Precious in the Sight of God

Well, good morning to everyone. It's great to be here. Norm and I really appreciate the opportunity to be able to meet with the congregation here. All the years we've been in the ministry, we've never really had the opportunity of serving what I would call the Upper Midwest or the West Coast. We've been on the East Coast generally, down south a little bit. So it's nice to be able to come up this way.

We drove up through Indiana, Illinois, up into Iowa, and then up this way. And we got to observe all the scenery, the corn and the soybeans. And you talk about the bread basket of the country. Obviously, we've been driving through it for many hours. I'd like to thank David and Joe Linda for their hospitality. They allowed us to stay with us last night.

And you're really blessed in this area to have a couple who are so caring, so loving, and just really have empathy for God's people. So we appreciate them and glad that they're able to serve here in this area. I don't know if you noticed the hibiscus flowers down here. Aren't those beautiful? I think Norma Nelson brought those. And I didn't know they got that big. But they're very lovely and certainly grace the stage. We speakers don't, but the flowers certainly add an element to the stage.

My mention, the council was just in town in Cincinnati. And they came in, were there for Monday, had committee meetings, held meetings on Tuesday, Wednesday, half a day, Thursday. And a number of things were accomplished. One was a revision of the building fund policy. As you know, we've had a number of churches able to actually purchase a building.

We've had a couple build them, but that's a lot more expensive, a lot more detail. As somebody joked, but it's the truth, when you try to build a building and everybody gives their input, there are all kinds of tensions and problems occur. When you go out and buy a building, everyone's happy. Let's buy it. And it doesn't matter what shape it's in, you know, if it's in halfway decent shape, you know, let's go ahead and buy it. And so we've been able to find, in a lot of areas, there are old church buildings or, let's say, buildings that have been used for whatever, community service.

And many of those have sat there for sometimes for years. And you can buy them for a song and with a little money to fix them up, you've got a permanent hall and you're able to leave chairs set up, your equipment set up, you can use it seven days a week if you want to. And so it truly is a blessing. So that policy was revised.

We've had a policy for years, but basically it talked about building buildings. We never had one that discussed building buildings plus buying buildings. So now we've bifurcated that and come up with a dual policy. One of the big things we're working on, and we're going to be talking a lot about in this conference coming up, is retirement for ministers who are older, as well as training new trainees. This year we took the plunge. We've been talking for years about the fact that we need to replace our ministry. And this past year we just decided the time has come.

We've got to do something. So we hired six men, ranging in age from somewhere around 25 up to 39. They're going to be sent out just like I see Vince some Coviac here. Vince, I'm sure, had this experience. We certainly did. You graduated from Ambassador College. You go out for a couple of years. You train under a pastor or two. And then you pick up the gauntlet and you start pastoring yourself. Well, this is a tried and true method. It's what Christ used in the scriptures. He sent them out two by two. He trained his disciples for three and a half years.

Paul took Timothy and Titus and a number of other younger men and trained them. And they were put in charge of churches. And so we're going to do the same thing. Right after the Feast of Tabernacles, we'll go through another process of selecting another six to seven men. They will likewise have the opportunity.

The council will have the opportunity to look at that, sign off on it. We'll give them six months to be able to prepare. And then beginning next calendar year, July the 1st, we'll pick those men up. So we need to get 10-15 men in the pipeline. And for training, maybe not all of them will work out. We hope that the majority do. Now the reason for that, I've got a list of 30 pastors who probably, in the next four years, will retire. So that's almost half of our church pastors retiring. Who's going to replace them? Well, what we had to do, you might remember in 2010 and 11, we had to replace 30 pastors. So we basically took men who'd been elders for a long period of time, put them in, and we were able to replace those who had been church pastors. But most of them are older. We need to be able to have men who are trained and pastor for the next 40 years so that we don't have this same problem that we are presently having. Out of that number, there are at least 11 who have some severe health problems. Now some of them have had heart attacks, others are having just overall health difficulties. Some could be getting older, having dementia, others. You don't know precisely what kind of problems an individual might run into. So we never know when somebody's going to go down with a heart attack, and that happens quite frequently. So we're trying to catch up and put ourselves in a position where we do have a number of men who can take over. So I would appreciate your prayers on that. As David mentioned, we will be having area conference here in Ironwood. Sunday, we're going to have leadership. These are men and women from a number of the local surrounding church areas who will be able to attend. We have four seminars planned on Sunday to give. We'll have a question and answer session. Then that evening, we will have an introduction for the ministerial conference and two days of lectures in the ministerial section of the conference on Monday, Tuesday. So it's going to be a full weekend or full beginning of the week. Once we get back to Cincinnati, we'll probably be back in the office on Monday. On Friday, we're recording for the Feast of Tabernacles. Victor Kubik is going to give a live presentation again this year, but prior to that, there's going to be a sermonette, and it's been decided to be on ministerial members' services this year.

So we've got to get ready for that. Then, beginning on Sunday, we're going to have eight days for the trainees to come in. We're also bringing six pastors, who are new pastors, and so there will be 11 couples. We'll have eight days of intensive training, beginning from 9 to about 5 or 6 in the evening, where we will be covering various topics with them on how to pastor. Basically, this is to give them a jump start. Things to do, things not to do, lessons that we've all learned. I'm sure Vince would echo this, that when we all started out in the ministry, we all made a lot of mistakes. We had to learn a lot of things. And over a period of time, you learn. So why should everybody who starts in the ministry make the same mistakes, when you can say, don't do this, or do something else? So we'll be going through that. As soon as that's over, we'll have one day, and then we'll have Labor Day weekend. Right now, we've got 32 individuals coming in for the Labor Day weekend. And that's where we have leadership from all over the country that the ministry recommends. And they come in for Sunday, Monday, and we will be there also on the Sabbath. And we will have training sessions for all of them. So one of the things that we're really emphasizing is the education of the ministry, education development of new leadership, and it goes all the way down. We're also asking our pastors to begin to mentor, train, and develop leadership in all the local areas. We are about ready to roll out a program for our young adults. That would include all of our young adults. We also obviously have, for our teenagers, camps, and all kinds of programs for them. So the idea is to be able to provide leadership training at all levels. We even have the Deuteronomy 6 program for our preteens, and a number of those type of things. So we would ask for your prayers for that. Speaking of retirement, Norm and I plan to retire next year. As David mentioned, we've been going at this about 55 years, and we're about ready to hang our spurs up and try to live a normal life. We've got five sons. At one time, one of them lived in South Africa, one lived in Australia, one lived in Colorado, one lived in California, one in Texas. And all of our grandchildren, we've got 13 grandchildren. They've all grown up, and we've not been around. And so we're looking forward to the time where we can get out and travel, be able to see our children, our grandchildren, and just before we kick the bucket, hopefully have a little time to ourselves, and you'll be able to to do a few things. So just to give you a little idea of what we're thinking about and what we're planning on, I really appreciated the special music. Not too often we get to hear Beethoven play, and so I appreciate that. I wanted to cover a topic with you today. I've spoken on this in a few areas, but it has to do with God's attitude toward us and our attitude toward God.

Do you really believe that God loves you?

In spite of all of our faults, all of our weaknesses, all of our hang-ups, all of the things where we come up short, have you ever doubted, how could God love me? How could God love me with all of my foibles, all of my problems that I have?

Have you ever considered how does God view you personally? He looks on you as a wife, or a teenager, or a pre-teen, or a husband, whatever your role might be. How does God view you? How does He collectively view us as a local congregation here in Elendael? How does He view the church as a whole, united, or whatever church it might be? How do you look on God? Do we think that God is one who doesn't have unconditional love for us, who's on again, off again, one day He loves us, we stub our toe, and the next day I don't love you, you stubbed your toe? What is our approach when we're thinking about God? There are many places in the Bible where God tells us how He sees us, how He sees you personally, how He looks on me. And we'll go through a number of those scriptures today, and we'll just barely begin to scratch the surface. When God looks at us, what does He see? What does He see when He looks at you?

When you're on your knees before God, crying out for help, asking God to guide you, seeking wisdom, maybe repenting, what does God feel? How does God feel? What does He see when we, you, are beseeching Him? As God's people, we are the most privileged people on the face of the earth.

We have been privileged to be called now for salvation. And God gives us great comfort, great encouragement through His Word, through the scriptures. There are many exhortations in the Bible. Let's just take a look at some of them. Let's start by turning over to 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 9. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 9. To me, this is a very exciting scripture, one that should help us. And I think as we go through some of these scriptures, it might begin to wet our appetite for the coming Feast of Tabernacles and for the future and what God has in store for us.

In 1 Corinthians 2.9, we read this, But as it is written, I is not seen, or ear heard, nor is entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.

I want you to notice what this says. God has prepared certain things for us. This is part of the work of the Father. God the Father is preparing things for us.

Now, we know one of the analogies used in the Bible is that the church is the bride of Christ. We're the fiancé bride right now, but there will be a wedding that will take place. And any parent expecting their son or daughter to get married will prepare things for them. Maybe they prepare a house for them. You'll give them the key to the house. I've never been able to do that, but you give them gifts, you give them things. Part of the work that the Father has been doing is to prepare things. Now, you might put a big question mark down and say, what things has God been preparing for us? You might remember that in John 5 and verse 17, that Jesus said, My Father has been working, and I've been working also. God Almighty works.

He is in charge, and He is the one who is ultimately responsible for all things. You read back in the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 1 verses 1 and 2, where it talks about that in the past, in the Old Testament, God at sundry times in different manners spoke in time pass to the fathers by the prophets. But He has in this end time spoken to us by His Son.

So the message that Jesus Christ came to the earth proclaiming, the good news of the coming Kingdom of God, that message came directly from the Father. And Christ said repeatedly, the words that I speak are not my own. I only say and speak what the Father gave me. Now we know that the message that the prophets received in the Old Testament may have come through the Word, the messenger in the Old Testament, but you find they came directly also and were inspired by the Father. So God's been working on various things. One of the things that He's doing, you find in Hebrews chapter 11, He is working on the new Jerusalem. He is preparing the new Jerusalem. He's getting it ready for the Bride of Christ so that when the Bride comes, you'll find that there is a city built for her.

And that's where you and I are going to be ruling from for all eternity from that location. And we will have either a suite of offices or whatever God gives us at that time. Notice in Matthew 20-23, Matthew chapter 20 and verse 23 something else that God has been preparing.

Remember, Mrs. Zebedee had come up and asked if her two sons, John and James, could sit on the left and right hand of Christ. And he said to them in verse 23, Matthew 20, You will indeed drink my cup and be baptized with the baptism that I'm baptized with, but to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give. I can't give you that, he said. Notice, but it is for those for whom it is prepared by my Father.

You know that the Father is preparing positions of rulership, of responsibilities, duties as kings, priests. Here you find there will be those who will sit on the right and left hand of Christ, those who will have responsible positions. God is preparing that. What that means is that God is working with us individually to prepare us to get us ready. He's called you for a reason. He's called you to fulfill a job, a responsibility, some type of duty in his family. And so he's preparing you. In chapter 24, the book of Matthew, in verse 34, chapter 24, verse 34, we read this, Then the king will say to those on his right hand, Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

So God has prepared a kingdom for us, positions, responsibilities, rulership, the kingdom of God. And this was all planned from the very foundation of the world. The plan of salvation was thought out and prepared, lined out before the worlds were created. God had a plan, and he's been following that plan. Now, let's back up to 1 Corinthians again, 1 Corinthians chapter 2, and notice in verse 10. 1 Corinthians 2.10, we read this, But God has revealed them to us, talking about the things of God that God has prepared. Remember, it says, I has not seen nor is ear heard, neither has it entered into the hearts of man the things that God has prepared. So verse 10 says, God has revealed them to us through his Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. What are the deep things of God? Not just surface things, but the things that are deep. Well, there are things that we cannot comprehend. Do you know what it's like to be a spirit being? I think about it. I think about, boy, wouldn't it be nice to just go right over there and walk through that wall? I know what happens if I try that right now, but I flatten my nose. You and I have never experienced what it's like to be in the different dimension. See, we're limited to the physical dimension because we're physical. There is a spirit dimension that you and I know nothing about. Spirit beings can move from that dimension into the physical dimension, but we, as physical human beings, are incapable of moving into that dimension. Now, occasionally, God will reveal through a vision. I remember John was in spirit on the Lord's day. You find that Paul was carried up to the third heaven in vision. He saw what it was like, but again, these were only visions. They didn't experience what it's like to be a spirit being or what the spirit world is like. And see God in all of His glory and all of His power and the hundreds of millions of angels that surround Him and the power and the authority. Remember, this supreme being, Almighty God, created everything. He upholds everything through Christ. Now, we know He created it through Christ by or through the Spirit of God, but He upholds all things. There is so much power, energy, and authority there that, again, our minds, we can talk about it, but I don't have the vocabulary. I don't have the ability to describe to you what it's like, but one day we will step into that dimension through the resurrection. We'll be resurrected, and we'll be able to see that. Let's go back to Psalm 145 that gives a description of one of the things that you and I will be doing here in the future for human beings. Psalm 145 says, Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable. Now, notice it says unsearchable. The margin says beyond our understanding.

God's greatness is beyond our understanding. We can't understand it as human beings because we have nothing really to compare it with. Verse 10, All your works shall praise you, O Lord, and your saints shall bless you, and they shall speak of the glory of your kingdom. Now, notice in the future when you and I are in the kingdom of God, we will speak of the glory of your kingdom and talk of your power. Here I am as a human being trying to describe what it's like. But think at the Feast of Tabernacles in the future where you might be there as a guest speaker from the spirit dimension. Maybe you have a question and answer, and somebody says, Can you tell us what God looks like? Can you tell us what the throne of God is like? Can you describe what it feels like to be a spirit being? You can explain because you are one. I mean, you are a spirit being. You have that power. You can explain and you can tell them and teach them. It says, You shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and talk of your power. To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts and the glorious majesty of his kingdom. See, we will be able to do that at that time. We will teach humans in the future about the glory and the power and the majesty of the kingdom of God. So you and I have a future that is so fantastic that, again, it's beyond our imagination. So God has been working on this. I want you to notice something about God you may not have thought of. Back in the book of Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 1, the book of Ephesians is an amazing book. It's one of those books that you need to pull out every year and make sure you go through it, study it, think about it, because there are so many spiritual principles here. Let's notice verses 3 through 5. Chapter 1, the book of Ephesians, verse 3, Bless be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. And just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to the adoption as sons of Jesus Christ to Himself according to His good pleasure of His will. Now, I want you to notice in verse 5, it talks about we've been predestinated.

Now, people have all kinds of ideas about predestination. Word predestinate simply means to make a decision beforehand, to decide beforehand, to decide ahead of time. According to God's plan, He decided to call some ahead of time during the first 6,000 years.

The rest, He would call on the Millennium and the Great White Throne Judgment. They would have their opportunity for salvation. Now, if you're sitting here, your mind's been open, you understand God's way of life. You are one of those that God decided ahead of time, I'm going to call a small group. I'm going to train them. They're going to be prepared to assist me in the world tomorrow. Now, as verse 4 goes ahead and says, notice, as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, you and I have been hand chosen by God. You know, you sit here not because you're smarter than everybody else, not because you're better looking than anybody else, not because you're brighter than anybody else, because God reached down and said, I want you, or I want you.

He called you. He handpicked you. God has selected you. There's something like 7 plus 7,300,000,000 people on the face of the earth today. Out of 7 billion people, God the Father, the Supreme Being of the universe, looked down and said, at some point, I want you. Now, how do we know that? Because you don't understand spiritual knowledge unless God opens your mind. So God opens our minds. He calls us. He directs us. He's handpicked us. So the Almighty God, the Eternal, the self-existing one, selected you personally, and here you are. Out of all of the billions of people on earth, you have been called. Now, to me, that's awesome to understand that we've been called now, and by God the Father. What if your human father were the richest man alive, the most powerful man alive, the most educated man alive? Would you go around talking about your dad?

My dad's a veteran. Your dad. He's the smartest man. He's the richest man. He can do anything. He can do anything. Well, brethren, our dad truly is. He has supreme wisdom, supreme knowledge. He owns everything. He's all-powerful. He's our father, and we are his children. Now, notice in verse 7 here, Ephesians 1, 1. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace.

Redemption through Christ's sacrifice. The word redemption means to buy back in the slave market.

We're all familiar. We've seen scenes in movies of slaves being sold in a slave market, maybe have chains around their ankles. They're sold. They go to the highest bidder. He takes them off, and they work on his plantation or whatever he wants. Now, we could be like the Jews and say, we have never been slaves to anybody. You've been slaves to sin. We've been slaves to Satan the devil. We've been slaves to this world, its values, its culture, and its way of life. We've been slaves to our own human nature. And Christ, God sent his Son to die for us, so our sins could be forgiven so that we could receive his Spirit, and that through God's Spirit that we could begin to overcome. We can overcome the devil. We can overcome those areas and no longer be slaves to that. What does Romans 6 say? We've been crucified with Christ. We've been baptized. We've become slaves of God to righteousness and not slaves to sin.

Now, going on in verse 9, it says, "...having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself." So, we have been, through Christ, we've been able to know the mystery of his will.

You know what the word mystery means? It means a hidden truth. The mystery is something. You ever read a mystery? Volume? I like reading detective mystery, and you try to figure out who done it. Who committed the crime? Who did the murder? And so, you know, you get clues, and you try to figure it out. Well, when it comes to the plan of salvation, how many of the seven billion people on earth today understand the plan of salvation? Understand who God is.

Understand why we have been, you know, God has called us. Well, very few. And so, the definition of this from Tyndale's concise biblical commentary says, a divine mystery is something not previously revealed and therefore unknown apart from divine revelation. So, you and I would not understand it except by divine revelation. And the fact that you do understand. See, somebody will ask us in the ministry, how do I know that God's calling me?

Well, I just simply ask, do you understand? You understand the plan of salvation. And if they say yes, and they can reiterate it back to me and explain it. And I know they're not just quoting a book, but citing something from, you know, that they've read, but it's something that they see, they understand, and they truly do comprehend. God is working with them. So, God has a secret plan that's been hidden from the world. And God has begun to reveal it to us. How? It's on your lap. It's the Word of God, the Scriptures. God reveals it to us through that. And what does He reveal to us?

The good pleasure, notice the last part of verse 9 here, made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure. The good pleasure of God's will, or the will of God, is an extremely important phrase in the New Testament. It indicates God's choice, God's determination, emanating from desire, from His desire. Paul uses a word in chapter 1, verse 5, 9, and 11 that conveys the idea of desire, even heart desire, the desire of the heart.

The word is Thelema. The word Thelema is a desire that proceeds from the heart. So when we talk about the will of God, we're talking about a desire that flows out of His heart from His very being, out of the will of God. And it's primarily not just a physical, logical thing. You can say, well, tomorrow I will do such and such. That's conveyed with it, but it's a will. It's your will. I will. If you've got children and you love those children, you think, well, I will show my love to my children. I will show more love to my wife. And it's something that flows out of your innermost beings, out of your belly, so to speak, out of your heart. When the Bible talks about the heart, it's talking about the emotions, the feelings that drive us, that move us, that motivate us. Whereas the mind is the intellect, and you'll the two work together, and we are moved. God's will is not so much just God's intention, as it is God's heart's desire. God does have an intention or a purpose. And notice verse 11 here, Ephesians chapter 1. It says, In him we have also obtained an inheritance, being predestined, according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. Now, the word purpose there is a Greek word that simply means laying out beforehand like a blueprint.

You're going to build a house, you don't go out there and say, okay, I think I'll start putting the bricks up over here. Well, I was thinking about putting them up over here. No, you've got a blueprint. You know precisely what you're going to do.

God has had a plan, a blueprint. You know there was one time in eternity that there were only two beings. The one we know as the Father, the one we know as Christ, or the Word. There was nothing else. And they began to think, talk, discuss, and came up with the idea, would it not be great to share our existence, our level of living, our life with others? Now, how do you do that? And so they had to sit down and plan the plan of salvation out.

They had to plan it. How it was going to take place. One of them was going to have to die when man sinned. And they thought about making man physical. Why? If man totally rejects God's way, they can be thrown in the lake of fire and destroyed. But how is God going to give to a person eternal life? What's it going to be based upon? So they had to figure all of this out. And if they were going to exist in a physical dimension, they had to create that dimension. So God created the earth, created our solar system, created the whole universe, everything that we know. Now, how did God take spirit and make matter? Well, that's a whole different discussion. But God had to be able to do that. All we know is that God is all-powerful. He has ultimate power and energy. Somehow God is able to take energy and compact it in different ways to come up with different substances. Now, exactly how He does that, those are the deep things of God that we cannot comprehend. Even if God told you, I don't think you could comprehend what He'd be talking about. But God has done that. He planned it all out. And as it says here in verse 11, according to the counsel of His will. The two of them counseled, but what did they counsel about or with? With His will. So what was God's will? Well, behind the plan of God, behind the counsel of God, was not just a mastermind, but was a heart.

It was a heart of love and good pleasure. The plan of salvation rose from the very being of God. And what is God like? God is love. God is full of grace. And so you find that God created the plan of salvation. And it came from His love of wanting to share His existence with others. As the Bible says, God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son. He was willing to give His Son to make it all come to pass. Christ was crucified, it says, before the foundation of the world. And so this was all planned before the physical creation. So God wanted to share His level of life, His level of existence, and all of this flowed from His very being. Now with His mind, He had to figure it all out, but He was motivated out of love, out of His will, out of His heart's desire. Now with that in mind, let's go over to Luke 12 in verse 31. Luke 12, and we will begin here in verse 31. Luke 12, 31. It says, But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you.

Notice verse 39. Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. And we find that it is God's good pleasure. It pleases God to give us His kingdom, His kingdom, His family. You'd be born into that family and that kingdom of God.

So if you ask the question, what makes God happy, excited, what pleases Him? Well, it's the fact that He can give to His children eternal life. They can give to His children immortality. That He can give to us and share with us His level of living. He delights. Another version translates it this way. Your Father delights to give you the kingdom. The NIV says, Your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. You know the expression, to be well pleased? Remember what God the Father said about His Son, Jesus Christ, in Matthew 3.17, when He was baptized, came up out of the water. It says, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Same word. Same word. When He was talking about Christ, He talks about us. That God is well pleased to give us His kingdom. That's what this creation is all about. That's why your existence is all about. The whole creation and plan of salvation is that the human family can eventually join the God family or the kingdom of God and live forever on that level without all of the kickbacks and the problems and the woes and the sufferings and the misery and the problems that we have as human beings. But God, we can live on God's level. So God is not a harsh monster. He's not an org. He's not a stern judge. He's someone who wants to share everything with us. Notice Psalm 16 and verse 11. Psalm 16 verse 11, an amazing scripture. You stop to think about it. Chapter 16 here and verse 11.

David says, you will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy, and in your right hands are pleasure evermore.

Now, have you ever expressed joy? As it says here, fullness of joy. You know, one of the fruits of God's spirit is joy, but you and I only experience joy on the physical level. Now, once we're in God's kingdom, our abilities to experience things, to understand our minds will be so expanded in our abilities that we will experience joy to its fullness.

Wouldn't you like to just be joyful and happy and excited and exuberant all the time? And then, as it goes on to say here also, on your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

You and I would truly enjoy pleasures. I've had sometimes young adults tell me, well, I hope the kingdom doesn't come too soon, because I'd like to get married and have some pleasure in life. You enjoy life, enjoy marriage and family. You know, and I understand that, to be married, have children, you know, have a family. However, you realize that there are going to be pleasures in the kingdom that we know nothing about. You know, God is going to have us do things, experience things that are going to bring pleasure that will surpass anything on the human level, because it's on the spirit level. God laughs. God learns. God is Almighty, and He wants to share that with us. Let's notice one other scripture over here in the book of Malachi, Malachi 3 and verse 16. Malachi 3.16.

And we read this, Then those who fear the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard. So a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on His name. You realize that God listens to our conversations.

God listens to what you say. Who's this talking about? It was talking about those who fear God, who meditate on His name. Well, that's talking about us, that we fear God. We have the right respect and honor and love for God. Let's notice in verse 17.

They shall be mine, says the Lord of Hosts, on the day that I make them my jewels, and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son who serves him. So God says, we will be His mine, and I will make them my jewels.

Now that word for jewels, if you'll notice the margin, means something precious. The New International Version says, we will become His treasured possession. His treasured possession, my own special property. The word jewels, our treasured possession, here means something that has great value, tremendous value, not just like a diamond ring, but something that is so much more precious than that, that you can't even begin to think about it. My special treasure. The only thing I can think of on this earth that would even be comparable, that maybe we might comprehend, are the royal crown jewels. Any of you seen those in the Tower of London? My wife and I have been there, seen those a couple of times. You see all of these beautiful jewels, and you look at those, and I thought, I wonder how much these are worth. Well, everybody has his own idea. I read one, I looked it up on Google, how much are the royal jewels worth? You get various answers. One place has said something like 20 million pounds or 39 million dollars. Another one said 20 billion dollars. It's probably somewhere in between. Estimated probably 4 or 5 billion dollars. Just to give you an example, the diamond in the royal scepter, the Star of Africa, is a loan estimated to be worth 400 million dollars. Just that one diamond. We're not talking about a little half-carat, third diamond. We're talking about a diamond, and it's worth that much money.

Now, there's no way of really knowing the true value, because that collection is priceless.

You cannot steal it and try to sell it on the market. You couldn't get anything for it, because it's priceless. You probably wouldn't have the money, but if you ever showed it, people would know where it came from. So even though it's priceless, it's not worth anything to anyone. Now, why do I mention this? Because in God's sight, we are priceless. We are His special treasure. He looks at us as having more worth than the royal crown, certainly, and the royal jewels. God looks at us, and we are His precious children. We're the ones that He loved so much that He created the plan of salvation. He was willing to give His Son. Christ was willing to come and die for us to make it possible for us to be in His family. Now, does God know that we're human? Sure, He does. Does He know that we sin? Certainly. Does He know that we make mistakes? Absolutely. But you remember in Psalm 103, it says, God looks on us, He pities us, as a father does His children. We've all had children. How many times have you told your child, don't slam the door? Don't slam the door? Don't slam the door? And they keep slamming it. Norma used to say, they don't need a mother, they need a tape recorder. You know, they're always repeating, doing the same thing. So you just hit the button and play it all over again. But God pities us. God is very concerned about us. One final scripture over here. Let's go over to the book of Ephesians, chapter 5. As I said, the book of Ephesians is a special book in the Bible containing so much. But Ephesians 5, it talks about a man and woman and marriage, the rules, the laws that govern marriage. But as we find out, this is talking about Christ and the church. Let's notice in verse 28. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own body. And he who loves his wife loves himself. Now it says, yet no one ever hated his own flesh, but he nourishes it and cherishes it just as the Lord does the church. God loves us and he nourishes us. The word nourish means to feed, to take care of, to make sure that if you nourish somebody, you're going to make sure they have food, clothing, and shelter. You're going to make sure they get proper food to eat and they're nourished and they're taken care of. And he cherishes us. You cherish somebody. That's a prized possession. That's something you care about. You know, that you love. You cherish it. An iron skillet. I'm taking an iron skillet.

Well, I like it. But hey, I could throw that thing around. You never break an iron skillet.

You know, you might slam it in the cupboard and so on. But if you've got a beautiful vase, and maybe it's from Tiffany, and it's made out of cut glass or crystal, and you paid, somebody paid $1,000 for it, you've got it. What do you do with it? Well, you put it somewhere where you can't break it. You cherish that. You look at it. You don't throw an iron skillet in with it. Now, we are the prized possessions of God. He cherishes us. He takes care of us.

We are His prized possession. Now, let's notice verse 32.

This is a great mystery, he says, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. This is how Jesus Christ takes care of the church. He nourishes it. He cherishes it.

And when God looks down on you, He looks down on us as His children. We're His sons and His daughters. Christ looks on us as His brothers, His sisters, but also as His bride. And we need to realize that God is very, very concerned for us. He deeply appreciates us. He's called us. Stop and think about it. You've been handpicked by God Almighty. You've been chosen by Him. He's granted you repentance. He's given you His Spirit. He works with you daily. He's striving to help you to be in His kingdom. He forgives us our sins when we repent. He works with us. Christ works with us so that we can be in the very family of God.

We have been chosen, set aside, set apart. We are a holy people, and we've been called to be a part of that family, to share eternity with God. And eternity is something, again, one of the deep things of God that you and I don't understand. Eternity is not time. Eternity is eternity. You just live. And time is based upon physical earth turning, moon going around the earth, earth and moon going around the sun. That's where you get time. It doesn't affect God. He just lives. He exists. And one day we will step into that dimension, and we will live with God. Joyful, pleasurable, existence forever. So God has called us now to change.

And now is the time for us to develop Godly character. That's what this life is all about. Our changing now is from the carnal mind, carnal character into the spirit mind, the spirit approach. And we'll be in God's kingdom. And then, in the resurrection, God will give us a spirit body, and we will be able to live forever. So, brethren, remember, as you go about your life, approach the feast, never forget every morning when you get up. Tell yourself, I am part of God's special treasure.