The Name Changes But The Game Stays The Same

Which seems right unto a man. Now, it's a comprehensive statement. I mean, there are many ways to seem right to a man, to a person. But it's expressing that just in a comprehensive way, as a way of life, there is a way which seems right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Looks good, seems good, sounds good. This is fine. This will work. Oh, boy! I didn't know where this was going to lead to. And it really is speaking to something very germane, just part of the makeup. And if you look at chapter 16 here, verse 25, and any time something is repeated, it's not because God, or the inspired writer of God, forgot that it had already been written.

It's for emphasis. Any time when Christ says, verily, verily, any time there's repetition like that, it's for emphasis. And this is so important that it is emphasized by being repeated. There is a way. This seems right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. If we go over to the words of Jeremiah in Jeremiah 10.23, Jeremiah 10, verse 23, Jeremiah came to realize something and voiced it in words that I could voice, that you could voice, that any of us who have matured in human affairs as far as knowledge and understanding to see the realities and to understand what Proverbs 14.12 and 16.25 are talking about, we could also say this. We certainly identify with it. Oh, Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself, it is not in man that wants to direct his steps. You think about that. It's just not natural and automatic in the human being to know how to run his affairs, to run his life, to direct his steps. We have history that proves that. We have history that proves that this hasn't changed, an endless repeating cycle. Current events prove this is still the same. Man's nature, human nature, is still the same. It's not changed. Yesterday, in the day and time of my parents, the day and time of my grandparents, my great-grands, the day and age of the founding fathers, down through history, back up through history, back down through history, however you want to word it, all the way back to Adam and Eve, today's world today. Here in Rome, over in Gaston, where I'm going, the whole area, the nation, the world. And tomorrow, as far as long as this age stands in particular, but it doesn't change. The names change. The names change.

The names walking the planet right now are not the same names as walk the planet in the 1800s, or much of the 1900s, especially the early to mid-1900s.

The names have changed. Those are gone, for the time being. It's different people on the planet. If time went on long enough, and all of us here were part of history, it'd be new names on the planet. Of course, new names coming along all the time, but the names change, but the game stays the same.

Notice James 4, verses 1 through 3.

This is the apostle that was the half-sibling of Jesus Christ. He says, Read Europe's history. Read Asia's history. Read the history of the Middle East. War and the causes of war seem to be hard-wired in the human makeup, into human nature. We're hard-wired, and there is definitely something, you might say, generational about it.

You get into the hills of Appalachia. Now, we're part of Appalachia, this area. Appalachia actually extends down to the Birmingham area. But you get into deep Appalachia, and the endless feuds and fightings of the past. And some of those are still going on. I remember watching the Hatfields and the McCoys with Kevin Costner.

I forget the other characters, but I watched that series. I watched it for the educational side, because it was dark, and it was heavy, and it was depressing. It just made you feel sad and empty, and your emotions just traumatized. And yet, it was so true to so much of what life has been, with the way humans are. You know, the names change, but the game stays the same. And again, generational, a generational cycle passed on from one generation to the next. And you see it with some of the feuds where they're still fighting, and now, generations of past, they don't even know why they hate so-and-so, or are supposed to hate so-and-so, or why they're supposed to fight them. That may have gotten lost in the dust of history, but this is what we do. And of course, again, you look at the conflicts in the Middle East and all, but you look at any part of the world and see it. You have background involved. You have environment involved, and you have the nurturing. And sometimes, it's almost like genetic. It's almost like genetic. Generational repetition guaranteeing the same. The names change, but the game stays the same. I said I'm not an expert on history. I don't carry any letters after my name in regards to history, but I've always enjoyed history, and I've read it, and it is the story of man. And maybe that's one of the reasons that I have always been so interested in it, because I am interested in man, his creation, his purpose, what the realities are that he has to live within and deal with now. Game stays the same. Nations rise, nations fall. Political cycles run the same course. The democracy cycle. We're a democracy. Now, we're not, as the United States, we're not a pure democracy. We're a republic. There's a difference. We're a democracy, but we're a democratic nation, but we're with a republican form of government. And that means we democratically elect those who will represent us. We're republic. And when our government was initially formed, and Benjamin Franklin stepped out on the street at one of those meetings, the one where they basically, at least at that point in time, had pretty much everything finalized. And the lady asked him how it went and all. He said something to this effect, maybe not the exact words, but he said something, ma'am, you have your government if you can keep it. Because it's known that democracies, there's a democracy cycle to where the seeds of democracy's own destruction are sown within its own self. And we see that in America. Anyone whose brain is working and is willing to be objective can see the decline we're in. They can see that we're collapsing in upon our self, that those seeds of our own destruction have sprouted and they're growing. And we just wonder how long we can last as a true, proper democracy.

Geopolitics. Geopolitics. World politics.

There's a saying in geopolitics, and you've heard it, power corrupts. Has anybody ever known anybody that got some power and went to their head? Anybody ever known somebody that got power and then became a tyrant or a dictator? Well, the world's full of such. Society's full of such. You can have it in a corporation. You can have somebody that is given some power in a corporation. It goes to their head and all of a sudden they become a tyrant. We've seen that. We know that. We're familiar with that. So the statement that power corrupts is very, very true in human hands without the mind of God, without God's Spirit. We see people who seek for as much power as they can get. There are who knows how many people in the world that if they could have absolute power, they would take it, if they could have absolute power. Of course, dictators really strive for that. But that also leads to the statement in geopolitics that power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. And again, that is true. And the more power that Hitler got, the more he was corrupted by that power and the more he caused corruption. Yeah, the names change, but the game stays the same. See, man ignores Proverbs 3, verses 5-7. Mankind ignores Proverbs 3, verses 5-7. He doesn't operate by this. Proverbs 3, verses 5-7, Trust in the Lord with all your heart. That's not ingrained in the human makeup. Mankind doesn't operate that way as a species. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not to your own understanding. See, you put that in conjunction with, there is a way that seems right to a man. But the end thereof is the ways of death, or is the way of death. That doesn't fit in here, or this doesn't fit in that. One who is trusting in the Lord with all his heart, and leaning not to his own understanding, is going to recognize that his own way is not necessarily best. He's going to question it. He's going to look to God. He's going to want to learn God's way and follow that way, the way that does work. In all your ways, acknowledge him. In all your ways. And he shall direct your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord. And what do you do in fearing the Lord? You depart from evil. Respect the Lord. And if you do, you depart from evil. But man ignores that, and he does it his own way, leaning to his own judgment.

Christ will come back partly because his return will be necessitated. It's not just arbitrarily God picking a date on the calendar, or God taking his great calendar, so to speak, and just marking a date and saying, oh, we're just going to arbitrarily choose. That's when you're going back. It's based on a necessity because of these realities that we're addressing here, scripturally. Man leans to his own judgment. If you notice Romans 3, verses 10 through 18, Paul wrote, As it is written, there is none righteous, no not one. Of course, here's one of those realities. No human is born righteous. The only exception to that is the one who didn't originate as a human, who was God and became a human. But no human being is born righteous. Now, they're not born evil. They're born neutral. A baby is neutral. But the nature that's there is very quickly corruptible.

Very slowly, maybe at first, very little, but it grows and it magnifies. And nature forms very strongly. That goes the root that the Bible says as it says right here. There's none righteous, no not one. There is none that understands. You're not born automatically into understanding. There's none that seeks after God. We start out as the center of our own universe. We do our best to orient things around us. They're all going out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. Spiritually, there's no real profit. And even physically, certain ones can become very unprofitable to the human race. They can cause the deaths of millions. There is none that does good, no not one. Their throats and open sepulchres like a grave, but their tongues they have used to see. The poison that asks, poison of snake, is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery in their ways. I mean, really, if you know history, you know these things are fruits of the way man has operated, not just in a collective way, but even so many times at an individual level. And the way of peace they've not known. And that's what James is saying in so many words, too, that we read. The way of peace they have not known. They don't know the way of peace. And something that's also so basic so many times is there's no fear of God before their eyes.

You read that section, doesn't that describe the preponderance of human history? Doesn't that describe the basic condition of 6,000 years?

Ecclesiastes 7, verse 29, Romans 3, verses 10-18 describes the preponderance of human history, the basic condition of 6,000 years.

Solomon said in chapter 7, verse 29, "'Lo, this only have I found that God has made man upright.'" Adam was created, initially receptive to God.

He and Eve were like newborn babes in one sense, because everything was fresh and innocent. But they were created with complete adult capacities. They were created as adults with adult capacities to learn.

And they were instructable. God can instruct them.

But it went downhill very quickly, and it's gone downhill ever since.

And even when God did a course correction for a moment with the Noatian Flood, after the Noatian Flood, it went right back very quickly downhill. Not as quickly, not as fast, not as much, simply because one of the main stimulants to that, the spirit world, was restrained more. And it's more restrained now, post-Flood, than it was restrained pre-Flood.

But they've sought out many inventions. They made man upright, started him off on the right basis, gave him initial instruction. He was designed to be upright, but they sought out many inventions, or in other words, many alternative ways from God's what it's saying. Many ways of sin, many alternative ways that don't work. There's a way of life, but man doesn't know it. There's a way that seems right to man. It's the way of death.

Yeah, the names change. They do change. But the game stays the same. If you want a title, that's the title. That's why I keep repeating it, because that's the reality that we deal with in this world, that the names do change. But the game stays the same. You read different epics of history, and you read different names, but you see the same patterns. You see the same themes. You see the commonalities. The commonalities say, whoa, this is no different than it was then. It's just a different group of people. It's a different set of names. The crucial basics of the game stay the same. The underlying issues remain the same. A generation comes. A generation goes. And then another one. And another one. Just one after the other. The names change, but the basic game stays the same. This is what Solomon meant when he said what he did in Ecclesiastes 1, verses 9 and 10. In fact, we'll read the entire chapter. It's not real long. Ecclesiastes 1, 9 and 10. He said, The thing that has been, verse 9, it is that which shall be, and that which is done is that which shall be done. And there's no new thing under the sign. Not really. He was talking about the generations that come and go. Is there anything where of it may be said, see, this is new? It's been already of old time, which was before us. He's talking about these same patterns, these same issues. Let's read the whole chapter, beginning in verse 1. The words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Vanity of vanity, says the preacher. Vanity of vanity, says all is vanity, or temporary, empty, passes. While prophet has a man of all his labor, which he takes under the sun. One generation passes away, another generation comes, but the earth, it keeps spinning. It abides forever. The sun also rises. The sun goes down and haste to his place where he rose. The wind goes toward the south, turns about to the north. It whirls about continually. And the wind returns again, according to its circuits. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. Until the place from whence the rivers come, there they return again. All things are full of labor. Man cannot utter it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. The thing that has been, it is that which shall be, and that which is done, is that which shall be done. There is no new thing under the sun. Verse 10, is there anything whereof it may be said? See, this is new. Well, it has been already of old time, which was before us. There is no remembrance of former things, neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after. Either preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven.

This sore travail has God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith. I've seen all the works that are done under the sign. And behold, all is vanity. It's empty, it's temporary, and vexation. And in the King James, vexation basically just means frustration. To be vexed, to be frustrated, to be unsettled, to be destabilized. All is vanity and vexation or frustration of spirit. It's just awareness of the mind. It just wears you down. That which is crooked cannot be made straight. That which is wanting cannot be numbered. And again, you read through history, and you just see all of the crookedness and all the gaps and all the lackings and all the pains and the sufferings. And after a while, you say, nobody knows the number except God. I commune with my own heart, saying, lo, I've come to great estate. I've got great estate. And I've gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem. Yes, my heart has great experience of wisdom and knowledge. And I gave my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceive that this also is vexation or frustration of spirit, where much wisdom in much wisdom is much grief. Of course, this is one reason why a lot of people don't want to know.

They just try to build a little cocoon of a world that they can live in and kind of buffer themselves against the realities around them. Because he that increases knowledge, guess what? Increases sorrow. As I've said, I've read some histories and things where, after a while, I just had to put it down and leave it alone for a time. Because it's depressing. It's depressing. He that increases knowledge increases sorrow.

The more you know, the more you learn. You know Solomon is basically saying, in so many words, the names change. But the game states the same. He understood that human nature is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He understood that things go in a continuous cycle.

They really do. They run their course, and then they start over. He understood that the human makeup is not intrinsically good. Notice chapter 7 verse 20. You could read it two ways, and either one is proper. Either one would be correct enough. He understood that the human makeup is not intrinsically good.

Chapter 7 verse 20. For there is not a just man upon earth that does good and sins not. You could say, well, as a comprehensive statement of the basic nature of a human being. You know, people aren't born good. They don't live with the righteousness of God. This is kind of a comprehensive statement. But you can also take a meaning out of it, of this. There is not a just man upon earth that does good and sins not. There is not a just person who doesn't have some sin involved in their life. You and I, trying to be just, the just shall walk by faith.

Remember? Remember? The just shall walk by faith. We are striving to be just and to do the right thing. But there is no such thing as a person who is striving to do the right thing, who doesn't make a mistake, who doesn't make some mistakes. For there is not a just man upon earth that does good without sinning some, or without some sin involved, sin of thought, or word, or deed.

There is also that meaning, but either way, it speaks to the simple fact that the human make-up in and of itself is not intrinsically good. Because what are you trying to do? What am I trying to do? We are trying to overcome ourselves. Aren't we? Aren't we trying to overcome our human nature? Aren't we trying to overcome, as we say, the old man or the old woman that is supposed to be buried in the watery grave of baptism, but it keeps trying to come back and haunt us, so to speak? But again, Solomon's statements about all is vanity. There in chapter 1 and verse 2, and vanity and vexation of spirit in verse 14. But let's go to chapter 12 now in verse 8.

Chapter 12, and you think about it, Ecclesiastes is Solomon's write-up, if you want to put it that way, it's his report, synopsis, write-up, of really a major experiment of life that he did to gain a certain insight and experience. And he starts off like in chapter 1 and verse 2 about all is vanity. In verse 14 of that chapter, vanity and vexation. And then you come to the end of his synopsis or write-up, and he returns to that same thought in verse 8.

Chapter 12 and verse 8, vanity of vanity says the preacher all is vanity. And the word vanity there can mean empty. It can mean non-lasting. It can mean temporary. It can just mean so transitory that it just simply passes. We read in chapter 1, verse 15, we read Solomon's words, that which is crooked cannot be made straight. And that which is wanting, and the Hebrew there is defect or defective, that which is defective cannot be numbered. He was so well acquainted with the fruits, the effects of carnal human ways.

And that which is defective cannot be numbered. Do you ever get the Solomon type feeling? If I may put it that way. You look around, you see the world you live in, you see the defects. Defects that are affecting loved ones. Defects that affect you. Defects of society. And you see that society becoming more and more defective as time goes on. I mean, again, I counted a blessing that I was born right smack in the middle of the last century.

And born into a world that doesn't exist the same way today as it did then. Oh, yeah, there were defects. But I've grown up and moved through life and I've seen the defects magnified, magnified, magnified, magnified. And I'm living in the most defective year of this nation and of society and the world that I've lived in. This year of 2019 and 2020 will be worse. And I know the jokes are going around about in 2020. We can all see clearly.

And what will we see? Now, verse 18, you know, you put it together, that which is defective cannot be numbered. For in much wisdom, as much grief, it increases knowledge, increases sorrow. You know, there's a responsibility that goes with not sticking your head in the sand. When you open your eyes and you open your ears and you pay attention, it increases your awareness.

And there's a greater responsibility to handle that in a way that you don't let it discourage you. There's much grief and sorrow in really seeing the state of affairs as they really are. And again, that's why it seems more and more people just don't want to pay attention. And that's another reason why there's less and less repentance in this nation.

Why more and more people are copping out with drugs and escape mechanisms. In Ecclesiastes 9, verse 18, the first part doesn't get much traction in this world.

Wisdom is better than weapons of war. You go to world leaders and try to convince them of that, that wisdom is better than weapons of war. Now, I'm not saying you couldn't convince some of that, but the ones that need convincing of that more than anybody else are the ones that it gets no traction with them. Wisdom is better than weapons of war. But notice that second part. One center destroys much good. How long does it take to grow a forest? You know, pine trees can be a cash crop, and they are. But how long does it take to grow a forest? Pine trees to pulpwood stage, what, 20 years? Roughly 15 to 20.

Timber, maybe a little bit longer, cash crop. But how long does it take to grow it? Even just for getting it to the maturity that could be chipped and used in particle board, you know, plywood, whatever. Years and years. How long does it take to burn it down? One arsonist with one match can burn that forest down in short order. A day, two days, three days, depending on how big the forest is.

One man hauling guns up to a hotel room, secreting guns up with ammo, and then opening fire on a concert, and killing 58 people at Las Vegas. And all of the, what was it, another 200 or 300 that were wounded? One person, one sinner. And look at how many, many, many families he ruined their life.

Because all those people involved that lost a loved one are never the same in this life. And those who were crippled by being wounded, they're not the same. You know, when you read the Bible, you may not understand everything you read. You may not at the moment understand what it is really saying. Some of it is very obvious what it's saying. We can take this one, one sinner destroys much good. And we can think of living examples of one sinner destroying much good. Look how many deaths were brought about by Stalin. He closed the borders of Ukraine. He pulled the wheat out. And he starved the people, many of them to death, to force them into submission.

How many did Hitler cause to die? Six million Jews, but a whole lot more than just the six million Jews. One sinner destroys much good. Some things are very obvious. But the Bible itself, the statements it makes, and what it speaks of, there is a reality of truth to all of it.

And sometimes you understand certain things that are in the Bible only as you get older and you mature and you see things, it makes sense to you in a way that it didn't previous. That's another reason to continue to study the Scriptures and make it a lifelong thing. See, Solomon pulled the covers back. He looked underneath the surface. He looked at what lay underneath, beneath. He went deeper than the veneer. He looked at the cosmetics and what he saw, the wrong realities disheartened and discouraged him.

I know a lady who needed a full-time job and she got a full-time job. And she was working in an office that had to deal with domestic situations. I'll put it that way. Domestic situations, domestic violence, different things that involved the home, more of a criminal nature.

And she came to me after she had been at that job for just maybe a couple of weeks or so. She said, Mr. Beam, I need the job, but I don't know if I'm going to be able to do this. Okay. What's going on? I have to file certain things. I have to go through certain papers and I have to file things and put things away. And she said, what I'm having to see that's going on out there, she said, it is so depressing.

She said, I knew things were bad, but she said, I didn't understand just how bad they are. And I just don't know if I can do this. It is really bad out there. I said, yeah, it is. I counseled with her and we talked more later. She was able to go ahead and do the job. But when you pull the covers back and you look at what's underneath, you cut through the veneer and the cosmetics. Yeah, it can be very discouraging. Even Solomon got discouraged by it because he saw and he realized, yeah, the names change.

Generations come and go, but the game stays the same because the intrinsic goodness of man is a myth. Jeremiah 17.9.

One of the reasons that I am where I am in life today, still involved with God's truth, still involved with God's church, still apart, still having the spiritual anchorage and moorings and that particular stability is because of foundational, fundamental things that I was taught and that I learned and that I verified with the Bible long ago as a young person. It's specifically starting when I was a teenager. I mean, even the whole process started when I was a kid before I became a teenager. But definitely taking it more and more into hand myself as a teenager. And they were fundamentals.

They were fundamental then. They're fundamental now. And they shall remain fundamental. And one of those is, in Jeremiah 17, verse 9, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked who can know it. What I've learned is that if people want to do something, if a person wants to do something, they can find a way to justify it in their mind. I've seen people do things that anybody would have said to them, That is wrong. You can't do that. That's just plain wrong. And if they say to them that that's just plain wrong, no, no, it's not. No, it's not because you don't know. You don't understand. See, because of this and this and this, it's okay for me to do this. I've seen that over and over and over, and every time I see where somebody is really, truly doing something wrong, and somebody tells them, and they come back with, no, you don't understand, it's okay for me to do this because of such and such and such and such. I think of Jeremiah 17, 9, when a person wants to do something, that is wrong. They can deceive themselves. It's a self-deception.

But they can justify it in their mind. And when the reality is, it's wrong, the reality is that it's not right to do, and they deceive themselves into saying, believing, acting like it's okay, it's just what Jeremiah 17, 9 is talking about.

The natural human being is very self-centered, self-serving.

When I gave the sermon, it's about God. I dealt with that issue.

And the natural human being, at his best, is still so far from God.

If you notice Isaiah 55, verses 8 and 9, Isaiah 55, we don't turn to God, truly turn to God, with true receptivity, unless we truly see the need to.

And part of seeing the need to is seeing what the reality of our own makeup is.

But in Isaiah 55, verses 8 and 9, he says, "'For my thoughts are not your thoughts.'" Now, the thoughts of God that are His, that He wants to share with us, can be shared if we're receptive, which again, part of that receptivity comes from understanding that our own nature and makeup, "'Neither your ways my way,' says the Lord, "'for as the heavens are higher than the earth, "'so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.'" For 6,000 years, for the history of mankind, the basic game has stayed the same, and only the names have changed.

And that game is bringing the house down. That game is not just going to bring the United States down. That game is not just going to bring Germany down. It's not just going to bring Russia down and China down and Korea down and Japan down.

That game is going to bring the world down. Because in Matthew 24, verses 21 and 22, that which we're talking about, and which the Scriptures are so plain about, are going on a collective basis to bring the whole house down. It's not just going to affect the floor or the ceiling or the walls or one room or a closet. It's going to bring the whole house down eventually.

For then shall be great tribulation, Matthew 24, verses 21, for then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, known ever shall be. It's going to be a unique time, a trouble of such magnitude that no other time of trouble matches it. And except those days should be shortened, and it can't get any worse than this, that those days would become such that if they're not cut short and they're allowed to run their course, there should no flesh be saved. Everybody would die, all flesh on the planet, not just humans, animals too, all flesh. None would be saved alive. And of course, the great encouragement that for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened. What's needed? A game changer. A game changer.

You might keep your fingers here in Matthew 24. In Revelation 11.15, I'll read there and then come back here. Revelation 11 and verse 15 speaks of a game changer.

Revelation 11 and verse 15.

And the seventh angel sounded. And there were great voices in heaven saying, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms. There's a shift about to take place. These kingdoms of this world that Satan said to Christ, I will give these to you if you will just bow down and worship me. These kingdoms that are reflecting Satan's ways. The human beings. Christ did not take him up on it.

And he is a liar, Satan is. What do you think he would have done if he could have gotten Christ to sin? But Jesus Christ stayed faithful to the Father. And so, when that seventh angel sounds, the kingdoms, the announcement is made, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever. And so back in Matthew 24, when it says, for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

And you look at verse 30, which is speaking of the same event as the seventh angel sounding that we just read. Verse 30, And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, and this time coming with power and great glory.

He cuts those days short. And if I go back to Revelation 19, go back to Revelation, and this time in chapter 19, verses 11 through 16, again speaking of the same event of Matthew 24.30, same event of Revelation 11.15, now Revelation 19 verse 11, And I saw heaven open, and behold a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True.

And in righteousness, there's a time to make war. In righteousness he does judge and make war. His eyes were as the flame of fire, on his head were many crowns. He had a name written that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture, dipped in blood, and his name is called, he's very clearly identified, the word of God, the Logos, the spokesman, the messenger.

And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treads the winepress, of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he has on his vesture, and on his thigh a name written. And again, the identity is clear, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

And so, in conjunction with that, and as part of the results, Zechariah 8, verses 3 through 5, a game changer. Zechariah 8. And you imagine the beauty and the confidence and the comfort of these words, Zechariah 8, verses 3 through 5. Thus says the Lord, I am returned to Zion. I am home. I've come back. I am returned to Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. And Jerusalem shall be called a city of truths, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain, the holy kingdom. Thus says the Lord of hosts, there shall yet, a game changer, there shall yet, old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem.

It's a place of truth. It's a place of peace. It's a place of grandparents and great-grandparents and grandkids and great-grandkids in the streets, the safe streets together. There's something about grandparents with their grandkids. And every man with his staff in his hen for very age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing, not dodging bullets, not running for shelter, playing in the streets thereof because of what the condition is expressed in Chapter 14, verse 9. Chapter 14, verse 9, And the Lord shall be king over all the earth.

In that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one. The forest will grow. The rivers will run. The sky will be brilliant, blue, and beautiful. There will be crops. There will be babies born. Grow up. Marry. Have their children. Have meaningful jobs. Challenged and satisfying, but a thriving time instead of a surviving time because Christ will take charge. And we're at that time of the year, and we're at the point where we're picturing, once again, through the cycle, the fall cycle of trumpets and atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles and the eighth day, the last great day.

And Jesus Christ is going to encompass the earth with a canopy, an umbrella of peace and power, and under and within that protective cover, he's going to deal with the individual, each individual at the individual level. So as we wrap this up, let's look at a couple of scriptures or so. First one in Jeremiah 31. In Jeremiah 31, verses 31 through 34. Jeremiah 31, 31. Behold, the day's come, says the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, because God's Spirit, individually in them, except for very few individuals, wasn't part of it.

And eternal life wasn't offered in the old covenant. Eternal life was not offered. Long life upon the land, but not eternal life. Which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband to them, says the Lord. The old covenant was a type of marriage covenant. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. And of course, what God will do with Israel, he's not a respecter, a person, as the Scripture shall. He will also do it with the rest of the world. But after those days, says the Lord, I will put my law, I will put my law in their inward parts, write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord.

For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. See, that's going to be a game changer. That's going to be a game changer. And if you look at Ezekiel 36, Ezekiel 36, verses 26 through 28, a new heart, Ezekiel 36, verses 26 through 28, a new heart also I will give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, a new heart, a new spirit.

And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I'll give you heart of flesh, in other words, a soft heart. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you. Remember the Scripture in Philippians 2.13? For it is God who wills in you. That's the motivational area. He helps us with our motivational area. Yeah, we've got to work out our salvation. It says that plainly in verse 12. We have a responsibility. But when God puts His spirit within one, and He says, I will put my spirit within you and cause you, He helps to stimulate us to walk in His statutes, to keep His judgments and to do them.

And you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and notice, and this speaks to relationship, you shall be my people and I will be your guide. Christ's presence on the planet and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit is going to be a game changer. And that's never been, but it's going to be, and that's what's going to make the difference. And that's the hope. That's the hope for mankind on the planet, and that's tremendously encouraging, even though mankind at large is unaware of that hope right now. But think about it.

What a hope for us. You and me, the ecclesia of the church, the body of Christ, the bride of Christ. Not just in terms of the game changer that is coming for mankind and His nature, and the condition of the planet, but for you and me right now, in the meantime.

Because, see, you're not waiting on the game changer. We're waiting on the game changer for the world. We're waiting on the return of Christ to be the game changer for the world, yes. But you're not waiting on it for the game changer for you. We already have been involved and are being involved in the game changing. From the time that God called us, called us, and it got truly underway with your response to God, and your response to God is repentance. And following up with repentance, baptism, and the receiving of God's Holy Spirit, and what God is later going to do for the world through Jesus Christ, He's already doing with you and me.

Even as we're in the midst of a world where the names change, but the game stays the same with them, it doesn't with us. We're already involved and being changed by God. We're being transformed, and it's because of what God is currently doing with us. And one of the reasons, a prime reason God is doing it with you, with me, is so that when Jesus Christ comes, and is the game changer for the world, that you and I will have been changed enough that we can be resurrected and join Him to sit with Him as the game changer, and we are the lesser game changers with Him to help change this world.

And how my mind and my heart looks forward to having my hands involved in sharing and game-changing this planet, and the peace and the safety and the happiness that we'll share in seeing produced for our loved ones and for all the future generations to come yet. And in a very, very accurate sense, that's what this season that we're coming into is about.