Why Do You Do the Things That You Do?

Can you judge a book by the cover? Well, obviously, you cannot judge a book by the color. Can we judge you by your cover or even your words? Perhaps we can get clues from the way you look and by the words that come out of your mouth. But we found out through the years here, especially in the past two or three decades, that you really don't know where people stand until they have to take a stand.

So today we want to ask the question, why do you do the things that you do? Is it to please other people, father, mother, husband, wife, children, or the peer group?

Back even four or five decades ago, books began to be written about the tyranny of the peer group. Oh, my friends, I want to be with my friends. That's the most important thing to me. So what about you, teens, pre-teens? What do you do? What do you do? Do you obey your parents because of fear of punishment or because you understand it is the right thing to do? To some degree, it's the right reason or motive. You want to have the proper kind of reverence or respect for authority. So when someone looks at you, do they see the real you? Or are you form and no substance?

Are you one who does this thing with friends but tries to appear good with parents and other authority figures? The emphasis in the U.S. has been on appearing good and not being good. So if you check out there at the grocery store counter, wherever it may be, then you'll see all those magazines basically focusing on how to look good, whether it be in makeup, weight loss, dress, whatever they're trying to emphasize or sell in that particular publication. Maybe you say, I do the things I do because I have to because of external forces. Because if I don't, I will be severely punished. Or outside the family, you might say, I did it because that's what was expected of me. Now, some of these reasons would be valid reasons. What about the one of, I did it because I want to look good in the eyes of others. I want approval. I want recognition. I want to fit in. I want to be accepted. In Matthew 6, the disciples came to Jesus asking how to pray, and Jesus gave us what we call the model prayer. Then he says, but when you pray, go into your closet and pray alone, or when you fast, don't appear to fast as the Pharisees do. So when it comes to moral, ethical, and spiritual matters, why do you do what you do? God wants us to obey Him. Obedience is pleasing to God, but God does not want blind obedience. God wants us to choose with understanding. I hope to make some inroads here today with regard to what we need to do with regard to our education in the church, out of the church, anywhere we are from cradle to grave, concerning our relationship with God. Let's go to Deuteronomy 30. In beginning in verse 15, Deuteronomy is somewhat a summary of the first four books of the Pentateuch.

Deuteronomy 30 in verse 15. Here Moses is writing, and as I said, it's somewhat of a summary of the other books. In verse 15, See I have set before you this day life and good and death and evil. That's what to some degree life is all about. Do you want to live forever, or do you want to go into the lake of fire? It can be boiled down, reduced down to something that simple. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Continuing here, in that I command you this day to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and the Lord your God shall bless you in the land where you go to possess it.

But if your heart turn away, and one of the things I've been emphasizing in sermons here in the local area is about your heart, what you really are inside. And that's what we'll be doing to some degree here today as well. So that those who will not hear, but shall be drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I'd announce you this day that you shall surely perish, and that you shall not prolong your days upon the land where you go to possess it over Jordan to possess it.

I call heaven and earth to record this day against you that I have set before you life and death, and what God eventually sets before all humankind.

It's set before us today because we have been called out, and judgment is now on the house of God.

And no matter what age you are and what your status in life is, socioeconomically or any other status that you could think of, you have life and death set before you, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life that both you and your seed may live.

Yes, we do have freedom of choice.

Yes, you can choose to go whatever way you want to go. Yes, you can just abide your time and wait for the time to make the great escape.

But you will never escape God. And as they say, you will never get out of this life alive.

Even if you're alive at the resurrection, this life is going to cease.

So we need to decide where we want to spend eternity.

Do you obey the rules and do the things you do in order to get your thing?

God wants you to obey Him because you love Him, you respect Him, you reverence Him, you hold Him in all, you understand who He is in relationship to you.

Let's look at Psalm 103, verse 11.

We probably could quote the Scripture that says, The fear of the Lord is to hate evil in every false way.

Here, it's worded a little bit differently about the fear of God.

And when you see the word fear in the Bible, it doesn't have the connotation, Oh, I'm so afraid.

And sometimes people, especially young people, use the excuse, well, He's so intimidating, I'm so afraid of Him.

I mean, He seems to be this, that, or the other.

No, as Elihu told Job, we're all made of clay.

And we all have different gifts, talents, abilities, and God expects us to use them to the best of our ability.

But none of us are perfect, and all of us are made of the clay. All of us are struggling to make it into the metaphorical Promised Land, into the kingdom of God.

In Psalm 103, verse 11, For as the heaven is high above the earth, So great is his mercy toward them that fear him, That hold him in reverence, all respect, that understand, See, if God did not want to share who he is and what he is with us, we wouldn't even exist.

And the Bible, as pointed out in the sermonette, leads you, teaches you who God is, what he is, and what is his purpose.

Continuing in verse 15, As for man, his days are his grass, As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.

And you can't believe how short life is. I look back and say, Well, if I haven't learned anything else in life, I've learned one thing. Life is short.

You'll wake up one day, and you'll be 20, 30, 50, and maybe 80 or 90, hopefully.

For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, And the place thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the Eternal is from everlasting to everlasting, Upon them that fear him, that hold him, And all reverence, respect, to understand who he is, what he is, And his righteousness unto children's children. See, this kind of respect, reverence, awe leads to obedience and wisdom. Now, you look at Psalm 111 in verse 10, and we'll see this Psalm 111 in verse 10, Psalm 111 in verse 10.

If the world could come to this understanding with regard to God, of who he is and what he is and what is his purpose, what a different world it would be, to understand who we are, what we are, in relationship to him. That's the great lesson that Job had to learn. In Psalm 111, verse 10, The fear of the eternal is the beginning of wisdom, a good understanding have all they that do his commandments, his praise and doers forever. The main point is that reverence, awe, respect, leads to wisdom and leads to understanding and obedience. And in 1 John 5.3, how do we show God that we love him?

Through the years since the great split from worldwide in 1995, I have taught hundreds, even thousands of students through the years and from all over the world. Last year I was school year at Ambassador 94-95. We had 44 countries represented on campus.

And many of those remember some of the things they were taught, even those who have gone their way. Some have dropped out of, quote, organized religion altogether. Some attend Sunday-keeping churches. Some attend other splinter groups of the Church of God. And when you look at 1 John 2, verse 4, He that says, I know him and keeps not his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

I mean, how much does that summarize? The Apostle of Love, John, writes that. Now, and I have recently dealt with people who have stopped attending, and basically they say, we have come to believe you don't have to do all the do's and don'ts and that kind of thing. You just have to love one another. You just have to do the best you can and get along. And of course, love is defined here, 1 John 5.3, For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. In fact, it will nourish your inner person, your heart, your mind, the very inner being.

Of course, there are additional reasons for obeying God and doing the things you do. God wants us to come to the point to where we do the things we do because we have come to the knowledge of what is right, and then we're willing to decide and determine to do it regardless of what may come and what may go. Another way of saying that is to say God wants us to do what we do because that's the way we are.

That's the way we are. God does what he does because he is what he is. And so God is love, that great three-word sentence, and God wants us to become love as he is love. He wants us to do what we do because that's the way we are. And God's great overriding purpose that we hear practically every Sabbath is that he is bringing sons and daughters to glory in his family.

And God deeply desires to create his holy righteous character in each one of us so that we will do what we do for the same reason that God does what he does. It is because that's the way we are. That's the way we are. Where to become perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect. Now, a lot of people sort of curl their toes and cringe and whatever when you begin to talk about perfection. The Bible is clear, become you therefore perfect, and your Father in Heaven is perfect is something that we strive toward.

Paul, in writing to the Hebrews, in chapter 5, he says, in a time in which you should be teachers, you have need that someone teach you what be the first principles all over again. And really there shouldn't be a chapter break between that, chapter 5 and chapter 6. And he says, therefore, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, faith in God, baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection and judgment. So perfection is where we want to go, and it is a lifelong process.

See, God does what he does from pure, unfeigned motives. He has no motive other than he's not going to get anything out of it except great joy from seeing you and I succeed. Remember the Scripture that says it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. And there's even that verse that talks about that there's great joy in heaven when one sinner repents and turns from his way. See, that's what God gets out of it.

It's like a parent when they see their children do well. There's no greater joy than that. And there is no greater heartbreak than to see them go the other way. And one of the reasons that I tried and strived to do the best I could, though far from perfect as a child growing up, was I did not want to disappoint my father and my mother.

I remember one day that I forgot what he was. I was doing something sort of half-heartedly, and my dad said, Why are you doing that like that? I said, Well, you know, I'm not really doing it. As good as I could, he said, Son, the best you can do may not be good enough.

So I remembered that all of my life. But in God's eyes, we can succeed. So he does what he does because of unfeigned love. He has no ulterior motives, and God wants us to be developing the same kind of attitude and control that he has. He wants us to do what we do because it comes from inside us. That's what we believe. That's who we are. Because you are committed to it. You believe in it.

You come to realize it's the right thing to do. You come to internalize the truth the right way. So it's a part of you. It's what you want to do. It's what you are committed to do. It's what you are convicted of. In regard to what we're discussing, there are two basic types of people, internalizers and externalizers.

From what we're about to say now, you can determine, am I an internalizer or am I an externalizer? Some people are taught to believe that they are able to control their destiny, as it were, their fate. They don't necessarily like the words destiny and fate. But they can control, to a large degree, the direction of their lives by the choices they make. The Bible says, we read it. I said, before you today, life and death, blessing and cursing, choose life that you may live and prosper, and all the things that go with it. So there are some that believe that they are in control by the choices that they make. They're masters of their destiny or fate. And because of that, they understand that they are responsible for their lives, for what happens to them. They see the control of their lives as coming from inside themselves, not from external forces, not because so-and-so said to do it, but because you understand it's the right thing to do. You're convicted and committed to it. Now, on the other hand, many people believe that they are helpless pawns of fate, that they are creatures controlled by outside forces over which they have little or no influence. Such people appear to feel that their focus of personal control is external rather than internal, and they often act as if they feel little or no responsibility for what happens to them or others. Hence, you can see some of the heinous crimes that we have seen committed almost every week. There is some kind of mass killings. Yesterday, or the day before, a man walked into this cafe in Ohio with a machete and began hacking up people. On a high school campus in California yesterday, I believe it was, or the day before, they found two 15-year-old girls dead side-by-side in a gun that was laying right there. They had not yet determined if it was murder or a mutual pact suicide. Youngsters, teenagers, adults, everyone needs to come to the point that they do what they do because it is based on right principles and they believe in it. A sign of maturity is for a person to begin to do what they do because they believe in it and they want to do it, not just because someone else said to do it or it makes you look good or whatever external reason it may be. It comes from inside you. Kohlberg is a person who has spent a lot of time and research in psychology and sociology and has identified three levels in six stages for developing internal control and moral judgment.

Stage 1, you do what you do. For example, obey because you fear punishment or you're afraid you'll get caught. If you knew you wouldn't get caught, you'd go ahead and do it, but you might get caught, might be punished, might be grounded, might be this, boss might see it, so I'm not going to do it.

Stage 2, you do what is right in order to satisfy your own needs and that of others. So I need this or that, so I'm going to work or do whatever it is to get it. Stage 3 is called the good guy orientation. You do what you do so others will say, he's really a nice fellow.

I mean, he'd give you the shirt off his back. I heard that expression from my brother this just in the past few days.

This is conformity to stereotype images of good behavior.

Very benevolent, will do anything for you, but the law of God in many other areas is totally ignored. Stage 4, do what you do because you feel it is your duty to maintain the social order. Well, if I began to do such and such a thing, then everybody else would be doing it.

Of course, that's one of the reasons it talks about in Matthew 24 in the Alabat prophecy. It says, because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall grow cold. What does it mean in everyday language? It means that it must be all right because everybody else is doing it.

Daddy let me do this. Daddy let me do that. Everybody else is doing it. Why can't I do it? Everybody else has this. I don't have that. Why can't I have it?

Well, maybe Daddy is providential in his thinking. Providence means looking out for your best interest years in advance. That's what God does. He looks out for our interest years in advance.

At stage 5, you begin to recognize that you do what you do because it's the right thing to do.

You have made considerable progress from stage 1.

And then stage 6, you do what you do because you are personally convicted and committed to internalize principles of right and wrong. It's you. It's part of you.

In the rearing of children, you can train up a child to a certain age to be almost perfectly obedient.

But that does not mean that they will or have internalized your value system and continue to obey and respect you.

Rewards and punishments are not wrong.

We know what the Bible says in Proverbs. Spare the rod, spoil the child that you are to administer loving discipline.

And discipline has many factors. It's not just punish when you do wrong. It is to teach the right way.

When you go to school, you study a discipline, a subject, all about that subject and their rules for each subject.

So in life, there are rules for living.

And some of those, of course, the Ten Commandments is a great guide to say, here are the rules, in a broad sense, for life, for living.

So you can have a child that seems to be almost perfect, and rewards and punishments are not wrong, as we've noted from Scripture.

Notice in Hebrews 12 what God does with regard to each one of us.

I guess you could say God is the author of chastening. He chastened the pre-flood world, the flood came upon, and judgment came upon the pre-flood world.

God has administered many judgments through the ages.

He administered judgment Sodom and Gomorrah. And there are many other examples of God administering judgment, both in the broad sense and also in the individual and specific sense.

But here in Hebrews 12, verse 6, and this is very individual and specific, For whom the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives.

See, we are born with what some call the tabularasa, the blank mind, as it were.

Not knowing right from wrong, we are morally spiritually illiterate, and we have to be taught. So we're all in need of direction and instruction along the way.

Verse 7, if you endure chastening, God deals with you, as with sons.

For what son is he whom the Father chastens not?

But if you be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, in other words, we have all needed chastisement.

We have all gone astray.

In fact, there's a verse that says, we all, like sheep, have gone astray, and we need to be brought back from time to time.

Then are you illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we've had fathers of our flesh who have corrected us, and we gave them reverence.

Shall we not much more be in subjection under the father of spirits and live?

For they verily, for a few days, chastening as after their own pleasure.

But he, for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

God is the one who sanctifies us, who sets us apart.

So any parent basically knows he can control a small child by using authority, power, and then maybe reward. If you do good, you do get this. If you don't, you get punished.

And of course, we have made many mistakes in decades past with regard to our child-rearing practices.

And I think we've made progress in that area. But have we flipped from one ditch to the other?

So through careful use of reward and punishment, the parent can encourage the child to behave in a certain way or discourage him from behaving in a destructive way.

For example, you may have some of your treasured things on the coffee table, and you don't want the child to touch it.

Of course, most parents know you can't do that and begin with. You don't put them there in the first place.

But you don't want them to touch the stove, whatever it might be.

And if they reach toward it, you may say, no! And some may draw back.

But I've seen a lot, in spite of all the no's you can utter. They continue. And so the parent may, well.

And some will continue. And then, maybe you take them aside and give them a spanking.

And for some, a no is enough, a slap on the hand is enough, a spanking is enough.

And for some, nothing is enough. But for the most part, most children will obey that, and they'll do whatever it is you want them to do.

So parents often use this to modify the behavior of children, and it's necessary to a certain degree.

They call it training the child.

So reward and punishment alone can teach a child to avoid touching things on the coffee table, or to say, please. Or, yes, sir. And, no, sir. Yes, ma'am. No, ma'am. Which, out the way, decades ago, I still basically say it, because that's the way I was taught.

And that's the way my great-grandfather, grandfather, and parents taught me in the way they lived their lives. But this alone will not be affected. That is the system of reward and punishment.

Though you may teach them the discipline along the way, raise up the child in the fear and the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and that has to do with the total package.

But you may teach this diligently, but it will not make them have good, steady habits to be honest, to be kind to others, to be productive and cooperative members of the family and society, to love the truth, to love God, to understand their life in relationship to God.

If that's all they're getting, there's so much more to it.

Some church parents are amazed when this almost perfectly obedient child suddenly becomes belligerent.

He or she is beginning to think for himself herself.

Most children, of course there are exceptions to this, are not really able to deal with abstraction that much until 9, 10, 11, long in there.

And they begin to develop what we call a mind of their own.

And they begin to think, quote, outside of the box.

They begin to sort out things for themselves, to examine things. And of course, one of the things that they are so attuned to is double standards. Yet many of them, their whole life is a double standard. Appear one way here and another way there. One way with authority figures and another way with their peers.

And that's one of the main things that's going on. I gave, the first time I really gave a formal lecture on that was back in the late 80s in Pasadena, in which we had young people from all over the nation come in for a week of leadership training.

But double standards are abhorred by almost everybody.

It is at this critical juncture, when they begin to deal with abstraction, that they really need to understand how important it is to internalize what they have been taught. If they've been taught from the cradle the importance of developing a personal relationship with God, they're more apt to internalize.

And so you begin to pray with them. You begin to ask the blessing.

You begin to say, who made the sun, the moon, the stars? Well, God made the sun, the moon, and the stars.

One night I was walking on the campus in Pasadena with a granddaughter in my hand, and I looked up and I said, oh, look at that beautiful half moon.

And she said, who broke it? Well, revolving around the moon and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on. But anyhow, begin to teach them those kind of things. So we must catechize. That means to thoroughly teach. Proverbs 22, 6 says, The way you go when you're old, you'll not depart from it. And many people say, oh, well, I did that. Look at where my children are.

So in a lot of cases, they do come back, and hopefully they will come back. See, God in dealing with us gives us plenty of time. He's long suffering. He's patient. And so we must deal with our children as God deals with us.

And how does He deal with us? He ever deals with us in love and mercy. His mercy never fails. Does that mean there comes no cut-off point? We'll get to that in just a moment. Oh, yes, there is a cut-off point. Remember, God wants us to learn internal control and come to be the way we are because that's the way we are. Let's go to Deuteronomy 5, verse 29. Deuteronomy chapter 5 and verse 29.

Deuteronomy 5 and verse 29. Oh, that there was such a heart in them, that they would fear of Me. And we've talked about fear, reverence, all respect, learning who we are in relationship to God, developing a relationship with Him, which we will pursue, and keep all My commandments always, that it might be well with them and with their children forever. See, the sins of the fathers are passed on to the third and fourth generation. How many children are out there with severe handicaps because during pregnancy the mother refused to stop smoking or drinking or they were what is called the babies that are hooked on drugs from birth?

And because of the diet of some people, because of the way they have shunned to do the right thing, there are countless millions of people, even in this nation, who are trapped in a poverty cycle, and they will never get out of it. They will never get out of it because the sins of the fathers are passed on to the third and fourth generation, and they just repeat the cycle over and over again.

So, let's look at Deuteronomy 10, verse 12. Remember, Deuteronomy is somewhat of a summary of all the rules before. Deuteronomy literally means something like these are the rules. In Deuteronomy 10, verse 12, And now Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you? But to fear the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, to love him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

And so, when Jesus Christ was being tempted by Satan the Devil in Matthew 4, that's one of the scriptures that he quoted. For it is written, for it is written three times. He came back and countered what the Devil said with Scripture, to keep the commandments of the LORD and his statues, which I command you this day, for your good.

Now, one of the things... Look at Psalm 119. One of the things that so many people are caught up in today is compulsive, addictive behavior. It's like they want out. Maybe they're hooked on pornography or alcohol or drugs or whatever it might be. And they want out, but seemingly can't find a way out.

And one of the... I had numerous counseling sessions with students, that an ambassador would come with compulsive, addictive behavior. And one of the places that I always went, and this is one of the great preventive scriptures in the whole Bible, and it's not only preventive even after you get there, that is, addicted, to get on your knees and to do the things, especially in Psalm 119.

Psalm 119, verse 9, Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? How do you clean up your life? Do you want to clean up your life? That's the trouble in so many cases. They don't really want to.

And why is the nation going in the direction that it's going in? Well, there's a verse in Jeremiah that says, My people love to have it so. They want it that way, because they succumb to the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. Not understanding the great questions of life. So how shall a young man cleanse his way?

By taking heed, there too, according to your word. With my whole heart have I sought you, O let me not wander from your commandments. Your word have a head in mine heart that I might not sin against you. See, God says that He will write His laws on our inward parts. I'm afraid that a tremendous number of people in God's church have not really internalized what God wants us to internalize altogether. The heart to choose life among some is just not there. But it can be.

It can be. But you've got to want it. And we'll get to that shortly. There was a time in God's church when basically everything was spelled out. People would even go to the ministry to ask them about what model car they should buy, what color car, and of course the minister had an answer. You don't want red because the devil is red symbolic of the devil, or it's more easily spotted by the highway patrol, but you're supposed to obey the speed law to begin with, so that shouldn't be a problem.

If we all obeyed the speed laws completely on I-20, we would be dead. Sorry. And even about when to get pregnant and all of that, we had a deputy chancellor who came to ambassador, and we were really looking forward to him being there because he was really convicted, committed, and he is to what he believes, I guess. We were looking for great pronouncements of how to direct our course.

I was academic dean. The two main things that he... Well, he emphasized three things. Get all the cokes and candy out of the commerce area. That's what we call the bookstore. And let's really emphasize the home economics, eating the right diet. And secondly, the home act emphasized natural childbirth. So much for that. Today, the church is backed off to a large degree in the ministry, not so much involved in personal matters as it used to be.

Now, does that negate any commandment or anything that's in the book? Of course not. And God is wanting us to develop internal control from the heart because you're that way. The church was commissioned to disciple all nations, what we call the Great Commission, Matthew 28, 19, 20, to disciple all nations, to teach them God's commandments. The church was raised up to bring all peoples into a relationship with God. A person can be born... Now, listen to what I'm about to say in the next three, four minutes.

A person can be born into a church family, go through all the form from birth to high school, graduation, and yet be basically void of spiritual understanding. Oh, yes, they've gone to church on the Sabbath. They've gone to the feast. They know by the hearing of their ear certain fundamental truths. They've heard about tithing. They have heard about, oh, we're going to be in the family of God.

We're going to be on the God plane. And they can probably parrot many of those things. I have taught, as I said, thousands of students and ambassadors, and I taught the first class at ABC and still teaching there. I've seen so many come and go.

So a person can be born into a church family, go through all the form from birth to high school, graduation, and yet be basically void of spiritual understanding, not really having internalized what has been taught. A person, regardless of how they come to the knowledge of the truth, must develop a personal relationship with God and develop a personal love of the truth.

You're not born with a personal relationship with God. You're not born knowing the truth. I don't care how righteous your parents are. The peoples of the world yearn to understand the great questions of the ages. Does God exist? You know, the first article of faith is Hebrews 11.6. Those who would come to God must, first of all, believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. That's where it begins.

Of course, you know, I'm familiar with some of the booklets that we had. Does God exist? Seven proofs of the existence of God. Seven proofs of the existence of God. Of course, the skeptic can always ask one more question, so there is, obviously, an element of faith. So does God exist? Who is God? What is God? What is His purpose? And the corollary to those questions are, who is man? What is man, and what is His purpose? These are the core fundamental and foundational principles, truths of understanding about God's great plan of salvation.

This is why, if we are really in the truth, that we understand that the rest of the world does not. We know that God is not a trinity. We know that heaven is not the reward of the saved. We know that man is mortal. And the cessation of this life, He doesn't go directly to heaven or hell. Those things are so much a part of the core.

Sadly, many youth are never taught the answers to these questions. They're expected to learn through a process of osmosis. Now, you know what osmosis is? Take your knee joint. Surrounding what's called the joint capsule is a sac, a synovial sac. And in that sac, there is a synovial fluid that seeps out of this sac into the knee joint, to lubricate it. And of course, when you twist your knee or get an injury, then the knee swells up because this synovial fluid goes into that cavity and makes it swell to immobilize the joint so you won't injure it further. Sadly, many youth are never taught the answers to these questions.

They're expected to learn through a process of osmosis. That is, the truth will just sort of seep in into their minds and their hearts. And so many church youth have never considered how precious the truth is since they assumed they already know it. Of course, I give tests. And when you give tests, you understand how much—or you learn, I guess you would say—how much you know when you don't know, when in fact they have only heard the truth by the hearing of the ear. Their eyes have not really seen God in His fullness. If they had, they would not be discouraged by not having passion and love for the truth.

If being set free from ignorance, superstition, fear, the dogmas of man, does not stir up passion and love for the truth, it is doubtful that the words of man or service opportunities or anything else will set you on fire. You remember in the encounter that Jesus had with some, and well, the story of Lazarus and the rich man? Oh, let us go back and tell our relatives about this place. And there was another encounter that was somewhat similar to that. Let's go back and give us the opportunity to go back and tell the relatives. And Jesus said, if they will not hear Moses and the prophets, they will not hear one, though he be risen from the dead. See, there is a faith element and an understanding that each person has to come to. The fact that you're born into a church family and go through all the form does not mean that you know the truth, much less that you have internalized the truth. Being called into God's marvelous light is an act of grace, divine favor. God has so favored you that you sit where you sit today. And the fearful part of this is, if you don't realize that this is a sacred opportunity, a divine gift, then you're really in danger. Now, the United Church of God has taken the position. This was one of the first papers that we wrote, I remember back in the late 90s when this paper was written. The Church of God is united. It's taken the position that God is calling children. But there is a caveat to God is calling children. We're familiar where it says that if your parents in the church, you're sanctified, you're set apart. Yeah, you are set apart. You have access. You are viewed if you wanted to compare it with the Old Testament. You are, in that sense, ceremonially clean. You can come to services. You can hear the truth, preach, and we could go on with you can do this and you can do that. But if you don't seek it, if you don't internalize it, you'll be just like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

So God is calling children if they're willing to pursue their calling. Another way to say that God is calling children who are born to converted parents is to say they're not cut off from the truth, but that does not mean they will axiomatically know the truth, understand the great questions of life, and repent and turn to God.

And as I said, it's analogous to Adam and Eve. Being in the Garden of Eden, there was a tree of life. They had access to it, and apparently they would eventually be able to partake of it if they had obeyed. Of course, even Adam and Eve would have to repent. The calling of God and learning of the truth has not changed through the ages. There are two convicting elements. It is the Spirit of God and the Word of God. Now, some of the research groups like P.U.P.E.W. and Barna, and I've had articles recently in our news items, that talk about how youth—of course, they research—they're not researching within the Church of God. The various denominations out there that young people want to hear the unadulterated truth. They've tried all the trappings from drive-in church to drive-in hamburgers, I guess, at church, and all that goes with it.

So, when all is said and done, we need to develop internal control. I believe church leadership, parents, and youth have assumed far, far too much with regard to what youth know when it comes to understanding the plan of salvation and internalizing the truth. And we all need to internalize it, and we need to begin from birth to the grave, or until Christ comes.

The role of the ministry is to point out the way to teach, to guide, to illuminate the way, to make it clearer.

But we don't go around as an overlord dictating what you should do.

And parents have to be able to be skilled enough to understand the balance in nurturing and in discipline.

To teach them lovingly the way and to lovingly correct them, just as we read Hebrews 12 of what God does with us.

You know, people come to believe what they practice to a large degree.

Now, this is verified throughout the course of human history. Baptists beguet Baptists, Presbyterians, Presbyterians, Liberals beguet Liberals.

Probably within a few years, depending on how it goes with Mrs. Clinton, you will see Chelsea up there. She'll be running for President. Communists beguet Communists.

So, to a large degree, you have to start obeying before it's indelibly stamped on your character.

Acts 17, the Berean searched the Scriptures daily, verse 11, whether these things be true.

And so must we.

Obedience is one of the first steps toward internalization that is going through the form of stepping out on faith.

Now, just the fact that you sit here and you do everything your parents do for 18 years or whatever it is, it doesn't mean you've internalized the truth.

And we know that from the statistics because they cry out loud and clear. That is not the case.

So, in our Sabbath school, we are emphasizing, develop a relationship with God.

Come to understand who God is as soon as you possibly can in life.

And it says in Acts 5, 32, that God gives His Spirit to those who obey Him. It's like a reciprocal.

When you begin to step out in faith and do what God says to do.

By the way, here is the simplest definition of faith.

We can probably quote Hebrews 11, 1, Faith is a substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

But in simplest terms, faith is to believe God and do what He says.

That's what Abraham did, and that's what we're supposed to do.

If we do that, we come to understand who we are in relationship to God.

All of men's righteousness is as filthy rags in the sight of God.

All of sin comes short of the glory of God. That's Romans 3, 23.

The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

That's Romans 6, 23.

So you're coming to understand that you have life because God exists, and He created you in His own image with faculties akin to God. You can think, you can reason, and you can internalize the truth.

It says in Hebrews 8 and also Hebrews 10 that God will write His laws on your inward parts.

How does that happen? Well, the Psalm 119, verses 9-11, Your word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you.

But if you don't hide the word of God in your heart, how can it be indelibly stamped on your being?

Oh, you may be able to say so many things that are true.

You know, Job was a man that basically no one could find fault with.

Even God says, you know, He's righteous and all of that.

And Satan said, let me get at Him, and He'll sing a different tune.

Well, it finally winds up where Job is blaming God for his situation.

Because after all, He's righteous.

What is self-righteous? What is self-righteousness? Well, I'm right.

I'm right in everything. I'm perfect.

Well, Job wasn't perfect because in his great trial and distress, he blamed God.

He blamed God for being unjust.

Then God speaks to him, and he comes to realize that he is nothing in comparison to God.

Where were you, Job, when I suspended the earth out there in space and the morning stars sang for joy?

And then Job finally comes to the point where he can say, My ears have heard of you by the hearing of my ears, but now mine eye sees you.

And so, brethren, young and old, everybody assembled here today, God wants us to come to the point that we see Him as He is.

God wants all of us to be in His family.

We have been given a sacred opportunity.

I said I was going to deal with that. I'll deal with this.

Just look at this in Hebrews 11.

One of the things that the ministry is talking about, and I teach an online class on Monday mornings.

I have about 24 ministers in there.

Many of them are church pastors. One of the things that they continually bring up and are concerned with is that people who are really not convicted and committed, though maybe they've been baptized for years.

And this admonition that is given here, and this admonition could be used in conjunction with your calling, and so many aspects of the opportunities you've been given to hear the Word of God preached and taught to you.

It is sacred. It is from God. It is of God.

In Hebrews 10, verse 25, "...not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as a manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more, as you see the day approaching." It's interesting that the next verse, "...or if we sin willfully after whom we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins." It seems that He connects that with, hey, you've made a conscious decision whether or not you are going to share your life with your brethren.

"...but a certain fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.

He that despised Moses' law died without mercy, under two or three witnesses.

Of how much sore punishment suppose you that shall be with you..." Let me read it again.

"...of how much sore punishment suppose you shall be thought worthy, who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith He was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite under the Spirit of grace." See, the Spirit of grace, God's divine favor, has got you here. God calls us not because of what we have done or our righteousness or anything else.

Some of you are here because of your parents.

You may not be here otherwise, but thanks be unto God, you are here, and it is a sacred opportunity.

Are you going to take advantage of it, or are you not? And so all of us need to internalize and do what we do because we are that way.

We have to be committed to the point of death.

In Revelation 12, verse 11, it says, after Satan cast down, that they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death.

So that's how convicted and committed we must be, and how much we must internalize what we believe.

So we ask the question once again, why do you do the things you do?

Are you doing them because that's the way you are?

I hope so.