Herbert W Armstrong

   While we were up working with it, I noticed I looked across sometimes at Al Kilibrew and I could see that he had tears in his eyes. As he was listening to Doc Kessler and Dick Walter and Syd Hegal and others telling about some of the experiences they had had as young men in a time of their lives when men like Al and myself were experiencing and enjoying Ambassador College. Sometime during the week, one of us said, I think, a very meaningful and inspiring thing, and I can't remember if it was Al or Steph or myself, probably myself, um, because it was meaningful and inspiring. But seriously, is that, you know, I'm getting a different message from this, quite apart from the one these men are giving.

   We were getting a new feeling of respect. And a new feeling of, I don't know, compassion, brotherliness, love, concern for these men who are talking because it's so easy to look upon them as they are today. And not to realize that these men have had some horrific experiences that perhaps because they had them, men of my generation and younger didn't have to have them. And many times going over that material, I began to feel differently about Dick Walter and Selma Hegold, the men who I've known for many years in a way that I never have before.

   I remember it crossed my mind at one stage, and I don't mind saying it, that at one stage I just felt like saying, you know, that as far as I'm concerned, I want to see that nobody ever hurts Doc Kessler again or nobody ever insults Selma Hegbold again. There's been enough of that and in God's church and being a part of it and now as brothers. It made me feel more like a team, more like a part of them than I ever had before. And as a younger man dealing with their material and being responsible for editing it and putting it in the way that would get it into the slot that was allotted, it was a humbling experience for the three of us working on it and as I say, it gave us a new feeling of respect and appreciation and love.

   I know there are many more men in God's work, and maybe we're talking to Mr. Tkach about it, Larry Mastro and myself. Maybe we might want to make this into a bit more of a feature, maybe an hour movie or something, because it is one of the best deterrents of war when you see converted men talking about it. I know that Mr. Henry Cornwall could tell us about his experiences in the French Resistance. Maybe he wouldn't want to. I know that Sid Hegal didn't want to because it drags out painful images. Doc Kester didn't sit there like an old war horse glorying in it. It was painful for him, and I know Joe Tkach had tears in his eyes as he was talking to us.

   Mr. Carrion, the minister in France, has got an astonishingly macabre tale to tell of hostage and execution and so on. There's a man in the church in Oregon who was um in a concentration camp. Auschwitz is a man in the church in Melbourne, Australia who was 3 1/2 years in Buchenwald. And It's sobering.

   One of the things that Doc Kasper said, which made a big impression on me was the statement, and he said that as the Nazis used up their prisoners, there were many more to take their place, and we found a photograph of the miles and miles of prisoners of war from Russia pouring into Germany from the eastern front, telling of the just the way in which the Nazis regarded human life. Now on the other hand, we were trying very carefully not to make this anti-German because no race has got a corner on the market when it comes to human nature. And that's why we wanted to show you Vernie Eben's story of what it was like to be on the other side and suffer the savagery of American bombs and British bombs.

   Another thing that made an impression on me was Jack Webber's comment on the taking of Peulu Island, and at the end of it, he said the tragedy was when 8500 young men had given their lives for this cause. Later on they found it wasn't even needed. And the island need not have been taken. It's heavy stuff to deal with, and it shows the attitude of Satan, our adversary, and our enemy, towards human beings and the value of human beings. And it shows the ruthlessness, the lack of concern, perhaps the dedication in which he goes about being the adversary of all mankind.

   In the scripture in John 10:10, John verse 10, 10:10, we usually memorize the first part of that verse, but I think Christ is contrasting his attitude towards the human race with that of his adversary, the thief. The one who would like to do the opposite of Jesus Christ. Who's got no motive for dealing with human beings, but resentment and hostility and a desperate attempt to see they do not get life and have it more abundantly. And Christ said, the thief comes not but to steal, to kill, and to destroy. The thief personified and Satan has no other reason basically for dealing with the human race. However, covet his activity, whether he appears as an angel of light or whatever, he has no real reason for dealing with the human race except for the reason that to steal them away, to kill them, and leave them in a condition whereby their true Father in heaven has to have them destroyed, and this is the goal and the purpose of Satan.

   And so to Satan, Bill Kessler was a threat. Because if Satan didn't do something about him, He was going to live forever. Jack Webber's goals and hopes for his life as a young man meant nothing to Satan. Basically, he maneuvered the men, the governments of men in such a position where men like Jack were loaded onto ships, sailed off to some remote island that no one had ever heard of and no one wanted, and had the life blasted out of them on some beach. Or Dick Walter. Clayton didn't see and Dick Walter the librarian who loves to serve and help up at the Ambassador College Library, he saw a threat. One of the billions of people who have ever lived, the Satan would like to get rid of. He didn't see Anselma Hegal, the loving father of many fine children, but someone whose existence had to have something done about it.

   Instead of instead of loading his mind with good memories and fine memories of his children growing up, Mr. Hegwald's mind was loaded by Satan and his way and his system with horror and brutality to the point where Mr. Hegwald said, and we didn't use all his material, we didn't have time for it. He was saying that when he came back from the war, if he heard a bang at night or if his wife touched him, he would dive out of bed and try and dive into a foxhole for months and months after the II World War. Or young Vernie Evans. Satan wanted to sear his mind and destroy it with scenes of horror, misery and resentment. Satan never saw a potential evangelist in Joe Tkach, but rather a young tough, self-admitted and confessed young tough, but Satan would rather have used those years to turn him into someone who would shoot his fellow man out of the sky. In order to survive himself, giving, as Mr. Tkach said, him memories that men shouldn't have to deal with. And of course Doc Kessler. And the horrors and the chops and the things that he's had to live with. And he doesn't tell you the whole story. De Kessler will tell you the whole story about what those years of war did to Doc Kessler.

   They begin to understand more and more what it means when Satan, dealing with people who have the potential to be sons of God and to serve God, instead become tools of Satan and his governments. Satan has no constructive plan to deal with mankind. He has no goal, no purpose, no end product except. That we have stolen away, killed, and destroyed. And if this is what Satan can achieve by whatever means, then he feels he has succeeded.

   I don't want to dwell on that over much today, but go back then to the first part of this verse, John 10 and 10. I mean the second part of the verse, where it says, I am come that they may have life and they may have it more abundantly. Christ contrasting himself with the way in which the thief deals with mankind, Christ says, my dealings with a human being and the human race, is so that they may have life and enjoy it more and more and more. And other scriptures show many, many places show that Christ's idea for man, Christ's way of dealing with man, the things Christ wants to do with man, is to make them like he is, to be God.

   Now we've heard a lot in the last year, 2 years about loyalty, and we needed to have heard a lot about loyalty. We needed to understand what Christ expects in terms of loyalty to government. We needed to understand exactly what it means to be under a government of God, so we're responsive to that government of God. Let's just turn it round this afternoon and say, OK, as a church, as a group, we're beginning to understand through the human government, at least the human government of God structure that God has placed over us, that it works. And that when we do get behind someone that has been placed in charge at whatever level right up to including the apostle, things work. When we don't, there's a lot of activity, but nothing constructive seems to get done. OK, we're learning that lesson and I think more and more of us are making it a part of us.

   I wasn't worried. I was anxious, but I wasn't worried about whether or not Mr. Armstrong would allow a second group to go to Thailand. I told Mr. McNair, if Mr. Armstrong says no, there's a better reason for them not going than I can think of that they should go. Dr. Hoeh and I discussed that many times. We leave it entirely to Mr. Armstrong. I'm glad Mr. Armstrong made the decision he had, but I sure wouldn't have wanted to even thought about sending them if he didn't. Now we've probably been able to hold the Laotian government back for another 6 months. Ha, good. So now the problems begin is who we're going to send. And to prevent the suicides of those who can't go. Crazy bunch.

   But let's look around again and say since. We are loyal to Christ. And to his Father, what then is their responsibility to us? Since he says, I'm not like Satan, I haven't come to steal you, to kill you or to destroy you, but I've come that you may have life and have it more abundantly. Where does Christ see his responsibility now? To Dick Walton. Or John Hel or whoever. And there's quite a lot in the Bible about it. Because loyalty is, as we've always said, a two-way street.

   Page 2 and 10 minutes in and there's 4 pages. How about that? You know, to put it in context today, there is a tremendous amount to worry about living in America. Everybody is concerned about investment. Everybody is concerned about things. My feeling is we live in a society that is so crazily overdeveloped that we hardly see a true value when we accidentally do recapture one because we're overdeveloped. There's so much. To experience so much to feel, so much to see that it's awfully hard to see the good from the bad, but because we live probably higher up the pole. In terms of physical existence than any people ever have any time. There's also a lot to be worried about, and you know and I know that every week we see ministers and we see brethren doing what Christ warned could happen in Matthew 13:22. Where in the Parable of the sower. He said that he that received the seed among the thorns is he that heard the words. But the care of this world. The sheer pressure of problems that come on a person as a result of living in this kind of a world. And the deceitfulness of riches. Not riches per se, but the deceitful aspect of being rich. The sense of false security. And then the threat of poverty meaning insecurity. By definition is what would happen. Choke the word, strangle it, prevents it from really making progress in developing a human being's potential, and he becomes unfruitful, and then. He falls away.

   We're an investment crazy society. We're trying to preserve some of this wealth. It's almost like there's a 6th sense. In America today that things are going to go wrong and they're going to fall flat and somehow we've got to have something tangible, something we can hold, something we can get to hang on to in such a way that when it all falls apart, at least I'm all right.

   I went to visit a man over in Glendale about 2 months ago. He wasn't a church member, but he wanted to talk about something. And he said to me, "Well, at least when things all fall apart, my wife and I are going to be all right." I said, "Oh yeah, I'm pleased to hear that. You want to see why?" I said, "Yeah, you bet I do." They took me down to the garage, and there were 2 new automobiles. And he said, "Ah, but that's not everything. It's all good." He opened up the trunk and the trunk was a solid diesel fuel tank. Well, I mean it was empty, you know what I mean, it was all full of diesel. The whole trunk space was taken up with this. He said, "Look, I've got enough there for thousands of miles. I'm going to be all right, good for you." Well, it's fine.

   Two, we don't have to worry about the tribulation. Does a week go by in which Anaheim's Savings doesn't ask you to transfer your paltry account to them? In exchange for a free teddy bear. Or free travelers checks that you couldn't afford anyway. I mean, it's a terrible thing to have just a little bit of money. Everybody wants it. We'll offer you an extra 0.25%. And free checking Or free throw pillow, or 2 years' supply of Fritos. Just let's have your money.

   American Express sent me today a thing that offered me a gold pendant. Um, for about $32 or something, and you know, can you afford to be without gold much longer? Well, yes, I can. Um, I can't afford to be with it. I mean, basically, but you know, get, collectibles, old bottles, old gramophone records, stamps, beer cans. It's only a matter of time before we start collecting garbage. And a collector's item, an old carrot or something like that, anything. That has some value, something you can touch, and this is the way it is slanted.

   I know a lot of people might disagree with the statement I might make now when I say that I see, I have noticed from guys I've known in the ministry, and I know a lot of other ministers will agree with this, just from the point of view of ministers that the quality of our ministry. And also the length of time we seem to stay in it seems to be adversely proportional to how concerned we become about our wealth and our security. I know I've watched men who've been good friends of mine in the ministry wither and die on the vine because they've been what? "Well, I haven't got a house. I haven't got this. I haven't got that. I haven't got my own this, on that, and you know, and so on. What have I got after all my years of working?" Looking at it physically, you sometimes can let those things gnaw at you. "Well what happens if the work does go on and I do become as old as, you know. Somebody else. Uh, what, what, what happened?" Well, you know, once you start thinking that way, it seems that quality of ministry and commitment begins to drop because God intended his ministers to rely on him.

   But Everybody that has got it has called should be making their main concern to build the true riches. In I Timothy 6, and I think it's interesting, this is in the book that is devoted to the instruction of a minister learning his trade. But godliness with contentment is great gain because so often we do measure our success by the things that we have, and Christ told us not to do that. We brought nothing into this world and it is certain that we can carry nothing out. You know how much Howard Hughes left at the end of his life? All of it! And having food and raiment led us there with the content. But they that will be rich fall into a temptation and a snare, a trap, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts. Whether it's speculating on the stock market. I not saying that's wrong. I'm, I really don't know anything about it, but I do know the guys have gone right out of Christ's ministry because of worry over that kind of thing. But the first thing you do in the day is to open up the LA Times and see whether you're rich or not, or poorer.

   Which drown men in destruction and perdition, for the love of money is a root of all evil, which, while some coveted after they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But you, man of God, flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness, and so on. Dwight was talking about in the sermon.

   In I John chapter 2 and verse 15. I John 2:15. Christ showed us that there is a more permanent investment. That is real. That is just as tangible. I think I have been tithing to, as far as I know, faithfully for 20 years. Now some people would say that was awfully dumb, as they say you would. But if you say that I've been putting 10% of my money into a real estate deal and it's going to pay off handsomely one day, they seem to think that makes more sense. And if you think about it, if you're going to have authority over 10 cities, that may be just exactly what you're doing.

   I John 2:15, he says, "Don't love the world or the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For the things that are in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of the Father, of the life is not of the Father but is of the world. The world passes away," and this is the verse I want to focus on. "The world passes away and the things we lust after as well. But he who does the will of God is going to last forever."

   So there is then a more permanent investment. And one of the lessons we must learn about Jesus Christ is he wants us to take his relationship with us as an asset. As a real asset, as a tangible asset, as something you can rely on. Uh, some of you have got your Wells Fargo cards in your secret code today or yesterday, right? Which means you can you know go along and play with the computer and, you know, plug something in and out comes $100 providing you don't do it too often. Uh, it's a wonderful idea. I don't trust those things myself. We Ephraimites are suspicious of some of this stuff.

   I what happened to my American Express card in Burma once when I just got a nice new one and I gave it to the guy who'd never seen one before, but he found the machine from somewhere, pushed it this way and ripped all the letters up and pushed it this way and ripped it in half and so. I know that I'm going to risk my nice new card in one of their machines. But I can go along there and play it and put in my secret code and make the right signs, and it'll tell me how much I've got in the bank, on the screen. And that shows my assets financially.

   Well, Christ wants us to think about his relationship with us and what he can do with us and our citizenship of the kingdom of God as something just as real, in fact, realer, and something we can draw on. And something we can rely on to see us through. We have a relationship with us that goes so much more beyond the typical relationship of a government to its subjects.

   In Luke 12:33. "Sell what you have and give arms. Provide yourself bags which wax not old. A treasure in the heavens that fails not when no thief approaches." And where nobody can steal your secret code number. Neither mob corruptive. That is not just going to get taken away. No one. Can take away what you've built up for yourself. It's an investment that is ironclad. It's an investment that works. It's an investment that can be drawn on and used. It's something very real and tangible that Christ says you are building up now because where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

   And so if you do look upon what you are building in your relationship with God as something real. A bond between you and the kingdom of God is forged that must be honored by the kingdom of God. Just the same as if you trust Wells Fargo with your bank account, when you put in your little card into that slot and punch in your secret code and salute or whatever you have to do, I haven't read the instructions. The bank has got a commitment to do what it says it'll do for you. Now, in the same way Christ says, if you invest in me, I will do what I say I can do for you. Not in a cold accounting kind of a way. Put in a very warm and friendly and brotherly relationship as typical of the one we're trying to build among ourselves. It's an investment that is adding up and that can be relied on.

   He also, and maybe you've never thought of yourself in this way, looks upon you as an investment. Something that he is building, something that he is hoping has a lasting value, and whose value grows as an investment value should grow, and that one day will yield a dividend. In some ways you're like a very priceless, what shall we say, old Chinese vase or vase for the English, think what you put flowers in for the Australians. A one-off that is just not easily replaced. That could never be replaced exactly. Because there is only one of each human being, I am a completely unique creation of God. I mean, so are you. And there's and no way there's ever going to be more than one John Halford. Or my wife, only be one of her, my children, and you and your children and your wife, and so on, that by our fingerprints, by our hair, by so many other ways we are unique individuals and therefore not easily replaced, something that can last forever. With careful handling that won't lose its value but will increase in value. And if molded and treated properly and taken care of by those to whom it is entrusted, will be a thing of value and beauty forever.

   You know, in Job 14:15, we won't turn there. At least I'm not going to. You can if you like, it says you have or will have a desire for the work of your hands. You have a pride in the things that you've made. And Jesus Christ, His Father in heaven have a desire for the things they have made. In our character, in our personality, in making us ready for eternal life, God wants that back, and he'll take care of that investment, providing we remain an investment.

   When I was in Thailand, one of the women of the village took April Wagood and Diane, Weybright and Diane, to her house when she trusted them, and she took them to the bedroom and went into the back of a closet and got out this jar and said, "I'd like to show you something," and she tipped out onto the bed. It was just a very ordinary Thai house, nothing special, probably the equivalent of several $1000 of emeralds and rubies and jade and so on. She said "This is our investment." And she was so proud, and when she really trusted Diane and April, she showed them not only where it was, but what it was. That was a sign of great confidence and trust in those two young girls that this lady showed. And so she measured her wealth. And took pride in this gradually growing horde of jewels. In the same way, God will take pride in, look forward to, eagerly look forward to displaying these things that he is making us.

   So in Luke 12:13. There's a very reasonable contract. But it's one that can keep us going through some tough times. Mr. Armstrong doesn't feel that it is God's will. That the Worldwide Church of God, the Philadelphia era, has to have their minds seared and hurt and damaged by experiences such as Doc, Dick Walter and Selma Hegg have to experience that will be taken to a place of safety and spared the worst of it, and thank God for that. But he says there's a contract here that I want you to be able to rely on.

   Luke 12 and verse 13, Luke 12:13. "One of the master, one of the company came to him and said, Master, will you speak to my brother that he divides the inheritance with me? He's we've got this inheritance and he won't give me my share, and it's not fair because we really both deserve it and he won't give it to me. And Master, you're an authority. Will you tell him?" And Christ said, "Now look, let's just get this straight before we even start. Man, who made me a judge over you?" And he said to them, "Take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consists not in the abundance of things which he possesses." And he spoke a parable which will skip over and go up to verse 22 (Luke 12:22). He said to his disciples, "Look, Take no thought for your life. Don't become overly concerned about these things. What you will eat, nor for your body, what you will put on."

   "I need you alive," is what he was saying. "I've got a responsibility. I've got a duty here which we'll come to in a moment, and I need you alive if I'm to do it. And since you are trusting me, for your sustenance in the very particular sense of these men who are to be his ministers and apostles, but it goes for all brethren. Rely on me to do for you those things that I need to do for you, not that I want you to be bone idle and do nothing. But when it comes to a point where it is my responsibility to provide things for you to keep you going because you can't do it for yourself, don't worry about it. Because your life is worth more than just food. I've got plenty of that. Your body is worth more than old clothes. Look, I can supply these things. You're more value than that. The relationship goes deeper than just giving you things to keep alive. That's par for the course."

   Then he gave some analogies. "Consider the ravens, for they don't sow or reap, which neither have a storehouse nor a barn, and God feeds them. How much more is how much better are you than fowls?" So he turned to his creation. And he showed by how he took care of some creatures. How much more is he going to take care of us, you know, when you look at God's creation, as we're doing down at Imperial School, I guess it's opening again next week, I hope so. I've missed my class. I think all of us teach down there miss them because they're all deloused now and ready for action. We're going to go into more of the book of Proverbs and looking at some of the analogies that God has given. We're gonna be looking at ants next week, going from light to ants in one week. How's that for progress? If your kids come home with ants, it's my fault. No, we're not going to have real ants. We're going to have them on the screen.

   But he looked, he said, look at the things I've made. Now, you know, in God's creation, there are some fantastic things, and I think God has got a sense of humor. Some of the things he's made and said were good defy description. Um, when he made these, he didn't say. "I made a mess of that." He said, "That's good. That's a good bee. At work."

   You know, as man began to discover the laws of energy and lift over drag and aerodynamics, we have come up with a startling conclusion that bees cannot fly. There's no way by any known law that a bee can fly. Lift cannot overtake weight and drag. No matter how much it goes, Mr. Phillipello at the end. It It cannot fly. Now, fortunately, a bee doesn't know that. And so bees have survived and God says, that's good.

   Some of the things that God has made is almost as we look deeper and deeper into them seems to be for the purpose of saying, "Look, you turkeys, if I can take care of this, why do you worry about can I take care of you?" You know, God made a fish. The fish breeds under very difficult circumstances. While it is breeding, the female is trying to eat the male. Now put yourself in its position and think about it. If she does not succeed and he does. Eggs are laid. The female then tries to eat the eggs. The male puts the eggs in his mouth. Thereupon, the female tries to eat the eggs and him. If it survives, he has to protect the fish from the mother. Who is now trying to eat the fish, the eggs, and the male. Until they are old enough to fend for themselves. Whereupon the sexes segregate very quickly until the unfortunate time of breeding comes round again.

   Now there are easier ways to do it, right? And by the law of averages. You would think that maybe that wasn't the epitome of the creative art, an early effort, but the point is they exist and they survive and they're not extinct. It's almost like God saying, "Look, I can even take a race, a group of creatures that I've created and keep them alive under these conditions. What are you guys worried about?"

   In the book of Job talks about the I don’t want to turn there because I don't know where it is. It talks about the mountain goat, and he says towards the end, "Job, have you ever looked at the way the of the way of the ibex," I think it is, the mountain goat? And now the mountain goat also breeds in a very difficult way. The female basically doesn't want to. The male then chases the female up the mountains, up greater and greater mountains, until eventually he gets her on the ledge, shall we say, 4 inches wide with 1000 ft on this side and 2000 ft on the other side, where she cannot turn round. And there they mate very carefully. And those that succeed, go on to have little mountain goats.

   Now, again, there are easier ways to do it. Most animals don't have to go through that. Right? Some of you may, I don't know, but most people don't have to go through it. But it's almost like God's saying, look, with a sense of humor, tongue in cheek, it's only a dumb mountain goat, but I mean, look, they survive, don't they? Now if I can keep them going, why do you worry about I'm going to keep something that is priceless, not a dumb mountain goat? That I have really explain the full depth of the marriage relationship. And the full understanding of it and who can procreate and will live forever. Do you really think that I'm all this concerned about programming stability into mountain goats? That I'm not going to be concerned for the welfare of my own sons and daughters of my own kind. Oh, come on.

   The Guinness Book of Records talks about a moth. This is one of the rarest species on Earth. You’ll understand why in a minute. First of all, they're only about 1 every 20 square kilometers. Which is a long way away for us to be a part. Not only that, but they're blind. Not only that, but the female outnumbers the male by I think it is 20 to 1. So the chances of a male running into another female are slim. None, right? I mean, there's only 1 every 20 square kilometers anyway. The chances are the 20 to 1 chance it's going to be a female. I mean, it's not going to be a male. Plus he's blind. How on earth that God has programmed into that moth the most acute sense of smell of any of His creatures, and I think the Guinness Book of Records, you can check it if you really want to find, but I think it says that they can smell each other from 57 kilometers away. Which with very rare exceptions is not what you can do with a human being, right? And here God has made a blind moth that can smell 30 miles away. And you think, why? I mean, there are easier ways to do it, and you can go on and looking at the things God has made and some of the fringe creations, the things he's made like flowers that bloom, you know, once in a lifetime or trees that it can only propagate with this forest fire and some of the incredible creatures.

   A fish that can only breed when they climb trees. There is a fish that can only breathe when it climbs a tree. I mean, really, or birds that have to fly underwater to eat, you know, things like this, like you're sort of saying, OK, well, let's take the standard bird and let's sort of put it underwater and let's just show that it is possible for me to create a bird that can live underwater. Or underground. There's a mutton bird in Tasmania that lives underground. An underground bird's like a flying worm. I don't know. But the point is God made them. They live, they exist, they succeed. They're successful creations, and God said that's good. Boy, that's real good. That teaches us a lesson. And then Christ goes on to say, and you are of more value than any of these things. So look, dummies, if I go all the trouble of keeping this goat, this fish, this moth, and this underground bird alive, why are you worried about whether or not I can handle your problems?

   So he goes on to verse 27. "Consider the lilies, how they grow. They toil not, they spin not, yet I say to you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If so, then God. Clothe the grass, which is today in the field and tomorrow is cast into the oven. How much more will he clothe you, you of little faith? So why are you worried about what you will eat and what you will drink, and don't be a doubtful mind about it either. Because these are the things the nations of the world seek after. But my nation, the kingdom of God, the citizens of the kingdom of God, have the resources of the government of God backing them."

   "And I will take care of it," he said. "All power is given to me in heaven and earth. I have access to everything I want. The silver is mine, the gold is mine. So presumably so is the rhubarb and the spinach, and I can take care of it and get to you if you really need it. If you need quails, we can do quailos. If you need manna, we can do manna. They didn't ask for carrots, but He explained that he can take care of it. If you haven't got any shoes, I see the ones you've got don't wear out and so on and so on and so on. God shows I can take care of it because my nation does not have to worry. It's going to be the most blessed nation. And therefore, while I need you alive, to help you into the kingdom of God, then I'm going to take care of you."

   God needs, not our body, of course. He needs our mind. He needs that mind to function. He needs our brain. The Incredible Human Potential book shows you just what an incredible and complex piece of equipment your brain. The spectacle of your spirit, and I guess God's Holy Spirit is. And he needs it to function. And God knows that there are limits, physical limits beyond which that brain doesn't function. And last night we saw how Satan in his effort to destroy relentlessly human beings would like to push those brains into areas where they can't function, or you take a gentle man. And make him into a killer. Or you take a sensitive man and make him into a murderer. And so on.

   But God knows that a mind he's working with still, while physical, has limits, so he says, don't worry about it. The nations of the world need to worry about these things, but not my people. Over in John 6:37. Something you can take a tremendous amount of confidence in. As a loyal citizen of the kingdom of God. Christ talking. "All that the Father gives me will come to me." OK, get it in context. All that the Father gives me. The Father selects apparently. Father looks across the human race, he says, "OK, now, Mr. Armstrong needs people to help him. OK, we'll pick him and him. And someone down there who will be able to read the newspapers and get the understanding and be Mr. Armstrong's eyes and ears and funneling the news, but we need that guy needs some help, so we need someone who can look at it from an international perspective, and we need, and so he brings people together as a team to help."

   And the Father says to Christ, "OK, now you take care them. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and him that comes to me, I will in no wise cast out." And the analogy he gives in other places is a shepherd being given sheep. "Here's a new sheep. OK, bring him in. Fine. How are you doing? Nice to meet you, sheep. I won't throw you out." So he's been told to bring them in.

   And II Timothy 2:12. Apply it to us as a church. Apply it to yourself as an individual. It is still tremendously comforting. II Timothy 2:12. "If we suffer, we will aim with it. If we join in the responsibilities in another place, Timothy was told, become a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel. Join in the work, get your hands dirty and you find yourself much happier, so he says, if you suffer, if you, if you take part in what's going on, we'll reign with him. If we turn our back on him. Then he'll have to deny us. If we totally and completely deny Christ, refuse to acknowledge the calling once we've understood it, that's it, but if we believe not. Yet he abides faithful. He cannot deny himself."

   OK, it seems to me is a bit of a second consideration there but if we start to believe not, if our faith starts to waver a little bit, if we get to the point where we start getting our own ideas, Christ doesn't say, "Well, that's it. OK, well, OK, if you guys are going to get yourself a Systematic Theology Project, then I'm just gonna not be your Father anymore. Gonna start my own church." He didn't say that. "If you say, well, if you're not going to believe my doctrines, I'm just going to get all upset and find somebody else to believe in me." Didn't say that. Because he's got this commitment to the Father, I think we've experienced as a church in the last couple of years how we began to believe not certain things, but Christ, because of his commitment to His Father in heaven, said, "I cannot deny myself" and beginning with Mr. Armstrong to bring us back, put us back in the direction that means we could still be, on the track, as we say, heading into the kingdom of God. He cannot deny himself. And he's told his Father, "Yes, I will bring them in." And so patiently, carefully, systematically from the top down, as that always works. First, the engine, the tender, the leading carriages, the church around the world has swung back onto the track and we're better off than ever before. We've got a few bloodied noses, maybe. We've lost a few tragically. But nevertheless, overall, we're now back to where we should be. He didn't deny himself, and there was a commitment there that transcended us temporarily believing that.

   Luke 13:6. Any minister can tell you of cases where he seems to see this in action. In the lives of brethren, the lives of people who may have just been weak for a while. Luke 13:6, "He spoke also this parable. A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. And he came and sought fruit thereon and found none. And then he said to the dresser of this vineyard, my analogy here, Christ. I come seeking fruit in this fig tree and fined none, cut it down. Why is it cumber in the ground? Is this guy growing? Is he making any progress? Is he doing anything? What about the investment of the Holy Spirit? Is it going? Is anything flowing out of him? Is he producing anything? Nope, well, maybe. Forget it."

   Do you see this sense of commitment? I don't suppose it's an exact analogy across the boards where Christ argues with the Father, but it's demonstrating the commitment of a good shepherd, a good vineyard keeper to those that He's been given to take care of. He says, "Lord, give me one more year, huh. Verse 8, until I dig it about and dung it, and if it bears fruit well, and if not, then after that you will cut it down." I think all of us can think of the lives of people. We've known who basically were wanting to be a part of the kingdom and the nation of God, but it begun to drift. And to see almost before your eyes when you start to pray and to really take a concern and interest, almost like Christ beginning to dug ding, ding and dug what is it? Dig and dug, right, and to work with them. And come back and that process sometimes can take about a year. It's an interesting analogy, but it does show there is a being up there who is concerned with the individuals because his Father said to him, "If possible, don't lose one of them."

   So God's commitment to us is real. The kingdom of God has resources that can come to our aid. Individually and as a nation he has resources that can help us, clothe us, feed us, support us when we need that help. Unlike the resources of this world Ezekiel 7. I'll just turn over there as Ezekiel 7:17. I think it should be something that we keep in perspective in terms of physical wealth. I'm not speaking against physical wealth, that's nothing to do with my subject. Do not even draw it into it except perhaps not to trust in it, which is what both Dwight and I said in so many words today. "They will cast, verse 19, They will cast their silver in the streets, and their gold will be removed. Their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them in the day of wrath of the Lord, cannot satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels because it is the stumbling block of their iniquity."

   Proverbs 11:4. Satan's goal is to turn this world into a vast refugee camp of lost, broken people who have nothing, have lost everything, and don't know where to go. That's what we roll up our sleeves and start to clean up. "Riches profit not in the day of wrath, but righteousness does deliver from death."

   So we live in the greatest prosperity that man has ever known. Probably in California we live in the richest state of the richest nation, and the report in the Los Angeles Times on Thanksgiving Day showed that based on world averages, the United States is still the best place in the world to live and that more Americans are happy and satisfied with their country. That's how they measured it. Tragically, incidentally, England came down after East Germany in that poll. More East Germans are satisfied with East Germany than English are with England, which I think is as an Englishman, an awful statistic. And on the other hand, having been there recently, I can't blame the East Germans one bit.

   Probably because we're the greatest live in the greatest prosperity, we're going to have the biggest drop. Perspective wise of any people coming from so much. To practically nothing. Maybe also because most of God's people live in that kind of prosperity, and in terms of the world we are among the richest people the world has ever seen, all of us, whether we're the poor or the rich of this congregation. Maybe that is why God has delivered to this era of his church a greater and a more all-encompassing understanding of human potential and what we as individuals mean to God than anybody has ever known. Certainly, no church has ever had a tool like for instance, Incredible Human Potential as a tool in which to fathom our relationship with God. Probably that material wasn't able to be put together. Until you could blend the spirit of God and the understanding of science and all the other things that went into God giving Mr. Armstrong that particular piece of understanding, but armed with who we are and what we are and why we're here, we should probably see our true value to God. Nuclear returns.

   But maybe we're going to need that vision as Satan tries to bring man down to his vision of what man should be. And that God means what he says. Well Robin was talking about last week in the sermonette. I thought it was very moving and we wonder, wasn't it? I Corinthians 10:13. I was thinking about this as he was speaking. I Corinthians 10:13. "There has no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. That God is faithful and will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able, but will with the temptation make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it." So when someone is suffering a trial, which is when you need these scriptures, not tonight because you've got food, you've got clothes, you've got things to look forward to, but there are people here who may need them tonight, and all of us are going to need them sooner or later.

   You need to remember that and remember that when we are on the point where the kingdom of God needs to honor its commitment, far from being away from you, Christ is very concerned. You know, Mrs. Brockhouse was dying. Christ must have been putting a lot of attention into that, engaging it. On the one hand, thinking in terms of what she'd built and what she was going to be and what she was going to become, wanting to wring that last drop of human potential from her mind. But on the other hand, realizing that that mind was physical and there was a point when it couldn't take any more, and he had a responsibility to stop it before it went over. There's a threshold, and you know, we're different, we have different thresholds of pain, different thresholds of suffering, and so on, different thresholds of pressure we can take.

   Well, Christ has to know that because if he drops us and breaks us. His father was going to say, "But I told you to look after them and you dropped them. I haven't got another one. What have you done?" He's not going to let that happen. He's got that responsibility. Maybe that's why God breathed a sigh of relief and precious in the sight of God is the death of one of his saints, because at least it's safe until he can reactivate it forever.

   Matthew 6 verse 19. Matthew 6:19. "Don’t lay up for yourselves treasures on Earth where moth and rum corrupt and where thieves break through and steal. Don't get all involved in putting your trust that way. But lay up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust can corrupt and when no thief can break through and steal. But lay out for yourself, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." And again, that is not against wealth. I'm not suggesting you all go out tonight and trade in your dog for a mongrel. Whatever it is that we have a value because there's a lesson in those things as well, which is not the purpose of this sermon.

   Psalm 37:16 does say though that "A little that a righteous man has is better than the riches of many wicked." Christ is a goal that is the exact opposite of Satan. Christ wants to give you life. He has at his disposal all power, he says. He has the full resources of the kingdom of God. It's an investment that nobody can tap into. No one can diminish the value of it, and you yourself working with him can increase it until it is as incalculably valuable as God.

   I just turn over in closing for Luke 12:32. And think in terms of the commitment of the government of God to you since you have committed yourself to it. It's a contract. A lot more binding on the contrast of putting a little plastic dealing in the robot bank teller. In God's government, there is a unity of a loyalty, of obedience, and so Christ obeys His Father and always will. If he didn't. He wouldn't be where he is doing what he's doing. So when Christ tells us in Luke 13:32. "Fear not, don't worry for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." He means it. Because then the word of God, the executive producer, if you like. Of this whole thing, the creator God of all we see who made those fish and those goats and everything else is going to have to produce his best creative effort and power to help you get into the kingdom of God, and he's going to have to take care of you in the meanwhile. Because he knows that the Father has trusted him with you. Christ knows that you're the only one of you that God has got.