Why and How is Each Life Important to God?

Well, thank you again, Mr. Lee. Thank you again, Mr. Mark Graham. And again to all of you, happy Sabbath day!

Well, this past week, parts of this past week, I've been preparing for an annual presentation that's given during the general conference of elders every year in May. The presentation is called, Tribute to the Deceased Elders and Wives, and a tradition that we have at the conference.

And I've had the privilege of providing the presentation for about five years. This is a scheduled tribute. There's a time for it. It's scheduled every year at the general conference to honor those elders and wives who died in the faith during the past years. Kind of our way to say goodbye to them, in many cases for 50-plus years of service as local elders or elder's wives, as pastors, as pastors' wives. It's kind of the conference's way to acknowledge them, to thank them and their families for their years of service and give them a very special honor.

This is a way the process works. After being notified of those who died during the past year, friends and family send in personal tributes and photos of their lives. And I assemble all of this wonderful information together and create about a 30-minute PowerPoint presentation, a slide program, showing the photos of various stages of their life and reading some of the individual tributes for each person who has died. This year, there are about 17 individuals who will be honored in this portion of the general conference of elders.

And again, it lasts about 30 minutes. It usually takes me about 40 hours from start to finish to put this presentation together. And for me, it is very emotional. I don't consider myself a sentimental person, but every year I become very emotional putting this together because I literally see a person's life flash before my eyes.

Now, most of these folks, I was an acquaintance. I admit them, shake their hands, talk to them briefly, but I really don't know them that well. But when you receive photos, you receive these tributes and you receive photos and you'll get a photo of them in childhood. And they're my generation. Of course, those photos are all in black and white. That tells us something about generational changes, right? So here they are as children.

And then there's usually a photo of their wedding day, big smile on their face, wonderful day of their life. And you'll get another photo of them in midlife. And there they are with their little children, is gathered together in a family event or a formal picture. And then you get a photo of them when they're elderly, 70s or 80s. Sometimes we get a photo and a caption, the last picture taken of Dad before he died. And within my mind, I get to feel like I knew them personally. And it seems how short human life is, after all. When you, again, this isn't just one person.

These are 17 people. These are hours and hours of seeing individuals' lives literally flash before your eyes from young and vigorous and everything to live for, to oftentimes quite elderly and very frail and struggling with cancer or COPD or some other disease. And not all who received tributes died of natural causes or old age. In the past, we had an honored an individual who was murdered. In another year, we honored someone who suffered from chronic depression and took their own life. This year, a beloved elder died of COVID among the 17. And these are real people.

And you get that sense of real people living real lives with family and people who knew them and loved them and cared for them. And I always think of the same scripture every year as I'm going through all of this sorting and preparation. I think of James chapter 4 verse 13. I'll read it. There's no reason for you to turn there. But here's what James says. He says, Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow we will go and do such and such and such a city. Spend a year there and buy and sell and make a profit. James continues, whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow for what is your life?

James continues, it is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say if the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that. Now, as a result of all of this sorting and preparation and many hours of doing this, I go into a few days of mild depression or despondency as I ponder on the brevity of human existence. I get this overwhelming sense of the shortness of human existence as you go through person after person and you review their lives. Individuals who once were so full of life and all that life offers, and now they're gone.

And if not for the promises of God and his profound love for them, they would be gone forever. So today, I would like to talk about God's love and promises for our individual lives. It's also the experiences that Lisa has really gone through recently with the death of her mom and her sister and other family members and bringing people from Puerto Rico and flying them back to be buried and all the stresses and all that she's witnessed and experienced, and also Sarah and Aaron and what they've experienced with the death of Sarah's dad and the challenges that Sarah's mom has.

All of these have kind of come together, and I thought this would be something that might be helpful for us to talk about today.

Let's read a rather blunt and cynical and candid commentary from the very scriptures themselves. Let's go to Ecclesiastes chapter 9, if you'll begin the turn there with me. Some people say it was written by Solomon. Even most conservative scholars no longer believe this was actually written by Solomon, but it's a very powerful book, scripture, holy scripture, written by someone who had tremendous wealth and tremendous influence, someone who was very wise, and it's written from the perspective of how shallow and useless life is if there is no God. There is no God.

Life is pretty futile. Existence pretty shallow, short. That's from the perspective that this is being written from. Humans alone are unable to achieve their dreams and ambitions because of sin and because of our limited knowledge, our limited power, our limited goodness. No matter what we think we achieve, eventually we die. The good die, the evil die. So this is the point of these scriptures. So let's read them together. Ecclesiastes chapter 9 and verse 1. It's not very cheery, but it's there for a purpose. And I'm going to read from the New Century version because I just don't believe the New King James Version does justice to this at all, so I'm choosing to read it in the New Century version. Certainly follow along with me whatever translation you have in front of you. Verse 1. I thought about all this and the preceding chapters, the authors talking about the importance of gaining righteousness, of gaining wisdom, of gaining knowledge, of all the things that we as human beings strive for, including a lot of good things. He says, I thought about all this and tried to understand it. I saw that God controls good people and wise people and what they do, but no one knows if they will experience love or hate. This translation, it says, controls good people. Some translations say that God has people in his hands. And what it's saying here is, no matter whether you're good or evil, we don't know if we're going to experience love or hate in our lives. Sometimes very good people end up in very bad relationships, end up with a spouse that destroys their life, that pulls them down, that causes a lot of pain. They may be very good people, very faithful, godly people, but that doesn't make us immune to experiencing hate, or experiencing discomfort, or experiencing problems in our lives. That's what the author is saying here. Verse 2, good and bad people end up the same. Those who are right and those who are wrong, those who are good and those who are evil, those who are clean and those who are unclean, those who sacrifice and those who do not, the same thing happens to the good person and happens, as happens, to the sinner. And what is that? It's death. That's what the author is saying here. To a person who makes promises to God and to the one who does not, this is something wrong that happens here on the earth. Now, the Hebrew word that's translated wrong here in the New Century version is a word that can be translated affliction. So this is, and some translations say evil, this is an affliction or an apparent evil that happens on the earth, that no matter whether you're good or bad, you both end up with the same reward, and that is death, a cessation of life and consciousness. What happens to one happens to all, so people's minds are full of evil and foolish thoughts while they live. After that, they join the dead. Again, doesn't matter whether you were good, whether you were evil, whether you kept Sabbath faithfully and God's holy days and had God's holy spirit, or whether you were the most wicked scoundrel who ever walked the face of the earth. What we have in common is we're all going to die. And this is what the author, again, is talking about. Continuing, after that, they join the dead, verse 4.

But anyone still alive has hope. At least you're not dead. I think I've mentioned you before, the one of the years ago, particularly when I traveled a lot, I used to have a hobby, and that is when I would go to a city and spend the night. I would usually find an old local cemetery, and I would walk through the cemetery. And I actually, it would cheer me up to walk through cemeteries. And it was fascinating, the birth dates, the date they died. Sometimes you would see three or four smaller headstones. You could make the connection. It was a woman who died in childbirth just by looking at the years and comparing them with how old she might have been, the mom, or they might have died in childhood, if not at birth. It was, to me, I found it quite fascinating, and oftentimes quite exhilarating. And again, it may be with all my problems and issues, at least I'm still alive. And that's kind of what the author is saying here. It says, dead people have no more reward, and people forget them. You know how quickly people forget us? First of all, the whole idea of having a headstone is limited to certain civilizations, and when you look at the history of mankind is rather recent. The overwhelming majority of people who ever lived and died, there is now a headstone to acknowledge that they even existed, that they lived at one time.

And even if there is a headstone, what does it really mean? If you go to any cemetery, you will not know anything about 99.9% of the people buried there. Yeah, there may be a name, there may be some dates, a beloved mom, a wonderful dad, but no one knows what their lives or what their hopes were, what their wishes were, what their goals were. No one knows if that entire generation died out, if it's there a certain age or older, there's not even anyone alive on earth who knows anything about that person's existence. The only one who knows, of course, is God. So again, it says, dead people have no more reward and people forget them. After people are dead, they can no longer love or hate or envy because they're unconscious. They will never again share in what happens here on earth. So go eat your food and enjoy it. Drink your wine and be happy because that is what God wants you to do. Verse 8, put on nice clothes and make yourself look good. Some of us struggled with that this morning. Verse 9, enjoy life with the wife you love. Enjoy all the useless days of this useless life God has given you here on earth because it's all you have.

Why, it doesn't sound very encouraging to me.

So enjoy the work you do here on earth. Again, that's Ecclesiastes chapter 9 and verse 1. And from a perspective of someone who has lost their faith in God and lost an understanding that God has a plan, that God is a goal setter, that God has a purpose in our lives. Every individual life who has ever lived has meaning to God. When we lose sight of that, it's very easy to become cynical and skeptical about life. Verse 10, whatever work you do, do your best because you are going to the grave where there is no working, no planning, no knowledge, and no wisdom. I also saw something else here on earth. The fastest runner does not always win the race. Sometimes the fastest runner trips on something 10 feet before the finish line. Everyone passes them up.

The strongest soldier does not always win the battle. Sometimes a stray bullet comes out of nowhere and takes down someone who was well trained and physically fit and maybe physically the best soldier on the field at that moment. The wisest does not always have food. Some very wise people live in perpetual poverty. The smartest does not always become wealthy.

Some people are too smart for their own good, and they may be smart in some area in life. They may even be a genius, but when it comes to managing money, they can't keep five dollars in their pocket.

And the talented one does not always receive praise. Oftentimes they're ignored, and praise is given to celebrity rather than people who are truly talented. Time and chance happen to everyone.

Doesn't matter whether you're good or whether you're evil. It doesn't matter whether you're the strongest, the most talented, the most gifted. Time and chance happens to everyone. Verse 11. No one knows what will happen next. Like a fish caught in a net or a bird caught in a trap, people are trapped by evil when it suddenly falls on them. So one day you can be going through life, and everything is sugar plums and roses, and something comes out of nowhere. Maybe it's a diagnosis from a doctor, or something happens that literally turns our life around. Shocks us to the core. Like a fish who's just swimming in the ocean, having a good old time, and all of a sudden this net material surrounds it and pulls it to the surface, and it's caught. Its destiny for that fish has changed forever. So again, this is a pessimistic view of human existence, because without a greater plan and purpose designed by the creator God, life indeed, as this person says, put God out of the picture. If there were no God, then life indeed is short, and it's futile.

It's all about human vanity. It's all about existing a short period of time in this world.

Job had similar feelings when he struggled with his own personal pain and his own issues. Here's what he said. There's no reason to turn there, but I'll read it. Again, he's a little despondent at this time. He says things that aren't true, but this is how he feels at this time in Job, chapter 7, verses 7 through 9. He says, Remember God that my life is only a breath.

Well, in the realm of eternity, that's very true. My eyes will never see happy times again. Those who see me now will see me no more. You will look for me, but I will be gone. In other words, I'll be dead, Job says. As a cloud disappears and is gone, people go to the grave and never return. End of quote. Well, he's not taking into account that there is a resurrection.

He's not taking into account that after he went through this trial, he actually would be blessed tremendously and would live many, many more years and have many things restored back to him the way it was. But when you're feeling down, when you're discouraged, when you seem like you're getting beat up by circumstances, time and chance, and things are coming back at us, it's very easy.

Become cynical and skeptical about life, especially if one has no sense of purpose.

No belief in a sovereign God or any understanding or appreciation of the afterlife.

There are a lot of discouraged and despondent people in the world. I read an article recently that stated that the next pandemic is now starting, and doctors universally are seeing the next pandemic every day. You know what that pandemic is? It's a pandemic of mental health issues as a result of COVID and people being locked down in their homes for a year now. Plus, year plus, being fed a steady diet of caution, anxiety, and fear from the news media, and from what they read, and everything going on. It is having very tragic mental health consequences in our culture. Let's go to Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 5 and begin to understand what God's plan is. Obviously, we read a scripture that's very discouraging. There are an ecclesiastes. What James himself said could appear to some to be very discouraging. He says, life is but a vapor. And of course, what Job said was very discouraging there and what he was experiencing at that point in his life. But we need to understand and appreciate that no matter what happens, that God has a plan. He's always had a plan and that plan includes you. You are a very important and significant part of that plan. Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 5, this is from the New King James Version. For he has not put the world to come, that is the millennium of which we speak, in subjection to angels. God plans for the world to come to be in subjection to you as a literal spirit-filled child of God serving in his family. Verse 6. But one testified in a certain place, saying, what is man that you're mindful of him or the son of man that you take care of him? That's of course a quote from Psalm chapter 8. God, why would you even care about human beings? They're violent, selfish, they destroy the environment, they hurt each other all the time, they're evil. Why, God, would you even care about human beings? That's what the psalmist asked.

What is man that you were mindful of him or the son of man that you take care of him? And there's a parallel with the son of man here in Hebrews 2 with Jesus Christ himself. You have made him a little lower than the angels, you have crowned him with glory and honor, you have set him over the work of your hands, you have put all things in subjection under his feet, for in that he put in all, for in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him, but now we do not yet see all things put under him. Let's look at this from a human perspective.

Anyone even observing from space would say, you know what? That Homo sapien changed that world. They dominate that planet. They've taken mountains and leveled them. They've dug valleys, they've created massive cities, they've done so many remarkable things with technology, they even put people in little metal capsules and send them up into space.

They are a remarkable dominant species of life on this planet. And what's what the author, Hebrews, is saying. God gave us, he said, have dominion. That's what he told Adam and Eve, have dominion over the earth. And as a race, as a species, that's exactly what we have done. A lot of good things we've done and a lot of evil things we've done. We've created a lot of pollution.

We've destroyed segments of the earth and harmed Mother Nature, harmed the beautiful creation God made of this world. We've driven some other species into an existence, into extinction, because of our abuse as a people. We've certainly hurt each other. We've had constant wars and problems. So even though we're dominant in this world, we've done some good things, but we've also done a lot of evil things. Verse 9. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than angels for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God might taste to death for everyone. For it was fitting for him for whom all things, and by whom all things, in bringing many sons to glory.

So it was fitting for Jesus Christ, the son of man, son of God here, was fitting for him and his sacrifice and living a perfect life and doing all that he did to bring many sons to glory. Those sons are you. Those sons are God's people, all of those whom God has given the gift of his Holy Spirit and is preparing for an eternity of service and existence within his family. Continuing here, I'm going to pick it up again in verse 9. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than angels for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God might taste death for everyone.

For it was fitting for him by whom all things, and by whom all are all things, and bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation, that's Jesus Christ, perfect through sufferings for both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all one.

So we're one with Jesus Christ. It's he who's the sanctifier, and it's we who are being sanctified by his shed blood because of what he did, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren. So when Jesus Christ looks at us, he's not ashamed of us in spite of our problems, in spite of our issues, as individuals and the things we struggle with. He's not ashamed of us.

He's proud to say to the Father, this is my brother, this is my sister in the family. They're part of this family. And I'm proud to say that I'm related to them spiritually. They are part of the royal family of God, saying, I will declare your name to my brethren in the midst of the assembly. I will sing praise to you.

I want to make a comment here from the Believer's Study Bible that's commenting on the phrase that the captain of our salvation is perfect through sufferings. It says, quote, to make Jesus perfect through sufferings does not mean that any imperfection, spiritual or moral, existed in Christ's nature. Rather, he fully experienced the suffering of humanity through complete identification with humanity, pain, which he experienced before he died, obviously, anxiety, human instinct for survival, all of these things that are part of our nature he experienced.

So it says here, continuing, rather, he fully experienced the suffering of humanity through complete identification with humanity. The word perfect has the idea of completion. Not that he was imperfect before, not that he lacked something, but now, because of those experiences, he was complete. Let's take a look at verse 5.

I'm going to read this from the New Century Version, a little different translation. God did not choose angels to be rulers of the new world that was coming, which is what we have been talking about. It is written in scriptures. Why are people important to you? Why do you take care of human beings?

Verse 7, you made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You put all things under their control. That is all earthly things within the confines of this planet.

When God put everything under their control, there was nothing left that they did not rule. Still, we do not see them ruling over everything. We have a great future ahead of us, ruling beyond just the physical things that are existing on this earth.

Verse 9, But we see Jesus, who for a short time was made lower than the angels, and now he is wearing a crown of glory and honor because he suffered and died, and by God's grace he died for everyone. So from the very moment of humanity's creation, going all the way back to Adam and Eve, God had big plans to transform our existence to another level beyond the fleshly, the carnal, the short, fragile human experience that we have in our fleshly bodies.

Let's go to Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3. If you'll turn there with me, Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 3.

Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 3.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. So even before the world was made, God had this plan, and that plan included an opportunity for us to be without blame before him in love. There was already a provision that God himself, who we would know of as Jesus Christ, would empty himself of his glory and come to earth as a man, as a human being, and sacrifice his life so that we could be redeemed, so that we could be holy and without blame before him in love. This expression that Paul uses here. Verse 5. Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will.

What does this word predestined mean? It does not mean what the Calvinist church and Calvinist theology taught and continues to teach today in many aspects, and that is whether you are saved or damned has already been determined before you were born. You might be born and you want to know God. Oh, I want to know God real bad, and I want to study my Bible every day, and I want to go to church every week, and I want to pray. I'm sorry.

Predestination says you were damned. Doesn't matter what you want. Doesn't matter what your particular desires are. Some are chosen. Everyone else is damned. So sorry. Goodbye.

And that's the Calvinist approach in how predestination is often defined, but it's a very simple word. It just means determined beforehand. Having determined beforehand us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ himself according to the good pleasure of his will, so at the foundation of the world, God decided that there are some who he would call in their first lifetimes in their original existence, and they would be chosen to prepare to serve as the coaches and mentors and leaders in that kingdom that would be established on this earth. That was predetermined beforehand, before they were even born, before the foundation of the world. God had already planned and decided that. To us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. Again, is it somehow? Oh, plan B, Adam sent. Oh, man! Now what am I going to do?

Oh, I guess I'll have to send my son as a savior. Oh, no, that's not it at all. It says that all of this occurred according to the good pleasure of his will. God loves you. You bring pleasure to God. Yes, I know that like myself, you have weaknesses, and you have sins, and you have personal struggles. You can't tell me anything new, but in spite of that, your calling, and your life, and your existence, and the way that God is working with you today is according to the good pleasure of his will. And we should never forget that, brethren, to the praise and glory of his grace by which he's made us accepted in the beloved. Not rejected, not, oh, they're so foul, these people, what am I going to do with these carnal people that I've given my spirit to? They make me sick!

No, it's not that at all. He has made us accepted because of what Jesus Christ did for us.

And the fact that Jesus Christ now lives in us, his righteousness dwells within us through the gift of the Holy Spirit. Verse 7, in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. Not because we earn it, not because we're special, better looking, wealthier, not because of time and chance, as happens to the world. This is a spiritual calling. This is a spiritual family. It's not associated with time and chance, but because of his love, his grace. Verse 8, which he made to abound towards us in all wisdom and prudence, having made us known to us the mystery of his will. What's the mystery of his will? That God is creating a spiritual family. That there's more to this existence than this physical human life.

There's more to this existence than dying and flittering off to some place and playing a harp for all eternity. How many harp players can you possibly have?

It's got to get irritating after a while. All those harps play.

The mystery of his will according to, again, plan B, God reluctant. Aww, these people are so worthless and carnal. No, according to his good pleasure. It is God's pleasure to be working in your life, to give your life purpose and meaning, even if at this time we can't see that purpose and meaning in our lives. He knows what it is. He's working through that purpose and that meaning. And that's part of what having faith is about. According to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself, your life has purpose. It's part of what God has purposed for building a family. Again, unlike this physical world, not time and chance, not begrudgingly, God doesn't do it out of obligation. He does it of his good pleasure, because that's part of what his purpose is, to expand his family, to add to his family.

Paul is telling the Brethren in Ephesus that the great I Am had decided long before they were ever born to call them during their lifetimes because it pleased him to do so according to his will. Their calling, just like our calling, brought God pleasure. The same thing for them, the same thing for you today. Your life brings God pleasure, in spite of our weaknesses and struggles.

You're not here by accident or coincidence, but by the riches of the Father's grace. He chose you.

And that's very powerful. That's very inspiring. That's very wonderful. He chose us before our birth. He's been working with us all our lives, long before we connected the dots and opened up a booklet and said, boy, this is kind of interesting knowledge and truth. It didn't start then.

God was working with you throughout your entire life for birth to put you through the experiences and allow you to make those free will choices, those decisions, some of which were good, some of which brought pain in ourselves to allow all of those things to happen to get us to the point where he could open our minds and call us and drop those blinders off of our eyes spiritually and allow us to get to know him long before we hated our calling. Yes, we're free moral agents, most certainly, and we're free to make our own decisions. And we do, but an omnipotent spiritual father works in our lives to allow those experiences and those opportunities to get us to the place he desires, even the negative things we bring on ourselves or that he allows to happen in our lives is for a purpose, and that purpose is to eventually bring about his will.

Verse 10, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times when it all comes together in God's kingdom, that he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth in him. Right now, heaven and earth are divided. Heaven is righteous and is glorious and it's wonderful. And earth has humanity and it has physical limitations and it has carnality and it has sin, but there's coming a time in the fullness of the times when God is going to cleanse all the earth. We know about the new heavens and the new earth and it's all going to be one in him, in God. The Father's goal is to carry out his plan for all humanity, and that means when the time is right, all things in heaven and earth will be joined together in Christ Jesus as the head.

And until then, right now, in this moment in time, you have been called to prepare to serve in his family and his kingdom forever. You are one of the first fruits. You are one of the first born, and we talked about that as we prepared for the feast this year. Others will be called at a later age as represented by the eighth day following the feast to Tabernacle, so God has a plan for each and every person who was ever born. Verse 11, in him also we have obtained an inheritance, being free destined. Again, don't let that word scare you off. Determining beforehand, according to the purpose of him, see, God has a purpose. He does things on purpose.

Like we need a life's purpose. God has a purpose, and that purpose is bringing many sons to glory, many of the children he's working with today to fullness, spiritualness, complete spirituality within his family as his children. To the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his glory. In our lifetimes, we said yes. We're the ones who first trusted in Christ. And here called, but if you were chosen, God called us and we said yes. I surrender my will. Yes, I will become a lifetime disciple and follower of Jesus Christ. Yes, I will be baptized and repent of my sin. Yes, I will accept the gift of the Holy Spirit. Yes, I will walk the rest of the days that I have in this physical life in faith and dedication to God's way of life. Verse 12 again, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his glory. In him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. We heard the good news of the kingdom of God and all that that entails, including Jesus Christ and what the purpose of his life and all that the full gospel entails. We accepted that and that's what brought us to salvation. That's what the author is saying here. And whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. From God's perspective, we're sealed. Now, is it possible for us to reject our calling? Unfortunately, it is. But from God's perspective, he has sealed us. It's a done deal. He's always there for us. He is our Father. He is approachable.

He wants us to finish the race and remain faithful. Verse 14, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, until everything comes into fullness, and we literally are transformed from physical to spiritual, to the praise of his glory. Here in verse 10, the phrase, all things falls within God's intricate plan for his creation. All things also encompasses everything that might affect your life. Yes, even the negative things that he allows to happen in our lives will eventually bring about his will. Because of our human minds, we can't fully grasp what he's doing in our lives.

We don't fully get it. We don't fully understand it. We can't seem to put all those puzzle pieces together. But God knows. He knows exactly what he's doing. And he's going to bring your life to wherever it needs to be, whatever we need to learn, however we need to grow, however we need to prepare for service for all eternity. He is going to do that according to his will.

And doing that brings him great pleasure.

Romans chapter 8 and verse 28, scripture that many of us are familiar with. Ask you to turn there with me. Romans chapter 8 and verse 28.

And we know that all things work together for good to those that love God who are called according to his purpose. Not some things work together. All things. Everything that you experience in your life.

The death of a loved one. The doctor saying, I don't know how to tell you this, but you have cancer.

Having someone that you truly care for die in your arms.

Having someone that means a lot to you, leave the faith and just go out back into the world.

Whatever it may be, you will be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be God is working through those situations to get us exactly where we need to be.

That's his plan for your life. That's his plan for my life.

All things work together for good. The good is the ultimate transformation of our lives into becoming Spirit.

Jesus is doing everything we can to make life a better place. Work together for good to those who love God and to those who are called according to His purpose. We need a purpose? God has a purpose. His purpose has always been the same, to bring many sons to glory. Throughout each generation, to call those who were predestined beforehand to be called in their lifetime, and to love them and to work with them and to help them to learn through all of their life's experiences, good and bad, to get to where we need to be, according to His will. Verse 29, For whom He foreknew, in other words, those whom He had already decided to call before they were born, those whom He already foreknew, He also predestined, again, that just means determined beforehand, to be conformed to the image of His Son, to all that we go through, to become more like Jesus Christ, to think more like Jesus Christ, to act more like Jesus Christ, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Again, Jesus isn't ashamed to call you brother or you sister. He's not ashamed of us at all. Verse 30, Moreover, Whom He predestined, these also He called, Whom He called, these He also justified, not because we're righteous or great, but because Christ dwells and His righteousness dwells within us. That's what makes us just in the eyes of God.

Those whom He called, these He also justified, and Whom He justified, these He also glorified.

We have God's Spirit. In a small sense, we're already glorified. We shouldn't get big heads about that. We shouldn't think we're superior to other people because we've been given that gift, something we didn't deserve. But in a way, we've already been glorified, but so much more is yet to come. What then shall we say to these things if God is for us? Who can be against us? What Paul is saying here is that God is working out something wonderful in your life. Yes, we've all made mistakes, and yes, we may see or experience some very terrible things in our lives.

But God is ever present using those experiences, good or bad, painful or joyful.

He's using those experiences to cultivate change and growth in us. And if we love God and are called according to His purpose, everything we experience, either good or bad, transforms us into the likeness of Jesus Christ. That's what Paul is saying here.

When you're a child of God, nothing is wasted. Yeah, but Mr. Thomas, in this period of my life, before God called me, I did some pretty selfish, pretty stupid things.

Well, God allowed you to go through those experiences, and you may not fully understand it yet, but those experiences are not wasted. We have an expression here in our world. We say to turn lemons into lemonade, turn something that's negative and sour into something that's digestible and enjoyable. Well, in our lives, no matter how stupid some things we did, God turns those events, because He allowed them, and they were according to His will. He's working with us. To get to a certain point, He allowed those events in a spiritual way of turning lemons into lemonade.

Those experiences probably helped nudge us a little bit more to the time when God could call us, and we would be receptive to that, and we would accept His calling because of those experiences.

When you're a child of God, nothing is wasted. Even painful events and experiences that we don't like have a grand purpose. Back a few chapters, Romans chapter 5 and verse 1. Romans chapter 5 and verse 1.

Verse 1, therefore, having been justified by our faith, and what I'm talking about today requires faith. It's faith that God has a plan for our lives. Faith, this human existence, was intended far more than living a short period of time, producing the next generation and dying. That takes faith. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we also have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations. How in the world can you glory in tribulations? You can glory in tribulations if you know that God is allowing it to happen because it's his good pleasure that we, through those experiences, get us to where we need to be. Whether it's the doctor saying, I'm sorry, you have cancer. I'm sorry, you have a chronic disease. You'll have the rest of your life. I'm sorry, your life is going to be cut short.

I'm sorry, you just lost everything you had financially in the stock market. I'm sorry, your life partner just decided to walk out on you. I'm sorry, you just lost the best job you ever had, whatever that tribulation may be, believing and knowing that God allows it to happen because there is a grand purpose behind those tribulations. Your life is not an accident.

You were not chosen at random. Everything in your life is for a purpose.

Glory in tribulations, knowing the tribulation produces perseverance. Keep going, keep doing what's right, keep being faithful, keep praying, keep studying, keep going to Sabbath services, in spite of those tribulations. And perseverance produces character. I now have greater empathy for people who struggle to form the same kinds of things. I now have more patience because I had to learn to have patience with God and His will. I've learned to have patience with myself, and that's not easy, and therefore that has strengthened my character and character hope. God promises something far greater than what I'm going through in this life. He's offering something far greater than the pleasures of this mere physical lifetime that we have. Notice that Paul states we should rejoice in tribulations, and my, I know that's hard. Easy to say, hard to do. Many of our tribulations are from difficult things that happen to us. It may not even be our fault. It may be something in our DNA. Other tribulations happen as a result of our own decisions, but either way, God has a purpose for them, including the development of perseverance, of character, and of hope. Hope for the future.

When you received the gift of the Holy Spirit, the moment you received the gift of the Holy Spirit, you began to live in the light of eternity, no longer saddled by the mere limitations of this physical world and this carnal flesh that we have. This means that nothing in your life is wasted.

Everything God uses to get us to where we need to be according to His will. Nothing is wasted. No matter how painful, how discouraging, how much we want to resist it and don't like it, nothing in our lives are wasted. Even the mistakes that we've made and the negative things that we have experienced can make us spiritually wiser, more forgiving of others, and also more compassionate towards the diseases and the frailties that other human beings experience. Jeremiah chapter 18 and verse 1. Let's see what the prophet Jeremiah reminds us of, that God was working. In context, he was talking about the house of Israel, but we are the spiritual house of Israel, his church today. So the same thing that applied to them applies to us today. Jeremiah chapter 18 and verse 1. Jeremiah was inspired to write as God's prophet, the word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Arise and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter's house, and there he was, making something at the wheel, and the vessel that he made of clay was marred.

So there's the potter. He's making something with clay. There's a blemish, an obvious blemish in it. Something went wrong. That piece of clay is ruined.

So the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, so he made it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make. The word of the Lord came to me, saying, O house of Israel, can I not do with you? As this potter says the Lord, look at this clay in the potter's hand. So are you in my hand, O house of Israel. O house of Israel. Again, brethren, we're individual members of God's Church. We are the spiritual house of Israel, the new covenant, Church of God. We're born carnal. We're sold under sin. We are marred. So what does God do? Just throw trash it in the trash can? No.

It says here that he made it again into another vessel. You see, God is making us into another vessel, a spiritual vessel, a vessel that has and enjoys eternity without the aches and pains and anxieties and worries and fears that we experience in this lifetime. Yes, we too are marred, just like what was being made here by the potter.

But he said he made it again into another vessel as it seemed good to the potter to make.

The potter knows what he's doing in your life. He knows everything that's going on in our lives.

And nothing is wasted. Everything that we experience is being used to mold us into the image of Jesus Christ according to what seems good to the potter to make. Can we accept that even if we don't see it? Even if we don't understand it, what's going on in our lives? Can we accept that, brethren?

Can we believe that and know that it's true?

Look, it says, as the clay is in the potter's hands, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. We're in God's hands.

Nothing's by accident in our lives. Nothing is without a purpose.

Every way that we are being conformed is according to God's will.

Our Father has called us to become new creatures in Christ. The Master Potter has us at his wheel, and he's removing from us the flaws and the imperfections that we have by the experiences and decisions we make, both good and bad, joyful and painful. So, I'd like to put some of these thoughts and these scriptures together to consolidate some statements for us to think about as we near the end of the sermon today.

Indeed, like going through the pictures that I've gone through recently and what we may experience and going through pictures of our loved ones. Let's say there's a box of pictures of Grandma. Here she was as a child. Grandma died 30 years ago.

Without God, human existence is short and futile and without hope.

Human beings have a lot of negative qualities and features as part of what we are because of our carnality. The history of humanity, and I'm a history nut, is one of war, suffering, deprivation, and looking at life from a mere physical or secular point of view is discouraging.

And indeed, from that perspective, human life is quite futile.

Thankfully, there's a supreme God with a plan. And you are an important part of his goal to create a spiritual family. We should never forget that. We should always believe that and understand that. When we live in the light of eternity, as a child of God, we understand that everything that happens to us is allowed by God for our growth and our personal development. Nothing is ultimately wasted. You look at the young Joseph and what he experienced being sold into slavery. That's pretty horrendous. Being accused of raping, attempting to rape a wife, the Potiphar's wife, rape a woman, unjustly accused, ending up in prison, doing something good for someone in prison, and they forgot all about you, and you sit there and rot. Yet he was being prepared to be the Prime Minister of Egypt. None of those negative experiences were wasted in Joseph's life, just like none of the negative experiences in our life are wasted, even if we don't understand it right now.

We usually can't understand at the time what our loving Father is managing to create in us, what he's doing with us, but never forget that he has a grand plan. And that grand plan is fashioning and molding you like the Master Potter into the image of his son.

God is also developing individual, unique qualities for you to serve in his kingdom. Different than qualities that I may have, different from qualities that the person sitting next to you may have, you may have lived through human war. Not from the outside, you may have literally lived at a time when there was human war, a pandemic. You may have grown up in a dysfunctional family.

You may have experienced broken relationships, divorce, or poverty. You may have a disadvantage compared to other people. You may have a disability compared to most people. Or perhaps you yourself have been a literal victim of abuse. And as the Tribulation ends and the world tomorrow begins, millions and millions of survivors will need the encouragement and the healing that you offer because of your unique experiences. You can say, I too was abused. I too grew up in a pretty messed up family. But thanks to God, I overcame it. And I'm about to show you how to have a relationship with God, how to overcome all of those things. You will know how it feels to be in their situations. You'll be able to have empathy for them. Sympathy and empathy for their situations. You'll be able to offer kindness because you know what the pain feels like. You'll be able to offer compassion and recovery because of your own life experiences. Again, nothing. Your life is wasted.

We should never allow past and negative experiences to keep us down or keep us from recovering from a tragedy, from a difficulty in life, and continuing to just move forward in the surface of God. This means we should not permit a terrible experience or mistake to define us, to label us forever, because we've made a mistake. What Christianity is all about is repentance forgiveness and restoration. That means to be restored to the place you were before and with God's good and loving grace. That's what Christianity is all about. We can't change our past, but by our good deeds and actions today, we can certainly change tomorrow. We can change the outcome, and that's very important. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 9, and I'll just read it. He said, but as it is written, I is not seen nor ear heard nor entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him. Again, I want to emphasize that God's working in your life in ways that you can't see it and understand it, but it's all part of his plan. It is so awesome, so wonderful, what he's doing in your life, that we can't even describe it in human terms because it's something that only a loving, patient, and gracious God could do for each and every one of us in our own way and according to our own time. So don't allow human frailties to make you skeptical or cynical about life, whether it's your life and things that you're going through, or whether it's the life of others, other people that we know. Don't become skeptical or cynical. God looks down on us and he sees us as we can be, as we shall be in the future. We should learn to view human life in the world, we should learn to view human life in the worth of others in the exact same way as God does from the perspective of the future, not the limited kinds of people that we are today, but as we can be, as we shall be when we're in full glory within his family. Never forget that God has a purpose and a plan for everyone that we can't fully understand in this brief physical life. Final scripture. If you'll turn to Psalm 147 verse 4. The Great Psalmist writes in Psalms 147 verse 4.

This is how important you are to God. This is how important all of those billions of people who ever lived and died, most of whom don't even have a headstone, and the majority of the rest who do have a headstone, their entire generation died out and no one knows them. They've basically been forgotten except something inscribed on a piece of stone. All of the billions who have been aborted, children who died, very young childbirth, there's young children. It's a great psalmist wrote in Psalm 147 verse 5. He counts the number of the stars. He calls them by name. I want you to think about that. Conservatively, it's estimated there are 70 billion trillion stars in the universe. That's a conservative number. That's a 70 with more zeros than I can even add onto a piece of paper. 70 billion trillion. And it says God has a name for every one of them.

Well, if that's so, and I believe it is because the scriptures say that, God certainly knows every human being who has ever lived, and he knows their name. He knows what their thoughts and desires were that went unfulfilled in this short physical life. He knows what talent they had that was never developed. He knows the goals that they had that never came to fruition. He knows the things that they wanted to do but couldn't because of disease, or they were born at a difficult time in earth when there were wars or diseases raging through the earth. He knows all of them by name, personally, and he hasn't forgotten them. He's working with you.

God has not forgotten you. You are very important to him. You are a very important part of God's plan. Verse 5, Great is our Lord and mighty in power. His understanding is infinite.

Our understanding is limited. Our knowledge and appreciation of what God is doing in our own life is very limited, but his understanding is infinite. That's God's promises to us.

I wish all of you a very fulfilling and wonderful Sabbath day, and hopefully we'll get a chance to talk to you after services.