Why Were You Born?

Well, good afternoon, everyone! Welcome to all those who are on the webcast. Very special Sabbath greetings to you. And also want to say how important music is for Sabbath services and our praising of God. And today was a very special day. I enjoyed and was inspired by the special music, inspired by the song leading, inspired by the accompanist. Everything is so robust and so very wonderful. So it really does a lot to give us a wonderful spirit here for the Sabbath service. Thirty years ago at my mother's funeral, I reconnected with an old friend going back to high school.

I admired him a great deal in high school. Actually, I was about three or four years younger than him. He was way up there. He was already close to graduating from high school when I was probably ninth grade or so, several years older. But he was a real technical person, and I just really enjoyed going over to his home because he had all these interesting things, all these electrical things.

He even had a reel-to-reel tape recorder that I thought was just amazing. We could talk into this box and it would play back our voice. Those kinds of things were so interesting. This was during the time of the Soviet space race, Soviet and US space race, Sputnik in 1957 or eight, when that series of one satellite after another by the different countries. He was so fascinated. He knew everything about the rocketry of both sides and the kind of rockets the Russians used, the kind of rockets the Americans used.

And he used to talk a lot about that. Well, our paths parted when I went on to college in California, and he went to the University of Minnesota, of course, before that. And he went on to a very successful career with a major Minnesota aerospace firm or had aerospace contracts. Well, at the funeral, we reconnected, hadn't seen each other in years, and he said, hey, let's get together for lunch and kind of catch up on our lives.

He knew that I was a minister, and we were at one time in one church, the Orthodox Church, and obviously I was in something way, way different. And he was just curious about where I was, and I was just actually quite pleased that he would want to get together and spend a time talking. So we got together and we recollected about our families, about our lives, about his parents that I knew very well.

And he talked about the job he had. He talked with the same kind of enthusiasm as he always had about technical things. He talked about how he was one of the lead engineers on the project for the F-16 guidance system and how interesting that was. And then as we talked and talked, he said, you know something? There's got to be more to life than this.

Because we got to talking sort of in the area of meaning of life and where life was all about. I can't remember exactly what went on in the conversation, but I talked about my work and very obviously my shift from going to the Institute of Technology at the University of Minnesota, which I did one year, and shifting very drastically to the theological sphere was somewhat interesting to him.

But he said, there's got to be more to life than this. This doesn't bring all the satisfaction that I want. And of course, he had a very good job, very good standing, very high reputation, and yet he was saying there's got to be more to life than this. How many people are there around who have fame, who have wealth, who have power? At the end of the day, say, you know, is that all there is to this? Where is it all leading? People who are famous, are their lives any happier? People which are household names in the country? There are people that have millions of Twitter followers.

Katy Perry has 60 million Twitter followers. And when she tweets, she almost brings Twitter down because there's just such a load on it. There are several people, everybody in a certain sphere know her, maybe you don't, but people do know her. People have power, and people will cling to power, and they get a rush from being in power, in government, in business.

Then there are people who are absorbed with wealth and having as much as they can acquire. In fact, enough? There is never enough. If they have a 200-foot yacht and somebody has a 210-foot yacht, they want a 220-foot yacht.

There's a somewhat silly program on television. I only saw one installment of it called The Diary of the Filthy Rich on CNBC, which is kind of a mock documentary, but it talks about people who are very, very rich in what they have.

I think about all the nonsense of just all the rich things. You talked about one of the status symbols now is to be on the waiting list for Gulfstream 650. That is the latest in private jets. It costs $75 million, and you have to be on a three-year waiting list. You have to be in with people like Ralph Lauren and Oprah to get on this very, very famous list. But does that bring satisfaction?

Does that bring a sense of well-being and total fulfillment? Or will it be something that you only compare yourself with a small group of people and it doesn't really down-deep satisfy? Some people are continually seeking pleasure as a way to fill an empty hole. Well, human beings were created with a big, big hole. All of us were. And one reason why you're here is because that hole is being filled with something that is of true, lasting value. Something that you couldn't get from seeking pleasure only, or having an indescribable amount of money, or being known by everyone around the world, and being followed by millions of people, or holding some very, very powerful position, because those things really, at the end of life, really what do they mean?

The entire book of the Song of Solomon, pardon not Song of Solomon, but the book of Ecclesiastes by Solomon, is a book about a person who had everything. He was king of Israel. He had gardens galore. He got off track when he had 300 wives and a thousand total wives and concubines. That didn't bring satisfaction. He had everything that a person could possibly have, and at the end of the book he says, all is vanity, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Did not bring lasting satisfaction. Human beings of all life are a very, very interesting and unique species, if you will say that.

We're so different from any other form of life. First of all, not only are we conscious, you're conscious, hopefully as conscious as you can be here for the sermon, but you're also self-conscious. You ask questions. You have questions about yourself. You're aware of yourself. You have a sense of self-awareness.

And this is the biggest difference between us and the next, quote, highest form of life. Some primate, some monkey or some gorilla. Because even though some of these forms of life approach in appearance, walking on two legs, these human beings, they're far from being like you, but they don't ask a lot of questions.

No gorilla has a savings account. No gorilla is passing on inheritance to someone else or their name. They're not building universities or passing on knowledge. They just come and they go. They live by instinct. Every form of life. I haven't, and I think any of us have found the theories, any other form of life that approaches human beings with the intelligence, with the capacity to ask questions, to be aware of themselves. The animal world simply doesn't think of these things. Human beings, in their ability to be self-conscious and self-awareness, do come to one conclusion, no matter how empty or as big a hole they have in their life.

They come to one conclusion. That doesn't take faith. That doesn't take any kind of extra education. Human beings will die. And they come to that point where they see that, yes, this person has died, that person has died. I'm not going to beat the system. I will be someplace along the way in this particular progression until I come to the point where I die.

And then a human being, in his mind, in their mind, will think, well, what happens then? Is that it? I don't think that dogs and cats think about an afterlife. I'm not exactly sure what goes on in the mind of a cat or dog. But I don't think that they're thinking about that great, you know, doghouse, you know, somewhere, you know, they'll be, you know, going to.

They just don't think about these things. They just die. And then new cats and dogs, you know, come along. Human beings, it's a totally different story. With a self-awareness, a human being begins to wonder, I am, but I will not be. What will it be like? And they can become frightened. And while an animal may be frightened of death through self-preservation, they really aren't thinking about it, and they aren't planning for their death.

Then, a human being, once they come to a point of where they think about death, some come to the point of where they begin to search for meaning in life. And go on to wonder not only about the fact that life comes to an end, but where did life start, and what is the origin of their existence. Where did they come from? They know they came from parents, but where did their parents come from?

And their parents. And as they look and pour through history books, they see that they can go back through Ancestry.com a couple hundred years. They can go biblically a long time before that. They can explore, but then what about where is the real origin of life itself. And they come to understand that life can only come from life. Life does not generate itself spontaneously. You can't go to a dumpster someplace, and there's new life that's created, only in horror movies. You know, do you find things like that. But life itself comes only from pre-existing life. There are no exceptions.

And scientists who have tried to create life, there have been bogus attempts at that. I doubt that it ever can be done. It never will be done. Because life comes from a single life source, and that's where we have all come from. And that's where all animal life has come from, and that's where all plant life has come from. But human beings came from one source. Our intelligence, our ability, and the way we are came from one source.

The law of biogenesis is that all life comes from pre-existing life. Once people have questions about this, then they go on. Some go on to even yet a higher level. They begin to wonder, well, where is the first source? Where is the driving primary source of life? And everything that is, and everything that exists.

And their questions may then rest with the fact that there is, could there be, a God? Could there be some great intelligence? Could there be some great power? Some great being who is the creator of all this? And that you are the object of His creation? Well, these are very, very good questions that people have as they progress. But they lead to even more questions. Answering these questions has been a major subject of an initiative that we've been working on.

And that we have proceeded with in the Church called the Why Were You Born? Seminars. Now, whether we will continue to call them that, totally, still is a question itself. But it's one of the most provocative questions of all. Some don't want to think of it. Some have thought about it, come to various conclusions. And others have made a lifelong study of them. The Why Were You Born? question is one that is a segue, is a question that leads to many other questions about our beliefs, about a relationship with God, and a relationship with others.

People generally on the street are very woefully ignorant of this question of why were you born. Steve Myers and others, Jamie, went to Fountain Square and asked this question of people randomly on the street, why were you born? And we played those answers as part of the seminar. And the questions, oftentimes, and I had to granted that they were people kind of caught flat-footed and say, well, I don't know how to answer that question, or let me give you some thought.

But most people really had no clue as to why they're here or what their purpose might be. Some came up with answers, though I'm here to serve, but others really had no idea at all. And the only reason why they're here is because a mother and father got together and created them, or they came from one set of parents. This question is a very, very important question, and one that actually led to my involvement in where I am today.

I'd say probably more than anything. Back in 1961, when I was still in eighth or ninth grade, I used to wonder and used to stay up. And when we had a few people that were relatives, not relatives, but friends of our family die, people that we had known, and all of a sudden they're gone, I began to wonder, well, that's going to happen to all of us. What will be? What will happen? What's it going to be like? Why am I here? And, you know, I was very devout.

I was devout in the church that I was a part of. Our whole family was. And I knew what the church said. They spoke about heaven. But, you know, that never satisfied. Heaven never, never was satisfactory to me. Because the visions of it and the artwork connected with heaven were so frightening. Big beams of light, God's radiant face. It didn't look like it was something to be enjoyed or something to really be desired. And the current, living with your friends and being with people you knew and the parents that you loved or the friends that you enjoyed was what you really wanted.

You didn't want this staring at God forever. And that's what we were told. And I began to become very, very concerned and said, Is that all there is? Amazingly, answers started coming to me. And the most satisfying answers came when my attention was focused on Bible verses that explained explicitly where my future lied or lay. They made it very, very clear as to where my future would be. I truly consider this to be a great miracle that came from God to my mind. In fact, I thought it was too simple.

Still, to this day, I think that what we believe is so simple that it just can't be that simple. It can't be that obvious of what we believe about man's destiny and where we will be. And yet, the things that we believe, and the reason you're here, the reason that you're a part of this church and to have the relationship that you have with Jesus Christ, is because these things are second nature.

These understandings are givens. And this is what's been given to us. You go through the Old Testament and New Testament and see what man's destiny is. It's so clear. It's right there. And actually, this is the biggest study aid of all in helping others to come to understand what that future is. And once God takes away certain clouds of concealing understanding, the answers come through very, very quickly. In Ephesians 1 and 4, we could go to many, many passages where the Apostle Paul came out with very, very directly, and he spoke very clearly about what our future would be.

The Apostle John spoke about clearly what we would be. The Book of Revelation speaks very clearly as to where we will be, not only what we will be, but where we will be and what we will be doing. It talks about an entire process, an entire plan, an entire attention focused upon the human race to have the human race reach its potential, not just for a very few, but for everyone.

We just completed the Feast of Tabernacles and concluded with the eighth day, which I find to be the most phenomenal of all Holy Days. From the standpoint of it answering some of the very biggest questions in my life, is, does God really care about everybody in this world, or is it just about us? And it seems to be such a small club that is allowed in right now to understand the things that we understand. It can't be that way, and it isn't that way, because God is going to open the way of salvation to all mankind.

And the Apostle Paul in the Book of Romans speaks that all Israel will be saved. Now, we know not every last person will be saved, but all Israel will be saved. That salvation will be open to everyone, like living waters will be made available, and Christ will say, Come to me. To me, this is some of the most exciting aspects of our preaching the Gospel and teaching the things that we do. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 4, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.

That we may not have been chosen exactly specifically, but He talked about an election of people that we now are a part of. God had a plan a long time ago, as Mr. Thornton spoke today about, a plan while God has a super-duper plan of saving this world and creating what He's creating. He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.

That's what our future was to be. Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to His, to the good pleasure of His will. Now, we were predestined, or we were chosen, we were elected.

We were being prepared for becoming sons to God the Father. That's what we are going to be, sons. He is Father. By implication, when we talk to God the Father, it implies that we are sons. Why do we call Him Father? Well, it's because we're sons. Jesus Christ calls Himself a brother, and a family relationship is established. You know, where I had been before, as well-meaning as the clergy was, there was no real family relationship.

It was God, God the Father, a stern-looking God with a white beard, and Jesus Christ was sitting there. And I had to stare at these two for all eternity. And we may think of that as being silly, but that's just not right. It's not true.

I have a God who calls Himself Father to me, and I have a brother called Jesus Christ. And I'm part of the family. I'm part of an inner circle. I'm part of a very special group. I think I am. I'm part of the family of God. Would you be able to answer if people asked you, why were you born? Would you be able to say, I was born to fulfill God's purpose for humanity to bring many children to glory? That's a part of our vision statement. Part of the vision statement of the church, which we really all should be able to know by heart, based upon two passages. I was born to fulfill God's purpose for humanity to bring many children to glory. The word glory means brightness. It means eternity. It means ultimate... it means eternal power. It means the glory of the sun, the brightness of the sun. Can you continue and say, I was created in His image and likeness, which we will see in the Bible that speaks of very explicitly from the very beginning. And born to become a member of the eternal family of God. And not be apologetic about the fact that you are part of the very family of God. That you're included in a very special relationship, not as a separate species or genus or form of life, but that you will see Him as He is, and you are part of that family.

When we ask the question, why were you born? And I'm so glad that we are proceeding with this because we actually want to produce more study materials that will bring people along in a step-by-step process to help them understand more what that means. Because it's actually a question that opens up and engenders other questions and leads to answers to some very, very important questions. Because when you ask, why were you born? You actually are asking, what are you? What is man? What do you mean, why were you born? Immediately you have to start talking about your purpose, and start talking about who you are, where you came from, and so forth. So, what is man? That then leads to the question of who is God, and what is God? We talk about being born. When we answer the question, why you were born, it's not something that just came because of biology. It came in the way we answer the question because you have a very special intelligence, a very special way that you think, and a special ability to relate that is so different from any other form of life. We are unique, and we are very, very special. Also, answering the question, why were you born, leads to the answering of the question, what is the nature of God?

We had issues with the nature of God some time back. In fact, that's why we're here. Because the nature of God was way different from what we had first understood it to be, the way it was presented. We always have understood that the nature of God was to be a family. There was God the Father, there was Jesus Christ, that Jesus Christ proceeds from God the Father. Jesus Christ looked up to His Father, and He was not afraid to call us His brothers and friends.

God is not some type of triune closed system where we can't get into it. Yes, we can. We can get into a system. In fact, the purpose in man is to open God's realm to those that He calls into it. And eventually the invitation will be made to everyone. That's how much God loves humanity and loves the world.

God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that we can be saved, which is part of the process. But the nature of God, which was mainly about what those characters represented, is a family. God is a family.

This leads to the question of answering what is the gospel.

The gospel is the good news about all this that I'm speaking about. That's the good news about where we're going and where we're going to be. And having a sense of real, honest understanding.

It answers what the vision of the Church is, what salvation is. And also, very importantly, what must I do? Now, what do I do? Once I begin to understand these things, what is my responsibility and what is my duty and what am I to be doing in this life?

So all these questions are engendered from that original question. Why were you born? It also engenders other questions, which we need to talk about. Why evil? What's the point of evil? Why can't evil be stopped? When will evil be stopped? And what is the purpose of evil? There's also other questions that this engenders. Why inequality? Why is it that we live in this country? The last oasis in this world where there's any prosperity of this kind. Western Europe and a few other places. But the variance in prosperity between our country and some places that we work with in Africa is tremendous.

Horrendous. And why are we rich? Why are they poor? Why do we have the liberties and freedoms that we do and others do not? What's the answer to these questions? These are questions that we can answer. And answers for them are found in the Bible. Why suffering? That's another question. Why must we suffer, even as Christians?

Why must some go through more suffering than others? Some of these questions are not easy questions to answer, but there are answers to them. From the time when I began to ask these questions from the very beginning, I have been thankful continually that God has given me understanding. I'm not special in any way. I just feel very privileged that I have been able to have understanding. I've not been a perfect person, far from it.

But I'm so thankful that I understand who I am, where I came from, where I'm going. When tribulation has struck in my life, and I've had tribulation as much as anybody else has had, not as much as others, but probably more than others, its purpose, its point. Why has it taken me 20 years to learn certain lessons in my life? I can tell you that, but I won't. Taking me time to learn certain lessons in life.

I have rejoiced that God has opened the door to understanding, helping me have understanding of these questions. Our source of understanding, what we have, comes from where? Now, if you ask the question, the meaning of life, and went to Google, or any other search engine, you will find thousands of sources. So, why am I pretending that I have something very, very special? Why am I wanting to talk about this subject more? Why am I competing with others that may have similar views, or similar answers, or have other answers? And why are my answers any better than others? Well, I'll say this, is that my answers are not better answers, anything that I say I believe.

And I believe it is because I see authority for it. And I see authority in an authoritative source, not in some philosopher, or theologian, or charismatic leader, who just says things, and people believe him because he looks good. The things that I believe, the things that I believe about why were you born, go back to my earliest understandings of this subject from the book of Genesis, to the redemption through Jesus Christ, and to the writings of the Apostle Paul about the destiny of man, and finally ending up in the book of Revelation as in the grand climax of Revelation 20, 21, and 22, the new heavens and the new earth.

And I say, yep, that's a great story. It's a great story. And one that I did not make up, but one that I read from a Bible that I found in our home, and that I read over and over again, that we all preach about over and over again, in such a way that it isn't just some nice myth or something to salve us, but something that we stand with and something that we believe. His Word, God's Word, the Bible, is my source of authority, and everything that I believe comes from that, and only from the Bible.

The Bible was made to be understood. The Bible was not a book of just pieced together and patched together, quilted stories by different writers over a different time, which many, many people believe as being. I believe the Bible to be the inerrant Word of God. My words are life. My words are spirits, Jesus Christ said.

The words of the Bible are the Holy Spirit talking to us. Because it gives us the understanding that we need to have. The Bible was made to be understood by people of all societies, of all cultures, of all levels of education, whether you're a PhD or have an understanding and can recite the book of John in the original Greek and know the definition of every word in Greek. To somebody who picks it up and just sees it for the first time and takes the words at their face value, whose hermeneutic is what it says is what I believe.

The Bible is made to be understood by people of every nation, of every race. The Bible has been translated into over 3,600 languages and dialects. The Bible has survived by far any other manuscript with unbelievable accuracy, both by Old Testament and by the New Testament. God has preserved the Bible. So that's how God communicates with us. Some people say, you know, God has really hid himself. You talk to agnostics and you talk to atheists. They say, well, if there is a God, you know, an atheist believes there's no God, but then they say he hid himself. You know, they're just very confused. But anyway, you know, they say that God has hid himself. God has not hid himself. The God speaks very clearly and loudly through his word, the Bible. God speaks to me. God speaks to all of us here through Jesus Christ living his life in us.

When you become a Christian, when you have come to repentance of your sins, when you receive the Holy Spirit, you gain another level of understanding. You gain a level of understanding that is far superior to any others. And it may come as second nature. And others say, you know, who is he? And you may even think of it as being something that you just take for granted. But it is another level of understanding the things that we understand. The very basic things about man's purpose, man's origins, man's future are things that the world simply does not. And that's why people who come to understand the things that we do, not talking about something that's way out theologically, but the very basics about what man is, what his purpose is, what happens at death, the resurrections, about the days where to worship, the law of God, are things that are so clear to you that you want to tell everybody about it. Which I did. It's a temptation. Maybe people don't do that now, but boy, when I first learned these things, I wanted to tell everybody, especially my Jewish friends. I thought they'd love it.

I thought they'd love to know that I kept the Passover. It was, eugh, get this guy out of here. He's dangerous. But I understand these things. I understand what Jesus Christ requires of me. I know that he lives his life in me and that I live because he lives in me. Jesus Christ communicates to me. I pray to our Father in heaven through Jesus Christ. And I have to say that I can't tell you how much Jesus Christ has talked to me, has worked in my life, as he's working in your life as well. Does he come and talk to me in the mornings? Absolutely not. Believe me, I'm not saying that at all. But I can say that I look back. Every time that I've had needs, every time that I've had a need for direction where we go with the church, here, internationally, financially, with our gospel message, with media, with whatever it is, areas that I feel a responsibility in, I take it to our Father in prayer through Jesus Christ. And I look back and see how he has delivered, how he has helped, how he's given me what I need, not everything that I want. Because the things that I want are real big. God says, you're not ready for that. Neither is the church. But I do believe that God is going to bless this church to continue doing what it's doing. It's doing great. And the message that we're preaching is the truth. And we have a phenomenal variety from television to print to Internet. It's really phenomenal what we're doing. And we're really going places. We do feel the greatest days ahead of us. But it comes from our talking to our Father in heaven through Jesus Christ to proclaim this message. Galatians 2, verse 20. Galatians 2, verse 20. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Is this something that you can say is your modus operandi with your relationship with Christ and with your ability to have his presence in you? It should be. The Apostle Paul said that this is the thing that kept him going. He wrote this to the Galatians, you know, Asia miners where he had lots and lots of difficulties. But he survived it all through Jesus Christ who lived with him. So, again, God communicates to us through his word. He communicates to us through Jesus Christ living in us. And a third way that he communicates is through his creation. Through his creation, turn with me, please, to Romans 1, verse 20.

Romans 1, verse 20. I absolutely love some of the videos that we get from an organization that produces videos dealing with intelligent design. There's one about birds and butterflies. There's others about the universe that are extremely interesting because they point to the grandeur and glory of God. And the Apostle Paul tells a doubting, agnostic, atheistic, hedonistic Roman society in Romans chapter 1 that ignored God, that rejected him and said he didn't exist with these words. For since the creation, Romans chapter 1 and verse 20, for since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen. The invisible attributes of the living God are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made through creation, through the Earth, the solar system, the galaxy, the universe. Even his eternal power and Godhead, or his divinity, now you take a look at creation, you take a look at what's there. You have to be an absolute fool to say that it just spontaneously generated itself. That's the most ignorant statement that could possibly be made. And people don't want to say it. You know why? Because they don't want to admit or submit to that power. They don't want to know about the divinity of God and what he is.

So that they are without excuse. Because although they knew God, verse 21, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful.

Thankful for the fact that we have an atmosphere that sustains us, that we have water, that we have food, that we have blessings, but became futile in their own thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools. The creation speaks very loudly to us about God's presence, about his creativity and his power. Well, let's start taking a look, and there is no possible way that I am going to be able to cover the entire subject about why were you born. But I do want to cover just a few things that start this whole process, because I asked a lot of questions that can possibly be answered. But God reveals himself to us in Genesis 1, verse 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, about a straightforward statement that you could make. This can be understood by any nation, by any level of intelligence. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. In verse 26, after preparing the earth in six days of creation of life that preceded the creation of man, God said this, Genesis 1, verse 26. God said, let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. Let's make man in our image. He didn't say that to any other form of life in our image, according to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over all earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God, verse 27, created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created them, male and female. He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Not only did he create man, but he gave man authority over the earth. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. But man was made according to God's image and likeness. This is something to swirl around in your mind in this week. We're made it after God's own image. What does that mean? Now you've heard the expression when you see a little baby, and you see daddy next to them, and say, He's a spittin' image of his dad. What does that mean? He looks like his dad. He's got a funny nose like his dad. You know, he's got some funny-shaped ear, whatever. He's a spittin' image of his dad. He looks like him. No animal looks like God. A turtle does not look like God's image. But man is. Now, God is far more than just a six-foot male person. He's great. He's huge. He fills the universe through his spirit. We don't understand all the dynamics there. But nonetheless, we are of the God-kind. The God-species, if you will. We look like him. And then after his likeness. Once again, relating to what he's like. God has cognitive thought. He has emotion. He has free will. He's creative.

That's the characteristics of God. And far more than that. And human beings were given a touch of those characteristics that are not given to any other form of life. God prepared man to be part of his family. But not yet. In Psalm 8, verse 3. And you can look to what David's thoughts were. You can take a look at Job's thoughts. And you see, these men were wondering questions. And recorded some very, very interesting conclusions. Psalm 8, verse 3. Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth you have set your glory above the heavens. This is Psalm 8, verse 3. When I consider your work, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained. He admits and speaks about God as being the creator of all these objects. What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you visit him? You have made him a little lower than the angels, and you have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of your hands, from David's understanding of Genesis 1. You have put all things under his feet. Oh Lord, oh Lord, how excellent, verse 9, is your name in all the earth. And the Apostle Paul speaks about this passage in Hebrews, chapter 2, and verse 5. Because he speaks about the ministry, the priesthood of Jesus Christ, but also about man's potential. Hebrews, chapter 2, and verse 5. For he has not put the world to come, of which we speak in subjection to angels. The future world, the kingdom of God, is not going to be given over to the angels. The primary ones will be human beings, or those who become part of the God-ruling family in the world tomorrow. But one testified in a certain place, speaking of David, in Psalm 8, verse 3. What is man, that you are mindful of him? This same thought is also repeated in Job, chapter 17, verse 7. These men understood this. You have made him a little lower than the angels. Jumping down to verse 8. You have put all things in subjection under his feet, for in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. We're part of the God-family, the management team. There's been nothing that's been withheld from man. There is no other form of life, existence, angels, or anything that's between us and God. We're part of that very family.

God is opening himself up to add more sons, as it says, to glory. But now, we do not yet see all things put under him. He qualifies what David wrote. That hasn't happened quite yet. But it will happen at a time when we will be glorified.

We see Jesus, verse 9, who was made a little lower than the angels. Jesus himself, when he was made into a human being, was in a life form that was less than angels, because we right now are less than angels. For the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, he had a purpose while he came. That purpose was to die for mankind. And so God had to create him to be vulnerable. God the Father made him vulnerable. By the grace of God might taste death for everyone, the process of redemption, which is part of understanding the entire purpose of mankind and how man will be redeemed. Which is also a very beautiful and wonderful mystery that we hopefully understand. For, verse 10, it was fitting for him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. This is why we were born. Jesus Christ is the captain of our salvation who will bring many sons to glory. Now, we've heard these words over and over again, but, you know, I still get excited. I still get a rush when I read these things, and I ponder them, when I type them up again, and when I speak about them, I get very excited about this. Because this is the reason for our being as a church. This is the message that we preach. This is the truth that we give the world. This is the proclamation of the United Church of God.

The proclamation of the gospel of salvation, and exactly what it will be, and how it will look. This, to me, is satisfying. This gives me direction for today, and it also reveals the future for tomorrow. So we're going to be working. We had our first try at Why Were You Born seminars, and we have learned quite a number of technical things that we want to improve upon. One thing that we found is that we feel that we need to involve the church more. We need to involve all of you, who are as just, should be as excited as any of us are, about the great potential that we have. I invited people from my Rotary Club to come. I had three people come to the Why Were You Born seminars. One of them said, you know, I want to come, because I don't know why I was born. But certain seeds were planted. I have no idea. I mean, their members of their own churches. But nonetheless, the things that we teach do make an impact. The things that we do teach can be and should be planted. The things that the church has taught were planted in my brain, and have become part of the way that I think. We also want to be able to have a little bit more than just one evening. We feel like it was a good start, but people really do expect more. And also, they do expect more in a form that they can study and go from point to point to point to point to understand about why were you born, the questions, the answers, a study guide, which hopefully we can produce in the next X number of months, dealing with this very, very important subject of why were you born. Why were you born may not be the ultimate title of whatever program that we have, and it's not necessarily a program. It is really, to me, the crux of the gospel of salvation. Because the Bible is a book about man and God. It's about who God is and the whole story of man, from chapter 1 in Genesis to man's ultimate destiny in Revelation 22. That's what that's about, and that is the gospel of how it will turn out. So let's praise God for what He has given to us, for the understanding that He's given to us. Don't take it for granted. Just because you understand it so well doesn't mean it's understood by anyone else. Those of you who know a foreign language know that you can know that language, and it's just like second nature. I know Ukrainian and Russian, and I speak it, and I don't even think of it. But then people standing next to me have no idea what I'm saying.

Because they don't know that language. Well, that's the way it is with the truth that we have. We know it. It's very clear to us. But the person next to us is gibberish. And God is working with this world and having the gospel go forth. No man can come to me, Christ says, unless they were of the Father, who opens a person's heart and mind. And I truly believe that we have the tools, we have the products, we have the message, we have the enthusiasm, we have support from the young in the church, and we have the mentorship of the elder and the seniors in the church. I feel we're at a very, very interesting point in the history of preaching the gospel in this particular age. May God bless you and make you a part of this greater work even more.

Thank you.