Why God Doesn't Get Bored

This is the last Sabbath before the month of September, and we're coming up to God's fall feasts. It's time again to focus on that coming Kingdom of God and God's promises of eternal life. As you can imagine, eternal life for us is something so abstract it's hard to believe. Bob and Erica Schmidt are just celebrating our 50th anniversary. I'm sure that they can't believe 50 years has gone by, have gone by, and life passes so quickly. And when we talk about eternal life, it's pretty abstract. It's something that for us to be able to live forever in the future, it's hard to grasp. And have you ever thought with God being eternal, does He ever get bored? After all, He thinks, He creates, He reasons, and eternity is a very, very long time. How can God always be active and always be positive when you have so much time?

Because one of the common problems of humanity is boredom, a drudgery, the lack of meaning in life. The famous actor George Sanders committed suicide and left a note. It said, Dear world, I'm leaving you because I am bored.

Summer vacations are a time when a lot of kids have time on their hands. They can easily get bored. And adults do also.

Now we have a lot of things to keep your time occupied, video games, movies, etc. But it seems like there's less time for good relationships. Like when we grew up, we were out on the streets, bicycling, always climbing trees and doing all kinds of things. We didn't have all these video games, but we certainly enjoyed being out there with friends, playing ball. But I remember when I was around 13, summer vacation came. At that time, I lived on an island off of Miami, Florida, pretty hot at that time. And I remember I didn't have much to do. I was too young to work that summer. I'd been having different jobs on occasions, but I didn't have much to do. And it was a very boring summer. I remember I ate too much, gained weight, felt terrible. And after that, it got me going. I said I would never go through another summer like that, just of inactivity. And so I went for exercise, lost weight. But I still remember just time dragging on. My parents would go to work, and I'd be there. My sister and that time just had a a brethren's sister, and nothing much to do. You can just ride your bike for so long, and you can do certain things. But it was very boring. And sometimes being bored can become pathological. It can become a disease. People like that start having a life with hope, become desperate. Some of that has been mentioned in the sermonette. People going through trials and losing hope. And so I'd like to cover just briefly the life of a very talented artist that eventually took his life when he was 37 years old. He committed suicide out of desperation, sadness, and emptiness. He painted 900 different paintings, and he was able to sell only one during his life. That's a pretty bad record, you'd think. 900 paintings you'd at least sell 10 or 15. He only sold one. And yet today some of his paintings are the most expensive in the world. One of them that you will see is worth now 136 million dollars.

There's another one hanging at the Getty Museum. We had a chance to see that last year. It's worth 100 million. And he just barely made a few equivalents of dollars in his life. He died in abject poverty. But there's something we can learn because he did lose meaning. He had hopelessness, and he represented an age that was losing its hope. And so we're going to go through and just briefly study the life of this man here.

See if I can get this thing to work properly. See, Murphy's Law is always good with this. We're trying out a new gadget.

I'm going to put the old one on.

This is Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter from 1853 to 1890. Like I mentioned, he died at the age of 37. He was one of the first artists to be able to paint his moods and emotions or of other people in what he saw. So he used colors to depict emotions and moods that had previously not been known very much. He specialized in that. And just going on to the next slide, this is called Schaeffer's Scale of Cultural Development. And in the 18th century, you had a lot of revolutionary writings. You had the writings of Karl Marx, Charles Darwin with evolution, Marx with communism, Sigmund Freud with psychoanalysis, and the idea that sexual repression was a big problem that human beings had. So that led to the 20th century, and eventually the idea of free love and get rid of any type of repression. And it caused a lot of damage. And as you can see here, that the scale of cultural development, the way knowledge passes through society, it first comes through philosophy. Philosophers are always trying to understand the age that we live in. And they eventually absorb and analyze what people are thinking. And so you start seeing the new trends in philosophy. And once philosophy gets out its ideas, then it's next absorbed by artists. You see it in art. And eventually it passes on to music, then to general education and culture, and finally it goes to theology. Theology is the most conservative of the sciences that are out there. So eventually, though, you see it being preached, the new age that has come about. And so, of course, Van Gogh was a creature of his times. It was a time of a lot of new ideas, the breaking up of the old orders of things. And so he reflected that also in his paintings. We see what Francis Schaeffer, who is a Christian philosopher, he mentions, to read the letters of Vincent Van Gogh is to weep for the pain of this sensitive man. But we must also stress his place in culture, as art became the vehicle for modern man's view of the fragmentation of truth and life. So, of course, he's the second level that transmits all of this new way of looking at things, that looking at knowledge. And that's what Van Gogh did. Schaeffer continues on, saying, as philosophy had moved from unity to a fragmentation, this fragmentation was also carried into the field of painting. The fragmentation shown in post-impressionist paintings was parallel to the loss of a hope for a unity of knowledge and philosophy. It was not just a new technique in painting, it expressed a world view. So, Van Gogh is so famous because he initiated a new way of looking at things and a very fragmented way of looking at things. So many of these men fell into hopelessness and despair. They concluded, as Solomon had said, all is vanity and grasping of the wind. And so the life of Van Gogh reflects what was to come in the 20th century. He perceived that there was some breakup and he saw things in a fragmented way, no longer the unity that painters projected previously. And so we have here a song played by the famous Don McLean, the song Vincent. You've probably heard it many times, but I'd like to go through it because it reflects his life. I'm a very talented artist, but at that time he was not understood.

Sketch the trees and the death gills, catch the breeze and the winter chills, in colors on the snowy little land. Now I understand what you tried to say to me, how you suffered for your sanity, how you tried to set them free. They would not listen, they did not know how. Perhaps they'll listen now.

Starry, starry night, flaming flowers that brightly bled. There are the sunflowers I mentioned. Swirling clouds in violet haze, reflective Vincent's eyes of shiny blue, colors changing hue.

Morning fields of amber grain, weathered faces lined in pain, are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand. Now I understand. He actually cut part of his ear off. How did you try to say to me, how you suffered for your sanity, how you tried to set them free. They would not listen, they did not know how. Perhaps they'll listen now, for they could not love you. But still your love was true. And when no hope was left inside on that starry, starry night, this was one of the last paintings before he shot himself. The flowers often do, but I could have told you Vincent, this world was never meant for one as beautiful as you. The blackbirds look like vultures. Starry, starry night, and the red. Portraits hung in empty halls, frameless heads on nameless walls, with eyes that watch the world and can't forget, like the strangers that you've met. The ragged men in ragged clothes, a silvathorn of bloody rose, lie crushed and broken on the virgin soil.

How I think I know what you tried to say to me, to how you suffered for your sanity, to how you tried to set them free. They would not listen, they're not listening still.

Perhaps they never will. So, this is a tragic life. Someone that was very sensitive, he realized in a sense things were going to break up in the future. His paintings projected a lot of fragmentation, a lot of blurriness. There wasn't the definitive truths that previous centuries, the artist had projected things in reality. Now it all became more of a dream-like world, and certainly the 20th century reflected the breakup, the terrible inhumanity that we saw in the World Wars. But this is just one short life, a person that was not able to eventually handle it.

But how about God? He's eternal. Why is he not bored? The scriptures give us great hope that life is worth living, that there's great hope ahead, and we can learn a lot of practical points. So I'd like to share with you three biblical reasons why God doesn't get bored, and this can also help us in our lives to be able to avoid getting down, as it was mentioned in the sermonette. We all go through difficult times, ups and downs of life, but if we can project ourselves to the coming kingdom of God in that future, it gives us meaning, it gives us hope, which was something that Vincent van Gogh eventually lost. So here are three biblical reasons why God doesn't get bored. The first one, and I've got it here in the slides, is that God is a planner. In order to fill your life with significant and meaningful activity, you have to plan. You can't just let things happen. This is what happened to me that summer. I didn't plan anything, and so days went by, and I just didn't have anything to get all enthusiastic about. Well, that was a good lesson for me. I never wanted to go through that boredom again in my life. Notice what it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. What keeps God motivated? The scripture helps to identify this. It says in 1 Corinthians 2 verse 9, but as it is written, I has not seen nor ear heard nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him. What God has prepared is something so incomparably greater than what we can imagine, because God has planned it. He has something prepared, and that's what He's looking at. He's not just looking right now at what mankind has become, and all the problems that we see around us. He knows there is a solution that is coming. There is something so wonderful ahead. But as it was mentioned in the sermonette, we have to prepare for that coming Kingdom. We have to take up this life, this time, and make it worthwhile to prepare for that coming Kingdom. We just can't be looking at things short-term and forget what that Kingdom is all about. Notice in Isaiah 44, Isaiah 44 verse 6, it says, Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am the first, and I am the last. Besides me there is no God. And who can proclaim as I do, then let him declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people, and the things that are coming and shall come, let them show these things to them. So God says that he's preparing the things that are coming, and they shall come.

So God plans ahead. In chapter 46 verse 9, it mentions, Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other. I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from the ancient times, things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. So God has a plan. He's carrying it out. He's busy. That's why he said that he's carrying things out. Jesus Christ said that I am working things out with my Father. We have a plan. We have some we're working away at carrying out this plan of salvation. So that's encouraging. We are in good hands with God. He knows what he's doing. He has planned way ahead for these things. Notice also in Isaiah 65 verse 17. Isaiah 65 verse 17. It says, For behold, I create new heavens, and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered or come to mine, but be glad and rejoice forever in what I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing, and her people a joy. So God says that he's got other future stages coming, and he's going to enjoy carrying these things out. He says, Be glad and rejoice forever in what I create. So we should rejoice in that coming, wonderful kingdom of God, because that is a reality.

And so we should always be learning and planning, setting goals. They don't have to be big goals, just goals that are achievable, that we work toward. There's something that you can always say, I can improve, I can learn something better. That keeps us motivated. It keeps us from growing stagnant and losing motivation. The second thing that God is, is that God is a creator. He not only plans, but he carries things out. He carries out his plans. Notice in Revelation chapter 4, Revelation chapter 4, verse 11.

The angels say, You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power.

For you created all things, and by your will they exist and were created.

So you created all things. It was through your will that they exist and were created. So God plans, and then he carries things out. That's the same way. We should not only just set plans, but be able to accomplish them. In Colossians chapter 1, a very important verse, it says about Jesus Christ, For by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things consist, and he is the head of the body, the church. So God the Father and Jesus Christ have been actively planning, and then God the Father gave the instructions. At that time, of course, it was more, you know, God and the Word, and the Word carried out the will, the commands, and he brought forth this universe. But it's interesting that it's not only something that he creates, but it says that it is for him. So he has an active role while everything is being carried out. I love astronomy. I love science, as you well know, and always tinkering and studying these wonderful laws. And scientists still are so bewildered by what this universe shows. In a magazine, Scientific American, they were talking about how the universe originated, and they say that 95% of the force that holds the galaxies together is invisible to telescopes. There's no detecting a device that actually can see what holds these galaxies together. They call it black energy or black, no, dark energy or dark matter, because it's dark to them. That's the admission. 5% of the universe, 1% consists of stars and planets. Everything that we have that's solid and matter is 1% of the universe. 4% is gas. And the rest is an unknown force that holds everything together. In other words, they can measure the gravitational pull of that invisible force, but they can't detect it through any type of device. It doesn't have weight. It doesn't have any electromagnetic charges. It's not light. Nothing can detect. All you can see indirectly is the force. And it says here about Jesus Christ before verse 17, and He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. So can you imagine having Him who came down and died for us, part of the plan that God is carrying out? They are not bored. They are busy carrying out their plan. And you see, eventually it's all going to be for Jesus Christ and God the Father's glory. Everything they created one day is going to be a joy and glory to them. It's not yet. It looks pretty messy, as it was mentioned in the sermonette. Things sometimes just look like they don't make much sense, but here it says that everything was created by Him and for Him. So it's almost like a gift that God is going to eventually give Himself after everything is completed. So that is very encouraging to know. And the third attribute that God has is that God is love. He wants to develop a loving and lasting relationship with us. So it's not only the plan, it's not only accomplishing it, but the reason behind the plan is love. God the Father and Jesus Christ want to have an eternal, loving, and lasting relationship with all of us. Let's look at 1 John chapter 3. 1 John chapter 1. Now chapter 3 verse 1. It reads, Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God.

Just think about that for a moment. You know, what manner of love? What a blessing that God wants to call us part of His family, the children of God.

Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know Him. So the world doesn't have the proper relationship with God. They don't understand, and a lot of it has to do with just religion deceiving mankind into believing that God does not have a loving and lasting family relationship that He wants with all of us. Now that is one of the greatest truths in the Bible, and yet it is rejected by 98% of Christianity, which is that God is an expanding family. He wants to have us as His children. We are going to be part of God's family, as we have mentioned many times, that God created animals according to their kind. You have a dog, and a dog reproduces according to its kind. When you have little puppies, you can tell. You have a puppy, and if it's a poodle and you cross two poodles, it's going to come out like a poodle. It's not going to come out like a great Dane or some other type. The same way, God is reproducing Himself through us in the process. And so one day we're going to be part of the God-kind. Now God the Father and Jesus Christ are always going to be infinitely superior, because they've always existed. We have a beginning. We are going to be given God-like powers, whereas God is the source of it. But it still does not defer or detract from the concept that we are going to be children of that family. When you have children, your children are living with you, and you have this special relationship. They can come to you. They trust you. You have access to them. They have access to you. That's the type of thing that God wants us to have with Him, that we can go to Him just like children. Our children, they're not afraid of the father or the mother. They have a good relationship, and they know that the father and mother are not going to live their lives for them. They're going to be there for them, and they're there to help them and to become a success, not a failure. And so it's a positive relationship, and that's the way we should view God the Father and Jesus Christ. They want the best for us. Jesus Christ died for us. Doesn't that make us more convinced that they're willing to do anything for us if we go to them in faith, again as it was brought out in the sermonette, and throw ourselves before them? Just like a little child. They love their parents. They trust their parents. They know their parents are there to help them. That's the same relationship God wants with us. It says in verse 2, 1 John 3, Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, talking about Jesus Christ's return, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. How can you see Him as He is? Because we're going to have the same spiritual eyes. We're going to be able to see Him. We're going to be able to see not like these physical eyes that are very limited. They can only see a certain degree of wavelengths, and we can't see when it's totally dark, for instance, because there's no light to reflect on our retina, so the eyes are basically turned off. But when we are transformed into a spirit being, we're going to have spiritual eyes that can see the entire universe. That is not going to have any limits to it. And so it says that we're going to see Him as He is. Human eyes cannot do that.

Verse 3, and everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure. So there's something to do. It's not just receiving everything from God. It's also committing ourselves to God, to purifying ourselves, to perfecting and improving what we are.

God does not expect perfection from us, but He does expect us to be perfecting ourselves, to be improving, to being less imperfect. That's the goal. Every day and every year, we should be improving. We're never going to be perfect. We're never going to get up to the top of the mountain. Only Jesus Christ reached that level of perfection, but He wants us to climb up that mountain, to make the effort, to improve, to be perfecting ourselves, improving our spiritual character. And so everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure.

In Romans chapter 8, we see this beautiful section of Scripture, which is also just mind-boggling. The only thing that can compare to the Bible is either science or literature or art, that sometimes you can be inspired greatly by music, art, literature, even by science. But what you have here in the Bible goes beyond that. There's no way you can describe this or paint it or be able to understand it fully. The laws of physics cannot explain it. Let me give you an example. Romans chapter 8 verse 16. These are just revealed truths. There's no way that this can come through just physical matter and physical experiments. It says verse 16, the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. So once we receive God's Spirit, we receive that stamp that God says, this child is mine now. He has become part of my family. I'm going to develop him. I'm going to perfect him. And if children, then heirs. So we've been adopted into this sonship, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. So there's an adoption process from someone that was part of the world that had no rights to God's family. And all of a sudden, God brings them in, gives them His name, and says, you're going to be one of my children and my family. And you're going to be a co-heir. Co-heir means that you are at the level of receiving the inheritance that is coming. Co-heirs with Christ if indeed we suffer with Him that we may also be glorified together. So He says, joint heirs with Christ. Well, what is Christ going to inherit? The whole universe. It's for Him. But the incredible thing is that it's not only for Him, because He says, you are also heirs to this. You are going to be under Christ, and you're going to inherit all of this because you're going to be members of that God family. See, there's no religion in the world that can reach this level of understanding of what God is offering to us. It's just mind-boggling that we are going to be co-heirs with Christ. That's just something that doesn't register completely. And then it says, continuing on, verse 18, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. So He says, whatever you suffer or you're going through, believe me, it is nothing in comparison to what you will receive if you are faithful.

The reward is worth the sacrifice and the suffering and the difficulties that you go through in keeping God's way of life. And then in verse 28, he goes a little farther. He says, And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Again, we go back to the first point that God is a planner, and He is working something out. And He says, if you are faithful, if you love Him, if you want to establish that loving relationship with them throughout your life, He will turn things to work out good. He will turn things to turn out well for you. Now, that doesn't mean we're not going to go through difficulties and sometimes even tragedies. But what God says is that, just like in one of these high wire acts, and where a person may be walking the tightrope or whatever, what God says is, I'm going to have a safety net. I'm going to cushion whatever you go through. I'm going to be there for you, and I'm going to make it work out. Eventually, you look back and say, I learn. I develop spiritual character. I'm a better person because of what I suffered and I went through. And God says, that's why I am working it out. I am a planner. I see the end result. And as long as you yield yourself to me and give yourself for my guidance, I will make things work out in the end. Continuing on, He says in verse 29, For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. See this teaching in the Bible of God having a growing family is repeated time and time again. It says here that He's going to be the firstborn among many brethren. Christ, He's already up there with God the Father. And God the Father says, but you see, He's only the firstborn. There are going to be many more born into my family, spiritually born. That's something else. Religion doesn't understand. Christian, traditional Christianity says, oh, you're just born in this life and it's just religious experience and you accept Christ and that's fine and that's all there is to this concept. It isn't! You see, there's a two-stage process. Yes, you need, first of all, baptism and receiving God's Spirit, but that's just the beginning stage in this life. Mr. Armstrong compared it to a little embryo. Yes, you're conceived, but you're still inside the womb, just like you are in this life. You're inside the womb. You're being fed by the church. You have all of these growing pains, but it's still nothing compared to when you finally are born outside of the womb. And that's going to take place spiritually when Christ's kingdom comes and then you're going to be one of the born brethren of God. And you're going to be brethren of Jesus Christ. And so it mentions this is what God is planning. That's why He works with all of us every day, overcoming difficulties, forgiving, giving us opportunities, opening up the doors, giving us more spiritual understanding, helping us with our relationships, suffering patiently, learning to control the tongue, learning to control the temper, learning to give instead of receive and, you know, oppress that ego-centric life that many times it's so easy to develop.

And then He says, verse 30, Moreover, Whom he predestined, these he also called, Whom he called, these he also justified, and Whom he justified, these he also glorified. So here we have the different stages of the calling. First of all, God has this plan. He knows when to call every human being. And we just have been very blessed that He has called us in this life. That's a type of, you know, predestiny that God said, I'm going to call this person. He doesn't know whether the person's going to act on it or not because He can't force it. That's a person's will. God respects. But He does say, I'm going to intervene, and I'm going to call the person. I'm going to open his mind to the truth and give him an opportunity to accept. Once he predestines, then he calls with what I just mentioned, the revealing of the truth. And then He says, Whom he called, these he also justified. And so here you have the stage of justification or of being made just before Him through the blood of Jesus Christ. And so with that comes this process of righteousness being built into us, which is a God's struggle to put into us more of that righteousness and take out that carnality. It's much harder to put out that carnality than it is to bring righteousness. Have you ever noticed that? People can start obeying God, but to get rid of that carnality, that's tough. That human nature is very stubborn. And then He says, and then after that stage of justification in your life of being made just, then you will be glorified in His Kingdom, when you are born again into His Kingdom. And so then Paul is saying, is God's plan going to work? He asks in verse 31, What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Again, just saying, the universe which is created by Jesus Christ, and for Jesus Christ, we are going to be part of receiving all things. Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. God says, I know there are still all kinds of errors here. Satan is the accuser of the brethren. He's always there. Look, God, the person you call, and even at the time of Job, and he says, well, Job isn't really obeying you because he really loves your way of life. He's there because you're getting all the benefits. But I'll tell you, take away some of this, and he'll just curse you, and you'll see that he really doesn't love your way of life. And God knew that wasn't true, and he said, okay, go ahead. I'm going to permit it. And so God allows the person to be tried. So a lot of things will come up to the surface that have to be dealt with that otherwise would have stayed underneath. But God says here, who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.

You know, just because people are in the process of being perfected and still have problems, Satan says, well, what are you going to do with this person? And God says, look, I'm not through with him yet. He's a work in progress. He's going to make it. I plan for this.

Continuing on, it says, who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? Verse 37, yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. And so the whole process is once you see the future, that hope, no, life is worth living. The difficulties are worth enduring.

Nothing should make us give up like it did to van Gogh. Continuing on in 1 Corinthians 13, verse 1, 1 Corinthians 13, verse 1, on this point that God is love. This is what God is all about. These are his chief characteristics.

It says in verse 1, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal, and though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing. He's talking about here the inner motivation for doing things, because there are all kinds of people that have done miracles, but what is their motivation?

If it isn't that true, outgoing concern, it's not to show off, it's not to impress others, but it is to help others and to give God the honor and glory. It says in verse 4, Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails, but whether there are prophecies, they will fail, whether there are tongues, they will cease, whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away, for we know in part and we prophesy in part. And so then in verse 13 he concludes, And now abide faith, hope, love, these three. But the greatest of these is love.

So that is what keeps God from getting bored or not knowing what to do, because he is concerned for each one of us. The Bible says that every one of our hairs on our head are counted by God. He knows exactly how many. Now I know one of the greatest loves that there can be is the love of a mother for her child. I have no question. I've lived it about 30 years now, and mother's love for her child is incredible. The father's love for a child is equally so the sacrificial love, but I would say the mother's love as far as just the details. They know everything about that child, and they know if their hair is correct and what's going on in their life and everything because of that love. But no mother has the love to count each one of the hairs on the head of their children. But God does, so God's love is infinitely greater than the love of a mother for a child.

And that is His chief characteristic. In 1 John chapter 4, I'll add this scripture, 1 John chapter 4 verse 8, it simply says, what is the chief characteristic of God? It says, verse 8, he who does not love does not know God, for God is love. That is His chief characteristic.

And that is one of the greatest truths that we can have. Now, this Bible is wonderful. It helps us. It's an instruction book. It gives us wisdom and knowledge. But I'll tell you, the greatest thing in this book is to know that God is love. That's where you start. Because that means it's something good. It's positive. We don't have somebody that's trying there to do something to damage us or something that is negative. No, God has our best concerns at heart. And so we see that Van Gogh tragically ended his life, but God is never bored, and He doesn't want us to be. And one thing we need to do is plan our lives. Now, the three greatest decisions that a person usually will make in his life, first of all, is a decision to be baptized. That's the most important decision because that's what gets you going in this process of becoming a child of God, of going in and being conceived spiritually through baptism and being put into that, you know, fallopian tube and in that uterus, which is the church to grow, to be fed, and so one day you will be born into the kingdom of God. The process has to begin. God cannot do it alone. The second greatest decision you're going to make is who you're going to be married to. And as one psychologist said, 90 percent of a person's physical happiness depends on who you choose to marry because you're going to live with that person 24-7, as they say, and you better choose somebody that you are compatible with. I always talk about the four legs of the table. You need to have the four legs of the table. You have to have, first of all, the spiritual leg that you both share of faith. You need to have the physical leg, which is the physical attraction toward each other. You need to have the emotional leg, which is the emotional compatibility, the temperament, the personalities, everything that comes into the emotion. And finally, the financial, because love doesn't pay bills. So you need to have the financial stability to be able to establish a good marriage. And from there, go forth. And, of course, the third most important decision in your life is your career. What you're going to invest in, because you're going to be doing that for a very long time, and so invest well to be able to reap the benefits later on. So what can we look forward to? Here's a picture of the Milky Way galaxy, approximately 200 billion stars. And this is just one galaxy in what is calculated to be about 200 billion galaxies. So God has planned for a long time. This is not a little Disneyland that you'd run around in a couple of times and you've seen it all. No, He's planned a huge amount of time in the future to enjoy and to delight in these things. As it says in Luke 1.33, it says, and of His kingdom there will be no end. God's kingdom is going to expand from the earth to the universe, since it says that Jesus Christ is the heir. He's not just the heir of the earth, He's the heir of the universe and we are co-heirs with Him.

So we're going to be assigned to wonderful and stimulating challenges in the future.

So don't become self-absorbed. Don't become egocentric. That's one of the reasons people get bored. They lose meaning in life. It's all about me. What's going on with me instead of what can I do for others? How can I help? What can I do to encourage others? Find and develop your talents. God has given us talents, but we have to cultivate them. They're just like little seeds. They don't all flourish automatically. They're little seeds. You've got to discover them, then you've got to give them the right nourishment, right watering, and then you'll work at it as it develops and you practice and practice until you perfect those talents that you have.

And finally, you build and don't destroy the relationships. It's so important to build, develop the relationships that you have in your life as much as possible, because those are going to give you the most lasting satisfactions. It's not going to be the house. It's not going to be the car. It's not going to be the perks. It's not going to be the titles. It's going to be the relationships that you built with people that are more lasting, because jobs will come and go. Money will come and go. Places, sometimes you'll be up, sometimes you'll be down, but the relationship with the people, that's going to last.

So we come to the final slide, Revelation 26.

Now, slide 26, Revelation 21. Want to see if you're awake or not? No such thing as Revelation 26. Just testing, you've seen how many were there ready to turn to Revelation 26.

Now, Revelation 21, verse 1, this is after all the plan of God has been carried out.

God the Father is ready to come and see how Jesus Christ has everything prepared. Just like a big wedding. God the Father is there. He is the presiding minister in that sense. And Jesus Christ says, Father, it's ready. Everything is prepared. The bride is ready. And it says in verse 1, Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. So all we see around us one day will be completely purged and burned.

All of the bad memories. This old earth with all of its battles, with all the bloodshed, with everything and the crimes, all of that is going to be erased. And basically this earth will be purified. There will be no sea left, as it says, and there was no more sea. So three-fourths of the surface of the earth has now evaporated because now this has become the place where the New Jerusalem is going to be placed. And then I, A. John, saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them and be their God. And God, talking about the Father, will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. So all the people, now they're resurrected. But guess what? They're going to be comforted. They went through a lot of tough things in this life, and God's going to comfort them.

He's going to explain why it had to happen, and the plan, and what is ahead. And then he who sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said to me, Write, for these words are true and faithful. So there's another stage that God already has prepared. Another stage after this one that we go through. So you see, God is a planner.

He's not going to say, Well, guess what? Plans are on. You know what? I don't have anything else to do. I've come here, got the New Jerusalem, but guess what? I ran out of planning to do. I don't have anything else to do. No, God isn't that way. He says, Guess what? There's something even better ahead. Isn't that what a child loves when his parent is with them, and all of a sudden they go fishing, and boy, they have a good time?

And then the father says, Yeah, but guess what? We got something even better than fishing. And then the kids' eyes light up, and guess what? We're going to go down these rapids, and we're going to have a great time. Well, this is the same thing. God has something superior planned ahead. In verse 6, it says, and He said to me, It is done.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first, of course, letter of the Greek alphabet, and the last letter. In other words, He encompasses everything. The beginning and the end, I will give of the fountain of the water of life, freely to Him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be His God, and He shall be my Son.

See, again, the family concept is repeated time and time again. It's the greatest description of God's characteristic that we have. He's a family. He's bringing sons and daughters to glory. So we don't have to shy away from this wonderful truth in the Bible. And to finish in chapter 22, verses 3 through 5, once the New Jerusalem lands on the earth, it says in verse 3, And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.

They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. You will be part of God's family. You will be able to see God the Father face to face, just like a child sees his loving father or mother. And yet, there are going to be billions and billions of people that will have that privileged relationship with God. See, God didn't plan to share with three or five people. He wanted billions of people to share in that family relationship.

Wouldn't you? I still love—I'm going to have to bring it one day, one of my favorite Spanish songs by Roberto Carlos in Brazilian, and he says there, he says, No, I want to be friends with a million people. Wouldn't it be great to have a million friends? I mean, good friends. Boy, you'd never get bored.

They're always going to be planning things. You're always going to have all these relationships. Well, guess what? God has a plan to have billions of friends, billions of brethren, of friendships in the future. And sometimes, brethren, we can't even get along with ourselves for a day or two. We can't even get along with brethren sometimes for a week or two. That's why I'm so glad God is so much more patient than we are.

And he is so much more forgiving and loving because he says, I'm going to work it out. I'm going to work out these relationships because they're looking to the future and they know they have to sacrifice. It's worth it. And so then, to end this, it says in verse 5, There shall be no night there. They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light, and they shall reign forever and ever. You know what word sticks there? That is so encouraging, the word they.

Because it's talking about us. It's talking about we seeing God's face and that they will be there with God. And it doesn't say, well, God's going to reign forever and ever, or God and the Lamb. It says, they shall reign. In other words, we're all going to share in God's government and reign forever and ever. So that's why it's so encouraging to read the last part of the Bible and why God never becomes bored. And neither should we.

We should look forward to these fall feasts that picture His coming kingdom, where no one will ever be bored.