Herbert W Armstrong

   In May of 1956, Chuck Keesling, age 21, a new lieutenant junior grade, was preparing to take off in a Navy aircraft from the airbase at Norfolk, Virginia. Chuck was a very fine person, a steady person, dependable, one with high morals, a likable person and one of the very few, I guess, people in the United States Navy who regularly studied his Bible. He had just completed 1 1/2 years of flight training, and in that flight training, he had received high grades and had done very well. He graduated with one of our later employees in our flight department here in Pasadena who told me this story.

   But on this particular occasion, this young man was flying a Grumman S2F on anti-sub patrol. And this particular aircraft was, of course, a rather powerful aircraft with twin engines, a prop plane that developed a little over 3,000 horsepower. At 8 a.m. he reported for duty, and at 8:10, he headed down the runway to take off. The aircraft reached flying speed, he started to take off, and almost instantly the right wing folded, the plane flipped over, burned, and Chuck, age 21, was dead.

   Now what went wrong? There was, of course, an investigation that followed, and they determined the cause of this particular accident. Chuck Keesling had made a fatal mistake. Let me explain, giving a little bit of background what this fatal mistake was.

   There is a usual routine for all aircraft which is supposed to be followed very rigidly and usually is by the pilot. And before even getting into the airplane, there is a particular routine that is followed where the pilot walks around the airplane, examines the various parts of the airplane, in fact, looks over the whole airplane, to makes sure especially that the control surfaces seem to be intact and proper without any damage. Then also checking the oil to make sure there's plenty of oil, checking also the fuel pumps to drain out any water that might have accumulated.

   Then in addition to this, there's a very elaborate test list rather, before takeoff, before, in fact, before you do about anything in an aircraft, you have to go through a particular checklist to make sure that you have done everything properly. There is a checklist, of course, it's prepared by Grumman for this particular aircraft, which is, I think, added to or modified by the Navy.

   And Chuck had not gone through this checklist carefully. Now how is it known that he did not go through this checklist carefully? There are two reasons that it's very evident that he did not. Number one was that he did not have sufficient time to go through such a checklist in the time from 8:00 to 8:10 a.m. Secondly, it was very obvious that he missed something.

   This particular aircraft has, quite a number of Navy aircraft have, folding wings and this is of course so that it can be stored on board ship in a smaller space. And these particular folding wings on this particular aircraft had a series of locking pins to lock that wing permanently horizontal, I guess you would say, during the flight. And then after the flight and on shipboard they would pull the lever and then the wings could be folded.

   Well, there are 32 locking pins on this particular wing. And there are two ways to determine whether or not that is locked. One is to see this visually from the outside at the wing itself. And secondly, the actuating levers in the cockpit has to be pushed full forward and you can only tell if it's pushed full forward whether or not it's locked because if it's open a quarter of an inch or 0.5 of an inch, just a little bit on that lever, then it would not be locked. And Chuck Keesling had not done that. He had not checked the actuating lever. So as a result of that, when he took off, he crashed.

   I'd like to give a spiritual lesson, to make a spiritual analogy in regard to this. I'd like to turn over to the book of Matthew chapter 24. Matthew 24. And in verse 29 (Matthew 24:29-31), he mentions about the tribulation followed by the heavenly signs. And then in verse 30, "Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." And then in verse 31 of chapter 24, "He shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other."

   You see, the angels are going to gather the saints together. They're going to meet Christ in the air as we see over in I Thessalonians 4:16 and 17, and then from there, they are going to come down to the Mount of Olives. In other words, the saints at the time of Christ's return are going to meet him in the air. They are going to take off.

   Now, in order to take off safely, there are certain preliminary actions that are essential. And if some of these preliminary actions are overlooked, it may be that the person will not, quote, "take off," end quote, and meet Jesus Christ in the air. So in order not to overlook even one essential, I think it's good for us from time to time as Christians to have or to go over a checklist, just like an aircraft pilot does, to make sure that we don't neglect something. And sometimes it's so easy to neglect even the obvious, just as it was in this particular case.

   It should be very obvious. If this particular young man, Chuck Keesling, would have checked that checklist, he would not have been killed in that accident. So I'm going to go over now today a short list that I have compiled that a Christian ought to use, a checklist to be sure that we do the things that we ought to do so that in order to rise when the angels come, that we might rise to meet Jesus Christ in the air.

   Some of these, I think, are very, very obvious, but sometimes people, as I say, neglect the obvious, and that's one reason to have a checklist. The first item should be very, very obvious, and you'll find this mentioned over in the book of Acts chapter 2, and I presume that you all are a little ahead of me. But let's turn there, Acts 2 verse 38, (Acts 2:38), because this is where we start. I'm breaking into the thought here, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

   That's where we start. Some people think that they are Christians, and they haven't even taken the first step. I've known, for example, some people who have been around in the church for years, and things like that, they go on and they go on and on and on and they never are baptized. I realize the number is small, but from time to time we do find someone like that who has neglected the very first elements in the Christian life, and that is to repent and be baptized.

   Now, in some cases, maybe the other people in the church don't even realize that. But usually somebody does know that this person has never repented, never been baptized. They haven't even started yet. I hope all of us have repented. I hope all of us have been baptized, or if we have not been, I hope that we shall be soon.

   So we should repent and be baptized, but this repentance is not just something we did way back when, whenever we were baptized. Let's turn over to the book of Luke, the book of Luke chapter 11. This is now the so-called Lord's Prayer. It's mentioned also, of course, back in the book of Matthew chapter 5, but here in verse 4, (Luke 11:3-4) one of the points that he mentions is, "And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us." This is, I think, a daily request since in verse 3 it says "Give us day by day" or "this day" as the other account mentions, "our daily bread."

   So we ought to ask God to forgive us of our sins. And when we see that we have sinned, we should repent of that sin, and we should turn from that sin. We should abhor that sin. We should quit committing that particular sin.

   Now, why is it that we should not only repent at the time of baptism, but continually repent as sin is brought to our attention? Let's turn over to Matthew 25, Matthew 25 and verse 13. This is mentioned in several places, but let's notice in verse 13 (Matthew 25:13), speaking about Christ and his return: "Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh."

   Now we might say, "Oh well, I know that Jesus Christ isn't going to come today, because there are so many prophecies that have to be fulfilled, there's a whole sequence of many prophecies, including the great tribulation, the heavenly signs, and the day of the Lord before Jesus Christ can come." But from another point of view, we don't know when Christ might come for us.

   Now this is not intended to be a hellfire and brimstone or a scare sermon. But we all need to realize that we don't know what a day or an hour will bring forth in our own lives, and we never know when our life might end, whether we're young or whether we're old. And since we don't know the day or the hour of our death, you might say that we don't know the day or the hour of Christ coming for us because in a sense, maybe not technically so, but in the sense, when we die, if we are a Christian, Christ has come for us.

   And so we ought to repent of our sins as they are brought to our attention. And so repentance is not just a matter we do once, but it is a matter that we do whenever we see that we have sinned. So that is the first thing??"we should all repent and be baptized and we should continue in that attitude of repentance.

   The second item in the checklist is to obey God. I'm sure that we all have heard many, many times that we should obey God. Many people in the church, in the world rather, who believe they are Christians, they don't believe you have to obey God. There isn't anything to obey, that everything was nailed to the cross and now we can pretty well do what we want.

   Let's notice first back in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 5. Deuteronomy chapter 5. This is now right after the law was given, the Ten Commandment law specifically. That's given in the early part of this chapter starting at about verse 16. And in verse 29, after God had given this set of Ten Commandments to Israel and it added no more as it says in verse 22 and as he had also written them on tables of stone, he says in verse 29 (Deuteronomy 5:29), "O that there was such a heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my commandments always," or we might say for all time, "that it might be well with them or for them and with their children forever."

   Now there's a lot of obedience in the Bible, starting from the very beginning and going on clear to the end of the book of Revelation as far as that's concerned. This is just one particular place that is mentioned. But if we want to enter into God's kingdom, we have to obey God and be busy finding out what it is that we are supposed to obey. And the basic factors of that are given in this very chapter, the Ten Commandments.

   Now let's turn also over to the New Testament to the book of Acts, to chapter 5. Acts chapter 5. And we may touch on this point a little bit later in a different connection, but here in Acts 5:32, we're told here in the last part of the verse that God gives us His Holy Spirit to those who obey Him. Maybe I should read the whole verse rather than just trying to put it in my own words: "And we are his witnesses of these things, and so is also the Holy Spirit, whom God," that is the Holy Spirit, whom God "has given to them that obey Him."

   Now if we want to have God's Holy Spirit, we have to obey God. Let's notice also in the book of I John??"we'll be covering quite a few scriptures, of course, today on this very basic subject. I John chapter 2, verse 3 and 4 (I John 2:3-4): "And hereby we do know that we know him if we keep His commandments." I think there's several things implied here, and one is that if we don't keep God's commandments, we won't know him. Therefore, if we don't keep his commandments, we're not going to be able to take off and meet Jesus Christ in the clouds when he comes.

   "He that says I know him," and many people say that, "and keeps not his commandments," many say that they don't have to keep his commandments, it says, "is a liar and the truth is not in him."

   Now even in the last book of the Bible, and we come even to the last chapter of the Bible, chapter 22 of the book of Revelation in verse 14. After we read about the new heavens and the new earth of chapter 21 and the beginning of chapter 22, it says here verse 14 (Revelation 22:14), "Blessed are they that do his commandments," or those who keep his commandments, those who obey his commandments, "that they may have right to the tree of life." So if they don't keep those commandments, they will not be able to take of the tree of life, and they enter into the gates in the city and so forth.

   So here in the very last chapter of the Bible, we find that same theme that we have to obey God. We have to obey basically that Ten Commandment law, which is elaborated in other parts of the Bible throughout the Bible as far as that's concerned.

   Now some people think though that there are various degrees of sins. And in a sense I guess there are, but they think maybe the little things don't matter too much. Maybe little white lies on occasion or maybe breaking the Sabbath a little bit or maybe some little thing doesn't hurt very much. Well, sometimes little things add up to big things. And sometimes little things even cause death, just as I mentioned in the first example here of Chuck Keesling. All he neglected to do was to push a lever forward, maybe a quarter or half of an inch, and it cost his life. You might call that a little thing. But sometimes little things will cause death.

   I'm reminded of another airplane crash that took place in Big Sandy, Texas on the campus there several years ago. On this particular occasion, which happened to be a Sunday, excuse me, Saturday, a Sabbath, a Sabbath afternoon during the, I think it was the early summer, there was a young lady in high school, a young woman in high school, and one of her friends who were waiting out at the airstrip for an airplane that had been directed that way to land and to pick her up and take her over, I think, to visit with her mother.

   And on this particular occasion, the man who was going to fly in there and pick this young lady up had never flown this airplane that he was flying very long. It was new to him. He had just purchased it. It was a used aircraft, a Mooney, and those of you who are familiar with aircraft would know a little bit about the Mooney.

   Anyway, he was flying this rather new airplane to him into a strange airport that he had never visited, never seen before. And he came in for a landing. And for some reason it seemed like the plane wouldn't touch down as quickly as he thought it ought to. It landed about the last third of the airstrip. And rather fast at that it seemed like he put on the brakes. He didn't think the brakes held, but the brakes did hold because it was evident from the marks on the pavement that the brakes were working, working properly, but he slammed on the brakes as hard as he could, I guess, because he saw the end of the runway coming up rather quickly.

   And then he sort of lost control and got off the runway and zigzagged around a little bit and finally went on over past the end of the runway and down over the hill. There's a little bit of a hill right there and ended up in some huge stumps which stopped their travel of course and damaged the airplane quite severely.

   Well, after it was checked into and a little bit of thought was given, it was very obvious that this man had made several mistakes. One was he landed, as they say, downwind. Instead of landing toward the wind, he landed away from the wind, going with the wind, which of course increased his speed over the ground. Secondly, he landed going downhill. However, he couldn't tell that from above that the one end of the runway was 25 feet lower than the other end of the runway. You can't tell those things very well from the air. So he landed downhill. You know, he ought to land uphill.

   And he landed on about the last half or the last third of the runway, you know, you should touch down fairly close to the beginning of the runway rather than halfway down the runway or near the end of the runway. So adding all of these things together, he was not able to stop. He ran off the end of the runway and crashed into those stumps.

   Well, it so happened that this airplane, as I said, was new to this man. He had just bought it recently and come to find out that it was not licensed. So every year an aircraft has to be re-licensed or recertificated. And he had not done that. Now, if he had done that, the routine checks that they would take to prepare this plane for use for another year, they would have discovered that in the wings of that aircraft, which was a wood wing, by the way, it was a plywood, a laminated wood wing, which is a very fine wing, I guess, as long as this doesn't happen to it, that wing had begun to rot.

   And if he had not crashed as he did, chances are that he would have been up in the air sometime soon, gotten into a little turbulence or whatever, and one of those wings or both of them would have buckled. So maybe instead of this being a real bad thing, maybe it's a real good thing for him.

   There was a matter of adding up just what you might think are little things, you know. There's maybe a 10 or 20 mile an hour, maybe a 10 mile an hour tailwind. Uh, the one end of the runway was 25 ft lower than the other, and he landed, you know, the last half or so of the runway, and he still had 1,200 ft or so to go. But those things added up and brought about a crash. Sometimes little things add up.

   Benjamin Franklin wrote uh a little poem about this. He says, "For the want of a nail, the shoe was lost." You probably all read this when you were children. "For the want of a nail, the shoe was lost. For the want of a shoe, the horse was lost. For the want of a horse, the rider was lost. For the want of a rider, the battle was lost. For the want of a battle, the kingdom was lost, and all for the want or for the lack of a horseshoe nail." That's by Benjamin Franklin.

   Now that's, I think, a truism that applies in our spiritual life. If we neglect sometimes what we think are the little things, they can add up. And they can bring disastrous results. Now, some of us, we are not only unconcerned maybe about the little things, but we sometimes want to get away with as much as we can or do as little as possible.

   In Luke 17:10, I don't think I'll turn there, it makes some comments showing that when we do what is required of us — in other words, if we obey God and do the things that are required of us — we're still unprofitable servants. And do you think that uh unprofitable servants are going to get into God's kingdom? I think we're going to have to be profitable servants.

   So the second thing that I want to emphasize is that we should obey God, not just in the big things, but also in what we might think are the little things, because little things can add up. And they might keep us from God's kingdom.

   Now the third item in this checklist that I have prepared is that we need to have good works. Let's notice over in the book of Revelation — I think we were last in the book of Revelation. Let's turn to chapter 3 of Revelation, and verse 2 is talking about the Sardis church here. And there was something wrong with the Sardis church, and uh sometimes we in the church have the same problem individually. I want to notice just the last part of it. Well, let's, let's read all of verse 1 and 2 (Revelation 3:1-3): "Unto the angel of the church in Sardis write, these things says he that has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your works, that you have a name that you live, but you are dead. Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God." I have not found your works perfect. There was something lacking in the works that they had. They had become a dead church, as verse one shows us. They did not have good works.

   Now, what are some of the good works that we should do? And is it important? Let's turn back to the book of Matthew chapter 5, to the Sermon on the Mount. I think I already referred to this section, but Matthew 5, 6, and 7, of course, give us the spiritual guidance that the New Testament church needs. And verse 16 (Matthew 5:16), I would like to notice: "Let your light so shine before men." Now what is the light that is supposed to shine before men? What is it that they are supposed to see in us? "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works." Now good works are things that people can see. And we're supposed to have good works, not bad works or works that are not perfect before God, but we should have works, good works that can be seen. "And glorify your Father, which is in heaven." So we should have that kind of good works, the kind that people can see. They can see by our lives, by the way we live, by our actions, that we are doing good, that we are doing good works.

   I'd like to turn also to II Timothy. II Timothy and chapter 2, chapter 3 rather. II Timothy 3. And verse 17 — maybe we should read verse 16 (II Timothy 3:16-17), and we may read this a little bit later also. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." Now here is the point that we want to emphasize: "That the man of God may be perfect, or may become perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." Now the scriptures, of course, show us the way. They show us the kind of good works that we should have. But we must have those good works if we're gonna enter into God's kingdom. We must have those good works if we are going to take off and meet Jesus Christ in the air.

   Now there's more that we could refer to. I'll just refer to this particular one, I think, over in John 15:5. It mentions there that we are supposed to be attached to the true vine. Jesus said that he was the true vine, and we are the branches. And if we are attached to that vine, it says we're going to bring forth much fruit. Now that much fruit primarily is talking about good works — the things that we are supposed to do in fulfillment of God's commands, and fulfilling the things that we find, for example, in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, which we were just reading very briefly a minute ago.

   So obviously now, good works ought to include love, kindness, serving others, doing good to others, and also obedience to God, which we have already covered in the second point. So that then is the third point. The third thing that we should check off, the third thing that we should do and be doing is to have good works.

   Now, the next point that I would like to read or refer to rather, the fourth one, is Bible study. And we've already seen just a little bit about that over here in II Timothy. In verse 16 of the same script — of the same text that I read to you just now.

   Let's turn back to II Timothy chapter 2 and verse 15 also (II Timothy 2:15). "Study to show yourself approved unto God." Here is a direct command and instruction to Timothy, and also we ought to take it as a personal command to us as well. To study, to study rather to show ourselves approved. If we don't study, then we will not show ourselves approved unto God. A workman, you know, doing work, accomplishing things, doing things, even doing good works, you might say, that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, and I'll say a little bit more maybe about the dividing shortly.

   Now how can we know what God expects of us? How can we know what the good works are that we're supposed to do? How can we even know that we're supposed to repent and be baptized unless we study God's word? You see, it is the map, it is the lamp to our feet, it is the uh paper that shows us the way to eternal life. It is a document that tells us what God expects of us. Now, how can we know then what God expects unless we study? Unless we do a lot of study of God's word, unless this is a very part of our very being, a very part of our life, a very part of our normal routine.

   After it's all said and done and after it's all over, when we stand before Jesus Christ, we won't be able to say, "Well, you know, they didn't tell me about this or that and the other thing." If he asks us, you know, "Why didn't you do this?" we won't be able to say, "Well, nobody told me." You'll say, "Well, didn't you read my word? There it is right there in my word." You know, we have to do our own study. Somebody else can't do it for us — the wife can't do it for the husbands, the husbands can't do it for the wife, the parents can't do it for the children, the children can't do it for the parents. We have to do our own studying, each one of us, and we won't be able to stand before Jesus Christ and say that nobody told me because we all have his word.

   Some seem to have the idea that what you don't know won't hurt you. That's not the case in this situation, because what we don't know may hurt us if we don't take action, so we'd better be looking into God's word to find out what it is that we are supposed to do. There is a saying that ignorance of the law is no excuse, and I think that's very, very appropriate when it comes to the scriptures, because ignorance of what God says is not going to excuse us in the judgments.

   Now there's one point that I noticed here in verse 15. It says "rightly dividing the word of truth." What does it mean to divide the word of truth? Some have the idea that you divide it into various parts and then you start discarding various parts. And then you just take what you want, you know. Using this theory, some have said, "Well, after all, the Old Testament was part of the time before Christ. That was the Old Testament, and it had nothing to do with the gospel and therefore we just throw that part out. We're just going to live by the New Testament." And others come along and say, "Well, uh, I'm just going to live by the Gospels. I'm not going to live by the writings of Paul." Or some will say, "Well, we don't need the gospels because they were all written about things that relate prior to Christ's crucifixion and everything that happened before his crucifixion, uh, that really didn't count either. So now we're going to look to Paul's writings." And so then they looked at Paul's writings and they say, "Well, now Paul was uh sort of evolving here in his theology, and he started out and he didn't understand things very well and as time went on, he began to understand them better. And finally, when he got down to the end, then he understood what it was that God wanted him to do and of course you'll find that in the book of Galatians. So we'll take the book of Galatians and then throw the rest away." Well, there are several things wrong with that, one being, of course, that the book of Galatians was about the first book he wrote.

   Now is that rightly dividing the word of truth? You know, as we read here in verse 16 of chapter 3, it says "all scripture is given by inspiration of God." Including, of course, Galatians but also including Genesis. And it's profitable for doctrine. You see, all the Bible is profitable for doctrine, not just the book of Galatians. And it's also profitable for reproof. Now maybe you won't get as much reproof in the book of Genesis as you do in Matthew 5, 6, or 7, but there is reproof there. And you'll find it even in the book of Revelation. And also for correction, to correct us and direct us in the right way, and for instruction in righteousness.

   We need to not divide the word of God, we need to add. And you take what God says in one place and you take what he says in another place and you add all of that together and all of the other places in the Bible that speak on that particular subject. But what does it mean here when it says that we should rightly divide the word of truth? You know, it doesn't mean to divide in the sense that we think of it in mathematics. The Revised Standard Version has it better translated "rightly handling the word of truth." You know, there's a proper way and a wrong way to handle God's word. Now it does not mean to cut in two or to cut in pieces, but rather it means to rightly handle, to rightly use the word of God, all of the word of God, not doing away with any particular part.

   So the fourth point, again, is we need to study God's word. And we need to study God's word a lot. It's not something you can do in your youth and then forget in your old age. It's not what you can do when you first come in the church and afterwards you can neglect it because now you know it all. But we need to continually take in this word. It's not only a lamp to our feet, but it's also food. And we need to be regularly taking in of that food.

   Now, the next point that I want to mention, the fifth one is prayer. Now that ought to be evident to anyone who has even made a very brief study of God's word — that we should study God's word and we should pray. Now that ought to be very evident. Now, how often should we pray? When should we pray? How long should we pray? I'm not here to tell you the answer to those things. Prayer is a very private thing between us and God. But I can tell you a little bit about what the Bible says.

   We read, for example, that David prayed three times a day. We read that Daniel prayed three times a day. Now how long he prayed, how long they prayed at each of those times, we don't know, of course, but you can see that it was a daily routine with them. And it was uh not something they just did in the morning and forgot the rest of the day, but they did it three times and apparently this is speaking of rather formal prayer where they knelt down on their knees and prayed to God, probably for some period of time. And it was because that he was following this practice that Daniel was cast into the den of lions, if you may recall, because he was not going to neglect prayer even under threat of death.

   Now there are some scriptures I'd like to turn to. Let's turn over to the book of Philippians, Philippians chapter 4, verse 6 (Philippians 4:6): "Be careful for nothing" — and this is uh a little awkward in the King James and I'm sure it conveyed the right thought to people in 1611, but it doesn't in 1981. Some translations say, "Don't worry about anything." "But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God." We need then to be praying to God, and also even more than just the routine prayer but also supplicating or earnestly entreating God, and also with thanksgiving — in other words, giving God thanks for all of the physical and the spiritual blessings that he bestows upon us so abundantly. And going on to say, "Let your request be made known to God." God knows that we have need of things, and he knows that we have need of those things even sometimes before we know, but we're still supposed to give him thanks and we're still supposed to ask.

   Now as we look in the Bible, especially I'm thinking now of the scriptures about Christ, we read that he prayed regularly and frequently and long, and on one occasion he prayed all night long that we have recorded. On that particular occasion, he was about ready to select the 12 disciples who later became apostles. So he had special need at that point to have God's guidance, and sometimes with us, there are special severe problems that we're facing and that we need to spend extra time in earnest prayer before God, or maybe praying and fasting before God so that he might uh have us in the right attitude, so we might be in the right attitude, so we might be close to him, so that we might be able to speak to him and to explain to him the urgent need that we have.

   So we can follow his example of praying long and praying frequently and on occasion, maybe praying very long. Now we've been exhorted over the years to pray various lengths of time and I'm not going to talk about that as far as the time is concerned, but let me say this: the little 5-minute prayer every day or a 10-minute prayer every day is not the kind of prayer that Jesus Christ had, or that David had, or that Daniel had. A little short prayer like that daily or on occasion is not the kind of prayer that I'm talking about. Brethren, if we want to be close to God, we have to be a praying people. And how can we walk with God? How can we be close to God if we don't talk with Him, if we don't pray to Him? This must be a very important part of our life, or a part of our lifestyle if you want to use that particular term. Yes, we need to be a praying people, brethren, if we are going to be doing what God wants us to do.

   Now the next thing, the sixth point that I want to mention is to have a right attitude. And so often it seems like that the problems we have relate to our attitude, and we sometimes get in the wrong attitude and don't realize it. Now, what are some of the wrong attitudes that people have? Let me mention the first one is that of envy. Sometimes we get a little upset because someone else has a better job or someone else is given an opportunity that we're not given, or somebody else maybe has more than we have of this world's goods or whatever it might be.

   And I think in so many cases, the reason why we're envious is that we want to really have the things that the others have. We want maybe to be number one. We want to be important. We want to be the big shot — maybe we don't put it in those terms, but at least in the case of men, so often that's the case, you know, they want to be the important one. They don't like to, to uh be uh the Indian, they want to be the chief. They don't want to play second fiddle, they want to play first fiddle, and so on. But realize of course that uh everyone in a sense has to play second fiddle except God the Father, because everyone else in God's government is under his authority, even Jesus Christ.

   Now another thing that we have, and some of us in regard to our attitudes, sometimes we get hurt feelings for whatever reason it might be. And it might seem rather important to us and really it's not so important sometimes as we really come to understand it. But we get hurt feelings, sometimes we even become a little bitter, and the Bible tells us, you know, that we should not let a root of bitterness creep in. Otherwise, you know, that bitterness is going to consume us. But we've become maybe a little bitter about the way things are done or the way that things are not done.

   And it's so easy, I think in the church to get feeling a little bit hurt about some of the things that happened to us or that happen to others. And we think maybe that they're unfair. And maybe they are unfair — I don't know, but sometimes I think God permits those things just to try us to see what our attitude will be under any and all circumstances.

   Another reason we get into a wrong attitude is because of either criticism towards us or that we might criticize others. And we can always find fault in others, surely it's so much easier to find fault in others than it is to find fault in ourselves. Others may have reason to complain about us, but we don't realize it. We see reason maybe to complain about them. But God looks at all of us, of course, and he sees the fault in all of us where we can usually just see the fault easier in others than we can in ourselves.

   Another way we can get in the wrong attitude is to begin to accuse others. Now when we begin accusing others, we may be just becoming a tool of Satan because he is the accuser of the brethren. And another way in which we sometimes get in the wrong attitude, we become rebellious against God and against his government. Maybe we don't think of it that way, maybe we just uh disagree with how things are being run, or how Mr. Armstrong directs certain aspects of the work.

   Isaiah 62 — this puts it very beautifully. And verse 2, what we see here now is the one that God will look to and the kind of attitude that he's going to look for. Excuse me, I said Isaiah 62, I meant Isaiah 66. Let's notice just the last part of this verse (Isaiah 66:2): "But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembles at my word." Now the word "poor" here is, is maybe uh something that would give us a misunderstanding from what God intended and from what the Hebrew intends here. We might say one who is humble. In that particular attitude, poor in spirit, as you'll find over in the Sermon on the Mount.

   One that is of a contrite spirit — in other words, one who is repentant, one who is willing to uh change his ways, one who is teachable, one who is humble, not proud, not haughty. One who is meek or who is modest, one who is contrite or repented. We might add a little bit more — one who is respectful of God, His government, His laws, and also His servants that He has used to call us and to teach us. To put it in a different way, one who is childlike.

   Matthew 18 has a little bit to say about that. Maybe we could turn there and notice that. Matthew 18, Matthew 18, and verse 3 and 4 (Matthew 18:1-4). Let's start in verse one: "At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus saying, 'Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?'" And maybe they were wanting to know, well, who's the greatest of us as well. "And Jesus called a little child unto him and set him in the midst of them and said, 'Verily I say unto you, except you be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receives me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones,' — these little children, and that I think would refer not only in the physical way of little children physically, but also little children spiritually — 'which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea.'"

   We need to be childlike, and a child, of course, is open, is teachable, is approachable. And as we, as they grow a little older, and as we grow a little older, we're inclined to be the other way and to be uh rather closed and not open, and not be teachable, rather wanting to do our own thing, do our own way and not approachable by others.

   Now the next and the last point that I want to cover — let's notice first in Ezekiel 18. Ezekiel 18 and verse 24. He's talking here about the wicked and also about the righteous and about those who sin, and in verse 4 and also in verse 20, he mentions that the soul that sins shall die. And let's pick it up here in about verse 23 (Ezekiel 18:23-24): "Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? says the Eternal God, and not that he should return from his ways and live? But when the righteous turns from his righteousness," — and some do, you know, from time to time, people who have been in God's church sometimes for many, many years and done many good deeds and maybe do all of the things that I've been mentioning, maybe they do all of the six things that I just mentioned, and yet they do not do the seventh, which I've not told you yet what it is — "But anyway, when the righteous turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live?" Or is he going to obtain eternal life? "All his righteousness that he has done shall not be mentioned." God's gonna forget all about those good things that he did. God's gonna forget about his repentance and baptism, about his prayer, about his study, about his good works. God is gonna forget all of those things. "In his trespass that he has trespassed, and in his sin that he has sinned, in them shall he die," or he shall die.

   Now what is it that we lastly must do? Let's turn to Matthew 24, where it's very clear there — may not yet be clear, but Matthew 24 and verse 13 (Matthew 24:13). What's number 7? 24:13: "But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." He knows not how well you start the race. It's not how well you do on lap 2, 3, 4, 5, or whatever it is, but it's whether you complete the race.

   The seventh point that I want to emphasize is that we must endure. We must overcome. We must go clear to the end. Now I remember some years ago down here on our track at that particular time — it's of course been replaced now by the much finer and longer track — that there was a race there between some of the girls. And they started out on this particular race. And one girl was way out in front. This was on a field day or a college field day. And for several laps she was ahead of everyone else. Then I think it was on the last lap that the others began to pass her. And finally, they all passed her, and as the others were coming across the finish line, I noticed that she at that particular time was on the back stretch, and she quit running and just walked off the track. She never completed that race. You know, the first lap didn't count. The second lap didn't count. The third lap didn't count. You know we have to endure to the end.

   So brethren, it's not how well we start, but it's whether we keep it up, whether we keep on to the very, very end, not with just one point, but with all of these points. You see, we have to repent and be baptized — that's the way we start. We have to obey God. We have to have good works. We have to study God's word. We have to pray. We have to be in the right attitude and stay in the right attitude, and lastly, we must endure to the end.

   Brethren, we don't know what is ahead. We don't know how long any one of us are going to live. You don't know how long you're going to live. I don't know how long I'm going to live. We don't know what a day or an hour may bring forth. We don't know the kind of trials that we face or that we're going to be going through in the coming days, weeks, months, and years or however long it is until Jesus Christ's return. So in a sense we don't know the day or the hour that Jesus Christ is going to come for us. But whatever time he does come for us, individually or collectively for his church, we must be ready, and we must be ready not just that day, but every day. It's a daily matter. We should be ready in that particular day, live that day as though it's the last.

   But if we do endure to the end, if we do endure to the time that Jesus Christ does send his angels to gather his elect from the four winds to meet with him in the air — if that time comes and if we have been following a good checklist like I have just been telling you about — we will take off and meet Jesus Christ in the air. But on the other hand, if we don't have a checklist, if we don't do these things, or if we neglect these things, then we won't take off and meet Jesus Christ in the air. Rather, we too will crash and burn, maybe not exactly like Chuck Kesling, but in the lake of fire. So I hope brethren that all of you will use a good checklist like this, so that you will take off when Jesus Christ comes and you too, and all of us can meet him in the air.