Feast of Tabernacles 2025:

Good morning, everyone. Hopefully, all of you are doing well on this Last Great Day.

In nineteen ninety-five, I was in San Diego. I had just graduated from high school. And I went down to San Diego, California, and I went to a junior college, Mesa Junior College in San Diego. And I arrived there, let’s see, I think it was in September. In October... I have a cousin, he was twenty-nine, going on thirty, and he loved riding motorcycles.

On this one particular day, there was kind of a paradox. He likes going fast, and he’s in traffic that’s going slow. Well, how many have seen these motorcycles weave in and out of traffic, going real fast? We’re stuck in our car, just wondering, “Wow, look at them go, look at them go.” On this particular day, the paradox is wanting to move fast while everything else is going slow. In baseball, we call that hurry up and wait.

Now, the scene shifts to a hospital. Hospitals can be crowded. We can see people on their phones, people are agitated. They’re sitting in a corner worried, tears coming down some mother’s faces or father’s faces or loved one’s faces, sitting in there with high anticipation, wondering, “Will my loved one come out? Will they make it?” But there was an individual that was in a room, sitting there with high anticipation, that was myself. I believe I was eighteen at the time. And my cousin was driving the motorcycle, and there was a car that came on at the same time in a left turn lane, not seeing my cousin, driving fast through, and they met at the exact same time.

Now, what took place was, he’s going very fast, and the car, you know, not that fast, didn’t see my cousin coming on, and they met head-on, and he broke his pelvis in two. So the whole family is rushed down to the hospital, and we see crowds of many other loved ones coming to this hospital, urgently wanting to be able to do something, but at the same time, having to wait. So the scene shifts from an individual who was urgently riding their bicycle, trying to get to a place where they wanted to go, stopped in their tracks, and now they’re slowed down and given to the doctors who have to urgently try to save this person’s life. It’s a paradox. What does this have to do with the Last Great Day?

Brethren, we’re here on the Last Great Day, urgently wanting to make it into the kingdom of God, but we still have our part to do in waiting. Now, we’re not just waiting while doing nothing. We have to urgently be about God’s business. So let’s delve into this paradox we often face in our spiritual lives, the need to hurry up and wait in our fast-paced world. We rush from one thing to another, but when it comes to God’s plan and our eternal future, we must learn to wait on Him. So let’s be inspired to embrace both the urgency of living our faith and the patience required to wait on God’s perfect timing as we look forward to the fulfillment of His promises.

Turn over to Ephesians five, and let’s look at the urgency of our calling. Ephesians five. But right at the top of your notes, “Hurry up and wait.” Ephesians five, and let’s pick it up in verse fifteen. “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise.” So what does circumspectly mean? It means to be able to look around. Well, hopefully, many of us don’t drive on motorcycles, but if you do, you need to be able to urgently look around and make sure your surroundings are taken care of.

Spiritually speaking, “Hey, how am I doing?” Look around. See your spiritual environment. How are we growing? Being concerned about our atmosphere; that we can see what’s taking place around us. Confidently able to navigate our situation. Verse sixteen. “Redeeming the time because the days are evil.” Well, we know we’re in a world that is continually being more depraved by the second, but we have to take the opportunity to live urgently while surrounded by evil.

Matthew chapter twenty-five. Matthew twenty-five, as we build on the urgency. Matthew twenty-five and verse thirteen. “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man comes.” You know, the Bible talks about how we are to be vigilant and proactive in living out our faith. At any moment’s notice, we can have an exit. We don’t know exactly when our exit is. You know, we’re on a highway sometimes of life and we can pass certain exits. Well, some individuals don’t even see an exit coming, and then they exit out of this life. But we have to be about doing the business God has given us to do with urgency while waiting.

Luke twelve. I don’t know if anybody has recently been in a job change, urgently typing in all of these different applications, putting into various companies, and with each ding or notification, buzz, buzz. There’s anticipation, and a heightened amount of adrenaline comes when we’re looking forward, “Is this the one? Is this the one? Is this the door that’s going to open?” Then we may be let down with a little bit of anticipation because we didn’t get that job. And okay. All right, here we go. We got to wait. We’re still looking forward. It’s kind of that same paradox, urgently wanting to make sure our circumstances change, but having to wait.

Luke twelve and verse thirty-five. “Let your loins be girded about and your lights burning, and you yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he comes, shall find watching.” So this is talking about our attire, the things that we’re going to have on, what we’re going to be doing when God comes and finds us doing, urgently continuing to do what He has given us to do while waiting for His return, not pulling the ripcord and ejecting ourselves from a scene that ultimately ends in the ultimate blessing being added to His divine family.

Hebrews twelve. Hebrews twelve. And to finish the story, my cousin didn’t make it. The anticipation was high in the transition of trying to get somewhere in a hurry on a vehicle that took him there very quickly, swiftly changed due to just time and chance. So this day represents a day where I look forward to seeing him and being able to teach him about, “Hey, slow down, take your time. Just need to wait.” It’s not going to be any motorcycles, hopefully, in God’s kingdom, being able to take it dangerously.

But Hebrews twelve and verse one, talking about being urgent. “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,” Hebrews twelve, one, “...let us lay aside every weight and the sin, which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience.” If you’ve ever run long distance, you practice to build up your lung capacity in order to make sure that we have enough endurance to make it through the race. You get to a good pace, and that pace really starts to configure with our body, as our body is thinking about of times where we get over the amount of energy that we’re extending in our legs, the oxygen that has to go through our lungs.

In our mind, having the capacity to say, “You can make it,” but your limbs saying, “I don’t know if I can.” So your mind has to tell your limbs, “You’re going to keep going because we’re going to make it.” And then your legs finally kick into gear, and you don’t feel the rest of your body because now all of the air, all of the oxygen is flowing throughout the rest of your body after we have trained over a long period of time: getting up day after day, putting on our shoes, putting on our outfit, running out there, exercising and making sure the capacity of our lungs.

Now switching to spiritual, doing what God says to do, running that race, getting in a good pace, seeing the various objects on our trial, on our trail, but not stopping at each one. You’re still on a pace. Yes, there are things that do get in our way, but we stay on that straight and narrow path, continuing to remember to breathe, remembering that, “All right, yes, there is going to be trials, but we have to urgently get to where we need to go.” We got to keep that pace. Don’t allow our legs to stop the rest of our body, to stop the rest of our plan that God has set us on, to be the objects that hold us back, but run with patience. How many are able to run while waiting? It’s possible to do, if you’re on a treadmill.

But this life is not a treadmill. We actually can’t just be stationary. There’s things you and I have to be about doing each and every day. We have to hurry up and do God’s work. Well, part of doing God’s work is working on ourselves. A lot of people may never be introduced to God’s work until they see you, until they see me, and they see the change that has become of us. And a significant change happens here, the first seven days, and then today, the Last Great Day. And what a wonderful change people will see.

John nine. John chapter nine. Because we’re called to do a work. John nine and verse four. Jesus speaking here. “I must work the works of him that sent me. While it is day, the night comes when no man can work.” Well, we live in a world that is... You know, we can see the night just coming over this entire earth. There is a time coming when the work will not be able to be done, and then kicks in another plan of God, but God has sent each one of us to do a work. There’s work being done in our individual lives and collectively getting behind the work that God is doing out in the world, helping individuals like us to land in seats that we’re sitting in now, learning and growing and overcoming and doing His will, being lights in the world, but with urgency. There have been different crews here at the feast moving around urgently while waiting, waiting for God to return. James four. Hurry up and wait. James four.

So my wife and I tell our little girls a lot. Well, one’s not so little anymore, but the other one I can still call little for now. “When are we going to go? When are we going to get there? Hurry up and wait.” The same way coming up here will probably be the same way going back, but it’s a hurry up and wait, and that’s pretty much what God commands us to do as well. Hurry up, continue to do the work that I gave you to do, but you have to wait. And there’s so many things that go on within that waiting period.

But James four and verse fourteen. “Whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor.” Wow. How many had coffee this morning or tea? And you see the steam, the vapor come off of that tea. It doesn’t rise too high, you know, maybe just this much, far off the cup. I mean, that’s what’s compared to our life, a hot cup of tea or a hot cup of coffee, and you can see the vapor coming up. If you really stop and think about that, wow, steam coming off of a hot object is compared to thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy. If not, more individuals in this room could be even eighty or older. That’s the lifespan God is comparing that to.

But back in verse fourteen. “It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” Just poof, it’s gone. Just about as quick as my cousin’s life, that was here for about twenty-nine years. And getting ready to go wherever he was going urgently, he sleep. Pelvis broken two, motorcycle completely gone. Hospitals couldn’t do anything. But there was urgency and waiting. A family urgently waiting for their son to come back out of that hospital, and doctors urgently trying to save this individual’s life.

We have an urgency in our life when we look in God’s word, and there are certain things that we see within ourselves that God shows us. Thankfully, He doesn’t show us all at one time, all the things that He’s going to change, but we have to be willing participants to see it when He shows it to us, and then urgently get to business. All right. How do we make this change? What are the steps that we need to put into practice in order to make that commitment and that change, and to stay the course to do it?

You know, my first feast was two thousand and six, and there’s a lot of faces that are still here, but there’s a lot of faces that I remember that are not. And there may have been times where we’re waiting over our Christian lifespan, and a message is sent to us, an urgent messenger sends a message. And sometimes, humanly speaking, we can forget that it’s a spiritual messenger that sends the message because the message comes from here, but we can see a human being delivering it and then forget that it’s the Father down through Jesus Christ, through His government that is literally trying to get us to go from the broad path and narrow us back into the way that we should go.

And He does it with urgency and with love, caring, and compassion, while we have to wait in time and deal with the issue that was brought to us. Sometimes that can sting. And many of us have seen it happen where we had individuals that were some of our great friends to our left or to our right behind us, and they’re no longer here with us because they couldn’t take the message. They couldn’t handle a little bit of care and compassion of someone that sees something on the outside of them, bringing a message to them in love, and they eject themselves, not being able to wait. Well, what are we waiting for? This is the Last Great Day. What does this day represent, not just for us, but for the entire world?

It pictures the time that each one of us sitting here have taken the opportunity to urgently do what God says to do, day after day, night after night, no matter what’s going on in our life, waiting for that inheritance, waiting for what God urgently wants to give us. So learning patience in God’s timing is critical, but urgency does not eliminate waiting. Even though there’s urgency in our calling, much of our spiritual life involves waiting. We’re waiting right now in this room. We waited all night when we didn’t remember when we went to sleep, and then we woke up.

But let’s transition now and examine the concept of waiting on God and why it is essential for our spiritual journey. Turn over to Psalm twenty-seven. Because it’s actually a command that God gives each of us. Psalm twenty-seven. As we transition from being urgent about doing what God says to do, and let’s examine the waiting part. Psalm twenty-seven and verse fourteen. Now, God is outside of the realm of time. He’s outside of the realm of time and space. We’re stuck in it. And there’s a certain time and space that each one of us meet on life’s highway. And God promises to do it at the exact right time for each one of us individually.

Psalm twenty-seven and verse fourteen. “Wait, W-A-I-T, wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say on the Lord.” So that’s twice just in one verse where God tells us to wait. That’s not a suggestion. It’s not asking a question. It’s a command God telling us to wait on Him. Now, while waiting on Him, we still have our part to do. We have to be about doing all the things that help us to grow as Christians, all the tools of Christian growth. But it’s a command. Maybe you can write next to it in your margin: This is a command from God. He’s commanding me to wait. And if we buy into that command, it’ll help us to solidify ourselves in the body of Christ, making sure that we’re there when God returns. Waiting is important.

Isaiah forty. Isaiah forty, and let’s pick it up in verse thirty-one. Look at this promise. “But they that wait upon the Lord,” Isaiah forty, thirty-one, “...renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint.” This seems to be dual. I don’t know how many of you have ever ran and not ran out of energy before in this way of life. Or, physically speaking, as one that played a lot of sports, my job was to run for a living. I always ran out of energy.

This is talking about a time where our strength will be renewed. Okay. There’s some duality in this way of life where our strength can be renewed, but they shall mount up with wings as eagles. We’ve all seen eagles fly and soar in the air. They shall run and not be weary. There’s a song in the hymns that we sing sometimes, running like men of war, but never running out of energy. And they shall walk and not faint, never being fatigued. It sounds like a time where we’re waiting for this type of energy that we’re going to get if we wait on God. Wait on His timing to the very end of this way of life.

Habakkuk two, speaking about the context of prophecy, but it also points to a time that will not wait. But Habakkuk two and verse three. “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it,” so we’re waiting for the end, “...because it will surely come. It will not tarry.” Some don’t wait. Matter of fact, you know, over the years, some even leave during the feast and they’re supposed to go all the way through where God has placed His name and stay where He has placed His name, continuing to wait on God, continuing to learn and overcome rather than pulling the ripcord and thinking that they’re doing the right thing by leaving the feast.

Hopefully that’s something that will always be foreign to each one of our mind. It doesn’t really settle in my mind at all where God said to come to His feast, learn to fear Him, fellowship, wait on Him, do what He says to do. Nothing within those commands say leave until it’s over. Romans eight. Still building, having the patience that God wants us to have. God is very patient with each one of us. Romans eight and verse twenty-three. We all hope for things, and one of the most important things that we’re hoping for is to being able to finish this way of life and receive the promises that God wants to give each one of us.

Romans eight and verse twenty-three. “And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the sonship, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope.” So if we already see what we have hoped for, well, there’s no reason to still hope for it because we already got it. We can see it. Our eyes have been able to see what we already hoped for, and that desire is no longer at a heightened level because we can see it.

You know, it’s like giving a kid a gift. We may have, “Oops,” and said it out loud. Maybe the mother has bought a gift and told the father, and the father’s like, “Oh yes, you got this certain little gift that... Oh, I shouldn’t have said that.” Now we won’t ever stop hearing about that gift until it’s actually delivered. So the kids will be just poking you and prodding you. “When am I going to get it? When am I going to get it?” And then you finally give it to them, and then “When am I going to get it?” stops because what they were hoping for, they received.

Well, we can be the same way with God. We see all the promises He has and He wants to give us, we’re hoping for, we’re looking for, but thankfully, once we actually receive it, we enter in to joy everlasting. “For what a man sees, why does he continue to hope for it? But if we hope,” Verse twenty-five, “...for that we see not, then do we with patience.” So time is included automatically for the things that we hope for that we can’t see at this point in time. No eye has seen, no ear has heard, nor has it come to the mind of man what God has prepared for each one of us.

Well, preparation for each one of us coming here took time, right? But God’s out of the realm of time, but He’s already prepared things for you and I. He’s prepared something for each one of us to step into once we’re done waiting, but also doing the things that we need to do while waiting. Do with patience, wait for it. So waiting on God refines us. It strengthens us. It strengthens our faith. It teaches us dependence on Him when we don’t know exactly when certain things will work out, a job, wanting to be healed, wanting to overcome a certain trial, wanting to overcome something spiritually, things to work out in our marriage, a new location that we have to move to and finding a good neighborhood for our families to settle in.

Isaiah thirty. Back to the Old Testament. Isaiah and chapter thirty. Let’s pick it up in verse eighteen. Isaiah thirty and verse eighteen. “And therefore, will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you, for the Lord is a God of judgment. Blessed are all they that wait.” I mean, three times just within this verse, he said, “Blessed are they that wait for him. For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. You shall weep no more. He will be very gracious unto you at the voice of the cry. When he shall hear it, he will answer you.” But going back up to verse eighteen, thinking about the three times God says, right in this verse, wait.

Psalm twenty-five and verse five. “Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation. On you do I wait all the day.” You can think of all the various needs that we have in our life, how our bodies need to function, the food that we eat, the water that we need to drink, the atmosphere, the good air that we need to breathe, and we wait all the day on God to provide all those things for us. And verse twenty-one, jump down to verse twenty-one. “Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait on you.” And that’s certain things that we’re doing. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me as we’re upright in conduct.

We have God’s integrity in our life. We’re doing all of the things that He has commanded us to do while waiting. It is a paradox. It seems very contradictory. Psalm thirty-three. I was meditating on a day like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day. For the last twenty-four hours, what do we remember doing for the last twenty-four hours? That’s the whole day. All right. So we had services, but before that, we woke up, we got refreshed, we had some breakfast, maybe a cup of coffee, we talked to our loved ones, we studied, we prayed. Then we came down through the elevator or wherever direction you’re coming from to where God has placed His name, and we came up to services. We took notes.

We had a spiritual food exercise, and we digested and thought, then we fellowshipped. Then we went out and enjoyed time with each other on this beautiful facility, enjoying the air, enjoying the nature, enjoying one another’s company, enjoying wonderful conversation, iron sharpening iron. Maybe we watched a little bit of news. Maybe we thought about our future in the family of God while waiting. But God says, “The last twenty-four hours were like a thousand years to me, and a thousand years for you is like twenty-four hours to me.”

I stopped and thought about that for quite some time, being stuck in time, and I’m still thinking about it now. That’s why I’m sharing it with you. But it’s just a fascinating concept. Twenty-four hours is like a thousand years to God. Psalm thirty-three and verse twenty. God’s mind is very deep. “Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield.” So waiting on God, tied to God being our shield, tied to Him being our help, tied to Him giving us everything that we need to function in this way of life.

But the most important one is the spirit that He’s given to each one of us. That’s why we’re here in this room and can collectively come together, because I can guarantee you with all of the different things that I’ve done in my past, there’s no reason for me to be in this room. And you could probably say the same thing for yourselves. But collectively, as one mind unified, wanting to do the things that God tells us to do takes real power, and that real power has to work in a person that’s stuck in time while waiting on God to transform us into Him. But we have to be willing participants in order to do that.

There’s a lot that goes into this transformation: waiting, persevering, overcoming, but urgently doing it, urgently waiting, hurry up and wait. You know, the game starts in the first inning, but you have to hurry up and wait until the ninth. And the game isn’t over until that last pitch. Psalm thirty-seven. There’s a lot of areas in the Psalms that talks about waiting. Psalm thirty-seven and verse seven. “Rest in the Lord and wait patiently.” Look at all the times God is telling us just wait patiently for Him.

“Fret not yourself because of him who prospers in his way.” You know, those that are able to go out there and do evil, and you just see them, they’re just, you know, money stacking up, their life seems to be great. But really, behind closed doors, they probably have all types of issues and problems, “...because of the man who brings wicked devices to pass.” Well, there’s many wicked devices that come to pass in our life. We don’t have to fret about those things. We can patiently wait on God, be urgent in prayer, and then wait for Him to make the opportunity work in our favor.

And jump down to verse thirty-four. “Wait on the Lord and keep his way, and he shall exalt you to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, you shall see it.” So see, He’s telling us in verse seven, I just need you to wait patiently. You don’t know all of the details that are going to take place with this, that, or the other things that people that are doing certain things in your life that are evil to you. Don’t worry about those things. Just continue to obey me. Pray about it. Continue to obey me, and the door will be open.

And then it says at the very end of the chapter, verse thirty-four, poof, that problem is taken care of. Because we were urgently obeying God and doing what He said to do, He cut right off the evil that was around us, the wicked that was around us, while we wait, we wait on God. And Psalm thirty-nine.

I’ll tell a story before we read this verse. With both our children, we had went through this birthing class and the instructor had said, “Whatever you do...” We wanted to have our babies at home, but due to some difficulties and circumstances, we had to go to the hospital both times. But the instructor said, “Whatever you do, don’t leave your baby when you go to the hospital, don’t leave their side. Your wife’s going to be on the bed, but you, you’re able to stay mobile.” So in my mind, I’m thinking, “Okay, I’ll make sure I do that.”

So we get to the hospital with our first baby, after she labored for hours at home. And we got there, and after our first child was born, she came out, the nurse put our child on, skin to skin, to the mother, my wife. And then they wanted to take the footprints and say, “Oh, we’ll be back.” And I said, “Where are you going?” “Oh, you can’t come.” I said, “I’m going exactly where this baby’s going. That’s my child. That’s my property. Wherever you’re taking her, I’m going with her.” And so that happened twice.

What does God say in verse seven? “And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in you.” As little babies, or little children, or children under God the Father, our big brother, Jesus Christ, God’s telling us to wait. We’re right there with you. We’re not going to leave you. We’re not going to forsake you. We’re going to be with you. As long as you persevere, as long as we persevere and do our part, God is always there with us, as long as we urgently do what He says while waiting. Waiting on God refines us and strengthens our faith, but it’s all within God’s timing.

Second Peter. There are certain times in our life where we could be waiting for years and years, it seems, or months or weeks for certain things to change in our life. And then that change comes, and you think back, “That wasn’t that long at all,” once it finally arrives. Second Peter three and verse eight. “But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise.” So He knows what He’s promised.

We serve a God who can’t lie. He can only tell the truth. He is love. He knows what He’s promised us. He’s not going to be slack in delivering those promises to those He’s already promised it to. “...as some men count slackness, but is long suffering to us-ward.” So even though He’s outside the realm of time, we know that this is one of the fruits of the spirit, long suffering, it’s like God’s waiting for us to finally get to the point where we have developed, but He’s developed His holy, righteous character in us. We’re being willing participants in that plan where He can finally add us to the family of God because He’s waited so long.

He’s had long suffering waiting for each one of us to develop in this way of life, urgently reproducing Himself in each one of us while we have to live in time and space and wait, “…not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” So God doesn’t want any of us not to make it. He called us to make it. He called us to be able to overcome with His power. But we have that Jeremiah seventeen, nine mindset that we have to battle against each day. And sometimes that mindset can get the best of us. And it’s nice when we can recognize it when it’s brought to our attention and just take aim with God’s power and say, “You know what? I’m going to humble myself and do what God says to do.” And that usually always works out.

Ecclesiastes three. God is patient. He’s very, very patient with us. And I’ve said it over and over again through personal correspondence to the individuals that contact us, church inquiries, they want to hurry up and attend, or they want this, that, or the other thing to hurry up and change in their lives. Ecclesiastes three. And there’s lessons that, through time, as we focus on what God is trying to bring to our attention that we have to learn. And it’s that space of time that God gives each one of us to make those corrections, obviously with His power.

Ecclesiastes three and verse one. “To every thing, there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” There’s a time to urgently do what God says to do while in that same time waiting. How many have accidentally said the wrong thing that came out of their mouth, and they couldn’t take it back? It just flew out. You were like, “Oh, hmm. I wish I can just kind of take that back.” You know, time and chance. There’s a season under heaven when certain things can fly out of our mouth and we can’t take it back. Kind of like a Daisy, you know, you, pffft, and you go try and get all those little seeds that have just, poof, went out into the air.

I can remember a time of two, maybe three, four, five, six, seven that I’ve done that with my family being very new. You know, this way of life, we can urgently want to change everyone that we come into contact with after learning this way of life, having God’s spirit, being filled and on fire. And we just forget to put that big latch, hmm, over our mouth, and we forget hearing the part that either ministers or in the back of our mind, we heard those that have been in the truth longer. You don’t want to say anything. Just let your actions speak for you.

Patiently wait for those. They’re going to see certain things that change in your life, and then they’ll be ready to ask you a question, “Huh? How did you change this, that, or the other? I can see that, you know, after you started attending this church, there’s certain things about you that have changed.” And you know what we just did there? We urgently were on fire and waited for that person to ask. That’s the best thing to do. We have questions ourselves. We know we can go to the ministry. We can go to Headquarters.

We can go to rcg.org and click on that search button and type in whatever is on our mind and do a thorough study of God’s mind on that topic. And we can tell that person who has just asked us that question, “What is it that makes you tick that allows you to believe in such a God that will take care of everything in your life?” “Oh, because He said that if I urgently obey Him and wait for Him to act, everything else will fall into place in my life.”

Hebrew six. This is a very basic sermon on waiting. This is the Last Great Day. We all came through the past seven days, and now we’re here on the eighth day. We had to do a lot of waiting to get to this day, but there’s a lot of preparation that went in prior to it. But this day represents the end of God’s plan, which is really the beginning, because we don’t know what comes after the millennium. But we have to wait to find out, don’t we?

Hebrews six and verse twelve. “That you be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” So God wants us to drive ourselves. As we talked about in the beginning, we’re all running. We’re all in the race. We’re all trying to win and be first. Command our body parts to do what God says to do. God says we have a head. He says He’s begotten us in the frontal cortex of our mind. He says we can do it. You know, we all can murder, but we’re not supposed to murder.

What can we murder? Our own body parts, not physically. Please don’t chop off things physically, talking about in a spiritual way. But if we go after ourselves, like God says to do with the weapons that He gives us, to war against ourselves, then we’re on that right path, but we have to do it patiently. But while being patient, waiting, we have to drive ourselves. Ourselves are the only ones that can push us, obviously, with God’s power working in us to overcome. No one else can do it for us.

We can have friends in the church that may want the best for us, but it all starts in our own mind. We have to make that commitment to drive ourselves with God’s spirit and to wait for Him to act. So the promise of the Last Great Day, the kingdom of God, is right around the corner. Let’s turn over to John seven. We looked at this earlier in the feast. John seven, and then we’re going to flip back to the Old Testament.

John seven and verse thirty-seven. “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink. He that believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” We think about those living waters and the qualities of God that will be flowing out of each one of us in this time, where things will absolutely change for the benefit of humanity on this Last Great Day, which follows the Feast of Tabernacles. And it symbolizes the final phase of God’s plan, salvation for all humanity, what we know of at this point in time.

Turn back to Lamentations, after Jeremiah. Lamentations chapter three. This scripture is a promise. Why do we wait? What are we waiting for, and why should we wait? Lamentations three and verse twenty-five. We heard about all good things come from God. Well, look at this. Lamentations three, twenty-five. “The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.” That’s saying, “Hurry up and wait, but urgently seek me, do what I ask you to do.” He says, “I’m good to those who wait.” What are we going to receive? Eternal life. We get to step into the joy of the Lord while we do our part. And God said, as we do our part, waiting for Him, He’s going to do good to us.

First Corinthians one. First Corinthians chapter one. How many like to move? How many just like to say, “I want to get this done. I got something to do. Get out of my way. You took up my space on the pavement.” You like to drive. You like to go. I like to go. That’s my personality. If I get a task and somebody tells me something to do, please don’t take it personal if I just walk right past you. I have something on my mind. I have to get it done. And I have to learn to pull that back sometimes. But that’s kind of God’s mindset on each one of us. He wants us to be diligently, urgently wanting to get things done in our life, working on ourselves, being about His business, doing the work while patiently waiting.

First Corinthians one and verse seven. “So that you come behind and no gift,” wow, “...waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you unto the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Wow, a day that comes where we will be absolutely blameless, completely wiped clean from all the things that we’ve done in our life, because day after day, second after second, minute after minute, we made the decision within our mind with God’s power to do what He says. And part of that command is wait for Him. There are so many different things that happen in our life on God’s timetable, and it all just seems to connect if we do our part.

Revelation twenty. Let’s look at more of what this day represents. Revelation twenty. You know what I can’t wait for? I can’t wait for everyone in my family that I know and those in my family that I don’t know to come up and have someone in their lineage that is a God being, but now they’re all ears because they have someone in their lineage that they’re tied to that took the time to study, to grow, to overcome, to not listen to what they were saying in this life, that, “Why do you go to that church? What are you doing? Why are you tied to them? I just don’t understand it.”

Well, it’s because God gave us a basic command. He said, “Wait, but continue to obey me.” And He’s dangling all of these promises in front of me. Actually, there’s one big one. We do have vision of a city afar off, but all of the promises in this book take time to go through all the promises. I mean, you can do it through a search or even going on to rcg.org and just looking up promises of God and read through all of those promises. And when you get to the end of that list, that’s not it. He’s got more. Eye has not seen nor ear heard, hasn’t even come into the mind of man what God wants to give us after that.

Revelation twenty. So as you all do, I look forward to teaching my mom, teach my stepdad, teaching my dad, who died when I was in junior college. I had a dream, and my cousin came to my door. [knocks] And that night that I dreamed, I dreamed of my father. He died. And he came to the door, and he said, “Brian,” he sounded sad, “I got something to tell you. Are you awake?” And I said, “Yes, my dad died. Didn’t he?” He said, “Huh? How’d you know that?” I said, “I had a nightmare last night.” But yes, he lived a rough life.

Revelation twenty and verse five. “But the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection. On such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God, and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.” This is what we’re looking forward to. This is what we’re waiting for. Our very part to rule with Christ, to help all mankind, starting with our own lineage.

How much more are they going to be ready to listen to an individual that they knew, that was part of their own bloodline? Wow, that’s a God being. And that was from my family. Thank you for not listening to me when I asked you to give up. Thank you for continuing to wait on God. Thank you so very much for doing your part, for listening to God’s word. The only word that matters in our life is doing what God says to do, because everything else trickles off of that.

No matter what it is that somebody asks us to do, the commands they give us, if it falls within the confines of God’s law and we obey Him, He’ll make that circumstance work out for our benefit. You know why? Because he’s the one that made every individual’s mind so He can tap into that mind whenever He wants to, just like He did Balaam’s ass. He tapped right into an animal. Well, we’re a little higher than animals, aren’t we? So He can use our mind. We have intellect, but we also have God’s spirit. So we’re tapped in. As long as we stay tapped in, rooted into that vine and don’t self-eject because God won’t give up on us, He’s called us to finish. He hasn’t called us to give up on us. He wants us to urgently do what He says while waiting.

The Last Great Day ultimately points to the promise of eternal life with God. Revelation twenty-one, just over one chapter, and verse three. I’ve often thought about how loud this voice will be. “And I heard a great voice,” Revelation twenty-one verse three, “...out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.”

We think about all of the death and the crying and depravity going on in this world right now. God is going to literally take His hand and wipe away those tears from all humanity who has suffered during their lifetimes. You know, God says that it’s good for us to suffer because we learn many things through those tumultuous times in life, the tear-tugging, tear-jerking moments in life that we can think back to, where ultimately, we know it’s for our own good. The sorrow will be gone. The death will be gone. People scheming and doing all of these bad things in life right now will be gone. They won’t be able to do that anymore. We’ll be able to be right behind them and tell them, “Hey, hey, hey. No, no, no, no. You need to get back on track. What are you about to do?”

I don’t see anyone, but I clearly heard a voice. We’re going to be teachers, not being able to be stiff-armed in a corner like they do right now, where parents want to actually come in and say, “Hey, what you’re teaching our kids is not good.” Well, during this time, these people will have to learn. They won’t be able to stiff-arm us, telling us, “No, I’d rather just go do what I want to do.” Okay, ejected, because that won’t be tolerated.

We’re learning a time where individuals will want to have their ears and their eyes and their minds malleable to be worked with. We live in a time of AI, where they want to build these AI brains and have AI think for us and do everything for us. It could be used in a way, but we still have to use our own brains. First Corinthians two. I look forward to that time where all of these tears will be gone. All of the suffering that individuals go through, where they will actually have a government that is over them but is there for them. That will tell them the truth, that will help them understand how to live, that will help them and guide them through the joys of humbling themselves and obeying words that will keep them on a straight and narrow path, while they go through the journey of waiting and growing and overcoming.

First Corinthians two and verse nine. “But as it is written, eye has not seen…” here’s the verse I was referring to earlier. “…nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared.” Okay, so this sounds like it’s past tense, but God isn’t in the realm of time. Prepared is not preparing, it’s not prepare. It’s prepared. It’s something that’s already ready for those who do what He says. He’s just sitting there waiting for our-- for us to do our part, for us to allow Him to finish what He started in each one of us. Urgently doing what He says in order to get the things that he’s already prepared for us that we’re just going to step into.

I’ll finish the rest of verse nine. For them that love Him. Well, we know loving God is doing what he says. It’s urgently doing what God says to do. No matter the circumstance. Romans eight. Romans chapter eight. Let’s pick it up in verse eighteen. Now, I’m from California, and I hadn’t really… oh, no, I did. I grew up around a grandmother from Ohio. Grandma Ophelia. That used to be my Bible. I had to memorize Psalm one twenty-one in order to go outside and play, and Psalm twenty-three.

We would just get through it real fast. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He make me lie down in the green pastures, he leads me out beside still waters. There he restores my soul. Grandma, we’re done.” Boom. We’re good to go play. “Wait a minute. Get back here, boy. I reckon you didn’t write that down, too.” I was like, “Yes, you’re right.”

What do we see here in verse eighteen? Romans eight eighteen. “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. We’ve all suffered in this way of life, and God says it’s good for us to suffer because that’s how we learn. We learn by the things which we suffer. Christ did the same thing, so we’re following that blueprint. He learned obedience. I mean, He was obedient unto death because He learned by the things which He suffered. He didn’t do anything wrong, but we do something wrong day after day, night after night. Hopefully doing less and less things wrong as we grow more in God’s way.

We ask for more of His Spirit, and we do things right more on a daily basis, but we’re never not. I don’t know if that’s oxymoron. I can’t do that one. That’s the opposite. We’re going to continue to sin, but we sin less and less every day as we grow closer to God and ask for His power to overcome. This future reality, think… write that down. Future reality. Right now, we’re in reality, but we’re visioning our future reality. The glory which shall be revealed in each one of us. That’s the same glory Jesus Christ got, and He wants each one of us to step into that glory if we wait. There’s nothing to be compared to it in this, on this side of the Kingdom, that can compare to what we suffer now. If we really grasp that, our future reality will be here as quick as my cousin died on that motorcycle, split-second.

Isaiah twenty-five, few final scriptures. We live in a fast-paced world, but sometimes it’s nice to just… we can be urgent in our mind but just take our time. Isaiah twenty-five and verse six. Talking about God’s perfect plan for all mankind. This Last Great Day assures us that God’s plan is very comprehensive. Offering all people a chance for eternal life. And in this great day, God’s plan is very comprehensive, offering all people a chance for eternal life. And in this great day, God’s plan is very comprehensive. Offering all people a chance for eternal life. “And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all the people, a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things, full of marrow, of wines on the lees, well refined.

And He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that has spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory…” so death will be gone forever, “…and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all the faces. And the rebuke of His people shall He take away from off all the earth. For the Lord has spoken it.” I mean, out of His mouth, He just speaks the word, and it’s done. He gets things done.

Well, brethren, we have to get things done as well. We have to be about doing God’s business, be about doing the words that He’s already spoken, given to Christ. Christ came down with that message, gave it to us, and we have to do it on a daily basis while waiting. First Thessalonians four. Hurry up and wait. First Thessalonians four and verse sixteen. “For the Lord Himself- First Thessalonians four sixteen -for the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.

Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord.” As we’re getting ready for the kingdom of God to be here on earth. This is such a wonderful couple of verses here to meditate upon, thinking about our change that’s coming. When we’re going to be on that team and be able to bring an everlasting change to this world.

The eternal kingdom of God coming to this earth where everybody is going to have an opportunity to wait in their life doing God’s will but having patience, being able to endure. Why? Because this way of life is absolutely worthwhile. It’s worthwhile to be patient. It’s worthwhile to wait. It’s worthwhile to do what God says to do. James five. It’s everything in our life. God’s way, doing His way, doing His mind day to day, we’re not going to do it perfectly, but that’s the most absolute best thing we can do from sunset to sunset every day.

James five and verse seven. “Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth and has long patience for it until he receive the early and latter rain.” God is patiently waiting for each one of us to do our part in the body of Christ. To continue to grow, to continue to overcome. To urgently put into action what He says to do while being in this room where we have to wait.

God waits, and He’s waiting on each one of us, and so can we. Brethren, we looked at, this morning, a paradox. It seems contradictory. Urgently doing what God says on one hand but also being willing to wait on the other. Those two merge. They marry one another. We have to hurry up and wait in this way of life, and while we must urgently live out our faith, we’re also called to wait patiently on God’s perfect timing. This waiting refines us. It strengthens us. It strengthens our faith and prepares us for eternity, for the kingdom of God.

As we look forward to the Last Great Day today and the fulfillment of God’s plan, let us remain diligent in our faith while also resting in the assurance that God’s promises will be fulfilled in his perfect time. All we have to do is hurry up and wait.