The Wonderful Kingdom of God

Happy feast, brethren! Mary and I are delighted to be here with you, and God is certainly blessing this feast site. We're having amazing weather, and the relationships here are just reflective of what the world tomorrow is going to be like. Thank you so much for the music that was just sung by the choir. It just speaks of what this whole festival is about and what the message is about today.

The Feast of Tabernacles points us to a marvelous future, something that God has been planning since before the foundation of the world. God is a Creator that creates environments that are wonderful and beautiful. At the very top of His creation is you and me, created in His image with the ability to see and experience it all and have relationships with God and with each other. This is a wonderful time that we look forward to when Christ's bride will be reigning with Him and directing a far different experience for humanity. An experience that is so unique that you and I really have no understanding or experience of what it will be like.

If we look, for instance, in Revelation 20, verse 6, it says, Blessed and holy is He who has part in the first resurrection. Whoo! Well, that's something that you and I don't even know what we'll be like. We kind of imagine ourselves being sort of like we are now. We'll say, oh, at least I have a better body then. We don't go a whole lot further than that. He says, they shall be priests of God and Christ. What does that mean? Priests of God the Father and Jesus Christ, and shall reign with Him for a thousand years.

Wow! What is that going to be like? You know, God has this future, and sometimes we wonder about what the coming world tomorrow will be like. Today I want to talk to you a little bit about wondering what the world tomorrow will be like. This is a big part of the Feast of Tabernacles. It's why you saved your festival tithe. It's why you've come to someplace different, that God placed His name there, a place that reflects something about God and about the society that God will be leading and directing under His Son, Jesus Christ.

The feast that we portray, as you just heard in the special music, isn't just sort of a fix of Satan's world. It's not just going to have more water and enough food. It is something that God is going to transform into His world, His environment. Back to the Garden of Eden type environment that God made, a garden of which we have no real knowledge, description, or understanding. A garden that Adam and Eve were pushed out of to where thistles and thorns and the ground and the weather and the animals would make it difficult and hard.

We could get by, but that would reflect a different God with a small g and what His selfish mind and catastrophic sort of relationships and systems would be like. But this is going to be something unique to mankind that will reflect God's nature, godliness, righteousness, the God who leads the world then, the spirit that will be in man then. The Bible gives us tiny glimpses of that time. You'll hear them mentioned over and over, and we heard them in the special music even. There's just a few, just a few, just little glimpses. It doesn't really tell us everything and what it will be like. We know that earth's soils will change. Earth's environments will change.

They'll be remade by the Creator God into what He intends them to be like and a reflection of what He and His, the bounty of living His way is like. First, that will begin in the nation that God gave to the 12 tribes as they repent first and they are given His Spirit first. You'll see that blossom. And then gradually, as others embrace it, it will begin to flow out and change around the world. We're used to dangerous animals. You think of going out in the water. Some of us have enjoyed scuba diving through the years.

What do you see down there? Eat or be eaten and watch out for the sharks and watch out for the octopus and watch out for things that sting and grab and grab your arm out of a hole and pull you in, hold you till you run out of air and you die.

Harmful insects. Ooh, bugs. Ooh, they sting. They bite. Dangerous animals on the ground. You try to protect yourself from. You know, when we think of poisonous plants, things that you would ingest by accident. Ooh, what about that mushroom? Or what about this? Ooh, that stings or that hurts or that made me sick. Or that could kill me. These things are part of the world that you and I know, along with dangerous weather and earthquakes and hurricanes and tornadoes. Can you imagine the opposite of what we know rolling out after the return of Jesus Christ and after you are reborn into a God-level being as a son of God in the eternal, bright, powerful family construction that the God family has?

With all the abilities and capabilities and the zeal to go out and make a wonderful world tomorrow. Can you imagine what that world would be like? None of us have ever experienced it. How could we even begin to accurately conjure up what that would be like? A world we've never seen. Now we do know that God's way works. And that's a great proof in my life. When all the world tries to make you doubt and think that there's maybe nothing that we believe as being real. No, God's way works. The relationships that we have with each other within family.

When you keep the Ten Commandments, the relationships you have with neighbor, the quality of life, and the miracles that God begins to throw at you through what are called blessings. It's like, wow, this is great. And so we get to live sort of a prelude to the world tomorrow as first fruits in the kingdom of God. We get to, as we heard in the sermonette, begin to be part of that.

Not just hear about it, but be part of that. And then be leaders of it in the world tomorrow. We are here celebrating a faith. Faith and trust that God has something coming soon that will be awesome. Now there are a lot of words that humanity, society has downgraded to common terms. Awesome. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, that's wonderful. Yeah, that's fantastic. It's just taken the stuffing out of those words that are in the Bible. A wonderful time, an awesome time. God's marvelous works and a feast that's inspired to do exactly that.

Bring to you and me the awesome, the wonders that God is preparing. We look at the future through Paul's eyes in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 9. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 9. The Apostle Paul, he wondered, he thought, he'd even been taught by Jesus Christ. And here he says in 1 Corinthians 2, as he begins to sort of think ahead and think about the life that you and I are living, verse 9, as it is written, I has not seen. You have not seen.

It hasn't happened. When you think, oh, I know what the world tomorrow is going to be, it's going to be kind of like this. But better, I has not seen. Nor ear heard. You know, we can stand up here and read scriptures. We can describe it to you. You haven't heard yet because it's not defined. Nor has entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love him.

Someday humanity is going to love him. You and I love him. And God is revealing those to us now through his Holy Spirit as far as his way working and a really great future. But when you think, for instance, of things like, oh, the wedding supper, it's described like this. And the bride will go in and the door is shut. Oh. Well, hang on. What happens in there? We're on the outside. See? We don't get to see. We don't get to know.

We know it's going to be good. We know we're trying to make ourselves ready. But not even has entered into the hearts of man. And God doesn't even describe what the wedding supper is like. What being married to Jesus Christ is like. What the future of the bride is like. Sort of described as an amazing new Jerusalem.

And we're like, where do we fit in there? The whole Bible answers that by saying, show up and find out. That's what we want to do. And that's what God and Jesus Christ have devoted their entire existence in the last billions of years for, is for you and me showing up. And finding out. Being there. Being part of that. God has prepared for those who agape Him.

Our God has such an amazing, incredible future ahead. And through this festival, it's intended that we get some glimpse. I mean, after all, God has had us save one tenth of a year's income just to come and for a week, for seven days, do something entirely different. Come to a different environment. See and be part of and assist and help and share in things that we don't do back home. This just isn't back home.

And it's to give us an idea that what's coming isn't like what we know now. It's going to be really something special. The humanity we know and are part of has only experienced civilization based on Roman, Persian, Greek, Babylonish, and Egyptian foundations. This God of this world has developed everything. We don't see it through that lens, but when you stop and analyze everything, everything, from governments to societies to companies to products, commercialization to landfills full of the junk, full of the stuff that comes in and entertainment and music, even the very fabric of society is not based on what's coming and what will be. It follows an imposter God who continually harms its inhabitants and harms the earth's environments.

And by the time Jesus Christ returns and by the time the Feast of Atonement and what it pictures and the God of this world is removed, there will be hardly anything left. If Jesus didn't stop it, there would be nothing left alive. How many plants and animals and species and almost the human race will be extinct by then. And yet we're described in Scripture of entering a wonderful world tomorrow that is filled with bounty and filled with beauty and filled with blessings. So even our imagination of future godly societies gets skewed in a way from our experience in this evil age.

To help us start trying to imagine and look forward to it, God gave us this Feast of Tabernacles. Again, we have to come out. We have to go somewhere different. He gives us the abundance and also the sharing and the concern. You know, it's interesting, many of us have known each other and most of us haven't. And yet by the end of this Feast, we will have grown our family even more. And the next time we see each other, we will know even more. And this family just continues to grow and grow. And our love and our family, our brother, our sister ship, just expands through every tribe, nation, culture, language.

We celebrate this and it speaks to a different world that's ahead for all peoples living God's way of life. So attending the feast isn't meant to portray better crops only, better weather, and you know, food. Something unique, something different. We recently observed the Feast of Trumpets. And we see there the end. Well, think about the end.

Think about the end for a minute. Everybody talks about the end, the end time, the end, the end, the end. The end is the end. All right? Something's going to end. And after you have the end, you have the beginning.

Right? So what we know is ending. That's going to be the end of it. And Jesus Christ is coming with the bride and that's going to be the beginning of something, of a new age. Of what we might call the wonderful world tomorrow. The end of Satan's evil age. The end of Babylonian society. Remember that image is broken down, shattered, done away with. The end of wars. The end of lawless living. The end of evil. The end of selfish lust, greed. The end of broken relationships. A new world with its creator as the God. Note that word, creator. Creator.

Creator creating. Creating an environment and a world that reflects the nature of the God family. With a righteous bride and billions of holy angels now serving and working. The feast of Tabernacle celebrates a brand new age, a fresh start filled with wonders for mankind. So today I'd like to pause and wonder.

Wonder about the future, the coming age of Christ on earth. A total replacement of what Satan has led for the last thousand years and what he has built on a foundation of rot. The title of this message is, The Wonders of the Kingdom of God. Like I said, the word wonderful. Like if you go back to Shakespeare and times before that, it still meant things that are awesome.

Things that today have become hyperbole are meant to convey, full of wonder, full of wonder tomorrow, full of wonder. Filled with awe, extraordinary. You'll be amazed, just amazed, to marvel at things never before seen, never experienced. Things unfathomable. And really those begin to start for you and me with what are called the heavenly signs, right before the seventh trumpet is blown. When darkness will cover the earth, that's going to be a wonder.

Everybody's going to say, wow, look, the earth is dark. Wow, it's dark. Like in Egypt, remember? Just before God led the Israelites out into light, into a new land, a new way. The darkness at Passover, right before the lamb, the type of lamb was killed and they were allowed to go free. The darkness at Jesus Christ's death, when darkness covered Jerusalem and the first fruits began to be liberated into life through his blood and his death.

And right before he returns, the darkness that covers the earth, and it's so dark. And those of us in the place of safety are told by Jesus Christ something very special. We are told...let's look over in Luke chapter 21 and verse 25. Notice what Jesus says. Luke 21 and verse 25. There will be signs in the sun and the moon and in the stars. And on the earth, the stress of nations with perplexity. For everyone else, it's going to be awesome.

And they'll be fearful. The sea and the waves roaring, men's hearts failing, verse 26, from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Here's about to roll out a world of wonders under Jesus Christ.

You talk about wonders as He arrives. Wait! Here's a special wonder for you and me in verse 28. Jesus says to us, now when these things begin to happen, look up. Look up. Lift up your heads because your redemption draws near. Wow! Here comes wonder number two. Your redemption is drawing near. Let's view these same wonders in Matthew's account. In Matthew chapter 24 and verse 29, immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from heaven.

The powers of the heavens will be shaken. In verse 30, then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming. Here's Jesus Christ coming in the darkness as bright light. Wow! This day star will dawn the bright light out of darkness. They will see Him coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Verse 31, and He will send His angels with the sound of a great trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other. And we will be changed, as it says in 1 Corinthians 15. We will be changed. This mortal will put on immortality. Let's go to 1 John chapter 3 and verse 2.

1 John 3 and verse 2. I know our imagination is getting a little excited here, but we're having a little trouble knowing the specifics. 1 John 3 and verse 2. We will be gathered. We will be changed. We will be glorified members of God's divine family, made of spirit, bride with Christ.

Can you imagine just the wonder that you will be? What will that be like? 1 John 3 and verse 2. Beloved, we are now children of God, and it has not yet been revealed. Sorry. Can't tell you. Can't imagine. It's not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when He is revealed, get this, we shall be like Him. Wow. We will be a member of the God. We'll be like Jesus Christ. What's that like? Well, it's not been revealed, so only we can wonder. Sometimes we think of it as like humans, like, oh, will I get to maybe resurrect my pet? Will I like it in the world tomorrow? Will there be mountains and snow still? I use this analogy. Pretend for a minute that you're God, and that fly that's flying around is kind of annoying. That fly, that's a human. Now you're God, and that's the human. You're trying to tell this human what it's like. If you're good and you're like me, I'm going to make you one of me. I know what you're like, but you know. You're really going to like it. It's really great. He's like, big question. Will there be piles of garbage in the kingdom? You know, really stinky stuff.

Because, you know, in Isaiah 55 and verse 9, God says, For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. If God wrote it out for us, what it's like to be a God being, we couldn't understand it. Because it's just that far, that distant. We just couldn't understand it. So, to give us a glimpse, God gave us Ezekiel chapter one. Let's go to Ezekiel chapter one. What is Jesus Christ like? Wow. Check this out. In his eagle chapter one, in verse four, he says, He says, Now we're currently in God's image and likeness as flesh, but our change to spirit is going to be amazing. It's going to be a wonder. Notice verse 27.

And Jesus says that you and I will shine like the sun. Daniel will be bright like the stars, like huge suns. Wow. What's that going to be like? What's the energy source for that? Do you have a nuclear fission? What do you eat? Do you eat some kind of U-238 or something to power that? Wow. And what is God like? We don't see God and Jesus Christ talking. Is it thought-transferred? Do you just know? Do you share? You don't have to wait on little wavelengths of air bouncing out of a mouth and onto an ear and program inside. What's he saying? Just you know. You're one. You're connected. Wow. Who knows? We're going to find out.

Now, when we think about first surviving human beings, when Satan is bound, now we begin. What happens? What happens? A physical wonder happens. Revelation 16, verse 17. Preparing for this, reimagine this redeveloped earth for humanity. The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven from the throne, saying, It is done. That's the end. Done. New start. And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings, and there was a great earthquake. Now, stop and think for a minute. We tend to think of the world tomorrow, this millennial era, as this earth, just like it. Yep. You know, everything's just the same. But remember, after the millennium, you've got about a hundred billion people coming up. They're going to need a whole lot of land. What's God going to do at the seventh thundering here? The great earthquake. Such a mighty and great earthquake has not occurred since men were on the earth. Just pause and think about what God might do with that earthquake. What might he do with the mountains, the valleys? You know, God, in creation, one of the first things he did was he brought land out of the water. He's got to bring more land out of the water. There's some vast oceans out there. They're kind of wastelands right now. What's going to happen? Great earthquake. Now, the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. We're getting ready for a whole new environment here.

Verse 20. Then every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. What's God talking about here? We can only wonder. Serious changes to planet earth. A physical realm beyond what you and I can imagine. We see in Isaiah 40, in verse 40, this could be metaphoric, this could be literal, this could be both. Every valley shall be exalted, as we heard in special music on the first day. Every valley shall be exalted. You know, every little poor country and people that are held back and restricted. If you look at those as a metaphorical valley, they'll be exalted. Those are important to God. Nobody's going to keep them down anymore. Every great mountain. Look at the great systems right now, the great nations that are kind of oppressing, and they're forming militaries, and they're doing their might. All the mountains will be brought low. What about the literal valleys? You know, there are places where some of you have lived, and we have lived, where the only fertile place is a little valley. And that's it. There's usually a little creek or a river running through it, a little grass on two sides, and that's where everybody has to live, because the mountains are jagged things that go up in the air, rocks. You can fly over just mountain range after mountain range. Over in Europe, the Alps, the Dolomites, going down to Italy, and it's just like nothing there except for these little things. You know, go to British Columbia. What is British Columbia? Little spaces. Little spaces, giant mountains, mountains all the way up to Alaska. What do you see when you see the other side, the leeward side of a mountain? Desert. Because on the windward side, the moisture coming off the ocean goes up and condenses, and you have that wet rainforest almost type environment. But on the back side, you have deserts, deserts that are barren. So will every mountain be brought low and valley raised up? Verse 5, the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

It says in Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 15, Look, he lifts up the aisles as a very little thing. Have you not known? Have you not heard? Verse 21. Has it not been told to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? He who sits above the circle of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. Verse 26, lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these things, who brings out their host by number and calls them by name, by the greatness of his might and the strength of his power. Not one is missing.

You know, God is preparing an earth for a future that's beyond our experience. We go to Psalm chapter 46. Psalm chapter 46 and verse 1. David's inspired to write about such a time.

Psalm 46.

And we'll be in...it's a short chapter. We'll just skim through it. God is our refuge and our strength, verse 1. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed.

And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though its waters roar and are troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling, there is a river whose stream shall make glad the city of God, Jerusalem. We know that when Christ comes, the Mount of Olives will split in two from the east to the west. There's going to be a temple. There's going to be water that begins to flow out. The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High, God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved.

Come down, it says, verse 9, He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. Verse 10, Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted on the earth. In Psalm 97, verse 5, it says, The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. So again, we can only wonder about a wonderful world tomorrow, as we like to call it. Will it be anything like we know today? God, the Father, and Jesus Christ are miracle producers. They're creators. Are we going to bind them up? Are we expecting it? Oh, you can't create anything. All you can do is try to water what's here and wait a thousand years, maybe it'll grow back. What about God's children? If we're going to be like Jesus Christ, are we a creative family? Will we be part of a creative family? Will God say, okay, you can do everything we do except... Don't be thinking about anything. Don't say, oh, I'd like that.

We'll do all the creation. You can't. Doesn't that seem odd? How many of you like to create? Do you like to create things? Do you like to write? Do you like to create clothing? Do you like to decorate your house? Do you like to go out and landscape your home? Do you like to maybe create software as an engineer or bridges or houses? Do you not like to create and redesign even maybe your hairstyle?

Yeah, we have that in us, don't we? Except we're limited right now. We actually can't create anything. When we make something, we actually have to destroy something God made. We have to cut down a tree and chop it all up. We might make a beautiful meal, chop up all the plants, maybe a few animals, don't tell anybody. And look what I made!

We melt down some things and try some rocks and pull out stuff out of the ground. Oh, look what I made! Imagine, imagine a future. What might God let us participate in, even in the new heavens and new earth? Who knows? Who knows? Let's go to Isaiah 41 and verse 19. Sometimes we just think what's coming is just going to be, we're going to improve Satan's society. We're going to improve the environment that reflects that selfish nature. Get before others, eat or be eaten. Isaiah 41 verse 19.

Here's Jesus Christ. Notice those words. Didn't say, they will plant. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar and the acacia tree. Sounds like somebody's doing some creation here. I will plant the myrtle and the olive tree. I will set in the desert the cypress tree and the pine and the box tree together.

Largely things don't exist over in that part of the world anymore because the empires and the succeeding empires and the ones that succeeded them chopped it all down. They pretty much used rock and stone over there for the most part. Wow! God is going to plant things that either don't exist or almost are non-existent today.

He says, I'm going to do that, that they may see and know and consider and understand together that the hand of the Lord has done this and the Holy One of Israel has created it. A little glimpse. I kind of wonder what He's going to do in other places. I wonder what He's going to do under the ocean. You know, we hear about lions. When we start changing the animals and their digestion, all of a sudden you begin to change the entire environmental balance of things.

If it's not eaten be eaten, what is it? I don't know. Do you know? I have no idea. I just can't imagine that world. In Ezekiel 36, verse 26, there's an even bigger wonder coming than everything we've talked about. A bigger wonder. We tend to focus on the physical features of the wonderful world tomorrow. But the coming physical wonders that capture our imagination are eclipsed by this one. Ezekiel 36, verse 26, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you to humanity.

Wow! There is a changer. There's a whole society changer. There's a whole government changer. Let's see. That would be a company changer. That would be a construction changer. That would be a design changer. That would be a family changer. That would change everything. Wow! I mean, that would just change everything. Civilization would have to start over. I'm not trying to get money from people. I'm trying to help them. I'm not trying to just grab things out of the environment. I'm trying to be a blessing and work with God and my neighbor.

Joel 2, verse 21 says, fear not, O land. Be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done marvelous things. Marvelous things. Things that will make us marvel. As we heard in the special music from Isaiah 14.7, the whole earth, the whole earth is at rest and is quiet. They break forth in singing. They just break forth in singing. Wow! Jeremiah 31, verse 12, their living bodies shall be like a well watered garden, and they shall sorrow no more at all. No more.

No more sorrow. They shall sorrow no more at all. I can't imagine that. Try to imagine godly-minded nations and governments and cultures and religion and institutions. Every personal goal. Every career. Every manufacturing target. Every product, service. All the education, the construction, the markets, the foods, the agriculture, the recreation, the entertainment, the music, family life. We're picturing that here, actually.

Have you stepped out of it, stepped into this? This morning, about three o'clock, I was praying and I said, God, I really need to put that out of my mind. I need to be present in this feast and what it's picturing. Help me do that. Wow.

When we think in Ezekiel chapter 26 of this new heart, then God says in verse 34, the desolate land shall be tilled instead of lying desolate. Verse 35, notice this, Now, if you just take that picture of the Garden of Eden, we would love to step back into that Garden of Eden and see what was there. But it's a world that was closed off. We knew that they could live there without even clothing on, and there was nothing that would harm them. And it was an environment that reflected God and the nature of God. And when they did not reflect the nature of God, they were removed from that Garden. Here, the land that was desolate has become like the Garden of Eden. Verse 36, Notice this, Let me repeat that.

We need to trust that God knows what's ahead. We just need to show up. We just need to be counted wise. We need to be counted worthy to escape all the things that are coming and to stand before the Son of Man.

The only one that's been there in the Garden of Eden is the one that's been there. The only one that's been there in the heavenly realm and knows what it's like at the throne is Jesus Christ. And if we go to Psalm 16 and verse 11, here's something he inspired from his perspective about that. A little glimpse about what it's like and what it'll be like as we sit with him on his throne, as we are with the God family.

Psalm 16, verse 11, You will show me the path of life. And God did that when he was on earth. He's doing that with you. And now what happens when we're resurrected as he was? He was the first of the first fruits. We're going to be the first fruits we're called of humanity. In the end, we're going to be the first fruits of humanity. We're going to be the first fruits we're called of humanity. In your presence is fullness of joy.

That's one of those words again, but it's a huge word. In God's presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. When you look up the Hebrew word for pleasures there, the naveem, it means pleasant, delightful, sweet, lovely, agreeable. At your right hand, where we are sitting with Jesus Christ, as he's sitting with his father, I don't know how that works. Show up and find out. Our pleasant, delightful, sweet, lovely, agreeable things forever. Take it from him. He's been there. He inspired those words. So what can we do now?

What can we do now? Oftentimes people say, well, we hear too many Christian living topics. We like to hear more prophecy and stuff. Well, let me tell you something about prophecy. Prophecy is not your responsibility. That's why we like it. It's easy. It's somebody else's responsibility. It's something else that God is planning, something else God is doing. We've been called to do something ourselves. That's why we hear so much Christian living. Not that prophecy is bad because it's supposed to make us be responsible now and do what we're supposed to be doing.

So what can we do now at this feast and in each day of our lives going forward to be ready to step into this awesome, marvelous future that we really have no detail about? This wonderful world tomorrow that God has been preparing for you and me since before the foundation of the world even was in existence. Let's go to 2 Peter 1 and verse 5.

Here's what we can be doing. 2 Peter 1 and verse 5. If you ever want a good description of grace, which is, if you'll take the grace booklet and open to page 68 and start reading, you'll see what that word meant when the Bible was written. It's an interactive relationship back and forth between God and humans. It's reciprocal favors and like anything that reciprocates or reciprocal, or reciprocating engine, you might say, goes back and forth.

One gives something, the other gives something it can't. One gives a spark and a flame, the other gives power coming back, you see? 1 Peter 1 and verse 5. He says, giving diligence. Giving diligence. All diligence. This is what we're to be doing. Add to your faith virtue. Now, God starts out by giving you and me faith, some understanding of who He is. It's kind of our opener. We believe in God. The eyes kind of become open. Then to faith, what are we supposed to do? Say, oh, I'm saved. I'm good, because I believe there's a God. No. He wants something in return. Virtue. Remember the virtuous woman in Proverbs 31?

This woman is very energetic. She was given a marriage and in return she gives this and her husband gives that. Back and forth, they have this dynamic, energetic relationship. She is a person of virtue. So we want to be virtue as well. We want to be living God's way and applying, developing ourselves into a Christ-like individual. Then to this virtue, knowledge. Yes, grow in this reciprocal covenant, this relationship with God of grace and knowledge.

As we grow in knowledge, what do we do? We add a fruit of the Spirit, self-control. We actually do it. You know, in opposition to what our human nature might say, oh don't do that, let's do something else. No, no, no. Self-control is learning to do it. And that pleases God. And to self-control, perseverance. Do it through all times, all situations, every time. Like Jesus Christ did. And to perseverance, godliness. Wow, look how far we're coming in this reciprocal relationship now. We're actually acting like a God family member.

We're a son or a daughter of God. We're beginning to look like disciples. And to godliness, brotherly kindness. Wow, a church that's sharing and growing and brotherly kindness and thinking of our neighbor as much as ourself and loving one another. And as we climb up this mountain of godly attributes and character, we reach the summit. And to brotherly kindness, agape.

God is agape. And once we reach there, we are at a place where God says, wow. Wow. Wow, you are my children. Verse 10, if you do these things, you will never stumble. Verse 11, because wow, God says, you know what? This is what we've been working on since before the foundation of the world, is having an individual like you.

And so, verse 11, for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly. Yes, come on in to the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Wow, that's what God is planning. Great future. All He wants from us is these things. He wants us to be involved. So when you ponder in conclusion, what will it be like in the millennium? What will it be like for the bride and the marriage supper? What will we be doing in the great white throne judgment?

What will it be like to be Christ's bride? Remember, that is what God the Father and Jesus Christ have been working, working to let you experience. Let's notice in conclusion here in Matthew chapter 25 and verse 32, what Jesus Christ said after His resurrection. Here's what I'm looking forward to. This is what's on my mind. This is what I died for. This is what I created the world for with my Father. This is what all the plan of salvation and the Holy Days in the future is about.

Verse 32, when the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the holy angels with Him, He will sit on the throne of His glory. In verse 34, the King will say to those on His right hand, Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

So, brethren, let's use the Feast of Tabernacles and the Eighth Day as a glimpse into the future, our future, humanity's future. And let's dedicate ourselves to obedient reverence to God, to His way of life, as we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.