[Aaron Dean]: I’ve been asked by some to turn my recent graduation address into a... from Nepal into a sermon I’ll probably do that sometime, but today I want to focus on a different place, different time. While the Olympics in Tokyo is the rage and the facade of peacefulness at that time, of course, all shattered by war this last week, so that facade of peace is back to reality really quick. Michelle and I have been to Tokyo many times, the number of times Mr. Armstrong went there and a couple of times since he’s died. We’re friends with Prince Mikasa and a lot of the Japanese Diet members who flew at times in the plane and they were a very interesting group of people. I learned a lot about the Japanese and their culture.

And although their culture is changing, it’s interesting that the older people, especially, have a true sense of loyalty to their country, and especially to their emperor. The emperor really is the center of their circle in a lot of ways. During World War II, like the samurai code for centuries, soldiers pledged their allegiance to the emperor. And this small island nation with such allegiance managed to control most of the Pacific, and the islands, much of Asia, China, and different things with so few people. And the tradition of death instead of defeat, capture meaning shame was deeply entrenched in their culture, military and otherwise. It was one of the primary values of the samurai life, the Bushido Code was honor until death.

They were a formidable force as we found out during the war. And as their fortunes, though it seemed to change they didn’t have enough population and enough resources, they formed a group of young men called the Kamikazes, which you’ve heard about know in history. Mostly young men, who didn’t really have much training at all because most of their pilots and people trained were already soldiers or in the war or dead. So, they formed the Kamikazes, meaning spirit wind or divine wind. Kamikaze attacks began in October 1944 on our ships. At a time when the war was changing, we were approaching Japan itself and things were pretty desperate. They had lost several important battles. And so, the Kamikazes, they decided they would use their young men and fly directly into our ships.

The pilots, many of the best ones had been killed, the aircraft were becoming obsolete, they couldn’t keep up production. They’d lost command of the air, which they’d had for some time, and losing pilots faster than they could replace them. And the nation’s industrial capacity was far less than that of the allies. Their unwillingness to surrender from their samurai culture led to the Kamikaze tactics that they had as the allies advanced toward Japan. About 3,800 pilots formed the Kamikazes. They were mostly young men in their prime, young men with lives ahead of them to live. Young men who saw their emperor as the center of their circle. The aircraft were essentially anything that would fly that they could load with bombs and explosives to fly directly into enemy ships to sink them, stop them from getting on their shore, protect their people, their country, their emperor.

Most people don’t realize it wasn’t just pilots that they had trained for this, they also had a lot of people in boats. They took all the small boats that they had and had them ready. So, if the Americans got close, they would actually ram them with these boats, it would be Kamikaze boats as such. They never did that because of Hiroshima and Nagasaki but they were planning to do that, just like with the pilots. Their loyalty and their cause was admirable. Whether successful or not, the survival rate was zero, you didn’t come back from that. Surprisingly, only about one in five attempts were successful. Only 20% hit their targets at all to destroy ships. Although five out of five would die trying.

In 1980, I didn’t know a whole lot about how extensive that loyalty was to the emperor. But it was ingrained in their status and their culture. Until one day I was driving around Tokyo with Mr. Osamu Gotoh. Now the older members here will recognize that name, the younger ones won’t at all. Most knew about him at that time. He died this year at the age of 95 about two or three months ago. He’d called me a year ago, we talked occasionally because I knew him fairly well from the travels. Most knew little about him they knew a few things he had done in his life. He drove a taxi after the war for a while, when Japan was a mess. He also became a Protestant preacher for a while. And he taught Japanese at Ambassador College and became the chairman of the Asian Studies Department in 1967, ‘68 in that time.

So, he moved to the United States and he lived there and he taught a number of our students. One day he approached Mr. Armstrong and he said he would like to introduce him to the Emperor of Japan. Now, that is pretty startling because that would be like me telling you that, “Hi, I’d like to introduce you to Queen Elizabeth.” Royalty, it’s hard to get meetings with royalty. Politicians, if I said, “Hey, I’m going introduce you to Joe Biden,” or something like that... Politicians, you can pay them money, you can shake their hand, you can go where they’re going, you can meet them. And that isn’t such a surprise, it’s still something that not easy. But to say you want to introduce him to the emperor really was a shock.

By this time, Mr. Armstrong had already met with a number of world leaders starting with King Leopold of Belgium, King Leopold III. He had also gone with King Leopold down to Singapore where he met with Prime Minister Lee and then over to Indonesia, where he met President Suharto at that time. And so, he had been visiting some leaders. And so, Mr. Armstrong, now he was well aware and said it constantly Matthew 24:14 “This gospel will be preached to the world as a witness and then shall the end come.” So, it seemed like God was opening doors, God must want some of these things. At least that’s the way he interpreted it. And he knew in the ancient times when a prophet was sent to a kingdom and talked to the king, the kingdom was warned. Like Jonah, when he went to Nineveh told them to repent. They got a warning and they did repent. Surprisingly, they did it better than Israel ever did. Didn’t last very long but at least they heard it.

And so, Mr. Armstrong didn’t know but he thought perhaps this is how God was going to bring the gospel to the world before the end time. And so, he certainly wasn’t one not to step through a door if it appeared open. And so, he went to Mr. Gotoh and he accepted his offer to meet the Emperor and not really knowing even if he could accomplish this, because it really didn’t make much sense. There were a number of politicians that Mr. Gotoh knew quite well, but in Japan, he refused to introduce any of them to Mr. Armstrong until he could meet the Emperor. I didn’t understand this until I learned the protocols.

Protocol, first, officially you meet in Japan officially determines your status with all the others in that country. So, when he met the emperor, Mr. Armstrong had an open door to all of the country to talk. Mr. Armstrong was introduced to Emperor Hirohito and became good friends with his brother, the late Prince Mikasa, who died in 2016, months short of 101 years old. He liked Prince Mikasa just like he liked King Leopold and the King and Queen of Thailand because they were caring for their people special.

Most people don’t know, Prince Mikasa actually asked the emperor to resign in the war, wrote a paper on some of the atrocities. He was in China as a soldier and he felt his brother... he was fourth in line so wasn’t going to give him the throne if his brother resigned, but he actually wrote a paper on that. And it was MacArthur who told the emperor not to resign and refused to let the paper out, and it was published eventually in the 1990s. But his brother wanted peace, didn’t like what happened. Just like King Leopold didn’t like what his grandfather had done in Belgium, and King and Queen of Thailand didn’t like the corruption that they had.

So, he became close to Prince Mikasa. And after meeting them, he met many of the Japanese Diet members. And he met all the Japanese prime ministers from 1970 on, like six of them, I think Nakasone. The emperor was the center of Japanese loyalty, of culture, and status. I didn’t truly understand this until I had to represent Mr. Armstrong at the opening of the Middle East Cultural Center of Japan. This was a project that Prince Mikasa was a patron of. Most people didn’t realize Prince Mikasa spoke fluent Hebrew. Nobody knew that because of the oil. Japan needed oil desperately in the ‘70s. And those of us who lived through the standing in line for hours to get gas, understand that. So, they didn’t know it because of the geopolitical situation with the Arab world, the oil that they needed.

The prince had artifacts from all over the Arab world because they bought all their oil from Iraq, and Iran, and Egypt, but he had nothing from Israel, the prize, Jerusalem. And so, he asked Mr. Armstrong, knowing he had friends if he could get some artifacts from Israel because he couldn’t ask through official channels. So, Mr. Armstrong, went to Israel met with Professor Avinoam, and Professor Mazar, and those at the Hebrew University managed to get artifacts on permanent loan for the prince. The center was going to open, we flew to Japan for the opening. Mr. Armstrong was going to be there for the ribbon-cutting ceremony. And I thought that would be a wonderful opportunity, the media would be there, and they would see things.

We arrived, Mr. Armstrong became ill. I got a call at 1:00 in the morning. A nurse called me and said, “We need you to come to see Mr. Armstrong, to come anoint him.” And so, I went to his room and he had been throwing up had diarrhea, he was really, really sick. And she was really concerned. And first thing Mr. Armstrong said, “I’m sorry to wake you up.” I said, “That’s what I’m here for.” And so, I anointed him. I’d heard other people anointed him and I had heard one time he was being anointed and this person had all these flowery things about how wonderful God was and all this stuff. And finally, Mr. Armstrong interrupted and said, “God knows all that, get to the point. I hurt.”

So, I learned quickly to get to the point. So I just prayed, “God, please help. If he is hurting really bad, please take this away, please do this.” Then another thing I asked tagged on to that is I said, “God, he really needs some sleep, some rest so he can catch up. You know, he’s 90 years old, and this could kill him. And so please give him sleep.” Well, finished anointing him and you always wish God would just heal them right there but instead, he got up and threw up. And that always makes you feel real good when you anoint someone. But he did go to sleep. He got up the next morning about 9:30 or 10, he said, “Oh, I’ve slept in too long, I’m not going to be able to sleep tonight. And feel bad I can’t go to this thing. Aaron, you have to go for me. But I still feel tired.” And I said, “Well if you feel tired, your body’s telling you to go to sleep. So, go back to bed.” So, he did, and I went off to this ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Now, I didn’t think there was that much to cutting a ribbon, you get those giant scissors that they have and do that. And it was fine except when I got there the ambassador from Israel was there, the crown prince was there, the media was there, the Hebrew University professor was there. And they asked the university to stand up and talk about the artifacts. He had a prepared speech all written up and everything and read it. Then they asked the Israeli ambassador to say something, and then they asked Prince Mikasa to say something. And I realized they’re going to ask me to say something. That’s when you pray really, really hard because I had no speech prepared, I was just going to cut a ribbon. And so that’s when you realize that God does put words in your mouth. So, on Japanese TV, I gave about a seven, eight-minute speech about Mr. Armstrong and the kingdom of God, the hope, and how we try to help nations, and a few things like that.

But on the way to go to that ribbon-cutting ceremony, I learned a lot because I was riding with Mr. Gotoh. And as we were driving along, it was across town and as we drove along, go to a point here, “Oh, see right there that’s where Congressman Yamashita was born.” Okay, and then over here, “Well, that’s Fakoya was born.” And then a little bit, “That’s where Yamaguchi was born.” And he went through about a dozen Diet members. You know, I mean, I know where Lincoln’s house was and Washington’s, but Diet members, that didn’t make any sense to me. I finally said, “Mr. Gotoh, this is fine but why are you telling me this?” “Oh, very, very important, Aaron.” Of course, they can’t say their Vs and Rs. And I say, “What do you mean?” He always says, “The emperor lives right here in the center. The people that serve the emperor, in the first circle around the emperor. People that serve them are in the second circle.” What he was giving me was the importance of every Diet member politician in Japan. The reason Gotoh was able to introduce Mr. Armstrong to the emperor was he was born in the first circle. His family served the emperor. So, I learned a lot from that day. And so, he was able to introduce Mr. Armstrong.

Now, historically, in Japan, you’re placed in the circle by heroic acts or deeds of service. Oftentimes, you died on those deeds. But being in the first circle meant you did something special. And they would take death before betraying that honor of being in the first circle. So, I’d like to ask you today who is the center of your circle? Who would you be willing to die for? Now, academically, we all know the answers. I’m sure we all said God the Father and Jesus Christ. I’m sure everybody that ever came to the church and left said the same thing. I’m sure a lot of Christians in the world would say the same thing.

But do our actions, do our thoughts, do our sins, our conduct betray that loyalty, that honor, and that calling that God has given to you and to me? You did nothing to get the privilege of being called. Indeed, John 6:44 states it very clearly, “No one can come to Him except the Father draws him.” And so, you are called without doing some great act of courage or whatever. You’re called to make God the center of your circle without having done some special act. You’ve been invited by God the Father Himself. Do you appreciate the significance of that calling? Most of the world does not. It gives you no status in this world in the human perspective as it did for the Japanese with the emperor. You knew you were in the first circle, you could visit anybody. My first introduction was Prince Mikasa. I can go ask any congressman in Japan and they have to see me. But I don’t speak Japanese and so it wouldn’t do anything, but I could, gave me status.

In this world, being a true servant of God can make you an outcast. It can invite persecution and ridicule. But through God’s Spirit, we see the value in what God is offering to us. You see it, you try to see it, not only do we see it, but we desire it, or we wouldn’t be here. In Japan, your deeds happen first, then recognition or reward. With us, our deeds happen after we’ve been called to make God the center of our circle. You’re called by God the Father, you respond to that calling, recognize your sins, you repent of those sins. You ask to be baptized, and you have hands laid on you and receive God’s Spirit to start your journey. And you committed yourself to make God and Jesus Christ the center of your circle, not just for the short term, but forever. Everything you do, everything you think, everything you are should be designed to reflect the center of your circle.

Turn to Hebrews 6:1 if you would. Because we realize this is a life and death commitment that we make, and you have to hang on until the end. Hebrews 6:1, “Leaving the principles of the doctrines of Christ, let us go on to perfection.” “Be you perfect as God the Father is perfect,” we’re told in Matthew by Christ. “Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works of faith toward God, doctrine of baptism, of laying out of hands, of resurrection of the dead, of eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permit. For it is impossible for those who are once enlightened that have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come if they fall away. To renew them again to repentance, seeing they crucified themselves the Son of God afresh, put Him to an open shame” (Hebrews 6:2-6). If you claim Him as the center of your circle, you don’t do as He did, you’re denying your loyalty, denying your cause.

Like the Japanese toward their emperor who were willing to die before capture, to die before betrayal, we have to develop that same loyalty in everything we do, which means going against the grain of this world. Skipping down to verse 9 of Hebrews. “Beloved, we are persuaded of better things of you, things that accompany salvation, for we thus speak for God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love” (Hebrews 6:9). He sees everything you do, we’re told to give account for every word that we speak, “Which you have showed toward His name, and you have ministered to the saints, and do minister” (Hebrews 6:10). Our king, our emperor. “And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of the hope unto the end. That you be not slothful, but be followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Hebrews 6:11-12). You must become one that others can follow.

Are you diligently seeking that, that full assurance? Are you someone that Christ could say, “Be a follower, follow this person? He’ll show you how, he’s loyal to Me, he lives this way of life. He knows because he’s made Me the center of his circle and My Father.” It’s the deeds you do after God calls you that make the difference. It’s not slaying Goliath. I’ve seen all through my life people in the church trying to do some big, wonderful thing so the work can progress, and they can be the hero. David didn’t slay Goliath to be a hero. But it’s all the little things you do in your life that God sees. He sees everything, and He knows it. After you make Jesus Christ your King and God the center of your life, and you live that humble life that Dr. Fouch talked about, and His way of life.

Turn to John 14:1 if you will. God has a plan and a reward for those who live His way of life. John 14. Again, it’s all those who live by pure example of God’s way. Jesus made it clear, verse 1, John 14, “Let not your hearts be troubled you believe in God believe in Me. My Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go and prepare a place for you.” You are part of that you, not just His disciples. “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself that where I am you may also be. And where I go, you don’t know though you know the way.” The way is shown by Christ, by His example. But Thomas says to Him, “Lord, we don’t know where you’re going,” he’s thinking physically, “and how can we know the way?” And He said, “I am the way, I am the truth, I’m the life. No man comes to the Father but by Me.” Again, through baptism, the repentance, taking a sacrifice, we do come to the Father. Father calls, and Christ is the way and that’s where we have to be.

Turn to 2 Peter 1 if you would, Because Christ is the way, the truth, the life. And if it is, you will do the things that Christ would have you do so that you can come to the Father. 2 Peter, Peter who denied Christ and learned the hard way, he figured out his loyalties. And we all slip, nobody’s been loyal except Christ to the bitter end for all eternity. Verse 4 of 2 Peter 1, “Whereby are given unto us exceedingly great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in this world through lust.” Lust through pride, through all the sins. We’re invited to a special place, those promises, He kind of put you in His first circle, firstfruits.

“Besides this giving all diligence, add to your faith, virtue,” not just faith, you can know God’s there, but you have to have virtue, “to virtue knowledge,” and not just knowledge, “to knowledge temperance.” Temperance, patience, I often see little patience, and a lot of people who leave, it’s churches didn’t correct this quick enough. I’ve seen a lot of things wrong in the church for a number of years, they get corrected. But they’re all tests on people. And many people fail the tests and leave. “Patience godliness to godliness, brotherly kindness to brotherly kindness, charity, or love.” God is love. In verse 8, “For if these things be in you, and abound,” not just in you, but abound not just occasionally, “they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” You have to abound though.

“But if he lacks these things, he’s blind, cannot see far off, and has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.” Yeah, it’s far off. It’s far off until Christ returns. Verse 10, “Wherefore the rather brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure. And if you do these things, you shall never fail.” You’ll be in that first circle if you make God the center of your circle. So, are you diligent in putting God and Christ at the center of your circle? Do you do as Christ did? Do you live as He lived? And do you always turn to the Father as He did? I can do nothing except My Father grants that. When you keep God’s holy time, His Sabbath, His feast, you’re being here today, you’re making God and Christ the center of your circle and it’s obvious to all.

My neighbor is a Baptist preacher, and we talk once in a while. He just bought the house last year and he said, “I noticed you go to church on Saturday.” And I say, “Yeah, it’s what Christ did.” And he and I are good friends, we talked, I’ve given several sermons, but different ideas of things that are fun to talk with him actually. But when you keep them, you’re saying that God and Christ are the center of your circle. You’re not choosing your own day, you’re choosing His day. People that choose their own day think they’re worshipping Him. They call it the Lord’s day to try to make it look like His, but Christ, of course, is Lord of the Sabbath.

Turn to Matthew of 7 if you would. Because when you give your life in service to others, you’re learning the way of give versus get. A catchphrase we heard years ago over and over and it’s so simple and so true. People I see that give stay with God, and serve. People that start getting, they will give for time to get to a position so they can get. And once they start getting, it’s over. Of course, you have the golden rule in verse 12, “Do unto others as you would have them do to you.” The golden rule. Matthew 7:13, “Enter in at the strait gate for wide is the gate broad is the way that leads to destruction.” Many people go that way, they don’t think they’re going to destruction. “Strait is the gate, narrow is the way that leads to life, and few are there that find it.”

The few God has called you, me, those throughout history, disciples, the early church, prophets, there are very few when you consider the population of the world. And when you suffer persecution or ridicule for your beliefs, which you’ll probably get more and more as we see how the world is going, you’re saying that you’re making God and Christ the center of your circle. It’s not easy. It’s not an easy choice to make. It wasn’t an easy choice for the Japanese in the Kamikazes. But their loyalty and their pride and their ethics and everything they did, the center of their circle, their country, and their emperor, was ingrained in them to death. And we have to have that ingrained in us as Christians. Is ours ingrained in us or is it just lip service?

Matthew 7:21, down a few verses says, “Not everyone that says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven. But he that does the will of My Father which is in heaven.” He that makes My Father the center of his circle. “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name and in Your name cast out devils, in Your name done many wonderful works?’” Christ’s name certainly talked around the world. “But I will profess to them, I never knew you, depart from Me you that work iniquity.” Iniquity is lawlessness. Lawlessness means you’re not following the laws, you’re not keeping the commandments. When someone tells you, you don’t have to keep the Sabbath, you can pick your own day, that’s lawlessness. Anything they tell you against Scriptures is not truth.

These are the words Christ will say to anyone who does not make God and Christ truly the center of their circle. If we become too lazy, sometimes we look pretty good because the world looks so bad. And oftentimes, we compare ourselves among ourselves, or we need to compare ourselves to the center of our circle, to our older brother Jesus Christ. We don’t want to look good, it’s not enough. Loyalty has to be down to your core. We must grow in grace and knowledge. Another way to say that is we must grow in love as God is, and grow in truth, grace, and knowledge, love, and truth. True knowledge comes from the center of our circle, from God, from His Word.

Turn to 1 John 3 if you would. Being in the emperor’s first circle gave a lot of privileges of physical things, things in the here and now for you and your family. But however honorable it is, and whatever you got, it’s temporary. God’s first circle is forever. Through God’s Spirit and our efforts, He gives us His love. 1 John 3:1, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called the sons of God.” I think it’s an honor just to be in the first circle, we’re going to be called God’s sons, part of His family. Therefore, the world knows us not because it knew Him not.” Why? Because He’s the center of the circle of this world. Satan, the devil, he’s the center of this world. And he comes as an angel of light at times, he can appear pretty good.

Verse 2, “Beloved, now we are the sons of God but it does not yet appear what we shall be.” So, we have to be living that life but obviously, we’re not spirit beings yet. “But we know when He shall appear we will be like Him and we will see Him as He is.” No one has seen God and lived humanly. We’ll be able to see God, we’ll be part of His family. “And every man that has this hope in Him purifies himself even as He is pure. And whoever commits sin transgresses the law.” Sin is the transgression of the law, it’s very clear. “And you know He was manifest to take away our sins because in Him was no sin.” That’s what the center of our circle is supposed to be like once we repent. And again, we slip and we can repent, always go back to God because we’re human.

“And whosoever abides in Him sins, not. Whosoever sins has not seen Him if he sins then neither has he known Him.” You’re sinning, you can call yourselves a Christian, but you’re not looking at the center of your circle, you’re not acting like Christ. Verse 7, “Little children, let no man deceive you, he that does righteousness is righteous even as He.” God and Christ are righteous. This world, without even knowing, has made Satan the center of their circle. Whether it’s a good cause or not, it’s off the tree of knowledge of good and evil, it’s not off the tree of life. They put their trust in things, in men, false hopes, false promises.

I feel so sorry for the people of Afghanistan, promises that the United States made to them, and to think of what’s happening there now so quickly. That’s part of the prophecies, I’m sure our status in the world is going to go down because people won’t trust us. I read the other day an article where the Chinese are asking us to get permission to land in Taiwan, they consider that their country and so we should get permission to land there. Our prestige and honor which God has prophesied, we’d lose the pride of our power. Well, things are coming, the world is coming to an end, how long God knows, not us. But these things are happening in the world and Satan is the center of that circle. And yes, in any form that Satan can deceive you, false religion, false anything, there’s only one right way, there’s many, many wrong ways. And Satan doesn’t care which one of the wrong ways you take as long as it’s not God’s way.

So, I acknowledge there’s a lot of physical goods in the tree of knowledge of good and evil but it’s mixed it’s motive is often selfish, even when it’s good. But it’s sad because some people are drawn away. One of the men who introduced false doctrine in the church 30 years ago, he said, “I went to the seminary, and I found all these good, wonderful people. And you know, good people are Christians, and bad people are pagans, and they were so good, we had to be wrong.” And I said, “You divided the tree of knowledge good and evil, and tried to make good righteousness and evil not.” And I said, “It’s not the tree of life.” So, seeing something that’s good, and I acknowledge and I love having good neighbors. I love the good that people do do. But it’s not the tree of life, which it has to be because everything about God is true. In the garden, God didn’t lie when He said, “The day you eat of it, you’ll surely die.” We’ve been dying ever since then because of sin, and it’s sad. But the people are not lost, we know that God will give them a chance to know who He is.

Turn Revelation 20 if you would, verse 5. Revelation 20:5, it says, “The rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years were finished. And, This is the first resurrection.” People in the first resurrection, people like you and me, if we make God and Christ the center of our circle are part of that first resurrection. “Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection. On such the second death has no power, and they shall be priests of God and of Christ shall reign with Him a thousand years.” We’ll be in that first circle. “Blessed is he.” Brethren, we are blessed. God called you and me and asked us to make Him the center of our circle. And He gave us His Spirit, so we could understand how to do that, how it works. Everyone will have the opportunity to be part of God’s family. Some will reject it, we know, but it’s their choice, not God’s.

But for those called, who place God’s law above the laws of men, who place future value over present gain and pleasures, who declare and serve what Paul referred to on Mars Hill as, “The God whom you ignorantly worship,” when he walked by and saw the sign to the unknown God. “Him do I teach to you. Him I proclaim to you.” They ignorantly worshipped Him, he proclaimed them. Do our lives proclaim that unknown God by the way we live, the way we act, what we say, and what we do, and everything? Are we declaring God in word when opportunity allows? And indeed, in all of our lives, as they see how we act. These things prove that you have made God the center of your circle. And if you’re not, you’re outside the circle. It wasn’t what the Greeks wanted to hear from Paul at Mars Hill. It was unique, and it was true, and it made them curious. Some wanted to hear more of this, but they didn’t believe, some perhaps later did, we don’t know.

Turn to 1 Corinthians 7. But that’s what Paul did do in his life and the way he lived. 1 Corinthians 1, let’s start in verse 17. Christ had His job, God gave it to Him directly. Christ did. “For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with words of wisdom, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.” It’s not about just wisdom. “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, to us which are saved it’s the power of God.” If He wasn’t resurrected, we wouldn’t be resurrected, our hope lies in that resurrection. “For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where’s the scribe? Where’s the disputer of this world? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” Certainly, we have a lot of foolishness in this world to deny God when you have creation all around you, and with the electron microscopes and things they can do now to see what a cell is made of. And to be an atheist is a choice, certainly not any proof.

“For after that, and the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, but it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” With His Holy Spirit, we do understand. “But the Jews require a sign.” They always asked Christ, “What’s the sign?” The Greeks, wisdom, let’s hear this new thing let’s understand it, they think they can learn it on their own. “But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews, a stumbling block.” Was a horrendous thing to be crucified, humiliating. “To the Greeks’ foolishness.” Why worship somebody who, to them, would be a criminal in their mind? “But to them which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.” The center of your circle. “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

We have the precious knowledge of God and we’re offered the love of God. People in the circles around the emperor were there because of their service to him. Their acts of heroism, their special wisdom, perhaps, for their knowledge or their exceptional skills, but we’re not called for our special skills. 1 Corinthians 1:26 makes it pretty clear. God calls the weak of the world. Verse 26, “You see your calling, brethren, not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called.” Many of the people who have left us thought they were wise, thought they were smart. One talked about his IQ all the time. I remember telling him I’m sure God was impressed. He didn’t like hearing that. But I tend to say quips like that, that’s just me.

This knowledge, this truth should not give you worldly pride. I have pride, pride of my Creator, pride of my Savior, but that’s where it ends. Paul made it very clear when talking in the love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13 when he made it clear what he said, “I have the gift of prophecy, I understand all mysteries, I understand all knowledge. I have all faith that I can move mountains.” If you don’t have love it’s nothing. A lot of people have some knowledge, knowledge without love doesn’t do anything. Some people claim they have lots of love. So, they tell you to accept people as they are, except that love without truth isn’t godly either you need knowledge, true knowledge, and love, both to be in the center of God’s circle.

From my viewpoint, the answer is truth and love in humility, as the sermonette said, and in faith, belief in the promises that God has given us. “High and mighty are filled with pride, they trust in themselves,” and they may have some knowledge, some truth. But whatever truth they exercise, they do it without Godly love, they do it without proper motivation. And they’re really in the center of Satan’s circle, oftentimes looking like angels of light. What is truth? You know, “Thy word is truth,” we all know that. God says if you sin, you die, that’s truth. What is love? God is love. He allows repentance, He allows you to change your life to be like Him and you don’t have to die, that’s truth, that is love.

The Japanese culture is changing. The emperor is always at the center of Japanese loyalty and culture and status, but they no longer have the loyalty the way they did. Cares of the world and movements and society around them has changed their culture quite a bit. God must always be the center of our circle. We can’t change our culture and still be in the center of the circle, it has to be God’s culture. I ask if we often let society and this culture push us away from that circle as it pushes a bit off-center, or do you stay firmly planted with God as the center of your circle?

The Kamikazes attacks began in October 1944 at a time when the tides of war were beginning to go against them. They had lost a number of battles. As we approach the end of this age, it may appear like we’re losing some of these battles. And they can tell us with COVID you can’t be together anymore, so we find a way to do it electronically. There may come a time, when like happened with the edicts in the 300s A.D. where they said you can’t be Judaizing on the Sabbath, you can’t keep these days or you die. It may appear things are going against us. Satan is a roaring lion, he goes against everything God stands for and he wants to destroy anyone who stands for God. He’s attacking that circle all the time.

Prior to the Kamikaze strategy, many of the best pilots had been killed. We know many of the most loyal soldiers to God have also died, a few peacefully and a few martyred. We don’t know how that’s going to go some of us may die, only God knows our fate. But we have to be willing to die to be in the center of that circle. The Kamikaze aircraft were becoming outdated, they’d lost the command of the air and lost pilots faster than they can replace them. The world sees our message as outdated. Oh, you believe in that God, that Old Testament, that old stuff. That’s outdated, we’re Christians seven days a week, not just one day a week. Of course, Christ I think was a Christian seven days a week, they make it sound that way. They see our message as outdated. Many have left the faith.

When Mr. Armstrong died, I think a lot of people did see him like the emperor loyalty. And he was always on the gun lap, the old people know that. Tried to give that sense of urgency to all of us, then he died. Some people said, “Oh, it must have not been true,” they left. Others, “Oh, the emperor is dead, long live the new emperor.” Mr. Tkach said you don’t have to keep Sabbath or the Holy Days or any of this. So, people said, “Okay, I can get in the kingdom without it.” No, that’s not truth. It’s certainly not truth with love, it’s deception. Many of them, when he died, went back to fishing like the apostles did. We can’t do that. The nation’s industrial capacity was far less than that of the allies. In this world, our capacity is limited physically. We will face the famine of the Word, we may even be cut off from proclaiming the Word at some point. In other countries, we have been, you can’t say some things in some countries, you’re taken off immediately.

In Japan, their unwillingness to surrender led to the use of the Kamikaze tactics as the Allied Forces advanced. We must be unwilling to surrender, unwilling to give in. If it means we are spiritual kamikazes so be it. Christ is the first person at the center of the circle, He died for you and me, we have to be willing to die for His cause. Kamikaze’s survival rate was zero.

We live God as the center of our circle, our true eternal survival rate is 100%. That’s the good news, your survival rate for the future is 100% if God is in the center of your circle. As Satan advances toward us, we will be like today’s society that gives up, will we be like that, as Satan starts doing these things, as it gets tough?

Turn to Matthew 10 if you would. It’s going to get tough, we’re going into a world that has a different center to their circle. Matthew 10:16, Christ told His disciples, “I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves.” Sheep in a wolf’s pen doesn’t last very long. “Be you, therefore, wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” We don’t want to force anybody to do anything. When I talk to my neighbors, I’m straightforward but I don’t... I tell them what’s good about what they do but I also tell them why I can’t do it. “Beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils, they will scourge you in their synagogues, you’ll be brought before governors and kings for My sake for a testimony against them and the gentiles. But when they deliver you up, take no thought of how or what you shall speak for it shall be given you in that same hour what you still speak.”

You may be moved like Stephen was who was stoned, or like Peter, when he spoke, and he was beaten but he had more to do, later died, crucified. If tradition is right, crucified upside down. Will we continue our willingness to hold fast and even die physically for our cause if that’s necessary? Going down to verse 32, “Whosoever shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also to My Father which is in heaven.” Your King, Christ, the center of your circle, the model that we have to live up to. 33 is scary, “But who shall deny Me before men him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven.” Not just in word, Peter denied Him three times in word, but you can deny Him in action, in deed. Are Jesus Christ and God the Father cemented in with the strongest of glue or like two pieces of steel welded together, they can’t be separated as the center of your circle? I ask you today, is God truly the center of your circle with your heart, with your mind, with your soul? If so, you will hear God say, “Well done thou good and faithful servant, welcome to the first circle.”