[Ron Barker]: There was a saying when I was a teenager that was pretty popular. I’m not sure what it was about this saying that made it so popular at that time, but it was on t-shirts and bumper stickers. And there are different versions of it, and they all pretty much said the same thing. The saying was, “Life is hard and then you die.” It’s not a very positive thought. I don’t want life to be hard. I don’t want to die. But unfortunately, this is a very true statement. We know from the beginning, God wanted to have a family with His creation, but something happened that put a wedge in there. Life is hard and then you die is actually the curse that mankind brought on themselves when they rejected the way of God. We’re going to see that life wasn’t supposed to be hard. Life wasn’t supposed to be something that we had to work so hard at, that we had to be separated from our families to go to work every day. And it certainly wasn’t supposed to end in death.

Let’s turn back to the Book of Genesis and see the pronouncement of this curse upon mankind. I know sometimes I used to look at the story of creation and I would read the story about Adam and Eve. And I would think. “Why? Why did you do that?” And you may have thought that way too. What made Adam and Eve be that way? And you might think, “Well, I wouldn’t have done that.” Maybe you wouldn’t have if you’re without sin. I don’t think any of us qualify for that.

Genesis 3 starting in verse 16, “To the woman, He said, ‘I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception. In pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.’ Then to Adam He said, ‘Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, “You shall not eat of it.” Cursed is the ground for your sake. In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you. And you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread till you return to the ground. For out of it you were taken, for dust you are, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:16-19). Basically, what God just told Adam and Eve is now life is going to be hard and then you are going to die.

There are a couple of scriptures that give that curse as a description for life. Let’s look at a couple of them. If we turn over to Book of Job, Job 14 starting in verse 1. Job 14:1-2 says, “Man, who is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. He comes forth like a flower and fades away. He flees like a shadow and does not continue.” Also, in the Book of Psalms 90:10. Psalms 90:10 says, “The days of our lives are 70 years. And if by reason of strength they are 80 years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow. For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” It ends. Mankind has rejected God from the beginning. He continues to reject God in everything he does. We can see it all around us.

Romans 1:18-32 gives a pretty good history of mankind’s effort to reject God as their source of values. Let’s turn over to Romans 1 starting in verse 18. This is a good description of man’s course of action. Romans 1 starting in verse 18, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were they thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to become wise, they became fools and they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.”

Man began to make idols. God became what man wanted Him to be. There’s a store down here in Pier Park that sell crystals, and stones, and incense. And they have these special boards and you can buy these stones and you can put them on this board in a certain way, and you can burn the incense. And depending on what you want, you arrange the stones in certain patterns and they have books of spells and... That’s not what we need. If you want peace in your life, you don’t need to go buy some stones and hold them and talk to them and let them smell the incense that you’re burning for them. Go to God, ask God for peace in your life. If you want strength, if you want courage, these things aren’t going to come from crystals and other things that mankind has invented.

I’ve seen people grab their cross around their neck and pray to it. You don’t need that. We don’t need anything between us and God. Go to God, ask God for what you want. Back here to Romans 1, let’s pick up again in verse 24, says, “Therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

“For this reason, God gave them up to their vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise, the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting, being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness. They are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things,” we heard about some evil inventions in the first message today, “disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful.” As it goes on and on, you can see where this path has taken mankind, further and further from God. Verse 32, “Who knowing the righteous judgment of God that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.”

God gave mankind over to the way he wanted to go. He said, “All right, if that’s what you want to do, you go that way. See how far that gets you.” We can see it has definitely made life hard. In the end, no matter how my much man has tried to fight it or look for some magic fountain or some other ways to preserve it, the end is still death. What we’re picturing by observing this Feast of Tabernacles is the end of that curse. That curse that was brought onto us from the very beginning of the creation is going to end. And that’s what we are here celebrating. The things that make this life hard, including the separation from God is going to be removed.

Let’s turn over to Zechariah 8:4-5, a couple of these scriptures we have already read, but it’s the Feast of Tabernacles, and these are Feast of Tabernacle scriptures. So, let’s read them again. Zechariah 8 starting in verse 4, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each one with his staff in his hand because of great age.’” Not for protection, but because of great age. Verse 5, “The streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.” This verse is important. This verse is important because it talks about two very vulnerable groups in our society, the elderly and the children. In Satan’s society today, we have terms that are even hard to say, hard to think about. Elder abuse, child abuse. This first shows that there will not be these things. These groups of society will be safe. It’s been said that a society is measured by how well they treat their weakest members, the least, the last, and the littlest.

Satan society doesn’t treat anyone well, but it particularly preys upon the weak. No more will someone be mistreated because they’re weak. This verse also speaks to the safety in the cities. I don’t have to tell you that our cities are not very safe today. This summer, we in Dayton, Ohio awoke to the news that there had been a mass shooting in our city. At first, I was a little groggy when I had the news on and I wasn’t paying that much attention. I thought they were talking about the one that had happened the day before in Odesa, Texas. I could not believe that they were talking about a new one and that it was right there in our city.

Believe it or not, this is not an uncommon occurrence. Just in the United States, the amount of mass shootings has outpaced the number of days in the year. As of October 14th, which was the 287th day of the year, there have been 337 mass shootings in the United States.

This is from a website called Gun Violence Archive. They track every mass shooting in the country. And a mass shooting is defined as an incident in which at least four people were shot, excluding the shooter. This puts 2019 on pace to be a year with an average of more than one mass shooting per day. The sad part is this is not that far off the norm. The last time the mass shooting toll topped the number of days in the year was only three years ago, 2016. 2016 had 382 mass shootings. The most in any year since this group has been tracking it. The past two years came in very close with 346 mass shootings in 2017 and 340 in 2018. These terrible tragic events are literally everyday occurrences in our nation. Our kids are not safe to be playing in the streets. In some cities, it’s so common they don’t even make the news hardly outside of the city. That very weekend that we had a mass shooting in Texas and then in Dayton, Ohio, dozens of people were shot in Chicago, including two mass shootings that never even made it to the news, at least not around where we were.

And all seven people were killed, and 46 others were wounded in shootings that very weekend around Chicago. And Chicago is not that much different from other cities. Our streets are very violent. Mr. Aust spoke about Zechariah 8:5 and how some commentary speak that it shows that the parents don’t even have to worry about their kids getting hit by a car. Our fears today of our kids playing in the streets go much deeper than that. By rejecting God’s way of life, mankind has brought violence into our everyday lives. It’s been there from the beginning. It’s been there from the very beginning. By the time we meet the third named person in the history of humans, we’ve already met a murderer. This is not what God had intended. One characteristic of God’s coming kingdom will be that of safety. There are certain verses in the Bible that describe the kingdom of God that as a kid, I would set out there and I would hear ministers turn to these verses and read them. And I would get so excited and just really look forward to the kingdom of God. And I’m excited this year because now I get to read these verses for our young people who are out there.

Let’s turn over to Isaiah 11:6, these verses point out that even the nature of the animals are going to be changed, to that which will produce peace. I believe this is the way the animals were created because we read in Genesis that God brought the animals to Adam to name them. There’s no mention of Adam being afraid of them, just that They brought them to them and he got to name them. Now I’m not promising anyone our young people here because I was promised this when I was young, I’m not going to promise you you’re going to get to have a pet lion, but I will say, you’ll be safe around them. I’m not promising you a pet lion or a bear or a snake, if that’s your thing, because I may not be your parental. But if I am in charge of you, you can have a pet lion because you gotta promise to clean up after it. That rule’s not going to change.

Isaiah 11 starting in verse 6, “The wolf shall also dwell with the lamb. The leopard shall lay you down with the young goat. The calf and the young lion and the fatling together. And a little child shall lead them.” What an incredible vision. “The cow and the bear shall graze. The young one shall lie down together and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:6-9). I was noticing the other day, this little statue over here of the lion and the little lamb, and I was comparing the size of the head of the lamb with the size of the mouth of the lion. And if this were to happen today, we know what the end result would be, but it won’t be that way in God’s kingdom. Even the animals are going to get along.

Peace and safety will exist because mankind will have the knowledge of the Lord. The rejection of the values and wisdom of God will be removed. And finally, the part of creation made in God’s image will come to know peace. It will accept and learn from the Creator. The way of life will be completely different. There will not be a hard life. Teachers will be there to help. You and I will have the opportunity to point out to people when they’re doing something wrong. Someone may be putting on their little ski mask and getting their gun loaded, and we might be like, “What are you doing? What are you getting ready to do? Have you thought this through?” How awesome would that be? Isaiah 30:20-21 says, “And although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, but your eyes shall see your teachers.” Isaiah 30:21, “Your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left.”

Won’t that be wonderful? Why doesn’t God do that today? Now you and I, being led by God’s spirit, we may get a little nudge once in a while thinking, “Is that really what you want to do?” But why doesn’t God send out His angels to the world now and ask the people, “What are you getting ready to do? Is that really what you wanna do? Do you know what this is going to bring? What kind of harm?” Would that fix a lot of society’s problems? Let’s turn back to Genesis 4. Genesis 4:4-8, “Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat and the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. So, the Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? And if you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.’”

There’s that voice. What are you doing? What are you thinking right now? What’s going on in your mind? Are you sure you want to do what it is you’re thinking about doing? Verse 8, “Now Cain talked with Abel, his brother, so it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him.” The teacher right there behind you giving the instruction did not stop what Cain was going to do. God Himself talked to Cain and told him he was going down the wrong path. That he needed to evaluate what was ruling in his life. No, apparently that would not work in society today because something has to happen. There has to be a change before this would work to make a great difference in the world. What we pictured a week ago, Wednesday, needs to take place. Satan and his influence needs to be removed from this world. What a great time that will be.

There are two things need to know about Satan. Young people, I want you to especially pay attention to these two things. Old people, you pay attention too. Everybody else. I’m sorry, not old people. Young people and everybody else, this is important for you to remember. The first thing is Satan is the god of this world. Sometimes we may tend to forget that. We may see some good stuff happening in this world. We may see things that aren’t the worst things in the world, and we can forget that this is Satan’s world. Things are hard and painful in this world because it’s under Satan’s rule. This is his society, his political system. I probably don’t have to work too hard to convince you of that one. It’s his entertainment, his fashion, his education system, and science that tries to deny that God even exists.

It’s Satan’s social programs, programs that reward the destruction of the family. We have a family in the Dayton congregation that was having some health issues and the gentleman was out of work. And they went to try to find out if there was any kind of assistance that they could be given. And they were told, “I’m sorry, you don’t qualify for any assistance.” Even though he was unemployed, they were having medical issues, bills were starting to pile up, they said, “We don’t have anything to give you. However, if you two would get divorced, we have all kinds of programs that would kick in to help your wife.” That is a reward of the breaking down of the family. Satan’s society wants to destroy the family as God intended it. So that’s the first thing. Don’t ever forget this is Satan’s world. The second thing we need to keep in mind is that Satan is a very good salesman. As terrible as he is as a leader, he is just the opposite end of the spectrum as a salesman. He can make his way seem so good and so pleasurable when he is selling nothing but heartache and death.

Think about how good of a salesman Satan is. I’m sure most everybody in this room thoroughly enjoys the Sabbath. I love to come home on Friday night, work is out of my mind. I don’t worry about the grass if I didn’t get to cut it. I don’t think about a leaky pipe. Well, I would worry about leaky pipe, but, you know, other things that come into your mind and just wear you down throughout the week. On the Sabbath, you can just shut everything down. You spend time with the word of God. You spend time relaxing with your family. What an incredible day the Sabbath is! Satan has convinced the world that the Sabbath is a burden. I’m not sure how, but the world looks at the Sabbath, “Oh, I don’t want that burden.” Sabbath is a delight. But you’re going to be tempted over and over again to accept Satan’s way of life. Don’t fall for it.

You, young people, are tempted in every day with so many things. As you’re starting off your life, you’re tempted with things that will in the future destroy your health. Things like smoking and drinking before you’re legally able to, or now it’s vaping, which is, you know, I thought smoking was bad because it does have this reaction and you see people who have smoked their whole lives and they get older and they say, “Oh, I wish I wouldn’t have smoked my whole life,” because their lungs are deteriorating. And now they’ve come out with the vape and these electronic cigarettes. And recently there’s been this... I don’t know if it’s a disease or what it is caused by, but people’s lungs are collapsing and they’re just dying. Yet the sales of these things are not falling off. And, unfortunately, as many cities move to ban the sales of these electronic cigarettes, it’s just kicking everybody back to traditional cigarettes.

I saw something one time that said this young generation was the one with promise for getting tobacco and nicotine and all that stuff out of their system, of being the first generation not to be tempted to smoke cigarettes because cigarettes have been vilified for so long in our schools, and that’s a great thing because they are evil. But then it said some fool went and put it in a USB stick and made it taste like cotton candy. And the young people are once again, interested in doing something harmful to their bodies. Satan’s going to tempt you to do things that may seem very pleasurable right now but will mess up your life. Can mess it up for years to come. Remember that Satan is a very good salesman. In this life, life will be hard and then we will die. We all face that.

We’re picturing a time now when the hard life will end. When, as was read earlier, the man will sit under his fig tree. That sounds very relaxing. Doesn’t it? I’m sure the man’s going to have work to do in God’s kingdom, but there’s going to be time for leisurely and family time. And there’s going to be time when you’re not at work 10, 12, 14 hours a day coming home too tired to be with your family, too tired to spend time with your children, which also leads to the break down of family. This hard life will come to an end. We’ll come to know life as God intended it from the beginning. Life will no longer be hard; pain and misery will end. And finally, even death will come to an end.

Let’s turn over to 1 Corinthians 15:24-25. 1 Corinthians 15:24, “Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom of God to the Father, when He puts to an end the rule and all authority and power for He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet.” Verse 26, “The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.” Since the beginning of time, man has been under a curse. And that curse is life is hard and then you die. Let’s stay focused on that time when that curse on mankind will be removed. When what we are picturing now will be a reality, not just for us, but for the whole world. And I’m sure you are all thinking of the whole world at this time because while we’re in here celebrating what it is God is showing us is going to become a reality, the rest of the world is still out there going on with their lives painfully getting through knowing that the end there’s death. They don’t have the hope that we have been given. So, we look forward to a time when the whole world will come to know the end of that curse.

There’s a time coming when life will no longer be hard and we will not die. Let’s stay focused on that. And we will know the blessings of the life that God intended from the very beginning that we would be a part of His family.