The Joy Set Before Us

Well, last week, when we were here, we were gathered together and we were fasting, and we talked about the work that God has called us to. Why we were called during this time, what He expects us to do, what we can be doing in our individual lives, what He wants us to be doing in our collective and church lives. And I hope we've reflected on that a little bit during this week. But you know Jesus Christ, as we come out of the days of Unleavened Bread and we look forward to the Feast of Pentecost and the pictures, the giving of the Holy Spirit to God's people, Jesus Christ completed His mission on earth. He was given a work to do, and He came and He completed that. And it was through many trials and it was through much suffering that He completed the mission that He was given. And at the end, He said it was finished, even though the work of God wasn't finished, but His part in it was finished.

We can, His part as a human was finished. He continues to live the day and it's because of Him that we can even continue to do the work or have the hope that we have. But you know, through everything that He did, and we look at all the obstacles that He faced during His life, we can maybe even think, how did He do that? How did He continue to go through that? Why did He continue to go through that? For us, for us sinners.

Let's turn back to Hebrews. Hebrews 12. Of course, it was His commission. He was determined that He was going to do what He came to earth to do. He wanted to be the Redeemer for mankind.

He wanted to pay for our sins. He wanted us to have the opportunity that we have. But in chapter 12 of Hebrews, we're coming right out of Hebrews 11 that talks about the men of faith and the women of faith and how they lived their lives. Because they lived their lives and they died, not receiving the promises of God, but seeing them afar off. They embraced them and they looked for another country. And as we come out of that chapter, as man has broken the chapter, where we read in chapter 12, verse 1, therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, just like they did, just like Jesus Christ did, the same calling that we have to complete what God has called us to.

For looking unto Jesus, it says in verse 2, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, never forgetting that without Him, without looking to Him, we will never complete the race that God has given us to. Without the humility that He taught us that we need to have, we will never complete it. All those things being said, if I don't say them again in this sermon, you know that we need those things in order to complete the race that God has called us to.

Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and have sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. How did He do it? For the joy that was set before Him, the joy that was set before Him, gave Him the inspiration, gave Him the motivation, gave Him what He needed, including God's Spirit and the knowledge that He had, that was before Him as He suffered and He died for us. The joy that was set before Him, what was that joy?

You know, Jesus Christ, we're told, is the example that we should follow. Everything that He did, we can emulate. Observe the things that He observed. Keep the things that He kept and taught. Teach the things that He taught. And He endured until the end with the joy that was set before Him.

The joy that was set before Jesus Christ is set before us, too. And it's a tremendous tool that God gives us to complete the race that we have. And as we look from now until the return of Jesus Christ, there will be many things the Bible prophesies that will happen to you and I that can confront us, different things for different people. But if we don't have the joy set before us, that Jesus Christ set before us, we could have a hard time.

The joy that was set before Jesus Christ saw Him through suffering and agony and in the good times and bad times, He kept Him focused on what He was doing and it can do the same for us. Well, His physical life on earth is done. During that time, He kept in mind the joy that was set before Him.

And now He sits at the right hand of God and He's doing something else now. Let's turn back to John 14. John 14. And in verse 1, He was saying this to His disciples on that last night, that last Passover, that He was alive on earth before He was arrested. And as He talked to them after the Passover was completed, the Passover ceremony, and He introduced to them the wine, the bread, and the washing of feet, He went out in the garden or He told them this in verse 1.

He says, Let let your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself that where I am, you may be also. So Jesus Christ has now gone off and He is preparing a place for you and me.

He was saying it to disciples, but He's saying it to you and me too. I'm preparing a place for you. Now, you remember, I think that we discussed this a couple years ago. Back in the time that Jesus Christ said these things, the people that were alive at that time would have known exactly what He was talking about. In the time that they were living, when someone was going to go out and be married and have a bride, they would go back to their Father's house and they would add a room to the house.

They would become part of that household. And so, as there were many brothers, rooms would be added to the house and the house continued to expand. So when Jesus Christ said, I go to prepare a place for you. In My Father's house are many mansions, many rooms. I go to prepare a place for you so that you can dwell there with Me. And when I return, when I return to earth, you will be there too. You will be My bride. You will be what I want you to be. You will work with Me. You will be with Me for eternity. He wasn't talking just to the disciples at that time. He was talking to all of His disciples then and now, and to you and Me as well. When He says those words, He's preparing a place for you and for Me. That's what His focus is on now. And He will continue that until the time that He returns. If we're going to be there, if we're going to be part of that place that He's preparing for us, we have some work to do. We have some things to endure.

We have some things to develop in the rest of our lives so that we're part of that household that He is preparing today. Part of what that is and how we would develop it and how we'd be there is that we have the same joy set before us that Jesus Christ had set before Him. What is that joy? What is that joy that was set before Him that enabled Him to do what He needed to do as a human and complete His mission?

Before we go any further, let me read a commentary, a note from a book titled, Expanded Biblical Comments. It was written by Charles Russell. He wrote this in relation to the joy set before us that we read back in Hebrews 12.

He says this, The life of faith is an individual manner, as well of the heart as of the head. Now we all work out our faith, but our faith is a matter of heart as well as head, not just head, but the heart as well as the head. It is far more than an acceptance of the doctrines which we consider scriptural and therefore true. It is the assimilation of that which we have proved to be the truth, so that its principles become our principles and its promises our inspiration. I think He nailed it.

Its principles become our principles. The way the Bible talks, that's what we become. We assimilate it, not just in the head that we can repeat it back, not that we can just know, but that we actually apply it into our lives and we become like the Bible says to become, that we live the way of life that's described in the Bible. And as we do that, we begin to see the benefits of it, the blessings that come from it, the happiness, the peace, the things that disappear from our lives that are not so good, that even in bad times and good times we have something of God that the rest of the world around us doesn't have it.

And its promises, the promises of the Bible are our inspiration. That's what it said, Dr. Men and Women of Hebrews 11, right? Not having obtained the promises, they saw them afar off and yet they counted this world not worthy to give in to it, but they embraced those promises that they were willing to give their life, looking to the joy set before them, that they wouldn't yield to the pleasures or temptations of this life, that they would hold that ahead of them and they would look toward that.

Let's go back and let's review just a few of the promises of God. There are many and as you read through the Bible, you might take note when you see a promise of God and mark that down because the promises of God, well before we even go to one of the promises, let me go back to 2 Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 1. Interesting way that Paul talked about the promises of God here in 2 Corinthians 1. In verse 18, 2 Corinthians 1 says, But as God is faithful, our reward to you was not, yes and no. We didn't say, well yes and no. Yes is what he's going to say. Our word to you was not, yes and no. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, by, Paul says, by me, Salvanus, and Timothy, was not, yes and no.

But in him was, yes. For all the promises of God in him are yes. Yes, they will happen. Yes, they can be yours. Yes, they are ours if we will do what God says to do. Yes, it's yours. I'm standing here and you're sitting there. Yes, they will happen. All the promises of God in him are yes. And in him, amen, to the glory of God. So when we read about promises in the Bible, they will happen.

If they happen for us, it's up to us. God wants to give them. God wants to see them through, but we have a part to play. We have a part to play in it. The promises are yes on His, but the promises, if we're going to receive them, we have things to do.

Let me just drop down to the side here in verse 23 of the same chapter. It says, Moreover, Paul writes, I call God as a witness against my soul, that to spare you I can't no more decorance. But it says, not that we have dominion over your faith, but our fellow workers for your joy, for by faith you stand.

The ministers of God, we are supposed to be helpers of your joy, helping you understand that joy, helping you attain that joy, helping that joy to be in front of you so that it motivates, it inspires, that it is there for you in good times and bad times, and it keeps us all focused. So, as you have things that you want to talk about, if you don't feel the joy, if you need some help in the joy, always feel free to call Mr. Winter me. We're here to do whatever you need to do and to talk about whatever you need to talk about.

Now, let's go back to 1 John 2. Let's look at a few of the promises of God. 1 John 2.

1 John 2.1, verse 24.

Therefore let that abide in you, John writes. Remember John, an apostle of Jesus Christ, walked with him for three and a half years. Here he is at the end of his life, somewhere in the 90s A.D., writing this. Therefore let that abide in you, which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, if you're holding fast to that truth, the same truth that Jesus Christ preached, the same thing that he taught you back in the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he has promised us. Eternal life. Eternal life. One chapter back, he promises that he will cleanse our minds in 1 John 1.

In verse 9, if we confess our sins, if we admit it, if we acknowledge it, if we don't try to cover it up, if we don't try to make excuses for it, if we acknowledge to God, we were wrong. I have this weakness. I have this thing in me. If we confess our sins, if we can face them, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He can provide that cleansing. He can provide that clarity of mind. He can provide that purity of mind. He can wipe away all the things that we've done, the things that we've accumulated through our lives, the thoughts that we've had, whatever we've engaged in, the things that we've polluted our minds with. He can cleanse that. But we have to make the choice to let him do that. We have to make the choice to let him do that.

He's just not going to do it for us. He needs to see that we want that. That we want to be the way he wants us to be. Let's go back and look at another promise, this time way back in Genesis, way back in Genesis 12. Promise that God made to Abraham.

Genesis 12 and verse 2, to Abraham, who had proven to God he was going to follow him no matter what. That he would go against the norms of his time, the societal customs of his time, that he would follow God even when it wasn't what the rest of society had done.

In verse 2 of chapter 12, God tells him, I will make you, Abraham, a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Now, that's a beautiful thing, isn't it, to have said of you? Abraham, look what I'm going to do for you because of what you've done, because of the way you've lived your life, because of the choices you've made. Not only am I going to bless you, but in you, all the rest of the nations of the earth are going to be blessed. They're going to experience things they didn't experience before.

And we know that God made that promise true. Certainly, in the physical areas, God blessed Abraham and his descendants. And we know that Jesus Christ was a blessing to all the world, and it was through Abraham's line that Jesus Christ was blessed. Wouldn't you like to have that said to you? In you, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. And let's go back to Galatians. Galatians 3. He said it to Abraham and his descendants. He repeated that blessing to Isaac and to Jacob. And in Galatians 3 in the New Testament, Paul writes this. Galatians 3, verse 13, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. And we know what the curse of the law is. The curse of the law is death. When we disobey the law, we bring death on ourselves. He paid the death penalty for us. Christ has redeemed us. He has bought us back from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. He did it that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. And so God calls us. John 6.44 says that no one can come to Christ unless God the Father calls him. So all of us in this room have the calling. God has opened our minds to see the truth of the Bible, and that's why we're sitting here today. When we take that call, when we truly repent, when we're baptized, when we have hands laid upon us, God gives us the promise of the Holy Spirit. Him actually living in us, His nature, that changes the way we think, that helps us to understand, gives us comfort. All the things that Jesus Christ talked about in John 14 and 15 gives us understanding, gives us strength, because His Spirit is the power, is a spirit of power and love and a sound mind. And He says, I will give you the power of the Holy Spirit. Let's go back down to verse 26. For you, as He writes to Galatia, as He writes to the church in Orlando today, the church in Jacksonville, the churches of God all over the world, to those who fully believe in Him and follow Him, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

For as many of you, as were baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus, one family, one body, baptized into one Spirit to follow one God, all one. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. In you, in me, along with all the men of Hebrews 11, along with Jesus Christ, along with the others who believe God, in us, we can have part of being a blessing to all nations. We can have part in what God has planned, part in what Jesus Christ saw as the joy set before Him, as He looked at a sick and sorrowful world, that's even more sick and sorrowful as we look at it today. He could see a time, and He knew there was a time coming, that the nations of the world would be blessed by Him because of Abraham's faith, because of your and my faith, because of what God is going to bring to earth and what you and I can have part of if we follow Him, if we believe His promises, if we believe with all our heart, if we let God's principles become our principles, if we let His promises become our inspiration, if we look at the joy that God sets before us, and it's the same joy set before us that was set before Jesus Christ that would motivate us in good times, in bad times, and keep us focused on what our calling is and where God wants us to be.

The joy set before us. The joy set before us. Well, what was the joy set before Jesus Christ?

Was it a joy to Him to glorify God and to redeem all mankind? Yeah, that was part of His joy. He came, and what He did was for others. He didn't do it for Himself. He did it because He wanted mankind to have salvation. He wanted mankind to experience everything that He and the Father had determined before the beginning of the earth would be the future of the world. Was it joy to have a position and be called King of kings and Lord of lords to be King and High Priest to all the world?

Sure, that was part of the joy, but that wasn't all the joy at all. Those things would be more directed on self, and joy is not about self. We learn, and when we read in the Bible, we find that joy is more outward-oriented. It's what can happen outside of us.

Therein lies the difference between joy and happiness. Sometimes the world confuses the two words. Happiness can come from different things and different events in our lives.

We buy a new car, we're happy for a while, right? Then the car becomes a year old, and it freaks down. We have to do things within it. You know what? It's a nice vehicle, but it's no longer the happiness that we have. Buy a new house, and we can be happy for a while, but then it becomes part of a house and other things about that house that make us enjoy it and love it. And we can get a new position at work, and we're happy for a while, but then things continue the way they are, and it becomes mundane. Circumstances can change, life can change, and the happiness that we felt momentarily disappears. But that's not the case with joy. Joy transcends the good times and the bad times.

Joy doesn't come from things that we possess. Joy doesn't come from the things that are about us.

Joy comes from a different place. It is a fruit of God's Holy Spirit, and it is something that God gives us. I tried to write down something about joy, and I think it's a very difficult thing to explain, but you and I know what joy is. We know what we feel today as far different than the joy we thought was joy before we were baptized and had God's Spirit. It gives us a different outlook on life. Here's... I wrote down this. Joy comes from the soul. It comes from something within inside of us. It's not something we get. It's not something that someone gives us. Joy comes from within the soul. It comes from God's Holy Spirit. It comes from anticipation and the expectation of something great and wonderful that will occur. It exhilarates. It motivates. It inspires us to continue regardless of what comes about in our lives. It is a gift from God, and it is a fruit of His Holy Spirit. Now, you might take some time to write down what you think joy is, because it is interesting and let God work in your mind as you do that. I gave this sermon in Jacksonville this morning, and after service, someone came up and they said, yeah, I've been thinking about joy. What you can add to your definition about joy is that it also comes from a sense of security. You know when you trust in God, and you know that whatever comes your way, God is going to be there for you, whether it's good or whether it's bad. It comes from a sense of contentment that whatever God gives you, you learn to be content with. You're not always looking for more. You're not always looking for additional. You're happy with what God has given you because you know He's in control. I thought those were very good points to add to it, and I've written them down here in my definition. But you may think of other things as you think about the joy that God has given you, the joy that was set before Jesus Christ, the joy that should be before us, the joy that transcends good times. It's easy to be happy and joyful in good times, not so easy to be joyful in bad times, but the people of God that understand joy still have that joy in the not-so-good times. Let's go back to James. James 1. James, the brother of Jesus Christ, he understood what joy was, what God was talking about. He understood the joy that was set before us, the joy that was set before Jesus Christ. In James 1, verse 2, he says this, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials.

Count it all joy. Be content. Be secure. Look for the future. My brother, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. And that's the goal that God sets for us, right? That we would become perfect, that we would become blameless.

And so it's joy when we know that God is working in our lives and that He is working in that. So, when the trial comes, we may not enjoy it. It may not make us happy, but we would be joyous knowing God is working. There is something in me that He is ironing out, sweeping away, strengthening. There is something He is doing to get me ready for the rest of my life, which is beyond this physical 70, 80, 90, 100 years that we live. Count it all joy, James says. Count it all joy. And so when we face financial trials, health trials, other trials in our lives, we might stop complaining, and we might start thinking, God is doing something. Let me learn what I need to do. How do I need to be strengthened? What am I to learn from this? And ask God to give you that joy that's set before you, that sees you through that trial and beyond that time.

You know, Paul understood the concept as well. Paul, who enumerated in the book of Corinthians how many times he was beaten, how many strikes that he received, how he was in prison, how people rejected him, and all the things that he went through in his life, because he didn't have an easy life once he was called at all. And he was able to say this back in Romans 8. Romans 8, verse 17. At the end of three chapters, which would be very good for us to read between now and Pentecost, it talks about the Holy Spirit in our lives and what the power of God's Holy Spirit is.

And when we go through bad times to remember the joy set before us and what Jesus Christ has done for us. But in Romans 8, verse 17, after all he went through and all he was going to go through, he was able to write this. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Everything I suffer now, everything I go through now, it doesn't even compare to the joy that set before me, to the vision that God has given me, for the things that he will reveal, for the things that we will do, the things that the people of God will do if they follow him, if they make the choice in their life to do the things that God has said, if they make the choice in their lives to let God's principles become our principles and His promises our inspiration.

What is some of that joy that we can look to? Certainly, if we look around the world today, there's not a whole lot of joy we can find in it, right? There's a lot of problems in the world. But Jesus Christ and God gave us a picture of something that we can keep in our mind Let's turn back to Isaiah 61. Isaiah 61. Isaiah 61, the first two verses here, Jesus Christ, you'll remember back in Luke 4, He stood up before the congregation in the temple on the Sabbath day.

And He read those verses, these very same words to the people. And they heard Him speak, and then He sat down and what He told them was, what you have heard today is being fulfilled.

Chapter 61 and verse 1. He knew these verses were written. Paul knew these verses were written.

James knew these verses were written. They knew the things that were in the Old Testament, the things that can make for our joy and looking beyond today of what our lives are.

Chapter 61 and verse 1. The Spirit of the Lord God. You'll notice that in Lord God there, it's God, that's all capitals, not Lord, like we often see. The Spirit of the Lord God, when you see G-O-D, all caps, it really means Master. When you see L-O-R-D, it's Y-H-W-H in the Hebrew.

We often, I often will say that's eternal. I was always, I am, I was, I always will be.

Here's the Spirit of the Lord God, the Master, the one who controls and who directs our lives.

The Spirit of the Lord, or who we should allow to control our lives. He will only do it if we allow Him to. And lead us. The Spirit of the Master God is upon me because the Eternal has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. Those are beautiful words.

When the people in the synagogue heard Christ say that, wouldn't that be a beautiful thing? Do you wish that you had the power to say what Jesus Christ said? Because He had the power to say, I'm coming here to preach good tidings to the poor. I'm coming here to loose the captives and to release them from prison. All the things that you suffer with, all the things that you do, I am here and He knew He could do it. And He knew that in the future it was going to be done.

And we can do that as well. We can have part of that. We can be part of that whole process.

Wouldn't you love, as you look at the world around us, to be able to have answers that you would give them? We look at the world around us and it is a mess in every way, shape, and form. If we look at the world today, many people would say it's simply hopeless. What is the answer to North Korea? What is the answer to Iran? What is the answer to Russia? What is the answer to ISIS? And if those are solved, what other thing is lurking out there that's going to pop up that's going to be a problem to the world? Is there any answer to that? If we look at the world, we might say it's hopeless.

And if I'm looking at the world and I'm not in the Church of God, if I don't know the truth of God, if I don't know what He's working out, I might say, what's the point? All these things are going to converge. All these things are going to happen and there's no way to stop them. I can look at the world and I can see the things that are there. I look at health of the people. You know, the United States likes to say that they are like the most healthy people on earth. We have the best health care system. And I have to sit and wonder, do we have the best health care system? There's an awfully lot of people who are sick. There's an awfully lot of people who go to the doctor all the time. An awfully lot of people who get medicine. And the medicine might fix one thing, but it causes another thing and then they take another prescription for that that that's caused.

And it keeps going on and on and on. And people become dependent on a doctor and the health that they that that and thinking that that's the answer to the health problems. That's not the answer to the health problems. If we were to go on and on and on, we would find that things would become even worse. More pills, more surgeries, more doctor visits, more dependence on doctor for our health, rather than finding the source cause of it. We could look at that and say, it looks like a hopeless situation. How is that ever going to be healed? How are people going to ever be able to be healthy again? We can look at our food sources. You know, the more I learn about our food sources, the more irritated I become. For those of you who are at the campout, we did a seminar and believe me, one thing I never thought that I would be interested in is baking bread.

Never. But we talked about that because during the days of Unleavened Bread, I began to understand what's in our bread is ridiculous. You know, when God created bread, He didn't create bread like what we have on the store shelves today. He created bread that is almost a miracle when you realize what God did with bread. How it was just a matter of flour and water and a mixture together and the air would ferment that and release all the nutrients of the grains and people could live on bread alone and be healthy. They didn't need anything else. They could live on bread alone, like the prisoners did, like Roman armies did, and they would get all the nutrients and everything they need out of bread. If you lived on bread alone today, you would be sicker than sicker than you would want to be. But all those things are there, and we don't even know it. I didn't even know that those things were there and what some of those things are in our world today. We've lost so much of what it is, and we don't even have to talk just about bread. We talk about the processed foods and we talk about what it is that we eat. There are so many things. So few things we eat from the ground where God created the food to be that would provide our nutrients and so many processed things we eat, so many things that have been modified genetically and in other ways, that even the things that we eat, they might have the right name, but they aren't anymore what God had done. There's a whole lot of things we can talk about that the world has done that takes forth to us to make things happen. How do you solve those problems? How do you solve those problems because they contribute to some of the other problems that we have. We can look at something that's supposed to be that God created a blessing for all of mankind. We can look at marriage, something that God gave us a blessing to mankind, that a man and a woman would find each other, get married, and spend a lifetime together. And he intended that union to be a union of joy, a union where both would develop, a union where children would be born into that union, and they would grow up in the knowledge and admonition of God. So when they grew up, they would understand the principles of God, and they would even be stronger spiritually than their parents.

But what is marriage in the world today? Marriage is not looked on as anything highly. People think it's better to live together. Marriage has become something that is a joke among people. Marriage is something that people think, who could spend the rest of their lives with the same person?

They don't understand that love was designed to grow deeper when both parties are doing the things that they're supposed to do. Love was supposed to be something that was satisfying for the rest of your life, not just for a moment here or a few years here before you move on to the next wife or next husband. But if things were done God's way, it would be different. But in the world today, it's hopeless when we look at it. Who would listen to that? The world has been too inoculated with the fact that it doesn't mean any difference. It doesn't need to be that way, that marriage for most people seems like something that is only temporary, as long as I love you until something better comes along. And so what God had designed doesn't happen at all. It's not at all the marriage that God had said that should picture the relationship between Jesus Christ and the church, the relationship between husband and wife. What about peace or peace of mind?

Who has peace of mind anymore? Well, who has, you know, the world is full of mental health issues. I read that one in six people, one in six people every year, one in six adults, take some kind of psychotropic medication for depression, for anxiety, for the things, for other things as well.

Because they don't know how to cope with life. Because they let things stress them out. Because they worry about them too much. Because they don't know, they can't find the meaning, they have no reason to get up in the morning, and they have a hopeless future, so they try to escape. What about the addictions that are rampant in the land, between alcoholism and drug abuse? Tough, tough things that happen in life. But people view those things because they are looking for answers. Because they don't know how to do, they don't find the peace of mind. They're looking for an escape from reality.

And so it becomes a bigger problem among everyone. What if you had the answers to some of those problems? What if you had the answer about the wit to the wickedness and the hate that's in the world?

We can talk about ISIS. What about if ISIS is destroyed? If ISIS is no longer an organization?

Does it change what's going on over there? Where people teach their children to hate people? That it's good, and in their God's eyes, good to murder those people? Does that change anything? If an organization is gone, that doesn't change anything. What about the wickedness? Someone gets upset with their teacher, or gets upset with their boss, and what do they do? They go in and kill someone. How does that change? Where does that come from? How are we able to stand against that, and what can we do to change that? That people would always feel that there isn't any danger lurking behind them. We can talk about poverty. You know, we are blessed to live in this land.

No matter how little we think we have in this land, we are a blessed people. I would dare say no one in here has ever known an involuntary day of hunger. I never have. Anytime I've gone hungry, it's by choice. But that's not the case for most of the world around us. They don't know what it's like to have food endlessly, and as much as they want whenever they want. They don't know what it's like at the end of the day when they haven't eaten for 24 hours, they can go to a refrigerator and fix something. Because that's just what life is. And they can't have a full meal. They might have a little rice. They might have a little grain. They might have something. But they don't have what you and I have. And poverty is a big thing around the world for the nations outside of Israel, or outside of America, and modern-day America. What if we knew about that? What about the lost innocence of children? How many times and how many weeks go by that we don't hear about someone, and the child that is killed because a boyfriend or a girlfriend or a stepfather or someone gets tired of the little child and the noise they make and they just sort of do things and all of a sudden that child is dead? What about that? What about the kids who are growing up in broken homes that don't feel the love and don't feel anything and they grow up kind of wild, being taught by TV, being taught by their peers who are living in the same situation?

How do they grow up to be any different than what they've done? Where is the world headed?

Where is the world that this that mankind has created? Where is it headed?

Jesus Christ, when He said these words and repeated these words or read these words in chapter 61, He told them, I have the answers. I have the answers. I've come today to preach good tidings to the poor. I've come to preach the opening of the prisons of those who are bound.

I've come to heal, to brokenhearted. I've come to proclaim liberty to the captives who are held down and who aren't enjoying life and don't even know how to get there.

When you think about the world, do we mourn for the world the way it is around us? Do we sigh and cry, as it says in Ezekiel? Do we think, what a mess mankind has made of it? And it could have been so different if they would just obey God, if they would just follow the principles that are clearly delineated in the Bible, if only, if only. What if you, what if you could stand up and say the same words that Jesus Christ said, and know that you could be part of changing the world for the better? That you have the answers to all these problems that we've talked about? What if you could stand up and say, I'm part, I'm part of the solution? God has opened our minds. God has called. God has put in our hearts that we can be part of the solution to this world's problems.

Would that excite you? Is that something that would motivate you, that we can go out and we can be part of the solution of what mankind has brought on this earth? Jesus Christ knew that he was the solution. He knew that he had the answers, and he knew that he would have others who were working with him who would be part of those answers as well. He wanted others to work with him. It wasn't that he wanted to do it all by himself. He called you and me. He called the people in Hebrews 11 and others like us to come and work with him and learn what we need to learn, that we could be part of the solution of the world's problems, that we could bring to the world answers where there are no answers today. For many of the governments or for many of the political leaders, we find nothing. What we find is that the whole head is sick in Isaiah 1. But we realize that when the correct head is in place, the promises of God are sure. The promises of God that He will bring salvation, that He will bring joy, that He will set that joy before us. If they keep that in our minds as a motivator, what He has called us to, that's a tremendous gift He's given us. Let's go on in Isaiah 61 here. We read what Jesus Christ read there. Let's go down to, well, let's finish verses 2 and 3. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes. The mess that they've made of the world will give them beauty for the stuff that they burn down by the choices that they have made, will give them the oil of joy for mourning, the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified. Not that we may be glorified, that He may be glorified. It's His answers. It's His spirit that's in us. It's because of what He's done that we have the opportunity that we have to be part of something that is tremendous, if we take the time to think of it. Let's go back to Acts 3.

That's Peter and John were out preaching after the receipt of the Holy Spirit on that day of Pentecost. He gave some powerful sermons, and in chapter 3, verse 18, He becomes that the Jews of that day who had the Bible and all these things were recorded in it. It wasn't anything that was hidden. The joy of God, the purpose of God, what He will do, how He would restore things, it was all there in the Old Testament. They just had to know that it was there. Verse 18, chapter 3, But those things which God foretold, by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. Repent, he says, therefore, seeing what He has done, knowing that His promise is sure, knowing that His plan is going forward. Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. Who is waiting in heaven, preparing a place for you and me, waiting in heaven, preparing and watching us be prepared for what He has in mind for you and me, that we work with Him, one of the promises, that we will be kings and priests if we follow Him, if we yield to Him, if we let His Holy Spirit mold us and guide us into what He wants us to become, if we learn what we need to be, if we learn what we need to learn, and if we assimilate into our lives and into our minds and hearts and souls, what God has called us to learn and make part of us, that His principles become our principles, that His promises we know are yes in Jesus Christ, that His promises are an inspiration to us. He's waiting there until God sends Him back so that all things on earth can be restored, that all the problems that we talked about can be done away with, that the times of the world's way and Satan's way and influence and man's way is done away with and Jesus Christ's way, the way that we are to be learning now and applying into our lives, that those times of refreshing may come. That's what He's waiting for. That's what He's called you and me for. That's what He wants us to become. But we better be making choices and decisions to do that. We better be looking at that. We better be letting the joy He sets before us motivate us in that way. We better be making the right moves along the way to do those things. The joy set before us, that motivates us, that helps us to know what God is doing and what He wants us to do. The time of restoration of all things. Back in Isaiah 58. Isaiah 58 and verse 12. Isaiah 58, of course, is chapter on fasting, one of the spiritual tools that we would use along with prayer, study, meditation. Fasting, we talked about last week in the sermon that can undo those heavy burdens when we seek God.

At the end of those verses, He says this in verse 12. Chapter 58, verse 12, Those from among you, from among you, that could be you, that could be me.

Those from among you, but you know it doesn't say all of you, those from among you.

If we make the right choices, if we are led by God's Holy Spirit, those from among you shall build the old waste places. You shall raise up the foundations of many generations.

You will be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in. You, me, helping rebuild the world, helping restore the world to what God wanted it to be, helping teach those principles that God would want us to be. Do you think the world, if they had an opportunity, that we took it out of a religious context? If someone would say, you could hit the reset button, and you can go back to world to square one, and you can reset this so that the world will be a world of peace, a world of plenty, a world of joy, a world where people get along and are in harmony. Do you think they would say that? I would hope they would all say that, right? But I don't know. You would probably have personalities involved in saying, well, as long as I was the one who was setting the rules, there would be a lot of sacrifice that has to be given along the way, a lot of looking to other people. But what about us? Was there a time in our lives that we looked at it and it was a mess when God helped us to see who we were?

And He said, I will let you hit the reset button. You can start over again. All the sins of the past will be washed away. All the problems of the past, the things that you've accumulated in your minds by the actions that you've taken, the words that you've said, the attitudes you've allowed to develop, it can all be washed away. And you can start over again and you can have a happy life. You can have a productive life. You can have a life filled with purpose, a life where you're not relying on drugs or alcohol or sex or pornography or shopping or material things or whatever else it is to fill the hole. I can fill those holes for you. We all said, yes.

Yes, we want that. We want to reset. We want to be like you want us to become. We don't want the way of the past. We don't like the way we were. We want to bury the old person. We want him dead. We want him gone. And we want to come out of those waters of baptism, a new person who is yielded to you, who where your spirit is growing in him. And we become the people of peace and the fruits of the spirit, the love, the joy, the peace, the gentleness, kindness, goodness, meekness, faith, self-control define us rather than the anger and the malice and the wickedness and the sin and whatever else defined us before. We said, yes. And I hope we're all working on that, yes. And that we're letting God, letting God, and we're making the choices daily to let him happen because it doesn't happen overnight. All our sins are washed away, but we still have the same mind after we're baptized. We have to let God wash and cleanse that mind and we can ask him through the washing of the Word and the washing of his Holy Spirit to cleanse out those things. And he can make us a new person if we let him. The things of the past disappear. He can, we can be who he wants us to be no matter what is in our minds and what we were before. No one. No one is saddled with the past when you give it to God. And the world isn't saddled with its past either when it yields to God and when Jesus Christ returns. We can be part of all of that. Let's go over to Romans 12. Romans 12. When we were called and God set before us and sets before us the joy that should motivate us through life. He said this in Romans 12. Romans 12 verse 1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your body as a living sacrifice. If you want what God has to offer you present your body as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And don't be conformed to this world. That's what you came out of. They don't have the answers. The answers aren't there in the world. That's why it's in the message is.

The message is in. Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Let God restore your mind. Let God direct your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Let Him do that. Let Him get you ready. Christ is preparing a place. We need to be letting Him prepare us. We just want to give you just a brief picture here.

Let's go back to Isaiah 30. The things that we can think on. You know, Paul says all the things that are noble and good. Think on these things. Sometimes when we go through the trials of life and we're ready to give up and we think, is it worth it? You know, think on the things, the joy that God has set before you. Back in Isaiah 30, he tells us what we're going to be doing. He gives a picture of what's going to happen if we yield to Him, if we are deemed by the choices that we make in life and as we are led by His Holy Spirit, what we will be doing when He returns, when He restores the earth. In Isaiah 30, verse 19, it says, the people will dwell in Zion and Jerusalem. You will weep no more. He will be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. When He hears it, He will answer. And though the Lord gives you the breadth of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore. Your eyes shall see your teachers. They will see you and me because we will have lived the life where He have learned what God has wanted us to do. We will have had it assimilate into our very being that we can teach it with sincerity and say, it works. And He goes on to say something that probably we all wish that would happen to us today. He will hear a word behind you saying, this is the way walk in it whenever you turn to the right or whenever you turn to the left. Wouldn't it be nice when we're leaning on our own understanding, when we're trying to make a decision between this and that, if someone said, no, no, no, that's not the decision. This is the decision you need to make.

It will all be you and me in the Kingdom when we see people making the wrong choice because they're not going to, any more than when we were baptized, have their minds pure and clear. That happens through the course of our lifetime. We kind of have that today, don't we? Because the Holy Spirit will let us know when we're making the right choice. And when we put God's will ahead of our will and we follow it, we'll make the right choice if we listen to that still small voice that's there.

So you and I will be the teachers. In Isaiah 2, you know, the verses you read them every year at the Feast of Tabernacles, and probably a few times besides that. It says, all the world will go up to the house of the mountain or the top of the mountain. All the world will go to the mountain of the Lord.

Teach us your ways, they will say. All the nations will flow to it. They will be eager to hear God's Word when Jesus Christ returns. And when the influence that keeps us from God is gone, people will relish in God's way. Much like you and I were when we learned God's Word, and we wanted to learn more about it, how to apply it into our lives and what the truth is. It says in Isaiah 11, when it talks about the wolf lying down with the lamb, and nothing will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain. Total peace. We will be part of teaching that peace to the world. They will beat their plows into... they will beat their swords into plowshares. The way of war won't be taught, anymore the way of peace will be taught. And the world will be in harmony, and there's a beautiful picture of the kingdom that's there. Let's go... let's look at one more name at Amos. Back in Amos 9.

Amos 9.

We talk about the problems of the world, and you can go through the Bible, and as you read about the millennium, how the things are going to be solved and what it's going to be like there when Jesus Christ returns, because His promise is, yes, it will happen. And yes, you and I can be there seeing it, being a part of it, being a part of the change of the world, if we allow God to change us now. Amos 9, verse 13. The days are coming, says the Eternal, when the plowman will overtake the reaper and the treasure of grapes, him who sows seed. The mountains will drip with sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. Now, isn't that a beautiful Scripture? When we think about the poverty that is around the world today, when we think about the hunger and the nations that don't have enough food, in that day, all the world will have it. The plowman, the reaper won't even be out in the fields before they're starting to plow again, because the world will be so productive, the earth will be the way God intended it to be. Not only a beautiful place, but a very productive place. I know very little about agriculture. I didn't even know about bread until a few weeks ago, and what God had built into the universe. How much more is there for you and I to learn about the proper way of what God built into the universe that we live in, the earth we live in? What can it do? The things that we need to learn, the things that we'll be teaching and helping people with. There's a world of opportunity. There's a world of things that we can do there, and we have some of those things written in the Bible, but it'll be a place that all over the world, not just in America, everywhere it'll be that way, and you and I will be part of it.

Back in Revelation 22. Revelation 22, part of all of that and having the opportunity to see the world change and become what God restored to the condition that He wanted it to do. In Revelation 22, beautiful set of scriptures. After the millennium, after the thousand years are up, after that time of restoration of all things, the earth will be burned up. I say Revelation 22. It's actually Revelation 21, I want. Revelation 21, verse 1. I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no more sea.

And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they will be His people.

God Himself will be with them and be their God. That's where His throne will be.

Because, you know, we focus a lot on the millennium as well we should, because God is preparing us for what we will do there. But what He promises us is eternal life. Not just a thousand more years of life, eternal life. There's life beyond the millennium. There's a life and eternity of things that God is preparing you and me for. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 9 is one of my dad's favorite verses.

He repeated it often, So Thine has not seen, nor your heard, nor has it even entered the heart of man, the wonders that God has prepared for those that love Him. What will we be doing for the rest of eternity? It's enough, and it should be enough and motivating enough to think what we can do and what we can be part of in the millennium. But what about the rest of eternity? God hasn't called us for just a thousand years of work, but to be part of something so much bigger than that. So much bigger than what He's even doing on earth today. I'll do a little bit of speculation here.

Back in Isaiah 45 verse 18, it says that God didn't create the earth in vain.

His planet wasn't created just to sit here and do nothing. He had a purpose in mind. And you and I are part of that purpose. We're part of what God is doing here today. And He had something that was going to come out of that earth, out of this earth. The saints that would be with Jesus Christ would be the bride of Jesus Christ going forward. And there are planets all over this universe.

Planets that are sitting there today that we might say in vain. Sitting there without anything going on with them, and science wonders why is there life on this planet? And we have the telescopic capabilities. We find more and more galaxies. Someone in Jacksonville mentioned to me today that that there were something like three billion galaxies. Three billion! And that expands all the time. That are just sitting there. You think I created all those in vain?

Think I created all those just because you had nothing better to do and they're just sitting there? Think I have something in mind for you and me. I think I have something in mind beyond the thousand-year millennium. Something exciting. Something tremendous. Something that hasn't even answered our minds. And we will never know what it is. Unless we follow Him. Unless we yield to Him.

Unless we let His Holy Spirit guide us. And the thing is, we can. What He wants to say to you is, yes, yes, that future can be you. Yes, your future can be part of your life. Yes, I want you part of it. Yes, I want you there. Yes, I want you there for eternity. Yes, you will do these things.

But there's time between now and then. What will help us get through? Certainly the Spirit of God keeping our eyes on Him. But the joy that set before us. The joy that was set before Jesus Christ because He knew what those things were. He knew what the rest of eternity was. And He was willing to suffer. And He was willing to die and be born as a human. To live those things for the joy that was set before Him. If we embrace the joy that God sets before us. If we hone it. If we hone it. And if we let God develop in that in us. And when we have times of trial or times of doubt that we go back to that joy that is set before us and know that God's answer to us is yes.

Embrace it, live it, and let the joy of God always be before us.