[Peter Eddington] No doubt you’ve heard of the phrase, “living the dream”. It’s used when someone has what other people can only dream of. The dream is an ideal lifestyle, the one you can only dream about. It usually has to do with riches, leisure, and no worries.

There are stereotypes for what “living the dream” is supposed to mean: a nice house, a fast sports car, a yacht, beautiful wife. The scenario is: you go to school, you get a job, you work, and you work, and you work. You buy a nice house, you buy a nice car, find the perfect wife, or a rich husband, and you work, and you work, and you work, and then you die. (laughter) But living a dream has become a consumer contest, measuring success only by comparing what we have to others around us.

One person said that it’s one of her favorite expressions. It means you’re living the life that most people dream of living, or you’re living the life you’ve always dreamed of. It’s another way of saying, “Things are great. This is a dream come true.” I’m living the dream, and they can’t believe that they’re so lucky with what is happening, or what’s going on.

You’ve heard of “the American dream” too, and the definition of the American dream by James Truslow Adams in 1931. He said, “Life should be better, and richer, and fuller for everyone with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.” But it’s not always as wonderful as it might seem from the outside.

Some people use the term “living the dream” sarcastically. It’s an answer to the rhetorical question, “How it’s going?” The reply’s usually given when someone at work asks how you are, and it’s quite obvious you have a terrible job, a rusted out car, and just as broke as the next person, and you say, “I’m livin’ the dream.” (laughter)

So I ask, “Is the world’s population at large ‘living the dream’? Are the Christians in Iraq and Syria ‘living the dream’? Are the homeless under our freeway bridges ‘living the dream’? What about the average person in your town struggling to earn a living and provide for his or her family?”

In the beginning of mankind’s history our ancestors had a decision to make – a choice between God’s way and their own way but our parents, Adam and Eve chose to do things their own way, and the impact of that choice reverberates down through our time today through the pages of history.

The choice between God’s way of the tree of life, and man’s way of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is still taking place today. It’s not just Adam and Eve that are making that choice. It involves you, and me, and everyone on this earth. We may not realize it but every single day we make choices between the fruits of these two trees. So how is humanity doing so far in “living the dream”?

Many professors and scholars today will tell you that a society does not need to have religion as the basis for morality. They teach that morality is not of necessity linked to God. That religion is not the essence of morality, and that morality is separate from the scriptures. They teach that we can all decide for ourselves how we want to live our lives. That sounds very familiar to that tree in the garden, doesn’t it?

It’s a sad statement but the vast majority of humanity regularly choose to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Most of humankind decides that they will choose for themselves how they will live their lives, and what is right and wrong. Whatever they feel is best in their own interest. So look around you. Our world today reflects that choice in its multiple religions, starvation, plagues, violence, war, conflict, and broken hearts and minds. But this is not humanity’s destiny.

As we observe this first day of the Feast of Tabernacles this year let’s find out what our future world will be like. In fact, I’ve titled this sermon, “Living the Dream” with a subtitle of “What Will It Be like Living the Dream”. What will it be like?

Let’s look at the subject of, “Living the Dream” through seven main points. It’ll give a little of direction to where I’m going today with these seven points.  We’re going to truly see how will it come about, and what will it be like? We’ll look at the time ahead pictured by the seven day Feast of Tabernacles just ahead, and now observing.

My first point, the first angle I want to take is called “The Doomsday Clock”. The apostle Paul, thousands of years ago nailed the list of many of the causes of humanity’s ills, and it’s over in 2 Timothy 3, and he begins his famous list in verse 1 with -

2 Timothy 3:1 – In the last days perilous times will come for men will be… and he lists this dire list of what everybody will be like in the end time, in the last days. And it is a dire list.

Jesus’ disciples knew even then that the world was getting worse and worse, and would finally reach a point where evil and selfishness would crescendo to a final climax. Jesus told them He would return though to bring in a new age of peace.

Matthew 24:3 - So they asked Him, “When will this happen? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” Because when they said,“…what will be the sign of Your coming, and the end of the age?" Jesus’ answer was breathtaking in its scope as He outlined end time events, and the four horsemen, and all of that but one phrase caught the disciple’s ears. Let’s read it.

Matthew 24;21 - "For then (talking of right before His return) there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.

V. 22 - "And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened.” This is Jesus Christ’s doomsday scenario. It’s a fact that the world would be destroyed without His intervention.

Even those who are irreligious believe in the possibility of a world-wide devastation. The doomsday clock is the universally recognized symbolic clock face representing a countdown to possible global catastrophe, and it has been maintained since 1947 by the members of the “Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists”. Quite an austere board, I guess, at least by the name. But the closer they set the clock to midnight, the closer the scientists believe the world is to global disaster.

At its inception in 1947 during the cold war the clock was started at seven minutes to midnight, and has been subsequently advanced or rewound a little bit depending on the state of the world, and especially nuclear war prospects.

In 1953 the United States and the Soviet Union tested thermonuclear processes within nine months of each other prompting the clock to be moved to just two minutes before midnight. It seemed that a nuclear disaster could be imminent. And that was the clock’s closest approach since 1947, two minutes.

In 2014, this year, scientists moved the clock hand from six minutes to five minutes before midnight as a result of stalled negotiations to reduce nuclear arsenals in the United States and Russia, expansion of nuclear stockpiles in China, Pakistan, and India, improperly secured nuclear materials worldwide, and continuing construction of nuclear power plants, without fully approved safety features. So this year they moved it from six minutes to five minutes.

The future odds of humanity is at stake. Jesus Christ identified the time of His return as a time when human extinction would be possible but He promised He wouldn’t let that happen. The good news is that before we go ahead and blow ourselves up, before we go ahead and destroy the planet the story will change. Even if the doomsday clock reaches five seconds before midnight, for the elect’s sake it will not ever strike midnight. There will be survivors on this planet.

To keep that in mind, the doomsday clock scenario, let’s move to point 2, which I’ll call, “Standing on the Mount of Olives”. When you pray for God’s kingdom to come do you imagine in your prayers Jesus Christ actually planting His feet in Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives? I know I do. I just kind of imagine what that would be like as a loud trumpet blast, the seventh trump, and He descends on the Mount of Olives.

I picture in my mind’s eye the passage in Zechariah 14:4 where we’re told that, “And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, making a very large valley; half of the mountain shall move to the north and half of it to the south.” But it’s not just an Old Testament prophecy. The New Testament tells us the same thing.

Notice Acts 1, this is right before Christ ascended into heaven, and the disciples would not see Him anymore. Because the New Testament tells us the same thing. In Acts 1, notice verse 10, 11, and 12.

Acts 1:10 - And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He (Jesus) went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, there were two angels there.

V. 11 – The angels (who also) said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven."

V. 12 - Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet,… So Jesus Christ actually ascended from the Mount of Olives too, the same place He’s going to return. Jesus Christ will literally return to this earth, to the highly contested piece of real estate we know as Jerusalem.

In the same way the disciples saw Christ ascend into the clouds from the Mount of Olives after His resurrection He will return through the clouds to this earth but this time with power and great glory, descending on that mountain with such  power and force that the mountain will split. This will be the biggest news story in history especially since if He did not come the doomsday clock would be moved right up to midnight, and humanity would destroy itself.

Physical prophecy details a time of great distress or great tribulation that will envelope the earth. Wars, disasters, famines, disease epidemics that will decimate the population. Yes, humanity will survive but there’ll be a great loss of life.

The Ebola crisis right now is just a tiny precursor of what could happen, and how it will take place.  And finally, when the nations of the world gather for battle at a place called Armageddon Christ will swiftly intervene before it’s too late but sadly the nations will not recognize or welcome this Savior that will fight them but this battle will be over swiftly ending the painful age of more than six thousand years of human misrule of choosing from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and finally a new day will dawn. A day fresh with the promise of peace and fulfillment, of true joy and purpose in  people’s lives, of happiness and accomplishment.

The nightmares of history will begin to fade, and the dreams of mankind will begin to come to life.  This is what we’re observing here this week.

Living the dream, it’s a phenomenal truth. The time after Christ’s return will be wonderful beyond imagination. No wonder we’re always told to pray, “Thy kingdom come”. And it will begin with Jesus Christ standing on the Mount of Olives, and this is a major step for humanity to live the dream. But then let’s look at a few more details.

Point three I’ve called, “Living the Dream”. There’s a famous quote attributed to Buddha, that  says, “Do not dwell in the past. Do not dream of the future. Concentrate the mind on the present moment.” That is a very short sighted religious goal in life, only worrying about right now. Just live for the moment. No, the Creator of the universe has so much more that He’s offering us if we will follow Him.

Walt Disney said many times, “You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world but it takes people to make the dream a reality.” I believe we should add that it takes God to make the dream a reality. It takes God to live the dream of eternal life. It takes God to live the dream of eternity.

Jesus Christ promised to return, and not simply clean up the corruption of ongoing earthly rule but completely replace all temporal entities with a completely new and perfect government, one that truly serves the people with humanity truly living the dream.

It will be more than day one after an election or a coup but a completely, astounding, out of this world intervention by the kingdom of heaven. We’re told now it will be brought to earth and imposed on a desperately, needy population’s relief from its own human nature. In other words, man is going to be saved from himself  by none other than His very creator. This is what we dream of. This is what we pray for.

Let’s read Acts 3:19 – 21 because this is what we pray for, this is what we long for, this is what we imagine, it’s what we think about. Christ, descending on the Mount of Olives is as the saints are resurrected and caught up to meet Him.

Acts 3:19 - "Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,

V. 20 - "and that He may send Jesus Christ, (that’s what we’ve been reading about) who was preached to you before, 

V. 21 - "whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.

As Jesus Christ plants His feet on the Mount of Olives we will see the beginning of this time of refreshing, the time of restoration that the apostle Peter and all the prophets proclaimed. This will truly be living the dream. This will not be a restoration of some idyllic golden age of man brought back but a restoration of the perfect government of God that has been lost when man rejected Him in the Garden of Eden.

Look at Matthew 20 for a moment. Let’s ask the question, “What will make God’s government different though from all the ones that have gone before? What’s going to be so different about Jesus Christ’s rule?” Christ himself describes one of the key influences in creating a dream society.

Matthew 20:25 - But Jesus called them to Himself and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them.

V. 26 - "Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant.

V. 27 - "And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave—

V. 28 - "just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

Jesus Christ showed the proper way to lead His sheep. He showed how to make society enjoy its leadership, to look up to its leaders. He gave up all the power of the universe to come live as a  humble carpenter and teacher. He never took advantage of others but freely let everyone take advantage of what He had to offer. He looked out for the poor, the sick, the hungry, the disabled. He took the role of a slave and washed His disciples’ feet, and took the role of a martyr willing to die in our place. He looked out for the needs of others, the way of give versus the way of get.

This is certainly not to say that God’s government will not exercise power when necessary to prevent people from harming each other but the difference will be that all decisions will be based on just laws that are for the real benefit of those being governed.

Let me read to you Deuteronomy 6:24, says, “And the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive,…” God’s statutes and laws are for our good always, and love is the underlying foundation of all God’s laws, and these good and fair laws will be administered by perfect leaders and judges who have learned to apply justice with mercy for the good of mankind always who have learned not to lord it over in their management and leadership style.

Who are these people that Jesus Christ is talking about? It’s you and Me. How do you manage your leadership roles today? How do you manage your wife, your children, your employees?

How do you respond to your husband, respect your parents? How do you lead your children and grandchildren? How do you run your Sabbath school? Is it like how we read in Matthew 20? How do you manage the sound for a church?

If you’re a deacon or a deaconess what kind of reputation goes before you? Do you have the arm band badge on or not? What kind of way do you manage church activities and the volunteers that you serve?

Remember,  just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, so must we. When Christ returns to the Mount of Olives and turns this world into a society that can only be dreamed about right now He will be looking for perfect leaders to make all this possible, and we are those leaders in training which leads to point four.

Point four, the dream requires servant leaders. In the human realm even the best leaders are too often stymied by red tape, corrupt bureaucracies, and humanly insolvable problems. And sadly, too many of them also get trapped in a web of corruption and scandal.

Political corruption is rampant in our world, and it’s the use of power by government officials for illicit gain but God has been working with people today, you and me, to form in us His own righteous character so that He may make us incorruptible leaders in every way at Christ’s return.

Those who’ve been faithful, some even to death as martyrs will be changed, or raised incorruptible as spirit beings with godly power with immortality. Of course you can read about that in 1 Corinthians 15, the resurrection chapter.

Notice in Revelation 3:21 what Christ promised to us. "To him who overcomes,…”  if you stick with it, if you stay close to God, if you’re still considered a child in His family because you have the holy spirit in you. “… I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.” That is what lies in store for us. The opportunity to lead and teach others, and show them how to do it, to show them how to live the dream.

We will assist Him right alongside His seat in fairly, mercifully, and effectively serving those who survive the catastrophes of the end of man’s age of rulership. And with the power and love of God behind us as Christ-like leaders we will be able to clean up the corruption, and cut through the Gordian knots that has had humanity in a stranglehold, and the BIBLE actually names some  people and gives their specific job assignments in God’s future government.

Note this millennial passage in Ezekiel 34. Let’s turn over there for a moment. Notice verse 23 and 24.

Ezekiel 34:23 - "I will establish one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them—My servant David. Notice he’s called a servant. He shall feed them and be their shepherd.” So how does a shepherd lead the flock? He doesn’t beat the sheep. He’s strong when he needs to be but he protects them from the wolves, keeps them together as a flock. “…He shall feed them and be their shepherd.”

V. 24 - "And I, the Lord, will be their God, and My servant David a prince among them; I, the Lord, have spoken.” This has not yet happened. King David will be resurrected along with all the saints mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15, and will again serve as a king of the whole nation of Israel.

The BIBLE also reveals who will serve with David as leaders of each of the twelve tribes of Israel. Jesus said to His disciples in Matthew 19, “assuredly I say to you that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory. ‘You, who have followed me,’ Jesus said, ‘will also sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.’”

So there’s King David, then there’s the twelve disciples under him, and then there’s the rest of the saints serving as well. The BIBLE doesn’t tell the exact job titles of most of us, and you and I are not written into the record yet but we will be. We’ll be written into that record of future leaders.

The dream requires servant leaders, not any of the faithful listed in scripture but all of us here today. Those who overcome and endure to the end as we read in Revelation 3:21. We will sit  with Christ. It’s a fact as sure as the sun is setting this evening and rising tomorrow morning. In fact, even more so than that.

Number five I’ve called, “Guns into Garden Hoses”. In New York City outside the United Nations building the famous sculpture given as a gift by the Soviet Union of a man beating a sword into a farm implement, right? It captures the longing of humanity for peace, and hints at the way it will truly come.

Notice Micah 4, the inspiration for the statue and the true hopeful disarmament piece and life that humanity can now only dream about comes from a beautiful prophecy in Isaiah that is repeated here in Micah. Let’s read the Micah version.

Micah 4:1 - Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house… The government of God …shall be established on the top of the mountains, (on top of all the other governments, that’s what this means) and shall be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it.

V. 2 - Many nations shall come and say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths."
For out of Zion the law shall go forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

V. 3 - He shall judge between many peoples, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and turn their guns into garden hoses, and then they shall beat their swords into plowshares, (that was theEddington version) and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

V. 4 - But everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree…. So you’ve got wine, you’ve got fruit, probably cheese on the side, and guess what? You’re living the dream. Yes, you’re living the dream, and no one shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.

What a wonderful vision. Finally, disputes between nations will be resolved without resulting in the horror of war. At last nations will be forced to disarm. You’ll have to turn your swords into plowshares and your guns into garden hoses. And at last nations will be forced to disarm. They have nothing to fear now since their neighbors will be disarmed as well.

War colleges will be shut down, militaries disbanded. No longer will we need medals of valor for soldiers who showed bravery even to the loss of their own lives. Instead of investing the best minds and resources in developing weapons of destruction nations will be able to invest in making life better for their citizens instead of trying to figure out better ways to kill the enemy.

Today some of the most impoverished nations in the world import  inordinate amount of arms. Gone will be the wasteful arms races, and today’s dangerous neighborhoods will be peaceful at last like in the Middle East where forty per cent of armed exports go just to that one small part of the globe.

Though Christ’s rule will begin by halting wars using supernatural force destroying the armies that fight against Christ when He returns. After that peace will be spread through education in the way of peace, and you and I, the future Christ-like leaders who were taught to become peacemakers even in this present time will be helping. That’s a great visions to have  - to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. To be there to help, to show how to treat one another. We will be truly peacemakers.

Remember Matthew 5:9, Blessed are the peacemakers? More specifically, how do we turn guns into garden hoses? What’s the formula? What’s the blueprint? How do you turn a gun into a garden hose? Look at Romans 12, and you’ll see because Paul describes some of the elements of this way of peace to the Romans. This is how it’s done. This is how you do it.

Romans 12:16 - Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, (this is the blueprint) but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

V. 17 - Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.

V. 18 - If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

V. 19 - Do not take revenge, my (dear) friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.

V. 20 - On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." So what is the blueprint that we turn guns into garden hoses? It’s an attitude. In many other biblical passages detail the attitude and approach of the peacemaker.

How would you consider yourself right now measuring up to this standard we just read in Romans 12? Are you preparing to be a peacemaker in your eternal life to come? Can you show other people how to do it because you have to be exercising this fruit in your life right now? I have to be living like this now, and practicing it, and getting it right. I won’t do it perfectly. We won’t do it perfectly but through God’s grace we’ll do it right.

In your life, and in your relationships with other people as you read down this list are you turning the figurative bullets in your life into beans, the metaphorical guns into garden hoses, the swords into plowshares? Are you doing that in your life now because that’s the question if we are to be peacemakers serving alongside Jesus Christ when He returns.

Point six is “Rebuilding and Renewing the Dream”. Think of the condition of this world when Jesus Christ returns. After the most devastating war in human history there will be an incredible amount of cleanup and rebuilding to do but this time people will be able to rebuild knowing that it won’t all be destroyed again in a few years by another war.

When we rebuild today there’s a chance it’s going to get torn down or blown up and become part of the conflict but then we know it won’t be destroyed again. This time the rebuilding will be done in a permanent, sensible, and sustainable way.

Amos 9 is a great book to turn to – the cities will be clean and safe, villages and farmland will be beautiful and productive. Picture these scenes from the words of the prophet Amos.

Amos 9:11 - "On that day – talking of the end time - I will raise up the tabernacle  of David, which has fallen down,- we already know that He’s going to come back as king - and repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old;
V. 13 -"Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord, “When the plowman shall overtake the reaper,- the crops will be so plentiful that you won’t be able to get them before it’s time to plantseed again - and the treader of grapes him who sows seed; the mountains shall drip with sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.

V. 14 - I will bring back the captives of My people Israel; they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them; they shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them. The dream will be rebuilding and renewing the cities and this wasted planet. Even Jerusalem, which today is the most fought over piece of real estate on the planet will finally live up to the meaning of its name as a city of peace and safety.

Zechariah 8:4 – “…Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each one with his staff in his hand because of great age.

V. 5 – “The streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.”

A world without war will be incredibly better than today’s world. It will be a world with true peace resulting from following God’s way of peace. There will be fantastic, almost beyond human imagination, something that we could only dream about today, and pray for.

God promises a rebuilt world of peace and prosperity will come. It’s what everyone has always wanted but mankind has not been able to achieve it. Why? Why have governments failed? Why can’t they get it right? Why does it always end up in war, and conflict, and death.

Well, that leads to point seven which I’ve titled, “The Spiritual Jarvik 7”. Have you heard of the Jarvik 7? No? Well, let me tell you about it. It relates to the reason mankind has not been able to achieve living the dream successfully. Remember? I said it’s a change of attitude.

The first artificial heart to be successfully planted in a human was called the Jarvik 7 designed by a team including Robert Jarvik, and implemented in 1982. It was placed in patient Barney Clark, and caught the attention of media around the world. You’d be surprised at how primitive it looks now but amazingly it worked, and was small enough to fit inside Barney Clark’s chest cavity.

Here’s a picture of the Jarvik 7 mechanical heart. It looks pretty primitive today, doesn’t it? Imagine having that planted in your chest with the batteries hooked up, and the with wires coming out of you so that you could pump blood through your system. Today the modern version of the Jarvik 7 is known as the SynCardia temporary CardioWest Total Artificial Heart, and it’s been implanted in more than eight hundred people as a bridge to heart transplantation.

I have a good friend in Pasadena, California that I worked with for fifteen years who had a massive heart attack a month ago, and he’s currently living on an artificial heart implanted in his chest while he waits for a heart donor. He said it’s actually very sobering to think that you’re going to receive a heart from someone else.

This story leads us to answering the question why has mankind not been able to get it right. Why should humanity help us to bring peace? Science and technology haven’t brought it. All the experiments in various governmental and economic systems haven’t moved us closer to peace. They seem to draw us ever nearer to destruction. That’s because it’s a change of heart, a change of attitude.  

Remember, Hosea said in Hosea 4:6 - “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.…” He wasn’t talking about the knowledge of how to build a house, or make a car, or how to make a play station. No, he was talking about the knowledge of God and His laws. That’s the kind of knowledge that this planet needs, and unfortunately modern education ignores the spiritual side of correct knowledge and belief in a creator God.

When children are molded more by entertainment and their peers than they are by spiritually mature mentors and leaders how can future generations be prepared for life? Some say religion hasn’t done any better. They see how many wars and bloody atrocities, terrorism being perpetrated in the name of religion. The truth is, sadly the major religions of the world do not follow the precepts of the BIBLE. They make up a lot of it as they go along.

God’s way has never truly been tried in this world but it will be. It will be. Notice Hebrews 8:10.The book of Hebrews shows the changes needed to transform a human from the selfish and self-destructive humans of today to the giving and peacemaking and joyful citizens living the dream in God’s kingdom. You see, without changes to the human heart, without a spiritual heart transplant we would soon revert to the evils of today rather than sustaining the beautiful world being created after Jesus returns.

Hebrews 8:10 - For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord:… After those days, he’s talking about after Christ returns at the end …I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

And this promise of a heart transplant is not only for the descendants of Jacob, to Israel, but to all nations. If you want to make a note of it that’s in Romans 10:11-12 where there’s no distinction between Jew and Greek. It says the Lord will offer this opportunity for salvation to all of humanity.

In God’s perfect plan of salvation he has made it possible for us to have a new heart, one capable of living His way of love, obeying His laws when capable of being full of His holy spirit. This will not be a Jarvik 7 mechanical heart but a heart that can be influenced by the spirit of God because living the dream requires a change of heart, a spiritual Jarvik 7. A heart transplant, a heart of flesh, not a heart of stone as we read about in other places in Ezekiel. And along with God’s spirit this process requires repentance of a life of sin, not only seeing the need for forgiveness and conversion but also deeply, humbly seeking God’s mercy, and fully committing now to a life of change. So, living the dream requires a spiritual Jarvik 7.

As we wrap things up here I’d like to turn to Galatians 5. You’ve heard of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and some have tried to list the buildings and monuments that would be considered the seven wonders of our modern world but what will be the wonders of God’s kingdom? What list do you imagine what will be on those monuments? How magnificent the monuments will be in that time because they will pale in comparison to the wonders described in Galatians 5. In verses 22 and 23 we see nine fruits of God’s spirit that are building blocks in building God’s heart and mind within us in producing what leads to the dream life.

Imagine where the works of the flesh no longer prevail. Better yet imagine a world where these fruits of the spirit are growing and spreading. Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Imagine having a neighbor like that instead of the cranky one you have now. Imagine people, having a teacher, a boss, a pastor, a police officer, and a mayor. Always treat them like that.

These nine fruits, God’s way. What a wonderful world that will be. What an incredible future is ahead. You see, living the dream is not having a yacht, be nice but that’s not at the core of it. Living the dream is living with people with those kind of fruits. When swords are turned into plowshares. When people’s hearts, and minds, and your attitude is changed. What a wonderful world that will be. What an incredible future is ahead.

Jesus Christ is coming with His kingdom, and every one of us has a choice. We have a choice between life and death, between evil or good, and quite honestly we have a choice between God’s kingdom or Satan’s kingdom, and we know where that one is going. It will not last. It will be replaced. We want to be taking from the tree of life, not of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Soon a new kingdom is coming, not ruled by chaos and self-will but by a king who loves peace, and will reign in service and love to all of mankind. Wars will be replaced with brother and sister nations who worship together in spirit and truth. Sickness and disease will be cured, and the city streets will be filled with joy and laughter.

This will truly be living the life that many can only dream about today. As God’s sons and daughters, you and me as spirit beings then in His family, we will help bring this about. We’ll help humanity make the universal changes in heart and mind and attitude needed to truly live the dream as they repent and are also filled with God’s holy spirit because that’s what changes your heart, isn’t it? The spirit of God living in you.

So this is just the first day of the feast, and we’ve got a whole week ahead of us but you know what’s gonna happen. We’re gonna say, “I can’t believe we’re,… so make the most of it and live the dream in your own life now in how you interact with others, and represent Jesus Christ as He would want you to represent Him.

So let’s focus on this during the Feast of Tabernacles, and as you imagine and think about it may God’s kingdom be here very soon.