Sharing the Vision

Warren, I want to do something a little out of the ordinary for my sermon introduction today. Actually, I've been doing things out of the ordinary all day, it seems. But I want to tell a story that appears in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. But I don't want to just read it from the Scripture. Now, this is a story about a leader of the synagogue whose name I believe is pronounced Jairus. But as the story tells us, his daughter became sick. So he determined that he would go and find Jesus and ask him to heal her. I thought, now that's a blessing for small children. But to tell the story, I want to draw on the lyrics written by a singer-songwriter, Don Francisco. And I've quoted from his music before. I assure you, I'm not working for his record label or trying to sell records. But, matter of fact, I explained to the brethren in Pressensburg this morning that it was... I think the reason I first heard of him is when I was about 18 or 19, back when I worked at Wendy's, you know, when I was a typical teenager and I was going around singing rock and roll music, someone stopped and asked me, do you realize what you're singing and how evil that is? And obviously I didn't. Not to say that everything I listened to back then was, but this person said, oh, they gave me some information about some of the lyrics and gave me some record... loaned me some records by some, you know, contemporary Christian artists. And one of them was Don Francisco, and I really enjoyed a lot of his music. It's similar to Gordon Lightfoot or James Taylor or some of those where he plays acoustic guitar and sings. And he oftentimes will take a well-known story from the Bible and tell it from the perspective of one of the secondary characters. And he does that similar here, or something similar to that here. Now, I'm not going to sing it. Now, somebody asked me because I mentioned you can find it on YouTube if you just search his name. So if you want to hear the tune, you can do that. It's pretty good. But towards the end, it gets a little upbeat and sounds a little more Protestant-y than I wanted to. But the words are very good. So I'm going to read the lyrics, poem style.

It says, she kept on getting weaker as day dragged in today.

The doctors gave no hope for her. She seemed to fade away.

My hours were filled with constant dread. Time became a knife that slowly and relentlessly cut the cord of life.

There was a teacher in the region then. Some of us had heard that he'd healed a paralytic by just the power of his word. So, with hope again rekindled, I went at once to see if I could find a man named Jesus from some town in Galilee. I began to search the city, and soon I saw the crowd. They were pressing in to touch him, and they called his name out loud.

But with a strength of desperation, I pushed them all aside. I threw myself before him. From my knees, I cried.

Lord, come and heal my daughter. Even now, she's close to death. Her fever is uncontrollable. She fights for every breath.

But God's given you the power. Life is yours to give.

If you'll just lay your hands on her, I know that she will live.

Well, he'd just begun to go with me when a face I saw with fear came towards me with news I knew I didn't want to hear.

Although I tried to steal myself, I trembled when he said, Why bother the teacher anymore? Your little girl is dead.

Jesus touched my shoulder. He told me not to grieve.

My trembling stopped when he looked at me and said, Only believe. Then he sent the crowds away, Except his closest men, and they followed right behind him as we started off again.

We were still a long way down the road when I heard the sounds and cries Of the mourners and musicians as they strove to dramatize My grief that they had no business with, but leave their loud disguise.

My wife just sat there silently, stared through empty eyes.

Then Jesus asked the mourners, Why is it that you weep?

She isn't dead, as you suppose. The child is just asleep.

It only took a moment for their wails to turn to jeers.

Who does this man think he is? Get him out of here!

But with the authority I've never heard from the lips of any man, He spoke, and every sound rolled out with a thunder of command.

And in the sudden silence, they all hurried for the door.

Wondering what the reasons were they'd ever come there for.

Then he called his three disciples that were there with him on the way. He led them and my wife and me to where our daughter lay.

He took her by the hand, and he told her, Child, arise!

The words were barely spoken when she opened up her eyes.

She rose and walked across the room and stood there at her sides.

When my wife knelt down and held her close, at last she really cried.

Then Jesus told us both to see that our daughter had some food, but as to how her life was saved, not to speak a word.

Not to speak a word.

But I gotta tell somebody! I gotta tell somebody! I gotta tell somebody! In there, the chorus, this is where he starts playing the guitar really fast.

I gotta tell somebody! I gotta tell somebody what Jesus did for me. As I said, it's very upbeat at that point. It's been sort of somber, and you just get that feeling.

And I thought that this story might make a good bridge from the wonder of God's blessing with little children to that feeling that we sometimes get that arises even to an irresistible need of wanting to tell others about our blessing. Sometimes the blessings of the little children themselves.

It's funny, I wonder how many times Sue and I have told the story, people the story about Connor, when they look at him, and as I said, as we're getting older and more gray hairs appear, sometimes they'll ask if he's our grandson.

I just, no, he's our son, and then the story comes out about we call him our miracle baby.

But you want to share good news of these blessings.

Don Francisco captured that feeling very well at the end of his song.

But I found it interesting. I wanted to go back and look at the scriptures of the stories. He had to put a couple different stories, different accounts, together to get it. Let's turn to one in Luke chapter 8.

Luke 8 verse 54.

I'm not going to read the entire account because it is pretty much as the song says.

But we'll see the endings of these accounts are both a little bit different from each other, and you have to look at them both. Luke 8, 54.

This is after, of course, they ridiculed Jesus for saying the little girl was just asleep. So he put them all outside, took her by the hand, and called saying, little girl, arise.

Then her spirit returned, and she rose immediately. And he commanded that she be given something to eat. And her parents were astonished. And he charged them to tell no one what had happened.

Don't speak a word of this.

And the story here just ends.

But if we'll turn back to Matthew 9, we'll pick up the other part of it.

Matthew 9 and verse 25.

Matthew 9, 25, we'll pick up at about the same place. When the crowd was put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose.

And the report of this went out into all the land.

How do you suppose that happened?

We know he told the parents, don't tell anyone about this.

But how critical can we be? I mean, if you'd experienced that, how much would you have wanted to tell everybody this wonderful thing? As long as someone says, I gotta tell somebody. And they weren't alone. I found it interesting. I looked for this story, and then my eyes fell down. I thought the very next thing is almost the same.

The next story here is almost the same exact thing. In verse 27, when Jesus departed there, two blind men followed him, crying out and saying, Son of David, have mercy on us. When he'd come into the house, the blind men came to him, and Jesus said to them, Do you believe I'm able to do this? They said, Yes, Lord. He touched their eyes, saying, According to your faith, be it to you. And their eyes were open. Jesus sternly warned them. This was a just casual, sternly. He said, See that no one knows it.

No one knows it. And what did they do? They went out, and when they departed, they spread the news about him in all that country. They had to tell somebody. They couldn't contain sharing these wonderful blessings. Now, I've got an aside. I want to talk about sharing the blessings, but I've wondered sometimes, Why do you suppose Jesus would not want people to know? I mean, wasn't his job preaching the gospel?

And to do that, don't you want to get people's attention? And as a church, we do. We try to make the most appealing intro to the Beyond Today program. So if someone's flipping channels, they'll see an image, or he'll hear something that makes him say, Oh, I want to learn more about that. Or we try to put a very intriguing photo on the cover of the Good News, so people will want to open it up.

So if we're wondering, Why did Jesus want to keep things quiet? His brothers had a similar question. Let's turn over to John 7. It's not as complicated as it might seem. And of course, we can even question whether my interpretation of this is correct. I had an interesting discussion this morning about whether he told them not to tell anyone, knowing that that's exactly what they do. But that's a different way of looking at it. Let's read John 7. Now we might have read this recently because it does deal with the Feast of Tabernacles. After these things, Jesus walked in Galilee, for he did not want to walk in Judah because the Jews sought to kill him.

Now was he telling them, don't tell anyone this because he was afraid he might get killed? I don't think that was it. Now the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles was at hand. Now it wasn't just the Jews, it was God's Feast. But John was writing for a Gentile audience, so it was explaining to them about days that they didn't know anything about. But it was the Feast of Tabernacles. His brother therefore said to him, depart from here, go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works that you're doing.

No one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. That's just what I said, if you want to preach the gospel, don't you want to be known? If you do these things, show yourself to the world. For even his brothers did not believe him.

And Jesus said to them, my time has not yet come. Your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. You go up to this Feast. I'm not yet going up to the Feast, for my time has not yet fully come. So, you see, it wasn't a matter of fear, it was a matter of timing. It wasn't that Jesus was afraid to die. He came into this earth for that purpose.

He knew that he was to be a sacrifice for sins. And although he wasn't excited or looking forward to it, we know in the Garden of Gethsemane he prayed, Father, if it's possible, let this pass from me, but not my will, your will be done. But that wasn't his only purpose. He had something else to do. He didn't want to gain too much attention because he did need to proclaim the Gospel message and train his apostles.

He wanted to walk for three and a half years and live with them and not be an example and teach them so many things. It occurs to be he could have died to pay for our sins much sooner. I think he could have been baptized by John the Baptist to set an example and then fasted forty days and forty nights in the wilderness, confronted the devil and qualified to rule the earth, and then gone to Gethsemane or to Golgotha and been crucified.

Could have had it all wrapped up in a short period of time. But he had other things to do. Not just pay for our sins. He wanted to found a church. He needed to preach the Gospel and to prepare some people. I didn't make that up on my own. I saw it written down here. But our mission in the church is following what Jesus Christ did. So to paraphrase from Ecclesiastes 3, every time has a purpose.

You know, it says there's a time to be born and a time to die, a time to gather stones, time to scatter them out. And there's a time to keep things private and a time to proclaim them publicly. That can apply to a lot of things. But when we're talking about the Gospel, when we're talking about the good news of the Kingdom of God, about God's wonderful plan, about the tremendous blessings, I hope for us it's not just a matter of timing.

And I said, I hope it's not, well, okay, now it is time to preach the Gospel. So here you go. Here's the good news. God's going to rule the world.

No, it should be something that we have a drive, that we've just got to share it. Think of the end of that song where Don Francisco has J.I. We're saying, I've got to tell somebody.

Now, as I said, there's a time for each. It varies. Let's do a comparison. If you'll turn with me to Matthew 17, I want to see some of the apostles and how at one point they knew it was time to keep quiet, and then we'll see a dramatic difference when that time had changed.

Matthew 17, begin in verse 1. Now after six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John, his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, his face shone like the sun. His clothes became as white as light. Behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with him. Peter answered and said to him, said to Jesus, Lord, it's good for us to be here. If you wish, let us make three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. And it's funny, another account says they were dumbfounded. He didn't know what to speak, so he said that. But while they were speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them.

And suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved son, of whom I am well pleased. Hear him. When the disciples heard that, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. And the next thing they knew, Jesus comes and touches them. And he says, arise, do not be afraid. When they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.

Now they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, Tell the vision to no one, till the Son of Man has risen from the dead. Interesting, this parallel is remember, after he healed Jairus's daughter, he told the parents, don't tell anyone about this. Now they went and spread the word, like the blind men. It seems that these three apostles, though, maybe because Jesus was right there with him, they remembered what he said, but they were able to keep it quiet.

Now another thing we note from this is, of course, Jesus mentioned that it was a vision. Elijah and Moses weren't really resurrected. They were seeing a vision in their minds, but they caught a vision of what Jesus Christ would be like and his power and authority. And we know that, of course, timing came around. When it was time, they did share the news.

It's recorded in this Gospel account and in two others. So when the time came, they stopped keeping it a secret. But as I said, it wasn't just a ho-hum, I guess it's time to stop keeping a secret. You know, I'll tell people. Now let's go to account of when they did start to tell people these things and see what their attitude was. Here I want to go to Acts 4.

Now I should give a lead in here because I want to pick up just where the dialogue is, but this is shortly after, of course, that first Pentecost. Well, it wasn't the first Pentecost, but it was the first Pentecost of the New Testament Church when the Holy Spirit was poured out.

They saw what looked like tongues of fire and they started speaking in different languages. And the apostles started working miracles. And then when they had people's attention, teaching the truth, explaining that this Jesus Christ who'd been crucified was the Christ, meaning the Messiah.

He's the one all those prophecies were about. Now that drew some attention and some unwanted attention. Some of the religious leaders didn't like what they were doing, and they had them seized, arrested and put in jail. As a matter of fact, let's start reading. I might have got ahead of myself. Acts 4 and verse 1. As they spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple and the Sadducees, came upon them, and being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

Now the Sadducees, among whom were the priests, didn't believe in a resurrection from the dead. We can read that in other places. They were what you call the extremists of the Jewish community. They believed that only the first five books of the Bible were valid.

And since they don't mention angels or the resurrection, they said, well, there aren't any. So they didn't like these guys preaching that there was a resurrection and that there was this Messiah. So it says in verse 3, they laid hands on them and put them into custody until the next day, for it was already evening. And as I said, we know what would happen the next day. They brought them out and questioned them and threatened them. They were kind of amazed.

Here are these blue-collar workers. For the most part, fishermen, probably, we know a tax collector and a doctor, but these guys are nobodies. They haven't been here learning, but they're so educated. They realized they'd been with Jesus. Let's pick up in verse 18. But they wanted to stop their message. By the way, I'll mention this story is really what inspired this whole sermon. So I'm trying to lead up to it as a big reveal.

It says, they called them and commanded them not to speak at all, nor to teach in the name of Jesus. Peter and John answered them and said, whether it's right in the sight of God to listen to you more than God, you judge.

Now we could stop there. That alone is pretty inspiring. It mirrors what I've often thought of as my favorite scripture in the Bible. The next chapter over in Matthew 5.29, they said, we ought to obey God rather than man. But they said something else in the next verse. Peter and John answered it... no, in verse 20. For we cannot but speak the things which we've seen and heard. We cannot but speak these things. Another way of putting it would be saying, we can't help ourselves. We have to share this.

It's just like Don Francisco wrote of Jairus saying, I've got to tell somebody. Peter, James, and John had been able to keep quiet about the vision they'd seen of Christ, resurrected and glorified. But now that he actually was raised from the dead and at the right hand of God the Father, they said, we can't not say anything. We have to speak about the things we've seen and heard. The Apostle Paul said something similar. Just make a reference to this in 1 Corinthians 9, 16 is where he said, necessity is laid upon me.

Yes, woe is me if I don't preach the gospel. We're reading about Christians who were on fire, figuratively, not literally, but they were motivated to spread the word. They had seen a vision. Peter, James, and John literally had seen a vision. And now they wanted to share that vision. Now was that something just for them? Was it only for people that personally were with Jesus Christ or who went up to a mountain and saw a vision of Jesus Christ glorified? I think no. I was going to say, I say no. It came out as I say. But that feeling should be for us, too, after that bit of humor.

We should feel that way at times. When I say the apostles were on fire to do the work, it reminds me of a phrase I used to hear when I was in Ambassador College. Some of the professors talked about having a fire in the belly. And I've heard ministers since then say that. Some of the professors told us about when they were students. Some of them went out to Ambassador College back in the 30s, 40s, or 50s.

And they just were so fired up as young men, they wanted to be part of that work that Mr. Armstrong was doing. And, as I said, they felt like they had to. Now, we could make a case. Was it easier for them back then? I mean, they had a clear vision that said the end of the world is coming very soon. By 1975, we'll be in a place of safety. Now, we've seen that we don't want to set a time limit.

We don't want to try to convince ourselves that we're always in a gun lab. That's a phrase we used to use. And it's a valid, good phrase to use. But having run some distance races, I know when you start that gun lab pace, you want to know where the end is. So we don't want to do that. But it would be good for us to be more like Peter and John when they said, we cannot but tell of the things we've seen and heard.

What made them like that? I can think of two things offhand, and I've been discussing some of them already. The first, they had a vision. We read earlier they had literally seen a vision of Jesus Christ in His glory, but they also had a vision in the more figurative sense that we do. They had a vision of God's kingdom, of His plan. They knew why they were born. They understood what was ahead. They had a vision of what it's all about.

Now the other thing they had is that they were filled with the Holy Spirit. And of course, as we were reading in Acts 4, that had happened fairly recently.

So they were feeling something they hadn't had before. They were able to keep quiet about that vision for months. Perhaps it was years. We're not sure exactly where it fell in that three and a half year span. But they were able to keep quiet about it until two things. Of course, Christ was resurrected, and He told them, wait till after that. But they had the Holy Spirit in them, motivating them, giving them abilities and power and a drive they didn't have before. Now except for a few of us who might have been recently baptized, most of us have had God's Spirit in us for a while now. Many of us for decades, looking back. So we might not feel that change, that initial rush that they did. But having God's Spirit in us, even if it feels normal, it'd be good to stir it up, to get excited about it. Now I believe, how do we do that? How do we stir it up? I think the answer is tied to the other things that the Apostle had. I've got that S backward. The other thing that the Apostles had, a vision. Now we don't generally see visions literally, but we do catch the vision, don't we? We catch the vision of God's Kingdom and of His plan when we read about it in His Word, when we hear about it from our fellow Christians. In conversation, or when we talk about it in Bible studies or sermons. And we just heard and read that Word quite a bit during the Fall Festival season. Let's read a little bit about how that should work. If you'll turn with me to 2 Timothy. Second Timothy, Chapter 1. Second Timothy, Chapter 1, beginning in Verse 6. Paul is writing to Timothy as a younger minister. He says, Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Obviously, Paul is writing to Timothy about the Holy Spirit. And probably Paul baptized Timothy and laid his own hands on him and asked for the Holy Spirit to come in him. And now he's saying, Stir it up! How do we stir it up?

Well, one thing we can see if we continue reading in Verse 8. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me as prisoner. I'm going to end there because I wanted to focus on the testimony. Apparently the testimony of the Lord could help stir up the Spirit in Timothy. Let's drop down to Verse 13. Hold fast the pattern of sound words, which you've heard from me, and faith and love, which are in Christ Jesus. I think this is indicating the Spirit can be stirred up by words, because words are ideas. Words represent thoughts. Like I said, that vision is the thoughts in our head. We can get stirred up if we have our thoughts focused in the right way. Let's turn also over to 2 Timothy, Chapter 1. On 2 Peter. I did that this morning, too. Second Peter. That's because on my notes they're right beside each other. Second Peter 1, and we'll begin in Verse 12. Peter's writing, he says, For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth, yet I think it right as long as I'm in this tent to stir you up by reminding you. That's one reason I wanted to address this subject soon after the feast. Every year we go through the annual Holy Day cycle, and it reminds us of God's great plan and purpose for mankind. As Peter said, remind you, and it stirs us up. It can. It renews our vision. We should be coming back from the feast a little bit stirred up. God's Spirit is stirred up in us, and we have a clear vision of the Gospel of the Kingdom. So hopefully we're somewhat in a state where we should be closer to being like the apostles. Remember when they just couldn't help but have to talk about these things, to talk about the Gospel of the Kingdom of God? I want to use a little prop to help me demonstrate some of this. Good, Connor's not looking. He always wants to play with this. This is an LED lantern that Sue got for me. Somebody asked me this morning where she got it, and I couldn't remember. It's an LED lantern, and it doesn't take batteries or plug in. It's rechargeable with a built-in crank. I wanted to point that out because it doesn't hold a charge for very long. If it's left set very long, the battery goes very dim. You see there's nothing much there, but if you start charging it up, look how much brighter that gets. It will hold that for a while, and in time it will start to dim down a little bit again.

At times we might be like this, and our excitement about the Gospel, when we're stirred up and charged up, our light starts getting a little bit brighter. At other times, it might seem a little more dim. Now I don't want to run us down for the times when it's more dim, because it is worth mentioning what it's like to see even a small light when it's really dark. How many of you have been in a cave where they've gone down where there's no light and they turn off? Boy, that is dark! And even the smallest light then means all the world of difference. And it doesn't have to be completely dark. Many of us have nightlights in our home. And I'm going to test if a three-year-old likes having that light available at times. So even a small light, even if it's a little dim, it makes a big difference in a world of darkness. But over time, if our light grows too dim, we might need to crank it up. I had a bad feeling that was going to... Or I could put it back on. Our excitement about God's kingdom, we want to have a brighter light. And listening to the right words can help stir up that spirit, like cranking this crank. Hopefully we could be bright. We can be on fire because we've caught the vision. Hopefully we'll be like the apostles where we just can't help ourselves. And when we are feeling stirred up, there's that question still, how? How do we share the vision? I wanted to make that transition because this is the part of the sermon where I want to review some principles about preaching the gospel that are not new to most of us. We've read... Well, let me read one obvious example of how we help share the vision. Let's go to Matthew 5, beginning in verse 14.

I get separated from my notes while I'm playing with my prop and lose track of where I am, but I think I'm back together. Matthew 5, 14, this is part of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus Christ is making the same analogy I've been making. Well, I should say I've been making the same analogy He made. He came up with it first. In verse 14, He said, You are the light of the world, a city that said on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.

Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father that is in heaven. Keep that in mind, and let's turn to Philippians 2. While you're turning there, again, I want to remind us how big of an impact does the smallest light make when it's really dark? One of the things that made me think of this when I was asked to start teaching wilderness skills at summer camp, I did a lot of reading because I realized I needed to learn a lot more skills than I had, and one of the outdoorsman was talking about how when he would go backpacking in the wilderness, even though he had some high-tech fancy equipment, he would like to bring some candles.

And he said, when you're out there in the dark forest, he said it's amazing how even a small fire from a candle is so warm and inviting. He said sometimes people would see that from hundreds of yards away, and he'd get visitors come in and make friends, because in real darkness, even a small light matters. And with that in mind, let's read Philippians 2 in verse 15. That you may become blameless and harmless, children of God, without fault, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. Do we shine as lights in the world?

Because this world is in darkness spiritually. They're deceived by Satan. And in a sense, they're craving light. They might not know it, but sometimes people see that light and they're drawn to it, like somebody through the woods, like, wow, there's something different. Partly because they did, most of the people you deal with that aren't in the church, did not just go to the Feast of Tabernacles and get stirred up with a vision of God's Kingdom. They're not here on the Sabbath having it renewed. They're not studying the Bible.

So when they do see God's way, God's joy, His Spirit, in its essence, radiating out from us, people notice. Now before I move on to discuss what might happen further, I do want to mention the source of that light.

It's not just a generator we can crank. Let's turn to John chapter 8. I think I'd be negligent if I didn't mention this. John 8 and verse 12. Because really the light might come through and out of us, but we're not the original source. John 8, 12, Jesus spoke to them again, saying, I am the light. That is, Jesus Christ is the light of this world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.

We want to have that light of life in us. And that reminds us, of course, that everyone that doesn't have that is in darkness. But we have light because God gives it to us. Not because we're special or have any great talent that we could produce it on our own. I want to turn to one of my favorite stories that I think illustrates this very well.

It's in Exodus chapter 34. I don't want to be apologetic, I just know that I have read this recently, but I just like this story, so we're going to read it again. Exodus 34, beginning in verse 29. This, of course, is when Moses had spent 40 days and 40 nights up on Mount Sinai talking with God and receiving the Ten Commandments. Oh, there we go. I can't believe I made it halfway through a sermon without a drink of water.

Okay, in Exodus 34 and verse 29. Now it was so when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses' hand when he came down from the mountain, Moses didn't know it, but the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.

So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses behold the skin of his face shone, they were afraid to come near. Say, what's with this guy's face is shining. And Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation then returned, and Moses talked with them.

Let's skip down to verse 34. Whenever Moses went before the Lord to speak with him, he would take the veil off until he came out, and he would come out and speak to the children of Israel whenever he'd been commanded, whatever he'd been commanded. And whenever the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone, Moses would put the veil on his face again. Now we haven't been up on Mount Sinai, but we have recently been with God, with his people.

When we go to the place where God puts his name, we ask God to be there with us. And you could say, we are with God now. We've come back here, but God didn't stay in Jekyll Island or Panama City Beach or anywhere else. God is here by the power of his Spirit. Jesus said wherever two or three are gathered in his name, he would be there. So hopefully we're absorbing and can give off some of that light. So like Moses, we should come away shining. Spiritually speaking, that is. Obviously we're not exuding visible light, so we don't have to wear veils. But we could have a similar experience.

Remember Aaron and the others ran off. What kind of weird thing is this? Some people are put off when someone has a spiritual light shining from them. But we still don't want to put a veil over it. We don't want to cover it up. Christ said you don't light a lamp and put it under a bushel. Rather, he said a city that's on a hill can't be hid.

So we shouldn't be hid. Now I haven't forgotten where I started off on this subject with stories about not being able to help talking about the gospel. Sharing the vision often does involve talking. But I think it's worth acknowledging not all of us are natural talkers. Now some are. There are some people that can have a half hour or 45 minute discussion with their garbage men about the gospel of the kingdom. That's a wonderful thing when it happens. Some of us, it doesn't come out as naturally. And that's okay. If you're not a talker or a preacher, you don't have to feel guilty, but you do want to make sure that your light is shining and in effect showing that you have a vision.

That makes you a witness. God gave the church as a whole the commission to preach the gospel. Jesus said, go ye therefore and preach the gospel into all the world. But he was speaking to that group altogether.

And as the church grew, there were times when Barnabas and Paul were sent out, the Spirit set out the two that I've chosen for this work. And so there was a whole congregation there, but two of them had the special job of being spokesmen. But of course there are examples in Scripture that I can turn to of sometimes people who weren't planning or prepared having to step up and be spokesmen.

But most of the time, Christians spend being silent witnesses. We commonly think of the term bearing witness in relation to the gospel as talking, and that's good. But sometimes a silent but ever-present witness speaks volumes without saying a word. The patriarch Jacob realized that. If you want to turn back to Genesis 31, I want to reveal this story. Now this is when, after spending many years with his father-in-law Laban, Jacob decided it was time to leave.

As you remember, of course, he'd left home because he was afraid Esau was going to kill him. And he fell in love with Rachel and said, I'll work seven years for her. After the marriage he discovered he'd married the other sister. I'll work seven more years, and you can have... So he worked 14 years for the two wives. Then I believe it was about six more years for wages.

Finally he said, I've got to get out of here. I'm working forever for Laban. But he was afraid Laban wouldn't let him take the daughters and Laban's nieces and nephews away. So Jacob sort of slipped away when Laban wasn't working... wasn't looking. I have to slow down my mouth. When Laban discovered this, he was a little upset, not only because they'd slipped away, but Rachel had stolen some of his household idols. So he came with arb men and caught Jacob. But before he could do any harm or anything, God appeared to Laban in a vision and said, look, you better think carefully what you're doing.

So now let's join the story. Genesis 31 and verse 44. Because after that dream, Laban comes to Jacob and they talk civilly. He says, Now therefore, come, let us make a covenant, you and I. Let it be a witness between you and me. So Laban said, let's make a covenant and let's make an agreement and witness. So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. He must have found just the right stone and set it up. I'm guessing he was a really strong guy because I envisioned that pillar had to be pretty good size.

And then he says to his brethren, gather stones. So they took stones and they made a heap and they ate there on the heap. So they made a big enough heap for a bunch of men to sit on it. So I envisioned this heap maybe being as large as a house these days. Not a real big house, but you know, maybe a ranch house. But this is a big pile of stones with this upright pillar. Enough so that if anybody walked by, they were traveling, they would say, that didn't happen by accident.

Somebody literally gathered all these stones together. I wonder what it means. Why would someone do that? Laban called it Jigar-Sahadutha. Boy, that's hard to do without glasses. Jacob had a better idea. He called it Gay-Lead. It's better because I can say it. And Laban said, this heap is a witness between you and me this day. Therefore its name was called Gay-Lead, which means witness. Also, Mizpah, because he said, May the eternal watch between you and me when we are absent from one another. If you afflict my daughters, or if you take other wives besides my daughters, although no man is with us to see us, God is witness between you and me.

And Laban said to Jacob, here is this heap, and here is this pillar, which I have placed between you and me. This heap is a witness. This pillar is a witness.

I will not pass beyond this heap to you, and you will not pass beyond this heap and this pillar to me for harm. As I said, anyone traveling would see that, and it was a constant reminder, this means something. Hopefully, our way of life does that for people. They might not understand, but they might say, there is something different there. That must mean something. Sometimes it might ask.

But a witness doesn't always have to talk. It can be a visible reminder. That's why we build monuments. When the government sets down, you're not allowed to go see them, but that's another story. It's a visible reminder, often of what a person should already know. And when you live God's way, when you let your light shine, you've got to crank it up so you can see it every now and then.

People notice, and it might remind them of things they've been taught. I imagine some of you have had this experience. I'm pretty sure I've shared it. The office I worked at before coming into the ministry, every now and then someone would, at a meeting or something, would say a profanity. And they'd always say, oh, excuse me. And that would make me realize, oh, they talk this way all the time when I'm not around. But without me ever saying anything, I never said, look, don't cuss in front of me. But they realized my way of life that I didn't do that. And it was a reminder to them of something they'd been taught, I guess. That's not really proper language any time, certainly not in a group of people. So some of you might have had that experience. Or the fact that you don't get in... If you're in a group and you never join in telling dirty jokes or anything like that, they might realize, oh, maybe I shouldn't be doing this either.

So when they notice your witness, your light... ...the silent witness is good, but then again, they also might just ask you about it. That's when, even if you're not a talker or a preacher, we do need to remember what it tells us in 1 Peter 3.15. Be ready to give an answer. Be ready to give an answer of the hope that lies within you. Even if you don't necessarily feel like you've been letting your light shine, sometimes people will still perceive or feel that hope in you. Because you are stirred up. You seem different. And sometimes people are curious enough, especially, as I said, sometimes if you don't cuss or say certain things, and they say, oh, yeah, I should know better myself. If it's somebody from another country and he doesn't know that background, he might say, hey, how come you never say that word? And then you get a chance to explain, well, that word means this. And that's why I don't say it. But, you know, in the past, many of you go back far, and if you've had different experiences, someone might ask you something about your way of life. And some people have made it a practice that if they get the chance, they're going to launch into explaining everything. I'm going to explain all of God's plan of salvation, including the Holy Days, the dietary laws, and so on. I'm going to make them understand that the world is deceived by Satan, and by the way, you are not born again, and neither am I.

A friend of mine, when we were teenagers, came up with that phrase. I always thought it was amusing, because he fashioned it to purposely be offensive, which that's not the way we want to do. Now, the opposite approach, you know, if you don't feed them everything at once, some people will say, you know, well, you've got a question, here, I'll let you talk to my minister. Let me give you his phone number. And I can understand, if you're not a talker, that's a much easier way. But, you've got to ask yourself, were they asking for the reason that lies within your minister?

You know, I'm happy to talk to people. And a lot of times, a discussion with a church member leads to a talk with a minister, or leads to getting a booklet from the home office, or something like that.

But the initial thing, you know, they want to, if someone asks the reason of the hope that lies within you, you know, it shouldn't be a phone number. There should be something to that. Now, it is important to make sure that your answer fits the situation. Because, you know, well, one way to understand different answers are called for at different times. If a four-year-old asks you, where do babies come from? You give a different answer than if a 14-year-old asks you where babies come from. You should still give both an answer, but it's a different type of answer. So, if someone asks, how are you so sure there really is a God?

Now, one way you could launch into a discussion of the laws of biogenesis, the theories of intelligent design, and along with evidence of fulfilled prophecies. But, you know, one of the things I'd suggest, and I've answered this, I've said, I've experienced enough blessings from God in my life that it convinces me He's real. Or, some people would say, I look around in creation, and I think there's got to be a God. And a lot of people say, hmm, okay, that's enough for me.

You're one of those, they might say, you're one of those whack jobs. Or they might say, oh, you and I feel about the same. Or they might say, oh, really, can you tell me more about this? And that's when it can lead to more. In the days and weeks after the Feast of Tabernacles, we often get questions like, where have you been? Why have you been absent from work or school? Now, the easy way that would not be a witness would be to say, oh, I'd like to take my vacation in the fall, because the beaches are less crowded then.

Now, well, I'm going to say, it's never wrong to let people think it's a vacation. I think it's funny, our neighbors know us, the neighbors where we live, notice when we're there and where we're not, because I take Connor out to play. And so, they don't see Connor for a week or so, then suddenly we're back.

The first day we were back from the Feast, someone said, oh, hope you had a good vacation. I didn't stop and say, I wasn't at a vacation, I was at the Feast of Tabernacles, and how dare you? No, I just said, oh, thanks. They wanted to think it was a vacation. Now, other people asked, why are you going away? I said, well, we keep a religious festival in the fall. We believe that the Bible teaches we should do this. Now, that's not laying out the whole thing, but it's giving an answer of the hope that lies within us.

That adds to the light that they might have noticed. But, and it also, it's good to let people know they can get a little from you without getting more than they want, because then they think, well, I can come back to get more. Now, and by the way, I'm not trying to make a case for why you should never say very much.

I'm just trying to make the case that, you know, many of us, I think, are well prepared for the more in-depth discussion. Now, you might say, no, I'm not ready for that. Yes, you are. As someone who really wants to know more, you know this stuff.

You study it. You study your Bible. You're here. That shows that you know it. You know, you've been listening to sermons. You've read booklets and articles. You've done Bible studies. You know enough that if someone really wanted to know and was patient, you could lead them through a lot, probably more than you think.

And I say that partly from experience. I know it's my job to get up here and do this now, but I've got a picture on my mind from back when I was, I think, 14. 14 or 15. I might have told this story before, but it was at the end, matter of fact, it was after the second service on the last great day at the Feast in Norfolk. I couldn't tell you which year it was. We went there a number of times. But remember, I think it was the scope arena.

You had to go down to Norfolk, and you know, they had these big stairs outside. And I don't remember why I was outside, but our family was supposed to meet up with another family and go out to dinner, and I was out probably looking at girls. You know, I was that age.

But a fellow walked up off the street, and he said, hey, excuse me, are you with this group that's been meeting here? Well, yeah. Well, can you tell me what's been going on? And we had about a 40-minute discussion, because one question led to another, and I, you know, in my simplicity, I just told him what I thought without trying to tell him more. And he seemed happy, and he didn't say, well, I'm going to join your church. But he felt like now he understood what has been going on here.

And one of them, it's, matter of fact, now that I think about it, when I went and explained to the family, because there was, where have you been? We're all waiting. We're wanting to get the car. We're hungry. So all those guys asking me questions, they started telling me then I was going to be a minister. Now, a few years later, when I was getting into trouble as a teenager, nobody was predicting me to be in the ministry.

So, funny how things go back and forth. But if a 14-year-old kid out of the blue could suddenly start explaining some of the truths of God's plan, so could all of you. I suspect that sometimes where we have the most difficulty is where people want the short answer. Because they're not interested in a long, elaborate thing, and we don't want to just be flippant. But I want to suggest a source for some of the short answers that we might not think of that often. Because I think they're on our bookshelves, perhaps in boxes, in the many booklets that the church has distributed. I went through a few. And I should say, not in our booklets, literally on our booklets.

And this started back with Mr. Armstrong had a way of, as an advertising agent, or a training advertising, of trying to get just the nugget. And he built a lot of those questions, or the answers to those questions, into the titles of our booklets. Think of some of the big questions people ask about religion. And our booklets often are designed to either pose that question in a way that the answer should be obvious, or to just give the answer. So I thought of this. If someone...

We do have the lights back on. I said, I wanted you to be able to see this. Someone walks up and says, how can you be so confident and happy? Don't you see the world going on around us? Do you see what's happening? Are we near the time of the end? You know, this is what they're thinking. But your answer is, I can be happy because the world won't end this way. If you're in the back, that's a mushroom cloud. And a lot of you in the back have seen this booklet. The world won't end this way, meaning the world's not going to come to an end.

Mankind is not going to destroy himself. How can you be so sure? Because I know that Christ will return. Now, I just transposed a couple of words. Now, some people say, oh, he believes Jesus will return. And like I said, that's saying you believe you have religion. It's not meaning flip. And they say, really? Now, they might ask more. Do you know when he'll return? What's going to happen first that can spark a further discussion, or it might not? Now, you know, you could get into, are you pre-millenialist or post-millenialist?

And how, where's the place of safety? And things like that. But start with the basics. I believe Christ will return. He's going to rule this world. Why does he need to? Because humanity cannot solve its problems. Now, I mean, here's my Feast of Trump at Sermon in a Nutshell.

We cannot solve our own problems. We need God to intervene. One of the reasons we can't? Because there really is a devil. He's got the whole world deceived. I couldn't find my copy of a world held captive, and I couldn't think of a good question. But there is a devil, not to mention evil demons. There's a spirit world following him. Why can't we solve our problems? We're cut off from God, and Satan is deceiving people.

That alone is a pretty valid answer, and there's a lot to that. As I said, think... realize you know a lot of these. Well, if there is a devil and all this bad is happening, aren't you afraid? Aren't you worried? No? Once again, remember, I know the world won't end that way, and I know how world peace will come. Will it come? Or how will it come? It's coming. World peace will come. Reference the earlier booklet, Jesus Christ Will Return.

We know He's going to come back. He's going to take charge. He's going to set things right.

We know, matter of fact, you can bring up... well, this leads to some of the big questions. Really, all this... how do you know these things? Well, because I know why I was born. I know what my destiny is. And unlike you, I know what happens after death. Now, I wouldn't say it unlike you, because a lot of people think they do know what happens after death. But it's good to be able to review those things, and you can do so without saying, I'm not born again and neither are you.

I mean, it's in my mind, just yesterday I was going over it. And I think I referenced this in my email that I sent out last night. I think a lot of those Southern Baptists in Olive Hill were worried that, what kind of weird stuff is this guy going to teach? We want Opal to be going to heaven, and I didn't want to insult them, but it's amazing how much they were happy when I said, Opal will live again. Everybody is going to live again. People will have a chance. The pain and suffering will come to an end. We believe those things, and we have so much more confidence, because we don't have to worry, well, maybe it wasn't.

Maybe this person wasn't good enough. Maybe they're going to burn in hell. That's what some people are fearing, and I think some of the people there were thinking, oh, man, Opal wasn't going to church on Sunday. Is this guy, you know, is she in hell? I think, you know, we know the answers. No! Everybody is going to have their chance. Jesus Christ is going to return. People will be resurrected. Satan will be put away. Yeah, there is really a devil, but he's not going to be in charge for long. When you settle those basic fundamental questions, it makes it a lot easier to deal with some of the other things.

Now, of course, sometimes they don't get to the big fundamental questions. Sometimes it's, hey, how come you've got no lights on your house? Where's your jack-o-lantern on your front porch? Well, the reason is because it does matter whether we keep Holy Days or holidays. Oh, you can't see the small print, but you know this one. It's funny, I've been looking ahead at the Holy Days and such. I found the old booklet, which said, Pagan Holidays or God's Holy Days. Why did we drop the Pagan? Nobody knows what Pagan means anymore. We know, but most people don't. I thought that was interesting. You discuss the difference between the Holy Days and holidays, then it brings the question, well, which day is the Christian Sabbath?

Well, it's Saturday. Tell me, we know the Sabbath is Saturday. The Bible teaches that. God made that day holy. It's still holy, and that's why we keep it. Sometimes, as I said, sometimes they say, oh, okay, you believe that, and they go on. Sue told me earlier this week, now I can't remember if it was when she was talking to someone in their doctor's office or at library, story time.

The thing came up about our church, and that we're a Sabbatarian group, and the lady said, oh, you keep the original Sabbath. Yeah, the original one only. But it's good that we know these things, and once people see you understand this, they might ask, oh, do you know who God is? Yes! Is he a Trinity? No! We know who he is. We know the Bible speaks of a God, the Father, and Jesus Christ, his Son, and he's called our brother.

Wow, that leads to something a lot different than a Trinity. God's building a family. Notice, as I said, if you master a few of those things, it's easy to give a lead into preaching the Gospel. And people, if they want to know more, they'll ask more. I saved this one for last, because a lot of times the question is, how do I know? How do you know? How can you be so sure I read the book? I advise you to read the book. By the way, I got this out a year or so ago.

I hadn't read it in a long time. It's a really good read. If you haven't, I think we might have a copy in the library. If not, I'll loan you mine. There's another glass of water down there. Now, I might be simplifying this a little bit. I mean, are you really going to have a conversation quite like that? Probably not, but it's easy for some of those questions to come up.

And, as I said, if you've got in line some of the easy, short answers, that'll do well. And you already know the longer, more complicated ones. I'm not saying you shouldn't know those. But, you know, it's good to know that you can do this. We all can do this.

We all are going to draw attention to ourselves because it's coming out of us. When I think back of those examples I mentioned at the beginning of Jairus, when he saw Christ raise his daughter from the dead, the apostles had seen Jesus Christ himself rise from the dead. They'd seen something amazing, something life-changing. And additionally, the apostles had just had years of being taught a way of life, a way of life that brings true success and happiness. So these people were stirred up. They'd caught a vision of God's plan and purpose. They had a vision of what life is all about. We could call it a vision of good news, of hope. And with all that in them, they had to tell somebody. In the apostles' case, they had to tell everybody. They could not help but to share that vision. We have a vision. Really, we have the same vision that they did. And we should have it just coming out of us in the way we live, in the things we do, and sometimes the things we say. Because we've been stirred up, we've been reminded, and we've had these words. Now, we may just have to talk to people about it, like Jairus is depicted in the song. He said, I've got to tell somebody. Or we may be somewhat like that heap of stones, or like Moses' face shining, where it's evident without us speaking a word. Our lives and the way we live them should be witness to something that is obvious, something that can't be denied, if people are just willing to look and see. God has given us a vision of His Kingdom. He stirred up His Spirit in us. We've just got to share that vision.