[Mike Miller] So this Feast is designed by God with a great and wonderful purpose as, may I say it this way, a convocation of hope. And hope is this: an eager anticipation, a happy expectation, a complete trust. And hope is woven through everything that God does in His plans. You can consider the literature on the back table and consider all the titles. Some of them even include that, from the beginning of creation. God, everything that He does is done in whole, from the beginning of the creation itself to the new heavens and the new earth, a Kingdom that will never end. And we seem to be created in such a way that we need to work together. We need to be organized. We need to form groups. So human societies have formed what they call in the dictionary and encyclopedia, you can look it up, civilization.

And that definition of that is an advanced state. They call it civilized. So it says overall big structure of society itself. And I'll give you the dictionary definition of that. Civilization and this is one dictionary definition, “an advanced state of intellectual, cultural or material development.” And number two definition… and there are four or five. I'm only going to use three here, but number two “is cultural, intellectual or moral refinement or good taste.” Or number three, “modern.” We know that people yearn, even in this society and all of us in this room, yearn for something better than what we see today, something more equitable, something more pure, something more peaceful than what we see. I read a book one time. It was given to me in 1995. It was entitled Creating a New Civilization. It was written by a husband and wife team, Alvin and Heidi Toffler.

They were also the authors of a book called Future Shock. And they wrote about the need for, and I have this underlined and bold in my notes, and the fact that a new civilization is on its way. They called it "the third wave." When I read that book, it was mind-boggling ideas of men without God. And they say this incorporates everything about human society. It incorporates culture. It incorporates morality. It incorporates institutions such as education, political structure, the development of new ideas. And I can tell you this, it was written in 1995 and I can tell you that much of it is being implemented. And this book says this, "Those that fail to follow these coming developments will," and I quote, "swirl down the storm drain of history." There's no need to read this book unless you want to be depressed. But one of the things that's very important to me when I read it is they left God out of the picture.

What we see today is not a very civil society. As we say today, TMI, there's too much information. It's crude. It's vulgar. It's violent and it's self-focused. You can refer back to 2 Timothy, that's already been mentioned, 2 Timothy 3. Will give you a list of some things that we can talk about. But we come to this Feast of Tabernacles to celebrate a plan from God. And we should leave here refreshed. And we should have eager anticipation for what God has done in the past all the way back, and for what God is doing right now, and what He will do in the future.

It's emphatic. You don't have to guess about it. So today I would like to examine three details of one particular hope that we have because we have many. And that's a new civilization, the Kingdom of God that we yearn for, this better country, this better world order, this more civilized world order. In hope, we come here to the Feast. We hope that we have a vision to see ourselves as being worked on, being prepared, being fitted for exactly what God has promised this world, a new world order, and living a way in God now, in preparation for that. I've already used the definition of hope a couple of times, but I want to emphasize it again because it's going to be woven all through the rest of the message. And that is an eager anticipation, a happy expectation, and a complete trust. So this time that we have here, this time let's set aside to refresh our hearts and minds about the future that God is planning, who will not lie and has promised us.

We have to never forget that that's the way He is. He is faithful and He is merciful. I like for you to go with me to an example of that and that's found in Jeremiah 29 if you would. Jeremiah 29, and I'll sort of set the stage here for a few verses that I want to read. Judah had been taken into captivity, into Babylon, because of the sins and the problems of the nation that they got into. They were put there in Babylon. It isn't that God left them all alone. He didn't just leave them in this plight that they were in. And beginning in verse 4, I want to emphasize that in verse 4, it says, "Thus says the Eternal of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon," and He started giving them instructions about building houses and, "Make the best of the situation you have. Make the best of where you're at. You're in this captivity because of what you've done. You've left me. You've done the things that you've done."

But He tells them, "Make the best…" It says, "Seek the peace of the city where you're at." And I hope that you apply what I'm saying right now today. This is speaking about the way the situation that Judah was in, but it's also the situation typical of where we're at. And then down in verse 10, it says this. "For thus says the Eternal: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you," and I always emphasize this. I love it when I read that, "I will." He doesn't say, "I'll think about it. Maybe, or I hope or I'm not quite sure." "I will visit you and perform My good word towards you, and cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Eternal, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." In spite of what they'd done. In spite of the fact that they're in captivity now.

"And then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, and when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you." We have come here once again to realize the plan that God has for us. He's emphatic about that plan. He intends to fulfill His will, His promises. That's the way He is. That is His character. So we have opportunity to be here, to listen, to learn as God's Word says, incline the ear to actually hear and to come and stand in awe of what God is doing and rejoice again in that plan. But we live in this situation that we're in, in this society that we're in, and Christ Himself told His disciples that last night, the situation that they'd be in. He said that he didn't intend to take them out of the society that they were in.

He was going to leave them there, but He was going to be with them. And He asked them to see that different country ahead. He asked them to think about that future ahead. We can read about that continually. All of God's servants did that. They saw ahead. They had this foresight to see down the road. They saw a different country. They saw that future ahead that God was emphatically building for them. They eagerly anticipated it and maybe they had to learn a little bit about the anticipation. We here had been, if you want to say it this way, selective… we've been in the selective service. I had that experience when I was a young man. There was a mandatory draft and you were told to go or you would go to jail if you didn't have an excuse to get out of it.

So there was service that you were forced to do, and we have all been called to what we're doing. We've been asked to do certain things and we are to represent a different society of the world to come. And we're to do… we only have the freedom to do what is the right thing to do right now. So we're constrained, if you will, by that service, to live by the rules of that Kingdom to come. We're to be its representatives, its emissaries, now. So I want to identify a few of the actions that will civilize, if you will, this new civilization and that is to come. One of the things that we see going on in society today is the breakdown of law and order. And this is a secular word, I guess you'd say, of the government societies of this earth today. Law and order, we can say, equals holiness. I want you to think about what's going on in the political climate today. Think about the way that people think about government, the way they think about structure of society, the words that are used.

Holiness is the way we would describe this type of living, law and order, and it's love of God and love of people. We have to care about what God says. We have to love His way and we have to love people. We have to do that because that's the purpose of that Kingdom to come, that new civilization that God is going to bring. Romans 15:4 says this, the Old Testament Scriptures were written to give us hope. So in Deuteronomy 7, there's a couple of verses I'd like to ask you to rehearse with me again, review again.

I'm glad they put a clock up here, help me out. If I get too bogged down, I told Mr. Shabi just signal me to sit down, shut up. So I do sometimes get carried away. In Deuteronomy 7, I want you to look with me and see who is given hope about the future. A certain people at that time were identified and we can… the Israel of God is we can say this about us today. "For you," in verse 6 it says, in Deuteronomy 7, "For you are a holy people to the Eternal your God; the Eternal your God, has chosen you to be a people for Himself." As I said, we've been put into this service, "as a special treasure above all the peoples." That isn't some egotistical statement. That isn't something that should swell our head up. That is something to have preparation for what God is going to do. We've been selected to serve. We've been selected to bring in help, help Christ bring in that new civilization, this Kingdom of God that we often talk about, that we're a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of this earth. He looks at us that way.

But in verse 9, look at what we're told here. Look at what we're told about us. "Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who helps… who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those that love Him and keep His commandments." So if we want to talk about law and order in a society and in the way that the societies function, and we make the comparison of the way, what we see today, the total disregard of God's ways, the lack of love of God, the lack of keeping His commandments in what we could call today a lawless society… Oh, there's plenty of laws. There's plenty of rules, plenty of regulations, a multitude of regulations. So many regulations that you can't even figure them all out. So many, you can't even understand it. But there's not a love of God and a love of people.

People do a good job in trying to do what is the right thing to do. I'm not condemning all of society by saying what I'm saying. I'm just saying the overall trend of things, what gets in the news, what gets on the pages of the paper. Think about it. Think about this as an example. What about marriage? Oh, there's plenty of rules and regulations about marriage, too. How does marriage work into a civilization? Marriage was intended by God to be what you could call the Department of Education, health education, and welfare. It's civilized all areas of life. Try talking back to your mother, when I was a kid, you became more civilized. So this is the way God intended it. It's in His Word. "Honor your father and your mother," and don't talk back to them.

We know the way it's going today, but lawlessness, avoiding and ignoring and disobeying God's laws is destroying hope today. And people that are looking forward, eagerly anticipating the future, 2 Peter tells us what we have to be like. I'm not going to go there, but I do homework a lot when I speak. I give people a lot of scriptures to look up because I can't put them all in my notes. But look it up. 2 Peter 3:14. We have to root out of ourselves any lawless or inappropriate attitude because, without hope, the love of God and the love of people grows cold. It just doesn't work. Unless we want to obey God by eagerly anticipating what He is planning for us, it just grows cold. This civilizations… I use this phrase a lot because it tells me it identifies something, this civilizations, manners, and methods are evidence of, they're an exhibition of its character. But that's true of us, too, all of us here.

It's exhibition of the Kingdom to come just as much as the manners and the methods of this society or exhibition of its attitudes and ideas about life and about God. It's just something that, the schemes of man, the absolute mathematical equations they try to organize and structure societies today, the algorithms that are used, they think that these things are going to reorder society. But these things are not capable of changing the heart. It takes the Holy Spirit to change the heart. That Holy Spirit comes from God, to be civilized according to God's standard. If we want to know what is right and what is wrong, we have to look at it that way. That is the only way we can look at it. Because we have been enlisted, if you will, as a participation and preparation for what God is going to do, we have to believe it and anticipate it. And we have to exhibit the characteristics, the character of the Kingdom of God.

Now let's look in Hebrews 11. I'm going to go through Hebrews 11 here real quick. I hope I go through real quick. And I want you to put… as I read these few scriptures I'm going to excerpt out of here, I would like for you to put them in the context that I'm speaking today about the kingdom to come and about the need for a new civilization. Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith," something that we have to have… without faith, love doesn't function and neither does hope work. We cannot put love into action without faith and without hope. But, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for," the substance of it, “the evidence of things not seen.” And as I said, I'm reminding you to put these in the context of what I'm speaking about today. And in verse 6, "And without faith it's impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." And in verse 8, "By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place where he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in that land of promise as in a foreign country."

Do we see the connection between us today? "Dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for that city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God." I want you to look at it, like I said, from the context I'm giving you today. "For those who say," in verse 14, "For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland." If you'll look up the word, you could say fatherland, someplace where we feel comfortable, someplace where we fit in, someplace where the ways of God function and work or predominant. And we need to be as Abraham was, and I read there, an exhibitor if you want to say it that way, of faith. And that's the second part of the civilization that God will build, is faith. A trust in the King of kings to solve the problems that are unsolvable by human means.

Man is not capable of solving the problems today. And there's a scripture where Christ Himself said that. In Matthew 24, I'll read two scriptures here, Matthew 24:21. "For then there will be great tribulation, such as not been since the beginning of the world until this time, nor ever shall be." Thankfully. "And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake," that's a wonderful promise, "those days will be shortened." Think about that. That's an emphatic promise from God. We need to constantly think about it from that way. The people that will populate this new civilization are already ready, waiting for when Christ is going to intervene. That's the common question we all have. When will Christ intervene?

His disciples asked that, Acts 1:6. I want you to think, take from here this day this thought. Christ already has intervened. He is doing His work today. You, all of us, you and I, all of us sitting here, all of us listening, are a work that He's working on currently in preparation for this new civilization that we'll be put into place. And man indeed is headed to oblivion without God's intervention. Think about the movies Star Trek or some of these movies like this, the futuristic movies about the people that are in suspended animation. They're traveling to some far distant, which is a foolish thing in the human state if you think about it, but they're traveling to some far distant galaxy. Think about what God has already done. People are in their graves awaiting this day. Acts 2. Let's go to Acts 2 and look this up. This is said about an administrator and the new world, the new civilization, the new Kingdom of God, the Kingdom to come.

And in Acts 2:29, it said, "Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn an oath to him that the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up Christ to set on his throne." I want you to think about that. The graves are full of people that are already qualified for those offices, and there are people like us that God is working on now and working with now. I said working on now because that's the way it tends to be at times, I think. But He is working with us, to add us to those people that are already waiting. The structure is already being put together. Let's look at Daniel 7 just for a moment here. Expand your mind and think about this. This is a common scripture that we look at often, but I want you to think about it in the context of what I'm saying today. It's a very powerful scripture, Daniel 7, and I want to start in verse 27.

"Then the Kingdom and dominion," those are both two good words to look up, "and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions will serve and obey Him." And I'm breaking into the thought here a little bit, but I want to read verse 22 also. And in verse 22, I'll leave the first word "until" off, but, "The Ancients of Days came, and a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom." So I'm talking about the people that are in their graves. They're already able and capable. God has determined to fill these offices. And I'm talking about us. I want you to consider that, what that just said. Are we looking at it this way? Are we looking at it this big? Are we thinking about it from that point of view?

No people can do this. No people can put this together. It's too big for people to put this together. Let's look in Isaiah 66. Isaiah 66. No think tank can figure out these things of God. Isaiah 66, and I'm going to read verses 8 through 11. “'Who's heard of such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children. Shall I bring to the time of birth, and not cause delivery?’ says the Eternal. 'Shall I cause… I, who caused delivery, shut up the womb? Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you who love her; rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn for her; that you may feed and be satisfied with the consolation of her bosom, and that you may drink deeply and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.’" God said to Abraham after a period of time, "Now I know you." We are getting to know God and it's a process, and God is getting to know us. So are we loyal, civilized citizens of the kingdom to come?

Now, he has plans, emphatic plans, to put us in places of service. Remember Christ's response to Peter when Peter said, and I'm going to phrase it this way because this is maybe the way Peter might've said it, “Well, what do we get?" He said, "We've given up… I gave up my fishing business. I've given up everything. And what do we get?" Peter had a very short-sighted opinion about some of these things that were going on. For the moment, he did. So ask yourself, all of us should ask ourselves this, can God entrust us with this great power and opportunities to rework things? What did Peter do not too long after that, when he tried to work things out in the Garden of Gethsemane? He took out his sword. He thought he was doing good. He thought he was doing the right thing. He thought he was going to make something happen.

Christ told him to put the sword back up. Peter, manner, and method was not the right way for the right time. So here's the thing, can we continue to eagerly anticipate? Can we have the courage, the courageousness, if you put it that way, to go through this transition time that we're in and to remain in that state of eager anticipation? We can't do that on our own. The apostle Peter was changed later because he couldn't do that on his own either. So there has to be courageous, faithful, dedicated service being prepared, learning to know God's ways and wanting to teach people that God is for us. He is testing us. He is proving us. He is training us in civility of the new country and He wants us to be at peace and at one with each other and with Him. And he wants us to eagerly anticipate that birth of that new nation of servants all in one day. At one instant, it will be all structured and organized because that's being done right now.

We have to see ourselves there. Abraham did. King David did. The apostle Paul did. We have to see ourselves there. Because God's will will be done. Because of his awesome power. And great is His faithfulness to deliver us. And I was blown away by singing this hymn that’s going to be sung right after this because that was in my notes before any of that was put together or given to us. But the final disposition of this, all of this Kingdom to come, all the thinkers and the planners like to think about, a world that has rejected God is rejecting Him more and more, it won't take place that way.

God is able to solve the unsolvable things. And the difficulties of this society they're mostly from, I put it this way today, uncivilized heart. And He's chosen us to exhibit His characteristics now, characteristics of love and mercy and care for others. He has made all things possible. Let's go to Romans 5. I'll close this out with Romans 5 and I'll read you the scripture that I told you about earlier.

Romans 5:1, “Therefore, having been justified by faith," we certainly didn't do that, we've been given that, "we have peace with God now through our Lord Jesus Christ," we've been reconciled to Him, "through whom we have access by faith to this grace which we now stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations," that's a little tougher to do, "knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out on our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us," or that was given to us might be a better way of putting that. I'd like to go on over to Romans 15 and close this out.

God has made all of these things possible from the beginning to the end. And in Romans 15:4, "For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and the comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded towards one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." And in verse 13, "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." It's all from God. And that hope that we have is a wonderful gift that He's given us.