Spiritual Lessons From the Apollo 11 Moon Mission

Well, thank you again, Mr. Scapura. Again, happy Sabbath, all of you today. I have a question for you to begin the sermon today. What is the one national event in your lifetime that you remember most vividly? Now, for most of you in the room, it's probably 9-11. Because of your age, that was a pretty significant event when those planes flew into those towers and a few days afterward, that was an international event, and it was quite terrifying. But if you've been around longer than that, if you were Mr. Graham's age, you probably have different memories than that as those that you remember most vividly.

I have two. One of them is the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. It occurred on November 22nd, 1963, about 1230 Central Standard Time in Dallas, Texas. I was a 10-year-old boy in the fourth grade at East Clark Elementary School off of St. Clair Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. I remembered as if it were yesterday. The custodian, whom we never saw during class hours, came in, signaled the teacher to come out in the hallway. She walked in the hallway. We heard her burst out in tears, and she came in and told us, the president has been shot. She said, class, I want everyone to stand up. We are going to pray for the president of the United States.

And obviously, what occurred over the next few days, the entire nation was stunned and in shock. I was sitting there on live TV watching a man named Jack Ruby literally shoot and kill Lee Harvey Oswald as he was being transferred from the Dallas jail and being moved somewhere else. And again, it seems like yesterday, in my mind. Very vivid memories, but that's not the one that I remember most. Vivid as it is, it's not the one that I remember most. The most vivid memory that I have in my lifetime of a national event was the Apollo 11 moon landing.

It happened just a few years after the assassination of President Kennedy. The lunar module Eagle landed on the moon July 20th, 1969 at 4 18 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Next Sabbath will be the 50th anniversary of that moon landing. An estimated 530 million people watched the live global broadcast of Apollo 11 at that moon landing. That was about 14% of the total population of Earth at that time. When it occurred, much of Europe was still at nighttime, so many Europeans were just slept through the events.

But the flight had begun the morning of July 17th, and after being sent toward the moon by a Saturn V rocket, the astronauts separated their spacecraft from that rocket, and they traveled three days until they entered the orbit of the moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin then moved into the lunar module that was named Eagle, separated from the Columbia, which was the command module, and the Eagle went down and descended upon the surface of the moon in the sea of tranquility.

Astronaut Michael Collins remained in the command module. Again, it was called Columbia, and he continued to circle the moon in orbit while the others descended down to the moon's surface. The two Americans landed the Eagle on the moon on July 20th, 1969. Armstrong became the first person to step onto the lunar surface six hours later on July 20th at 10.56 p.m.

Eastern Standard Time. Aldrin joined him 19 minutes later. They spent about two and a quarter hours together outside of the spacecraft. Together, they collected 47 and a half pounds of lunar material to bring back to Earth. They mounted a plaque acknowledging that Earth was sent its greetings, and because it was political, of course, there were the names of all the leaders of NASA, the leaders of leading politicians, all who are dead now. It shows you how important it really was.

All of their names were on this plaque that is still on the moon. They left some medallions in dedication to the astronauts who had died, including Apollo 1, where three astronauts died tragically. They left memorial medallions. Being a classy people that Americans are, we even left medallions for cosmonauts. In Russia, when we were struggling in a space race, we left medallions for their deceased as an act of respect.

We planted a U.S. flag, and they set up some experiments for NASA. Then, the astronauts used the Eagle's ascent stage to lift off from the lunar surface and rejoin Collins in the command module. Once there, they jettisoned the Eagle before all of them in the command module only performed the maneuvers that propelled the ship back towards Earth. The command module had actually circled 30 times around the moon while all of those activities were being done. And they were sent back to Earth. They returned to Earth and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24th after more than eight days in space. All of this was done with less computing power than you have in your cell phone.

Think about how remarkable what an incredible task and feat that was. Armstrong's first step under the lunar surface was broadcast on live TV to worldwide audience. He described the event as one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. Apollo 11 effectively ended the space race and fulfilled a national goal that had been given to us in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy, who said, before this decade is out, a landing of man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth. End of quote. And we fulfilled that short-term goal. There were a total of six crude US landings between 1969 and 72.

During all of these events that year, I was a 15-year-old boy and I viewed most of these events on our old black-and-white admiral TV set. Yes, the rest of the world was in color, including CBS, who was broadcasting all of this in color, but I was watching it on a black and white TV set. I was frozen in suspense, staring the entire time, because it seemed unbelievable that we could send human beings to the moon, walk on the moon, and return while I had to replace tubes in that black and white TV set to get it working. The United States soon lost interest in this costly short-term goal after we achieved that.

You know, right immediately after we achieved that, and I lived through all that, people were talking about, in a decade, we'll colonize the moon. We'll have cities on the moon in 25 years. We'll have a colony on Mars. We'll do all these great things and we'll do all... you know, what happened? We haven't done squat in 50 years, because it was a short-term goal and it was costly.

And at the time, of course, this happened. We were involved in a major war in the world called Vietnam, and we had some civil rights and other serious issues that we were dealing with as a nation at that time. It cost a lot of money, the space program. Let's go to Ecclesiastes chapter 3 and verse 10 and see what the author of the book of Ecclesiastes tells us about God's perspective of all of these things. God wired us as human beings to desire eternity. And sending someone off to another planet is humanity's way of saying, we desire eternity.

We want to leave a legacy in this universe. We want our footprints forever on the dust of the moon. We want our plaque that has the names of all of those politicians who died, sitting somewhere in space as a memorial that we were there. We're wired to do those kinds of things. Ecclesiastes chapter 3 and verse 10, I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from the beginning to end. And that may have been true until Jesus Christ came. The Apostle Paul explained to us the mystery.

That is what God is doing in this world, what he's doing in our lives. He's preparing for a family. Verse 12, I know that there's nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in their lives. So we were created to rejoice. We were created to enjoy this life. I know so many people who put off enjoying everything, just putting it off for someday, for tomorrow, for the kingdom of God.

They just swore and mute any joy that God intended us to have in this lifetime, as if there's something wrong with enjoying yourself. And they put everything off for the future. It says here, I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice and to do good in their lives. Serve God and serve one another, serve our families.

Verse 13, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor. It is the gift of God. Again, it is the gift of God. We were created in God's image. And that's mentioned in Genesis chapter 1, verse 26. And that doesn't mean a nose to eyes, mouth. No, that's not what it's talking about at all. We were created to have the same instincts and desires of the Creator. We like to create. We like to discover things. We like to learn knowledge. We like to build. We like to explore. We're wired to do those things.

And our labors are what do that. Our achievements, our accomplishments are what make us different than the great apes and elephants and all the other life on this world that has no desire to do those kinds of things. And it says that ability, that desire, to be human is a gift of God. Verse 14, I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever. What men do is temporary, short-term.

I knew a part of a human race that actually went to the moon 50 years ago, and then they stopped. But what God does isn't a short-term goal. It isn't temporary. It's forever. Nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it. That man should fear before him. When God says something's going to be done, you can be absolutely sure that it is going to be done.

The author of the book of Ecclesiastes knows that we were created in God's image, and that means, again, that we enjoy productive labors. We long to discover. We stretch our knowledge. We also enjoy creating things, seeing progress, advancement in the activities and the things that we do. There is something hardwired in us, the desire to live forever outside of the limitations of our bodies and this physical life.

Why do you think so many people believe that when you die, you go to heaven? It's because there is a desire to live forever. It's because the belief in heaven is instant gratification. It's the belief that once you die, the next moment you're in some paradise somewhere. It always amazes me how many people go to heaven, but no one ever talks about all the people that are obviously going to hell.

But we're wired to want to believe that there's something beyond these physical bodies that we have. There's something beyond this physical life. It's the reason that we spend so many resources in our healthcare industry. Why else would we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars of healthcare dollars in hospitals for someone who's 85 or 90 years old to give them an extra month of life? And we do that every day.

Why do we do that? Because it's our desire to discover how to live forever, how to extend human life. It's also the reason that drives us in the technologies that we strive for in our world. It's the same reason humanity will return to space in the next few years. This time not by governments, not by someone like NASA, but a lot of it by for-profit private organizations. Beyond the space race is humanity's desire to leave this planet and search other worlds.

And the author of the book of Ecclesiastes reminds us of that. That's who and what we are as a people. But there's one thing that many scientists are beginning to understand and appreciate, and that is that life on Earth is distinct and unique. It used to be in the 60s and 70s and 80s, people until he died, Stephen Hawkins, would say, how arrogant to believe that we're the only life in the universe. How shallow, how arrogant for us to believe that. Carl Sagan once said, well, it doesn't make sense to me.

If we're the only thing that lives, there's an awful lot of wasted space out there. Well, you might think it's wasted if you're looking at the universe from a mere human perspective. But if you believe that there is a creator and he's got a plan and he's got a future for all of this wasted space, then you don't think that way.

If you happen to believe that there is a creator and that human beings are unique, then you take a totally different perspective. Professor Brian Cox. Professor Cox is an English physicist. He's the professor of particle physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester in England. He's a BBC host and a respected scientist.

Here's what he said, quote, the biological process which led to intelligent life on Earth was a fluke and is unlikely to have been repeated anywhere else in the universe, end of quote. That makes us unique. That means there's nothing like us anywhere in this universe.

Continuing, he said, there is only one advanced technological civilization in this galaxy and there has only ever been one and that's us. We are unique, end of quote. This is from someone who believes in evolution, someone who is a respected physicist and professor of particle physics. The website science.psu.edu, that's for Penn State, by the way, for those of you who are Penn State fans, here's what it says in an article, after searching 100,000 galaxies for signs of highly advanced extraterrestrial life, a team of scientists using observations from NASA's WISE orbiting observatory has found no evidence of advanced civilizations in them, end of quote.

One professor commented on that same site, Professor Jason T. Wright, quote, that's interesting because these galaxies are billions of years old, which should have been plenty of time for them to have been filled with alien civilizations if they exist. Either they don't exist or they don't yet use enough energy for us to recognize them. You see, again, we're unique. There's nothing like us in the universe and yes, I know that man's quest, we create TV shows and we have aliens with pointed ears and three eyes and snake-like things coming out of their heads and all kinds of distorted perverse alien creatures that we like to have as part of our culture.

We enjoy seeing those movies and we enjoy seeing those things, but the bottom line is scientifically, they don't exist. An article from last month, a USA Today article from June 11, 2019, here was the title, Maybe We're Alone After All. Planets That Could Sustain Alien Life Are Much Rarer Than Thought. And here's the crux of the article.

Quote, The number of planets in the universe that could sustain alien life is much smaller than we had been thought. Astronomers announced this week in a new study. Continuing, imagine a habitable zone for complex life defined as a safe zone where it would be plausible to support rich ecosystems like we find on Earth today, said study co-author Timothy Lyons, a biochemist at the University of California, Riverside. Quote, Our results indicate that complex ecosystems like ours cannot exist in most regions of the habitable zone as traditionally defined. You see, scientists would look at all these and say, okay, there's what we call a Goldilocks zone as we look out upon the universe.

And the Goldilocks zone is where there's some rock floating out there, and even though it has no atmosphere and there's no life on it, in theory it's not too hot and it's not too cold to sustain life. So, yeah, it could exist there, and that's what they refer to as the Goldilocks zone. According to this article, continuing, quote, Therefore, only about a third of the known habitable planets of which scientists have discovered about 4,000 could sustain complex life forms like us. This is the first time the psychological limits of life on earth have been considered to predict the distribution of complex life elsewhere in the universe, said lions.

End of quote. Well, let's find out what's really going on here. Isaiah chapter 66 and verse 1. If you'll turn there with me, Isaiah chapter 66 and verse 1.

There is a great being who guides and controls and directs the universe. And aside from his spiritual essence and those spiritual beings that he allows to exist, of whom he created, there is no other life. Materially, biologically, there is no other life. Isaiah chapter 66 and verse 1. Thus says the Lord, heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool. Earth is so insignificant, it's like something that I rest my feet on. That's how small and insignificant the earth is. Where is the house that you will build me? I'm God. I created all of this. Now, can you build me a house? Is that a question here? And where is the place of my rest? Do I weary? Do I need the rest? He says, no, I'm the Creator. I'm God. For all those things my hand has made, and all those things exist, says the Lord, but on this one will I look, on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit and who trembles at my word. I'm going to read these verses from the New Century Version. This is what the Lord says, heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. So do you think you can build a house for me? Do I need a place to rest? My hand made all things. All things are here because I made them. Not because they evolved from some slime in a pool. Not because of some random chance, accident, a lightning strike on some slimy soup in a puddle somewhere. No, he says, because I made them, says the Lord. These are the people I am pleased with, those who are not proud or stubborn and who fear my word in context. He's saying the people that I'm pleased with are those who humbly acknowledge me as the Creator. God states dogmatically that he alone is the Creator. The reason that we cannot find life in other areas of the universe is that we, the created, are unique. And God says all you have to do to understand that is, yeah, take your most powerful telescopes. Have at it! Take a look out there and tell me what you find. You know what you'll find, God says? Nada. Nothing. Because I'm the Creator. I created this earth. I fashioned it. I had various forms of life teaming on it, and about 6,000 years ago, I altered the surface of this earth, and I changed what was in the hominoids and created someone who was very special called Adam and his wife Eve, and I made them in my image. They took a giant leap towards understanding the mind of God. God says, I did all of that. God created the physical, biological life only on earth for a purpose, because he has a plan, and that plan is to expand his family, and that plan is to take us and train us and put us through the rigors of this physical life to prepare us for sonship, to be his children, and to serve for all eternity. Of course, we understand that God consists of two distinct beings we know of as God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. So who is the God of Isaiah that's speaking these verses that we just read? Let's go to Colossians chapter 1 and verse 9 and see which of these two great beings is the actual Creator. Who was the God that was saying this in the book of Isaiah that we just read? Again, Colossians chapter 1 and verse 9.

Paul was inspired to write as he wrote to the congregation in Colossae, For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Verse 10. You see, we can't qualify ourselves no matter how many good works we do, how many times we repent, how much faith we have, only God can qualify us. We cannot qualify ourselves. And we become qualified when we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and his shed blood for the remission of our sins and we are given a gift.

And that gift is his Holy Spirit. Continuing here, verse 13, he has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed unto us the kingdom of the Son of his love in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. Beginning in verse 15 now, it switches from talking about the Father to Jesus Christ. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.

All things were created through him and for him and he is before all things and in him all things consist. So who is that great God who uttering those words about being the Creator in the book of Isaiah? Jesus Christ is the Creator of all things on heaven and earth. There's a reason in Revelation chapter 4 and verse 11, the 24 elders say this to Jesus Christ. They say, you are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor for you created all things and by your will they exist and were created.

End of quote. Again, that's Revelation chapter 4 and verse 11. God has a mission. NASA had a short-term mission and it was completed and everyone gave up on it. But do you know that God too has a mission? And here it is in a nutshell. He wants to take a group of mere human beings, grant them the gift of His Holy Spirit, and transform them through training and discipline to be the future saints of the kingdom of God serving with Jesus Christ to make a new and a better world, a greater world.

We are being trained for greatness. Do we appreciate that fact? When NASA decided to go to the moon and to land there and have human beings walk on the lunar surface, they needed to train to astronauts. They didn't say, all right, let's randomly pick seven people. All right, you, you, you, you, and you. All right, thank you. Welcome to NASA. It's great to have you with us now. Just do everything we tell you to do and you'll be fine. No, they didn't do that. They had to go on an incredible training, each and every astronaut.

Do you know why they elected Neil Armstrong to be the first man on the moon? Well, the astronauts they had, why him? It wasn't through a lottery. It wasn't through luck. It wasn't because his last name was early in the alphabet. Gay for Armstrong. That wasn't the reason. They actually debated for months after the final three astronauts were chosen, who were on that Apollo mission. They debated and who would be the first human to represent the United States to step onto the moon.

And here are their reasons, and I want to tie it in with our calling and what God is doing with each and every one of us today. Here's first of the major reasons. Armstrong was the more senior member of the team. Having entered the program in 1962, while Aldrin came in in 1963 and the third gentleman came in even later. James chapter 1 and verse 17. Again, Armstrong was the more senior member of the team.

James chapter 1 and verse 17, he says, James writes every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth that we might be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

So God called us in this age. He has not called billions and billions and billions of others who live in this earth at this time. No, he called you. It says he brought us forth. He said, I want you. And he brought us forth, again, to be a kind of first fruits. We're the first. There will be others who follow us, and that's good and that's exciting. But we're the first, continuing verse 19. So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. So God has called us now, in this lifetime, to be the first or called to be trained as his sons and daughters. Others will follow later on. But throughout eternity, do you realize that we will be recognized and respected for our commitment to God during a lifetime when we not only had to resist our own human nature, and that was difficult, but we endured a world influenced by Satan the devil?

Those who come alive again after the thousand years, they won't have to face Satan the devil.

They won't have to endure the kind of rigorous training that you've had to endure your entire lifetime. They simply won't experience that. As John was inspired to write in Revelation, chapter 20 in verse 6, blessed and holy is you as part in the first resurrection, for such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests and kings of Christ, and shall reign with him for a thousand years. Anyone born after the thousand years will not obviously be a priest of God and of Christ and reign with him for a thousand years, because they won't be alive yet. They won't have been resurrected. This is God's senior class that we're talking about, who at the return of Jesus Christ are transformed, become immortal, incorruptible, and served during those thousand years as priests of God and of Christ and reign with Jesus Christ. That makes us unique. That makes us senior members of God's team, for which eternity we will be respected and honored for the incredible training process that we went through in this physical lifetime on this human earth at this time that was dominated by the prince of the power of the air. Are we willing to make that kind of a sacrifice? Are we ready to quit? Are we willing to pay the price to be a respected member of the family of God? Are we accepting the hard, difficult training that we are receiving from God? Or are we ready to give up? Another reason they chose Neil Armstrong over the others was his history of being able to control himself under pressure. Back in March of 1966, he was part of something that was called the Gemini 8 mission, and it was the most complex mission yet on its pathway to eventually get to the mission he was on in which man would walk on the moon. They needed the rendezvous, their aircraft that was shot up into the sky with another spacecraft. It was an unmanned spacecraft. It was called the Agena, and first everything was successful. They actually connected with the Agena. But while they were out of contact with the ground, because there were not enough tracking stations to have constant communication, a problem occurred. They connected with the Agena, and they started to spin. It started to spin out of control. Following the advice they had been given earlier by Mission Control, they undocked from the Agena. But the roll increased dramatically until they were turning once per second. Imagine what that would do to your equilibrium if you were in something that was literally flipping over once per second.

It was later thought that a damaged wiring caused one of the thrusters in their own ship to be stuck in a non-position. Armstrong handled that chaos with skill and calm. He didn't panic. He was sitting there next to his associate, David R. Scott. It required an immediate abortion of the mission, but Armstrong proved the NASA that his discipline, his dedicated training, avoided a potential catastrophe and the loss of two lives. Here's what the person sitting next to him said later on, and I will quote, quote, the guy was brilliant. He knew the system so well. He found the solution. He activated the solution under extreme circumstances. It was my lucky day to be flying with him, end of quote. He was good under pressure. He also previously had been a test pilot for NASA a number of times. He would be in a vehicle that had problems, and he would try to save the vehicle, and he just knew how to eject himself and land safely by a parachute at the last second. But he was known and respected as someone who studied hard, knew how the machines flew, and was the best pilot that there was.

Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 9. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 9. We, too, are under pressure, aren't we, for most of our lifetimes. So when things go south, no offense, the term no offense to our southern neighbors, when times get difficult, when we're going through a trial, when the pressure is on in our lives, how are we reacting? Do we have control under pressure, or are we losing it?

Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 9. Furthermore, we've had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not so much more readily be in subjection to the father of spirits and live?

He said, as growing up, we had physical parents, and they weren't perfect, but we gave them as children when we were children. We gave them a degree of respect because we feared them, and they chastised us, and they corrected us sometimes very strongly. He says, if you were willing to do that when you were a small child, how about being willing to be in subjection to your spiritual father and benefit from it? Live and have eternal life as a result of it. Verse 10. For they indeed, for a few days chastened us, that seemed best to them, but he, for our prophet, that we may be partakers of his holiness. Our parents weren't perfect. Sometimes they corrected us for things that we really didn't do wrong. They just thought we did it wrong. Somebody tattletailed on it. I always figured it kind of balanced it out because I got away with so much that I should have been disciplined for, that when I did get the occasional whooping that I didn't deserve, I figured, well, I'm still ahead. But since God doesn't do it just for human arbitrary reasons, he does it for our eternal prophets, so that we become better, that we may be partakers of his holiness. I want to say just a few things about this scripture before we continue in verse 11. Most of the chastening that God does on us, we have caused to ourselves. It's not that God has stepped down and said, all right, I'm just going to put a particular trial on this person. No. Most of the methods that he uses to train us are things that we bring on ourselves, and God says, I could intervene and take it away. Nah. I think I'm just going to let them score him for a while. I'm going to let them learn something through this self-induced problem that they've created in their life. I'm just going to let them be disciplined through this experience and give them an opportunity to grow. So I don't want anyone to think that what's being spoken of by Paul here in Hebrews is God just purposely going out of his way to chastise us and to bring problems on us. That's not what Paul's talking about at all. Verse 11. Now, note, chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful. You know, when you're being trained for something, it's painful. If you're an athlete, you're lifting weights you normally don't want to lift. You're running longer than you normally want to run. You're doing things to stretch your body physically. It's painful, but it's that training that makes you a better athlete, makes you more than you normally would be. And the same is true with the chastening that we receive through life, through either our own experiences that we bring on ourselves or the occasional experience that God may purposely do something to wake us up, to get us out of lethargy. But it's painful when we go through it, isn't it? Continuing nevertheless afterward when it's all over, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. So just like an athlete, it has to be stretched to be trained. We, too, are trained through the things that we experience.

Don't get discouraged, though, he tells us here in verse 12. Therefore, strengthen the hands which hang down and the feeble knees. Lift yourself up. Don't mope around like a martyr. Don't start feeling sorry for yourself. These things are happening because God is preparing you for greatness.

And make the straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. God will heal us of whatever we go through if our perspective is right. And we learn the things that God wants us to learn through that painful experience. Verse 14, pursue peace with all people and holiness without which no one will see the Lord. So Paul is saying here, don't get discouraged. The problems we face, usually caused by ourselves, is God's way of training us to become part of the spiritual family. Everything we go through is for a purpose. When you're the child of God, nothing is wasted in your life. Even the painful events can make us stronger and better if our perspective is right. So are we performing well under pressure? When we feel a little bit of heat in our lives? Are we losing it? If Neil Armstrong would have lost it, he would have never lived long enough to walk on the moon. Is the first thing we do is blame God or other people when we have a trial or a problem? Are we always looking for a scapegoat? Someone to put all of our sins on and all of our problems and blame for our issues? Our Father's discipline and training is preparing us for greatness and for serving others for eternity. When we go through a trial or a problem, is that how we're viewing our personal trials and regulations? This is part of God's personal development plan for me, for Greg. And your personal development plan is different for you, because you were raised differently than I was, and you've had different life experiences. You had different parents. You perhaps have a different personality or mindset. So God puts me what I need to go through, and He's going to put you what you need to go through, so that we all get to the place that we need to be. Another reason NASA chose Armstrong to have the honor, rather than Buzz Aldrin, is they thought that Neil Armstrong's ego could handle it better than Buzz Aldrin's.

And his ego would have destroyed him when he came back. They thought about that, and they said, Neil Armstrong is a humble man. Buzz Aldrin had publicly made it known that he wanted to be the first to step on the moon. As a matter of fact, his father, Eugene Aldrin, who was a retired Air Force colonel and a consultant to NASA, politically lobbied for his son to be the first on the moon. He even had politicians called NASA, so that his son, Buzz, could be the first one to walk on the moon. In contrast, Armstrong simply worked harder than anyone else. He earned the honor.

He put his head down, and he got to work. And even after he walked on the moon, through the rest of his life, he gave very few interviews. He never promoted himself or his accomplishments. Recalling his humility, John Glenn, who was the first American to orbit Earth, told CNN this, quote, Armstrong didn't feel that he should be out huckstering himself. He was a humble person, and that's the way he remained after his lunar flight as well as before, end of quote.

NASA could see that difference in the two men, and they said, we're going to choose Armstrong because he's humble. He can handle this. Think about it from a mere human perspective. What do you do with your life, the rest of your life, after you walked on the moon? Anything else would seem kind of mundane, wouldn't it? After you're a young person and you walked on the moon?

First Peter, chapter 5 and verse 6. First Peter, chapter 5 and verse 6. The last scripture we'll actually turn to today. First Peter, chapter 5 and verse 6.

Unfortunately, Neil Armstrong died on August 25, 2012, from a coronary disease.

He will not be alive to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the landing on the moon. Buzz Aldrin is still alive, very much alive.

First Peter, chapter 5 and verse 6. Peter wrote, therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time. You see, we have a lot of people in our world today on Twitter, Facebook, politicians, and all they do is try to drive attention to themselves. Every day it's the stupid comment of the day in order for me to get attention from people.

And like a spoiled two-year-old, we'll do bad things just to get attention because it's still attention, and that's what they want. We have a lot of politicians and celebrities today who make the idiotic quote of the day in order to create what they call a Twitter storm, whatever that is, or all of these technical social media terms in which people want to draw attention to themselves.

The scriptures say, he who is first will be last. There's coming a kingdom in a world when all of those who wake up every day with a desire to be number one and draw attention to themselves are going to be nothing and nobodies in the kingdom of God. And all of those who humble themselves in this lifetime under the mighty hand of God will be serving and ruling as priests and kings in the kingdom of God. Verse 7, casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, walks about as a roaring lion. And he's narcissistic, he's out of control, he's filled with the vanity. So he certainly knows how to work with people who have that problem. He's number one, seeking whom he may devour, resist him steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings that are experienced by your brotherhood in the world, but may the God of all grace, who called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you suffered a while. What's that? That's that training program. I was after you've gone through that period of trial, after we've been chastened by God, most likely because of something we brought in ourselves, and he sat back and he allowed us to squirm for a while, and he allowed us to linger in that mistake, and he allowed us hopefully to grow from that mistake. After you have suffered a while, there's a result of that training. Perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. Be out of control, not losing it, but to be calm, to settle you. To him be glory in the dominion forever and ever. Amen. So, as I just mentioned, we live in a modern world where virtually everyone in media is seeking to draw attention to themselves. Narcissism, vanity, egotism, saturate our American culture. Look at our politicians, look at our celebrities, look at a lot of our business owners and the things that they say. When we see that going on, how are we handling all that?

Are we joining the club? Or are we appreciating the fact that God wants us to learn humility?

And yes, if you're humble, you will not draw a lot of attention to yourself. That's very true.

You may not even get promotions that you're entitled to. If you don't promote yourself, that's very true. That may happen. But God wants us to learn that incredible power of humility.

Can our present egos deal with eternal life? Presently, the way we are, could we deal with eternal life? Or would we destroy ourselves because of our egos and our vanity?

Could our present egos deal with being given spiritual power and authority over others?

If we can't control ourselves, what in the world makes us think that God's going to give us cities to manage and thousands of people to lead if we can't even control our own emotions and can't control ourselves? In our present egos, could we deal with being part of the literal family of God?

Or again, would we ultimately destroy ourselves through our egos? As Paul wrote to the Colossians in chapter 3 and verse 12, he said, therefore, as the elective God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies. Are we tender when someone talks to us? Or are we in their face? Are we bold? Are we telling?

Or are we listening? Put on tender mercies. Kindness. Not rudeness. Kindness. Humility.

Not self-promotion. Humility. Meekness. Long suffering. Being willing to suffer and endure, including someone else's idiosyncrasies, suffer a long time. Bearing with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. So it was almost 50 years ago that man set foot on the moon for the first time. A human being got out of the eagle and walked down, said one step for man, one giant leap for mankind. And not much else happened after that. Because the world doesn't understand God's plan.

That God is creating a family. And He's going to have you and I share in that incredible mission and that goal. But first, He's creating us to become righteous and dedicated and mature so that we can serve in His family. God's working out something wonderful in your life.

And yes, we make mistakes. And yes, we may see or even experience very terrible things in our lives.

But God is present using those experiences, no matter how painful, to cultivate change and growth inside of each and every one of us. If we love God and are called according to His purpose, everything that we experience in this lifetime, good and bad, helps transform us into the likeness of Jesus Christ. Are we willing to be part of that mission? Are we willing to accept that hard training that it takes to be prepared for the family of God? When you're a child of God, nothing in your life is wasted. No experience, good or bad. It's all part of a plan that God has for your life. Even painful events and experiences are part of a grand purpose.

So next, Sabbath, if you open the newspaper, you look on Google and say, it's the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong landing on the moon. Think about that and say, you know what?

Mankind did that and it's a pretty great accomplishment, especially for the late 60s.

But then mankind quit and not much has happened in space during those 50 years. But in contrast to that, God has an incredible plan for this universe and for me.

And I have the privilege to be part of that plan. Have a wonderful Saturday.