle against or fight against.

He says it's depravity. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are all full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanders, god-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent ways of doing evil. They disobey their parents. They are senseless, faithless, heartless, and ruthless. We have to admit that every time we turn on the news, we read about this type of behavior. People abusing one another, taking advantage of one another, lying and stealing. Although they know God's rights is decreed that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do those very things, but they also approve of those who practice these things.

So God is not pleased. God is not happy when he looks down and sees this type of behavior here on the earth.

Truly, it is a sad state of affairs that we see on the earth today. Now, there's a second major area of our physical, fleshly nature that's easily manipulated by Satan the Devil. The first one, again, was our desires, our carnal, evil, lustful desires. The second one is our natural deceitfulness, including self-deception. It is an incredibly great weakness. We can easily be deceived. We may think we're doing well, that we're pleasing God, but the Scripture even talks about a time when people will kill God's people, thinking that they are doing God a service. They will persecute God's true servants, believing that they are doing God's will in doing so. That happened in the past. Even the Apostle Paul was guilty of that. There will be others who will be guilty in the future of these things, and we must be careful, or we may be guilty ourselves of some of these things.

So, the second major area, again, is one of natural deceitfulness. Human nature and the heart is deceitful above all things. In Jeremiah 17, verses 9 and 10, it says, Here the heart is devious above all else. It is perverse. Who can understand it? I, the Lord, test the mind and search the heart to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings. In other words, we will reap what we've sown, and if we don't battle against this carnal nature and this hard-hearted heart of ours, then we will reap the whirlwind, as it says in the Bible. Be sure our sins will find us out. We naturally look for ways to justify our lusts, to justify our sinful desires, and the behavior that arises from them. We deceive ourselves into believing that, since our desires are natural, they're not so bad after all. But God's Word, the Bible, reminds us that there is a way that seems right to a man here in Proverbs 14, verse 12, and also Proverbs 16, verse 25 for double emphasis. There's a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.

Now, the third major area of our physical nature that is easily manipulated by Satan is that we all have a natural tendency to resent having our fleshly desires limited by rules. In other words, we don't like to submit to authority. Even when it's God's authority, we don't necessarily like it. It's natural to resist against God in certain ways and in certain things. Now, we may be very submissive in a lot of ways, but there may be something somewhere that we will resist. God hates all of that kind of rebellion because that's frankly what it is. Now, in Romans 8, verses 5-8, this is from the Holman Christian Standard Bible. It says, For those whose lives are according to the flesh, think about the things of the flesh, but those whose lives are according to the Spirit. In other words, those who have made a decision to obey God and follow Him and submit to His Spirit and allow His Spirit to work in them, they will walk according to the Spirit. For the mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the Spirit is life and peace. For the mindset of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit itself to God's laws, for it is unable to do so. So we have to make a conscious decision to do that which is right. Otherwise, we're going to be going down the wrong path. We're going to follow our own human nature and our own carnality, our own wrong thinking that's hostile to God. Those whose lives are in, that is dominated by the flesh, are unable to please God. So the only way we can please God is to be walking in the Spirit, not in the flesh. When we walk in the flesh, we don't please God because the flesh is contrary to God. So that's a huge battle, isn't it? Because we're all flesh. It's not an easy battle. Paul talked about the good fight that we all have to fight. It is a struggle. So, again, Satan takes advantage of our weak and greedy nature by persuading us to rely even more on our emotions, our needs, and our wants than we normally would. He's always stirring up the flesh within us, but again, we play our part. We go along with Satan, not realizing oftentimes that we're being influenced by him. It just sounds good because our human tendency leans toward self-regard and self-righteousness as well. Sometimes we can become self-righteous. Without the positive influence of God's Spirit, we are simply not inclined to live according to God's instructions. And that's why we see brother rise against brother and sister against sister in God's Church. And that's why we have schisms and factions and splits among us. We have a human tendency toward self-righteousness and not truly seeing the truth of the matter.

We have a lot of prejudices, frankly, and we tend to look down on people and are critical of people in various ways. If they don't want to do it just like we want it done, then there's something wrong with them. How could they be so foolish, so idiotic?

In Romans 8, verses 13 and 14, it clearly says, For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. And it's not talking about just the first death, because we all, unless we are alive when Christ returned, we'll all go through that first death. It's talking about a second death. If you live according to the flesh, you're going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. And that's talking about living forever. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons and daughters of God.

So again, it's very, very important that we realize that we must walk in the Spirit. The Bible tells us in 1 John chapter 3, verse 4, that sin is the transgression or the breaking of God's law. That's pretty simple. It's a simple explanation of what sin is. And yet, people seem to be so confused about sin. Some people think there is no sin any longer, because the law has been done away, right? You know, it doesn't make much sense at all when you really stop and consider it. The fundamental laws of God were summarized for us in God's Ten Commandments. We know the commandments are listed in Exodus 20, also in Deuteronomy 5. Of course, we have a free booklet. It's called the Ten Commandments. In fact, we have booklets out in the back. If you'd like to pick some up, feel free. You may already have all of them, but if not, we won't charge a cent for any of them.

So we have a Ten Commandment booklet that explains the Ten Commandments not just in the letter of the law, but also in the Spirit of the law. The ancient Israelites were told by God that if they believed those laws, everything would go well for them, and their new nation would be truly blessed. Now, when I say believed the law, I also mean obeyed the law. Not just believed, but truly believed means to obey. They would be truly blessed in every conceivable way. But they were also warned that if they disobeyed God's laws, negative consequences would surely follow. In fact, they're called curses in the Bible. Do these promises and warnings apply on the world scene in our personal lives today? Are we suffering as a nation because of our sins? Are we suffering as a people because of our sins? Many people ignorant of these laws of God have learned the hard way that breaking them, even without truly knowing all these laws, carries a penalty. There is a price to pay for it. We're all familiar with the Seventh Commandment that says, You shall not commit adultery. But millions of people have broken this law, and they've learned to regret that the negative consequences are often endless, leaving a trail of devastated and miserably unhappy lives, affecting many, many children and causing tremendous heartache. God's law cannot be broken with impunity. In other words, there's a price, there's a penalty for breaking God's law. There are many consequences, punishments, for the laws that we break. There are always negative consequences, even if it takes decades sometimes to see them clearly. For example, contributing to the breakdown of the traditional family in the Western world has been the sexual revolution, which overlapped with the expansion of the welfare state as well. You, I'm sure, remember in the United States, President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, which didn't turn out to be so great. It was back in the mid-1960s. It coincided with the growing use of the birth control pill, which revolutionized attitudes toward sex, because there weren't so many consequences now with the birth control pill. So people were more free to do the things that God told them not to do, because sex is a sacred thing. It's supposed to be in marriage. It shouldn't be outside of marriage.

So we've seen a lot of problems resulting in human reasoning. This was human reasoning to develop such a pill. And then to use it in such a way as we have. And even though we have birth control pill, still 1.3 million babies are aborted each year. 1.3 million. That's as big as Oklahoma and Oklahoma City and Tulsa combined. It's larger than the two major cities in the state of Oklahoma. Combine them both and count in the metropolitan areas. And it's still more people. 1.3 million babies every year die. They are murdered in abortion. God says, you shall not murder. I believe it does apply to the little children that are in the womb that should have never been conceived in the first place if they weren't willing to take care of them. So abortion is another major factor. God cannot be pleased when he sees the innocent children being murdered like this. Tragically, again, 1.3 million babies every year.

What is needed is the restoration of the God-given family unit, making it once again the fundamental building block on which society is built. And yet today, we have a movement to do away with marriage as the Bible knows it, as we all know it. It's really quite pathetic what is going on at the highest level of our government, the Supreme Court having to come up with a ruling on this. Where will it all end? Of course, the breakdown of the God-designed family unit is not the only problem in our societies today. Greed is certainly a major factor. Greed has contributed greatly to our current massive financial problems. What is our debt now? $13 trillion or some obscene figure that a radio talk show host said yesterday, quite frankly, that there's no way we can ever repay it. It's impossible. It can't happen. So, we've gotten ourselves into a big, deep black hole, and yet we don't want to face up to it. We don't want to admit it. We just want to kick the can further down the road, hoping somehow it never catches up with us. And then, of course, the credit cards are abused greatly. And there is a commandment that says, thou shall not covet. I don't have a problem with using credit cards as long as you pay for the credit card each month, and you pay for what you're buying, but when you intend to buy things that you don't have the income to pay for, and then you have exorbitant interest rates on top of that, it becomes untenable. People need to have better sense in how they take care of their finances. Part of the problem is they do covet. They want things they can't afford. And so, we all have to draw back from that kind of thinking. Another problem here in the United States and around the world is that we have to have our stores open seven days a week. It encourages overspending. There's never a day when there's any restraint. God says there's one day that we ought not go out and buy and sell. It's the Sabbath day, of course. So we need to be careful to keep God's laws and to respect God by observing His laws. Ignoring His commands contributes to the family breakdown. In this country, we have no day of rest, no day of family togetherness, no day when family members are together, worshipping God together.

And of course, the first commandment is broken everywhere. You shall have no other gods before Me. But people break that commandment continually, putting many things before God. So rather than putting God first in their lives, people have an attitude like the one described here in Revelation 3, verse 17. I am rich, I have become wealthy, I have need of nothing. When in reality, God says that we are spiritually wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. But we frankly don't want to admit that. We don't think we really need God in our lives. And that's how this nation is governing itself. We don't need God. We can handle all of our problems on our own. We don't look to God. Once in a while, there will be a national prayer, even a national prayer day, but it's just lip service. In Leviticus chapter 26, and this of course is one of the blessing and cursing chapters, here it shows there is a dire judgment for disobedience upon nations and upon people individually. In Leviticus 26, verse 40, it says, But if they can fetch their iniquity, their sin, and the iniquity of their fathers, then I will remember my covenant with Jacob. God is a very merciful, loving God, and God did make a covenant with Jacob, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For their sake, I will remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt, and the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. It was God's intent to be their God, they were to be His people, they were to be a shining light to the world of God's truth and God's way of life, and how God's way really does work. And yet we know they failed miserably. Now this promise of God is echoed again beautifully here in 2 Chronicles 7.14, where God inspired, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land. Our nations are unlikely to change before Christ returns. It's not going to happen, because the Scripture tells us it's not going to happen. It's prophesied that they will not. It isn't that they couldn't, it's just that they won't.

But you can follow Christ and do as He requests. You individually, and we understand that as God's called out ones and chosen ones, we can make a difference in this world by choosing ourselves to obey God. You can seek God's kingdom. So this is the answer, or actually, why is there no world peace? It's because of human nature. It's because of Satan the devil, and it's because of our unwillingness to walk in the Spirit of God.

The second question, why is the kingdom of God the solution? Well, there is no other solution except for God's kingdom. Mainstream Christianity speaks continually about Jesus Christ. Christ said, How being and being do they worship Me, teaching for doctrine and the commandments of men?

They speak a lot about Christ, but they never seem to emphasize what He really said. Christ spoke constantly about the kingdom of God to His followers. In parables, He compared His spiritual kingdom to earthly material things so they could begin to grasp its vital meaning and its significance. For example, in Matthew 13, we're all familiar of the Pearl of Great Price.

Christ says, The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who when He had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that He had and bought it. That pearl is the kingdom of God. That is the pearl of great price. We should be willing to sacrifice everything to seek the kingdom of God. Christ's clear point is the kingdom of God is so precious that it becomes worth sacrificing absolutely everything to enter the kingdom of God.

In a previous parable, in verse 44, the same chapter, chapter 13 of Matthew, Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid, and for joy over it, goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. We should be willing to give up everything so that we can have that field, the kingdom of God. This kingdom of which Jesus spoke embraces the solution to all of our human problems and dilemmas.

It really does answer everything. God's kingdom is the answer to all of our problems. This kingdom should be the primary goal that each of us has. It should be the central focus of all of our subordinate goals. It's fine to have goals, and we should have goals, but they should be secondary goals to that overall main goal of seeking first God's kingdom. All of our other goals should fall in line with that overall important goal of seeking first God's kingdom. We all know that there is a supremely clever but perverted spirit that has sidetracked humanity into believing all kinds of other philosophies and religions.

There is tremendous confusion in the world, and God is not the author of confusion. There are many religious denominations out there that do not represent the truth of God. Satan is the one that's behind the falsehood, the untruth, the error, the lies. Satan is the God of lies. He is the author of all lies. But the kingdom of God is the vital truth directly from God's Word. Christ spoke of the prophets and patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob being in the kingdom of God. Matthew, in his parallel account, uses the term kingdom of heaven because the term heaven is a synonym for God.

In this case, Matthew was writing to a Jewish audience who avoided using the name of God. They felt it was so sacred they really lost the proper pronunciation. And so they would substitute heaven for God. Therefore, the terms kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven are synonymous terms. We shouldn't be thrown by the use of the kingdom of heaven in the Bible. Just before his suffering and subsequent death by crucifixion, Christ said to his original apostles in Luke 22, He said, But you are those who have continued with me in my trials, and I bestow upon you a kingdom just as my father bestowed one upon me.

He's speaking about a literal kingdom, not something that's set up in our hearts, but a literal kingdom just as my father bestowed one upon me that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. It is a literal kingdom that will be established here on the earth. And there will be literal people whom the apostles will judge, will lead, will guide, will train and teach. The apostle Paul, also facing the end of his life, wrote to his beloved friend Timothy, the evangelist, in 2 Timothy 4, verse 8, You see, the kingdom of God will encompass many more than just the Hebrew patriarchs and prophets and New Testament apostles.

It shows clearly that there is laid up for me, and frankly for all of us, a crown of righteousness which the Lord Jesus Christ, the righteous judge, will give to me in that day, and not to me only, but also to all who have loved his appearing. So if you have love in your heart for Christ and for the fact that he is truly our Savior, the Messiah, that he is coming again, then there is also laid up for you a crown of righteousness. You'll no longer have to fight carnal nature in God's kingdom because you will, for once in your life, be truly righteous.

You will no longer sin. So what a glorious kingdom that will be when you will be changed in the Spirit, no longer subject to the lust of this flesh and the pride of life and so forth. So these biblical passages show us that people can definitely enter the kingdom of God. All true Christians will participate in and have their part in God's kingdom. Jesus Christ is going to return to the earth in power and in majesty. He will establish his kingdom to rule over all the nations of men. And here's how the Bible says this is going to occur in Revelation 11, verse 15. Then the seventh angel sounded, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.

Truly all nations will bow before Christ. The kings of all nations will bow before Jesus Christ, and all peoples will bow before Christ at his return. Jesus and his spirit-born children will bring magnificent changes to the world. The earth's wilderness areas will be fully transformed into gorgeous, productive lands.

The book of Isaiah, the book of Amos, and various other places clearly show us that a new world is coming in God's kingdom, and the deserts will blossom like a rose. They will be absolutely beautiful, and they will produce mightily. The nature of wild animals will be altered. We realize that in God's kingdom they will become tame, and a little child will lead a ferocious bear or a lion, and a lamb will lie down with a lion and will not be harmed because God will change the nature of animals. People will experience God's loving compassion also through miraculous healings. When Christ was here on the earth, he healed anyone who came to him. The same thing will be true in his kingdom. All who come to him and to those who have the power of God, which will be those who have been changed into spirit, the firstfruits who have been changed to spirit, they will also have the power to heal, and there will be miraculous healings that will take place because there will be human beings that will live in to God's kingdom. Now, billions will die before Christ returns, but there will be many that will live, many, many millions, well over a billion some people, a couple billion probably will live over into the millennium, and there will be certain things initially that they'll need to be healed of. So we'll have a part in healing them. There will be miraculous healings. Humanity will never again suffer the anxiety, the cruelty, and the devastation of war. We already saw that they will learn war no more. The nations will abide in genuine peace as the knowledge of God fills the entire world. Jesus will use those who have shown they will always be faithful to Him to teach others how to live without abuse, without hatred, and without fear. And everyone will need to be shown how to love as family and friends and how to obey the God who loves them. So you can be one of the teachers who will affect so many lives and do so much good in God's kingdom. You can be one of these people. So it's not something to take lightly that you're here today, because frankly, out of four or five hundred thousand people that live around Oklahoma City, a very small handful is assembling together on the Sabbath, worshiping God. A very, very small handful. But you can be one of those teachers who will affect many lives for the good. If you will learn to obey and faithfully follow God today, He can use you in His kingdom to bring real world peace.

Now we're going to turn to Matthew 16.