How to Rule the Wrong Way

How to rule the wrong way? How to rule the wrong way?

Sometimes it's just as important to learn how not to do something as it is to learn how to do it. Whether you're talking in business, because before I ever started my business and I started my company when I was 32, I went around and met various businessmen that I respected in our city and our town. I had them give me advice, which was a good thing. But I also knew some business people in town that I studied because I didn't want to do it that way. I didn't want to run the business like they ran theirs. Not that they weren't successful, but I just didn't want to have a business quite like they would run theirs. Maybe it's rearing children. If you've ever been to Walmart on a Saturday night, you probably find out how not to rear your children. If you see kids running up and down there, I want this! And then, I think, even a marriage. There's marriages that you definitely need to study and look at and say, I don't want mine like that. I bring a true story that happened about 35 years ago. The state of Texas has always been good about keeping their promise to execute criminals. They've probably executed more people in the last 30-40 years than any other state. 30-40 years ago, there was a newspaper article that this young man had written because Texas was going to execute a criminal who had been a lifelong criminal. It started out stealing drugs, armed robbery, and eventually murder. And so, it was about a few weeks before his assigned date. And so, this writer asked the warden if he could interview him. And he went in and interviewed him and talked and found out his story. And the man reflected on his crimes. But he said, well, what do you blame for the way that, for the place you're at right now and for the way you've turned out? Is it the justice system? He said, no. He said, it's my father. My father, as I was growing up, he was in and out of jail, in and out of my life. Finally, when I was 15 or 16, I just left. Because my father was a criminal, that's what I became. And I couldn't help it because that's the way my father was.

And before he left, the reporter asked, will you have any family? Turn up at the execution. And he said, no, I don't think so. I have a twin brother, but I haven't talked to him in decades. And this stirred something in the reporter's mind. So he went and dug, as reporters do, and he found the twin brother. And he flew in and he found the twin brother. And he flew out to a Midwest state, set up an appointment with him.

Because he had some questions. Because the man to be executed's brother was a vice president of the top 500 company. So he wanted to meet with him. So he did. And he talked with him. And he said, you're very successful. A wife, children, big house, American dream. And he said, why do you think you turned out this way? And he said, I know why I turned out this way. My father. He said, I saw the example. And I saw what he did to our family. And I saw repercussions. And I said, I want to learn how not to do that. And so I spent my life doing the exact opposite. Found that to be a very interesting story. Which made me think of this. How not how to rule the wrong way. We've been talking about being kings and priests. It's one of the reasons we're going to the feast. You may say, well, is this kind of a pre-feast message? In a way, because when we arrive, as Jeff even talked about the invitation, when we arrive to the feast, we'll all be spending time together, talking, sharing ideas, sharing scripture, learning. So as a matter of fact, what's so interesting is from this day forward with this sermon, all the way through the feast, to the sermons you will get on the last day, the eighth day, equals about three and a half months of sermons during the entire year. That's a deep dive into God's Word. When you look at the holy days and you look at the Sabbath and you look at everything. So this does tie because when we do get into the millennium, which the feast pictures, we're not bystanders. The scriptures tell us that and I've been going through that for the last two or three sermons. But we'll be kings and priests. We will be rulers.

So I thought this sermon to be important enough to touch on because we should all be thinking that during the feast is because we're not going to be one of those that survives over into the kingdom of God. We'll be changed in a moment between the end of an eye. We will be like Him. We will see Him like He is.

Big deal! Big stuff! So I'd like to look at today. I'd like to give you actually four points. On how to rule the wrong way.

So we can see how not to do it and I want to pull those examples from the Bible. Examples from kings who went before us. Kings at that time in scripture who were working with God's people. The millennium everyone will be God's people.

So I'd like to give you the very first one.

Number one, do what is right in your own eyes.

That's how to rule the wrong way. Do what is right in your own eyes. Does that sound like a scripture to you?

It's not one, it's three. Three times by the mouth of two or three witnesses is a matter established. By the mouth of words of three times. Does it prove does it prove that God wants us to grasp it, to hear it from Judges twice to Deuteronomy and everyone did what was right in their own eyes.

I'd like you to go with me if you will to first kings. First kings 12 First kings 12 and I'll start in verse 26. Background here is Jeroboam. Everybody knows the story where Jeroboam is now the king of Israel. Rehoboam is the king of Judah.

He was Solomon's son. So Jeroboam was promised by a prophet of God that if I'm going to split the nation and I'm going to give these to you and I'm going to give you even greater than I gave Solomon if you will just follow me. Let's see what happened. Verse 26, New King James version, and Jeroboam said in his heart, as he had his kingdom up now, now the kingdom may return to the house of David. He was worried. He already had 10 of the tribes, but he began to be worried about losing it.

If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the hearts of these people will turn back to their Lord. This is the Feast of Tabernacles. This is the fall Holy Days. They were able to go up to Jerusalem to worship at the temple. That's what they were taught. That's what they knew to do. That's what they were going to do, he thought. Okay. Rehoboam, king of Judah, and they will look to him to be their Lord, and they will kill me, and go back to Rehoboam, king of Judah. Therefore, the king took counsel, talked to some people, and made two calves of goat, and said to the people, it is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem.

Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out from the land of Egypt. Verse 29, and he set up one in Beth-el, which is in the north of the kingdom, and he put the other in Dan, which was south. So, too far. I used to hear that from a few people growing up in the church, or in my years in the church, that's just too far for me to go to the face this year.

I just keep it at my house, just do my own thing. Me and my family, we may go down here and check out the state park, and we'll just keep it there. Verse 30, Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan.

So they took it upon themselves, yeah, we'll go to Beth-el, yeah, we'll go to Dan. He made shrines on the high places, and made priests from every class of people, who were not of the sons of Levite. That's what God said the priest should be. He did everyone except that. And then what happened? Jeroboam ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast that was in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the idol, on the altar.

So he did a Beth-el, sacrificing to the calves that he had made, and a Beth-el, he installed the priests of the high places which he had made. So he decided that, hey, we're gonna move it back a month. Everybody's doing what's right in their own eyes? Because it just made sense, didn't it? If you raised on a farm, you'll realize that September, October, when God's Feast of Tabernacle typically takes place, you have to work your tail off!

It's harvest time. Things are coming in. No matter how early you plant, sometimes it's just late, and you're trying to get this together, and you have to work so hard. They were a very agricultural nation, Israel was, more than Judah. They had beautiful lands. They had to see a Galilee.

They had all this. It made sense to the people, because it made sense to Jeroboam. But he didn't do it for them. He did it for himself, didn't he? That way they won't leave! And the one thing it didn't talk about is to not come before me.

What? Empty! You ever met a king or a politician who didn't think about the money? If you do, let me know afterwards. I don't think I've ever heard one. Okay. So here he was going to change, because how much nicer it would be to tell the people. For one thing, you don't have to go all the way down there to Judah, to Jerusalem. You don't have to worry about carrying your animals. You don't have to worry about carrying your money. You can just go if you live in the South. You go to Adan. If you live in North, you go to Bethel.

You only have to travel less than half a day. Either way, this is great! And then you can already have all your harvest done, and by the time it's the eighth month, you've got all this time. Isn't this a beautiful thing? It was to everyone except God. It was to the people, and it was to King Jeroboam. Verse 33, So he made offerings on the altar, which he had made in Bethel, on the fifteenth day of the month, and the month in which, and this is what I'll look, he had devised in his own heart.

He came up with it.

He ordained a feast for the children of Israel and offered sacrifices on the altar and burnt the incense. We're going to have it just like them. We're going to be able to worship God. You know, this is the same God. We're going to be able to worship Him. We're going to do all things we've done before. We're going to love God. We're going to tell Him we love Him. We're going to pray. We're going to do all this and just change it a month.

Just like changing the day, isn't it? Men change today. You know, which I wanted to say because I was talking to somebody. I just thought about it says, all will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And you're going to explain to Christ your judge. Well, there's a reason I kept the first day of the week is the preacher's all told me that you changed it. And I would think perhaps even Christ pulls out this calendar and goes, count! Count! I preserved it so all you had to do was count. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. You couldn't count? And I even put it in my book over 500 times.

You think it's important to do what God asks you to do? I do. We're given that information now. What we do with it is important. What someone else does with it, I'm not their judge.

So there are character flaws in the four individuals I'm going to talk about today. The first one being Jeroboam. Do you know what his character flaw was? He had an ego.

That's why he wanted to do what was right in his own eyes. And it's how we know how to rule the wrong way is to follow the way of Jeroboam, not the way of God. Let's go to the second one. Number two. Number two is get wise counsel. Well, wait a minute. Didn't we just talk about Jeroboam calling some men and counseling? How about wise counseling?

Now, the king I'm going to talk about next. Now, not to rule is a young king who had the wisest father ever for a big part of his life. And he went so far, as Diane says, he must have been Solomon. He went so far that if you want to check out Proverbs, you'll see so much of the first half of Proverbs was actually written to his son, which had to be Reoboam. But chapter two goes into great detail in just the first five or six verses. He even says, My son, seek wisdom.

Find it. And he even says, I think it's in verse six, it is the Lord who gives wisdom.

Wow. So let's look at the story because you don't have to go very far. First Kings 12. Except we'll go back to verse four. Let's go back to verse four because here is Reoboam. And he's taken over. He's the new king. And in first Kings 12, verse four, New King James says, Your father made our yoke heavy. These are the people telling him after he became king. Now therefore, lighten the burdensome service of your father and his heavy yoke which he put on us and we will serve you. So he said to them, Depart for three days, then come back to me. And the people departed. Then King Reoboam consulted the elders who stood before his father, Solomon, while he still lived and said, How do you advise me to answer these people? Fantastic! He's asking older people. He's a fairly young man. They had the experience, and so he was seeking wisdom. And you know what they said? And they spoke to him, saying, If you will be a servant you know what Christ came to be? You know what he wants us to be? They said, If you'll be a servant for these people today and serve them and answer them and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever. Wise words. Correct words. But what happened? Verse 8, But he rejected the counsel which the elders gave him. He's not there to serve. I'm king! Kings don't serve, do they? Except if you're going to be a king under the king of kings.

And consulted the young men who had grown up with him, who stood before him. Ah, let's bring my buddies in. My drinking buddies. And he said to them, What counsel do you give? How should we answer this people who have spoken to me, saying, Lighten the yoke which your father has put on us. Then the young men who had grown up with him spoke to him, saying, Thus you shall speak to this people who have spoken to you, saying, Your father made your yoke heavy, your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it lighter on us. Thus you shall say to them, My little finger shall be thicker than my father's waist. Giving a saying to God, You think you know something now? You're about to get it. And now, whereas my father laid a heavy yoke on you, I will add to your yoke. My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges. That's whips with pieces of metal and bone that when they hit you, they just peel off skin.

So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day. As the king directed, saying, Come back to me on the third day. Then the king answered the people roughly, roughly, harshly, and rejected the counsel which the elders had given him. And he spoke to them, according to the counsel of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke, and my father chastised you with whips. I will chastise you with scourges. So the king did not listen to the people for the turn of affairs was from the Lord, which he had might be fulfilled his word, which the Lord had spoken to a Hajjah, to Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. But I think you'll find interesting is when you go to verse 12. Look at the very first word. Jeroboam came before Reoboam. He had to run away because Solomon is going to kill him, and he ran away to Egypt with Pharaoh Shishak, and lived there. But when Solomon died, he came back because he was a leader of the people. And so here he is the one saying, listen to us. Seek our counsel. Help us. Which I found to be very interesting because in no time when he had his own country, he did the very same thing.

So what do we learn from Reoboam? It's character flaw. So similar to Jeroboam. It was vanity. He said, well, wait a minute. What's the difference between ego and vanity? Well, there are a lot tied, but Reoboam, he was king. And no matter what the counsel was, he was going to do it his own way. No, I know better. I know better.

Vanity for us is something we all contend with. In this world today, it's like everywhere. Promotes vanity. There used to be a car commercial. I don't know if you remember the car commercial. Don't you deserve this? You deserve to have this. And then they show even a young man walking down the street, but if he's got this type of clothes on, women will like, ah. Yes, it's vanity. And kings have the problem. And it's something that we get to work on now.

Because we can have vanity in saying, well, look what I know. God has called me. He called me his future king. Right, Clive? We can say that.

And you poor people, you're not like us. You're not called. But yet the Scripture tells us that God wants to do it so he'd be glorified, so he calls the weak and the base. And by putting his spirit in you, he's going to prove that this is the reason you're changed. You're working towards godly character. Number three. Number three. When you go wrong, go big. What's how to rule the wrong way? And how many of us haven't done something wrong and then we tried to fix it and do something even worse? We've all experienced that at times. But that's how to rule the wrong way. Matter of fact, it's God who says in Proverbs 29, 12 that if a ruler pays attention to lies, all of his servants will be wicked. Think about that. Because let me look at a poll. We take a poll in today's society. You can make a poll end up however you want it to end up. All you have to do is interview the right people. Now, I love that TV. They will go on the street interviews and go here, and they tell you exactly the people are saying exactly what the station wanted you to hear. I'm like, I wonder how many people they had to go through before they got rid of that one. So let's look at this in 1 Kings 16. 1 Kings 16, and here we have none other than the King of Wrong Kings Ahab. Ahab. Let's go to verse 29. Verse 29 of chapter 16. In the 38th year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab the son of Amri became king over Israel, and Ahab the son of Amri reigned over Israel in Samaria 22 years. Now Ahab the son of Amri did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were ever before him. So here he is the most wicked king of them all. And it came to pass as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat. It didn't matter. It's a trivial thing that that that Jeroboam had prophets who came and told him what was wrong, told him what to do was right, and yet they were cursed because of it, they had issues because of it, but Ahab follows along and goes, so he was wrong. I'm not him.

And that he did what? Verse 31, that he took as wife Jezebel, the daughter of Athbyal, king of Sidonians, and he went and served Baal and worshipped him. He was a king of God's people, and he just, wife says, go! We're worshiping Baal.

Then he set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal, which he had built in Samaria, and Ahab made a wooden image. If you want to know what that is, go out there and you can look, because it's a carving of Asherah, the goddess, in all her glory. And he made a wooden image. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. You can't get worse than that. So if you're going to go wrong, go big if you want to rule the wrong way, and that's exactly what he did. I'd like to turn to chapter 21, 1 Kings 21. 1 Kings 21 finishes story of the lesson of this man. Let's go to verse 20. As Elijah looks up Ahab, verse 20, and Ahab said to Elijah, Have you found me, O my enemy? And he answered and said, I found you, because you have sold yourself to do evil in the sight of the Lord. Behold, I will bring calamity on you. I will take away your posterity, and I will cut off from Ahab every male in Israel, both bond and free. I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and like the house of Aasha, son of Aasha. Because of the provocation with which you provoked me to anger and made Israel sin, and concerning Jezebel, the Lord also spoke, saying, The dog shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel. The dog shall eat whoever belongs to Ahab, and dies in the city, and the birds of the field shall eat whoever dies in the field. But there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the Lord. Isn't that a statement? They said it twice, but here he gets this. How about the last? Because Jezebel, his wife, did what? Stirred him up. So you can see from the scriptures that Ahab might have actually been halfway decent, but because of his wife. He was evil. She was the daughter of a priest of Baal.

He was a king and a priest. You're tired and siding. Verse 26, And he behaved very abominably and following idols, according to all that the Amorites had done, whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.

So this was an evil man provoked to evil by his wife. Led by his wife, stirred up by his wife, he was not the leader of his family, much less the leader of his nation. If he'd been the leader of his family, he never would have allowed Baal. So what was Ahab? His character flaw? He was a follower, not a leader. God wants us, wants his kings, wants his rulers, especially in the kingdom of God, to be leaders. Now, we will follow the king of kings, but we need to lead. Lead righteously. That's why it says he's so evil. He did everything you could possibly do, and he did it wrong, and did it big.

Definitely ruled the wrong way.

Makes you wonder, because I've studied Ahab, I've studied Jezebel, I've studied history, and Elijah, and where he's from, and actually given four or five sermons on it. It makes me wonder, what if he had married a righteous woman?

Maybe he has just weak character, and he would have followed her, too. But what a difference that might have made. What a difference. I do want to mention, as I picked out the top four, but also have honorable mentions. Can't miss out on these people. How to rule the wrong way. So, if you haven't studied Saul, most of you know who Saul is. Not talking about Paul before he was Paul. But Saul the first king. And how God blessed him. He had everything you could think of. He was one of the best-looking men. He was a head taller than everyone else. God even had him prophesying at one time, but he took it and said, well, I don't need priests, and I'll do it my own way. What?

Ophelia, the only queen-slash-king evil woman, killed all of her grandkids. Just so none of them could have claim on the throne. Most of you love your grandkids. Most of you think the world of your grandkids. My mother probably thinks more of her grandkids than she does me. Okay? Because it's just dinner. It's like, yeah! And this woman's so evil, she just went and slaughtered them all. After her son died, she was afraid they would replace her. So she just said, well, let me go kill them all. And she did, except one escaped. Incredible story of a failure. There is Ammon. Ammon. What an individual. He didn't rule along because he was so evil. But my last of the honorable mention is Zedekiah. Like he turned with me to 2 Chronicles.

2 Chronicles 36. 2 Chronicles 36. He got Zedekiah, really the last ruler, last king of Judah. And so, in my Bible, it just has this very short section about Zedekiah. So let's read it here. It's only like four verses. I'd hate to think I'd be king and they'd give me four verses. Okay? Zedekiah was 21 when he became king and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. He also did evil in the sight of the Lord and did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet who spoke from the mouth of the Lord. Here he had a chance. Jeremiah was the prophet of God and he was speaking to this young man, telling him what to do, how to survive, how to live. He wouldn't humble himself. It means he had ego, he had vanity, he had all these bad traits, his character flaws. But here's the thing that gets me. You don't want to obey God. You don't want to do that. You don't believe he's a prophet of God and he talks bad things all the time and he's doing this. But it says, and he also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar. He was a vassal state. They had control. They had already taken prisoners and people out of there under Nebuchadnezzar in the Babylonian. And Nebuchadnezzar had an army that was huge and what? He sets him up and said, okay, I'll let you rule things. Just send me some money and do this. You can have your own country. You could still be king. I'm willing to do that. But he rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar who had made him swear and oath by God. But he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the Lord God of Israel. You know the character flaw of Zedekiah? God, Nebuchadnezzar, both, he's just plain dumb. That's all you can say. He's dumb. You could follow God with Jeremiah, who he spoke directly to. Are you? Okay, so you reject him. So you follow Nebuchadnezzar, because if you're not going to go with God, you better go with what the king said. He didn't do either one. What happened? Mass slaughtering. Verse 14, Moreover, all the leaders of the priests and the people transgressed more and more according to all the abominations of the nations and defiled the house of the Lord, which he had consecrated in Jerusalem. Sad! Sad! He could have had it all. And he ended up with nothing. Ended up with nothing, and so many people died. So as I wrap this up today, I have one more. One more, number four. You ever heard that one before? It sounds like a reality TV show on TV today. Some of that garbage you see on there and what, this island and Senn Island and what are they called? Paradise, you know, some of this trash that's just out there. Yeah. That was Dale who said that in case you're listening in.

I want you to consider our last king and how not to rule because this guy had it all. And the amazing part to me was that his father was Hezekiah, one of the greatest kings of all. Of all! It's either him or Josiah were the greatest kings after the nation split. In my eyes, it's probably Hezekiah. And so Hezekiah died. He was young. I'm 54. But his son was 12 years old. So he had lived with Hezekiah. He had lived in a righteous rain for 12 years. And then let's see what happens. Let's go to 2 Chronicles 33 verse 1. We just have nine verses here that tell us all we need to know. Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king and he reigned 55 years in Jerusalem. He did evil in the sight of the Lord according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. For he rebuilt. His father had torn all the high places down. All the altars where they worshiped Baal, where they worshiped Asherah, where they worshiped all these foreign gods. His father had torn them down. And he said he raised up altars for the Baalals. So he had not only torn them, he said, let me build them for Baal. And he made wooden images and he worshiped all the hosts of the heavens. Oh, let's see the stars. Let's see the moon. Let's see everything out there. And he served them. This is a king who had been raised a different way. He also built altars in the house of the Lord. Pagan altars in God's house, of which the Lord had said in Jerusalem, shall my name be forever. He wanted that to be that light on a hill, a city that people could go to to worship. And he built altars for all the hosts of the heavens in the two courts of the house of the Lord. So he wouldn't contend in there. He built altars all around the courts outside God's house, the temple. Verse 6. Now get this. Also, he caused his, what's the word? Sons. Not one. Not one son. Did he make a mistake? It says sons. He sacrificed his sons on the altar. He caused his sons to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom. He practiced witchcraft. What a guy! Sussain used witchcraft and sorcery and consulted mediums and spiritus. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. He even set a carved image, the idol which he made, which he had made in the house of God, of which God said to Solomon, this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever. And I will not again remove the foot of Israel from the land which I have appointed for your fathers only if they are careful to do all that I have commanded them according to the whole law and the statutes and the ordinance by the hand of Moses. And then these incredible words in verse 9, so Manasseh seduced, seduced. Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel. They were worse than the people that was in the land before God's people got there, and it's because of this man he seduced them. Many young people don't know what seduced means. Ask your parents.

Because that's an evil thing to say, that he seduced all the whole nation to do evil and more evil than anyone else. So what is his character flaw? He was rebellious. He rebelled against his father who was dead. It's just like when I get in, when I get to be king, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that. Even though his father had... Manasseh had one of the major prophets of God. His name was Isaiah, who served his father well. By the time Manasseh was king, he was there during the early part of his rulership. Isaiah was there, and according to history, Manasseh got sick and tired of him, and as an old man of about 80 to 90 years old, he told his men, go kill him. Go kill him. And this 89-year-old man flees Judah. He's trying to hide out, and he found this old hollowed-out log, and he hid in there. But they found him. Instead of dragging him out, Manasseh said, plug up both ends and start sawing, and they sawed him in, too. This was an evil man. Now, why do I tell you that story? It's true, but it's what God has had to put up with evil rulers. And look, 40 different rulers of Israel and Judah, and you only had five or six that turned out good. God is looking for a different kind of ruler in the coming kingdom of God. They have to be Christ-like, not Manasseh-like. There's incredible examples in God's words of evil and of righteous, godly rulers, like David, like Hezekiah, like Josiah. And it's all preserved for us so that we can look, because we're going to be in a place just like these kings.

And it may not be, but in a few short years, when Christ is here to rule. I mean, it starts. As we saw in the wedding supper, we'll talk about on the first holy day of the season, Monday, a feast of trumpets.

The examples that the rulers show us are about three real things. Character. How's your character? It's something that God is looking at. Is it outstanding? Is your character above reproach, as they say? How about habits? Got any bad habits?

Or do you have a lot of good ones? See, God's looking for this, and He gets to see. You have days at the Feast of Tabernacles. You have these holy days, four of them, all within this time that God gets to see. You got good habits or bad habits? How's your lifestyle? Is it all about you? Or is it about serving others, even at the Feast of Tabernacles? We have the choice. The Fall Feast points us to the future, to our rulership, because that's what it's about. He's not calling you to sit on the bench in the thousand years. He's not calling you, oh, here we go. Just sit over here and watch how everything's done. That's not what the Scripture says. You're in the game! You're a major player! You're kings and you're rulers over the entire world. The Fall Feast days set a tone for our future rulership. They let us see what it's like to work with a bunch of future kings.

How'd you do last year? How will you do this year? How will you do this year? Training days before God to show our hearts and minds are prepared to rule, because that's what He's looking at, the hearts and the minds. Isn't how much money you have? Isn't how big and strong you are? Isn't how beautiful you are? It's about the hearts and the minds. See, there's a wrong way, and then there's God's way.

I hope you know by now God's way is the right way. And we all know how to rule the right way.