Such a Time as This

Well, good afternoon to everyone. I was going to time myself, but I see they've taken care of that. We have a timer up here, so I think it's broke. We will see. It was wonderful to be here. Realize that we're here to worship the great God of the universe and that we're here because He commanded us to be here. And so I'd like to thank all of you. The fact that you're here, that you're meeting together, that you're faithful, you've done what God has asked you to do, you've saved your lives, and you've taken the time off, you're here to assemble together as a church, as His people. And so you've accepted God's invitation. So it's wonderful that we can all be here together. I'd like to especially thank the ladies who did the the altatory. That was absolutely beautiful. It was inspiring. The same thing with the choir. I think we really have a special choir this year, and I'd like to thank all those who participated. It looks like it's going to get better and better as we go on and be hard to excel what's already taken place. But we really appreciate it as a group. The book of Esther describes the time when the Jews were faced with extinction. In chapter 4, verse 14 of the book of Esther, Mordecai conveyed a message to Esther. Many of you may remember this. Yet, who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this? It was that Esther had come, had been placed in that responsibility, given that duty, that job, to help save the Jews from extinction. Why are you attending the feast today? Why are you sitting here at this time on this day in Panama City Beach, when so many others are out doing their own thing? It's no accident, it's no coincidence that you and I are here and we're in God's church today. God is doing something special with this group of people, and that's what we want to focus on today. God is doing something special that mankind can't even begin to phantom, but which he has planned out from the very beginning. We won't go there, but in the book of Ephesians chapter 1, it talks about God's plan, God's purpose, God's will. And when you look that whole section up, you'll find when it talks about God's will, it talks about his heart's desire. God's will is his heart's desire. And God's desire that flows from his heart out of love is for you and for me to be in his kingdom. He wants us to live forever with him. You have been hand-picked by the great God to be a part of his church today. Now, stop and think about that. The greatest being in the universe, the one who is all-powerful, almighty, he has hand-picked you. He looked down and he said, I want you. Because he wants you to be a part of a special family that he's creating. There are 7.3 billion people on earth today. The vast majority of them are not sitting here with us. We're very thankful that we have an overflow crowd today and that God has blessed us in that way. But why are there not 100,000 people here? Or 500,000? Look at what Pope Francis drew when he came to the U.S. Crowds of 500,000, a million people. And yet, here we are, a small handful, but we are here because God wants us to be here. And you should never forget that. You're here because the great God said, I want you. And He appoints you here. One reason he did that ties in with the book of Esther. Let's go over to Matthew 24 and verse 21 and 22.

Matthew chapter 24, verse 22, we'll actually read. Verse 21 talks about a time of tribulation coming on this earth without parallel. Never been a time like it, a time of Jacob's trouble.

And yet in verse 22, it summarizes it and it says, unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved. But for the elect's sake, those days will be shortened. The NIV translates it, no one would survive. In other words, no human being would survive. Why? Well, notice, it says here, but for the elect's sake, who are the elect?

That's you. That's me. That's the ones that God has picked out and chosen to be a part of His church. We are the elect. The word elect simply means chosen ones. Have we been called for a time such as this? Our faithfulness could be the salvation of mankind at the end time.

The God Almighty is going to intervene to save man as it says he will cut time short because of the elect and because of your faithfulness. Now, what if we were not faithful?

What would God do? Well, we have the clearest scripture here.

God is almighty. He's all-powerful. He's the greatest being in the universe.

And you're here because He wants you to be here. He could have chosen anyone else. And a lot of times we ask, well, why didn't you choose somebody?

We all know people who are more brilliant, better looking, more talented, better speakers, more money, greater intellect, you name it. And yet God called you. Why has He called you now? What is His purpose for you being here? As I said, it's no accident that you're sitting here.

God is preparing a family. And you're the vanguard of that family. You're being prepared for special duties and responsibilities. We are called the first fruits. God has called us. And we're the first to trust in God.

Do you believe that you're ready to rule a thousand people?

What about a million people? What if God asked you to rule over Detroit? What if He asked you to rule Philadelphia? Could you solve their problems?

What about Washington, DC, San Francisco, any other city on the face of the earth?

What about Mexico City, Havana, Buenos Aires, Moscow, any other city that you can think of?

Could you solve the refugee problem going on right now in the world? You realize that there are 45 to 50 million people who are refugees. What we see occurring in Europe is only a drop in the bucket for what's occurring around the world. How do you take care of those people? How do you resettle them? You realize that in the future, there's a time coming when hundreds of millions of people will be displaced. And they're going to have to be resettled when Jesus Christ comes back. How will we do that? How will we be capable of doing that? Even if one-tenth of human beings are left alive when Jesus Christ returns, out of 7.3 billion, that's 730 million.

How are we going to deal with even 730 million? What if there were a billion? You and I are going to be thrust almost immediately into tremendous opportunities to solve problems.

Something needs to happen to you and to me before we can do that, before we're capable of helping mankind, before we can bring peace to the earth, or we can set up the right government on the earth. And that's why the family of God is being trained right now. That's why you're here.

That's why God says to come back year after year as we found out last night. A change must take place. Something special must happen. Let's go back to the book of Genesis real quick. And let's notice what God is going to do.

Genesis chapter 1, verse 11.

Very quickly, I'll summarize this. God created the grass, the herbs, and the trees, and He said they were to reproduce after their time. And then in verse 21, God created the fish and the birds, and He said they are to create after their time. That means the pigeon reproduces pigeon, not a toad frog. You know, a cow doesn't produce a horse. They produce after their own time. In verse 24, land animals produce after their time.

Now, then we find God making another statement in verse 26.

God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and so on. Verse 27, so God created man in his own image, in the image of God. He created him male and female. He created them. Now, God created us in His image. That simply means we look like God.

God has shape and form. We look like Him. We are created like God. We have a mind. We can think. We can reason. We can have wisdom. We can plan. We can create. We can have language. We can read. You know, we have likeness of God, but in a very simple way, because when you look at God, He is so much greater. But we are like Him in those ways, and we look like Him. In chapter 2 of the book of Genesis, in chapter 2, beginning in verse 18, the Lord God said, It's not good that man should be alone. I will make a helper comparable to Him.

And you find here that, first of all, God brought before Adam all of the animals. And there were no animals that He found who were like Him. None of them looked like Him. There was not another human being alive at that time, so He didn't find anybody comparable. He couldn't find anybody to marry. There were orangutans and monkeys and apes and all kinds of things, but they were animals. They did not have the likeness of God. There was not a helper compatible to God. There was no one of the same caliber, same status, same level as Adam. He was the only human being on earth at that time. Now, verse 21, God caused the deep sleep to fall upon Adam. It took one of His ribs, as you know. He closed up the side and He created a woman out of His flesh. The woman was the only one not taken directly out of the dirt or the ground, out of the soil. Everything else was created in that manner. But God created the woman out of the man, and she became bone of His bone, as He said. In verse 23, Adam said, this is now bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of the man. Now, in verse 24, we find that the man shall leave his father and mother, be joined to his wife. The word there, joined, means simply that, to be joined together so that you do not cleave apart, but to be stuck together. And when you get married, God intended originally that that be for your whole life. Now, obviously, all of this that took place was symbolic of something that God was going to do, of God's plan of salvation.

What is symbolic of is God has looked around for a bride for His Son, and there is no one comparable to His Son. No one comparable, as yet, to His Son. No one just like Him. As Adam looked around, he could not find anybody comparable to Him who looked like Him. And yet, let's notice in Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 28, Ephesians 5, 28, Philos, the other day, quoted this and mentioned that there is a mystery connected to what we're talking about here. You know, in the Bible, when the Bible uses the term mystery, the mystery of God is talking about hidden truths, things that have been hidden from people down through the ages, that are now revealed to His saints. Let's notice that in verse 28, husbands ought to love their wives as their own body. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes it, in other words, feeds it and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body and of His flesh and of His bones. Notice, just like Eve was taken out of the flesh and bone of Adam, it says we are members of Christ's body, of His flesh, of His bones.

Remember back in 1 Corinthians 12, it says that God places each one of us in the body as He pleases, and we don't choose where we are placed. God puts us in the body as He chooses, and He's training each one of us. Now, it says in verse 31, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

So, He's speaking about Christ and the church. And when you look at what happened with Adam, and Eve, we should be thinking about ourselves today and the church.

How is it possible that we could be part of His body, His flesh, His bones?

Well, Jesus Christ slept the sleep of death, you might remember. His side was open.

A soldier crammed his spear into his side, and he bled to death. And it is through his blood and his sacrifice that we become a part of Jesus Christ, a part of His body, a part of Him. Adam slept, and God took a rib to create Eve. God is creating a bride through Jesus Christ's sacrifice and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And we are to become one flesh with Him. Genesis 2.24 stated, you might remember, that in marriage a couple becomes one flesh.

And here it states that we are to be one with Christ. The word one flesh means to cling together, stay together, and actually some translate it as to be glue. If you ever take an epoxy glue to glue something, you put the two together and guess what happens? They become one, and you can't pull them apart. And that's precisely what God is wanting to do for us. Before you or I get into the kingdom of God, God must know that we will never depart from Him, that we will never leave, that we will never fall away, that we are totally committed to Him.

And just as in a marriage, a couple is supposed to be committed to one another, we are committed to God. He is our head, and we submit to Him. Now, in 1 Corinthians 6, 1 Corinthians 6, beginning in verse 13, explains this mystery that we're talking about. And let's notice it here, beginning in verse 13. 1 Corinthians 6, it says, food for the stomach and the stomach for food, but God will destroy both it and them. Now, the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body.

Our bodies were made for God. And it says here, the Lord for the body. In verse 15, do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? When you become converted, you become a member of the body of Christ. He is the head, and we're members of that body.

And then in verse 16, do you not know that He was joined to a harlot as one body? For the two, He said, could become one flesh. But He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. And just as the couple become one flesh, you and I are to become one spirit. This is why we must study and pray and have the very mind of God dwelling within us.

We are to become one with Christ. We have one spirit. In the human realm, we're one flesh. The Greek word here, again, join, means to be glued, cleaved to, fastened together. We are to be glued to Jesus Christ, and nothing should separate us. Here we are to feast.

And, brethren, the salvation of mankind rests on our shoulders, on our faithfulness. Are we going to be faithful? Are we the elect? Because, you see, the Bible Christ said that when He comes back, for the elect's sake, He will cut those days short.

We are being made comparable to Jesus Christ, but presently, there's a missing element. You know what that is? There's something missing. We're not there yet. There is the gift that you and I need to be given, and our Father is going to give it to the bride of His Son. And you and I are the bride. He's going to give us a gift that's going to make it possible for us to be comparable to His Son. Romans 6.23 says this, the gift of God is eternal life. In Christ Jesus, our Lord. God will elevate the bride to the same spirit level as the Son.

We won't have the same authority, but we will be suitable. We will be a helper, and we will be comparable. Our lives, at that point, will never end, and we'll be able to help and serve God and His people forever. You and I today are limited by our physical bodies. If I were to ask the average person over 50 to flat-footed jump up on this stage, most of us would not be able to do that.

Our bodies are limited. How fast can you run? How high can you jump? How good can you think? How long can you endure without food and water? We realize that we're very limited, but God is going to deal with us, and He's going to give us eternal life as a gift. Nothing that we've earned is a gift He's going to give to us at the time of the resurrection, and we will no longer be limited as we are today.

As Daniel 7, 18, mentions Daniel 7, verse 18, there's going to come a time that the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever. There's going to come a time when we will be in the kingdom of God, which is what this festival is victory. A time when the kingdom of God is going to rule on this earth.

I was struck by the opening prayer Mr. Taylor gave when he mentioned that we're here on this first day, picturing the beginning of that thousand-year period. What I want to paint for you today is the beginning, and why you and I are going to be able to carry out the job that God has called us to do.

In Revelation, chapter 22, is an interesting scripture in verse 5. Revelation, chapter 22, in verse 5, is talking about the time of the new heaven and new earth. Every human being has had an opportunity for salvation at this time. The Father has come to the earth to rule and to reign. Notice in verse 5, it says, there shall be no night there, they need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light, and they shall reign forever and ever.

Okay, the millennium is over, the white throne judgment is over. What are we going to rule over, reign over, forever and ever?

Do you know? I'm not sure. I can guess, but my summation isn't any better than your summation. God is going to have us doing things forever, as though our calling is an everlasting calling, and we will reign forever. Stop and think about it this way. There's going to come a time in the future when one day you will be a human being, looking to God for protection, looking to God and asking for food and shelter. Who knows what is going to be going on at that time? We know the tribulation has gone on the day of the Lord. Christ is about to come back, and we're human beings. And the next day, we have been glorified. The resurrection has taken place. So one day we're over here, rubbing in the dirt, and the next day we're whizzing around the universe. We are spirit beings, and we have been elevated from the physical to the divine, from the human to the spirit, and we begin to see things that no human being has ever seen before. I've never seen a carob. I've never seen a sarah. I've never seen an angel. I've never seen Jesus Christ, God the Father. But we are going to see things that are going to leave our mouth wide open, and we're going to be absolutely amazed. What changes need to take place in our body in order for us to help the millions of people who will be alive at the beginning of the millennium?

I don't think there's a person sitting here who's not had a strong desire at some time to change the world today—the suffering and the pain. If you ever looked at somebody dying of cancer and you just see their body being weakened and eaten up by cancer and say, boy, I would really like to just say, rise up and walk and heal that individual. Put an end to all the suffering going on in the world, all of the struggles going on in the Middle East, straighten out to religious confusion around the world. Do away with hunger and starvation. These are all motives and things that we would like to do. And God has called you to do exactly that. That's why we're here. The timing isn't now, but the timing is coming. And if we prepare and if we submit, and if we do what God says and continue to be faithful, God is going to one day elevate us to the point to where He says, go get them, go help them, go serve them, and we will be able to do that at that time. God has chosen us as the elect, and we are being created today in His spiritual image, His character, His approach, His way of thinking, His motives, His motivation, His perspective, His mind, His attitude. That's what we're all striving to become. The Bible uses the image of God in three different ways. Number one, first, we were made to look like God. Secondarily, and this is what we're doing today, we're creating the spiritual image of God. That's why we have been given the Spirit of God. With the help of the Spirit of God, Christ living in us, God the Father working with us, we are able to develop spiritual character, righteous character, godly character.

And the third way is in the resurrection. We will be made of the composition of God. We will become spirit. We will be a spirit being in the family of God. Now, remember this. Back in Isaiah 57, in verse 15, Isaiah 57, 15, we find that God has always existed in eternity. He inhabits eternity. Now, we think we know what that means, but I doubt it. We can get a certain understanding of it. The word inhabit means to live in. God lives in eternity.

Eternity means perpetual perpetuality of time and emphasizes the length of forever, time without end, continuous existence. God has always continuously existed. You have not, and I have not, but He has. He's existed in eternity. But God wants to share eternal life with us, and He is willing to share His level of existence with us. You know the word eternal, when you talk about eternal life in the Bible, means without beginning, without end. That which always has been and always will be, never ceasing, everlasting.

There are only two beings in the universe, God and Word, who are without beginning and without end.

You and I had a beginning. I was born 1940. I don't know when you were born, but my wife was born in the United States, and somewhere back there.

But we were all born at one time, and by God's grace, our parents bore us. And we were conceived, and our mother bore us, and we were a baby.

We have not lived forever in the past, but we are going to have the opportunity to step into eternity for the future and live forever in the future. We have physical life now that does then. The physical is always running down. We had a beginning. However, we have the promise of eternal life that without end, and never ceases, it will go on forever. We've not lived forever in the past, but God says that through the resurrection He will give us eternal life, and we will have the opportunity to live forever into the future. One of the Greek lexicons, L'onita, makes this distinction that, when it refers to God, there is a qualitative difference about the word or distinction. The implication is associated with a relationship to divine and supernatural attributes. When you and I are given eternal life, there will be certain supernatural attributes that come along with that. What are all of those supernatural attributes? We know some of them. We certainly don't know all of them, but we are going to receive certain attributes that will enable us to function on a completely different level, and we will immediately be able to start helping others.

Since if one translates, eternal life is simply never dying, there could be a serious misunderstanding, since people assume that never dying refers to physical existence. Accordingly, some translators have rendered eternal life, and I like this expression, as unending real life.

Our physical life is not real life because it ends. There's going to come a time when we are given real life, and by that we mean life that is self-generating. One of the attributes of God is that he has life in himself, and we don't understand it. I can't explain it, but if God generates life, he is life, and he's always existed and will always exist. The physical is only temporary. It's not real life or eternal life, but it is God's life. If you ever stop to think back in 1 Corinthians 15, it talks about their various different types of flesh, their flesh of fish, birds, and animals. They all taste differently, and even among different fish, they're different. Spirit life. Is there a difference between an angel and a God?

I say there is. If God could have created gods, why are we going through all of this? If he could have just liked creating angels, and they are on the absolute same level of existence as he is, then why go through everything that we're going through today? Because he could have already done that. Angels are spirit beings, but they're on a certain level. God is on a vastly superior level. Are there other levels that we know nothing about?

I don't know, but I do know that when you look in the Bible, the angels in heaven, the armies of heaven, come back riding on what? On horses. Are there such things as spiritual horses? What about a cara? Ox, lion, man, you calf. You begin to look, and you see that there are different angelic beings in apparently different ranks. We don't understand the spirit world. God's given us a glimpse. It's sort of like God says, okay, get ready.

And we saw a little bit, and that's this. And one day, it's like looking through a mirror darkly, or seeing through the fog. One day, the fog will clear away. Last night, I was looking for the moon. I didn't find it because of the clouds. I thought I saw it once, but I doubt it. Well, there's going to come a day when all that's going to be cleared away, and we will be able to see God as He is. Remember 1 John 3 and verse 2? 1 John 3, 2 says, When He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

Now, notice what that says. We shall be like Him. We're talking about God, the Father. We're going to be like Him, and we will see Him as He is. No man can look on God and live now. It would be like looking on the sun. If you look at the sun as full strength, you'll go blind.

If you were this far away from the sun, you'd be cooked. In fact, you'd evaporate. You'd disappear. You can't be close to God unless you are on the same level as Spirit being. When we receive eternal life in its fullness, there will be benefits and enhancements. There will be additions that God is going to give us, different attributes.

And we want to take a look at some of those in the time remaining. 1 Timothy chapter 6. Let's go to 1 Timothy 6.15 and 16.

And you read here something about God.

1 Timothy actually chapter 6 would work better. It says, which He will manifest in His own time. Verse 15.

He who is the blessed and only potent faith, the King and Kings, the Lord of Lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, like that you cannot approach because of its brilliance and power and energy, who no man has seen nor can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power.

But I want you to notice the expression, who alone is immortal.

Only God is immortal.

The word immortal may be expressed as, he is the only one who never dies. He is the only one who has always existed. And only he has immortality. And yet, in 1 Corinthians 15, there are two different words used in the Bible for immortality. One is a mistranslation. This is not. Neither is the one in 1 Corinthians 15.53. These are the same words in the Greek.

It says, this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality. Same thing is said in verse 54.

You and I, in the resurrection, will be given immortality.

Now, whatever immortality is, it's an extra attribute that only God possesses. We know that it means to never die from that point forward. God has not.

But is there something else connected with it? In Vines' dictionary of the Bible, it suggests immortality, the quality of life in joy. That immortality refers to a different quality of life. That we are going to have a quality of life that others have known nothing of. That we will be able to enjoy.

To live forever, our bodies must be changed, altered, or transformed. The physical must feast and the spiritual must be there, be given. Philippians 3 and verse 21 is an amazing scripture. Philippians 3, 21 says, who will transform our lowly body? So there's the transformation. Our lowly bodies are going to be transformed.

That it may be conformed to His glorious body.

So you and I are going to be given a body, just like Christ's glorious body, according to the working by which He is able, even to subdue all things to Himself. If we comprehend what this verse is saying, is that we are going to have a body, just like Jesus Christ.

That He is our elder brother, and we will have a body on the level of the God playing at that time. Verse 41 begins to describe here in 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15, 41, the transformation that will take place in the resurrection. We read over this a lot of times, but we need to stop and think about this transformation from this perspective. That this is what is going to enable us to rule. When we begin to rule, we begin to bring back the masters of people and resettle them, feed them, and clothe them, and teach them God's way. The reason why we are going to be able to do that is because of this transformation.

Notice beginning in verse 41, there is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, another glory of the stars, for one star differs from another star in glory. But also, here is the resurrection of the dead. The body is thrown in corruption. It is raised in incorruption. It is thrown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is thrown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is thrown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. So, notice the transformation that takes place.

That you and I are going to be like the stars.

In Daniel 12 verses 2 and 3, we read this clearly, that many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake. Daniel 12 verses 2. Some do everlasting life, some do shame and everlasting content. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.

You and I will have a body that will shine like a star. What is a star? But a sun.

Stars are 93 million miles away, but look at all the heat we get from it. Look at the light. When the sun comes up, it is daylight. When it goes down, it is dark.

That is the way we will be. We will have the same brilliance. But 1 Corinthians 15 tells us that one star differs from another in glory or in brilliance. So there may be a difference in the brilliance and glory that we have. Matthew 13.43 tells us, Matthew 13.43, Then the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of the Father. He who has near to hear, let him hear.

You go out again and look at the sun. You can see the power, the energy that flows from it. We will be given a spirit body. What does the spirit body look like?

Well, we have a description in the Bible. We could go all through the Bible, various scriptures. Let's just read one of them. The book of Ezekiel 1. Verse 26. Turn back to chapter 1 of the book of Ezekiel.

Verse 26.

This is talking about God coming down to evaluate Jerusalem, evaluate the righteousness of the people.

And we find above the firmament, over their heads, over the carob's head, was the likeness of the throne in appearance like a staffire's throne. And on the likeness of the throne was the likeness with the appearance of a man high above it. Also, from the appearance of his waist upward, I saw as it were the color of amber.

Color of amber. Amber is like a shining substance. It could be hard yellow, brown, like brass that is polished.

So, I saw the color of amber with the appearance of fire around and within it.

So, the appearance was of fire going out, energy flowing out. And the appearance of his waist and downward, I saw as it were, the appearance of fire with brightness all around.

That's describing looking like a star or a sun would look where energy is compacted into a small space and closed out. And here it's talking about is this the likeness of the rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day. So was the appearance of the brightness all around it. And it was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of God. This is what the glory of God looks like. This is the type of glory that you and I will have. Our bodies will be transformed and we will have a body like his glorious body. So, this is the body that you will have for the rest of eternity forever.

We will not have flesh to contend with.

Guess what a relief it's going to be to not have the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life to contend with. Just getting rid of the flesh, think what we will be able to do as the spirit being. We'll walk through walls, Jesus Christ did. We'll go from the physical dimension into the spirit dimension. Right now, you and I are in the physical dimension. You just try to go into the spirit. Try walking through the wall over here and it won't work. But spirit can walk into the physical dimension and then disappear back into the spirit. There are two dimensions coexisting here. You and I only see one other.

God exists in the other. Now, the question is, how many dimensions really are there?

And again, those are questions that we don't know the answer to. But maybe one day we'll find out. Without the physical body, we won't get tired. We can work hard. It doesn't mean that we'll have to worry about anything. We don't have to worry about sleep. We just work. We won't just work all the time. But we will be able to go and go and not have to worry about running down. We'll be able to travel immediately from one area to another. If we're on one side of the air, boom, we're on the other side if we want to be. And we'll have that ability. We will not be limited by our bodies.

Now, another thing, remember, in 1 Corinthians 15 is that we will be incorruptible.

Incorruptible. That means not capable of corruption.

We will be exempt from wear and tear, perishing, which characterizes our present bodies.

How many of you find your body wearing out? Mine is.

Your hearing goes, your teeth fall out, your hair disappears, body sags, knees and hips wear out, and you have to replace them. Well, there's going to come a time when you don't have to worry about that. Revelation 21, verse 4 tells us there will come a time when there will be no more pain, no more sorrow, no more suffering, no more crime.

The body won't bleed. We won't get cancer. We won't break a leg. We won't die in a fire. We won't drown. We won't do any of those things. We will just keep living on forever and ever. We will have a body that has the glory of God.

You realize that every second the sun produces 400 trillion watts of power and radiates it out into space. That's why we get some energy, just a fraction of it here on the earth. That is the same amount of energy as a trillion one megaton bombs.

A trillion one megaton bombs. Now, that's one second. What about 60 seconds?

Well, 60 would be, you know, 60 times a trillion, 60 trillion megaton bombs. That's the power that's compacted. Where did all of this energy, all this power come from?

I'll give you one guess. There's only one place it could have come from.

Everything in the universe comes from one source, and that's God. Genesis 1.1 says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The heavens include all of the stars. How many solar systems are there? What's estimated now over 250 million, I think some say billions. There are millions and billions of stars in each one. Each one of them have energy compacted within them. Where did that energy come from? It all came from God. Rather, what kind of a God do we worship?

You realize that when we come here and sit before Him and sing to Him, you get on your knees and pray to Him that you are praying to a being who is so powerful, so great, so magnificent. That there's no comprehension of it. And He created all of that. Hebrews 11.3 tells us that the things which are seen, Hebrews 11.3, were made of things that are not visible.

Things not visible. The net translation says, by faith we understand that the worlds were set in order at God's command so that the visible has its origin in the invisible. So everything visible was created from the invisible.

Now, just to give you a glimpse of what I'm talking about, I'd like to quote a short quote here from the HealthMath Research Center about the head and heart interaction. The heart is the most powerful, talking about your heart physically, generator of electromagnetic energy in the human body. And it also creates a magnetic field. The heart, electrical field, is 60 times greater in its aptitude than the electrical activity generated by the brain. This field measured in the form of electrocardiogram can be detected anywhere on the surface of the body. Furthermore, the magnetic field produced by the heart is more than 5,000 times greater in strength than the field generated by the brain and can be detected a number of feet away from the body. Have you ever walked into a room and detected a negative attitude, a negative spirit, or walked up to somebody and there's just a positive spirit? That's because their field interacted with your field. You and I don't see that, but around every one of us there is a magnetic field. Around God there is a magnetic field, but it extends to the whole universe. Hours extend out maybe four or five feet, six feet. God extends everywhere. That's how He is able to uphold all things. As Jeremiah 23, 23 tells us, I am God at hand, says Jehovah, and not a God afar off. Do not I fill the heavens and the earth? Now some people read that and say God is nothing but a blob. He fills the heavens and the earth. That's not what it's saying. God has shape and form. He resides where He is, but His spirit flows out. His power flows out. His energy goes out from Him, and God wants to share that with us.

He wants to give us a mind that is so much superior to our human minds.

We will have that enhanced ability. God has unlimited mind power. He calls all of the stars by name. How many billions are there? He calls them all by name. He's got a number.

I can't remember. Somebody comes up to me and says, I'm so-and-so, do you remember me? They walk away. Now what was His name? We have trouble remembering people's names, but God doesn't. Think about the time when you will be able to meet billions of members of God's family. Those who've come up and been born into the family of God. You will have eternity to get to know them. You'll be able to remember everybody's name. You'll be able to remember their special abilities and talents and skills and a little bit about them. Every time you see them, they'll be like just an old friend that you've not had the chance to meet. Well, we will be able to do that in the future. Brethren, God is going to take us, and He's going to give us the life that there is no parallel with. We'll finish with one verse in Psalm 16 verse 11. And I want you to notice in Psalm 16, 11 that not only are we going to be increased when it comes to our bodies and the power and the ability that we will have, that God will be able then to use us to help convert this whole world. But Psalm 16 verse 11 says, in God's presence, in God with Him, there is fullness of joy and pleasure evermore. Can you imagine living forever full of joy and excitement and experiencing pleasure, one pleasure after another? And we don't know what all of those are, but they're going to be there. We will be made comparable to Jesus Christ. We will be elevated to the God plane in existence. We will be a part of the family of God, the kingdom of God, and we will dwell in the New Jerusalem forever. And we will be there with Jesus Christ. And we will help Him bring salvation to all mankind in the millennium in the Great White Throne Judgment. And then thereafter, we will be there to be His helper, and we will reign forever and ever.