Three Keys to Staying the Course

Davey's already referenced, every day's a beautiful day, it seems, on Jekyll Island, and it's just been an absolutely stunning few days here for us and for you. As he said, we are, my wife Debbie and I, are leaving tomorrow to fly up to Virginia Beach, and I'll say hello to everyone up there from all of you down here, and we'll spend the remainder of the Feast of Tabernacles up there. Really have appreciated the music. Special music has been, I think, exceptional. Mr. Barbush practices very, very meticulously in very, very long hours, and I haven't seen my wife once I drop her off here at the beginning.

She then shows up, you know, about the first hymn. But it does take practice to produce good special music, and I really have enjoyed several of the pieces that I've never heard before. So I appreciate the attention to that that Mr. Barbush puts into it. Mr. Barbush comes from the legacy and the heritage of the Wisconsin Dells feast site, where they have had legendary music over the years of the full orchestra and music.

He's a professional musician and a friend that goes back many years, and he wears good ties as well. Mr. Shaby didn't mention—maybe he did the other day—I also pastor a couple of congregations for a few more days anyway, but I should say hello from our Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, Indiana congregations, which has also been my job for 38 years. But in a few days, we will exit the role of a pastor and his wife and have the opportunity to go and relocate to the home office and begin working more directly with the media efforts of the church.

So we're looking forward to that. After 38 years in the ministry, at least the field ministry, pastoral ministry, it's quite a change for us. And I'm looking forward to it and the challenge that it will be for the first time in my adult working life, let's say. My commute will no longer be from my bedroom to my office in my slippers and pajamas where I begin, sometimes quite early in the morning, so it's never a late start. It's always early for me, but I'll have to get up and put regular clothes on and be at a desk at a certain set time.

But that's okay. I'm looking forward to that as well. I don't know that I'll be working any less hours with all the matters that we have to deal with, but I'll be working with Peter Eddington, who is the media operations director of the church, and the entire media staff in various aspects of our media. Not only the television, but the internet, print side, and whatever the job that kind of grows into.

I was kind of stunned one day in August with a phone call from Dennis Luker, the United Church of God president, where he asked me to do this job. And Mr. Luker kind of took a few minutes to kind of get to the point of the phone call, and he was talking about how we needed to really focus more on media and the television needed to be kind of taken to another level of attention.

And the more he talked, I thought, he's going to fire me. Honestly, the thought did go through my head. He's got somebody else in mind to do that job, and that'd be fine, too, at that point in time. I saw that whatever went still today, whatever. But he said then he offered me the opportunity to move over and to work at the office. And so we thought about it a few days and said yes. And so we're going to be doing that by the middle of November.

I'll be working into that and relocating as soon as our home sells. But I am looking forward to it. We have a very dedicated staff of people working in the media department at the office, especially on the internet and beyond today's production. We've got some very young men and ladies who are working with us, and they are exceptionally talented. They have come through the church, they've gone through the ABC program, and they are excited and passionate about preaching the gospel.

And to many of them I worked with as a camp director over the years or baptized them and performed their weddings and watched them grow up so to be able to sit down in an office environment and work with them in a collegial manner, I count as a rare privilege.

Just throw me into it and let me get into it. So we will be doing that. I did want to mention in regard to all these men that are working in the media, they all had the opportunity to go through the Ambassador Bible Center. And I did want to just kind of give a plug for the ABC program that we have. We had a meeting set up yesterday, and unfortunately nobody showed up. And that's always embarrassing when you're supposed to host a meeting and nobody shows up. But I'm thinking that we're just all busy in the first free day at the feast and people just weren't paying attention and scattered.

But we're going to try to do that again. Mr. Shaby is going to carve out some time, probably on Wednesday after the services. And some of you ABC alumni who are here, I'm going to draft to kind of do the meeting and be there to coordinate it. But if you have any questions, ever thought that ABC would be in your future, even if you're a 12-year-old, 15-year-old, 18-year-old, or above, whatever, no limit, come for the informational session.

We have a little short six-minute video to show you that gives a presentation from the lips of the students that went through this past year. And they're testimonial about the value of the Ambassador Bible Center and what it means to them and what it's all about.

So it's very short and it's an informational session and some of the alumni that are here at the feast this year would be there. If you want to know really what it is, if you even thought you had questions about it or didn't fully understand what the purpose of Ambassador Bible Center was, or never even dreamed that it might be for you, start thinking that way or planning for it.

And again, if you're just a young teenager and it's an excellent stepping stone out of high school before one goes into college or from college as a kind of a detour for nine months before graduate school, postgraduate work. So there is an exciting time there and Ambassador Bible Center is producing good fruit for the work of God. And as I started to say, those working in the media area are products of that and opportunities continue to open up for those who dream, plan, and think on a large scale. So Mr.

Shabel will be mentioning some more about that and giving you time and location and announcements during the feast. So I really do encourage you to at least stop in and investigate that.

Brethren, what have we been a part of all these years? And what is this all about? Two questions, really the same. What have we been a part of all these years and what is this all about? It's an honest question. It's a real question asked by a real-life member of the Church of God during this past year after events of this past year. What's this all about? And what have we been a part of? I want to answer that question for you today and help us to understand what we are a part of. It is the most important question perhaps for us to consider at this juncture in the Church of God. I'm going to answer that question by turning over, or to begin the answer to that question, by turning to Matthew 24. If you will turn there with me.

It's always good to answer questions by turning to the words of Jesus Christ.

Here in his Olivet prophecy, Jesus Christ in verse 37 made a statement. But as the days of Noah were, so also will be the coming of the Son of man be. As in the days of Noah. What an interesting statement that Jesus made here in the midst of a very key prophecy. We call the Olivet prophecy in answering the question of his own disciples as to what would be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age. And he goes back and he affirms the truth of the man Noah, that he was a real man, and that there was a real event surrounding his life called the flood.

And the story that we read about in what we call Genesis, chapter 6 and 7, and that in chapter 8 of Genesis, that goes through the story of Noah building an ark for the saving of people. And a flood that came upon the world because of the wickedness of man is what Jesus began to weave into his story here of the events of the end of the age. For a few minutes, let's consider the story of Noah.

Christ said, as in the days of Noah, what does that have to do with the days right now of the coming of the Son of Man that precedes the coming of the Son of Man in which we live? What's the connection? What do we learn? Well, there's a lot for us to learn. There's a lot more than perhaps we may have ever thought about in terms of parallels and understanding and application for the United Aide to understand what it is that we've been a part of and what's this all about? This Church of God experience, this Sabbath-keeping experience, this work of God experience, this feast of tabernacling in a place like Jekyll Island for, what, 50 years now in this particular location and going further back in other places in our own particular time.

Let's think for a moment about the time of Noah and the story that we know about Noah. We know that we won't turn back there. I'll just tell it. I think it's one that we all have the outline of. Human life had come to the point where it was so wicked that God had began to have second thoughts about the direction and the course where the world was going.

And it grieved him. Sin and unrighteousness had grown to such an amount in that pre-flood world, whatever the population was, we don't know. But the wickedness and the unrighteousness had grown to a stench in the nostrils of God. And he said, I will destroy all flesh.

But, we're told, one man named Noah found grace in God's eyes. And there, early on in the book of Genesis, in that old, old book called the Old Testament, we find the word grace. God's mercy. God's goodness. And he began to work with Noah. And he began to tell him and give him certain indications and directions as to the building of an ark for the saving of people.

And animals. And life. And we're told there that it went on for 120 years before the rains came. From the time that we can at least see there that God issued a directive and a call to Noah to begin his work, 120 years passed on. Let's turn over to 2 Peter 2. And just reference this one reference here in the New Testament.

There are several references in the New Testament to Moses or to Noah. I knew I would say Moses. And if I say Moses anymore, you'll know I mean Noah. But I'll endeavor to say Noah.

I should have practiced Greenwich Mean Time. The other day before my sermon, but I didn't and I bungled that one. So I hope I don't bungal Noah and Moses too much. But he is referenced a great deal here in 2 Peter 2. And in verse 5, we'll just look at this. It says, And did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people. As we know the story, ultimately only eight people. A preacher of righteousness bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly. One quick passing reference here in verse 5, and he moves on to Sodom and Gomorrah and other matters here in the theme of this chapter.

God saved Noah, but He calls him a preacher of righteousness. Righteousness is defined clearly in the Scriptures as based upon the law of God. All of your commandments are righteous, it says. And so the law of God, the way of God, the truth of God was taught by Noah. Because he was a preacher of righteousness. He was a teacher. He preached it. He proclaimed it. This is the term that is given to him over this period. Now, when we go back and we see just the outline, really, in Genesis of that whole epic and what took place, we see the building of an ark, details about the measurements, the number of people that went into it, the types of animals and how all that was decided.

We actually get a little bit more of behind-the-scenes glimpses when we come into some of these New Testament references as to what was taking place. But it was a lawless, Wild West period of time. And Christ drew the parallel between the days of Noah, as it would be in our particular days as well. You know, when you stop and think about it, 120 years of Noah being a preacher of righteousness to build this ark before the first drop of rain fell.

I want you to think about a few things for a few moments. 120 years. That's a long period of time, more than a century. Mr. Hobb was talking about 100 years in a farmstead in Michigan getting a special designation. In Indiana, they call that a heritage designation. You'll see the same markings outside of farms that have been in the families for that period of time in Indiana. And that's a long time in today's world for a farm to stay in one family's hands. 120 years is a long time.

It's at least four generations that you could probably fit within 120-year time span. Maybe five. That would be, but definitely four and five generations of people who would be alive at one point in time and for any length of time during that 120-year span. I know the ages seem to be much longer in that period of that pre-flood world, but still and all, that's a lot of people that were multiplying and families that were developing. And during this period of time, the ark was being built.

You have to imagine and realize that that ark took a lot of work. With all the measurements that were given in Genesis, as they try to put it all together today, some say that it was the late 1800s before another ship of that size was built on the face of the Earth. Some of the great ocean liners of that period of the 1800s finally came up to the size of the ark. It was about three stories high, and it was probably the length of about, they say, 20 basketball courts.

So it was large. And for whatever technology they had in that age, that pre-flood world, it would have had to have been big. It was big in 1860 when they built something that big again, and even bigger with the supertankers today. But it was big then, and it would be a big ship today. And the technology may not be as sophisticated with iron and all that we have today, but nonetheless requiring a great deal of work. The point I'm making is that as Noah laid the foundation or the keel of that boat and began to bring in materials and began to bring in people to even help with that job, I have to imagine that it was more than eight people.

That over a period of time, a lot of people, hundreds, perhaps even thousands of people, came to work on that project. Dare we call it even a global project of its day, built in a desert area, wasn't built on a seaside in Ireland or England, or the Atlantic coast or the Pacific coast. It was built in the middle of dry land, far away from any large body of water for the size of the boat. And far bigger than any knee that had ever been imagined for a boat in that day.

A universal flood where all flesh was going to be possibly killed. And this was built for the saving of it. And Noah preaching about it, teaching about it for 120 years, and people hearing about it. It was a project that employed probably hundreds and thousands of people over the period of time. I could well imagine whole families and whole communities coming to work on the Ark, growing up in the shadow of that boat as it began to rise out of the sands of the plains of the Middle East. Families grew. Fathers gained their livelihood from working on that boat. Children watched it take shape. The stories about it, the discussion about what it was all about and what it was for, probably filled up many, many dinner hours and conversations with people as they came and went.

Fathers trudged off each morning to the work. Children grew up and went to school, married and raised their children in the shadow of that great boat.

People came from all over their world at that time in response to maybe just the need for a job. Maybe it was in response to the message that they heard from this preacher of righteousness. But the world was going to come to an end, and that unless people changed and repented, they would not be saved. And they began to identify with his message, and so they packed up their tools. And they came and they were a part of the work of the Ark. And they worked on it. And they sawed. And they requisitioned materials. And they helped plan it. And they helped build it. I can well imagine a culture developing around the Ark as people worked on the work and wanted to be part of something bigger than anything they had ever been part of in their life. As people caught a vision for a moment of what was behind that Ark, they came believing in what Noah said. Many left their familiar villages to go and work on that project, something that was unheard of in that age and in the ancient world. Nobody traveled. Nobody went off to college. Nobody worked in another country. People lived and died in the same village that their grandparents and great-grandparents had lived and died in. They didn't move out away from their families in those days. And no doubt, people went and worked on this Ark, left their home, and worked for a time on this project. I could well imagine Noah traveling, preaching, teaching, explaining what it was all about, warning people. And the word spread of a man warning about a coming catastrophe upon the earth, a period of tribulation that was going to come, where all flesh might be destroyed. And this boat was being built. And you need to see that boat. You need to hear what this man says. And they came to understand certain things about their culture and their way, and about God, the law of God, and righteousness. And to whatever degree they identified with it, and it changed their life, and it made a big difference in their life, and they came and they were part of it. You ever wonder how the Ark was funded? Was Noah a multi-billionaire? I don't know. Did people contribute to it? I don't know.

We don't have all the answers to that. But for 120 years, it was a project, it was a work, and it was big. You know, I can well imagine that there were periods after several decades, 30 or 40 or 50 decades, that people began to lose their enthusiasm for the work of building that Ark. They got tired of doing it. Or they got disgruntled because they weren't being paid enough or something happened. You know, human nature is quite the same, no matter what age people live in. But I can imagine the work kind of ebbing and flowing over a period of time, where maybe even at certain times there were only a few maintenance workers keeping it alive. While at other times there may have been several hundred or several thousand people going through it. There may have even been times where Noah had to reorganize the crews, hire whole other groups to come in and continue the work. You know, I can well imagine there may have been a time at some point in that 120 years where Noah had to put the Ark back on track. Because it got off track. Because people got diverted from the focus of what was being done. And their focus wasn't sharp.

And as the generations went on, how many people came to think that they could build a better boat? We don't need as large a boat as he's talking about.

I've got a different idea. How many may have become disgruntled along the way and decided to go off and build a boat based on their own design? That boat won't float, they might have said. But I've got a plan for a boat that will float. Let's go and build this boat over here. And some may have gone off with the idea of building another boat. We only read about one boat in the story. But sometimes I imagine there may have been a few other boats that were being built along other ideas and along other plans. How many people over a period of time took their tools and after a period of dispute or just a change of life and a season turned in their life and they just left thinking, I'm tired of the boat business. I'm tired of the art business. This rain is not going to come. It's never come. He's been preaching this for 70 years. It's not going to come. We've never had any flood like that. All things will continue as they are. And so they just quit and went back to their village and sat in their mud hut with their relatives and their family and went back to whatever life they had. How many came to disbelieve Noah's message in that way, thinking that life would go on? This never happened. As in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. In Hebrews 11, we're given another little tidbit of information in the faith chapter. Hebrews 11, verse 7, By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, had not yet come, and as I said, it had never come on that scale. The potential of all flesh being destroyed never had happened. A flood of that proportion never had happened. Moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. Again, one verse here in the faith chapter that tells us that Noah was divinely warned of things not yet seen, and he was moved to action. And he did the work of building an ark. And by that set an example of faith. There came a day when the last nail was driven and the ark was done. The animals were loaded on. I imagine it took a while to gather all those animals as well, hold them, gather all the food that was going to be needed. That was a major job as well. But there came a day when the ark was done, the animals were loaded, and all the food and supplies were put on board. I wonder if there was one last call, one last campaign, one last seminar, one last message that went out. Repent. Save yourselves from this generation. Listen. It's going to come. And people stood out and they watched it, and they saw all this being done, and they said, what a foolish gesture. 119 years and 355 days. It's not going to happen yet. It's not going to happen. The false prophet is that man, Noah. And then one day, eight people were all that walked into that boat, and the door was shut and sealed. And it was over. It was done. And then maybe for a few days it didn't, nothing happened. And maybe there were shouts and jeers that they could hear beyond the ark of people laughing, partying, going about their life, and talking about what an idiot these people were. I wonder what the word for cult was in those days.

And then the first drops fell. And then more drops fell. And then the earth began to rumble. And then it was too late. And that's where we pick up the rest of the story in Genesis. And we either believe it happened, or we don't believe it happened. And I don't care if it's on Mount Ararat or not.

That's not what's important. This story is important. And what really is important is what Jesus distilled from the story, and what Peter tells us, and what Paul tells us in these references here. And really what's important is what we learn from this ourselves.

Let's go back to Matthew 24.

But as the days of Noah, verse 37, were so also will be the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, in verse 38, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will be the coming of the Son of Man be. So also will the coming of the Son of Man be. And so Jesus drew it right into his message on that day and projected it down into our day before, today. And for us to learn very important keys and lessons, because we are living in the days of the coming of the Son of Man prior to that period of time. And this story of Noah can offer us some very valuable lessons as to the reality and the surety of a message of righteousness that goes out, and of heating it and listening to it, and enduring all through the years, 120 if necessary, which is something none of us in this room is going to have to worry about. We're not even going to live to that age. Things are different today. But we're going to live to the end of our years, whatever that length may be. And for many of us, we have been at it for 40, 50, 60 or plus years already. We don't know how much longer and how much further ahead it will be. And I'm not saying it's 120 years today as an exact parallel. That's not what I'm at all indicating. We don't want to even go there. But Christ gives some very strong indications here in teaching. He goes on here in verse 42. He says, Watch therefore. For you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. And this watching has a multitude of applications for us. It doesn't mean just to watch Fox News.

I've come to appreciate over the years that the most important thing is that we certainly understand our times and the events of the world. But we also better be watching ourselves in relation to this world that the world doesn't encroach on us and that we're more aligned with the world of God's kingdom, that kingdom to come. And we better watch ourselves in that way because we don't know what hour our Lord does come. He goes on and He says, But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Back in verse 40, Christ makes a statement here that's challenging to us because we don't fully understand times what He means. But He says, Two women will be grinding at the mill, one will be taken, and the other left. Now, we've speculated, you may have your own speculation as to what exactly He's saying. Jesus just drops these two little examples in there. Two men working in a field, two women grinding at a mill, one's taken, the other is left. What does that mean?

You know, in recent days I've had some conversations with members, long-time members of the church, and it's made me to go back and think about this verse. I was having dinner with some members in our congregation a few weeks back. Long-time members, family, whole clan, extended family. The man who was hosting us was talking about his family, that he grew up in the church from the 60s on, and his parents started coming to the church. He had siblings, and then they all grew up, they got married, and they had children. If they were all together today, it would be quite an extensive family. But of all of those in his family he was saying that are still in the faith, three. Three. His parents and himself.

And the others don't believe. They've gone on to other things. They became disenchanted. They stopped engaging in the work. They went back to a different life, and they went on to other things. They're not in the faith. And others of you would have a similar story. And I just personally got to thinking and wondering, you know, one is taken, one is left. It's a percentage. You can say 50-50. It could be 60-40, 80-20, 90-10. It doesn't really matter in one sense. Is it? And this is just a thought. I'm not saying it's always the complete answer, but is Jesus saying that not everybody will endure, just as they didn't, no doubt, didn't do in the days of Noah? That one person or a small percentage out of a larger group will endure while others won't? Is that what he was saying? It's interesting to think about, because we are this far into what this is all about and into this work. We've gone through interesting times. We've seen a lot come and go. And we wonder and we ask these questions at various times to bolster our own faith, to figure us all out and figure each other out. But we are, in the days, the coming of the Son of Man prior to that period of time. We're closer than we were whatever X number of years ago. I'll tell you this, and I think most of you hear from the comments we've had as we shared and talked here through the aisles here in the feast thus far. We want to be left in the field. We want to stay working. Or do we want to be taken, whatever we're going to be taken to? The reality is we want to endure to the end because it is the one who endures to the end that will be saved. The same shall be saved. We want to endure in the faith. We want to stay loyal to God. I want to be engaged in the work of God. I'd like to give you this afternoon, brethren, three keys that I think will help us to live on in the days of the coming of the Son of Man and to endure to that end. And to stay the course, to keep our hand to the plow, to stay engaged in the work of God as it is today. We're not building necessarily an ark, but so many of us have grown up in the shadow of this work, seen it in its best and biggest days, and seen it in some of its smallest days. But at no time in my generation, in our time, has God abandoned it, has it died out. That hasn't happened, and I don't think that it will. But I want it to remain and endure and be faithful, and I think most of you do as well. So I'd like to give you three keys to help us navigate our days and our times here at this period in time. In a world that is continuing to marry and give in marriage and to eat and to drink and to go about its life, heedless to a message of righteousness, of godly righteousness, of the truth of the gospel of the kingdom of God.

Why was it that people didn't know, as it says? They didn't understand when that final day had clicked over on the 120th year and the flood came. They didn't know. Well, Jesus says they were going about their life. They were distracted. They didn't see the seriousness of it. They thought it was a crack religion. They thought it was a false message. It would have required changes. They weren't ready to do it. They didn't want to do it. They had their life. They didn't believe in God. They just believed in what was in front of them. Sound familiar? It's not like a movie we watch or a world we live in. We have so many distractions today, always coming in, creeping in upon us, challenging even the people of God. The first of the keys. Very simple. It's time to wake up. It is time for all of us to wake up to the reality of this world, this life, and what we are a part of. In Ephesians 5, the Apostle Paul says this. Ephesians 5.

In verse 14, Therefore he says, and he's quoting from Isaiah, Wake up! You who sleep! What would cause us to sleep? Disenchantment, the world, the pleasures of this life, the technology, the promises of this world, the distractions, the persecutions upon the faith of God, the continual, relentless attacks upon faith in general throughout this entire society. You don't have to be a part of the Church of God to have a crisis of faith. God, the Bible, the divinity of Jesus Christ, religion, is under a constant barrage in this world. In its educational processes, throughout its entertainment, in politics, from every angle, religion is being hammered. Even at a time when people are more wanting to be spiritual, seeking answers, wanting hope, the attacks upon faith, spirituality, continue to grow large. Not to speak of just the deception that is out there, but just the relentless attacks against faith, and God, and the Bible, and the truth of the Scriptures. And that wears on us. Paul says, wake up. We are living in challenging moments, in challenging times in the history of the world. Arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. That is the promise. That is really the hope. As we are drawn to a relationship with the Son of God, with Jesus Christ, He will give us light. He is the head of the church. He is not going to forsake it. He said He would be with it, and the gates of the grave would not prevail against it. We have to have our relationship with Him and with the Father exactly right. In verse 15, see then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. I turned age 60 this year. That has an amazing way of distilling the thoughts. It really does. Thirty, I just breezed right through. Fifty came and went and didn't even notice it.

Sixty, I'm having a few problems with. But on top of that, we are in the process of moving from one home to another. We have been in the same house 21 years ago. The house I grew up in, I was only there for, like, my hometown, 19 years. I've lived in this house in Greenwood, Indiana for 21 years, longer than any one place. We are going to sell it. We are going to move to another town, another assignment, another house. Moving is a wonderful way to help you trim down the things that we accumulate over the years.

My wife, Debbie, is a good German. She's very efficient. I'm a pack rat. Over the years, she's kept things trimmed down. We thought we were trimmed down pretty good until we decided to realize we were going to move. We said, we better get this house ready. We better go through the closets and the attics. It's amazing what we still were holding on to. So we decided, well, we've got enough for a garage sale. So we pulled it all out into the garage, and over the Labor Day period, we had a two-day garage sale. As you all have, when you have a garage sale, you're selling things that are valuable to you, you think, or you thought. At one time, I paid good money for some of the stuff we were putting in a garage sale. Hard-earned money. I wish I'd heard Vernon Hargirl's Bible study last night, much, much sooner at times in my life. You know how it is? You go to a garage sale, you sell things for pennies on the dollar. It was therapeutic. It was very reflective. I had to wonder, what do you really need to be happy?

You know what we learned in two days? We made a few hundred dollars. And one of the things we learned, it was fun just talking to people. It came through the garage sale. Debbie sat out there, and she can get a person's life story in five minutes. And people stopped, and they came in, and they looked around. And after a while, we began to realize that they weren't there to buy or jump. They were there because they were lonely.

And they wanted somebody to talk to. And they were just, you know, they'd do this on a regular basis. They'd look through the tables, and they'd buy a few things. And then they just dumped their whole life right there.

I'd dickered with one man on a set of tower speakers that I'd had for a long time. These were my prize speakers that I had in my office, and finally decided I can't move them. Technology's got it down to something about that small, and I don't need these huge tower speakers anymore. And I'd dickered with a gentleman, and finally I sold them both for just a few dollars. And I knew that they'd probably be on eBay that night for three times the price, but that's okay. I wanted them out of the garage. But you know what? After he paid me the money, he wouldn't leave. He just kept talking. And he started telling me a story about his wife that had left him, and about his daughter and her problems, and about the business that he had and how his business partner had cheated him and he went bankrupt, and how the woman that he was living with started going out with another man. In about five minutes, I had lyrics for a great country song.

But, you know, I had other things to do. And then he said, have you got a drink of water? So I gave him a drink of water. And I realized the poor guy is just lonely. And we had story like that. You find neighbors, you lived in the same neighborhood for 21 years, and you find out two people, two streets over, you finally meet them. We'd have a garage sale like that. And after it was all over, we shut the doors, we were done with the garage sale, we talked about it, and we asked, what do we really need to be happy? It was a wake-up call. What do we really need to be happy? We really need to be happy. You know, here's what I need. What do you need? Here's what I need. I need the calling of God to the kingdom of God. I need to know that God has placed me by His calling in His body, the body of Christ, to grow toward the kingdom and the resurrection. And then I need to see that the love of God reflected in the eyes of those closest to me. My wife, my children, my fellow members. We all need the love of God. We all need the love of God shed abroad in our hearts, and motivating us to overcome this world and do the work of God. I don't need a house full of stuff. Oh, it's nice, and we still have a house full of stuff. And we'll buy more stuff, but I hope we'll be a little bit more circumspect. I don't need more technology, but I will be buying the new iPhone in a few days.

You know, Steve Jobs died a few days ago, the CEO and founder of Apple. A few years ago, Steve Jobs was famous for this one question that he had put to a man named John Scully, that he was recruiting to be the CEO of Apple. And John Scully later, with a board, ousted Steve Jobs from his job. But when Steve Jobs was persuading him to come to work for Apple, John Scully was the CEO of Pepsi-Cola. And he asked him this famous question. Do you want to sell sugar water to kids, or do you want a chance to change the world?

He came and worked for Apple, and nearly ran it into the ground. But that's another story. Steve Jobs didn't really change the whole world. He did change the world of technology. But what do you really need? What do you really want to do? What do we all want to achieve with our lives? Do we want another digital toy that's better and faster for a week, and then something else comes out?

What do you really want? Another pair of shoes?

What is it that will make us happy? What is it that we need to run the race? In Jeremiah 12, verse 5, Jeremiah was whining about his calling, and the fact that God had kind of let him down.

People weren't repenting and weren't listening to him. And in verse 5 of Jeremiah 12, God finally pulled Jeremiah up short. And he said, if you have run with a footman, or if you've raced with men on foot, and they've worn you out, how can you compete with horses? How can you run with the horses? If you can't run with these men, these mere mortals, God's saying to Jeremiah, how are you going to compete with the horses? If you stumble in a safe country, how will you manage in the thickets of the Jordan? Brethren, we sometimes wonder why, and as I ask what this is all about and why things happen the way they do, this is nothing. This is child's play. We've been running with footmen. We've been running with men. We run with men every day in our life and in our world. We struggle with ourselves. We sometimes struggle with each other in the church. We struggle with other human beings. And God says, if you can't run with them, how are you going to manage in the thickets of the Jordan when it really gets tough? There will be a time when all of this will be child's play.

So we have to endure this. We have to learn the lessons of this age and this period, these episodes that we go through and have gone through in the church. And there are so many things to learn. We live in a physical world, and most people don't see that this world is really more than what it seems, but the people of God should know that. We should know and we should be awakened to the fact that we have been brought into a different relationship with God. But there are two parts to reality, the physical and the spiritual. Throughout the Bible, God tells us this important truth, that there is more to this life and to this world than meets the eye. It's not just the physical. There is a spiritual dimension. And we are called to that. And that's key number two. We struggle against the kingdom of spiritual darkness. We are in a world that is spiritual war. We must understand that. We must remember that. We must never lose sight of that. We struggle against the kingdom of spiritual darkness. In Ephesians 6 and 10, a well-known instruction from the Apostle Paul, but not always understood. Not always believed. In Ephesians 6 and 10, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, and put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. This is where our struggle is. We think we struggle with each other and with other human beings in quarrel here and there, but the reality is the struggle is a spiritual struggle. Sometimes, and often, masked with human beings. In the church, out of the church. In the world, not in the church. But this is the reality. Was Paul just penning words for the sake of filling up space, or did he mean what he said? He meant what he said. He was writing under the inspiration of God's Holy Spirit. We struggle against the kingdom of spiritual darkness. We've just kept the Day of Atonement, which shows us that this world is under the deception, and told Satan's binding that that day pictures. The world is deceived, but God's church and the elect are not.

But one of the lessons of the Day of Atonement is that we cannot let down our guard as well, and should not, against the wiles that Satan uses in his relentless, age-long war against the people of God.

We are in a spiritual struggle, and it is important that we understand that. This world today, people have such a fascination with the works of darkness.

Before my mother brought us into the church, Halloween was just kind of almost an afterthought. I would go out, do the trick-or-treating, and hold my little can for UNICEF and collect pennies for people. But it was over in one night. Today it becomes a week-long celebration. And it's beginning to rival Christmas in terms of dollar value in this world.

And our media is saturated with messages and entertainment dealing with the works of darkness.

And it is such a part of life. And what is so sad to see is so many people, even in the church, especially among young people, cannot discern the difference. And get caught up in it as well. We've started to look for homes in the Cincinnati area to move into. We spent two days doing it. We went through 14 homes in two days on one trip. A couple of the homes I went into, I just kind of had an eerie feeling when I started seeing whole shelves full of vampire stories and movies, DVDs. Another home I went into, and this is a new home, a fairly nice home. And in every room, I kind of looked around and just looking at it, and you see the furniture. And in every room in this one house, there were these fantasy dragons staring down at me. And I just shake my head, and I think, why do people want to live with that in their home? But it's an accepted part of culture today, the fascination with the works of darkness. The world hurdles on toward the moment when this age is going to come to a climax, and Satan will pull out all stops and unleash a barrage of forces to attack any effort made to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God. And we will see that continue on. Why is that? Because the message of the gospel of the kingdom of God heralds the end of the time when Satan rules this world. When Christ will replace the governments of this world, the kingdoms of this world with His kingdom. The true gospel trumpets with clarity that the kingdoms of this world will be replaced with the kingdoms of our Lord. The United Church of God, brethren, is poised to preach that gospel with an urgency and a clarity to the world. And we are going to do it as God gives us the strength to do it. You know, I've watched for over 25 years since Herbert Armstrong died, nearly a quarter of a century. Many efforts to distort, dispel, and disrupt the preaching of the gospel. I've seen heresy, I've seen fear, and I've seen ego get in the way with the clear voice of the gospel of the kingdom going to the world with conviction. God's power will be supplied to the work, to His work, of preaching the gospel. No human effort is sufficient. We are acutely aware of that. I will tell you that. Many of you have expressed your appreciation for what we are doing in the United Church of God and our media efforts. And I appreciate your prayers and support. All of us do. On the Council, the administration, and particularly those of us working in the media effort. But I will tell you this, brethren. We understand that it is not our effort. And no human effort is going to be sufficient. We recognize our limitations. We recognize our weaknesses and our challenges in front of us.

We sometimes just shake our head at what we've been asked to do and what the opportunity is. But we're going to continue to do it. We have been part of something for decades that is bigger than the sum of our lives. And we are all the products of an arc-building work that God has been constructing during our lives. It's always been His work, not any man's. Sometimes I think we are even closer to some of the statements that Jesus made to the church there in Revelation 3.

You have but a little strength.

I think I understand that just a little better than I did when I was 25 or 30.

We have but a little strength. But God has a lot, and He is going to do what He is going to do.

He tells us many, many things. So let's wake up and let's understand the struggle, the spiritual struggle that we are in. And it is a battle. But it is not one that we should fear. Because God gives us the grace and the help to deal with it. The third key is to grow in grace and in knowledge. Let's turn back to 2 Peter 3.

2 Peter 3.

Well-known verse. The last verse of 2 Peter 3, verse 18. His admonition to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and forever. The third key that I give you this afternoon is to grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. How are we doing at that?

What have you learned since last year's Feast of Tabernacles? What have you learned in the last five years? We went through the exercise on the first night of how many feasts we've been here. For one year, five years, ten years, thirty years, sixty years.

Let me ask you this.

Have you kept one feast ten times, fifteen times, forty times? Or have you kept ten feasts? Twenty feasts or fifty feasts. Each one growing in the grace and the knowledge of God. Sometimes we can keep one feast fifteen times and not really grow because we haven't caught the vision. We really don't understand. We look at the feast in a wrong perspective. Each year we should grow in knowledge, in grace, in mercy, and in love. What have we learned from all the feasts that we have kept?

Have we grown each time? The Feast of Tabernacles is really a seven-day kingdom of God seminar. Okay, eight days. Let's not forget the last great day. The whole period of time that we are together, it's an entire period of a kingdom of God seminar. Where we keep a feast to the Lord, where we rejoice in the place that He chooses, and we come to learn about Him and about His kingdom. As I said on the opening day, we listen to one another, we talk to one another, we get acquainted with new people. Or we may stay in the same places and on the same spot and do the same things, but I sure hope we have grown, even as we may sometimes look around and ask ourselves, where is everybody? I think I said on the first night I came here 38 years ago for myself when Debbie and I were first married, and we had thousands of people on the other side of the island and a big tent. And I remember a big thing, we played softball. And I have a picture still of the team that we had playing softball that year. So far as I know, I'm the only person in that picture that's still in the faith.

I may be wrong, and I hope I am, but I don't know that any other person in that picture is still in the faith. I drove around the island the other day looking for the softball field, and the softball field is gone.

Time goes on, things change in any environment. But it may be just to stop and think, you know, we have a moment, we're here for a moment, we come back, we go on to another place, you know, the waves of the ocean continue to lap against these beaches. That hasn't changed. Certain basics, certain truths, certain realities never change. And when they get embedded in our hearts and in our lives, they make a difference. They give us joy, they give us hope, and they will bear fruit in the kingdom of God. But we must grow in grace and in knowledge to do that.

I don't worry about any and all. God, every one of us is in God's hands. And all I know is what I have to do, and all you know is what you have to do in your relationship with God. I know to what I have been called, I think you do as well.

We're here to keep a feast to God and to learn. This is a time to set over a meal and to talk with one another and to get to know each other better, to listen, to meet new people, to enlarge our circle of friends, to encourage each other in the faith, and to grow in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and to look ahead. For all the reasons that we've covered thus far in messages and will be covered from this day to the end of the feast, I hope that we all will listen and learn.

Wake up. Realize that we are in a struggle. Realize that we are to grow in grace and knowledge. And if we put ourselves in that boat and understand that we are to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, the living head of His Church, He will be with His Church till the end of the age.

And that gives us hope and comfort. That does not engender fear. That does not engender doubt and discouragement. That empowers us to endure, to keep moving, to learn, to grow, and to resist the powers of this age, and to draw close through the Spirit of God, to God and to His everlasting way of life, and to stay alert and awake and watchful. And to understand that our days and our times are very, very much like a period like Noah in the past, just as Jesus said.

So what is this all about? What are we a part of? Well, keep in mind that in that same Matthew 24, all of that prophecy, Jesus said that the time is coming when it would be possible for all flesh to be saved, or to be destroyed. But for the elect's sake, those days will be shortened, and human life will not be destroyed, just as it was in the days of Noah, to use that phrase there. God didn't destroy all flesh at that time, and He's not going to allow all human life to be destroyed in the days prior to the coming of the Son of Man. He will intervene, and He will prevent that from happening. And He does say, but for the elect's sake, a remnant, a people. I think it will be more than eight. I do think that. But we are to learn from that, and we are to understand our own personal responsibilities and obligation, and band together collectively, and hang together, and stay strong to do that, to learn those lessons, to finish the work.

So, brethren, grab your hammer.

Sharpen your saw. Let's build. Let's move forward. And let's finish this work together.