Herbert W Armstrong

   It means hello, how are you? Welcome, all of those things. Aloha, brethren.

   Well, that's from your brethren in Hawaii. So now we have Hawaii represented today. We have over 1,000 members attending the feast in Hawaii on the island of Maui.

   You probably read about that as one of our feast sites. And I'm sure the brethren there would all argue with you just a bit as to the best place to keep the feast. We know this is part of God's country, but that is a fantastic place out there on the island of Maui.

   It's a beautiful spot where they're keeping the feast at a convention center on the island of Maui, and the accommodation is really beautiful. Well, maybe I better stop and ask: how many of you have attended the feast in Hawaii?

   Hold your hand. Oh, just a small number of you, as you, Mr. and Mrs. Ames, have, but just a number of you. So you'll know what I'm talking about if you've been there. The water is incredibly beautiful in color and clear, and the weather is balmy.

   There's a Little bit humid when we left, a little bit uncomfortable because of the humidity, but it's always just a nice temperature. It's never really too hot and never really terribly cold. I think some were a little bit speaking about the lack of air conditioning in some of the rooms, some of the people who were there, and hoping that the humidity would go out of the air.

   But they're having a fine feast over there. I understand here that it's gone beautifully. That you've been receiving very inspiring messages.

   Everybody's having a good time, and I hope everyone is staying healthy and well. My wife and I are very happy to be able to be here for the next few days. We certainly enjoy this part of the country.

   As most of you probably know, or at least some of you, my wife came into the church in Portland, Oregon, and her parents lived in St. Helens, Oregon, along the Columbia River. So she is very partial to the northwest.

   I remember when I met her at Ambassador College, she began to brag about how beautiful Oregon was. And I thought she was just bragging all the time because I had never been to the Northwest till after I met her. And she was telling me how dry it looked as she came south to Southern California to Ambassador College and how ugly it was compared to Oregon.

   I thought, well, she's just bragging. And then she brought me up here one time to see the Northwest. So I had to agree with her.

   It really is spectacular and beautiful. So it is a blessing to live up here. Not too long ago, I forget now what feast it was.

   I guess it was Trumpets, wasn't it? I was speaking to the group of the churches up in this area in Salem, Oregon, and telling them about living in Southern California this past summer with all the smog that we've had, one of the worst seizures of smog in the last 20 years or so. So certainly it is something to rejoice over the beautiful, clear, cool air up here is fantastic. So I'm very happy to be here, tell you how things are going in Hawaii. From here, my wife and I travel on to Fresno.

   We'll be there a couple of days, and then we end up in Tucson, Arizona, for the Last Great Day. I don't have any news to give you of Mr. Armstrong, although, since I will be here tomorrow, I'll try to contact someone in Tucson just to see how Mr. Armstrong is doing, whether he's going on to other feast sites or what. I may have the opportunity to do that maybe later today or this evening to call and just find out how Mr. Armstrong is doing.

   I know he intended traveling on, I believe, to Balochi, Mississippi, and St. Petersburg, Florida for the Feast of Tabernacles, but I haven't heard since I went to Hawaii how he is doing. I don't have a great deal of other news.

   I'm sure you've been given all of the news from headquarters in the last first couple of days of the feast. So I'll get right on into my sermon. I have about an hour and 10 minutes, and I may have more news for you tomorrow, I hope, possibly during the announcement period.

   Brethren, it is a blessing to be here, and all of us being here at the Feast of Tabernacles shows our faith and our belief that Jesus Christ is going to come back to this earth. I believe. Probably this next decade.

   Now, no one knows exactly for sure. But looking at the signs, looking at world events, looking at the way things are beginning to speed up, looking at the Pope's visit to America, if you've been following that and reading about that, looking at the charisma that that man has, the ability to influence people, and they seem to like him, that he has a likable personality, he certainly has that ability and influence to sway people and influence people.

   A man that is liked and respected, and yet he was speaking out very strongly as far as church tradition and the church doctrine of the Catholic Church to rebellious Americans. So it seems that time is speeding up and many, many prophecies are beginning to come to pass. The stage is being set.

   I'm not going to be talking about prophecy, but I'm pointing out that prophecy is speeding up. Events in Europe. And I've mentioned this and like to fill it in occasionally.

   Mr. Frank Schnee, who is the head of the German work and has been for about 15 or 16 years now, was at Pasadena recently. He's been there on sabbatical.

   He is now in Germany for the feast. But he's been telling my wife and me a great deal about events taking place in Germany and in Europe in prophecy. And he believes that there's a very good chance that Franz Joseph Strauss will be a Elected Chancellor of Germany next year, 1980, because the economy of Germany is being predicted to get worse and worse as a result of the increase in oil prices.

   And Germany imports about 85% of its oil from the Middle East, and they're very dependent upon oil from the Middle East. And he feels eventually that it will be Otto von Hopsburg. I'm just giving you Mr. Schnee's personal on-the-scene feelings about events over there. He is German. An American German, but I guess born in Canada, so it wouldn't be American, but Canadian, born in Canada.

   And he feels that Otto von Habsburg will eventually be elected because he is now a member of the European Parliament, but he feels he will eventually be elected probably to be the head of the European Parliament in time. He is a descendant of the Habsburg dynasty, one of the resurrections of the ancient Holy Roman Empire. And he is now a member of the European Parliament.

   Only nine nations there now. Mr. Schnee is watching that closely.

   And he said that everything is ready to go. The things that Mr. Armstrong has been preaching for many, many years in the world, that events are speeding up over there.

   That the laws are on the books in Germany in case of another emergency. In case of another emergency, the laws are on the books where the European Parliament would elect one of the heads of state to be supreme ruler of the Common Market for a period of nine months.

   In other words, he would be in total, absolute charge and authority. No one could question him, whatever he said was law, and that he would be elected immediately, and they probably pretty well have it all the system already figured out, he said, to accomplish this. So that they would elect a dictator, in essence, to act for all of them in case of another emergency. Another emergency to them would be a critical oil situation because their very existence, their economies, their everything depends upon oil from the Middle East. So the stage is being set.

   The Catholic Church is beginning to come to the foreground again. Things are moving on, brethren, and we are here because we believe that Jesus Christ is going to return to this earth soon. But he's coming soon to establish God's Government on earth.

   And there are certain events that are going to take place prior to that. But this feast pictures a time in the future getting on beyond the troubles, because I don't want to dwell on repeating the coming tribulation. Mr. Parker reminded of that in the Sermonette, very good Sermonette, because we do have a job of warning this nation and warning the world, at least the leaders of the nations around the world. That's what Mr. Armstrong is doing.

   Warning them of what is coming. But we are here picturing a time of coming world peace. And that's what I'm going to dwell on a little bit today.

   We are here because we believe with our whole heart, with our whole mind, and our whole being that within our lifetime, and I believe that myself, the way things are going, that it will, and it could easily happen in the next decade, the 1980s. It could easily happen. The events predicted in prophecy leading to the coming of Jesus Christ.

   And then Mr. Armstrong himself has been stating that prophecy is speeding up. The time of the tribulation is not very far off.

   And that means that the time of Christ's intervention in world events and the beginning finally of that time that we're all just praying for and hoping for and waiting for is just around the corner. A time of happiness finally on this earth. Well, are you really happy, brethren?

   I don't mean for you to answer that or raise your hands, but are you really happy? I think most of us want to be happy, that most of us try to be happy, but in this life today and in the world today, it's very hard to be happy because there's so much unhappiness around us. Yet we're looking forward to a world that may come, just imagine it, within the next three, five, within the next 10 years, could easily be here.

   God could easily bring to pass and complete the prophecies of the final resurrection of Europe for the Catholic Church ruling and dominating it, of the conquering of America, of the beginning of the tribulation which will bring America and modern Israel finally to her knees to repentance in the beginning of the world tomorrow. That could all come to pass, if you can imagine that, within the next number of years in our lifetime. And that's a short time, really, when you stop and think about it.

   And that time of real peace, real final happiness on this earth is not too far off. And that's our hope. And that's what keeps us going.

   That's what we're looking forward to. That's what we all probably pray for almost every day when we pray to God: Father, speed that day. Speed that time of the return of Jesus Christ.

   Speed the time. When finally Christ is on this earth ruling and people know you, the true God, and your laws and your ways. Not very far off, brethren, and it is a reality.

   It is coming, and it is coming faster now. The pace is quickening. Events are speeding up.

   That's what we need to realize. When the world is finally going to be happy, truly happy. And you and I are here to learn to be happy.

   We're here to learn a lot of lessons at the Feast of Tabernacles. And so I ask you, are you really happy? Because a lot of people in God's church are not really happy.

   I think here at the feast we are because we're together and the sermons inspire us. It's a special time. It's a special time and God really blesses us and inspires us.

   And it's happy being together with friends and people of like minds. And it's happy being able to stay in a motel so your wives don't have to cook meals or clean up all the dishes all the time.

   It's happy having a change of place to live. So we are happy for a while here together. But do you know what real happiness really is?

   And when you leave the Feast of Tabernacles, will you continue to be really, truly happy? Will you be able to teach people in the world tomorrow what real happiness is? What do you think it is?

   Do you think real happiness would be having twice as much second tithe as you have now, well, that would mean you'd double your salary, right? If you had twice as much second tithe.

   Many people think that happiness would be having more money. Maybe many of you feel that way, that if you could just have more money, you are sure you could solve your problems and find happiness. Or if you just had better health, if somehow you could just feel better physically, you would be happy.

   Or if you could just be healed of some problem bothering you, surely you would be happy. So, what do you think happiness is? What is it that would make you happier here at the feast?

   Or make you happier in this life? I just want you to think about it because you probably have some specific things in mind that you would like to happen to you that you think would make you really happy. And then I want to go into the sermon and show you what true happiness is.

   What God says true happiness is. What we have to know and understand in order to be able to teach people in the world tomorrow what real happiness truly is and how you can be happy. God shows us that.

   Because really, that's what everybody wants. That's what we all want. We want to feel better. We want to be happier. And you're happy when you have the things that make you happy. When you have the things.

   And I include in that attitudes when I say things, when you have the things that make you happy. And happy just happiness just means a good feeling inside. So, you have a good feeling inside you today here at the feast.

   And what about when you leave it? So, what is true happiness according to God's word? And what qualities, what lessons can we bring into our lives so that we can always be happy?

   No matter what circumstances we are in, no matter what trials we are going through, no matter what the future holds, we can be happy because we know what real happiness is. And it's only the Bible that tells us. Because it would be interesting to take a survey and go out in the streets and interview people.

   It really would. And make an interesting survey. To go out on the streets, be an interviewer, and stop people along downtown Seattle and say, well, I'm a commentator for ABC, NBC News or some local news station, and we're doing a special broadcast on happiness. Maybe stop the little children and talk to them. You know, the beautiful, the children's choir here, it was just something about little children, I'll tell you, bigger children, too.

   But they were just, as Mr. Ames is saying, just you know, something about them. They're clean, and they look an attitude that Christ spoke of, I guess, in them, but clean and healthy, and it's uplifting to hear them sing and to see them like that.

   But you could interview little children and ask them, what do you think happiness is? Well, you remember those little slogans that used to be going around a number of years ago about happiness is, you know, and then they have some cute little phrase or something under it, you know, having a lollipop or Time X watch, or it could be anything, but it was the cute little slogans going around about happiness is.

   And you could kind of fill in what happiness was for you. But if you could interview people on the streets in Seattle, How many answers would you get? You'd probably get, in most cases, a lot of people would say, well, if I could just have a really happy marriage.

   You might get a few who would say that. If I could just find the right woman, or, you know, for the men, if I could just find the right woman, I could be happy. And for a lot of women, it would be, if I could just find a man or the right man, I would be happy.

   Now, for some of you, maybe that's the way you feel here at the feast. If you could just find the right person, you would be happy. And I'm sure a lot of people would say, well, if I could just double or triple my salary, I wouldn't have any worries, no problems.

   I could be happy. Now, that would probably be those who have fairly good health, because they would like to have more money to go out and enjoy life. But then, if you had some who were maybe older and not feeling too well physically, and some who were crippled, or some who had really serious physical ailments, and you interviewed them, obviously they would say, if I could just walk, I would be happy.

   If I could just see, I would be happy. Or if I could hear again music, if I could hear people talking, I would be happy. And so you would get a hundred different answers to what happiness really is.

   But unless that person really knew God and knew God's Word, knew what the Bible said, they would not really understand the revealed answer from God of what really happiness is. So we're going to do that today. We're going to take a look at what makes us happy.

   Real happiness, true happiness, not temporary, physical happiness, but permanent, eternal happiness. The kind of happiness that's going to come in the world tomorrow, finally, when Christ returns and we with Him who have learned what real happiness is begin to teach the people in the world tomorrow.

   Because it's going to take teachers, it's going to take people who have learned these lessons in this life to begin to assist Jesus Christ in teaching the world how to be happy. We're going to begin in the book of Psalms. The book of Psalms on true happiness.

   Psalm 128. Psalm 128. You know, when I began to understand these things from the Bible, And I began to realize this is not at all what human beings would come up with.

   It is not at all. And what I'm going to show you here: no normal, carnal, unconverted human being would ever come up with this as an answer to what happiness really is. It just isn't normal and logical.

   Psalm 128, beginning in verse 1. And verse 2, we'll read (Psalm 128:1-2). And it says, Blessed.

   And when you read many of the Psalms, and it uses the word blessed, it means happy. In the Hebrew, it can mean happy. Blessed and happy.

   I think it even is translated that way in the Living Bible or another translation I remember reading where it went through, and wherever it was blessed, they kind of embellished it. I think it was the Amplified Bible. That's right, the one I'm thinking of: the Amplified Bible, where it'll take the original language and other adjectives a word that fully explains the meaning.

   And here it can mean blessed and happy is everyone that fears the Eternal. Now, how many of you put down true happiness is fearing God?

   Well, normally you don't think of that, really, do you? You know, no, I don't want to be afraid. I don't want a feeling of fear.

   I don't think that'll make me happy to be afraid or to fear God. And yet, we're going to go through a few important scriptures, not just on fear, but a few other things that the Bible shows that once you begin to understand what it means, and it becomes a part of your mind, and your attitude, and your thinking, and your understanding, and your living, then you begin to understand really what happiness really is all about.

   The Bible reveals from God that part of true happiness, and this is only part of it, because we have to put it all together. And I've gone through the Bible and looked up all the scriptures and all the various subjects that say happiness is, and it's amazing what you come up with. It isn't happiness, it's having more money.

   And happiness is always feeling good physically. That isn't necessarily the answer, as we're going to see. But one of the answers is, and I'll get to specific scriptures on it: happy, happiness, and true happiness, God says, is fearing Him.

   Blessed is everyone that fears the Eternal, that walks in His ways, for you shall eat the labor of your hands. Happy shall you be, and it shall be well with you, if you fear God.

   Now, isn't that one of the lessons of the Feast of Tabernacles? Remember in Deuteronomy chapter 16? I'm not turning there.

   You maybe have had it already read to you, where it talks about that we come to the feast to learn to fear God and to rejoice. And the Bible says that real happiness, now it doesn't say that in Deuteronomy. It doesn't say that where it instructs you to go keep the feast.

   It says that we're going to the feast to learn to fear our Creator God, to properly fear Him. Other scriptures say that happiness comes from learning to fear God.

   Now, how long have you really feared God? I mean, how many years has it been for most of you here that you've really begun to want to obey God? I didn't fear God a little over 20 years ago now.

   I've been in the church 20 years, but 20 years ago, I began to learn what it meant to fear God. Turn to Psalm 147. Psalm 147, beginning in verse 11.

   As we'll see, these are things that no man, nothing, can ever take away from you. The things that bring true happiness once you obtain them, once you learn them. Psalm 147:11.

   It says, The Lord takes pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy. So, you know, I think it helps to understand that it makes God happy when you fear him.

   Do you realize that? That you make God happy when you fear him. We'll come to understand what kind of fear we're talking about.

   Now, it's not the kind of fear that maybe you happen to have had of a physical father who mistreated you, or a physical father who beat you, or punished you wrongly, possibly. Although the father should punish, should stank. But possibly, when you think of your father, many of you, you think of someone that you hate rather than someone that you might fear in a proper way.

   God isn't talking about that. But it makes God happy, He takes pleasure when He looks down at us and we have toward Him, toward God, an attitude of Father in heaven, my Creator, you who are working out a plan on earth?

   You who made that sun and the moon and everything that I see and enjoy, I fear you. I know that you are awesome and you have great power. And I fear you.

   And that word fear means a deep and healthy respect for God. A deep and a healthy respect. And maybe it would help you to think of a loving Father who is strong, who is firm, who is kind, and yet who loves us so much that when we do wrong and get out of line, he is going to deal with us. And we know that. You'll fear and have the right kind of fear of a father like that.

   One that you know loves you, one that you know has your good at heart, and one that you know is going to deal with you when you get out of line. That's the right kind of fear. And when you begin to learn the fear of God and have a healthy respect for God, a deep, deep, healthy respect for God's power, God's authority, God's plan and purpose, and what He's working out on this earth, then you begin to understand true happiness.

   Turn to Proverbs 28:14. Proverbs chapter 28, verse 14. Happy Is the man that fears always.

   So, one of the keys to happiness is never losing your fear of God. There are people who are big and strong physically, maybe very healthy, huge giants. We were watching football yesterday as we were flying over from Hawaii to Los Angeles.

   They were showing football on the screen. They can pick it up live wherever it's being broadcast. And so, as we were flying, we were watching football.

   And I was noticing some of the giants they have these days on football. It's incredible. And some of them are six foot six, you know, 250 pounds.

   It makes you realize, you know, those are some of them can be the kind of man who would say, I don't fear anybody, man, God, or beast, you know, this kind of a thing. But that's ridiculous. It really is.

   God says, happy is the man. It doesn't matter how big he is, how strong he is because he is nothing to God. Absolutely nothing.

   Happy is the man. And when it says man in the Bible, it doesn't always just mean male. It's a biblical term for human beings, the human race, people.

   It doesn't mean just the male, it means both male and female. It really does. In the original, it isn't just God talking to men, it's God talking to mankind.

   It's used in that sense of the word as mankind. Now, on today's female movement, they would say God is a male chauvinist for using that kind of a term.

   Well, God's Word gives us the truth. But he that hardens his heart shall fall into mischief. So if we learn to fear God, if we have a deep, healthy respect for the power of God, our Creator, we're going to begin to understand and have true happiness.

   And this means, brethren, in the right way, fearing God and not man. Sometimes we're afraid of people. We're afraid of men and what they can do to us.

   But Jesus Christ said himself, notice Matthew 10:28. Matthew chapter 10 and verse 28. There are many scriptures on this subject.

   So I'm not going through all of them, but just a few of them. Some of the main ones, I felt. Matthew chapter 10, verse 28.

   Where Jesus said, fear not them which kill the body. Matthew 10, verse 28. What Christ spoke about fear.

   Don't fear them which can just kill your body and are not able to kill the soul. And the soul here referring to our eternal life. 2K, to our eternal life, not an immortal soul.

   We have none, as we all know, but to our eternal life that is within us, that God gives us. So we don't yet have immortality. I don't mean that, but we do have God's Spirit, and God has put within us.

   The seed of eternal life. And only God can destroy that potential for eternal life. He goes on to say, fear him, referring to God, which is able to destroy both the soul, eternal life, the potential for eternal life, and the body in the lake of fire.

   Here it means Gehinna fire, not Hades, the grave, but Gehinna in the lake of fire. So, brethren, you know, part of happiness. You see, because when you live your life and you're afraid of people and you're afraid of men and you're afraid of your boss, and maybe my boss is going to fire me and I'm going to starve to death, and I won't have any money and I won't have an income.

   And when you live in this world and you're afraid of other people and what they can do to you, then that's not the right kind of fear. God says we should not have that kind of fear. Because it is only God who determines our future.

   It is only God who determines our eternity. Do you realize that? Only God will determine your future, your eternity, your job, and His kingdom.

   Only God will determine that. Nobody else will. We're not to fear men, we're to fear God.

   As long as we're faithful and loyal in this church, sticking with the truth, supporting Mr. Armstrong, well, we recognize where God is working, don't we? That’s the right kind of fear.

   But Jesus Christ said, Don't be afraid of men. Don't be afraid of people. Fear God.

   Have a healthy respect for Him. The final one on this I'll turn to is Ecclesiastes chapter 12. Because here is the lifetime experience of the richest man on the face of the earth.

   Here is a man who actually experienced everything there was to experience. Solomon, Ecclesiastes 12. And we'll just quickly.

   In our mind, review what Solomon did. Remember, Solomon was wealthy and wise, the son of David, king over Israel. And he set out to find happiness.

   And this book tells the story of how he set out to find happiness. And he said, Well, I determined that I would try to find happiness through drink, and yet try to keep control enough so that I would know when I got drunk what it was like to be drunk. That's what he did.

   He sit out, he planned and worked it out to drink until he would get kind of drunk so he could be happy, you know, drink away his problems. Drink until he felt that light-headed, giddy type of feeling when all of a sudden, you know, we have all experienced it to a degree, but I hope not overly so. On the way over, I had some wine before my meal, and I had an empty stomach.

   I hadn't eaten for a while, and I drank the wine and I began to get. Just kind of all of a sudden I relaxed and slumped into the chair and it felt real good. You know, I was kind of uptight and tense, and we were traveling and rushing to and fro and here and there.

   And I had that drink, and boy, I just relaxed. And God says that's part of the reason for it. But Solomon went a lot further than that.

   He set out to try to find happiness through drinking. And then he set out to try to find happiness through just having all kinds of sex. He had his concubines and his wives and all the beauty women. Every time he saw a beautiful woman, he'd say, I want her to make her a part of his harem. Sure enough, she'll find me happiness.

   So he had a thousand of them. And he built works and he had fabulous homes and palaces and gardens and rivers and streams and orchestras to play music. He tried everything.

   You can read it, it's an interesting story. I've always said, and he always tried to maintain sanity so he could analyze it and understand.

   And he said, it's all. It's all temporary. It's all vain.

   Somebody else inherits it later. You die like the animals. And what good is it?

   And so he summarized the whole thing, his whole life, his whole life experience in seeking happiness on this earth. Solomon summarized it in verse 13 of chapter 12 of Ecclesiastes (Ecclesiastes 12:13). He said, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.

   Fear God is how he started and keep his commandments. So brethren here at the feast, we need to be thinking and understanding that part of real true happiness is developing an attitude and frame of mind of a deep, healthy respect for the Creator of the universe and a fear of him, a right fear, realizing he has the power of life and of death. He has the power to destroy us or reward us so that we can live forever in his kingdom.

   He has the power to bless us and to protect us in the tribulation, or to let us suffer and die through the tribulation if we become lukewarm a Laodicean. And let me tell you, that keeps me going in one way, one aspect of it, and that is realizing this, that what lies ahead of us is not going to be pleasant in the next few years as America goes down the drain and our standard of living goes down the drain and God begins to punish America.

   It's not going to be very pleasant. The years ahead are not going to be physically happier years for us. And so, if we're depending upon our homes and our cars and our incomes and our physical things and food to find true happiness, we're going to become less happy all the time.

   But if we understand that beginning to learn to fear God even more and realizing that from Him comes salvation, that from Him comes divine protection, that from Him comes everything we really need. That is going to give us what we need to have the right attitude and a happy attitude, a fearful, respectful attitude for our God and our Creator. That's part of true happiness.

   And you see, when you sin, when you sin, you're showing your lack of respect for God. So here is the feast. If you eat too much and get gluttonous, or if you drink too much and get drunk, you know, you're sinning against God.

   You are not fearing your God, your Creator, and you're not going to be happy. Or if you run off and have sex with someone else during the feast, during a moment of weakness, because you're lonely or something, you're not going to be happy.

   You're not fearing God. Another aspect of it that fits right in, going right on where the Bible shows, is that true happiness is this. Let's go to a few more scriptures here.

   Proverbs 29:18. Proverbs 29:18. So, you know, would you have come up with this if somebody had stopped and interviewed you, the man on the street?

   Now, what if they did? What if this man interviewing on the street in Seattle stopped you, member of the Worldwide Church of God, and said, Hey, we're having an interview here. What do you think true happiness is?

   You could probably astound him by saying, well, really, true happiness is fearing God. He'd say, What? True happiness is fearing God.

   That probably be the end of the interview right there. In Proverbs chapter 29, verse 18, it says, Where there is no vision, the people perish.

   You see, so if we don't have the vision of the world tomorrow, of the kingdom of God, of how real it really is, and of that in the world tomorrow, people are going to be taught to fear God, that's how they're going to begin to come to be happy, then the last part of this verse is the one I want to stress. It says, but he that keeps the law, happy is he. So you could tell this interviewer for ABC, NBC, or local news stations, you might say, well, look, happiness really is keeping God's laws.

   You wouldn't be really, probably that wouldn't make it on national TV if you said something like that. I doubt it anyway. But the Bible reveals that happiness is.

   Look at that, that verse, that's what it says. You could reverse it. And it says, happy is he that keeps the law.

   And so did you put down as one of your things, I want to learn to keep God's laws better, more perfectly. I want to learn to live by the law of God. That's one of the things that I want.

   That's one of the things that I am desiring and striving for in my life. Not to double or triple my income, not for a bigger, better home, or a new color T V set or a better car. I want to learn to keep God's laws in my life better.

   And the feast give us the opportunity to be reminded, to be exhorted, to understand more deeply the important things in life. What we're going to be teaching people in the world tomorrow for a thousand years are the things that you and I are learning today. And if we don't learn them year after year, better and better, more deeply, until they actually become a part of us.

   Us, a part of our very thinking, a part of our character, a part of our attitude, we're not going to be happy. Nothing in this life can make us happy if we don't learn these things and do these things. Happy is he that keeps the law of God.

   And yet, how many people have left the church recently thinking and beginning to think that they no longer really have to keep God's law? And you're going to see many who have left stop keeping the Feast of Tabernacles.

   I came from Hawaii. The last feast there, my wife and I had an unpleasant experience in April when we went over there. That was when the minister who was there left and took two-thirds of the church with him in Hawaii. And none of them have come back yet.

   We have 40 members left in the church in Hawaii. So they were very happy that the feast was kept there this year. It gave them some fellowship with other brethren, which they needed.

   The point, though, is this: that this minister who left has joined the Church of God's Seventh Day. Who has its headquarters in Denver, Colorado? So he's now become a minister for the Sardis era of the church.

   He has believed in keeping the holy days because he learned them in this church. And so did the brethren who left. And they did not want to, they believed.

   And my wife and I talked with some of them. I don't need to mention their names. It might be wrong or embarrassing to do so, but we knew some of the members of the Hawaii church for 20 years.

   All the deacons and leaders left, every one of them, because he had worked on them and their vanity, and made them feel important and made them feel: look, we should follow no man and support no man, we've got to just follow God. That's all.

   And so they followed him out of the church. But the point is, but the point I wanted to make here on this was that he learned the holy days and keeping them from Mr. Armstrong and from this church.

   And he took this church out over personal physical matters, saying Mr. Armstrong is falling away again. Getting old, etc., etc., etc., and we're departing from God and his law.

   And so he was going to go out and do it better and keep these people with him. Right not too long ago, just recently, David Fraser, the new minister over there, told me that the Bible Advocate came out, the magazine of the Church of God Seventh Day. Is that the one?

   Or let me make sure I got that right. And in it was an article saying, Christians do not have to keep the holy days. And here he is, a minister, was of the worldwide Church of God, and still believes in keeping the holy days.

   Went over to the Church of God Seventh Day, and all of a sudden this article comes out: You don't have to keep the holy days.

[Tape Flipped]

   All of a sudden, he has that division in his little group that he took with him because some of them still believe you should keep the holy days. And others are saying, Oh, we don't have to keep them.

   And he doesn't know what to do. He's going to keep walking the tightrope now. Well, the holy days of God they’re in the Bible, they're in the Bible.

   Now, the Sardis church, they're maybe a group of them here and there that believe in keeping them, or individuals who believe in keeping them. But the official doctrine of the church, as it came out in that magazine, was that Christians do not need to keep God's annual holy day.

   They're not being taught the truth. And so many are leaving. And those, therefore, those who leave and begin to associate with the Sardis era of the church, they're going to begin gradually to water this feast down.

   And many will not come. And they're probably. Are some who are not here today because they think they only have to be here on the annual holy days.

   There are probably some back home working. And that's an awful shame, isn't it, brethren? That people won't put God first in their lives.

   Something as important as the Feast of Tabernacle, which pictures the kingdom of God, what could be more important than being here today, listening to the Word of God, learning about God, and learning how to be in that kingdom? Maybe it'd be better out there working and making another $50 or $100 today, or $200, or $1,000 today. What good is that going to do you in the tribulation?

   Or when God says, look, you only came on certain days, didn't you? Of course, if you're sick, that's one thing. But I know that some of the people, even in God's church, are getting to the point they don't feel it's important anymore to be here and to hear the messages, right, from God's word about what is important to God.

   And if you want to listen to other ministers, you'll hear some of them tell you God's holy days are not important. God's festivals are not important. Well, our faith is in God, and being here proves our belief in the kingdom of God and the coming of Christ and the world tomorrow.

   And keeping the law of God is what brings us happiness. You just stop and think about this. I think back upon my 20 years in the church.

   And you know what? Some of the highlights, the highest highlights of my life in the church, of my 20 years in the church, the highlights, the times that I can remember in many ways the most happy were at the Feast of Tabernacles. The sermons that I remember hearing that affected me the most or helped me because maybe the particular problem I was having or the attitude that I was in at that particular time.

   God seems to give them extra blessing, extra inspiration when you're at the feast. You get an extra feeling of strength and encouragement and togetherness.

   You get a feeling like we, as God's people, can go through anything if we stick together. If we stick together and with God, we could go through anything together. But when you're out there kind of alone and by yourself, is when it becomes more difficult.

   These feasts are happy times. They're times when, if we keep them properly, are highlights of the year and of our whole life, year by year, in the church and in the work of God. And what if all of a sudden, well, it is ridiculous to even say that or think that.

   Mr. Armstrong said, Well, brethren, we don't have to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. I'm sure you can't even imagine Herbert W. Armstrong ever saying anything like that. He kept them, he and his wife, for, what, seven years all by themselves before anyone else ever joined them in the early years of their life, before they even really understood the complete meaning of the festivals and the holy days. So these feasts are wonderful, fantastic times that are periods of strengthening in our lives.

   They bring happiness to it. Learning from one another, being together, making new friends, having a little bit of a taste of the world tomorrow when there will be no famine and no hunger on this earth and no sickness and no disease, when everyone will have plenty to eat and nice places to live in in the world tomorrow. And really, that's what we're depicting while we're here.

   And so, part of true happiness is learning to obey God's laws, all of them, all of his laws and his commandments. And believing in them and having faith in them and not listening to people when they say, Oh, you don't have to keep this law of God. It's not necessary today to be in the kingdom of God.

   Well, ghastly, in the kingdom of God, ghastly, that's not a very good word, is it? But in the kingdom of God, as soon as Christ comes back, one of the first things we're going to do is teach people to keep the Feast of Tabernacle. Have you read Zachariah 14 yet in the feast?

   I don't know if you've been through that particular scripture. Zachariah chapter 14, I'll maybe just turn there.

   What are we going to be doing as soon as Christ comes back on the earth, brethren? Zachariah chapter 14. As soon as he gets back and sets foot on this earth, we're going to teach the nations to keep this feast.

   Notice verse 16 of Zachariah 14 (Zachariah 14:16). And it shall come to pass that everyone that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

   And that means the whole feast. The Feast of Tabernacles is seven days. It's the whole thing.

   And it shall be that whoever will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain on them. So here's what we're going to do as soon as Jesus comes back, we're going to begin to teach all the families of earth as the teachers, the high priests, the kings, the rulers of Jesus Christ, if a certain nation or family or group of people on earth become carnal or rebellious, they're saying, we don't have to go up to Jerusalem to keep the feast or send representatives or we don't want to learn how to keep that Jewish holy day. And that's the way they're going to be because they're still going to be unconverted nations at the beginning. They'll be conquered.

   They will have been put down. War will have been stopped. Christ will have returned and conquered, but all nations won't be converted yet.

   And the people in those nations will still be carnal. And so we're going to have to go out. One of the first things we're going to do is start teaching them to come to Jerusalem or their representatives, their heads of the families, and teach them, and then they'll teach their nation and their people.

   But it says, and if they don't come, we're going to have to punish them. No rain. If Egypt doesn't come up, there will be the plague, it says in verse 18.

   Now, that's right toward the beginning of the world tomorrow. We're going to have to start dealing with the nations in that way. And it says the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

   I don't want to be a heathen, do you? I don't want to say, well, we don't have to keep the feast today. I'm not preaching this at you because you're here, that particular part of it, but emphasizing that happiness is, as it says in Proverbs 29:18, having vision, looking ahead to the future, not the world today.

   Obviously, people don't believe in it today. When I came here and we were trying to get a Rent-A-Car last night, and Gary Pendergraft was trying to arrange it, you know, we were, well, oh, you're that tabernacle church, aren't you? Aren't you that tabernacle convention church, or whatever it was? You know, she didn't know what she was talking about.

   You know, they don't know what it is. You've never heard the word before or the name or what we believe, know nothing about it. They don't understand.

   We're that tabernacle, that Feast of Tabernacles church. But someday they will, because it's in the Bible. And she'll be called.

   And realize that we rented hotels and cars from them, these Feast of Tabernacles people, or this Tabernacle Church, whatever they call it. And this shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. So don't ever let anyone tell you you don't have to keep God's law, including His holy days, the Feast of Tabernacles, and all the other ones, because that's what we're going to begin to teach the whole world as soon as Jesus Christ comes back.

   And so it's hard to believe that many brethren are leaving the church. Joining, going back to the Sardis era that teaches in its publication, Christians don't have to keep the holy days to be in God's kingdom. That's why we're going to have to teach them.

   We're going to have to teach them the truth of God and how to be happy. And being happy is obeying God's laws and keeping His commandments and keeping the Feast of Tabernacles, having the faith to do it, the desire to do it, knowing what it means, what it pictures. That there just isn't anywhere on the face of the earth it would be better to be than at the Feast of Tabernacles, at one of the sites on earth where God's people are together worshiping God and learning to fear Him and rejoicing together.

   That's why this is a happy place. Because you evidently fear God and you obey God and you're here to worship God and serve Him and fear Him. So, true happiness, keep in mind another aspect of it, is always.

   Learning to keep God's laws better. So this year, try to keep a better feast of tabernacles. Try to make it better.

   That's obeying God better, and that'll bring you happiness. And we'll learn more about that as we go along here. Another aspect of what the Bible reveals to us that real happiness is this.

   Turn to Proverbs 16:20. Proverbs chapter 16 and verse 20. Chapter 16, verse 20, Proverbs.

   And again, it uses the same words, happiness is, or happy is. It says, he that handles a matter wisely shall find good. And whosoever trusts in the Lord, whoever trusts in the Eternal, happy is he.

   So you could add this. Happiness is trusting God. Happiness is having confidence in God. Do you want more of that? When you pray to God, do you say, God, what I need to be happier is more of this and more of that?

   Because what we really need to be happier, brethren, is more faith in God, more trust, more confidence. I kind of like the word confidence even because it has a little different meaning. Confidence means that you really do believe that you can trust God.

   You can put your life in His hands. That he will do what he says he will do for you. That you don't have to worry.

   And yet, we are human beings, and human beings worry. My mother is not in God's church, but she's always been a worrier. She just likes to worry.

   Now, maybe mothers are worriers. I don't know. Maybe God made them to worry about this and that.

   But I think of her in that sense. And my mother is a fine person and as sincere as you can get in her religious belief, but she's not a member of this church.

   I love her, she loves me, and we're still close, but she doesn't understand my religion. She doesn't understand why I believe what I believe. Her mind isn't open yet.

   But my mother is a warrior. And when she doesn't have anything to worry about, she worries about that. I mean, you know, you heard that before, but it's kind of true.

   And she'll joke about it sometimes that. But she's always, when she had us as kids, and we're five of us, she worried about us as we were growing up. At least she always had us to worry about.

   Where are we? What are we doing? You know, all this kind of thing.

   And she worried about my father and her husband. Go out sometimes, maybe on the town or something like that, maybe drink a little bit too much occasionally. And she'd worry about him.

   And then the kids all grew up and got married, so she could worry about that and worry about the grandchildren now. But she's a worrier. And when everything's going real well, she worries about that.

   So, are you a worrier? I mean, do you really worry a lot? Well, part of real happiness, part of true happiness, this says, is learning to trust God.

   If you learn to trust God, if that means you learn to really depend upon Him. And when things happen in your life, especially to you, because we're mainly worried and we're concerned about the things that affect us personally and individually.

   And our security, and our happiness, and our future, and our loved ones, our family, all of those things concern us, and we worry about them. But Jesus Christ, remember in Matthew 6 when he was talking about the birds in the air and the lilies and all, said, Oh, you of little faith, why do you worry? Don't I feed the birds and take care of the flowers and all of that?

   Trust me. Trust me, and you will be happy. Rely upon me, depend upon me. And this is what we are going to need more of, especially this. More of this in the future.

   We are going to have to trust God every day with our very lives, with our children, with what happens tomorrow. Because there is no way, absolutely no way, to prepare physically for the end. There is nothing to do to prepare physically for the end of the age.

   Storing up food. Isn't going to help you. Running up into the mountains isn't going to save you.

   There's nothing you can do. Storing up treasure on earth, having a lot of money, buying guns and ammunition, as some churches are doing to protect their foods and storages and all of that. That's what you'd have to do if you store up a lot of food is get a lot of ammunition with it because you're going to need it.

   There's nothing we can do, brethren, really, to prepare for the end of the age, physically speaking. And that's why when you begin to have more confidence in the reality of God, even when He lets you go through trials and sufferings, realizing that it's for a purpose, for a lesson, He's trying to teach us, trying to help us grow spiritually, is trusting God through every trial, through every sickness, through every problem, and where that you're going to trust God to your death, and you're going to trust God through everything that you go through and depend upon Him.

   And you're going to believe in Him and have faith in Him and know that God is not a liar. That God will give you eternal life if you trust Him and depend upon Him. That's part of true happiness, is really learning to relax.

   We get uptight. I get uptight in the work and in the church at times. We all do.

   But then I always go back to Bible study, reading the Bible, reviewing and renewing the daily man, the inward man, day by day, and I relax. Go back to the Bible again and read the scriptures and what God says: that happiness is trusting in Him. And if we trust God and learn to believe in Him and depend upon Him and know that our lives are in His hands, then there's nothing to worry about, is there?

   I think Winston Churchill said it during World War II that we were hearing about. He said to the British people, He said, We have nothing to fear except fear itself. Now we learned about the truth here and the right fear of God.

   And I'm talking about the fear that comes from worrying about what's going to happen to you, about what's going to happen in the church or in the world. Because really, it's all in the hands of God. And there's nothing we can do about it except trust God, build character, develop the right attitude.

   That's our part: to learn to trust God. And if you do, so, you're happy. Psalm 146, one more on this one: of happiness is trusting in God.

   So, how many of you want more faith, more trust, more confidence this next year? More than you do, money, more than physical things, more than even physical health. Do you want more trust and confidence in God?

   Psalm 146:3 and 5. Psalm 146:3 says, Put not your trust in princes, nor in the Son of Man. That just means in human beings, in whom there is no help.

   That's what the Bible says over and over, brethren, that when it comes to our physical salvation and the tribulations, when it comes to our spiritual salvation, it is all in God's hands. So trust in God not in man.

   That's what the Bible teaches. It says, happy, they're in verse 5 now: happy is he that has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God. There it again is: happiness is.

   Happiness is having the God of Jacob for your help and hoping in him. So, this is what you need to really be striving for spiritually, in your life, in your attitude, in your growth, you need to be learning to trust God with your problems in your life in every respect.

   Depend upon God and persevere in obedience to God. And that is showing God our faith in Him, our confidence in Him, our trust in Him. So, happiness, part of true happiness, is learning to trust God.

   And then, no matter what happens, no matter what you lose in the future, no matter what you have to give up, nobody can take these things away from you, can they? No man can take away these qualities from you. True happiness does not depend upon physical things.

   Another aspect then of true happiness, got about 15 more minutes to wrap it up here. True happiness is this also. Proverbs chapter 3.

   We're going to be teaching people these things in the world tomorrow about God and God's law and God's way of life. We're going to be teaching them how to be happy. Proverbs 3:13 says, again, here is happiness.

   Happy is the man that finds wisdom and the man that gets understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain is better than that of fine gold. Look at what's happening to the price of gold today.

   Look at what is happening to the price of gold today. Shooting up, up, and up, and it'll keep going up and up because the value of the dollar is going down, down, down. So, the price of gold going up shows the lack of confidence in the dollar, the lack of confidence in America and in our economy and in our future. All it means when gold goes up, it means America goes down.

   That's really what it really reflects. And happy is the man who finds wisdom?

   It's far more important to have the wisdom of God than to have any amount of money. Notice that's what these verses say. Verse 15: She, wisdom, is more precious than rubies.

   And all the things that you can desire are not to be compared to her, to wisdom. To wisdom from God, an understanding of what is right and good, an understanding of the future. And what is sure to happen?

   The ability to make right decisions in your life. I think that's what wisdom is. I would define wisdom is the quality, the gift from God, the ability to make right decisions in your life.

   Wisdom is making right decisions in your life. And wisdom comes from God. And having wisdom, it says, brings happiness.

   Because you're going to be making the right decision in your marriage, with your children, with your job, with your future. You're going to be making the right decision. And the wrong decisions can destroy you.

   Do you realize that a wrong decision concerning the church could take you into the great tribulation? You may say, well, why is wisdom so important? Why is it so important to have wisdom, spiritual discernment in making decisions?

   Does it really make any difference what kind of a Christian you are, as long as I'm a Christian? As long as I believe in keeping God's commandments? Isn't that all that matters?

   No, it doesn't. As we approach the end of the age, it is going to be more and more important what kind of a Christian we are. Because the Bible reveals to us that some Christians, as we approach the end of the age, some that God has called to know the truth of God are going to give in to the world, the pressures, to Satan, the devil, are going to let down and drift into a state of spiritual lethargy. And that's predicted and prophesied in the Bible. It is going to happen.

   You know, I used to say, how could anyone who knows the tribulation is coming just ahead and looking back on World War II and seeing what happened in Germany and Europe, how could anyone let themselves not heed the warning and just kind of half-heartedly obey God and half-heartedly serve God? How could we do that?

   And yet I've learned that human nature is an incredible thing, brethren, in all of it. Human nature is deceitful and it blinds you. And you begin to think, well, I'm doing okay.

   I mean, look at everybody else and we compare ourselves sometimes with the wrong people rather than continually with God, His Word, with Jesus Christ, with the Bible, and what God's standard is, and God's quality, and God's way. And yet, believe it or not, as we get closer to World War III and prophecy speeds up, we're going to see the formation and development, as Mr. Ames explained yesterday, of another era of the church. Another era that God describes in the Bible as being just plain old lukewarm spiritually. And it's just hard to comprehend, isn't it?

   That people who know. The truth could allow themselves to make those kind of decisions. When do you make the decision?

   And I have learned it this way: that if I become a Laodicean Christian in attitude, it's going to start on one particular day. One particular day in my life, I'm going to decide I don't have time to pray today, or I'm going to let a wrong attitude get into my mind. I'm mad at somebody in the church, or mad at somebody over here, I'm going to let a bad attitude come into my mind.

   Now, I haven't done that yet. I prayed today, that I don't have any bad attitudes toward anybody.

   But I know that if I let down tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after that, or someday in the future, somewhere along the line, and I make the wrong decision to skip prayer and skip study and skip the things that are really important in my life, make the wrong decisions, that I'm on my way. That's the first little step in the wrong direction. To making the wrong decision, I don't have time to pray today.

   I don't have time to put God first today. I'm too busy with other physical things in my life. That would be a wrong decision.

   And many people are making the wrong decision in their lives, and they really are drifting away from God. And they're just kind of following the crowd, or they're following a man. Many of you, maybe even wrongly so, may be following a man in this church.

   And I don't mean that in a bad way. I know people in the Phoenix Church where I pastored the church is that they were following Mr. Armstrong, but they had not really proven the truth.

   They left now and they went with Ted. He came through and held a service there in a Bible study, and they followed him. And they quit the church.

   Now, if they had really following what was right and the truth of God and the way of God, they would have been able to discern the difference. And they would have made a wise decision, the right decision. And I warned those.

   I went to. To visit every one of them that left the church to follow Ted. And I said, I believe you're going eventually.

   I'm not saying he's a Laodicean church, although when the tribulation comes and it officially begins, if he repents, he could be, and those who left could be, if they repent of the rebellion that they're in right now. I think that's the way Mr. Armstrong understands it, because I asked him once if he thought Ted were leading the Laodicean church, and he said, No!

   He is in an attitude of rebellion. Toward God, his government, his church, his authority. And not until he repents of that wrong attitude of rebellion will he even be in the kingdom of God.

   But the point is, I went to visit every one of those who left, and I felt deeply and strongly about it. And I tried to warn them. I said, you may not understand.

   Maybe you don't have the spiritual discernment to know the difference. But at least I'm here to try to help you understand the difference and to tell you you're making a wrong decision in leaving this church and following Ted. Because he's going to lead you the wrong way.

   They wouldn't believe me and they wouldn't accept it. But I said, at least I want you to know that someday in the future, when God shows you, you're wrong, I want you to realize that at least I warned you, I told you, I tried to talk you out of making that decision. And that was how I felt about it: that I had that responsibility to warn them.

   And I told them: I said, the way you are heading now, out of this church, which understands the truth of God, keeps the Holy Day of God and the way of God. I told him, I said, Look, I know we're not perfect.

   It's a church. We've made mistakes. A lot of us in the ministry have made mistakes. We're human beings. But this is still God's church and God's work. The truth is here. And God put Mr. Armstrong where he is in that office. And only God can remove him.

   And for any of us to rebel against him, the Bible says, is sin and rebellion. Even if we don't agree with him sometimes or feel he's made a mistake or a wrong decision, still, that's what the Bible teaches. He is in a job and in a position and an office that God established. And I told them, you can prove that. And I don't care whether you agree with him or not, you're wrong in rebelling and in leaving.

   And I feel that way. They made a mistake. They did not have wisdom.

   And wisdom is critical, brethren. Wisdom is a spiritual ability to discern right from wrong and to make the right decision. And it can drastically affect your future, the decisions you make.

   So, wisdom is something you should ask God for because it says, happy is the man that finds wisdom. Happy. See, because when you're making the right investment, you might be worrying about the security of the future because of finances and money, as we all are to a degree.

   You don't just put it in an average savings account because you only get 5.25% or so. And even if you put it in longer-term investments, it's 10% maybe that you get. And so, we try to keep up with inflation.

   We try to, what can I do to keep up with inflation? Inflation and prepare for the future. I really don't know a lot, except maybe if you can afford to buy a home or property or something like that, and that's the best investment for the average person.

   But I'm not a financial advisor or an expert, so that's not what I'm saying. But that's what I would do if I could afford it in Pasadena, which I can't in Pasadena. But the best investment, the wisest decision to make, is, you know what it is?

   I'm sure you do, all of you, because you're probably doing it. Wisdom is putting our money where it counts.

   Frankly, give as we're able to give. Give as God has blessed us. Because Jesus said in Matthew 6, He said, don’t lay up for yourself treasures on earth.

   Layup treasures in heaven where your heart is, or where your treasure is, where your money is, he said, There's where your heart will be. The best investment we can make, the wisest decision that we can make, is to keep our heart in the work of God. That is wisdom.

   That is making the right decision. And I know a lot of people who stop tithing. Brethren, that is an awful, awful lack of wisdom and spiritual discernment and understanding.

   And they're going to pay a terrible penalty. They don't fear God anymore. Or they say, well, this is my money.

   I don't want to give it to this church anymore. I want to give it to this church over here. Now, certainly in America, that's their right and their prerogative.

   But they don't have wisdom. And making the right decision and having confidence in it brings happiness. Because you know you're doing the right things. So, part of happiness then is having wisdom from God. And God does say, if you lack wisdom in James 1:5, ask Him for it.

   Ask God for wisdom, and He says He will give liberally and generously if you really seek wisdom. So, what do you want more of this next year? You know, if that commentator would ask you, what is happiness?

   Would you say, oh, I want wisdom so much? I want it's more than an increase in salary, more than gold and silver. I want more wisdom so I can just make the right decisions in my life and guide my family or help others.

   That is important. Now, believe it or not, this one will kind of stump you too. Now, let's give maybe one scripture on these next ones: that wisdom is also this.

   Turn to Job 5 and verse 17. Job chapter 5 and verse 17. Again, These are things you see that you just don't come up with by yourself.

   You don't come up with from the world. The world doesn't give you these things. Only God's Word does.

   Job 5, verse 17. Notice again what happiness is, brethren. Job 5:17.

   Behold, happy is the man, the person, the Christian, whom God corrects. Therefore, despise not the chastening of the Almighty. So that's just one right there for you. Would you have said, God, I need you, God, to correct me? That means to teach me, to admonish me.

   It doesn't mean hurt you. It really doesn't necessarily mean to hurt you at all. God's correction is given only in love as it is needed to keep us on the right track.

   That's what that means. And God only corrects in love for our good to keep us going in the right direction toward His kingdom and toward eternal life.

   So think of that then. Happiness is being corrected by God. And God corrects you through His Word, if you let it.

   And sometimes through the ministry, those who are loyal, true ministers of God, who will preach the truth of God and the way of God. Happiness is being corrected by God. And that's something to think about, isn’t it?

   Remember, the Hebrews tells us, remember that in Hebrews 12? No, you don't have to turn there time is running short now.

   But remember, it says, don't faint, don't faint and give up and get discouraged when you're rebuked or corrected by God. That's something I like to remember because I get corrected now and then by Mr. Herbert Armstrong.

   I got corrected recently by Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong. I really did. And I'm thankful to be corrected by Him.

   I would rather be corrected by Him than anyone I know. And correction comes from God. And so, when it comes to you through the Word of God, or through sermons, or through a minister in this church who is a faithful, loyal minister of God, that you take that is, even though it hurts, and it says that in Hebrews 2, that it hurts for the moment, but it is for your good, that correction is love, and that correction, when you get it, brings happiness.

   And probably you notice that in our children when it's applied properly, that after they're corrected in love, they're usually happy. They're usually a lot happier and feel better. So remember that.

   Happiness is also God dealing with us, God working with us, God correcting us. That's what the Bible says. Happiness is being corrected by God.

   So, count it happiness when God is dealing with you, working with you, trying you and testing you. And sometimes if you feel you're not loved, you just turn it around. And if God is working with you, that means you are loved and you're being corrected by God.

   I'll real quickly give you just a couple more aspects of it without turning to scriptures because I think we all know that they're there. Here's another aspect of happiness that we can practice at the feast: happiness is giving. Happiness is giving.

   Do you remember that where, let's see, it was Luke who wrote the book of Acts in chapter 20. Quoted the words of our Lord, and yet they're words that were never written in any scripture, but he's quoting what he said: the Lord said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. Acts 20:35.

   And again, it means it is happier to give than to receive. And we know that's true, don't we? We know it is true that if you want to be happier, start giving more.

   The Feast of Tabernacles is a time to give, get little gifts for people, little surprises for them, a special bottle of wine, or take somebody out to dinner, or look to take some that might be lonely, some of the singles, or some of the widows who might be alone. I hope they're not.

   But be looking for someone that you think you can do something for. Jesus said you're happier when you give. And there is a certain feeling you get inside when you give something to somebody.

   I mean, without expecting anything in return, without wanting to get, but you're just giving. Jesus said it is happier to give than to receive.

   And so if we'll practice that and live it, if we learn that here at the Feast of Tabernacles, if we're incorporating that, that happiness is not just taking care of ourselves here. Happiness is not just making sure that we all eat and drink a lot and have a good time. Happiness is making sure everybody is having a good time and having a part in serving and giving at the Feast of Tabernacles.

   And it's a way of life, it's God's way to happiness. Isn't it? That's the truth, brethren.

   That's what happiness really, truly is. So, you stop and think: then, are you really, truly happy? If you're not, maybe it's because your definition of happiness is not the Bible's definition of happiness.

   The Bible's definition of happiness is learning to fear God and obeying God's law and really trusting in God is what the Bible teaches us, and gaining wisdom to make the right decisions for the future, for our lives every day, and being even corrected by God. That's the biblical definition of happiness.

   Literally, happiness is those things. And Jesus said, happiness is giving, serving, helping others. And you won't find anywhere in the Bible where it says you'll be happier if you have more money or bigger home or another color television set or anything.

   It doesn't say that. That real happiness, whether you're married or single, young or old, real happiness is learning the qualities that no one can take away from you, the spiritual qualities that God is revealing to us, that we need, so that we can teach the whole world to be truly happy. God certainly will bless the world with physical prosperity, brethren, but you know it isn't going to be the physical things in the world tomorrow that brings happiness. Do you realize that? But it's not going to be because everybody necessarily has all the physical things we have.

   It isn't going to be that. People are going to be happy in the world tomorrow because we're going to teach them the things that we are learning about God and putting Him first in our lives. And when they learn to fear God and obey God and worship God and trust God, then they will be able to enjoy all the physical prosperity and blessings of the world tomorrow.

   So, brethren, let's really be truly happy and keep our values right, obey God, worship Him, fear Him, trust Him, and learn to have our wonderful, happy Feast of Tabernacles be training so that we can teach others what real happiness truly is.