Life at the Extreme

Good morning, everyone! How about that choir? Nice! That was certainly wonderful!

Well, you know it's good music when it praises God and it builds us up and it gives us that wonderful feeling that we are so glad to be here and so glad to be together and worship and praise God as one. What a blessing it is! And we certainly thank the choir for the wonderful, special music this morning. Before I get into the sermon, Mr. Ost asked me if I would mention just a couple of little things about our charity concert that's coming up tomorrow night. You might ask, why are we having a charity concert? Why have a fundraiser at all? What's the point?

Well, I think it's important to remember that we are the United Church of God, an international association. We are an international group of brethren and we have brethren that are in need and specifically a group of brethren in Maloloca de Moscow, Brazil.

Over here on the screen, you can see the meeting hall where they meet for services and get a little idea of the landscape. The brethren there, they live in a little community of less than 700 people.

Forty-five or so of them are members of the United Church of God and are subsistence farmers. They're farmers and the conditions they try to survive in would surprise us. We are so spoiled as Americans, but as you look at the farming that they do and the conditions that they try to work in, there's a slide here that shows them stripping the forest and standing by their crops.

They barely can get enough to get by to feed themselves and they water these crops by carrying water from a hand-dug well. Now, it's not water that they can even drink because the water has been spoiled because of farm runoff from other areas.

So, they can't even drink the water, yet they've got to haul that water to their crops and can't even irrigate in any way. And so, they are in need of a well that they've begun to start to dig. They need that very much. In fact, it wouldn't serve only them to have this well, but it would also serve about 40 or so Living Church of God members that are nearby, as well as the entire community.

Now, these tools that you see here are some of their farming tools. Can you imagine farming with tools like that? And they need to be replaced. We need to raise funds to help our brethren replace the tools that they farm with. So, if you can imagine trying to work with that land with those kinds of tools in very basic conditions, they need our help. And it isn't a whole lot of money in order to change the circumstances for them. They basically farm cassava root. And here's one of the fields. This is an area where they wash dishes near the church hall.

Can you imagine? We stand at our beautiful condos by the kitchen. We have running water. They have water that they have to take from a well, bring here, stand in the mud, and wash those things. They have to cook on stoves, not that are gas or electric, but like this one.

And so, these are things that we can help with. The cassava is an interesting plant that they grow to help in raising funds for subsistence, so they can survive. In fact, it's a very common plant, and it's one that they grow in order to survive. And so, it can be boiled, it can be baked, it can be steamed, it can be grilled. You probably would recognize it, not as that yellow stuff in that great big pan there, but as tapioca. Tapioca comes from that plant as well.

But the reason we're having this charity concert and trying to raise funds for them is so that we can provide water. This well will provide 2.3 million gallons of water an hour. It will help water their herds. We will also help United Youth Corps volunteers to serve in Brazil, to help in that area. They'll help them with teaching farming techniques, new techniques, to help them grow even better crops. We'll help them by providing better tools, new farming equipment. And we'll provide the instruction from church members that are here in the United States that will travel down to help them use the land the most efficiently that they possibly can, and especially irrigation, even in the dry season.

Now, here's our pastor George DeCampos in the blue shirt. They speak Portuguese down there, and they have an excited group of brethren that believe just like you and I do. Now, can you imagine that it's not by a television program, it's not by a magazine, it's not by a booklet, but it's by providing these wonderful things for our brethren and the community that the gospel can be preached. Can you imagine preaching the gospel by water well, preaching the gospel by farming techniques, preaching the gospel by having better tools to show that God's way really works.

What an amazing, wonderful way to preach the gospel. So we're having a charity concert in this fundraiser because we are an international association, because Christ commanded us to do this. He said, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And he said that sums it all up, doesn't it? And so what a wonderful opportunity for us to come together tomorrow night. Tomorrow night we have a special, special treat for the children starting at seven o'clock.

We're going to have a presentation from your favorite puppet and mine, Jelly. So Jelly is going to put on a performance starting at seven o'clock. And in fact, there's an extra special surprise. You're going to have to come and see exactly what's happening at seven o'clock. Extra Jelly surprise at seven. And then following that, we'll have the Meyers brothers with their concert. So we certainly are looking forward to that. We'll have donation boxes around the hall, as well as some items that we'll be selling.

We'll be selling some CDs. We'll be selling some Jelly shirts. And all the proceeds are going to help our brethren. Nobody's making money off of any of this. We're doing this to help and to serve our brethren in need. So we certainly hope that you'll be able to come and support the brethren around the world with the projects from the Good Works, LifeNets, and of course, the United Youth Corps, as well. So thank you so much for your contributions. It really will truly make a difference. Well, have you been enjoying the feast here in Florida? It is. All right. Great. Well, we have been, haven't we?

This is a very interesting place. I was told before I got here that Florida is known for two things. Tourists and alligators. They said, watch out because they skin them both. It is kind of an extreme environment that we live in. I think our world is an extreme world that we live in. You can't even go to the grocery store without recognizing the fact we live in an extreme world. Guys, if you go to buy Axe products, you can get the extreme aerosol spray spiked up look because that's the kind of world we live in, isn't it? Did you brush your teeth this morning?

I don't know if you had some Crest. Crest makes anti-cavity toothpaste, but it's not just any old toothpaste. It's extreme herbal mint. That's the kind of world we live in. You can even get the things off your wall. If you moved into your condo and there were marks on the wall, well, you go to the store and you can buy Goo Gone extreme for those extreme kind of stains. And, of course, we can eat it, too. We can eat it in the extreme. They have extreme Doritos. There's extreme pizza. If you're into coupons, you can do extreme couponing. There's the extreme cowboy association. I think any cowboy is probably extreme. And then, of course, there's the extreme sports. You ever heard of the X Games? Anyone heard of the X Games? Well, the X Games are those games are kind of like the Olympics, but they take it to the next level. They take it up a notch, where those games involve speed, they involve height, they involve an amazing physical exertion, then they have specialized gear as well. Now, when I was growing up, we didn't... I guess my version of extreme sports was pedaling my bike and letting go of the handlebars. Oh, that was pretty extreme.

Today, today you've got to have a 30-foot ramp that you're going to launch over, and as you hit the heights of that ramp, you have to do a double flip, land on your bike, and make it look like it was effortless. That's taking it to the extreme. That's not any good just to parachute anymore. Now you've got to put on a special suit that has webbing between the arms and the legs because you can glide in your birdman suit or your squirrel jacket, just like a superhero, because it's not enough just to jump out of a plane at a few thousand feet. That would probably scare the pants off of most of us. And, of course, just recently we got through the World Cup soccer tournament. Did you watch the World Cup at all? Well, just not extreme enough for me.

Have you heard of barefoot soccer? That doesn't sound very extreme, but what they do is they soak the soccer ball in gasoline, and then they light it, and they play at night. Can you imagine that?

That's supposed to help you confront your fears. Yeah, I think it would confront my fears. Like, I'm not doing this. Are you crazy? You're supposed to have some type of psychological toughness by kicking a ball that's burning with your bare feet. But, you know, as you think about these X Games in the extreme world that we live in, just like these sports, we've been called to take things to the extreme. Our calling is just like that. We've been called to a different kind of lifestyle. We await the coming extreme kingdom of God, because in this world we live on the edge, don't we? We live at the outermost. We live at the intents. And I think God gives us a feast challenge. He gives us a feast challenge to choose and continue to choose God's way and live life at His extreme. Christ talked about this many times in John 17, 15. He said, we're not of this world. We don't just live a casual life and just get into all the things that this world gets into. He said, He wasn't of this world, and we're not to be either. In fact, the Apostle Paul took it to the extreme as he described the lifestyle we're supposed to live. He said in Galatians 2, 20, we're to be like dead men. We take it to that extreme that we kill the old man, and we live by the faith of the Son of God. That's the extreme we're to take things to. And so today, we are called. We are called to take a stand with commitment that's radically real, and that is extremely valuable. We are called to be spiritual extremophiles. We're to be spiritual extremophiles and live life at the extreme. Now, you might ask, what in the world is an extremophile?

No, it's not something I just made up. An extremophile is actually an organism, and it's not just any old organism, but one that lives in extreme environments. Now, I'm not a Latin expert, but fortunately, an extremophile in Latin is from two words. The first word is extremis, and you'll never guess what that means.

Extreme. Okay. See, you guys are sharp, aren't you? That's my kind of Latin. It's also from its extremophile, from the word philia. Philia, we know from our Bibles, means love, or technically brotherly love. So an extremophile is an organism that loves extreme conditions. It thrives in physically challenging and geochemically extreme conditions. Conditions that are detrimental. Conditions that are harmful to most life on earth. And yet, we are called to be spiritual extremophiles, to live life in a challenging environment, and that should make us spiritually stronger. It should make us wiser. It should make us more secure in our convictions, and ready us for this very time that we're remembering right now. It should ready us for the kingdom of God. Now, there is one extremophile that reminds us of this life, and it reminds us that I can bear it. I can bear it. Now, you've never met this creature before, because it's a microorganism. You can't see it. But, there it is. It's a tardigrade, also known as a water bear, or a water piglet. Kind of looks weird, doesn't it? Kind of looks a little bit like a bear, I guess you could say. But it's tiny. It's two hundredth of an inch long. Now, what's special about this extremophile is the fact that it can live in amazing dryness. Extreme dryness. In fact, even drying the organism out. And it can survive that. They can survive without food, without water, for more than ten years. Drying to the point that they're less than three percent water.

Can you imagine that? Now, that's not a good thing to most living creatures. Most living creatures on earth couldn't possibly survive. And yet, the tardigrade, the water bear, can bear it. They can do without moisture. Because afterwards, they rehydrate. They can forage, like you saw those ones doing, and even reproduce. You know, the European Space Agency actually sent these tardigrades, these water bears, into outer space. And out in outer space, they were exposed to cosmic radiation, solar radiation, and a vacuum. And guess what? They survived. After returning, they survived, and they even reproduced. I mean, an amazing, amazing extremophile. They can survive hot and cold temperatures, lack of food, lack of water, live in a vacuum. They're a water bear without water. I mean, it's an amazing little creature. And yet, we think about how that connects to us. We're called to be survivors. We're called to a life of separation, to a new kind of lifestyle, different from the rest of the world. And you know what? Sometimes, we find ourselves in those kinds of places, don't we? Anyone have some difficulties before the feast?

Challenges before the feast? You find yourself in a dry place before the feast? A difficult area? A difficult, challenging environment? Well, oftentimes in life, we do find ourselves there. We find ourselves parched. We find ourselves dehydrated by this environment that seems to just suck the life right out of us. And yet, we have spiritual water, don't we? We've been given God's Holy Spirit. Over in Revelation 22, verse 17, it reminds us of our thirst, and the kind of thirst that we can have quenched to help us bear it. Revelation 22, verse 17, right at the very end of the story, here in the Bible, reminds us of this wonderful calling that God's given to us. Revelation 22, verse 17, it says, The Spirit and the bride say, Come, and let him who hears say, Come, and let him who thirsts, Come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. And so we see, no matter what this earthly environment gives us, no matter how dry, no matter how difficult, no matter how challenging, God gives us the water of life.

We know there are powerful forces out in this world that are working against us, spiritual force us. But God wants us to be a spiritual extremophile. And so He's using these circumstances right now to train us, to fit us for a position of responsibility in His kingdom, as a kingdom of priests, as kings and priests to God. And we will serve others as spiritual extremophiles, because He's given us the blessing of His Spirit so I can bear it. Now, there's another kind of extremophile. There's a second one that overcomes the cold.

It's a psychrophilic bacteria. Psychrophilic. And in fact, this one, kind of disgusting squirmy looking thing, it was actually taken from a lake in Antarctica. You think it could survive the cold? It actually grows in temperatures that are minus 2 to minus 21 degrees Celsius.

Now, these psychrophiles, not only are they cold, but they're pretty cool as well.

They're found in glaciers. They're found in a permanently frozen environment. They're not only tolerant, they thrive as microorganisms in that kind of environment. And it's proven to scientists who never realized this before that life can exist in conditions that were thought to be totally unable to sustain life. How could life possibly survive in 21 degrees below Celsius? Well, do you know how the psychrophiles do it? They do it by creating their own antifreeze.

They create their own antifreeze. And don't we have to do that? As God's people, we are called to do that. You know that passage that's over in Matthew 24, 12. You can just jot it down. Matthew 24, 12. Christ talked about the kind of environment we live. It's like the Antarctic. Christ said, because lawlessness will abound, because our world is filled with sin, what's the result?

Antarctica, the love of many, will grow cold. Christ described the kind of world we live in, deprived of heat, a frost-bitten, frozen world where sometimes can threaten us with numbness, threaten us with chilling cold, threaten us with pain and hypothermia. It can cause us to shiver. But God's given us the spiritual antifreeze, hasn't He? 1 John 5, verse 3.

1 John 5, verse 3 describes the spiritual antifreeze that our Heavenly Father has given us.

What is that antifreeze? 1 John 5, verse 3.

The love of so many in this world has grown cold, but for you and I, 1 John 5, 3. This is the love of God. How are we going to heat things up? How are they going to be spiritual antifreeze produced? 1 John 5, verse 3. He says here, by keeping His commandments. And His commandments aren't burdensome. He says, whatever is born of God overcomes this chilling world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Who is He that overcomes the world, but He who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? And of course, through God's Spirit, we have Christ living in us.

And we can produce that spiritual antifreeze by obedience, by demonstrating our faith.

And we can be like these creatures in the deep, in those cold depths of the icy oceans.

This one's called the spinaloricus. Looks kind of weird. Kind of a weird little creature. It's of that genus. In fact, this has a little scale on there to show you how tiny that is. Now, I don't know exactly how tiny that bar is showing, but that 50 means really, really small.

Like, super less than a millimeter long. And it was discovered on the bed of the Mediterranean Sea, 2.2 miles underwater. And you know what's down there? Not much. There isn't even much oxygen down there. Now, where would you and I be without any oxygen? Well, here is a creature who has specialized in amazing ways. God created it in such an amazing way that it survives without oxygen.

This genus of the spinaloricus is the first animal, you could call it an animal, that has been discovered that doesn't depend on oxygen to breathe or to reproduce. And it would have to, because it lives in an area with almost no oxygen at all. Now, in many ways it's like the environment of our world. Have you ever felt like this world wants to suck the air right out of you?

Yeah, sometimes circumstances are like that. Sometimes our life leads us into circumstances that just take it right out of us. In fact, if you turn over just a few pages, 1 John 4, we find even though the world wants to do that to us, even though it took a concerted effort for us to be here, and maybe some of us had to overcome health challenges, some of us had to overcome challenges with our finances, some of us overcame challenges with our vehicles, just to be here, to worship and honor God. We can overcome, and we can live when the world wants to suck life right out of us, because, 1 John 4, 4, you are of God, little children. You've overcome them because He who is in you is greater than He who is in the world. So we are overcomers.

This word in the Greek means to be conquerors, to gain the victory. That's that same word that's used in Romans 12, 21, that says, don't be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. And so God desires us to gain the victory. We're to be more than conquerors because we have Christ living in us. And it's our Father's good pleasure to give us the kingdom. He wants us to overcome the cold and frostbite conditions of the world that we live in. You know, it doesn't stop there, because on the other end of the scale, there's heat. Guess what? You ask, are there extremophiles that can take the heat? Yes, there are. I'm glad you asked that. On the other end of the spectrum, there's the Pompey worm, sometimes called bristle worm. I'm not saying, spiritually, we're supposed to be worms. No, that's not the case. But we should be like this species of a deep sea worm. You know where it's found? It's found at superheated hypothermal vents in the ocean. And it loves those vents. And it sometimes looks a little scary-looking as well.

It can kind of take the air right out of you if you're not careful, not ready for it. It's just a tiny little thing. It can get up to five inches long, but it is one of the most heat tolerant animals on earth. Now, fortunately, it doesn't eat people. You're glad of that? That's the part of the animal that grabs on to those areas right by those hypothermal vents, and it holds on for dear life. In fact, they rest their one end at temperatures as high as 176 degrees.

176 degrees. Temperatures that would burn our skin. And they attach themselves to these hypothermal vents, the black smokers they call them. As I thought about that, I wondered, well, what am I attached to? What do I hold on to? Well, they hold on to these great smokers, they call them, these hypothermal vents. Yet, as spiritual extremophiles, we're to attach ourselves to something a little different. Isaiah, chapter 25, verse 4.

In Isaiah, chapter 25, verse 4, God gives us direction in our attachments, what we are supposed to be connected to.

Let's notice what God instructs us in Isaiah, chapter 25, verse 4. I'll read from the New Living Translation. It may be slightly different than your King James or your new King James.

But in Isaiah 25, verse 4, New Living says, So instead of a black smoker hypothermic tower venting and spewing volcanic toxins into the ocean, we have a tower of protection, a tower of refuge when we are distressed. It goes on to say, Can you describe your life like that? Have there been people beating on you? Maybe things aren't so great at work. Maybe we have challenging relationships with others.

Even in those situations, we have a tower that we can hang on to. We have protection in the storm. We can take shade from the heat. Verse 5, it goes on, And so we're reminded of that here at the Feast of Tabernacles, that there are relentless things out here that want to burn us and hurt us. And yet we can survive. We can take the heat, just like those deep ocean worms do. We can survive in the severest of conditions, like these deep ocean worms. These crazy looking...

Okay, now don't tell me you recognize this person.

Now that's one of those extremophiles, a deep ocean worm. They don't know exactly how they survive. They're learning more and more about them. But they know it takes a lot for them to survive. It takes, I suppose, courage. Can you imagine living in that kind of environment? It would have to take a lot of courage for us to live in that kind of an extreme environment.

Almost like the college student, the professor gave him a class assignment. Gave the whole class an assignment to turn in a five-page paper about the courage to survive.

So every student was to write and give their best example of that kind of courage that they ever witnessed. One student turned in five blank pages. The professor gave him an A, because it was the best example of courage he'd ever seen. I wish I'd have thought of that. Wouldn't that be great?

But that's the challenge for all of us, that no matter our environment, no matter how difficult it may get, and sometimes it is in our relationships, sometimes it is in our jobs, sometimes it's within our families, sometimes it's just dealing with the world, that we are challenged. And having that kind of courage, I'm always impressed by a man named Carl Bart. Carl Bart said, courage is fear that's said its prayers. Isn't that great? But it certainly is a reminder to what are we attached. Now, it shouldn't come as any surprise. That one looks surprised, doesn't it?

It looks surprised. But it shouldn't be a surprise where our attachment has to be. Deuteronomy chapter 31 verse 6, it mirrors what's said over there in Hebrews chapter 13 verse 5. It reminds us where our connections are the strongest and where they need to be as spiritual extremophiles. They have to be. Deuteronomy 31 verse 6. In fact, verse 7 verse 31 all say the same thing. You know what it says? I know some of you are already there. It says, be strong and courageous. Don't be afraid or terrified because of them. And why not? Because of what we're attached to. Because it says, the Lord your God goes with you. He will never leave you or forsake you. When we are attached to God, guess what? He's not letting go. He is not going to let go. Now we can jerk our hand away, but He's never letting go. So He says He is with us. He goes with us and He will always be there. So not only can we take the heat, but we can grow. We can grow like wildfire.

Meet our next friend, Pyrococcus Furiosus. Now this little strange-looking, flagellum-looking kind of oddball is named Pyrococcus, which means fireball. It kind of looks like a little fireball. And in Latin, the Furiosus means rushing. So it's a rushing fireball. Now why in the world would they name it that? Now I know it looks like a fireball, but why would it be rushing?

Well, the reason is because it survives best under extremely high temperatures. So it's not just any old kind of extremophile. It's a hyperthermophile. Taking it to the next level, it survives and it likes best those temperatures that even most thermophiles don't like. Do you know what its optimum growth temperature is? What it likes best to grow in? 217 degrees Fahrenheit. Yep, that's past the boiling point. That's past the boiling point and it thrives in that temperature. It's called the Furiosus because it doubles its growth every 37 minutes at 217 degrees. It multiplies by 2. Now that's exponential growth. Now that's the kind of growth God wants us to have. He wants us to grow exponentially. He doesn't just want us to survive the heat. He doesn't want us just to survive difficult circumstances in this life. No, He wants us to be productive and grow at an extreme, amazing rate. Ephesians 4 describes that to us. Ephesians 4, verse 14, describes the kind of rapid rate of growth we're supposed to have as God's people. Let's notice it in Ephesians 4, verse 14. Ephesians 4, verse 14 begins, We should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.

Yeah, that's one way the heat gets turned up on us once in a while. When people mistreat us, people try to deceive us and fool us. And we know we're fighting a spiritual battle against spiritual wickedness in high places that is out to destroy us spiritually. And yet, even in that environment, God expects growth. Verse 15, speaking the truth in love, He says, We may grow up in all things into Him who is the Head, Christ, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

So what happens if we're not growing? What happens if we're not contributing to the health of the body?

Well, we're not functioning properly. We're not doing what God expects us to do. We're not fulfilling our role that God's called us. God's called us, each and every one of us, to fulfill a very specific role within the body. And He says, we're to grow in that role. We're to grow as we serve, and we fulfill the function that helps the body, to help the church of God grow and edify itself in love. And so, like pyro, we're to be growing, growing like wildfire. And so when the heat is on, we're a spiritual extremophile. Now, that does not mean we're an extremist. It doesn't mean we're a rebel. It doesn't mean we're a terrorist. Sometimes you connect extremists with rebels in terror, but that's not what I'm talking about. Spiritual extremophiles are followers of God. Spiritual extremophiles are extremely humble.

They recognize that every good gift comes from God alone. And if there's any personal talents, any abilities, any resources to help and serve, it comes from God. He is the source. It doesn't come from us because we are extremophiles and extremely humble.

We're also extremely patient. We're willing to wait and look to God. We're willing to give people the benefit of the doubt. We're patient with circumstances and we're patient with people.

As God's people, we are extremely compassionate. We care about others. We visit the sick. We write to those who are at home who didn't make it to the feast.

And we remind them that we're thinking about them. We're praying for them. And we're willing to remember them even when we're in this beautiful location enjoying God's feasts.

And yes, we go to the hospital or we go to the nursing home and we visit the shut-ins because we are extremely compassionate. And as we grow, we certainly grow in extreme forgiveness. We're willing to forgive like Christ said, not just once or twice, but in the extreme, realizing that God loves us all and God forgives us again and again and again.

Because we know that, we practice the same thing. And of course, we're extremely loving.

We know that God loves us and we take that love and we extend it to others.

We give and we serve, being extremely faithful.

You know, the feast is a reminder to be committed to God's way because He wants us as a part of His family. And even now, in the uncertainty of this world that we live in, God has given us a faith to overcome, a faith that can guide us, a faith that can protect us. Because our God is real and is always before us. And we follow Him. We follow the greatest extremophile of all time.

That's Jesus Christ. Didn't Jesus Christ live contrary to this world? Didn't He exhibit a lifestyle that went to the extreme for you and I? He was beaten and He was bruised and He was crucified that we all might live. He became the forerunner. Hebrews 6 talks about that. He became that forerunner that paved the way into His kingdom that we can follow. And over and over and over again, Christ said, follow me. And we are followers of God when we stand up and we take the heat and we grow. We stand up for God's way, no matter the circumstances. And even as a young person, if it means I miss a Friday night dance at school or I don't go to the football game, there's things that are more important. Even though it's tough to miss an event like that, because I really, really want to go. And yet, when we choose to do the right thing, when we choose to go the right way, we overcome the heat, we overcome the extreme, and we live God's way and do the right thing. We overcome the enticements and the attractions that this world is pushing at us all the time.

And so we choose. We choose truth over lies. We make that conscious choice to choose peace over confrontation. And we choose contentment over jealousy.

We choose to live God's way, no matter what, over all of those things. Because we know, as God leads us, we are building treasure in His eyes. And so we find the ultimate satisfaction in being extremely compassionate, being extremely patient, being extremely forgiving, being extremely loving and faithful. And you know what? Those are kingdom characteristics, aren't they? That's God's character. We know who wants to make us feel cheated. We know who wants to make us feel like we're missing out on something in this world. Certainly not God. Satan is going to try to do everything he possibly can to make us feel like we're left out, to make us feel like we're alone, to make us feel like our life really doesn't matter, to make us feel like we could never measure up. And yet, didn't he try to do the same thing to Christ? He did. He offered Him the whole world. And yet, God's given us the power through His Spirit to take the heat, and not just take it, but grow. In fact, it's not just heat that challenges us at times, isn't it? There's more. God gives us the ability to take the pressure as well. Now, here's an extremophile that can take the pressure. It's called the Yeti Crab. You'll never guess why. It's called Kirwa Hirsuta, which means hairy in Latin. It's a hairy lobster, crab, sometimes called Yeti Crab, that's completely blind because it hangs out in the depths of the ocean, where there is no sunlight that can reach that deep. 8,000 feet below the surface, and it's known as the abyssal zone. Or I guess you could call it the abysmal zone, too. It's pretty abysmal down there, but it's also the abyss, the abyssal zone. And why does it live there?

Because it actually enjoys the high pressure and the darkness of the deep water. It survives in 3,500 pounds per inch pressure. That's something that would just rip us apart.

And we know that in this world, there are the pressures of temptation. There are the pressures that push us and challenge us to stand for God. There are pressures out here that want to blind us, but God's given us eyes to see. We don't have to be exactly...

Oh. Okay, maybe not those kind of eyes. But God's given us spiritual eyes to see, hasn't he? Okay. John 16, verse 32.

It describes the spiritual googly eyes, I guess we could say that, that God has given to us so that we can withstand the pressure, so that we can take it.

Let's notice John 16, verse 32. This is from the new international version. It says, a time is coming and it has come that shall be scattered, each one to his own home.

And Christ said, you will leave me all alone. And we know at the time of the crucifixion, that was true. Everyone deserted Christ. And yet, what did he say? Christ said, yet, I am not alone, for my Father is with me. Verse 33. I've told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart, be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. And you see, because Christ has overcome the pressures of this world, and we know, Scripture even tells us, he was tempted at all points.

All points. You think he can identify with the pressure that we're under?

There is no doubt. There is no doubt, because he has overcome, we can have the strength to overcome. We can be God's ambassadors, even in this extreme world. He's called us to that very calling. That's what spiritual extremophiles do. Now, other files, you might say, other organisms that don't live in the extreme, you know what they call them? They don't call them extremophiles.

They call them mesophiles or neutrophiles.

Has God called us to be neutral? To be a neutrophile? Yeah, those are the little creatures. They live in the nice areas of the world, the moderate environments. They live in the Panama City beaches of the world. They live in those wonderful temperate zones.

But that's not where we're to be. We're not to be neutral. We recognize that we need God, and God is always standing with us. We are never alone. And when we are under the pressures of life, when we are under the difficulties of a trial, when we suffer persecution, we should remember that. Remember, when you're under pressure, you're under God.

You're under God's promise, because God promises us. Remember, we talked about that promise in Hebrews in Deuteronomy, that He would never leave us or forsake us. Gives us another promise over in James chapter 1, at the beginning of the book. James chapter 1 verse 12.

Like this yeti crab that survives under the harshest, strongest of pressures, we can too, spiritually speaking. James talked about that very thing. James chapter 1 verse 12. James wrote, Blessed is the man who endures temptation. Or like that yeti crab, endures the pressure.

For when he has been approved, we can say, because we submit to God, because we face the pressure, not alone, because we face the pressure with God's guidance, with God's direction, with God's Holy Spirit. What's the result? We are under God's promise, under pressure, yet under the promise. So when we face that temptation and we endure it with the help of God, once we're approved, it says, He will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. So can we take the pressure?

With God's help, there's no doubt.

Now that brings us to one more extremophile, sometimes called the rebuilder. The rebuilder. It's the Dinocoqueos radiodorans. We've all heard of that, haven't we?

I'd never heard of it until I started looking into this a little bit.

It's called the world's toughest bacterium. Now that doesn't look like it's that tough.

It's pink, isn't it? Well, they actually add coloring to it. It's not really pink. But it's known as the world's toughest bacterium. The Guinness Book of Records calls it Conan the bacterium, or the terrible grain. It's found everywhere. It's all over the world.

But imagine these harsh circumstances. It can live in the Arctic, the Antarctic, and it's even been found in Africa. But you know where it's been found in Africa?

In Elephant Dung.

Yeah. Okay, we don't have to be exactly like Conan. We don't want to do that.

But why is it called the world's toughest bacterium?

Do you know why? It's because it's the most radioactive, resistant organism known to man. In fact, it was first recognized, first identified, after they had exposed a can of meat and sterilized it by using gamma radiation. And after exposing this can of meat to gamma radiation, guess what sprouted and spoiled the meat? This radio Duran did that very thing. So it put the scientists in a tizzy, what in the world was going on? Well, they isolated this bacterium and they found that it was unbelievably resistant to radioactivity. Now, how much radioactivity would it take to kill you or me? It would take what they call a 10-grade dose of radiation. That would kill any human being. Now, how much do you think it would take to kill a cockroach?

Well, it would take a thousand grays to kill a cockroach. No wonder you can never get rid of those things once you get them. It's unbelievable. Okay, now with that in mind, how many grays of radiation can this radio Duran take? Not 10, not a thousand grays, but it's been known to withstand 15,000 grays of radiation. It's just amazing what it can take. And in fact, because it can take that radiation and because it can take just about any kind of environment you can give it, it's not just called an extremophile, it's called a poly-extremophile. Now, you might ask, well, how in the world can it take that dose of radiation? How can it survive and then continue to reproduce? You know how it does it? Well, it's because God made it such a remarkable bacteria for one thing. But the way it does it, after it receives this gigantic dose of killer radiation, it actually rebuilds its own DNA from just fragments that were left over and undamaged by the radiation. So it rebuilds itself from just the damaged fragments that were left over. Now, what that began to get me to think about is that we're to be excellent rebuilders. Like the radio Duran that is damaged by radiation, it rebuilds itself and rebuilds that DNA. And of course, that's what God's feast is all about, isn't it? Isn't it about restoration? Isn't it about the restitution of all things? And the Feast of Tabernacles reminds us and symbolizes that restoration process. And we know this world is going to be damaged before the kingdom of God is brought to this earth. Probably will be exposed to a lot of radiation, a terrible, great tribulation. And this world is going to have to be rebuilt. And it starts with the return of Jesus Christ. We pictured that at Trumpets, didn't we? And then it went on to the banishment of Satan on the Day of Atonement. And once those events have taken place, now we have a foundation for the restoration of the creation, finally restored to peace and harmony with God. And you know, that means there's work ahead. There is work ahead. God created mankind ultimately to live in peace and harmony in a beautiful relationship with God, characterized by love and peace and obedience to God's laws. And ultimately in the kingdom, it's not just that there's going to be roads that are rebuilt, but there's a spiritual healing that will take place. A healing that Jesus Christ talked about over and over. He came to heal, heal the brokenhearted. And boy, will that process really begin in full flow at the return of Christ.

He also promised something else in Revelation. Revelation 2, verse 26.

Revelation 2, 26, here's that word, overcoming again. The one that's gaining the victory, the one that conquers through the Spirit of God. Revelation 2, 26 says, He who overcomes and keeps my works until the end, what's going to happen? He says, He who overcomes and keeps my works till the end, to Him I will give power over the nations. Now that doesn't mean we're going to beat them into submission, but we're going to guide them and we're going to teach them. We are going to assist God in a universal education program of helping others, helping them, guiding them to understand God's way. We'll be under Jesus Christ and have an amazing opportunity. I mean, are we excited about that calling? That's the calling that God's given us, the calling that reminds us here at the Feast of Tabernacles. We're going to have the opportunity to live and work and help Jesus Christ and help others to know God's way and understand God's way and bring Jesus Christ and the people together in a relationship. We're going to help build a bridge to God. We're going to help build that bridge, just like after this age ends and the Kingdom of God is ushered in, we're going to have a lot of things that are under construction. In fact, Isaiah 58 talks about the construction that lies ahead for all of us, that we have the opportunity to be a part of. Let's notice that. Isaiah 58, verse 11.

Isaiah 58, verse 11, it reminds us where our sustenance comes from. The Lord will guide you continually. That's where our hope is. That's where our strength is. That's where our survival lies in God guiding us continually. He will satisfy your soul like an extremophile in drought and strengthen our bones. You'll be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. We're going to be just like that.

And those from among you, that's talking about you and I, shall build the old waste places.

We'll build that bridge. It says, you shall raise up the foundations of many generations. We'll build the people. And you, it says, shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of the streets to dwell in. God's given us that great calling.

And certainly like this radio Duran, we will be a restorer. We will be a rebuilder. God has an amazing future ahead for us. But you know, before restoring all things with Christ, where does God begin? He begins with our minds. He's began with us and those faithful people that have gone before. God's restoration begins with the individual. It begins by that calling that He's given us to change our way of thinking, to His way of thinking. It begins by us accepting that calling to the extreme. In fact, He gives us an amazing verse in Acts 3.19. Acts 3.19 describes that restoration of our mind that needs to take place, that continues to change and grow. Acts 3.19, it's been called the benchmark of the entire Bible. It's been called the pivotal verse of Scripture. Acts 3.19 speaks to each and every one of us and points to where God's work begins right now. Acts 3.19, repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who has 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.

And so the Feast of Tabernacles reminds us, God's work begins with us, with flawed human minds, who He has converted to be Spirit-led Christians, truly renewed by the power of God. Because we know what lies just ahead, and it is a new world. All signs are pointing that the kingdom of God is just ahead. So let's keep living the way now. Let's fix our eyes beyond today.

As spiritual extremophiles, we're like the tardigrades. We're like the water bears. We can bear it with God's help. Like the psychophillics, we can overcome by the power of God. We can take the heat like the Pompeii worms. And more than that, we can meet life's challenges when it's burning hot, and we can grow like wildfire, just like pyro. And that yeti crab reminds us that we can take the pressure of temptation and trial, no matter what this world deals us, and we can succeed. And like the radio Duran, the feast reminds us we will help Christ rebuild and restore all things. So now, today, with God's help, we not only survive, we thrive.

Even in the extreme conditions of this world. And just ahead, a new environment, a new surrounding, a new setting. Christ is going to establish a wonderful new world, the Kingdom of God. And that's where we'll continue to flourish as we assist Jesus Christ as He ushers in a brand new age. So in the meantime, let's be committed to continue to live life at the extreme.