Seek Ye First

Well, good morning, everyone, and thank you, Lizzie, for that presentation. We appreciate very much special music time you took to prepare for it. Now, say, welcome back to all of you. We got back on Wednesday night, and Thursday we were just wiped out. We were in Oceanside, California. Had a wonderful feast, great time. They had over about 100 more than they had anticipated. Some thought maybe even 200 more on the first day, but I don't think so. Robin Weber said they didn't have 200 more, but they did have more than they anticipated in Oceanside.

It was a wonderful feast. What was real special for us, we saw over 20 ABC graduates. They were from all the different areas from the Northwest, from different areas, and we were really excited to see them. We saw a lot of former Ambassador College students that we knew and loved for the years, and that was so great. One thing about this year's feast was a different one for us, because my wife, she's not here today, she had problems with her sciatica. I think the last day, I think Mr. McNeely saw her hobbling down the hall, clutching the hall all the way down, and she had sciatica nerve damage.

It happened just about a week before we were ready to leave, and so she went to the acupuncturist, and he worked on her, and that sort of relieved it somewhat, and did it twice, just the day of atonement, the day before atonement, the evening began, and she had that done again. So she felt good enough to go, but our whole goal was to get her to the feast, through the feast, and back. So she stayed home today to relax.

She's walking better. She has a hurricane, so she could lean on that side, not put so much weight on her left side, but she's doing better. She probably could have pushed her effort to come, but she wanted to stay back and relax today. A lot of sitting, a lot of legs hanging down, a lot of walking. The place we stayed at the beach had two flights of stairs, long flights of stairs, and so we stayed in the basement, which is the main area.

The master bedroom was down there, so she had to climb one set of stairs. We had an off strategy. She climbed one set of stairs, and then that's where the living area and kitchen is, and then she'd have to climb one more to get up to the main floor for us to go. So once she came up the first time, she stayed up, and any other running had to do, I did. But it was really nice about it, though.

Delta Airlines did have wheelchair service available, and boy were they nice. There was somebody there as soon as we got to the airport. They were right there to pick her up, wheeled her to the right through the gate, right through the lines, right to the front of the, and right basically to the door of the plane.

And she was able to then go on, sit on, and no problem there. We had our seats, and we arrived in Los Angeles. An Indian lady was the one who wheeled her. And we had forgot, I had forgotten that. I didn't pay attention too much to who she was.

I'm just happy that we made it safely and all that. But when we came, when we came back to Los Angeles to return, it was the same lady, and she recognized us. She was so nice to my wife. She actually hugged her when we said goodbye. She was just that nice to take her to the plane again. And then we arrived here in Cincinnati. They met us with a wheelchair. She was able to come back. So that was all taken care of very nicely. Our daughter Jan, who also, our whole family was out there, our daughter Jan flew back a day early.

So she met us at the airport, and we were able to come home. So it was a different feast for us. But we stood around. We sat a lot in the heart of hearing area because the deaf, there was one person there, his very first feast, he'd only been coming to church about, I think, a week.

And he read the article, read the Holy Days. He said, I should be keeping the feast. He works at Cheesecake Factory as a waiter or serve a debt. I'm asking off. So he got off as many days as he could. And he came there, and they asked, does anybody here know how to translate or to do deaf translation?

And so Jan volunteered, and three others did as well. So there were four different translators. And he would sit up there in the front, and he loved it. He was there almost from the first Holy Day. He was up there about four times, and so they all shared different opportunities. Well, he got to know us so well. He found out at the end that Ambassador Bible Center meeting or Bible College meeting, he came. He wants to come to Ambassador Bible College. He said, and Jan's here, so she didn't know what Mrs. McNeely can do or whatever we can do to come and translate for him while he's here if he decides to come. But it was a really nice young man.

And we see him serving the senior citizens. We're sitting there, and there he is in line helping serve senior citizens. Just a really nice young man, probably in his early 20s. But it was, that was really a highlight for us to see him. And then one other highlight was, after services on the last day, the eighth day, I had given the morning sermon, and I was standing around, and this guy came up to me with... No, it wasn't after that time. It was just earlier, before that time. He came up to me, and he said, sir, would you mind coming over and meeting my wife?

I said, sure. And he broke into tears. Why is he crying? Is his wife hurt? I thought, something wrong? No, he said, on our way over, he was driving his tears. He said, I'm so glad that you're willing to come. And I said, of course, I'm... Who am I? That I would, you know, not come. So we walked over to see her. And here, in 1995, this woman called me when I was in Toronto, Canada, as the regional coordinator of that area. And she called me to ask about all the changes and what was happening. And I gave her direction, recommended some literature.

And she never met me since, but she hung in to the truth, to the Church of God, to the United.

And here, she wanted to meet me because she never met me. So I walked up, he told me her name, so I tapped her on the shoulder, and she gave me the biggest hug. And then before the feast, last day, after the last day, I made a point of going over to her and saying goodbye to her. But she said, you were my lifeline. You were the one that helped me to stick with the truth. You pointed me in the right direction. So kind of nice highlights of the feast. We enjoyed it very much, seeing all the all the Brethren there and sharing the Feast of Tabernacles, as I'm sure you did.

Well, we've just returned from a wonderful feast and last day or eighth day of the feast, picturing the Millennium and the final aspects of God's great plan for humankind.

Now we must wait. As was mentioned, I counted 194, but I wasn't sure 94 or 95, depending on Passover evening and Passover day. I counted 190-plus days. 194 is what I said. 190-plus, I'll call it. But we have to wait more than six months before we are able to reenact God's great plan for humankind as we begin in April, late April, I think it's April 22nd, for Passover. So that's a long stretch of time. Passover, of course, God's holy days, pictures Christ's sacrifice for us and for all people, unleavened bread, picturing the putting out of sin and putting on righteousness, Pentecost, picturing the precious Holy Spirit coming and the building and starting of the church, and also the unity that we may have through that one Holy Spirit. Trumpets pictures Christ's return in the time when we will be changed and all the saints dead and alive in Christ. And when Jesus Christ is named King of Kings and Lord of Lords, then we go to the Feast of Tabernacles, which is really about others.

It's about the world, the Millennial Rule of Jesus Christ with saints helping Him.

The Millennial Rule of Jesus Christ to establish peace on this earth and break in pieces, all these nations and help them become converted and come into the very Kingdom of God.

And then finally, after that, we have the last day, the eighth day. What about the rest of the dead? It answers that question. What about the rest of the dead? Those who didn't die in Christ and those who died as incorrigibly wicked. What about them? So with 190 days plus to go, we once again, when we once again will portray that great plan, what may we do to keep our focus? So we came back from the feast where we heard a lot about God's Kingdom. We heard various messages. We heard one on living water, a really good sermon. We heard another one about your name, your new name. That God names things what they are, what He calls them, and what is going to be your new name. Is it going to be Gary who's impatient? What is it going to be? I don't know what it's going to be. What is he going to call you? What is going to be your new name? So really good sermon about it. Cleverly presented, we heard about the vision, the liberation of the earth and mankind, the healing of the world and the healing of humans, both spiritually and physically. We heard about a vision of the kingdom. We heard lots of really fine messages, God's perspective. But now, what may we do to keep our focus during these next six months of, quote, darkness? Well, there is a well-known scripture. You probably know it well. It's found in Matthew 6, and it's verse 33. Matthew 6, verse 33. How may you maintain your focus? Your focus on the kingdom of God, your focus on eternal life, your focus on the soon-coming world-ruling kingdom of God Almighty. Matthew 6, in verse 33, we read this, but seek you first. That's the title of the sermon, by the way. Seek you first. The kingdom of God. And we usually stop there. Notice what else it says, and his righteousness.

Seek you first, the kingdom of God and his righteousness. It's not enough just to seek the kingdom, and it's not enough just to seek to be righteous. We must be seeking God's kingdom and his righteousness. Not the righteousness that we generate by ourselves, not the righteousness that comes from our, quote, goodness, unquote, because those are like filthy rags to God.

But the righteousness that comes from God through us, that's what we need to be seeking. So if we want to maintain our focus, if we want to keep our eyes up and looking and keep going strongly, we need to keep seeking God's kingdom, and we need to seek his righteousness. So those are the two aspects that I will cover in today's sermon. First, let's talk about God's kingdom. We need to remember the vision that we had. We need to remember what we were thinking, remember the moments at the feast where we were touched when we were moved. We need to remember that as we, as individuals, go through this next six months. Six dark months. You know, no holy days during this time. First, third, and seventh months are basically the times when God has his festivals. The rest of the months of the year, the Hebrew calendar, there are no festivals. And those festivals, as we know, picture the plan of God for salvation. And we need to keep our vision clear. And so remember what we saw. Remember what we heard. Maybe even go over some of those notes from time to time, especially the ones that you felt really moved you. Go over them. Think about them. Let them mull over. Let them mull over, be mulled over in your mind. Rehearse that vision often and, in fact, daily. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 6.10, he urged them to pray. Remember, pray. This is what you should pray daily. Pray thy kingdom come. So God's kingdom should be on the forefront of our minds every day. Every day we think about God's kingdom. Every day we think about, boy, what's going on in this world? And I'll explain to you in a few moments why it'll be easy to do that as we look at the world today. And the mess that it is in. We live in a world of moral decay. We live in a world where nations go against nations, where war is rife, where people are ready to fight at the drop of a hat, where killings people take their guns and take it out on people. What kind of a world is this? Where kids can't even go to school or college without fear? What kind of a world do we live in? And as we see that world, boy, it should make us want the world tomorrow. The glorious time when God's kingdom will be here, when there will be no more war.

And so contrast that as we see what's going on, as we see people lying, as we see people covering up.

No openness, no clarity, no willingness to admit wrong. I can't be wrong. You can't.

We'll see that in the second half. That's how you maintain God-righteousness. You can't just be righteous with God's righteousness. You slip and stumble. I slip and stumble. The Apostle Paul, who lived God's way, what did he say? Who's going to save me? I can't do it alone.

I'm sorry. People have a hard time saying that in this world today. But Matthew 6.10, part of the prayer that Jesus Christ gave as an example, model prayer, he urged us to pray for his kingdom to come. With all these world troubles, it shouldn't be too difficult to be praying that God straightens it out. And how many people say, we don't know what's going on. We don't know what's happening. I hear how many telecasters, how many anchors, saying, we don't know what's happening.

We don't know what's going on. Why is this happening? I can't believe that he would do this. I can't believe that he would let Russia swoop in and start taking over Syria and Iraq and form this union with Iraq and Iran and him and Syria, Russians and Syrians. I can't believe President Obama would do that. I can believe it. I can believe it. He just wants the United States to be in mediocre power. He doesn't believe the scriptures where God wanted Israel to lead the world to him, to show the world his way, and to have the power that God says that they ought to have. But he says, we will lose our power. So as we look out, as we see things, as we see Benghazi and the lies, and we see the cover-ups on personal servers that are subject to attack, cyber attack with the most sensitive information by a secretary of state. And we see that. We say, what's wrong with our world? I know what's wrong with it. It's people. We say, let's stop the guns. Okay, take away my guns. If I want to kill you, I'll take a knife. I'll give you poison in your water that I serve you. If I want to kill you, I don't have to have a gun. It comes from the heart.

They can't believe. Why is this happening? We could just take away the guns. Well, you don't take away the heart. If you take away the heart of stone and give them a heart that's inspired by God's Spirit, a heart of flesh inspired by God's Spirit, people don't act that way. People with the mind of Christ don't act that way. People who have wisdom, as Mr. Porter so eloquently spoke, don't act that way. The world's lacking in that. God's kingdom is coming. Psalms 2 verses 1 to 3 give you a couple scriptures to show you why we can pray for God's kingdom to come, and then give you some wonderful scriptures, just a few of the millennial scriptures that you can have. And I hope every time you read something in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, or the minor prophets, it talks about how wonderful God's kingdom is going to be. I hope you'll take note of those scriptures and turn to them often. I remember as a new Christian, I used to, when it says, pray about God's kingdom, every time I was on my knees, because I was looking for time to elongate so I could get a half an hour at least, and I used the Bible to help me. So I would look for those scriptures, and I would pick out Isaiah chapter 2, Micah 4, Isaiah 11, Isaiah 35, Isaiah 25, Isaiah 17, try to pick out scriptures that were really inspiring, Ezekiel 34. All those scriptures, Zechariah 14, Zechariah 8, all those scriptures that are so inspiring, so I could say, wow, it's going to be a wonderful time. Don't lose that. We had that feast to pump us up, and that's really what we should be focused on. The wonderful kingdom of God and His righteousness. The first part of it is the kingdom of God. Psalms chapter 2 and verse 1. I remember singing some chorale songs in Pasadena, and I remember it was Garner Tedd Armstrong, actually, who sang this one, Why do the nations so furiously rage together? That was a song. Just to sing.

And here's Psalms 2, verse 1. Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? Kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed. Throw out the Ten Commandments. Throw God out of the schools. Throw God out of the university. Throw God out of the football teams. They can't even pray on the field. You're not allowed to do that. You're on school property. You can't pray. You pray silently. You can't pray aloud. Oh, right. This country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles. It was not founded on Muslim principles. It was not founded on Hindu principles. We can allow those. We can tolerate those, and our country does. You think God would tolerate that in Israel? Come on. He condemned the building of those gods and statues to their gods. He didn't allow that.

Kings that did, God labeled evil. But our country allows it. So, okay, we allow it. But our country was still founded on Christian principles. And yet, we're throwing them out, because we want to make us a mongrel. We don't want to be special anymore. We don't want to be special to God.

So he says, Kings of the earth set themselves, rulers take counsel together against the Lord, against his anointed. Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us.

Let's get rid of them. Get rid of what they do. Psalm 13, verses 1 and 2.

Psalm 13, verses 1 and 2. How long will you forget me when you're hurting, when you're struggling? You might pray like David prayed, how long will you forget me, O Lord, forever? How long is this going to take? How long before your kingdom comes? How long before you intervene? I often pray, how long before you heal? And by the way, I just spoke to Mr. Holiday last night. He did tell me he was tired. They just got back home, just got in, and he had an issue he had to try to deal with, and they were going to leave last...they were going to leave yesterday to go to Bob Fay's funeral, which is tomorrow. They were going to leave yesterday to be up there and even speak in Chicago, and he just said, we're both really tired. And then he said that he was going to be...he said that they will probably leave later today, then drive up and then be there for the funeral. A lot of pressure over ministerial services to try to look after things, to try to care for the ministry, to try to be there, to try to show compassion, to try...a lot of pressure psychologically, mentally, on people. The only thing we know from his son was that he suffered...and apparently his left side is somewhat weak right now. I hope they got him to a hospital right away, because the quicker you get somebody with a stroke to the hospital, the quicker they can stop the effects. If you wait too long, it's long-lasting. So I hope that they didn't. I don't know any other details other than what my wife read just before I left the house today. So please pray for him. But how long, eternal? I say, how long will you let this lady suffer? How long will you let this man suffer? How long before your power is shown? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and hear me, O Lord, my God. Lighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. Save me. So personally, think about God's kingdom, and you will be free from the troubles and the problems and the aches and the pains of the flesh in a moment in the twinkling of an eye if we are still alive when Christ comes back, or at that sounding of the trump when those who are dead in Christ will rise prior to those who are still alive and they'll all meet Christ in the air, and come back to be with Him to help Him as He wants you to be. Rule with Him in His glorious kingdom of God.

Isaiah 59 talks about—I'm not going to go there because that's another one—it just talks about the negative side, where he says, truth has fallen in the streets. You can't find good judgment. You have judges that make terrible judgments, terrible judgments, who are more politically inclined than they are fair. Oh, does God hate that? And I do, too. We live in a world where it's hard to get a fair shake. You wonder why even in Christ's time he says, agree with your enemy quickly in the way, unless they take more from you. That's the world we live in. It's like rolling the dice. You never know what you're going to get from them. You never know what's going to come out. But God Almighty gives an indictment against the Israelite-ish peoples who should know better. And yet they've turned away from God. They trample truth in the streets. You do know secularism is on the rise, heavily on the rise, progressive secularism. On the rise, many Muslims as well as Catholics fear secularism because it says whatever the most intelligent people in the world decide that you should do now is what you should do. And whatever they decide is right today is what should be right today. So it's right today to have same-sex marriages. It might be right tomorrow to let you have multiple individuals in a marriage. It might be right the next day to have bestiality okayed.

See, to secularists, truth is not truth. It's only truth today. It might not be truth tomorrow.

It might not be truth next week. But it's true. See, they reject absolute truth, which means they reject the Bible because, what does it say? Thy Word is truth.

So pray for God's kingdom to come. But look at some beautiful scriptures. Isaiah 11.

Isaiah 11, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is coming back to this world. Keep your eyes on that. Let the negative news of today spur you, urge you to look at the wonderful world tomorrow, to long for it, to pray for it. And I think that's what Mr. McNeely and Mr. Myers and Mr.

Petty are going to be doing down in Texas, telling the world to wake up, telling our country to wake up. Isaiah 11, verse 1, And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his root. Who's that going to be, Jesus Christ? And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom heard about that, and understanding the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears. You won't be able to pull anything over on Christ, nor on you as a Spirit being, when you have the ability to see right straight through to the heart, when you can see what's going on, what that person really meant.

Why did they do that? And are they guilty? But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove, this is verse 4, reprove with equity for the meek of the earth. And the meek don't get trampled down anymore. The meek don't get trampled down. Because you don't stand and punch people out. They think you're weak, you're not weak.

You're meek. You're meek. You're gentle. You're kind. Gentleness and kindness goes a long way. On the plane coming back, there were four flight attendants. I just made one nice comment. I just said, as they were bringing the food and water by, I just said, I just want to say thank you. You work really hard on this plane to make sure we have these things, and I thank you for all that. You should have seen her face light up. It cost me nothing. In fact, it was good for me because I could exhale a little bit.

You're not dead when I'm talking.

You should have seen her light up. And they were nice to us. And I didn't do that for advantage. I didn't care. I wasn't having them run back and forth for us. But they were just nice to us, and they were nice to us. It brightened their day. It doesn't take much to do that.

As Christians in this world, Jesus Christ said He's going to make it right for the meek of the earth. Verse 5, and righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His reigns. Things are going to be fair and right in the kingdom of God. And He's going to be absolutely faithful to that. The wolf shall not shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down the kid with the kid and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed, and the young ones shall be drawn together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox, so God's going to even make the animals at peace. And the king, the sucking child, shall play in the hole of an asp, deadly viper, and the weaned child shall put his hand on a cockatrice den. I just play around with these snakes. I don't like snakes. I have some reason most humans have an aversion to snakes, large or small, especially the black mambas and others. They're a little bit afraid of them, but children are going to be able to play with them. They're not going to know that. It's not going to be in their psyche. Verse 9, they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

God's way is going to be filled with the knowledge of his ways. God's word, the earth is going to be filled with the knowledge of the Word of God, and that will cleanse you. Probably Mr.

Porter derived that scripture from reading Proverbs on the eighth day, but I may be wrong. Anyway, sometimes when I'm sitting and saying, well, I should study, okay, I just proverb. What's today is today, Proverbs. This is the tenth. I'll read Proverbs 10.

And lots of information you get. You never get tired reading the Proverbs.

Then there's so much that can help you and aid you. But verse 10, he says, And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an Ensign of the people. To it shall the Gentiles seek, and his rest shall be glorious. So God's return is not just for the Israelites, though it'll begin with the Israelites. But it's for Gentiles, too. He's going to be a banner for them. He's going to be Yahweh Nisei. He's going to be their banner. The Lord, our banner.

He's going to stand for them, too. It's going to be a great, wonderful time. Scriptures like that in Spira. Psalm Isaiah 35. Isaiah 35. Look at this beautiful scripture, just going through a few of these scriptures with you. But find your own. Use these if you want to. When you pray for God's kingdom to come, read about God's kingdom. Study about God's kingdom. Talk to God about what he's planning to do. Isaiah 35, verse 1, The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them. California is dry as we were on our way to the airport, whizzing along in the carpool lane, which was really nice. You know, just getting there. That was really bad traffic. It took us, like, two hours to get to the airport. Most of it was getting from the rent-a-car place to the airport itself, which was a big jam up, too. But as we were driving along, I was struck with the view of no greenery. You know, by the overpasses and all the rest, it was all dirt. You know, a lot of the only limited amount of water can be used, especially by commercial people. I talked with Mr. Roland Clark, who has avocado farms, and he's down to one-third of his avocado trees. He said, if they don't get water, they die. And he's only allowed a certain amount. So you see, in that time, the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. God's going to turn the sprinkler on from the sky. That's the best sprinkling system in the world. Rain in due season.

When he turns on that sprinkling system, he gets there. I remember trying to water my lawn with a few little sprinklers. I'm like, 20 minutes out there. I'm like, I'll get wet. Put it in this one. Okay, that part's got 20 minutes. I'm going to do this one. By the time I did all that, I still didn't get everything. The patch here. I missed the patch there that I missed.

God, send me the sprinkler. Send the sprinkler. He sprinkles the whole lawn evenly, and he'll do that for the world, because he knows how to turn around. It shall blossom abundantly. Verse 2, and rejoice even with joy. Land will rejoice, and singing the glory of Lebanon shall be given to it. The Excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the Excellency of our God. Strengthen you the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Help people that are sick. I don't know about you, but I've got a list of people that I pray for regularly, and it's pretty long. It takes me a good while to pray for all of them, and I try to do it every day. And I met one of the girls, Megan Gothels, who was in a hospital for the longest time, almost died, and she was there. So happy to see her. I said, Megan, I pray for you every... I only met her once up at Northwest Camp, but she gave me the biggest thought. I said, I pray for you every day. She still has only about 20% of her lung capacity, so if she does too much talking, she has to gasp her breath, and she wants to come to ABC, but not next year, after she has a year to try to see what they can do to help bring that back. But she said, because she couldn't sit up and visit and be around people, and sit around for all day long, she couldn't do that. So she had to... she said she probably needs to rest up a little bit more, but she was at the ABC meeting and wants to come. But I pray... I pray for her. Pray for... When, God, are you going to relieve these afflictions of these people? So he says, say to them that are of fearful heart, be strong, fear not, behold your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense, and he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. People who have hearing problems, this man, he liked having the translators work with him. He liked that. You could... my Jan, my daughter did it, and we would sit and watch her. She's very expressive in her presentation. She had to do... carry the bulk of the load. There was a lady from Phoenix, there was a lady from Indianapolis, and there was another lady from Southern California. So four of them... actually, there was a fifth one who came in, too. So about five of them who took turns helping this man to understand. At least he got my sermon, first sermon, so as he saw me, he said, three R's, right? I said, yeah, that's right. He knew I gave the three R's. He knew I was Jan's dad, so he liked me because he liked Jan's presentation. So he says, the lame man shall leap like a heart, the tongue of the dumb shall sing, for in the wilderness shall waters break out in streams in the desert, and the parched ground shall become a pool in the thirsty land, springs of water. Verse 8, an highway shall be there in a way that is called the way of holiness.

Who can go on that? The unclean shall not pass over it. So in order to pass through the toll gate, let's say, I'm righteous or I'm not. Are you righteous? Yes, okay, you can go. Are you... I'm unrighteous. You go the other way. So again, the way they can go is for the righteous, the holiness. This unclean shall not pass by it, but those...he said, but it shall be for those, the wayfaring men, though fools shall not err there in. They won't come in there, won't allow people who are not walking in God's way. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go there upon. They're not going to have any beasts hurting people. Verse 10, and the ransom of the Lord shall return and come to Zion. God's going to bring his people back. He's going to return them to their land. And he says, and they shall with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads. I remember a sermon that was given at one of the feasts on everlasting joy. Don't you wish you could be happy, joyful? All the time you can. Because one of the fruits of God's Holy Spirit is joy. You can have joy through difficulties. You can have joy through problems. You can have joy through sickness. Because it's something that's inside of us that comes from us through, because God's Spirit put it there. You can have everlasting joy, but they're going to have everlasting joy. Not woe, not fear, but everlasting joy. He said, and they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. See the faces of the kids who were huddled in that community college. See the face of the reporter who was shot on camera while she was doing an interview in Kentucky. Do you see her face? That was not joy. That's going to happen in the world tomorrow. Isaiah 19 speaks of the time when enemies now start. I'll go to that one, and I think I'll stop with these scriptures and let you pick out your own. But Isaiah 19, verse 21. Because we live in a world where people are at odds with each other, fighting mode, the South Koreans and North Koreans, and the Chinese, and the Vietnamese, and the Japanese, and the people in Africa, different ones there. The ISIS group against everybody that they can cause trouble with.

The Iranians and Hezbollah and the various groups that they spawn against the Israelis.

We have a world that's sick, the Russians and the Ukrainians. We have a world that's fighting all the time. But Isaiah 19, verse 21. The Lord shall be known to Egypt and the Egyptians, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day, and shall do sacrifice and oblation. Yea, they shall vow a vow to the Lord and perform it. They're going to serve the Lord God, the Egyptians, the enemy of Israel. Verse 22. The Lord shall smite the Egypt, he shall smite and heal it. When they get out of line, he'll smite it. And they shall return even to the Lord, and he shall be entreated of them, and he shall heal them. In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and other enemies. Remember, Israel was in between. They didn't know which one to side with. Let's pay taxes to the Assyrians. They'll protect us. Oh no, the Assyrians aren't as strong as the Egyptians. Let's pay taxes to the Egyptians. They'll protect us. No. Let's make trade deals with them. Let's trade. Let's align with them. No, they're going to be together. They shall be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians shall come into Egypt, the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Assyrians shall serve with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land. God will start with Israel. He's going to regather them first. They were to be his model people. They will once again be his model people. And he will work with them to set the example for the other nations. And then you have the other nations coming along. Enemies being friends. Enemies serving your God and my God together. That's an awesome time. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and Assyria, even a blessing in the midst, whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt, my people. And Assyria, the work of my hands, and Israel, my inheritance. Blessed be all of them, because they will be all working together to serve the Lord. Won't that be a wonderful time when there's one religion in our world? That'll be an awesome time. And so many beautiful scriptures. I look at Micah 4. You can write that down. I look at the time when David's going to be king in Jeremiah 30. I look at Jeremiah 31 being the time of the new covenant. Well, God will put his law in their hearts and they will know the eternal. What a great, awesome time that'll be. Take a look at Zechariah chapter 8. I love this chapter. Zechariah chapter 8. Because you know what God's going to make them do? What peoples of the earth seem to be put in a pincer, have a pincer movement around them. What peoples of this world tend to be hated? Jews. Guess who they're going to have to come to in the world tomorrow, in addition to the Israelites, I'm sure. But the Bible specifies the Jews. Notice Zechariah chapter 8 and verse. So when they get the picture, when the world gets the picture, God is working with the Israelites. When God gets the picture, a man gets the picture that God is working with the Jews, too, along with all the other Israelites. Verse 20, thus says the Lord of hosts, it shall come to pass in that day, that there shall come people and the inhabitants of many cities, and the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, let's go speedily to pray before the Lord. Let's go pray. What do you hear about that? They say, shut down prayer on the team. You're not allowed to say a team prayer.

Shut it down. Now he's going to say, let's go pray. Nobody's going to shut them down before the Lord, to seek the Lord of hosts. I will go also. Let's go. I'll go with you.

Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to have the Word of God taught to them, as Micah brings out, for Micah 4, and to pray before the Lord. Verse 23, thus says the Lord of hosts, in those days it shall come to pass that ten men shall take hold out of all the languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, the people that they have hated, people they've sent bombs at, people that they have tried to infiltrate and stab, they're going to take hold of them, and they say, saying to him that is saying, we will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you. What an awesome time. And of course, Zechariah 14, 9 tells us God will be king over all the earth.

What a beautiful time when God is going to rule. Keep our eyes on that.

Keep fresh on the kingdom of God. And the second part, keep, seek His righteousness. What is righteousness? What is it? It means the character or quality of being right or just. Old Testament word, tzedkah, tzedkah, tzedek, rather, is righteous or just. In fact, one of God's names, His compound names is Yahweh, Y-H-V-H, tzedkenu, the God our righteousness. God wants us to have His righteousness, not our own. Vines gives that quote of quality, the character or quality of being right or just. Psalms 119, verse 172. What is the standard of that? Psalms 119, verse 172. You know this verse, I'm sure. He says, My tongue shall speak of your word, for all your commandments are righteousness. It's God's way. We must study. We must study God's word to learn what is righteous, not our view of righteousness, His view of righteousness.

And we know we can't do it on our own, because He says in Matthew 7, 13, we have to go in a straight gate. Can we find that gate ourselves? Could we find the gate that leads to righteousness? To the kingdom of God, Matthew 7, in verse 13, He says, Enter in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction. And many there be which go in there at. Most people can't find that way. Most people don't know the way to God's righteousness.

They don't know the right way. Verse 14, Because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way which leads to life, and few there be that find it. Study God's word. Study what righteousness is, and then ask Him for the strength and help to live that righteous way. Remember what we're to put on with the armor of God? What do we put right over our chest? Breastplate of righteousness. righteousness. Do you have it? Is it your equipment, or is it God's equipment? You put on God's armor. You put on God's armor. You have God's righteousness, not your own. If you put on your own vest, you've got your righteousness. You put on God's armor, you've got His righteousness. Ephesians 4, verses 22 to 25. Ephesians 4, verses 22 to 25. We have to put off that old man. It's a fight. It's a struggle. You have to keep on battling. You have to keep on fighting. Some people think, well, okay, we just have God's righteousness. Now we believe in God. Now we have righteousness. Do you have anything to do with it? Yes, you do. One sermon I'm working on, is it God or you, or is it God and you? God and you, or God or you? It has to be God and you.

Righteousness we can't have on our own. Isaiah 64, and verse 6, Isaiah 64, verse 6, I'm not going to read it to let you know, talks about all our own righteousnesses are so many filthy rags.

Whatever we can do by the strength of ourselves, God says, if that doesn't count, it's got to be me and you. It's got to be me and you. And it's got to be me in you that does it.

So it's not generated because I externalize Christianity, but because I've internalized it, and it comes out. The righteousness of God in you. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 22, it's a battle. He says that you put off concerning your former conduct the old man, the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and you be renewed in the spirit of your mind.

Have the mind of Christ, Philippians 2.5, let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ. That's having not your mind doing it, but the mind of Christ. And in verse 24, and that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. We need the righteousness of God, not the righteousness of self. Remember what Paul said? I'm crucified with Christ.

Galatians 2.20, nevertheless I live, yet not I. It's not me anymore. I died in baptism. It's not me.

But the life I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me, gave himself for me.

It's trusting in God's strength. I remember hearing years ago, Mr. Armstrong talk about how we have to do. He says, we have to do as if it all depends on us. But we have to pray and believe as if it all depends on God. We still have to do something. Paul said, I got to keep myself in check, yet, lest after I've preached to others, I be a castaway. Well, if anybody had an end with God, it would have been Paul. He actually visited with them for several years, personally taught by him. He said, if, hey, I got to keep myself in check, I've got to take a grip of myself, which is angrateia in the Greek, take a grip of yourself. Gary, you don't do that. Gary, you don't say those things. Gary, you don't get mad. Gary, you don't get upset. Gary, hold your patience. Take a grip. With God's help and strength, you can do that by ourselves. We can't.

And if we do even come close on our own, it's so many filthy rags. So it takes God's strength. It takes God's help. That was Paul's stand. Luke chapter 18. You don't want to be like this man, this Pharisee and publican. It's Luke 18 verses 9 and 11. He spoke this parable to certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous. Well, I'm righteous. They trusted in themselves. That's not the standard. God's the judge, not them. And despised others. Oh, they were so righteous that they despised others. Verse 11, the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not, as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. Verse 12, I fast twice a week and I give tithes of all I can. External.

External. They got my wallet. Give it to you. Don't eat food. External.

Internalize God's way. God righteousness. That's what it's going to take.

Romans chapter 6 verse 11. Romans chapter 6 verse 11 to 13.

Romans chapter 6 verse 11. This section about the baptism chapter, he says in verse 11, Likewise, reckon yourselves also to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's a new beginning with the Spirit of God dwelling in you. Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body. You can't just let it go. Okay, God, swoop me into your kingdom. I believe in you that you should obey it. And the lust thereof. Verse 13, either yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness. Don't yield to unrighteousness to sin, but yield yourselves to God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. Not your own righteousness, his righteousness. He goes on to say, skipping down to verse 16, He says, No, you not, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey his servants you are, to whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience to righteousness. But how can you obey God without having his Spirit to give you the strength and power to do it? How can you repent?

Because part of keeping God's righteousness is to be able to repent when we are unrighteous.

And ask God to put us back on the track. Verse 17, he says, But God be thanked that you were servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you. Being then made free from sin, that's a baptism, or repentance, you became the servants of righteousness. You want to do what's right and just and fair. You want to do what God is.

God is righteousness. Philippians 2.5 says, Have the mind of Christ. In Philippians 2.13, two more scriptures, and I will conclude. Philippians 2 verse 5, Philippians 2.5, Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.

How can we have the righteousness of God? Because we have Christ living in us, His way. Let this mind be in you. Verse 13, For it is God which works in you. You can't have God-righteousness if God isn't going to be able to work in you.

You can try to do right on your own as God is with you. That's great. Until you're baptized, until you're converted, God works with you. That's okay. He tries to move you in that direction. But the God-righteousness that we need, His righteousness, comes from His power and might being within us. For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. God adds to your willpower. He adds to your due power to be able to change, to be able to grow, to be able to see what needs to be done, to see what needs to be changed, to have the exercise, to exercise the character to say, I'm going to do it, and to change. God works in you. Philippians 4.13. That's why Paul could say, I can do all things through Christ, Philippians 4.13, who strengthens me. I can do all things. I can have God-righteousness.

I can keep my eyes on the kingdom of God. I can handle stress and troubles that come in this world.

I see a better world. And in that better world, I'm trying to build the righteousness of God in me. Not myself, but God in me. So how may we keep that and maintain that focus of the wonderful, glorious kingdom of God? How may we keep that focus? Seek you first, the kingdom of God and His righteousness.