Prologue

Well, thank you, Mr. Richards. Good afternoon, everyone. It always feels a little bit strange to compliment the choir when you're a part of it. It just feels a little weirdly narcissistic, so just want to mention the hard work that the choir has put in. Thank the director and the members of the choir for putting that together. It is a pleasure to be here with you all and Ben Redmond to keep the Feast of Tabernacles in the place where our God has chosen to place his name. You know, it's been a few years since my wife and I have been here. In fact, we were sitting around the table this morning trying to figure out when the last time was, and we concluded that my youngest daughter was three. It's been 2015. It was the last time that we were here with you all. We look so much forward to spending the feast with you, getting a chance to reconnect with those that we already know, and getting a chance to get to know some of those that we haven't yet had a chance to meet. Well, as Mr. Richards mentioned, I've been provided an opportunity this year to serve as the Assistant Festival Coordinator in hopes of learning the ropes so that he and his wife can transfer next year and spend the feast in a different location before returning and running the feast again the year following. So I'm hoping that we're able to do that well. And additionally, I've also been given a chance to speak twice this year, which is not new. I've had an opportunity to do that before at the Feast of Tabernacles, but this year is the first time that I've been assigned the sermon on the first Holy Day, as well as the afternoon sermon on the 8th. So I have a very unique opportunity this year that is not often afforded to speakers. I have sermons that literally bookend the Feast of Tabernacles. And so I thought, you know, since that's not frequent, since that doesn't happen all the time, let's leverage it. Let's leverage it. So for many of you who have kept the Feast of Tabernacles for a number of years, you recognize that during the feast there are certain concepts, there are certain themes that are going to ultimately be discussed. You guys know there are going to be certain scriptures that we turn to and topics that we cover that are just part of the symbolism of these days. Those scriptures, these topics, these themes, these subjects, are going to ultimately paint us a picture of what this incredible coming time is going to be like. So there is a certain story that is going to be kind of told to us over the next eight days.

I don't know about you guys. I absolutely love a well-crafted story. I love a well-crafted story. I like to read. Honestly, I wish I had a little more time to read than I do. I've actually taken an old iPad and turned it into kind of an e-reader, and I drag that thing around with me everywhere. And I read in three and four and five minute bursts as I have time here, as I have time there. I certainly wish I was able to carve out more time into my life to just curl up with a good book, but at this point, I haven't quite figured out how to do that.

I tend to enjoy books personally with a lot of connections and a lot of twists. I like books that keep you on your toes. I like a book that you're reading, and there's this detail that's so early on you completely overlook it. Seems so not important at all. But then, by the end of the story, that detail has circled back around to become one of the most important parts of the story. And as a reader, I just missed it. I love books like that. I love books where the author keeps you on your toes, where there's more to the main characters and the secondary characters than meets the eye. And I like being put in a place by the author where I can't guess what comes next. I know some of you like your books to be a bit more predictable. You don't maybe like your roller coaster ride in your book like I do, but I love that roller coaster ride. That's enjoyable. To me. I'm also the kind of person that has a very hard time putting a book down once I've started it. I get going and I don't want to put it down. I don't want my three and four minute burst to be over. I want to just keep going. And I think I would probably end up just reading the entire thing if I didn't have anything else to do. I didn't have any anything else that was kind of pulling on me. But I'm one of those that it just drives me crazy to leave the story unfinished. Just drives me crazy to leave the story unfinished. I can't watch serialized television for the exact same reason. I cannot wait for the next episode of the season or the series and don't even get me started on books that wait three or four or five years in between books of a series. Drives me insane. Just drives me insane. Typically, I reach a point sometimes when I'm reading that I get to the point where that plot is now right there almost at the climax of the plot and I have to finish it. I can't just stop there. And I've had conversations with myself before. It's only 11 o'clock.

200 pages left. What could possibly go wrong? I can tell you what can go wrong. The next day is what goes wrong, typically. And I'm always reminded that it's not always such a great idea at times to go through that process. You might call it a lack of discipline. I just like to think of it as not being a quitter. So, and I know I'm not the only one that suffers from this affliction. Many of you are also readers, but if you think back to a book that you've read recently, chances are very good that that book contained a prologue and it contained an epilogue.

Thinking back on the book that you've read, the prologue is that chapter which comes before the beginning of the story. It sets up the necessary details. It sets up the story and its characters. It sets up kind of what is to come, and then that epilogue ends up kind of summing up the story at the end and provides key details about those characters going forward. Like many of our words in English, both of these words originally come from the Greek language. Our modern word prologue is made up of two Greek words, pro, which means before, and logos, which means word. Therefore, a prologue is quite literally before the word. Whereas epi means in addition to, logos again means word, so the epilogue, what follows the story, is in addition to the word. These two chapters once again bookend the story that is contained within that novel.

Brethren, this year there is going to be a story that is told over the days that we're together keeping the feast. That story involves God the Father, it involves Jesus Christ, it involves God's incredible plan for mankind, it involves a world that finally has an opportunity to live without Satan's influence. It involves our role as kings and priests in that world. It involves a time of healing and abundance. It involves the restoration of all things, and it revolves around this coming millennium and the kingdom of God. And brethren, it's a story of a coming time that mankind needs desperately. A time that mankind needs desperately, and it's an ultimate fulfillment of 6,000 years of human history and our failed attempts at ruling ourselves.

What has brought us to this point where God has to intercede? How did we get here? Where are we going? How can having an understanding of what has come before inform our understanding of the importance of the story that we are going to hear this week? In case you haven't already guessed it, the title of the sermon today is prologue. Let's turn over to John 1. John 1, if you'd go ahead and turn to the Gospel of John. We're going to begin there today. John 1, and we'll pick it up in verse 1.

John 1 and verse 1. We'll go ahead and pick it up. It says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

You know, in this passage of John 1, we see an incredible amount of information recorded in very few words. I mean, really, truly, when you look at what John wrote here, it's incredible. We see that in the beginning was the Word, the Logos, the divine utterance or saying, what we sometimes refer to as the spokesman of God. We see this being existed. We see there's a relationship between this being and God, and we see that there's an identification of this being as being divine, inherent in just the opening statement of John's Gospel. It goes on to tell us this individual was in the beginning with God, pre-existent and eternal. Verse 14, skip down just a little bit here to verse 14. Verse 14 says, and the Word, the Logos, became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And so we see this being identified as the one who became Jesus Christ. He became flesh, he dwelt among us as the only begotten of the Father. After a short ministry on this earth, this being Jesus Christ was crucified. He spent three days and three nights in the grave, was resurrected, and is now currently sitting at the right hand of God, awaiting the time when the Father determines it is time for him to return. When finally man has reached the point where God the Father says, now. Now is the time. And it's this return that begins the story that we'll hear this week, because it's at this return that the kingdoms of this world transition to their rightful ruler, to our King. It's at this return that the millennial reign of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God begins, and it's at this return that marks really the transition point between the prologue and the story that we are going to hear about this week. So what is the prologue? What is prologos? What occurred before this point, this time of Christ's return, that made that return and this coming kingdom so incredibly crucial to God's plan for mankind?

We're going to take a look at that today. And to do that, we're going to start by turning over to the book of Genesis. We're going to make kind of a survey course here through some of the history that we see recorded for us in the Bible. Let's start with Genesis 6, and we're going to pick it up in verse 5 to begin with. Genesis 6 and verse 5.

It reads as follows, it says, Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth. And notice this next sentence. And that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Verse 6, what's God's response? The Lord was sorry that he'd made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart. So the Lord said, I will destroy you, whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them. But we see in verse 8 that Noah, and ultimately Noah's family, found grace in the eyes of the Lord. You know, when you add up the genealogies from Adam to Noah, you get a period of just a little over a thousand years. Noah was 600, it says, when the water's prevailed upon the earth. So you want to take those two numbers and combine them together. We are talking about 1500 years or so, between 1500 and 1600 years, for man to reach a point that God determined something had to be done. That was all it took. Was essentially 1500 years for mankind's every intent of the thoughts of his heart to be evil continually. 1500 years to go from the creation of man to a point where mankind as a whole saved Noah and his family, frankly, was a total loss.

That's all it took. Now, if you think about the rest of human history since that point, about another 4,500 years of human history gives you enough time for three years to get to the 1500 years of human history gives you enough time for three more of those 1500 year cycles. Again, roughly. Not a mathematician. It was close. Good enough for government work, as they say, right?

In those times and in those additional cycles, have things improved?

No. No, they honestly haven't. In fact, the only thing that's really prevented mankind from being wiped out over and over again was God's own covenant, his own faithfulness to his promise, which stayed his hand. That's been the only thing that has saved us from something like this happening again. You know, as God has gone on, he's worked with specific groups of individuals, with nations. He began to work with the descendants of Shem, the Semitic people. Fast forward a little bit. God works with Abraham. He works with his son Isaac. He works with his grandson Jacob and his great-grandchildren, what we know to be the 12 sons of Jacob and the tribes of Israel. God worked mighty miracles, freeing them from their bondage in Egypt. He led them through the wilderness. Led them through the wilderness. He thundered his law from Mount Sinai. And again, after 40 years, wandering around in the wilderness until that generation of those that had grieved God in the wilderness had died, their children were eventually delivered into the Promised Land as God promised. Israel grew. God blessed them exceedingly. They grew. They developed into a powerful nation. And they grew into a nation of people that cycled between obedience and disobedience based upon their leadership and the strength of their priesthood. But when you look at Israel, and when you consider God's people through time, time and time again, their weakness consistently was the heart of their people. Their heart was not continually climbed to God. It was inclined towards other gods. It was inclined towards themselves. In Deuteronomy 31, you want to begin turning over there, God tells Moses ultimately what is about to come after his death. Israel, and just keep in mind here, Israel, there's an exercise that they go through here in the passages leading up to this. They went through the blessings and the cursings, and they went through them in kind of a remarkable fashion, really, in the way that they did this. What they did, Moses and the Levites kind of were down in the valley below two mountain slopes. And Moses and the Levites would shout up from the valley floor to the Israelites, who were six tribes on one slope and six tribes on the other up these slopes of Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. And they would shout up these blessings and these cursings, and the whole host of Israel would say, amen! Amen! We agree. We understand. We get it as they're shouting these things up, and as the people ultimately are agreeing to them. The whole nation participated in this exercise. Through this explanation of these curses later on, God provided Moses in chilling detail exactly what was to pass should they disobey. And he didn't even really leave the should on there. God told them what would happen when they disobeyed. We see that he leaves Israel with a choice that was set before them. God says, you can live in accordance with my ways and be blessed, or you can disobey and be cursed. He said, look, I want you to choose life. I want you to make the right choice. But then he tells Israel, but it is your choice, and it is your decision. Then again, in Deuteronomy 31, we see that he speaks to Moses, and he informs Moses ultimately of what is to come. Deuteronomy 31, and we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 16.

Deuteronomy 31 and verse 16 says, and the Lord said to Moses, behold, you will rest with your fathers. Moses, you're going to die. And this people will rise and play the harlot with the gods of foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will forsake me and break my covenant which I have made with them. God says, Moses, this is what's going to happen.

They are going to forsake me. Then my anger shall be aroused against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured. Many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that day, have not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us. And I will surely hide my face in that day, because of all the evil which they have done, in that they have turned to other gods.

He goes on in verse 19, therefore write down this song for yourselves, and teach it to the children of Israel. Put it in their mouths that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel. When I, verse 20, have brought them to the land flowing with milk and honey, of which I swore to their fathers, and they have eaten, and they have filled themselves, and they have grown fat, then they will turn to other gods and serve them, and they will provoke me, and they will break my covenant. When things started going well for Israel, they had a moment of, what do we need God for?

Verse 21, then it shall be when many evils and troubles have come upon them, that this song will testify against them as a witness, for it will not be forgotten in the mouths of their descendants, for I know the inclination of their behavior today. It says, I know what they're going to do today, even before I've brought them into the land of which I swore to give them. And we see Moses wrote the song and taught it to the children of Israel that day.

God tells Moses, look, write this down in a song and pass it on to the people so they will realize that when this happens, that I saw this coming from a mile away.

Why did this happen? Why did this occur?

Because when it comes down to it, Israel did not have the heart to faithfully keep what God had instructed. Their hearts were inclined towards other things. A few chapters back in Deuteronomy 5, when God spoke the law to the people from the mountain, the people said, look, we don't want to hear God's voice. He's kind of scary. Tell you what, God, you tell Moses, Moses, you go ahead and tell us, and then we'll just agree to everything. That's essentially what happened, you know, more or less.

And God said, I've heard the voice of the words of this people, which they've spoken to you. They are right in all that they've spoken. But he goes on to say, oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear me and always keep my commandments, that it might be well with them and their children forever. You know, God laments that Israel would not keep what they agreed to.

Israel as a whole did not have that heart. They continued to disobey God. Some of God's people throughout time did. Some of God's people throughout that time did have that heart, did have God's spirit, but as a whole, the nation did not receive it at that time.

When they disobeyed, we see God removed his hand of protection. He removed their blessings.

There are times in Israel's history, you know, it blows me away when I hear about this. You know, there are times in Israel's history where the law was hidden for so long that when they found the book of the law and blew the dust off of it and read what was inside, they kind of had this moment of, what is this? It reached that point in Israel's history where it was a surprise to them what God had instructed. Again, they disobeyed God, removed that hand of protection. He removed that blessing. He sent prophet after prophet to warn Israel of their sins. Israel often ignored them. At times, he put them to death in complete open rebellion against the word of God. You know, kind of an interesting, somewhat of a twist in the story. The Bible records that the city of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire, heeded God's word via the prophet and repented in sackcloth and ashes, and his own people would not. That tells you a little bit about what was happening with God's own chosen people at that time. Let's go over to the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah was sent to Judah in the time, essentially right before their captivity at the hands of the Babylonians, and he was sent with a prophetic message to Judah that said, Judah, you need to turn back. You guys are just all over the place. You need to return to your God. You need to turn away from your idolatry. You need to return to the Lord. And for Jeremiah's efforts, what did he receive? He was mocked. He was ridiculed. Eventually imprisoned.

They didn't listen. Jeremiah 7, God outlines Judah's problems. Jeremiah 7, he kind of outlines the issues that they were experiencing. He said that Israel and Judah in this case, sorry, they walked after other gods to their own hurt.

That they set out after these other gods, the gods of the nations around them. They oppressed one another. They took advantage of one another. They shed innocent blood. And the list goes on.

Despite Jeremiah's warnings, despite the numerous prophets that came before, they simply wouldn't hear. And in verse 20, God ultimately describes what's to come. Jeremiah 7 in verse 20. Jeremiah 7 in verse 20 says, Therefore, thus says the Lord God, behold, my anger and my fury will be poured out on this place, on man and on beast, on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground, and it will burn and not be quenched. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat. For I did not speak to your fathers or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices, but this is what I commanded them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people, and walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you. Yet in verse 24, we see they didn't obey or incline their ear, but they followed instead the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts, and they went backward and not forward. Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have even sent to you all my servants the prophets daily, rising up early and sending them. Yet they did not obey me or incline their ear, but stiffened their necks. And then he makes a statement that's kind of a tough one. He says, they did worse than their fathers, you know, speaking of that generation that came out of Egypt. Therefore, you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not obey you. You shall also call to them, but they will not answer you. You know, these were God's own chosen people. These were the descendants of Abraham, the ones whom the word revealed himself to, the ones whom he led through the wilderness and delivered into the promised land. And then continuously, time and time again, delivered them from their enemies. You know, the neighboring nations weren't any better. In fact, Israel copied many of their practices pretty frequently. At times, Israel passed their children through the fire. They committed incredible other abominations and atrocities in the names of these other gods. And sadly, as we see the story of humanity continue, as it goes on down through history, we don't see it change. We don't see it change. Down through the post-exilic period, Ezra and Nehemiah, they fought with their own people to get them to keep God's law. Nehemiah drug people around by their beard and hit them because they wouldn't listen. Brethren, humanity has a disease of the heart. Humanity has a disease of the heart. And just as pain that's radiating down the arm, you get a pressure and a tightness in the chest, you get indigestion, heartburn, cold sweat, fatigue, dizziness, that could indicate something a little more serious is going on, doesn't it? The symptoms of idolatry, symptoms of oppression, symptoms of all these other things that was going on, the shedding of innocent blood, disobedience, outright rebelliousness of humanity through the millennia, indicates something more serious is happening. If you go into your doctor's office and you say, hey doc, I got some pain in my left arm, I got some tightness in my chest, you know, it's kind of radiating down my neck, into my fingers, chances are really good your doctor's not going to say, tell you what, take these two ibuprofen, go on home, and give me a call tomorrow morning, let me know how you're doing. If he does, you need a new doctor, right?

No, they're going to recognize that these are the symptoms of something more serious.

You're going to be given a stress test, you're going to be given an EKG, they're going to make absolutely certain that you're not having a heart attack before you walk out of that office. At least they should be, making sure, because those symptoms indicate something more serious is happening. They're not going to just treat the symptom, they're not going to give you pain meds for the pain you're experiencing, they're not going to, you know, ultimately, you know, dab your forehead off and remove that that cold sweat you might be experiencing and say, all right, you're good to go. They're not going to treat the dizziness and isolation, they're going to take care of the core of the issue. They're going to fix what's really wrong.

The actions that we see in humanity throughout time go back through human history. The things that we see throughout time are symptoms of something much more serious. They are symptoms of a problem that, frankly, only God can take care of and that God himself can cure. They are problems of the heart. Now, as Mr. Richards mentioned, I have an opportunity to serve in English-speaking West Africa, and I've had a chance over the last few years to go over several times. And we serve the brethren in the congregations in Ghana and Nigeria, and they are wonderful, wonderful brethren who, by the way, send their festival greetings to you all.

I spoke with a couple of them yesterday, and they send their greetings from all of the brethren that are there. But as you might imagine, Ghana and Nigeria are both very economically disadvantaged countries when you compare them with more developed nations. Their economies have been improving. Median salary in Nigeria is about 460,000 Naira a month, which puts you right in the ballpark of about $1,200 U.S. That's median salary. 50% of the population of the country make less than that. Of course, 50% also then make more. In Ghana, it's a little bit less, right at about a thousand a month in the U.S.

Again, median income. But those numbers don't really tell the whole story. Most of your average folks, they work several small jobs. Many of them actually sell items from the storefront that's tacked onto the front of their home. They have little odd jobs here and there, and they kind of sell whatever they can to make ends meet. 23% of the population in Nigeria is unemployed.

23% unemployment rate in Nigeria. Ghana is significantly better at 7% in Ghana, and really it's a function of population. Nigeria is the seventh most populated country in the world. They have only about 130 million less people than the United States have, and they have all those people in a space the size of Washington, Oregon, Northern Idaho, and Western Montana.

So, 200 and roughly 76 million people into Pacific Northwest. And so you can imagine there's not a lot of jobs always to go around. They're both incredibly rich in resources. These countries, Ghana is sitting on gold reserves. They're sitting on rare earth metals. In fact, China has some very serious interest in Ghana right now, from a standpoint of mining off gold and rare earth metals. And Nigeria is sitting on the Akabami Reserve, which is located offshore of the Niger Delta, and it is a huge pocket of petroleum and natural gas.

It is an incredibly oil-rich country. Yet, despite all of these resources, despite all of these things, right now its people suffer. The corruption, the backroom deals that go on, make it so that many of the funds from these resources don't see the light of day. They don't even enter the economy of the country. They go straight to offshore accounts. They leave in foreign corporations. The individuals in the government who make it easier for the corporations to do business get kickbacks and bribes and other things as a way of saying thanks for allowing us to do the business that we're doing in this country.

Sometimes, we read occasionally stories where money just disappears and nobody can really explain where it went. One of the biggest ones within the last three or four years, the former First Lady of Nigeria, Patience Goodluck, was investigated for misappropriating US$31 million. Just went, whoops! Where did they go? They can't find them. They don't know where they went. There was another situation that kind of rocked Nigeria within the last few years, where US$2 billion worth of funds that were allocated for the military in their fight against Boko Haram just up and vanished.

Two billion US dollars gone. And yet, when you drive around in traffic through Lagos, through Accra, you have individuals who are racked with polio, begging for money and food on the sides of the road. Individuals who have no means of supporting themselves have no means of being able to care for themselves destitute. And in that same traffic, you've got government convoys going by in brand new Range Rovers wearing nice suits while the people suffer.

Brethren, that is a problem of the heart. That is a problem of the heart. That oppression. And you know, it's easy for us to sit and point that out. Ours is just as bad. We just don't see it.

There are just as many backroom deals that occur in our own country. We just don't see it as much. You know, what do you do in those situations? You give them money, short-term, for food, for whatever you can do. But honestly, we are putting a band-aid over an arterial bleed.

There is literally nothing that we, personally, as humans, can do to fix this problem and to the scope that it has become. It's not just Nigeria. It's not just Ghana. The developing world as a whole is experiencing these same issues. There was an update that just came out prior to leaving for the feast. Mr. Smith went down to Haiti and visited our brethren in Haiti. Okay, briefly, I mean, it was literally a touch and go because of the violence in the situation that's going on in Haiti. They said they are going to keep the feast this year in Haiti, but what they're going to do is have services early because the riots and the violence don't start until later in the afternoon.

That's brilliant. Get together. Serve. Keep the feast. But brethren, our brethren around the world are experiencing these things as a result, again, of issues of the heart. Humanity is in desperate need of a heart transplant. Desperate need of a heart transplant. You know, God promised a time of restoration to come. He promised a time when this problem of the heart will be dealt with. If you want to begin turning over to Ezekiel 11, we'll go ahead and pick it up in Ezekiel 11 here in a minute. But we have to keep in mind, as we are here to commemorate these days and to be here for the symbolism of what these days represent, that these days, this kingdom of God, this millennium, that we are here to commemorate is the only hope for mankind.

The only hope for these individuals who are dealing with this kind of life in various places around the world. Let's go over to Ezekiel 11. Again, Ezekiel 11. You know, God promises this time of restoration. He promises that, you know, it will be taken care of. He promises that there's a time when the problems of the heart will be dealt with. Again, Ezekiel 11, he kind of describes primarily to Israel here in this particular passage, but he describes a time where he'll gather them from the Gentile nations to which they've been scattered. He'll restore them to their homeland. And in verse 17 of Ezekiel 11, look at the words that are recorded. Look at the way that God chose to describe this to the people. Verse 17 of Ezekiel 11, therefore, say, thus says the Lord God, I will gather you from the peoples, assemble you from the countries where you've been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. And they will go there, and they will take away all of its detestable things and all of its abominations from there, and then I will give them one heart. And I will put a new spirit within them and take the stony heart, that human heart that we have before our time of conversion, that stony heart, will take that out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh. Verse 20, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my judgments and do them, and they shall be my God, or they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

Verse 21, but as for those whose hearts followed a desire for their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their deeds on their own heads, says the Lord God.

The people of Israel will receive a new heart.

They will receive a new heart. They will become malleable. They will become a people that God can work with. They will become a people that are willing to obey, that aren't always trying to run the other direction. But they will become a people who will obey. They will be cut to the heart by their collective sins. They will repent, and they will turn to God, and they will receive His instruction with joy and with gladness. They will be restored. But you know, this promise it's not just a physical Israel. We know that on the day of Pentecost in 31 A.D., when the events that occurred on that day that in part fulfilled what we see in Joel 2, we know God's Spirit was poured out upon those who were gathered. And that Spirit enabled those individuals to have the proper heart to accept the gospel of the kingdom of God, gave them the proper heart to be able to repent of their sins and to be able to turn to God. The Israel of God began on that day. God's ecclesia began largely on that day. There was a small group of brethren at that point who were united in their belief in God and Jesus Christ. They had God's Spirit dwelling in them, which enabled them to transform their lives, to transform that heart of stone to a heart of flesh.

And the beginnings of that ecclesia really were small, kind of like a mustard seed. And as the number of those believers grew, as that way, as we've heard it described, increased, you know, people around them became kind of worried. Read some of the stories in the New Testament, the people of Ephesus rioted as a result of thinking they were going to lose their economic, you know, ventures in their idol-making. We see descriptions of individuals that were described that everywhere these people went, the world was turned upside down.

Why was that? Why was that?

Largely because these individuals lived their lives with conviction.

They didn't say one thing and do another. They followed through on what they said they believed in. These individuals were willing to be beaten, willing to die for what they believed in.

The changes in their lives were evident. You know, when you see the original, the time when the Apostle Paul ends up showing up for the first time, you know, and on the door, you know, slide the little slider back and close the slider real quick. Hey, guys, Saul's outside. Should we run? Where's the back door? What are we doing here? Barnumis goes up and says, well, let's let him in. Let's see what's going on here, you know, after a little bit of a conversation there. The change in their life became evident. Now, as time's gone on, that opportunity has been offered to a number of individuals whom God has called in preparation of developing a group of individuals, an advanced force, so to speak, who will serve in the kingdom to come. Brethren, you are that advanced force. That's you. That is what you have been called to do. That is what you're being trained to do. That's what you're learning to do as you go through this life each and every day interacting with people. You are that advanced force. You're that small group of people that God has chosen at this time to bear his holy name, to carry as a vessel for his spirit, going out into the world around us that doesn't agree with what we do, that doesn't believe fully in the God that we believe in. You've been chosen to be the ones who go out and to light up that darkness. That is your calling. That is your incredible opportunity and a huge responsibility. You have become ambassadors and you have been given an opportunity to make sense of God's culture, to make sense of God's kingdom, to this world that does not understand and has largely rejected God in his ways. The coming kingdom of God that we are here to commemorate and which these days symbolize is the only hope for mankind. It's the only solution that effectively solves the problems we're experiencing. It is not going to be solved politically. It's not going to be solved economically. It's not going to be solved socially. Our current US president, our next US president, will not solve this problem. The UN cannot touch it. Science is not going to fix it. The only hope for mankind is the kingdom of God. No matter how hard humanity tries, no matter how hard man attempts to pull itself up by its bootstraps, Jesus Christ's return and the kingdom of God is the only solution that mankind has. The only hope that mankind has. God has to come and set this world straight. Jesus Christ must return and bring about the kingdom of God these days that we are here commemorating in symbolism of what they represent today. But I think it's really important for us to consider. You know, we're going to hear some incredible things as the rest of this week goes on that begin to build this story. We're going to hear some incredible things about what this kingdom entails. But none of what is coming in that kingdom, none of what we will discuss this week, matters one iota if the heart in man is not changed. We will be right back where we started again if that does not happen. This heart of stone that dwells in man at this time, if it is not replaced with a heart of flesh, with a heart that is malleable and willing to listen and willing to obey and willing to change, there will be no difference from what we've seen in the last 6,000 years of human history. Brethren, it's that crucial. The disease of the heart is what has brought us here. It is the core of the story of prologos. It is the core of the prologue before the word returns.

That disease of the heart has resulted in atrocities and genocide. It has resulted in corruption and injustice. As Jeremiah wrote, the heart of man is desperately wicked.

Now you fast forward to today, okay, we'll just zip up through history just a smidge. That disease of the heart has resulted in a world full of people that are just carrying on with their lives. In some cases, they're blissfully ignorant of their sins.

In other cases, they are in open rebellion against God and what He represents.

We have a world around us that is just churning forward with really no idea that just like the flood came in the days of Noah, so too will the return of Jesus Christ be. They're just churning along, life just doing everything normal, not recognizing what is coming. People today scoff, they mock God, they scoff, and they mock His believers. Some refuse to believe in Him or acknowledge Him at all. But the return of Jesus Christ that begins the millennium and the Kingdom of God will be impossible to deny. It will be seen around the world, and the change in attitude that is going to come from the events of Christ's return and ultimately from God's Spirit dwelling within the people of the millennium is stark when you consider the attitude that we see around us today. I'd like to turn over to a final passage here today. Go to Isaiah 2. Always blows me away how God works. It was a passage that was used this morning on the introductory video. It was the words and the theme and the inspiration of the song that the choir sang today. And then here we are wrapping up the first sermon of the Feast of Tabernacles on the Holy Day with the same passage. And I'm sure it won't be the last time you hear it this week. Isaiah 2. Let's go ahead and pick it up in verses 1, and we'll read through verse 4.

Isaiah 2, verse 1 says, The word that Isaiah the son of Amaz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, now shall come to pass in the latter days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it.

Verse 3, Many people shall come, and they shall say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations and rebuke many people. They shall beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, and neither shall they learn war anymore. Can you hear the excitement in their voice? Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He'll teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths.

Now there's an excitement there. Those are the words of a people whose heart has been changed.

The words of a people's whose heart has become malleable and teachable, and they have a thirst for the knowledge of God. That time is not now. That's not today. You go out and look around us. That is not now, but it's coming, and it's the time that we're here to commemorate this week, and a crucial aspect of the story. You know, at the time, if you look at where we are in the timeline, brethren, we're in the prologue. We're in the beginning of the story. We're in the period before Christ returned, but someday, hopefully very soon, the Messiah will return, and the story of the kingdom of God will begin in earnest. So settle back in your chairs this week. Get comfortable and listen to the story that God has written for mankind. It's a story of restoration and redemption. It's a story of transformation and joy. Brethren, it is a story you are not going to want to put down. You're going to want to talk about it with other people and discuss it. You're going to want to meditate on it and think about it and consider it, consider your place in it. Most of all, and most importantly, you're going to want to live it during these eight days that we're here together.

What's important to consider about this is that this is not the conclusion of the story of humanity. Brethren, it is only the beginning.