Journey to the Kingdom

Good morning! This is... I have to agree with Mr. Scorsette. This is going to be a challenge today.

Left to right and behind, I agree. It is wonderful to be here. Happy fourth day of the Feast of Tabernacles. To any visitors we have with us again today, welcome. If you've been with us so far, this feast. If today is your first day, I'd like to also welcome you to the Feast of Tabernacles and glad that you're here celebrating it with us.

Every day that we wake up, we are on a journey. It's called life. This life we are on is an amazing journey. We are here this week celebrating and remembering what comes after our physical journey ends and our spiritual journey continues. We are also here celebrating what the Kingdom of God will look like and be like and feel like when it is established. As we have heard so far of this feast, we are getting just a taste, a glimpse of what the Kingdom of God will look like.

Every one of us here today is on a journey with the Kingdom of God as our destination.

This past summer, I had the blessing of experiencing one of our our church summer programs, Challenger West. Challenger West is an opportunity. It's a leadership program for our young adults age 18 to 30 plus. Yes, I was pushing the upper bounds of the 30 plus range, but I was still able and allowed to go as a participant. Challenger West is out in the Wind River Mountain range of Wyoming. It's an opportunity to go out and backpack for seven days with others of like minds. We took all of our food, we took all of our camping gear, we took our clothing, which we tried to keep dry. We were able to still take some of the water that we started our journey with, but that stops along the way. We were able to refill our our water bottles, so we didn't have to pack in all that water. I don't know how we would have done that, but it's a it's a neat opportunity to where you are pressed outside of your comfort zone, and it's meant to do that. It's meant to challenge you, but to do it in an environment with other people of like mind, those that can encourage you, and those that you can also encourage back. It's an amazing program, and one that anybody who's interested in going to, I highly encourage you to see if you can figure out and make it work. It's an amazing program. One of the supplies I was to bring was a larger size water bottle, and while doing research on equipment at a local outdoor store in Cincinnati, I was able to find a water bottle that actually had the store's logo and their name on the actual bottle. I thought it would be nice to take something from home, something to remind me, and kind of show people where I'm coming from. It's just a normal size, now jean water bottle. I don't know. You can kind of see it. Wow, I'm big. I've not been on a video screen like that before, so it caught me off guard. But it's a normal size water bottle. It has their name and their address on one side, and on the other side it has their logo. And it caught me a couple days after I got home. This logo caught me a little bit by surprise, because I didn't really look at it when I bought the bottle. I was more interested in it being something from home. But on the side of the water bottle, it has a phrase, dream, plan, and live. Dream, plan, and live. It caught me... it made me think, pause and think for a second, because this is exactly what I was doing as I was preparing for Challenger. Dream, plan, and live. For many years, I had wanted to go to Challenger, to experience it, to take in the challenge, to push myself beyond something I had done before, and to experience something new out west. See, part of the country that I had never backpacked into before. And so, it was a dream. And then as I started to be able to make that a reality this past year, I started planning. It was a lot of work. I had to think through, what do I need? For seven days, you can't go back to the car, there's no local Walmart, that you can stop by and pick up anything that you forgot or you left. So, I had a plan, and I had a plan for my training, because we were climbing at altitude. We were doing a lot of hiking with an average 45 to 50 pound pack on our backs. So, I had to prepare and plan physically as well. And then the live part. I was looking forward to actually getting to live at Challenger, to experience it firsthand. What would it be like? I had these ideas in my mind, but what would it actually feel like to be there doing this with others who were able to go? Dream, plan, and live.

I really like this phrase, and I believe it's one that we can think about while we are here celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles. So today, I would like to encourage each of us to dream, plan, and live our journey to the kingdom of God. Dream, plan, and live our journey to the kingdom of God. And for those who like titles, title is simply, Journey to the Kingdom. Dream, plan, and live.

As we begin, let's focus on the first part of the phrase, dream. Many times in this world, people struggle with having a vision for their future because they don't understand the plan of God. They struggle with knowing, why was I born? What am I to get out of this life? What does God want me to get out of this life? But God reveals the answers to all these questions in His Word.

We are here celebrating His Feast of Tabernacles because we understand how these days fit with this overall plan for humanity. God gives us His vision, which gives us the fuel to move forward through life and to work towards the end goal of being a son or daughter with God in His kingdom.

It's when we allow this vision to be securely planted in our mind that we can better tune out the physical world that we live in and make the decisions that matter the most to move us toward the kingdom of God. The first part of building a vision is to take something that we can't see and to bring it to life in our mind so that we can see it. Without doing this, we go through life wandering on an uneasy path without a sense of purpose behind our actions. Or sometimes we can get distracted by things going on around us and we can lose our focus. And when this happens, we must renew our vision so we can see clearly, again, this vision in our mind. When we can see the future and our part in it, everything else in life begins to move down a certain path towards this vision. A major reason we are here celebrating the Feast this year is the vision it imparts on our hearts and on our minds. God knew this when he commanded that his feasts be observed by his people. Vision connects today to the future. Think about that for a moment. Vision connects today to our future. It centers our focus on where we are going with life, where we see ourselves tomorrow, next week, next month, 10 years from now, and ultimately an eternity with God the Father and Jesus Christ. Building a vision should energize us and bring excitement into our lives, and we should be zealous for this future. As you prepared to come here for Pigeon Forge this year, did you have a vision of what this feast would look like to you?

Did you have a vision of how you would fellowship with others and how that would be encouraging and uplifting to you? Did you have a vision of how your spiritual tanks would be filled from messages and from God's Word, from the activities that we could experience here?

Did you have visions of your hotel room, of activities here, things you could do to enjoy this beautiful surrounding that we're able to partake in this week?

Or did you have a vision, as we heard a little bit earlier in the feast, of that 30,000 calories you'd get to eat while you were here? Visions of different types of food?

I did. I had visions of all of these things.

All of these things, and I know so much more, went into your vision of what your Feast of Tabernacles this year would look like here in Pigeon Forge.

From our mature members all the way down to our children, every one of us had a vision.

This vision helped us to make plans, to buy things, to arrange time off work, school, other commitments that we had. Our feast experience started with a dream or a vision that we had in our mind and in our heart. So now, let's think about what our vision should be for the Kingdom of God. As we consider what our vision should be, let's consider just for a moment what our vision should not be.

Let's take a quick look in Matthew 6, verse 19. Matthew 6 and verse 19.

So many times in this physical world, we get caught up looking and exploring, and at times desiring, this physical world around us.

After all, it is what we can see, taste, and feel.

But Christ warns us against doing this and allowing it to be our primary focus. Matthew 6 and verse 19.

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. We must not get caught up in what we can physically see, taste, feel in this world. We must be sure that our master vision isn't focused on these earthly things. We can, of course, have goals, have desires, have visions for things that we would like to accomplish in this life. Things like for our youngest ones, going to school, starting kindergarten, riding a bike, and then as teens or as young children turn into teens, they have desires to go to middle school, high school, maybe one of our camp programs, and then as adults, we desire to maybe finish school or start a trade, start a career, get married, have children.

And then, as we continue to get older and more mature, we have desires for retirement, to play with our grandchildren, to travel, and to see the world. There's nothing wrong with these goals. There's nothing wrong with having these visions, as long as they fit and work perfectly with our master spiritual vision. We must always keep our master vision in focus and as a priority in our life. And we must consider how these physical visions fit with and support our greater spiritual vision. What is this greater spiritual vision? Let's continue in Matthew 6, verse 20. Matthew 6, verse 20. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And skip down to verse 33. But seek first the kingdom of God in his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. This must be our primary vision in life. This is a personal, intimate vision that God wants us to have on our hearts. He wants us to see, to taste, to feel this vision. One, he wants to place his vision one, he wants to place deep in our hearts and allow it to drive us forward as we go through this physical life. It gives us true purpose and ultimately will bring us to eternal life.

Mr. Roy Holiday wrote in an article about vision entitled, Catch the Vision We Can Help Bring Many Sons to Glory. And this was from the July 2003 United News.

In this article, he said, our vision is the kingdom of God, to enter it and to assist God in his work of bringing many sons into it. Mr. Cubitt references yesterday.

So if our vision should be on the kingdom of God, how does this kingdom look and taste and feel?

What does the Bible say about this kingdom? Let's briefly read through some of the millennial scriptures, some of which we've already heard this feast. But these descriptions God has given us to help us to see his kingdom in our mind's eye as we build our spiritual vision. First, what physical changes will we see in this creation? Kids. Well, I don't know if we, I think our kids are out, most of them. But for our children, our teens, our young adults, our adults, all of us, I encourage you to imagine the scene in your mind as we read it, and how exciting it will be when you have a chance to be a part of all of this someday. Let's start first in Isaiah 11. Isaiah 11, and we'll start in verse 6. Isaiah 11, verse 6. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole, and the ween child shall put his hand in the viper's den. And they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Can we envision this physical change? Can we envision what it would be like to be around animals that we no longer have a fear of? We are right now in a beautiful part of the country where bears do exist. And if we encountered one on a trail, it probably wouldn't be... it could be the highlight of your feast. It could. It may also be one that you don't want to do again.

But we're going to see a change. Is that vision in your mind of just something as simple as the physical animal's nature being changed? Is that part of your vision? What about the wilderness, the wastelands, and the deserts? Let's turn ahead to Isaiah 35. Isaiah 35 verses 1 and 2. The wilderness and the wastelands shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with joy and with singing.

Let's skip to the second half of verse 6. For water shall burst forth from the wilderness and streams in the desert. The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water in the habitation of jackals where each lay. There shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

And let's jump up to the end of verse 2 just quickly. The bottom three lines of verse 2. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the excellency of our God. Here's another physical description of the land changing. Where there was once no water, no clean water, no water for growing crops, that'll be changed. Where land was dry, can't grow food, or very little, it'll be changed. People will have gardens. People will be able to enjoy the produce from their own hands. Things that many people either don't know how to do or could not physically do because this earth needed to be changed. Is that part of your vision? And let's look at a couple spiritual changes here in the same in Isaiah 35 and we'll read verse 5 and 6. These are spiritual, physical, human changes, but are also spiritual changes in man themselves. Then the eyes of the blind shall be open and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer and the tongue of the dumbsing for water shall burst forth in the wilderness. Physical healing. How many people live today with disabilities that they just can't overcome? Some of us here have physical disabilities that we struggle with on a daily basis. If you think about the word disability, I'm not sure that word will be needed when Christ returns. There will be no more people with disabilities, no more suffering, no more hardships in that physical sense. And then spiritually from the same verse, people's minds will be healed so that they can think clearly, that they can understand each other. There won't be problems that they have to see psychiatrists for or take medication for.

And above that, they'll be able to understand God's word. They'll have their minds open to read God's word to say, ah, I get it now. Why couldn't I see this before? Because of the scripture. They needed healing. That will come. Do you envision this? Is this part of your vision for those that you know who suffer from physical limitations? And let's look at verse 10.

And the ransom of the Lord shall return and come to Zion of singing.

With everlasting joy in their heads, they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sign shall flee away. A world free of sorrow and the sign that we experience and see all around us today in this world will be healed. Can you envision this? Is this part of your master spiritual vision?

These scriptures just paint a picture. We don't have all the details. I think our minds would literally explode if we could somehow get a glimpse, a true glimpse, of what this would look like someday.

But God helps us to paint a picture in His Word so that we have a vision that will push us through this physical world that we live in today and help us to just overcome the limitations that we have from this physical world. Let's look ahead to Micah chapter 4 to continue on seeing more of these areas where we can develop a vision. Micah 4, 1-4. Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the tops of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and people shall flow to it. Many nations shall come and say, come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways and we shall walk in his path. For out of Zion, the law shall go forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples and rebuke strong nations afar off. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Can you envision that? No more mothers and fathers sending their children off to war, thinking, who knows?

No more burying children that come back and fathers and mothers from wars.

And as we heard from Mr. Eddington, the amount of money that is being spent on warfare in this world, being put to good use, being put to heal, being put used to help heal people, to heal the nations, to build water supplies, to build things that will build up this world, not tear it down.

Let's continue. Nations shall not lift up swords against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

But everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.

Sitting under his, notice it actually says who owns it, his fig tree. Everyone will have trees and vineyards and property that they can enjoy and sit underneath, out of the sun, in the shade.

A lot of people don't have that today. Is this part of your vision?

It is hard to imagine a world without all of these things that we get to experience today, but we need to imagine it. We need to long for it. We need to pray for it.

And pray, thy kingdom come, because God says this is how it will be.

The God of peace will be in charge, and his peace will flow through all of creation.

Let's move ahead to Zechariah. Zechariah 8.

In verse 3.

Zechariah 8, verse 3. Zechariah 9, verse 3. Zechariah 9, verse 3. Thus says the Lord, I will return to Zion, and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called the city of truth. In verse, the mountain, continuing on, the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain. In verse 4. Thus says the Lord of hosts, old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each one with his staff in his hand, because of great age. The streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets. Jesus Christ will be on this earth. He will be influencing the right ways that families will interact and live. Can you imagine the grandparents? Some of you here are grandparents, sitting on your front porches, underneath your fig trees, watching your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren, just playing in the streets, having fun, not worrying about, oh, well, don't do that after dark, or make sure that one of us, make sure there's an adult outside as you guys do this. It's just gotta be safe. We won't have to worry about that. And the children will just be carefree. I can physically imagine this part, because I grew up in more of an urban environment. We grew up in the city, where we did play in the front yards, and at times we played in the streets. Thanks, Mom. And it was fun. We laughed. We skinned our knees. It was fun. But it was nowhere near what it would be like in this kingdom. It would be nowhere near the amount of joy that these children will be able to possess, and to look over their shoulders, and there's their grandmother, their grandfather, sitting there watching them, and then they go right back to playing. The joy that will exist when this world is changed is mind-boggling. It's beyond what I can imagine. But you know what? That vision has to be planted. It has to be part of our mind. We have to start trying to envision it, so that we can envision this whole changed world, because this vision is what's going to propel us forward and keep us on the correct path. And finally, in verse 12, for the vision aspect of trying to capture this vision, For the seed shall be prosperous, the vine shall give its fruit, The ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew. I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these. This is what we are shooting for. Our dream, our vision, the whole reason we live and we breathe, and the reason we struggle against this world and our own human nature daily, to live forever with God in his paradise, helping, serving, loving, and living with him, with God the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. Can you see it? Can you hear the sounds of this kingdom? As we build this vision, it should awaken our senses. Our excitement should begin to build. We should want to tell others all about it. Challenger was like this for me, in a sense. Even though I had never been to this part of Wyoming or backpacked into the mountains, I started to get an excitement, a vision of what it would be like to be there. Much of the vision came from talking with others or from reading things online about what to prepare for, what to bring. And so I started saying, well, if I need a raincoat, then we're probably going to get rained on some. And then how am I going to deal with that if my clothes get wet or will my backpack get sweat? Okay, now I've got to envision me bringing a rain cover for my pack.

These things start—I just started getting excited. I started picturing myself there. I pictured myself succeeding. And because of this physical earth that I live in and the limitations I have now, I at times pictured myself failing. What if I can't do one of the obstacles? What if this hike is too much? These are all part of my vision, and they're okay, because we do have to recognize that at times we're going to go through difficulties in this life. But I envision myself there. I was excited about the lessons I could learn from the challenge and from the opportunities to interact with others. I was excited about what I could bring home from this trip to my family and to share with them. And I was excited about what I could bring back to our local congregation and to share with others, and to just build on what God has already given me that I can then pass on to others. While on this earth Jesus Christ had a vision that he never lost sight of. We read this in John 4, verse 34. John 4, verse 34. In John 4, verse 34. Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. And if you turn the page to John 6, verse 38, we'll continue. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of the Father who sent me, that all he has given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up in the last day.

We too envision a better world, a time of peace, a time with God. But how clear is our vision? What is the size of our vision? Because with a small vision, we will get distracted from time to time. And when we get distracted, because our vision is small, when we get distracted, it will take us a while to get back on course. So what size is your vision? But with a clear, large, living vision, it will be on the forefronts of our mind constantly, continually with us throughout our days, in our actions, in our activities. We must have a strong, vibrant dream of the kingdom of God, because without one, we will struggle to move forward and to accomplish the spiritual growth that we need to in this life.

This brings me to the second part of the phrase, plan. With a vision clearly established, this will define what we will do and not do in our physical walk through this life. As I stated before, God gives His vision to us through His Word. We must then partner with God to work towards that vision through the plans that we make and the things that we are doing today. As we know, this is where the work begins. For anything in life where you have a vision or a dream, you don't just wake up the next day and it's done right in front of you.

No, it takes work. It takes a lot of work. We have to sit down and count the costs. We figure out what it will take to reach our dream or our vision. And as we think about planning for the kingdom of God, it can also be helpful to ask ourselves somehow what questions and meditate upon our answers. You may wish to write these down and think upon them the remainder of the feast or as you go home.

These are just a few. What can I do to prepare for the kingdom of God? What can I do to prepare for the kingdom of God? What spiritual state do I need to be building before I arrive? What spiritual state do I need to be building before I arrive? And how prepared am I today for the kingdom of God?

How prepared am I today for the kingdom of God? Going to Challenger West again, this was a part of the process I had to put a lot of time, a lot of effort into. One of the first things that I did was I bought a journal. It was a standard journal. It was a place for me to take notes, like the rubber band, so I could keep it closed and not lose everything.

Red is also kind of a manly color, I thought. But it's a standard journal. In it, I was able to... A lot of times I carried this with me. I'm going to say something. Probably embarrass myself a little bit. People laughed a little bit at me. It even made it to church services some days. This journal went a lot of places, and sometimes you have people kind of like, Oh, there's Mike with his journal again. He's going to Challenger.

But in it, I was able to capture my thoughts, my discussions with others. I was able to capture price comparisons when I would go to a store. Things I needed. Things people said, Oh, don't forget this. You'll definitely want to take that. In this journal, I took notes. I captured some of my thoughts, some of my excitement before I even went.

And then, as we actually got to go to Challenger, I was able to capture what the days were like, what I got to experience. Because I wanted to... You can never capture everything as it is in your mind and express to everyone when you get back. It's like being here at the feast. We're going to go home, and we're going to tell our friends, we're going to tell our families how great this feast was.

But unless you're here living it, you really don't understand it. Yeah, you can go and be encouraging, but our experience here is unique. And so, by journaling it, I wanted to try to capture as much as I could to share with Laura and Kelis and the rest of my family and friends about the good days, about some of the tough days that I had to overcome, some things that... I tripped me up a little bit. But they're all here. In a sense, God's Word is a spiritual journal. In this Bible, we have accounts of the history of man, the good days and the not-so-good days.

They're all captured here for us to learn from, to study, to read. There are instructions directly from God on how we are to handle our lives. We have information from things... things that challenge people, things that they breezed through, reasons why they breezed through. It wasn't on them. It was someone else working in their lives. But we have this. This book is an instrument in our ability to plan for the kingdom of God. We could think we had the best and most solid vision in our minds, but where would we be without the guidance of God's Word?

Would we know right from wrong? Would we know how to handle difficult situations as they arise? What plans could we make to help the vision come to pass without God's Word? We couldn't do it. It just would not be possible. God's Word sets us on the path to reaching our vision. It identifies the road we need to take and the things we need to do while on it. It tells us how to handle this physical life and our spiritual life. This book gives us the how to reach our vision. But is that all we need to do? Is that all we need?

Is just God's Word? We must also do. The kingdom of God will not be a place for the lazy at heart. There's going to be a lot of work that will need to be accomplished. Goals from God to do and to complete. In this physical life, we also have work to do. Daily, we are to overcome our physical limitations and exercise our bodies and our minds. So we are in shape for the kingdom. You can put in your notes Proverbs 16, verse 3.

Commit your works to the Lord and your thoughts will be established. The message translation reads the same verse as, Put God in charge of your work, then what you've planned will take place. What you've thought in your vision, those things will happen if you put God first. Sometimes during this planning stage, the work we are doing is hard and it hurts. Things can be tough during the planning stage. It's during this stage that we may be going through physical effort or trials to bring our vision to a reality.

But as we go through the physical, we are moving towards our vision. As we sacrifice what our human nature wants, because we know what our future holds, we receive the strength daily through the Holy Spirit to do the right things and to work towards our vision. You can also put in your notes Luke 9, verse 23.

Luke 9, 23. And then he said to them, If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. And let's turn to Philippians 3, verse 8. Philippians 3, verse 8. Yet indeed I also count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, talking about the physical, the things that we give up, the things that we sacrifice today for our final vision. Yet indeed I also count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ.

Some people have dreams to run a marathon. They have a dream to maybe tackle a mountain climb, something physical. They have these physical dreams of things that they want to accomplish. When someone trains for a physical race, one of the things they dread the most is an injury. For someone who rides bicycles and is trained for a bike race, one of the things they dread is having a crash, which bangs up their body or hurts them to where they can no longer train.

Sometimes a runner will pull a muscle or sustain a joint injury. These injuries can become scary to the athlete because he starts to wonder and thinking, is this going to ruin my dream? But an athlete cannot allow themselves to lose this vision unless they choose to lose this vision. Fighting through the pain and discomfort, they continue to plan, and they continue to work. Sure, maybe their plans had to change a bit, but they don't quit.

Sometimes in our spiritual lives and in our spiritual preparation, we can get tripped up when a trial comes our way. We may trip, we may fall, we may get banged up, and sometimes it's no fault of our own. The trial just comes upon us and we're forced to deal with it.

Just like that athlete, we may become scared. How is this going to affect my physical or my spiritual vision, the journey that I'm on?

At times we can become discouraged because the trial was nowhere near in our plans. I don't want it, and I shouldn't have to deal with it, but I am. The Apostle Paul also battled trials in his journey to the kingdom of God, but he left us incredible words of encouragement in Philippians 3, verse 12. If we'll just skip down to verse 12 of where we're still at.

Not that I have already attained, I am already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.

We start to deal with our trial by changing our plans. Our vision hasn't changed. It's still that solid, concrete vision of where we want to go. But we may have to adjust our plans a bit. We evaluate what we need to do next to still be able to reach our vision. For an athlete, it may involve rest and rehabilitation. They may need to take some time for their bodies to heal. They may have to lean on others for support, for encouragement and help.

And for us spiritually, we also have to heal from this trial. We need encouragement and support from our families, from our friends and our family in the faith. And for those trials that just do not ever go away.

We have to find a way to live our lives so we can still accomplish this vision that we are reaching for.

We draw closer to God. We dive deeper into His word. We pray more. We fast more. Just like that athlete, quitting is not an option. Sure, plans have to change, but quitting is not an option. It's through the pain of change in trials that we are readying ourselves to live the vision God has placed in our hearts.

Do you have a spiritual plan for your life today? Is the vision and planning strong enough so that you can withstand the trials that will come your way this coming year?

Sometimes we can get bogged down with our physical life and lose our focus on this vision. It's then that we need to refocus so we can get back to our planning and to our training.

So as you plan for the Kingdom of God, remember to ask yourself, so how and what questions, as I mentioned earlier, what can I do to prepare for the Kingdom of God? What spiritual state do I need to be building before I arrive? And how prepared am I today for the Kingdom of God? So once this dream or vision is set firmly and our planning and training has come to an end, it's time that we get to live the vision that we have thought so much about. Dream, plan, and live. Your vision and planning for the Feast of Tabernacles 2014 is done. You're here. You're living it. Isn't this great? My training and vision for Challenger came to an end. I got to go. I got to live it. And it was an amazing adventure I'll take and keep with me for the rest of my life. But our spiritual journey to the Kingdom of God isn't yet complete. Jesus Christ hasn't returned. But we know that the Kingdom of God is on the horizon, and it is coming. I will be brief in this third regard, because we have other messages coming up that will dive deeper into us being there and living this. But I hope this message has inspired us all to never lose the vision that God has placed on our hearts and minds and to never stop the planning and work we are putting into our spiritual lives today. Dream, plan, and live. As we close, let's turn to a couple final scriptures to be reminded of what is promised for those who finish their race. First, I'd like you to flip to 1 Thessalonians 4. And when you get there, please put your finger in, because I'm going to jump to a different scripture first. But I want to come back to 1 Thessalonians quickly. I like how these two scriptures just fit so nicely together and build on each other. So, 1 Thessalonians 4, put your finger here. And now let's flip to 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 51. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Flip to 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 16. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. This is living. This should be part of our vision as well. But this is living. See them. Taste them. Feel them. Because on the day Jesus Christ triumphantly returns, they will become a reality. Laura and I wish you a wonderful remainder of your Feast of Tabernacles.