Way of Harmony - Submission to God

Thank you very much, Mr. Kinsey. I really appreciate Neil Kinsey being one of our song leaders, doing that so enthusiastically. I appreciate his involvement, but I thought I would hurry out here before he got to telling more jokes. I hope you'll have one most every day, because that helps us all out. I also want to thank you for the choir performances. I know that as we have people gathering from, in a sense, all over the country and trying to practice on their own and then come together and quickly put the choir together, it sounded very, very good to me.

I am thankful that the choir is here. I'm thankful that our music ensemble is here. I want to tell you, I thank you very much. Certainly the songs that were sung were extremely meaningful. The words to those songs are a lesson in themselves.

Thank you for that. I also, whenever we've got a lull here in services in between a sermonette or special music, all of you kids out there in the audience need to watch the big screen, because you might get on the big screen. If you do, then they'll be able to see exactly what you're doing. It's always exciting to see what happens. Well, brethren, I bring you greetings from the churches and the brethren in Kansas City and in St.

Joe and Topeka and over in Fulton, Missouri. I want to greet all of you. I know we have a number from those areas who are here in attendance. Yet, I extend their love and gratitude to be able to have a group such as we have here today to gather together and celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles together as a spiritual family. I do want to pass that on to you. I very much enjoy and love being in Kansas City and in the area.

My wife and I live in Kansas, but we're right barely on the edge of Kansas City. We're also very familiar here with Missouri because we've lived in the middle of Missouri for a number of years. I certainly know some of you and look forward to getting acquainted with either more of you as we go throughout this Feast. I think that all of you realize that Israel today has considerable problems with their neighbors.

All around the nation of Israel, they've got conflict. They've got conflict with Egypt, or always in a sense always have had conflict. In a sense, they've got conflict with all of the Arabic world around them. In the number of nations that surround the nation of Israel, you certainly have a very volatile, a very contentious situation. As I read the book that God gives us about what's going to happen, we also find there's going to rise a tremendous power in Europe.

A power that is an Assyrian power. We feel that it would have a clear connection. A leading nation in that would be Germany. Israel is at odds with Egypt. Israel, here as we go forward, is going to be at odds with whatever power rises in Europe. I'd like for us to look in Isaiah 19, if you will. I know that this particular section of Scripture is interesting to me because it points out something that's going to happen in the world tomorrow.

Clearly different than what we have today. Here in Isaiah 19, it says in this section from verse 18 down to the end of the chapter in verse 24, but it says in verse 18, on that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt, and they will swear allegiance to the Lord of hosts.

That's going to be a good transition. In verse 19, on that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the center of the land of Egypt and a pillar to the Lord at its border.

So clearly Egypt is going to undergo a transition as we look into, and of course the leading statement is on that day. The note that we have to that is, well, that will be when Christ returns, when the kingdom of God is set up. If we go on and read in verse 20, it will be a sign and witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt, and they will cry to the Lord because of their oppression, and He will send them a Savior, and will defend and will deliver them.

And so even though, I believe we know from other prophecies that a great deal of conflict, it's distress, destruction, and damage is going to happen. Ultimately, God will send a Savior to Egypt. In verse 23 it says on that day, there's going to be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. And so from where Egypt is now, and up in and through the area where Israel is, and then up into the European area, as we would know it today, it's going to be a highway from Egypt to Assyria.

It's going to be flowing through the area around Jerusalem, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. Something tremendously powerful is going to happen to bring this about. Verse 24 on that day, Israel. Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, when the Lord of Hosts has blessed, saying, Blessed be Egypt, my people, and Assyria, the work of my hands, and Israel, my heritage.

See, brethren, this describes a time of peace, a time of cooperation, a time of pulling together, a time of working together and worshipping together. We're all in these nations who are going to come together to worship the same God. And so I'd like for us to think about what God is teaching us today, because here at this feast, and usually at the beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles, we often are asked, well, why are we here?

Why are we here? I know some of you have heard that for many, many, many years. I talked to one lady here in the break. This was her 58th Feast of Tabernacles.

She started very young, and yet this was her 58th. If some of you have attended the Feast for longer than that, I hope you'll let me know, because I'd like to note that that's certainly a commendable thing. But see, why are we here? We're here. You're here seated in the services of the United Church of God. And all of us know that all of us have gone through what we could say to be a very difficult past year.

And yet we're here. We're here because we want to live up to our name. That's why I'm here. I believe that's why you're here. I hope to encourage that today. So we want to live up to the name, the United Church of God, and actually be united.

And so I want to talk about that this afternoon. How can that actually occur? How can we be united, all of us together? What are the things that will lead us to true unity, to true cooperation, to true harmony? So I hope to show you today that the family of God, as we know it today, God the Father and Jesus Christ, our Lord, they live in perfect harmony. They live in absolute peace. They live in complete cooperation. And I want to discuss that way of harmony because God has brought us into His family. He is bringing many sons to glory, and He is, thankfully. He's including us in that.

We have our part to play, and I want to mention that as well. But see, as we learn God's way of harmony, His way of cooperation, His way of peace, He's teaching us that so that we'll be able to help teach that in Egypt and in Assyria and in Israel. See, that's how those nations who are at such conflict today are going to be brought together to where they are actually worshipping God together. They're going to be taught the way of the divine family of God.

That's what they're going to be taught. And you and I, we have an opportunity. We have a privilege of being able to learn and express and actually live that way of life today. I'd like for us to think in John 1, I think all of you are familiar with what is described in John 1. In verse 1, it says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, He was in the beginning with God, and all things came into being through Him, and without Him not one thing came into being.

So this is describing the Godhead, the God family today. And very thankfully, as we study this, as we think about it, as we think about our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, who is described here as the Word, the One who came and gave Himself as a sacrifice for our sins, they've always existed. They've always cooperated. They've always peacefully existed. They've always been in harmony. I think that something that we should think about is to why. Why have they lived in harmony for eternity?

Why will they live in harmony for eternity? How important is it for us to learn that way of harmony, that way of cooperation? You know, God the Father, and through Jesus Christ, before they ever created a physical creation, ever created the human beings that we are, they created a physical creation, and not only the Earth and the universe, or the galaxy as we know it, but the entirety of the universe, it just kind of blows my mind to even think about it.

I like to look at the stars, and as you know, the moon is absolutely full right now. And yet I like to look beyond that. I know the moon is one of the closest bodies that are out there. But looking beyond that, to the stars and to the galaxy that we are in, and beyond that, even into the universe, because they've got telescopes anymore and pictures that are sent back from orbiting bodies that probe into the universe.

And all of that was a creation, a physical creation of the great God. And yet what had God created prior? What had God created prior to that? Well, He had created an angelic realm. He had created an angelic realm that we see described as having three archangels, Gabriel and Michael and Lucifer. Absolutely glorious beings, completely gorgeous, beautiful, talented, capable, able. It's amazing to even think about the spirit beings that God has been able to create. And of course, God does rule over His creation.

And yet a part of that angelic creation that God made, we go back to Isaiah chapter 14, a part of that creation became defective. I know this is obviously not new to you, but it's something that I want to mention to you because it's important. It's important for us to understand as Gabriel and Michael serve God today, the created archangel Lucifer does not.

Here in Isaiah chapter 14, we see a description of what Jesus says in the book of Luke that He was well aware of as He was here on the earth. He knew what had happened back long before any of the physical creation had even occurred.

And yet here in verse 12, it says, How are you fallen from heaven, O day star? In verse 13, You have said in your heart, this is what Lucifer allowed to corrupt Him. This is what Lucifer allowed to disorient Him and to take Him away from His worship of the great God. That's what we want to do. We want to worship our Creator. We want to worship our ruler. And yet as we see here, Lucifer said, I'm going to ascend to heaven.

I'm going to raise my throne above the stars of God. I'm going to sit on the Mount of Assembly at the height of Zaphan. I will ascend to the top of the clouds. I will make myself like the Most High. See, what arrogance, what pride, what vanity? How did that ever creep in? Well, because Lucifer was not created that way. We can go over to Ezekiel 28. Ezekiel chapter 28 gives another description. And it's a very graphic description that we need to continually be mindful of because, as we know, Lucifer, the one who became the adversary, the one who became Satan the devil, is the God of this world.

He's the one who has deceived us, the one who has corrupted this entire world by His infectious attitude. Here in Ezekiel 28, verse 12, he says, You were the sign of perfection, full of wisdom, perfect in beauty. You were in the Eden, the Garden of God. It says at the latter part of verse 13, on the day that you were created, they were prepared. See, Lucifer was a created being. Now, all of us, I'm sure, admit we were a created being. We had a beginning. We were born at a relatively short time ago, as far as God is concerned.

And yet this is talking about a time way in the past, and I don't have any idea how long ago this would have been. The Bible doesn't directly tell us, but on the day that you were created, they were prepared with an appointed carob, as guardian I placed you. You were on the holy mountain of God, and you walked among the stones of fire. And you were blameless in your ways from the day that you were created, until... what? Until iniquity was found in you, and in the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned.

And so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God. In verse 17, your heart was proud. Your heart was proud because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. And yet God says, I cast you out. I cast you out from the throne, around the government of God. See, thinking about how that happened, thinking about what would make the most beautiful creature that God would create, like Lucifer, what would cause him to want to hate God?

What would cause him to want to ignore God? Actually want to overthrow God? Well, I don't really have a way to explain that, except this is what the Bible tells us. We know this is a source of evil. That the Day of Atonement pictures of that angelic being being taken out of the way, that demon spirit being taken out of the world, being restrained for a thousand years, and of course, during the world tomorrow, going to have a chance for a completely different setting, a completely different nature will take over.

That's not going to alleviate all problems immediately, because human beings will still be around. And yet, it's amazing to see the description. And yet what God is doing, even though this occurred in his angelic creation, God is bringing many sons to glory. Man, as we described with Egypt and Israel and Assyria, those nations, they are going to learn to accept the way of harmony and cooperation and submission.

Actually, Mr. Hopper mentioned that earlier today, earlier this afternoon. He mentioned being in submission to God. And I want for us to think about that, because that's what each and every one of us needs to grow in. We turn back to the book of James, chapter 4. Clearly, Lucifer refuses to be in submission to God.

He absolutely refuses to do that. He refuses to surrender. He refuses to submit himself to the great God. And that's why he is such an evil being. That's why he's such a problem to this world, a problem to human beings, because he's deceived us. And he tries to get us to have that same type of resistance, that same type of anger, that same type of rebellion. He doesn't want us to follow what it says here in James, chapter 4, verse 7.

We actually find a key here in James 4, verse 7. It very simply just says, submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Now, that's a very easy statement to read, and yet that's an extremely important verse in our Bible. It's actually something that in many ways we might read right over.

We might not even get the point. We might not even think about the fact. It actually tells us on in verse 8, Draw near to God, and God will draw near to you. See, I want to offer to you that there is a direct connection, a direct connection between submitting, as it says in verse 7 and 8, where it says, draw near to God. Direct connection between understanding the concept of submission, which clearly Lucifer does not understand.

He is not going to yield in that way. He is not going to surrender. And yet all of us, we have the glorious privilege of being able to surrender, of being able to yield ourselves to God. And we have to ask ourselves, well, do I want God to rule my life? Do I want to truly submit to God? And I think when we think about it, when we think about it, we want that. I can certainly tell you I want that. I don't find that I always do that, but I want that. It's important to me. It's significant. It's meaningful.

And yet when we read Romans chapter 8, Romans chapter 8 is a chapter again that we're very familiar with. But it points out something about human beings, about being carnally minded. It says in verse 5, Those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

To set your mind on the flesh is death. But to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. And for this reason, the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile. Hostile to God, and it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it can't. And those who are in the flesh simply cannot please God. See, that's a very important verse. When we think about our Christianity, when we think about what is it that God has called me to do, He wants me.

He wants all of you. He wants all of us together as we're going to learn a way that will be taught for a thousand years during the millennium as it comes to this earth when Jesus returns. He wants us to be able to teach a way where we are no longer hostile to God, no longer hostile to God's law, but where we actually submit, where we yield to the will of God in our lives.

And all of us are familiar. I think it's already been mentioned today. It's not my will that I want done in my life. It's God's will. Now, I'm going to see if something will work here. I'm going to ask Terry if he will put a sign up on the screen. Hey, it worked! He is very, very sharp. Thank you very much, Terry. All of you know what that is. And you know what that means, I think.

At least I hope. And I know I see these all along the road where you've got either a roundabout or you've got a road that is coming on to a bigger intersection. It's a triangular sign, and it says something. It says yield. If you don't, you'll probably run into the cars that are going through the intersection. You'll probably run into cars that you're trying to merge with. And so in many ways, we probably always, when we see a sign like this, when we see this type of sign, then we respect it.

We appreciate it. We respond to it because we know if it doesn't, we're going to get hurt. But that's not always the case whenever we think about the law of God. Sometimes we forget. Sometimes we are distracted. Sometimes we just don't want to do it. Yielding to God, submitting to God, is really a lot harder than we might ever imagine. But it is something that I point out to you that it is a key to the way of harmony and to the way of submission that we're learning today and that we'll teach in the world tomorrow.

Now, I can't see all that many of you out there. I can see some of you pretty clearly. How many of you know that I put the wrong sign up there? Can we have the second sign, Terry? All right. Now, that's the one that you probably are familiar with. Now, how many of you thought the yellow sign was a real sign? Anybody? Unfortunately, that dates you. That dates you, and it dated me because I think I described this even in Kansas City earlier this year. Nobody came up and told me, though, it isn't a yellow sign. It hasn't been a yellow sign since 1971. But see, all of you knew what it was. You all knew what it meant. And then this sign, this is a really cool sign. It really stands out. It gets our attention. And that's the way I think God would like for us to be. He'd like for us to really remember that in order for us to be the teachers in the world tomorrow that was talked about in our sermonette is we've got to learn the way of yield. We've got to learn the way of being in submission. See, submission, that's not a word that this world wants to hear. It's not a word that most of us even like to hear. If you think about it, if you're honest with yourself, I think you'll admit you don't like to submit. I don't like to submit, but I am required to submit. I'm not only required to submit to God, but I'm required to submit to a lot of other things, a lot of other people, people I love.

I'm required to submit to you in many ways, and we're required to submit to one another. I want to use this sign here. You can go ahead and turn that off.

Absolutely excellent. Now, I want you to know that I didn't ask for that, but we have real cooperative folks here with the video ability. So, you'll be able to remember it anyway. At least I hope you will. I'd like for us to think about those letters in the sign. Y-I-E-L-D. I'm going to give you a little bit of a statement with each one of those letters in hopes that you'll be able to learn a little more about what it is to be in submission to God. Because it really is probably harder than we might think, because we don't like to do it. In many ways, we resist doing it, and yet it's certainly what God wants us to learn as we learn a way of harmony. See, how are you going to create harmony? Well, you're going to create that by yielding. The very first one, the why that I want to mention is, I have got to yield my will.

Submission is yielding my will to the will of the Father. And see, all of us, when we were baptized, I'm sure we read Luke chapter 14. We went through a section, and probably the minister who was counseling with you whenever you were baptized read you or had you read a section in Luke 14 about counting the cost.

And what it mentioned was that in order to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, in order to be the one that is acceptable to Jesus Christ and to God the Father, I've got to be willing to yield my will to the will of the Father. And actually, submission to God infrees us to embrace God's plan for our lives. Because, see, God's got bigger plans for us than we even have for our own lives, as was mentioned in our sermon.

God's got a big government job for us. He's got a big, important job for us. And I've got to yield. I've got to yield. As we submit to God, then temptation to turn back on God actually subsides. It goes away. The more we're yielded, the more we are submitting to God, the stronger our faith is, the stronger our commitment is, the stronger our desire for God's way in our lives. And all of us are familiar in Matthew 26 with Jesus' example.

Matthew 26 is a chapter that we would read often, verse 36 through 42, around the Passover time. Matthew 26, verse 36 through 42, talks about Jesus' very yielded prayer. Before He was going to be taken, before He would be betrayed, before He would be slaughtered as the Lamb of God, He prayed, and He said, yet not my will, but your will be done. And He later said, your will, in verse 42 of Matthew 26, your will be done.

And so the first of the five points that I'm going to quickly go through here, this remainder of the sermon, is that submission really being the type of submitted, yielded person who is appreciative of the privilege to submit to God, they're going to have to yield their will to His will. See, what is God's will for your life? If you already knew that, if I already knew that, then why would I need God? Well, I don't know. I want to be subject to His will. And so that's the first one.

Why? What can I say about I? Well, actually submission involves dismissing the I. See, whenever we read in Isaiah 14, and maybe we could go back and read that again, because it's very, very clearly problematic for Lucifer, as he rebelled against God in verse 13. Isaiah 14 verse 13, I will ascend to heaven. I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the Mount of Assembly. I will ascend on the top of the mountains or clouds.

I will make myself like the Most High. See, what's really wrong with that? Well, He is so self-absorbed, so self-driven that He thought that He in some way could overthrow the great God. And that simply couldn't be done. See, God not only created the angelic realm, He rules over it. There's no contest going on between God and Satan. God is clearly in charge. He's in charge of His plan. He's in charge of what's going to come as we look into the world tomorrow. He's in charge of how He is going to deal with every human being who has ever lived. Very thankfully, He has chosen to deal with us right now.

He has given us a wonderful opportunity. He has given us a wonderful blessing. And yet, as I think about submission involves dismissing the eye. I have to also add to that in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. See, 1 Corinthians chapter 13 is a chapter that describes the love of God. It's a chapter that describes a very, very difficult task that all of us have to grow in the love of God.

Now, I say it's difficult because it's very foreign to our nature. It's very foreign to the way that we normally would be. But I only want to point out, I guess we can start in verse 4. It says, Love is patient, and love is kind, and it is not envious, boastful, arrogant, or rude. And then that next little sentence there, verse 5, It does not insist on its own way.

Does not insist on its own way. See, what did Lucifer do? He insisted on his own way. He insisted on being or becoming the critic and ultimately the one who rebelled against the great God. So the love of God that we're growing in and that we want to grow in does not demand its own way. Now, you can apply that in everyday living. You can apply it every single hour, in many ways, every single minute. I have the chance to demand my own way. Do I do that? Do I want to do that? Do I completely dismiss that? Well, I know I'm preaching not only to you, but I'm clearly preaching to me because I see. I see that dismissing the eye and learning not to demand my own way expresses the love of God. And that's what we want to share. That's what we want to grow in. That's what we want to ask God to fill us with because that's what he's able to do.

The third letter in the word yield is E.

And I would say that E could stand for being easily guided. And what I mean by that is that submission to God, submission from our heart, is more than just obeying. It's more than just compliance. It's a lot more than just compliance. You know, we can have young people just comply. They may not like that they're having to do that. We can have older people comply, people such as myself, very middle age.

Do I want to comply? Well, I want to learn what it says here in Psalm 32 to be easily guided. Psalm 32 is a beautiful psalm. It's a wonderful lesson. It's one that we are pretty familiar with and that we have a hymn that's quite familiar to most of us, I think. It talks about forgiveness. It talks about repentance. It talks about how we can be right with God. And of course it says in verse 1, See, that's what makes it happy. Whenever we have a close, intimate relationship with God that is based on our prayer life, based on our yearning to study His Word, our desire to learn His way.

In verse 3 down through verse 4 and verse 5, it talks about the way we often are.

I've done something wrong. I haven't really acknowledged it. I haven't admitted it. Verse 3, A wake-up call in verse 5, And of course, you forgave me the guilt of my sin. See, that's a wonderful section, section 32 through 1, 1 through 5. It's actually a great relief to know. Too many times we hide behind our sins, and yet if we bring them to God, if we request His mercy, if we ask for His help, then He provides relief. He says He will then help us. In verse 8, He says, I'll instruct you. I'll teach you the way you should go. I'll counsel you with my eye upon you. In verse 9, don't be like the horse. Don't be like a mule without understanding whose temper must be curbed with a bit and bridle. He says, if you're that way, if you're not easily led, that's why you put a bit in a horse's mouth, because if you want to guide the horse, you want to be able to make it go the right way. I can think back to growing up on a farm in Oklahoma. We only had one horse that I remember as I was growing up. The horse's name was Lizard.

I don't know why. Dad bought that horse so that my two brothers and my sister and I, I think mostly probably my two brothers and I, would learn how to ride the horse and be able to ride the horse. We initially thought, that would be great. That would be a lot of fun. What we found out was that Lizard didn't like for us to ride him. He didn't like for us to try to get him to do anything. Basically, the only one who could ride him was Dad. He had to make him do whatever he wanted him to do. After a couple of years, he decided, well, having this type of horse around is just not trainable. It doesn't seem to be very yielding. Yet, when it talks about that here in verse 9, that's what I always think about. Don't be like a horse. Don't be like Lizard. Horse or mule, whose temper has to be curved with a bit and bridle.

Brethren, are we that way? Or are we easily guided? Easily guided because we want to submit. We want to submit to the great God. See, whenever we do that, whenever we are easily guided, whenever we are yearning to draw close to God from the heart, then more than just acknowledging God, we want to adore God. More than just respecting God, we want to revere God. More than simply making God a note in our life. We want to truly know Him, and that, of course, is what's told to us in John 17. We've got to know God the Father and know Jesus Christ, our Lord. And that leads us to our next letter, letter L.

L, I will say, stands for being led by the Holy Spirit. Being led by the Holy Spirit. See, receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit is a blessing that God has provided us. He's given us that wonderful privilege of having and receiving the Spirit of God. But see, do we pray and do we ask that God will simply lead us? We yield to Him, and we ask Him to lead us. Romans 8, 14 says, the children of God are the ones who are led by the Spirit of God. And I want for each and every one of us to be led by the Spirit of God. I want us to be truly led by that Spirit to where we are submissive to God, where we're yielded to God. And in connection with this, submission is an acceptance of God's plan for my life.

It's an acceptance of God's timing in my life. See, I think we could clearly say that being led by the Spirit of God helps us to be willing to accept God's plan and His timing in my life. So that's a part of our submission to God. And whenever you read in John chapter 3 about John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus Christ, John had an important job. He was given that assignment. We had a little explanation about his parents earlier today, Elizabeth and Zechariah.

And yet John fully understood that he was not the Messiah. He was not the one that the world was looking for, or at least the Jewish people were asking about. And what was it that John said? John 3, verse 30. He very much yielded to God. Jesus had a lot of complimentary things to say about John the Baptist. Most all of those would be something we'd like for Jesus to say about us. But in John chapter 3, verse 30, John simply said, I must decrease, and he must increase, of course, talking about Jesus Christ. He says he knew my role is limited. I don't have what you need. And I am willing to be glad to play second fiddle. I'm willing to yield to God and to God's plan for my life. Back in Luke chapter 1, you have a perfect example. Luke chapter 1 describes the birth of Jesus, or not the birth of Jesus, but the birth of Jesus being foretold. And I think it's good for us to think about this extraordinary section of Scripture when we are thinking about, am I led by the Spirit of God and in submission to God to accept God's plan for my life and God's timing for my life? See, whenever I'm sick, I would like to be healed now. And yet all of us know that that doesn't often happen. Even though that clearly can happen, and God is keenly able to do that, He often allows us to linger. He allows us in this life to go through pain and suffering. He allows that for a reason, but in a sense we have to yield to God's timing in our life. In this case, this is an account starting in verse 26 down through verse 38 of Gabriel coming to Mary and telling her that she's going to have a child. Now, I doubt that Mary had that as the plan for her life. That wasn't something that she had planned out. It wasn't something she had thought about. It wasn't something that she anticipated and expected. But when Gabriel came in verse 31, and he said, You're going to conceive in your womb. You're going to bear a son. You're going to name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor, his father David. He will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. Brethren, that's the kingdom that we want to be a part of. We want to be teachers in. We want to be servants in that kingdom. We want to be able to have, as Gabriel was telling Mary this, she asked him, Well, this is impossible. I do not know a man. There's no way I'm going to have a child. He told her, Well, the Spirit of God is going to come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. Now talk about having to yield to God's timing, to God's prerogative, and to God's plan for her life. That's what Mary had to do. And yet you find, and actually thankfully we find a perfect example here, a perfect example in verse 38, where Mary simply said, Here I am, the servant of the Lord. Let it be with me according to your word. What Mary said was that I'm willing to accept the will of God in my life.

Now she was called a lot of names. She was, I'm sure, in many ways, and kind of set aside from society. And yet Mary had to know in her heart who this little baby was, that she had born of her, and that she nurtured, and that she took care of, and that she saw grow into a young boy and a young man, and who later as she saw him give his life for humanity. She knew more than anyone else how special this baby was. And yet when we think about her, she had to be willing to accept God's will and God's timing in her life. And that's, I think, a wonderful example. The last letter in the word yield is D, and I'm going to say that that stands for deliberate subjection. Deliberate subjection, like Jesus Christ. It's amazing to me to see how Jesus interacted with his Father, and I am just thrilled to listen to the prayers that we have here in services. These prayers reflect a closeness to God, a closeness to the Father, a closeness that all of us should want. And yet, when I say deliberate subjection, Jesus says that even though he is God, and he is, he is the Word who was with God the Father in the very beginning, but he says he is willingly and deliberately in submission to the Father. He says the Father is greater than I am. He says in 1 Corinthians 15 that Christ is going to be subject to the Father for eternity.

Now, is he God? Yes, he is. Is the Father God? Yes, he is. Would they appear to be equal? Well, Jesus is deliberately in subjection. He is deliberately in submission because it teaches all of us. It teaches all of us the sons of God what we are required to do in order to be a part of the family of God. I want us to look in Philippians 2 because this is a premier, absolutely premier example that Jesus gives us. His example of unity and willing submission to the Father is explained here in Philippians 2.

The first few verses, of course, are Paul's encouragement and admonition to the Church. He says, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, my sharing in the Gospel, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete, be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regarding others as better than yourself. Let each of you look not on your own interests but on the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was in Jesus Christ. Dear brethren, that's clearly what we want, and yet the description that we find in verse 6 and verse 7 and 8 and 9 is how it is that Jesus is deliberately in subjection to the Father. Because He said in verse 5, let this mind be in you that was in Jesus Christ, who, in verse 6, though He was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited.

See, even though He was God, He was with God, He was with the Father, and yet as a human being, He came to this earth. He, in a sense, gave up His divinity, and it says in verse 7, He emptied Himself. Taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness and being found in human form, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. So this is what Jesus was willingly doing.

Verse 6, as it talks about not maintaining equality with God. See, Jesus chose not to misuse His authority as God that He had. He chose to submit to the plan that He and the Father had designed, because they are the great designers, and they designed the plan, and they designed the angelic creation, and later, the physical creation in all of us. And yet Jesus willingly is in subjection to the Father. And of course, as He came to this earth, He had the type of yieldedness, the type of humility that we all must seek. And of course, in verse 9 it says, Therefore God also highly exalted Him, and gave Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

See, verse 10 points out every knee is going to bend. Every human knee, every knee of those in Israel and in Assyria and in Egypt, as we talked earlier, they're all going to come to yield to a way of cooperation and peace that is actually described as the way of the divine family of God, the way that Jesus interacts with the Father, the way He is in subjection to the Father, the way He is able to help us, because He understands so much about what it is to be human, what it is to be to...

He can understand, I guess, the deception that Satan has caused on the whole earth. He did not fall prey to that Himself, of course, but His example of being yielded to the Father is in verse 10 to also be connected to those in heaven. The angelic realm is going to ultimately yield to Jesus Christ as the entirety of the human realm is going to as well. So every knee is going to bow, every tongue is going to confess that they are willing to yield to Jesus Christ.

So, brethren, as we are gathered together here in this area to be able to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, we want to live up to our name. We want to live up to the name of the United Church of God. And the way that we can do that is to understand how the God family displays a way of harmony and cooperation and submission that is, I think, described by the word yield.

And I hope that whenever you see a yield sign, you'll think about that, because it is. I see it's up there again. It is. It is what we want to learn. It is what we want to do as we follow God's instruction, as we ask Him to help us become as He wishes for us to be, and that we can truly be. Again, as we've had mentioned in Psalm 133, verse 1, we can truly be brethren dwelling together in unity. It says how good and how pleasant that is because that reflects the nature of the family of God.

That reflects how He wants us to interact with one another, how He wants us to reach out to others out of His love, because we know that we are yielded to God. And we wish for others to be yielded to God, and we wish for the whole world to be yielded to God. And that, of course, is how what we read in Isaiah 19 about Egypt and Assyria and Israel, that's how God is going to bring about that unity.

Because He's going to be teaching them the way of the family of God, the way that God and Jesus Christ, the Word, the way they live in complete harmony, the way they live in cooperation. So I hope that all of us can look forward to this next week. I hope that we can be delighted that God has brought us here, that He's brought us to a training ground to be able to receive the words of God and to be able to grow in unity, to grow in unity by understanding more clearly the way of submission and the way of being yielded.

So please, let's enjoy this feast, and yet let us learn the way of harmony. And maybe even more than learning that, because it's not enough just to be in my head. It's got to be something that I do. It's something I ask you to do, because we want to live that way of harmony. And as we do so, then we can be in preparation.

We can be in preparation for the service that we can provide the nations of this world who are going to need help. We're going to need a lot of help as we enter into the world tomorrow. And I know that as we learn that, as we grow in that, as we are growing in that way of harmony, that we will be able to teach that to the world in the future. And so God hastened the day when He sends Christ back, and when He sets up that kingdom on earth, and when He allows us to be able to teach the entirety of the world a way of life, a way of love, a way of yieldedness that He has taught us here during our physical life here on earth.

And like I said, God hastened that day.