Our Commission Moving Forward

Ron Weinland

October 12, 2017

Live Last Great Day Sermon - 2017

Well, this is the last sermon of this year's feast season, on this, again, the Last Great Day, and the title of this particular sermon has been given. Of course it is at the bottom of the front page of this year's feast brochure, right on the front, and it is Our Commission Moving Forward.

As God's people we ever are moving forward. That's just the way we are. That is, indeed, our way in a very powerful way, to follow God wherever God is leading us whether we understand it or not. We don't always have to understand. As a matter of fact, through time most have not fully understood. They have a glimpse of things here and there, but so much of what happens in their life and how they're led they don't fully know nor understand. That's just a part of life. So we do this as a matter of faith. And what does that mean? It's a matter of faith, a matter of belief first and foremost, of trusting in God and what He says, and we follow. God's in charge; God Almighty who molds and fashions us.

We have those experiences in our life, we have those experiences in the Church of God, and we hold on to those things. We hold on to the 57 truths because it's in that that you have your strength and your power through God's word in a very powerful way, through the power of His holy spirit. Those are the things that can convict us ever more so and if people begin to wonder about certain things or worry about certain things go back there and think about the rest of the world, and think about the scattered church of God and what they see, and better yet, what they don't see, and to understand then what you are able to see! Just starting with 2005, there is one Self-Existing Eternal God who has always been. That's powerful! And then all the way through those sermons, and then Melchizedek at the end and all that that fits into a beautiful picture that we're able to see and able to have.

Then all the other truths that God has given to us, to understand why we went through the Apostasy. Those of you who came in afterward, which involves most, you're able to understand that history because the scattered church doesn't understand that, as a whole, that there was any kind of an Apostasy. They don't understand the man of sin and who he was. They don't understand the various things that took place and why they took place and what had to happen at the end of an age. They don't grasp the scriptures that have been fulfilled in Ezekiel and throughout Revelation and so many places and the things that Christ had to say. They don't understand. They don't see those things. You do and that's awesome! That is your strength – in those things you hold on to that give you confidence and to give you boldness and to thank God for them and to seek to be reminded of them from time to time, whatever they might be. Truly! Awesome!

We move forward. God's people always have.

Hebrews 12, such basic and sound and powerful scriptures. Hebrews 12:1—Therefore, seeing we also are encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses… You know, the things we go through, the things we experience, the things that each of you have experienced since your calling, the struggles and the battles and the things that generally begin first and foremost with family and job and different things where you may have to totally change your life and change how you budget life and everything else to obey the Great God of the universe. You do it and you keep fighting that fight and you keep fighting against a way and a system that fights against you.

Therefore, seeing we are encompassed about by so great a cloud of witnesses, and we look at those things that others have gone through because everyone has had to go through great tribulation that enters into God's Kingdom, who have been fighting for this throughout the ages nearly the last 6,000 years now. All those witnesses, in that respect, because of what they lived encourages us. We read their stories. We're moved by them. They inspire us. We're able to put things into perspective oftentimes that we haven't gone through much if we compare ourselves and go down the line with different ones and what they had to experience to get where they're going. …let us lay aside every weight, everything that tends to weigh us down sometimes as human beings, whatever that might be, every weight that we so often carry and don't know how to let go of because we don't know and we don't trust enough yet. We have to grow in that. Christ says his burden is light. He takes it. God Almighty receives it. The way is paved in gold, in essence, to get where we're going.

Everything is there that we need and we just have to make the choice to continue to fight, to continue to fight against our nature, to continue to resist this world, and above all things to always put God first and to never compromise with that, whatever that might be, on the job, in family, or anything else, to never compromise with that, not even in the least little bit. Everyone must know you and who you are to be a light and an example to others, a right witness, that you follow God. They don't understand that necessarily, but they understand what you're going to do on the Sabbath. They know what you're going to do when it comes to tithing. They know what you're going to do on the holy days. They know what you're going to do during the Feast of Tabernacles, and on and on it goes. They know you whether it be on the job or in family or whatever, friends, and relatives, whatever. They know what you're going to do. If they don't there is some compromise going on. There is something wrong.

Let us lay aside every weight and the sin that does so easily entangle us. Oh how easy it is to get caught up in sin. How easy it is to yield to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life where we think we can do things, that we can hide from God somehow and God doesn't see us, or whatever. I mean, even though we say, "Oh, I don't believe that," but we do that too often as human beings. It's the same thing on a spiritual plane. Then it says, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Run with patience; it takes time. The fight is forever in the sense until there is no forever for you, till you die, meaning as long as those conditions exist, as long as you're in this flesh you have a battle, you have a war in front of you. We know what we're supposed to do concerning war and the armor. We need to see what we're in to know how to fight it, to watch, to be alert, to be on guard. I love those expressions because it's like cities that are fortified, or walls around them just like Jerusalem. It had walls around it for a purpose and people on different towers to watch, to be on guard if an enemy comes. God tells us always to be on guard, to be alert. Most of that is to the sin that so easily besets us, entangles us.

Again, we're to run with patience the race that is set before us. You can't do it half way. You can't meander through it. You can't be Laodicean, ho hum. It's a race. You've got to run it. That means you have to put energy into it. It means you have to plan it out, you have to think; you have to throw your being into it. You know, if you're in a race, anybody who's ever raced (and they all know this), you run, especially if you're in a race with others and you're going toward this line, you fight and you fight against this – the mind – that's your battle. It's not the person running beside you. Not at all! It's your mind! It can be a real battle learning to bring into subjection certain things in your life on a physical plane. It's a good experience because then you can learn incredible spiritual lessons from that and be encouraged then when God gives examples like this. He uses such an example for us to realize we're in a race. We're in a race – you've got to run! You can't just lollygag through this. You can't just coast through it because that's Laodicean. You've got to throw yourself into it. You've got to want it with all your being when it comes to God's way of life. You truly have to fight for it. If we don't fight and we're just kind of passing time we're making a huge mistake.

God is pleading with us. We get closer; He wants people to see, to hold on to, to fight. There’s not much farther to go. To be so close to the end? I've been in races where I've watched people drop out right down to the end. Incredible! You're almost there. You can do it. Your body will do it; it's your mind you're having problems with. That's incredible how that works.

Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, even as we look to Jesus, to Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith, our eyes, our focus, remembering always. One of the great things we always have to remember? He's our Passover. Thank God on a regular basis. Thank God for a Passover, that we're able to be forgiven of sin, that we're able to be cleansed before God by just going in and repenting truthfully and honestly before God for what we've done that's wrong and knowing then that when we get up and we pour our heart out to God and we mean it with our entire being and we're grateful for our Passover, that we can repent of our sins and be forgiven, that we get up and we move forward and leave the past behind us. Move forward, always moving forward.

So, looking to Jesus, the author… It's where it begins. It's where it begins, the Passover. …and finisher of our faith, our High Priest to bring us to the finish line. Incredible! …who for the joy that was set before him… Not what he was going to go through, but what he knew and saw what it was all about, the mind of God, the Word of God made flesh. All these things in this book throughout the Old Testament writings that he knew it was about him and he saw himself; he saw himself in scripture. He saw himself as the Son of God. He saw himself in such a unique way and embraced that with all of His being and fought and worked—not a cakewalk—to give to us what we have. There was a joy because of what is ahead. He knew what it was all about. He did it for others. He suffered for everyone else – times past and times future.

…who for the joy that was set before him endured being nailed to a pole. That's what it's about. That's what it says. That's what the true translation is out of the Greek language, not a cross. It's not the word for cross. Isn't that amazing? Just a little bit of study, a little bit of study into Greek literature and so forth that has gone through hundreds and hundreds of years, and there’s never a word like this that could ever be used for a cross. There is a word that can be used, or words, but it's not this. This is a pole, so simple, so plain. It’s rejected by scholars and a bunch of people that got together in 325 A.D. and they started off on a project and a process of destroying God's Church. They were set out to destroy God's Church. They outlawed Passover and instituted the keeping of Easter. It was the beginning of the great Roman Empire in the sense of the church that was raised out of that. Awesome what took place in history! It’s so simple, so clear. They changed the Sabbath day to Sunday, the first day of the week. They instituted the belief of the trinity. That's where it started. They didn't get it out of scripture; it was them. It’s been followed ever since by the Protestant world and by the Catholic Church.

So again, who for the joy that was set before him endured being nailed to a pole, despising the shame, and it's a word that means "to think lightly of," "to think lightly about." There is no comparison in his mind that could be made with what he was going to. And what was that shame? Well, it's how human beings think, that he would be placed there along the side of thieves, looked upon as something horrible that deserved to die by others around him. He didn't care about the shame as far as human beings think, "Well, that's a shameful thing to do," and people looking down on him and people talking about him as they did if you read the accounts there of what they did, wagging their head, making fun of him. "He said all these things. He did all these things and he can't save himself, the Son of God. Ha. Ha. Ha. Do you believe that? He's up here with two thieves. He deserves to die." Just because he's there they had to be right: "He deserves to die," and all the judgments that follow. Did that bother Christ? Not at all. No shame. He gladly did it. He knew what it was all about. He knew what he had to do and he did it. …and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

For consider him, think about him. From time to time we need to do this. These aren't just words, this is a reality, and so often to be done in prayer. For consider him who endured such contradiction… You know what that means? The twisted accusations, the opposition that went with slander that was slanderous toward him, that's what it's talking about. He endured this coming from others, the things that were said, people spitting on him and slapping him, saying, "Okay, prophesy to us now, who was it that hit you? Who hit you? You're the Son of God, who hit you? Who slapped you?" Amazing, the attitudes from human beings, the evil, sick minds of human beings to do such a thing to someone who lived a totally righteous life just because they feared it, didn't understand it, and so forth, and because they got on the band wagon with the priests and so forth, "Well, if they say there's bad there, there's bad there, and we don't want to upset the cart." They're just living a certain way of life and that's the system and that's the swamp they lived in at that time so they did what the swamp wanted, just little robots not exercising their own minds.

For think about him who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself; they were sinners and they were against him, all the things that they did to come after him, trying to find fault, trying to find something that could twist and distort, trying to find witnesses that could say certain things so that they could put him to death because they didn't want him around. They wanted him dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. "Get him out of here, he's a threat. He's a threat!" Incredible!

…or otherwise you might become weary and faint, give up in your minds. None of us have done anything remotely close to what he had to go through. It's saying to think about him, consider him who went through all that he did to be our Passover; he was willing to be beaten and suffered like he did. Incredible what he went through, someone who lived a righteous life, totally righteous. So it says there that is that which you can think about. And if you don't, what can happen? If we don't understand and appreciate to the core of our being that we have a Passover who went through what he did for me, for you, for us, and be moved by that, to thank God for that on a regular basis, and if we're not doing that on a regular basis, thanking God for our Passover we're not thinking about it, we're not understanding the importance of what it means when we can repent and ask God for forgiveness of our sin, if we just get into a routine of certain things and say, "Oh, Father, forgive me. I did 'this' and I did 'that,' and please help me," where is the rest of it? Because along with that has to come an appreciation of how you're able to do that. God wants us to think about whom it was that suffered for us, who sacrificed so we can learn something from it. We need to learn how to sacrifice to give to others. He sacrificed far above and beyond anything we could ever begin to think of, but to love others, to give to others. That's what we're called to do, to sacrifice.

So it's a matter of being thankful, grateful to God Almighty and to Jesus Christ for what he did. Otherwise God said something can happen here. If we don't think that way you can go through hardships and difficulties and begin to get out that little violin. Drama, drama, drama, drama, drama, and start feeling sorry for self and what you have to go through and, "This is hard," and, "This is not easy." That's what we've been told since we've been called. No, it's hard. It's not easy. You got a fight on your hands, and a fight means a fight. You've got a battle, and a battle means a battle. It doesn't mean it's going to be easy for you. Just expect it to be hard. But sometimes we get to a point, if we're not careful, that we want it a little easier. That doesn't come until later. You fight to the end. You run and you fight until this is over.

Some listening today, I don't know how many, I hope it's not very many, but I know there will be, they’re going to quit running. They’re going to come to this point where they just become weary, weary of fighting, weary of trying to do what is right because they're really trying to do it on their own and they're not really striving to cry out to God and remembering exactly what God said, to have that thankfulness to God Almighty and because that appreciation and that understanding or that thinking is not there then it's easier to turn inward and turn selfish and think about self, "It's just too hard," and give up. Give up. A lot of times that means to give in to what they want to do anyway that's different from what God says you can do. Well, if you want to do it God'll let you do it. He doesn't stop us. He doesn't reach down and stop us from doing something in sin.

Verse 4—And you have not resisted unto blood, striving against sin, to do what is right. Have you forgotten the exhortation that speaks to you as to children: My son, "My child," which is what the word is, do not look down upon the chastening of the Lord. You know, don't begrudge it. Don't take offence at it. Don't be embittered by it because sometimes that happens and oftentimes that comes through the Church, through the ministry to membership. How do we respond to that? And if we use it in the way we should and understand it's done in love, God does everything toward us in love, and if we will receive that love and receive God's correction then we can get back on target. And you know what? Put the past behind. It's gone. Don't worry about it. Just move forward. Move forward. Move forward.

So again here, Have you forgotten the exhortation that speaks to you as to children, My child do not look down upon the chastening of the Lord, nor faint, nor give up when you are rebuked... It's a word that means "to expose; to reprove; convicted." Now, whether we become convicted is up to us, but God will expose and reprove. That's what this word means. …of Him, a God of love, a love of such a powerful, abundant love who has given us so much mercy, so much mercy. So our lives is one of receiving guidance, direction, correction. It's always correcting our course to keep on a right course.

Hebrews 11, backing up here. So we fight and run the race set before us even though we may not fully grasp all that is before us and what will come our way through time, what things we might encounter. Hebrews 11:1—Now faith is the substance of things hoped for. We have so much that we hope for. It's been that way for 6,000 years for God's people, and here we are close to seeing it fulfilled, the big part of it. …the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders (the people of old) obtained a good report, because of how they lived. They put God first and they have a good report and of what's stated about them and what they did that was right and how God has honored various things through time. Even of Abel who cries to us to this day, as God says, "His blood speaks out from the ground to us," from the earth. Incredible. For by it the people of old obtained a good report.

Verse 8—By faith Abraham when he was called to go out to a place which he would receive for an inheritance obeyed. It was simple. He obeyed, did what God said. He just obeyed. "God tells me, that's good. That's all I need. Tell me what I need to do and I'll do it." He obeyed. And he went out, not knowing where he was going, a beautiful example here of faith; just trusted in God. He didn't know what it was all about, had no idea what God's plan was yet for him and his family and things that were going to come from him, and never saw so much of it even come to pass, obviously, but he just kept doing it, whatever God placed before him and believing what God said. Even to the time of being at that point where he was ready to offer his own son because he believed God. God has the power to resurrect, to give life. He believed God's word so he was acting upon it, on the present truth that he had to that point in time and then God said, "No, no, no. Here is the animal. Do it with that. Offer this."

By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles (tents, temporary dwellings) with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. They just believed God. For he looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Beautiful words in what is stated here.

Each of us has been called and called to a most unique calling indeed at a most unique time. That's what makes it so incredible because of the timing. I could think of no other time in all of life that I would rather have been called. I don't know if you feel that way, but if I think of all the past 6,000 years and the time to come before us, this is the time. This is the time I am so thankful to be in. This is the time I am thankful that I have life and that I have it in God's Church because of where we are and what we're going to witness. How many will have witnessed this? Well, there'll be a lot that do who lived in times past. Once they're resurrected they will get to see it, these things that come to a climax and to an end and then a new age brought on, but what an awesome thing to indeed live through all of this.

We've been given a commission by God to support a work at the very end of an age of man's self government on earth. Mr. Armstrong had a commission. God has called people at different times with a certain commission of what was to be done at that time. He understood what that was. God gave to him clearly to see what he was to do, and so do we. So do we in PKG. Incredible. We're the ones who are so blessed to actually move into the land, the time for the promises that were told to Abraham. What words can describe the awesomeness of that, a time when God's Kingdom finally comes to this earth? And we move forward to that. We continue to move forward.

I'm going to review and repeat some of what was given regarding our commission that was stated in a portion of last year's sermon that was given on the Last Great Day. I’m just going to review some things here because there are certain things that we need to be reminded of. There are certain things that we need to have deeply embedded in our thinking about where we are at this point, what has happened, and be in awe of how God works in life.

By Pentecost of 1998 as a group of people, those who were together came to a point in time and God revealed to us that we were fully separate from all other people and organizations that had been scattered after the Apostasy. Now, I'm going to add a little bit here and there as I go through, but I want to read parts of what was said last year and build upon some of that, and we just came to that point. We had to decide. We had to make choices about what we were going to do because we came to a point in time where God made it very clear even when trying to see, where is God? Where is God's government? It has to be here! God's Church has to be here! We went to different Feast sites and it became very clear then in 1997 that you're just going to have to keep moving forward because it's not there and God will show you.

So by the early part of 1998 we came to understand we have to have our own Feast site. We can't do that again. We can't go to other things that are going off course, that are off base, that aren't sound, that aren't moving forward, that don't have any idea what they came out of and where they're going. They don't have any idea of an Apostasy that took place and why it took place and that we all are guilty of what took place, that we all let down, that every one of us fell asleep, every one of us is guilty. So people hear that in a scattered body and think, "You've got to be kidding! You may have fallen asleep, but I didn't." They know where they're going. That's why they keep doing what they're doing, because they're so convicted …to a point.

That period of time between the Feast of '97 and Pentecost of '98 and making the decision to host a feast site up in Canada, well, it became very, very clear. You know what, that was hard. That was hard to do, to do something that you were accustomed to always have been done for you and you went wherever God said. But where was that now? It was a hard decision to make. So God was showing me, showing us things about this group, a small group that He was working with. That was our beginning and it led into our name that followed: The Church of God—Preparing for the Kingdom of God.

What a beautiful name. What a name that is so apropos to where we are and what God is doing with us. Words mean things and God inspired that just like He inspired Mr. Armstrong to change the name of the Church from the Radio Church of God, which was so incredible in those times because never on the earth had there been a means to have the truth go out in such power! They were dumbfounded by such technology and it was dumbfounding. Today we think, "Radio?" Yes, radio. It was powerful and they got on powerful stations and the truth was going out and people were listening and God began to use that to raise up a Church until it got to a certain point where he realized this is a lot more than radio, it's worldwide what God is doing and God is raising up churches all over the world! So it became the Worldwide Church of God. Incredible. Tens of thousands of people being worked with, molded, and fashioned. Powerful! And a Church preparing at the very end for Jesus Christ's return, preparing for the Kingdom of God, I love it! Love it! I know that God gave that to us as sure as I am any other truth that we've ever been given.

So continuing on, God separated a group that was to become His remnant Church, and He revealed exactly that to us. Then God moved me to begin doing what I loathed and hated, writing. I truly did. I can't tell you how much I hated it. I did. I don't anymore. I have learned to enjoy it to a point if I have to do it, once I get into it, but I still don't like it because it's hard even though there are things that God just gives. But it's a hard process for me.

So again, I truly did loathe it. I mentioned how I was horrible in English in college. I knew I wasn't a writer. I hated, hated English, and I did very poorly in it. I didn't like writing. Some of the first things I wrote God began to give me while I was in United and primarily, the beginning, toward the ministry and to the ministry, to all the ministry because I will never forget how certain things began to come to me and brought me to a certain point and I sat down and began writing some of those things about what we were doing. I knew I was being inspired by God to write it, the truth. So it went out to around 400 ministers by email. I brought certain things to their attention that weren't being done that needed to be done, of things that weren't correct and people don't like that. "Who are you?!" I knew who I was. I was one of the least of the ministry out there. I knew that already. Now, there were many other elders counted in that 400 that were in local church areas, but as far as a full-time minister I knew where I was. I had no illusions about that whatsoever. Then there was another letter that followed later on before I resigned addressing some of the things that needed to be addressed within the Church, and that if they were truly going to be true to God and hold fast to what God had given to us then they would address it, or conscientiously we couldn't be a part of it. There was a group that I knew couldn't be a part of it because they believed the same things.

Anyway, little did I know that I needed to do more writing, as I said last year, and I didn't really want to do it. First came the publication of “News Watch.” I really didn't want to do that, but we needed something. There were people out there in different areas and they needed to hear some of the things. There were people who were hungry out there. So because of the Internet and what we're able to do now and an ability to reach out to people, and there were people out there who were wanting answers to various things, and so we started a publication called “News Watch” for the world and for the Church of God, the scattered Church. We realized that there were people out there, not just in Detroit and Toledo, who wanted to hold on and God was opening up some doors there. God did it.

Later it began to be clear that something else could be done, a publication could be written. The first one was entitled, Time is Running Out. Even that title, just as Preparing for the Kingdom of God, I knew that God gave it, early, early, early in the morning. So many things were given early, early, early in the morning, when I had a clear mind. It's like, "Here it is." Wow, the articles that were to be there, and on and on it went. Then a second one, Time Has Run Out, basically to the ministry of the Church, and the Church that was scattered, of individuals who were given responsibility to shepherd God's people, to be truthful about who we are and what we are and what we've come through, but the Church was falling back asleep, the scattered Church that was even broken away after the Apostasy, and people were becoming set in their own ways. We didn't understand it, what was taking place. It was a pretty strong message and people don't like to be spoken to that way: "Who does he think he is?"

I didn't know. I didn't know what God was doing. You know, in those early years we didn't know what God was doing. We were a small group. Johnny called up and our daughter took a message and didn't even understand what he said. She asked him to spell his name and she wasn't sure about the letters because she couldn't understand the letters. Thankfully the numbers were right and we got in contact and here an area outside of Toledo and Detroit began. We just continued to follow God. We had no idea where things were going, no idea whatsoever, but you must put God first. You can't play games with God. You have to be conscientiously truthful about everything you do toward God—lessons to be learned—because if you don't do that God can't work with you. So all of us have to be of that kind of a mind in the conscience, in the mind. You can't go against it. You can't ignore certain things. You can't compromise. We can't compromise with God's way of life. You can't compromise with sin. You can't compromise with family. You can't compromise with people on the job. You've got to stand firm for what God says to do and not obnoxiously so, but just to do it.

I don't even like reading through some of this stuff. I'll be honest with you because I know how God is working and He works through one person, as a whole, to raise up and do like He did through Mr. Armstrong, and I really don't like talking about myself. I'll tell you what, at Ambassador College I learned very quickly on in the Church of God, I got to the point where I abhorred and hated the use of the word "I," "me," "I." I loathed it. God blessed me in growing in that in that process because it's helped a lot because we really should. "I" did this. "I" did that. I heard so much of that kind of thing. It's not about us. It's about God. It's about what God does. It's about how God works in our lives to produce what He produces, but human beings, even within the Church, even within the ministry of God's Church as it was focused too much on self and what they did.

The height of that in my mind is an individual that came over to our house after the Apostasy and sat down with me and with this kind of conversation going back and forth and it's like, "Why are people listening to some of the things you have to say?" He was trying to figure some of this out. I really thought that maybe he was going to make a change. Then he comes over and sits down and talks about, his desire was, was that we come with him in his organization. He was one of the leaders of it until he broke off later on because it wasn't going the way he wanted it to and he couldn't have full control. Anyway, he started telling me about all these churches "I" have raised up. "I raised up several churches over here in the New England states. I raised up churches over here. I did that." I thought…. He didn't want to hear what I thought at that moment in time. "You haughty, arrogant fool to say that before God! That you raised them up?! If they're following God and they're following you because you're following God that's great! You didn't raise them up if they're being raised up. God Almighty did! Who do you think you are?" I was on fire inside. When I hear something like that I thought, "You have got to be stark raving mad!" I knew before that ever happened, "We're not going down the same road and I don't know why you're even in my house. This isn't going to work." Incredible.

Time Has Run Out. Time Has Run Out. Then the unthinkable happened; I write a book. So it came to the summer of 2004. By this time Australia and New Zealand and people in Europe were coming along and had been for a few years. By this point in time there was the first book entitled, The Prophesied End-Time. Still very much toward the Church. We didn't know where God was leading us. We didn't know what was coming to pass and the desire and what God was letting us see was there's a Church out here that's suffering. We'd gone through an Apostasy. That consumed us in many ways because that was our experience and it hurt like mad and we had a desire to be together with others who were scattered, but we couldn't put it all together yet. God let us go through time to learn these lessons, to learn what we needed to learn and to build upon that. I remember a bit of an argument, if you will, that I had with God—that's what it was, basically—on a ship in the Mediterranean while writing this book, while writing a particular chapter in this book because it was becoming clear at that point in time that I was supposed to say that I was a prophet, and I did not want to do it. I reasoned. I tried to reason with God about that. That's why it's stated in the way that it is in the book. If you read that you'll know exactly why it's on the back page there, in the cover part, that it’s in the sense of interpretation of certain prophetic events, but not as a prophet prophet, because I couldn't do it, but I knew that there was something happening where God was leading and some of the things He was doing, and so I did do that.

Then sometime early the following year in 2005 my father-in-law who was kind of seeing himself as Jethro and that's how he talked, and like I better listen, said to Laura, "You're supposed to write another book. You have a work to do to the Laodicean Church." Little did he know what he was saying: "You have a work to do. God's using you and you need to write another book." Yeah, right. That was my attitude. "Not going to happen. Tell your dad not going to happen. One is enough." And sure enough it wasn't long after that I started having ideas and thoughts about things that I knew were starting to come and yeah, there's going to be another book all right. 2008—God's Final Witness.

Most people who are with us today are here as a result of what was written in that book. But it didn't come to pass. Awesome. It didn't happen that way. The Church went through a lot in 2008. That's why it's written about in another book. Awesome! It was that year then after he had said some of those things and a few thoughts came to my mind that I had a heart attack August 5, 2005. I had to have a triple bypass. I discussed with some in the Church if I go, I go. I wasn't jumping up and down for it, but if it's over, it's over, and God's Church goes on. God's in charge, no human being is. So if I don't come through that operation that's the way it is, you go on.

And I am dumbfounded. I think of all that started then. The book started, in 2005 the Feast of Tabernacles, all after that period of time in recovery, which takes a while when you've had your chest totally opened up and the bones have to go back together and heal, and the ability to get around for a little while is kind of tough. So by the time you go through all of August and then part of September and I think about all those sermons that God gave to us in such a powerful way. God's choosing. God just pours it out and there it is. He gave us some of the most awesome things that separated us from everyone else that was scattered in such a powerful manner, something that everyone is going to have to come to acknowledge if they're to live on into the Millennium. There is one Eternal Self-Existing God and His son who began life only after being born of Mary. They have to come to that point in time. They have to come to that level of humility because that is the major thing that they're going to have to address.

So on and on it goes. Then I got to go to camp. Some like calling it a camp because it's not behind the wire, but it's right beside it next door and you're always reminded of it. You get this time off that you really don't want to have but, you know, they kind of insist so you have to do what they insist on you doing. I had had some thoughts about the last book, but I knew I couldn't do it there. I knew that there was no means of doing it because of the job you have to have, things you have to do there, and I didn't have the time, and didn't have access to the Internet. The books they had were dated; a matter of fact, there was one mistake in the book that had to be partially corrected about some of the constellation stuff and so forth because our books were so old. And science went on, but the books didn't, and they don't care if you're living in whatever age you are back there with books. So I knew it wasn't going to happen.

So how could it happen? Let him have a heart attack. Let him have another one and let him flat line and that inspired me because I knew that now I had the time. I knew that I didn't have to go to work. Oh, and that no one would say anything because he's had a heart attack and everybody knows it. They know he flat lined. It went throughout the camp, "This is what he went through." So you don't have to go to work for the rest of the time you're here, you know, until you're out. I knew now I can write it. That's why when I shared with you just over the telephone and some of those things in the feast about how could you write a chapter in three and a half days? Now, it's required the editors to work three and a half years to correct it all and to get all that together. No, I'm kidding. But three and a half days! It's impossible. And on and on it went like that and what started out, I think it was two weeks, and then on down. It was like it's getting faster and faster. And anyway, such an incredible thing to go through, to live through, to experience God strengthening a person with purpose and direction and what needs to be accomplished and why it needs to be accomplished and to understand where we're going, why we went through everything that we did in 2008. Thank God He finally started revealing more of it because it didn't fit together. What's happening? Well, until you get the answer you move forward. We are the Church of God! We have 57 Truths! Is there any doubt? Was there any doubt then in people's minds? Well, there might have been. There was in some who are no longer with us. You follow God and you keep moving forward.

How deeply convicted are you of those truths? Some didn't want to embrace them simply because of their incredible prejudice toward women. They just couldn't accept that. "You've got to be loony tunes. Women in the ministry too?! You have really skipped a beat." Amazing what's happened through time, isn't it?

Anyway, we're here now. The book says it all. That's our commission. When The Prophesied End-Time came out that was the commission we had at that point in time, to get it out. It was for the scattered Church. Did the scattered Church want it? Nope.

There are some here today because of The Prophesied End-Time. I know Glen is, and he's the one I remember in that respect because he saw an ad in the Dallas paper of our advertisement, which we never advertised in. He went back two different times and did searches. And you know what? He couldn't find it because it wasn't there. I don't know about that guy, but he's here because he saw an address and he went for it and he got it and God blessed him and here he is today. Amazing! So that book, even though it was our commission to do something to that degree in that time, it was a process of leading us and working with us and building. It led to the next and the next, which I truly hope and believe with all my being it is the last. But I've learned not to say "never." Please, don't let that happen. Anyway, that's my feeling.

So I mentioned in that sermon last year about going over to the book of Judges, and we're not going to go through all of that right now, but I think of what God gave to Joshua. You know, there are stories there that are so incredible, that God gave various things through time, and there are things that were given at certain times for a purpose and a specific way because it was going to reveal and show something that God would do later on in a greater way, and things that we would be able to use and take to heart and see ourselves in what God gave to those people at that time. I think about what God gave to Gideon and to the number of people who were a part of that. I think about the lessons of that. You remember the tens of thousands here? I don't remember exactly how many. Ten thousand went back and another ten thousand went back, and another, and God said, "Go down by the water and those who lap in a certain way, drink water in a certain way, keep them and send the rest back, send the rest home." And he ended up with three hundred people. You're going to fight a massive army that's in the valley that's scary, and at night time with all their fires going throughout that valley, all the camels they had, as it talks about, all the military that was there, the different peoples who'd come together, who had united to come up against them. It's scary stuff and you end up with three hundred people? "And you want us to do what?!" That had to be exceedingly tough. I can't begin to comprehend what that would be like because you know what's over the valley. You can see what's out there at night time and you can see the dust and the various things in the daytime, and to think that this is what God's going to give you to go out and fight them? It'd be hard not to be like Sarah, "You've got to be kidding, God. This is going to be a joke."

They did it because God was going to show He is the one who did it; He is the one who turned the armies against each other. He had to give various kinds of encouragement to Gideon on a regular basis there. The fleece one way? I can see it. It's not hard to grasp. "Okay, God," thinking maybe something physically could happen, of why he could put the fleece out there and all the ground is wet and the fleece isn't. It must be something unique about sheep fleece on the ground or something, so, "Okay, let's reverse the process. Only the fleece is wet and the ground is dry." God did it and then you still have hesitation and God shows you some more and gives you encouragement, "I'm doing it."

I think of us. We're not supposed to be big. We're not supposed to be great in the sense of numbers. It's not about numbers. But there is a work to be done and God gives enough to do what needs to be done and we're here because of that, to share in a work that God has given us an opportunity to be a part of. We all share; every one of us, we share and we're a part. What an incredible part, to be one of those that is able to do, to be a part and to be known for that in time. You think these people aren't well known and throughout history will be spoken of? Well, they have been in the Church forever, in that respect, and they will be for 1,100 years beyond. And so will you. So will you. Awesome!

So, our commission moving forward – The book Prophesy Against The Nations. That word "prophesy" is causing sometimes people a problem. In some languages it even becomes more difficult because of the structure. But again, we're going with what God has given and this is what it's about, and it's p-r-o-p-h-e-s-y, prophesy and it's not prophecy. So sometimes we put the "cy" in the end and it's a common mistake that can be made, but it's Prophesy Against the Nations. Again, kind of awkward, from what I understand, in some other languages, and maybe even a little bit in English. But that's what it is, what God is doing, what God has sent out for a purpose and His warning and His desire, "If you will listen, I will listen, and I'll help you." But listening, as they're going to learn, requires more than just hearing what He has to say. It's a desire to start making a few changes along the way.

So I want to mention this up front. The site is up as you know, it's spread around, and we're trying to encourage people to not just put in the address prophesyagainst.com but to go to Google and to put in a search, the search for the book. Because, you see, if you just put in the address that doesn't benefit us. So you can go look at it. So we're encouraging people, whenever you check your email, which is once or twice, three times, four times a day, whatever it is, do a search on Google. It won't hurt. There will be a little help there because the more search things that show up the more it tends to raise things up in recognition in the page and there aren't a whole lot of people going to that one anyway so we shouldn't have too much trouble. So if you understand what I'm saying here in the search engine part, in Google down below, not up in the address area, put in prophesy against or put in the name of the book Prophesy Against the Nations or whatever. Then when you see it down below click on to it, to that address prophesyagainst.com and that will be to our credit then. It helps to elevate the rating of the book on the site.

So anyway, I thought I'd mention to you a few things here. So far Spanish, Italian, French, they're up on the site. Next, I believe, it's likely going to be the Dutch and then the German, and as they're able to be formatted and put on the site they will be. We also encourage people in their own languages to search in your language for the site – not yet in Dutch and German because there's nothing there, but in Spanish, Italian, and French to do searches in the same manner. We've had some unique things to work with throughout this process but they're getting there.

But I mentioned last year the timing of things centers around this. That's why I was very confident we have another year's Feast of Tabernacles because this is going to take time. When this first happened we went to visit the same place that had printed the book before and had considered various things of printing the book and distributing the book and we were going to roll into it immediately. One of their suggestions was, well, if you would wait, I think it was about six months or something like that, then we could put this into our process whereby it would be picked up more by others because of the way the book industry works. I thought, "You've got to be nuts." I didn't say that. But, no, we need it right now. So we had books printed up for the Church primarily. God showed me after a while here no, that's not nuts. As a matter of fact, we need to change something here. No more printed books. Not in any language, period. To try to print books, the cost of sending them out, the money, the funds we will use instead strictly in the Internet and the process of doing this and people can read them in eBooks or kindle, or on the computer, or print them off if they want to because of the PDF files. Now, that's a lot of pages and a lot of money and a lot of pages to spit out, but in the long run it's so much better than for us throwing money out there in stamps and printing of books and the time it takes to do all these things. Yet on the Internet it's right there and it gives us the ability to reach more people this way potentially than if we try to print them.

So we're not even going to try to print them or have them out there in any fashion or form. We're not going to be bothered by any of that because as things happen, when they happen, and as they happen there'll be a window of time, a window of time and then it shuts. God will work with and deal with whom He will; other things will have to be spread by mouth, word of mouth. So that's where we are.

So the question comes up, "What about next year?" I don't have the foggiest idea. I would love if we could have another Feast of Tabernacles. There won't be another one like this I'm sure, because of people having travelled so far, from other countries and so forth. So we're going to plan for one soon after the feast. Maybe we’ll have two in the U.S. "Do you want to divide us up?" I don't know. It may go that route. God hasn't given the answer yet, but we may make it a little bit easier. There may be some other reasons for that as well. I don't know. I'm not counting on there being another one, but you know what? I would love it if there were because that means a shorter time for the kinds of things we have to go through that we will have to experience. And it can be done in a rather short time. Do we grasp it? I marvel at this, how that the only way that people will repent and change is if they get hit once and then again and again and again, and the consecutive times they are it just keeps repeating so that they can't slip back into this, "This is kind of a norm for life." On the contrary! It's something that becomes greater as you go along, scarier as you go along, more horrifying as you go along. It doesn't have to be over a long period of time, but it takes that to humble people, to humble this world. It's going to take that to humble this country and the rest of the world.

So I think of some of the things coming out in the news right now. I was listening to it the other night here and I was dumbfounded because I remember when writing the book that there were very few, but there were some that I even quoted, who spoke of the potential for things happening. I think one was about something George Soros had stated concerning the economy and concerning what would happen if the United States didn't receive and accept China fully into the bank, having to do with the International Monetary Fund. Anyway, whatever it was that George said then there was this struggle in time and what they were doing because they were setting up their own banking system and other nations joining it. We tried to keep certain nations out, the United States did, from joining that pact over there and nation after nation just kind of caved in and starting joining it. But he spoke of the fact that if we didn't do that, he spoke of the potential of a great war, of a world war. So you could find an article here and there where someone might talk about it.

And look at today. You know, if you're not careful you become numb to some of this and you begin to think this is our norm and this is okay to talk like this, some talking about how well, we've just got to get used to living under a kind of nuclear umbrella. It's just kind of something we have to live like we did with Russia for so, so long in the fifties and this thought that maybe something could happen. We're kind of at a point in time where we can't do much about it so we're just going to have to get accustomed to living like that, that we're under this and that's going to be our new norm in life. It's like nothing's going to happen, but that's going to be kind of our new norm, to have this existence. That's how it was kind of put across. It's going to be out there. Nobody is going to do anything. Then over the last few days there’s talk of World War III, World War III, World War III, war, war, war, nuclear war, nuclear war, North Korea, Trump and what he's saying, President Trump and what he's saying, and some of the comments coming out, and some of the newscasters coming out and some of the things they're saying about what's supposedly fake news. They probably put it out there on purpose. Anyway, he's calling on raising it from 4,000 nuclear weapons to 40,000 – ten times more, all this crazy talking that's going on.

And you know what? People are being pushed into corners and it's not nice when you push people into corners and nations who have such power and some of the things that are taking place. It only takes one dumb little incident and if some try to move one person out of office, out of power, you know there are wars that are started; there are things that happen in history for people to remain in power. That's the way the human mind works. People do things and somebody is going to do it.

You think Russia and China aren't taking to heart what they see? Do you think leaders aren't concerned about what they're hearing? Do you think they're not making plans and changing some of their plans because of what they're hearing? Do you think that the talk and the thought of something pre-emptive is becoming more of a reality today than it ever has been? Absolutely. The talk about raising up a military and making it much, much stronger because the jets are getting old and they're falling apart, and the ships and look at the condition of things, and so you're going to pump billions into that, and how do you think that some other countries like China and Russia are going to think about that one? Because if we're going to do what we're going to do, do we wait or do we act? That's the world we live in. It doesn't take much and your whole world will be turned upside down. At some point that's what happens. And when it starts no one can stop it. No one can stop it.

What has to happen first is the demise of one great nation to where it can't fight back. It may to a level. It may to a point. That just escalates the war, the power, the unleashing of certain things that takes place. We know that Europe gets involved for a short time. They agree on something and then regret it as soon as they've done it. As soon as they've launched what they're going to do. When they finally agree, it'll be ten nations that agree to do something about it all against China and Russia. This whole world, nukes flying back and forth. We can't imagine it. We can't grasp it. They're all over Europe; they just have to be seized. A matter of fact something stupid that happened because of NATO, a whole bunch of them got caught in Incirlik in Turkey. We had a smear of them over there that they claimed we got out because of the uprising and the government and so forth, and the government, they claimed they got them out of there into some other place. I don't think they got them out.

Things can happen so quickly, brethren, and they will when they begin to take place. So all we have to do is watch what's happening, what's going on in the news, and realize we have a window of time to do something. That's what we're pushing forward to do, to accomplish. So as time goes along we'll begin some form of advertising in all those languages for all those things to start the ball rolling. But that's only to a point because only when something finally does happen of such magnitude, then, then the word of mouth. You don't have to advertise. When certain things come to pass there are going to be people who are going to be scared to death. The unthinkable is finally happening. It's finally starting. And they, the world as a whole, especially the western world, people are going to be scared to death. If they hear of a few answers here and there that some know of it will spread quickly for a time.

Will they come into God's Church? We were talking about this before services today. It's not like before 2012, what would have happened, could have happened if that had been the time, but that wasn't the time. Things changed. Everything has changed. Everything is changing. Nothing is totally absolute because it's not clear as to what choices people will make as they're brought to this point, but the potential is greater than ever before to bring them to a point so they can choose to repent and choose to make changes. You think Russia will? You think Germany will? You think China will? I don't know, but it would certainly be an awesome thing if some did to a certain point at some point, but the heart of man and the hardness of mankind runs so deep, and it may end up not being much different than what it was if it had been at the point of 2012. We don't know yet, but at least God is offering that and no one can say that God wasn't incredibly merciful and patient.

Let's turn over to Revelation 7:1. Just have a few scriptures here to look at and to talk about before we conclude. This was spoken of earlier. And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree, speaking of some specific event, a specific event. And I saw another angel descending from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, and this right in the flow speaking of what takes place in four trumpet sounds that go up throughout the earth, and then when it comes time for them to be fulfilled and here it's talking of the first four. Why? Because it all starts there. It starts with one great nation, as a whole, as to what will happen, that eventually then tapers out into all the rest. But it all begins here, four powerful things wham, wham, wham, wham. Almost and very closely related to one event, just like what happened at the beginning to the Church. Wham, wham—all connected—wham, wham. Very much akin, very much like that. All related, all a part to accomplish the same thing, and it's about what God said would happen, in essence, to Manasseh, and very likely to a certain degree, to a certain point that which will spin off and happen to Ephraim as well, but primarily to Manasseh.

Again here, And I saw another angel descending out of the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Do not hurt the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, speaking of specific events that they are given, in essence, as a part of what is stated through them when it finally begins. Do not hurt these things. Do not start this. This cannot begin until we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. We believed because of the present truth of where we were between 2008 and 2012 that led up to a certain time of people who were indeed awesomely blessed to come to a specific moment in time, if indeed and for those who did, lived faithfully before God, but because of God's purpose and God's plan there is something that continued on and that's what God is letting us know today.

The sealing isn't over. The sealing is not complete. There are others, whatever that few might be to be brought into it, primarily because of what took place, of what we experienced. Awesome when you understand it and understand why and the power of God to do what He's doing. So the servants of our God must be sealed. That means those who are going to be a part, who are a part of God's government, the 144,000. Awesome! We don't worry about who we know. God has a purpose and a plan and various ones will fit into this. So "not hurting" is referring to not hurting the earth from the first four of the Seven Trumpets, catastrophic events that are going to take place.

And I heard the number of them who were sealed, and there were sealed one hundred and forty-four thousand, as it is into, if you will, all the tribes, of those names, of the children of Israel. Awesome! Something that God is still working on and working with different ones who were faithful in 2012 and God said, in essence, I am now working with you, because something happened to some others who had that opportunity and because of what they did in 2008 God rejected them.

That's an awesome thing to understand about the might and the power of God because God knows people. He knows what's in our minds. There are incredible things that can happen in life depending on how people respond to various things that take place. God has the power to set aside individuals and to work with them, and some of that stuff that would have taken place up to 2012, but it's because of what happened in 2008 that God determined another period of time, and because of that altered some of the course with certain ones who had been worked with to that point in time to be able to be a part of God's Kingdom. But because of what they went through and certain kinds of choices that had taken place He said, "No." Now, some of them He could have brought through it all to 2012. God has incredible power and knows us, but there are certain things that He allows to happen at times to teach incredible lessons, and He's still teaching.

It's good to add to that something that was given in Revelation 3 to an era of God's Church because there's some incredible lessons here to learn from this. God can do whatever He wants and chooses to do and to fulfill His purpose and His plan His way and no one can disagree with that and say, "How can You do that? How can You do that? How can you change that at that point in time?" Because certain things changed, God can say, "Hey, you don't deserve it. Because of some things you have done you don't deserve it now. You could have received it if it had happened at this period of time, but because of some of your actions," in essence in a sense of saying, "you've disqualified yourself to receive such honor and glory at this time and I'm not going to give it to you because of what you've chosen to do." To bring to repentance? Yes, He could have because He knows them.

Just like so many in the scattering and the Apostasy, they're just asleep. They’re still God's people and even in that, as a whole, different ones can be worked with in different ways into the Millennium and some perhaps in the Great White Throne, but so many have the opportunity of being able to be worked with, to be shaken, to be awakened. God can do that at any moment in time because He loves them. He's done work in them and they have responded to Him. They have done, lived a certain way of life up to a point in time as they've drifted off to sleep, just like so many of us. A very merciful and a very powerful God we serve.

Revelation 3:11, something given or spoken of to the era of Philadelphia. Behold, I come quickly. Hold that fast which you have that no man take your crown, that no man take what is offered to you right now, what has been placed before you right now, the message for those who are being given opportunity to live on into the Millennium, because there is a glory and an honor, and you and because of what you will go through before that happens will tend to be of a more humble spirit because of what you've experienced, and you have the capacity and the ability to carry an honor that you lived at the very end of the age in a remnant group whom God called. And you will be known for that. People will, when they meet you and learn, "You were one of those?" Because there aren't that many. "You were one of those?" I was going to say something, but I don't know if I should or not.

Men and women, young men and women, don't worry about the world right now and various things that you desire in your life, in sharing of your life with someone else because they will be flocking to get to know you. "Do you know who moved in over there? She/he, they were with that group and continue on." You don't know the kind of popularity. But you can't let it go to your head (because that's human nature), but because of what you experience and what you go through you'll be able to deal with it and not let it go to your head. And what lies beyond that is far more mindboggling, but you can lose it all. You can lose it all just like this. Don't let anyone take your crown. Don't let anyone. Because you know what? There are things God's going to fulfill one way or the other in His Family and different areas within His Family.

Now, that's a little different to live on into that period of time but some of the same principles still apply as to how we think and what we're doing, to understand it only takes a little bit of stupidity. It only takes certain sin and drifting away and then being cut off for God to say, "Nope. It's the Great White Throne." Can you imagine, giving up something toward the end and then being resurrected at the end of the Millennium? Can you think about the feelings and the emotion that might be there and you're just going to want a big boot to be kicking the tar out of your rear-end and weeping and gnashing of teeth for an understanding of what was given up, that now, hey, you've got a hundred years for sure to work through it. Whereas whatever's remaining, 60 years, 70 years, and to be in that incredible resurrection that will take place at the end of a thousand years – work for that. Work for that! Fight for that! Desire that! Understand what God is offering you. Grab hold of it. Hold fast to what God is offering you.

Because I'll be candid with you, not everyone listening today will! Every year! Every year! And I think why? Why? God's paved the way for us. Can we see a bit of a glimpse of what's ahead of us and what we have opportunity to partake of and to be a part of? Grab hold of it because it can vanish just like that.

So I think of different ones in 2008 who had a difficult time with just one little change, when Jesus Christ was going to return, what holy day. Some had attitude and I knew it. Some had attitude who are listening today, but they came through it and they repented, but some just kind of kept in an attitude and talked and said things that they shouldn't have. They allowed themselves to become embittered. They allowed themselves to become upset. They allowed themselves to think various kinds of things that we should fight against in our mind. God's all powerful. See, it's not towards His ministry, it's toward Him. That's how He receives it because He's the one that gives it. He's the one who did it. He's the one who determined what He determined. He's the one who gives us what we need when we need it. He's the one who reveals various things at different stages. We can't decide when God's going to reveal something to us and give us something that we don't understand, and to learn whatever it is from it at any stage in time. That's a great example of it. God's in charge. God is the one who gives us present truth, whatever that is, to that point in time. No human being can do that. No one has that power and ability or right. God does it. So He reveals things in His time according to His will and then it's up to us how we receive it.

That's why we went through something that's written in the book, but I know is not grasped in its fullest by any measure, just to varying degrees in the Body. As time goes on we will learn to appreciate and understand those things more and more deeply when we see, when we grasp. How many times do we hear a sermon and all of a sudden think, "Is that what he said? I don't remember that, when he said that. I heard it maybe a year ago, two years ago. I don't remember that being said." Or when reading something in the book and then reading it again and we think, "I didn't catch that." God has to give it, a little here and a little there. It's always been that way, just as it is in this book. We read things and until we get to a certain point we can't see something and then all of a sudden God shows something. "Man, that's so clear!" But it hasn't been. But when God shows it, now, awesome, it's clear. We can see it. Beautiful.

Behold, I come quickly. Hold fast that which you have that no man take your crown, that no one take your crown, what God has placed before you and offered to you. It's because of that that there are some whom God rejected and said, "You're not going to be in that resurrection," though there are some of those that He could have brought through, but because of the choices and attitude and so forth He said no, and it's opened up.

Certain things were not allowed to happen on the earth. How long has it been since various things? I think about hurricanes, how long it's been. Things have been held back, not allowed to happen. God Almighty has that power. I think of various world events held back until it's God's time, and things that are heating up in the world. And the more we do, the more that gets done with the book, each language that gets on there it's going to heat up. It's going to get stirred up more and more and more. That's why I don't know; we don't know whether we have another Feast of Tabernacles we can keep together. We don't know.

To him that overcomes, a word that means, "to conquer," and that fighting to conquer never ends. It's a battle all your life. To him that overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. So speaking first and foremost here to a structure of what God is building, of 144,000 and the first resurrection. To him that overcomes will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, all will be a part of that that have opportunity in that resurrection, to be a part of a great structure that God is building because everything else is going to be built on top of it. Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone and everything else from there on.

And he shall go out no more. And I will write upon him the name of my God, the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from God. And I will write upon him my new name. He that has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the Churches. So just before, not long before the feast, God was making it clear here certain things have been held back for a purpose and for a reason. They're still being held back for a purpose and a reason, because there's a molding and fashioning and a bit of a catching up to do and work to prepare—I don't know how many. Five? Seven? Twelve? I don't know. I don't know the number; God knows, who are taking the crown, who God is giving the crown to. It comes more alive. So many people throughout the time of the Church. I think of so many who have been called and so many who have gone by the wayside, so many; many, many, many more than who come through it, who conquer, who become the chosen of God. It's something you've got to fight for. Fight. Be determined to be here next year because the message is not everyone will be. Don't think falsely about it. Don't think, "Oh, yes, but I will be." Only if you fight. Only if you fight and fight to the end.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1