by will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Of course, there was a big problem with all this. Something happened that sort of messed up the program and made it a false start as I suggested earlier. What was that? Yes, right. Ask the ends of the ends of the end. I'm in the middle. That same sin. Right? And so what happened was just because you were a human being no longer meant that you would fulfill your role in the way you were supposed to. Does that make sense to you? In other words, you had rebellion from human beings. The image of God actually rebelled against God. And so this process of God's spirit covering over the deep, shaping the world, moving against the chaos and against the evil and human beings having a special role of subduing and filling the earth for the glory and the honor of God to establish his kingdom, it became very complex, very complicated because sin came in here. The darkness didn't go away completely. It actually entered into our hearts. The chaos didn't go away altogether. We actually began to invent it. So as human beings actually began to go counter to what the spirit of God was doing. And it was only by the power of the spirit of God then that human beings were able to be turned around to do what their purpose was to do. So you had this Utah beach thing that started happening right here where humanity is a part of the process of bringing the kingdom of God just like the spirit is God's power at work in the world. Humanity has a very special role as the instrument of the power of the spirit in this world. It's really fascinating when you start beginning and you begin to see that. So this is the theme of the whole Bible. Can you not see it? This is the theme of the whole Bible. And we'll jump ahead to the New Testament and we'll go back to it. You get to the New Testament? There's a Holy Ghost just sort of float around with out there and never and ever land. Is that what he does? Of course not. When you're going to bring the kingdom of God, how do you bring the kingdom of God by empowering humans? People. People. The power of the kingdom comes on people. Now there was one very special person who had the power of the Holy Ghost and very special life. What was his name? Well it was Jesus. That's right. Okay? Because not just Jesus is us too. And so this thing that is going on in your life is not something that's divorced from the whole history of the purpose of the Holy Spirit in the world. It actually has these dreams all the way back here in the very beginning. Because of this false thought. Now the wonderful thing that happens that I find so surprising in many instances is that once then came into the world and God dealt with it and know it's flawed and sort of re-leveled the playing field again after Noah's pledge that okay, we're starting over here. I'm taking part of this. We're starting over. Remember what he said? For Noah when they came out of the ark? Remember what his command was? He knows what he's coming from. He said, this is chapter 9, which one? He said, the command that God gave Noah when he came out of the ark. And the rest of it he sort of leapt into the levels of playing field. He said, okay, it's all over. We're starting over again. What do you suppose he said? Noah when he came out of the ark. Given the fact that we're starting over again. The same thing he said, Adam in the beginning. He proved for the multiply silver years to do it. He said, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's unbelievable. But it's true. It's exactly what the role that humanity was. There'll be image of God using in the fallen world. Okay. But then what God did was something very special. Out of all the descendants of Noah, there was one family that God decided to use as his special group. I don't know why, again, God did this. But God decided that the way he was going to bring about this reordering of the world. The kingdom of God coming to the earth, the way that he really wanted to be, was by choosing a very small, tiny, insignificant little group of people. And using them, and a particular place on the earth, using them to establish a kingdom. Now who are these people? That's the question. Israel. Israel. They were the ones. Remember the father of Israel, the one that clearly got the game going here, his name is Abraham. Abraham is the one who becomes the one, who's the father of the ones who are redeeming, and because he's the father of the ones who are redeeming from sin, he is the father of the ones who are going to bring the kingdom of God to the earth through the power of the humans. That was a very strange thing to happen. Remember, I told you, where in the time you were history, the kingdom of God began, where the spirit of God was at work through human beings. Where did it begin? Was it the other thing that you got so far? Or was it the you told us you were the eating person? Any time I ask you a question, answer it's eating. Okay? You can just say eating. Okay? What's your name? Now eating. Any time I ask you a question, answer it's eating. Okay? Eating. Eating. Okay, Rob and eating. So here we are in eating at the very beginning. Of course, you know they're thrown out of the eating. Yes. You know angels are peeping them out until God's ready for people to come back in. You know something that's very strange and most people don't know about the Bible. I don't know why we don't know this. It's clothing and weather we don't know this, because it's so obvious in the book of Genesis. Tell me this. Where did God have Moses take the people of Israel? What do you call it? The Promised Land. Yes? You call it Palestine, you call it Israel, whatever you want to call it. The Promised Land. The Holy Land. Okay? Do you know that the Bible identifies the Holy Land with eating? In other words, the place where the Holy Land is is where eating was. Yeah, I know. It's really weird if people don't know that, isn't it? Before I prove that to you from the Bible, let me explain to you why. Remember, I told you that eating was, you call it beef. Yes? The beef. So when you're going to establish a kingdom of God from one point of it and have it spread out geographically, yes, by means of the power of the spirit, enabling people, redeeming holy people to fill the world up since it's a duet on God's behalf, it's starting eating. Well, when God brought Israel to begin that process all over again, after the flood of Noah's day, how did it, where did it occur? It occurred in the same spot that he chose in the very beginning and that was the Land of Eden. How do we know that? Well, we can't look at it now, but I'm going to tell you how you can know that again. If you look at Genesis chapter 2, you look at the boundaries of the Eden, you look at the boundaries of the borders of Eden as they're described, it says that the Eden extended from the Tigris-Ufraden's river down to these rivers called the Piston and the Gehon in Push and Hobbylock, that's what it says. You can't really go, wow, whatever. It says there's this central river that flows out in four directions with this. One is the Tigris-Ufraden's river, and the other is the Gehon and the Piston. And I want to just start your map here real quickly. Here's the Mediterranean Sea. Here's the Sea of Galilee. Here's the Dead Sea. Here's Egypt, there's the Nile, and here's the Tigris-Ufraden's. Okay, but Moses says in Genesis chapter 2 is that Eden extended from the Tigris-Ufraden because they're explicit in Genesis chapter 2, down to Push and Hobbylock, which we know from several places in the Bible are down here in Egypt. So what we call the fertile present is what Moses called the land of Eden. So yes, somebody. Okay, and then in Genesis chapter 15, and verse 18, this is a passage where God promises Abraham a land. And this, of course, is a land to which Moses took Israel. He promises them a land. And when he describes that land, let's hear how he describes that land, Robin. And that Eden, that's right. He describes it as Eden. That's really good. Would you read Genesis 15, 18? Can you also read? Yeah, if you would please, that would be really good. It's a problem in some of the front lines, you know that, right? 15, 18. Listen real carefully now that Genesis 15, 18, this is God telling Abraham where he's going to take his people one day. That's good, and all the other, right? So what land did God promise Abraham descended? The land of Eden. So when you start to show over, like God did after Noah's flood, when you start to show over, where do you start from? If you're headed toward Berlin to begin with, and the first attempt, the first invasion failed, when you start the second invasion, how do you do it? Where do you go? Back to Utah Beach. You follow me? Utah Beach. You came in Israel, Eden. It was the center of the universe, the center of the world, and it was from that geographical thought that God's kingdom was spread over all the world, even after ascending to the world. Now you make sure one of the worlds that you have to do with the Holy Spirit, we'll think about it for just a minute. All through the Old Testament, where is the Holy Spirit active and alive and doing things that he's wearing? It's been easy. In Israel. You follow me? When he appears as a great glory crowd, where does he lead his people? He's still a smoke and fire. He leads them straight into Eden. When he's there at the temple, where is he? At Eden, at the center of Eden. At the most holy spot of all, why do we call it the Holy Land? It's because this is the place where God puts his feet on the earth and said, this is where the kingdom begins, and from here it expands to the whole world. So if you're going to think about this Holy Spirit, and you want to get to know him on your first date with him, he asked him, where has he been? Where has he gone? His answer is going to be, well, I started off, started taking the whole world, dealing with the chaos thing, and then human beings were established to be the end of God, and I was going to work with them, and use them to accomplish a great goal, to bring the kingdom of God. But because of sin, there was a sort of restart, and where did the restart take place? It took place back there in Eden. Right there, in Israel. So where have I been? Well, it's been a lot of time maintaining. It's been a lot of time in one little geographical spot in this world. Getting things ready for the days, when the kingdom of God spread to all of the world. That's where I've been. So I see people ask, where are you from? I say, Rona, Virginia. Most of my life is going to go quite half of my life now, and Rona, Virginia. Wow, Rona, Virginia. He said, all these other things out, but that's really my home. That's where I began. That's what Holy Spirit is telling us right now. Where did he begin? His work in this world. Where does he focus? where everything's coming from, it's coming from that spot on the boat. But not for that as the goal, or that as the end, but rather for world coverage. Does that make sense to you? Yeah. You know, the reality is, is that this is why, then, you and I are in the New Testament connected back to this. See, this is our story too. This whole spirit that we're talking about becoming involved with and trying to understand the gift of the Holy Spirit. The role as the Holy Spirit has in our lives, the blessing here is in our lives. It can't, his role cannot be understood correctly or appreciated or honored or delighted in or dant through without us understanding how he fits into the whole history of the cosmos of which we're apart. Because once you begin to realize that Holy Spirit living in you is a part of this world of why drama begins to become something we're stamping about. When his presence in your life is, as we'll learn from the New Testament, the assurance that you are a part of the people who will one day reign over the earth establishing the kingdom of God, that you are that person, and all of a sudden it becomes something to be joyous about, and not a person of the Trinity to be ignored any longer. Okay, time for a break, we'll come back and talk about the Holy Spirit in Israel. Are you bored? I can't tell, okay, all right, dude, you just look for it. Yeah, I'm hoping that you'll start writing down some questions or some issues or anything you want to talk about Holy Ghost that we can talk about, okay, I don't care if it's tongues or whatever, I don't care, we can talk about it. I'm not trying to talk about those specific issues at this moment, let's be right them down and start turning them in, and we'll be able to do that together, okay. So I'm not going to give you a chance, even if you didn't write this down. The harder questions you should write down, I may ask you, if you ask me a really hard one, I may ask you to write it down, okay, and I'll lay up your legs and think. But at this point, there's anything that I should trouble you or confuse you or make you feel like I'm not on target, or this is what in the world just got to do with life anyway, kind of pressing, so what do you think? This is just an old way of translating the word, that is spirit, once you want to do something to do, sometimes I call them ghosts, sometimes I call them spirits, you know, because the ghosts to see you Hollywood, the spirit to see you Hollywood, that's all, yeah, just think it's an old enough word to see it, that's right, that's very true, extremely true, and I remember it, like you said, when you started over with Jesus again, remember where he started with Jesus, where did he start? You know, where did he start, rather, you didn't even, okay, once again, you know, it's really fascinating to realize that's the case, and when Jesus returns, he's not going to be coming to New York City, and the sentence is very easy, that's right, now he's in there, okay, it's back to Eden again, and from there the world will be remade, okay, it's a thing, and you know, I'm saying sometimes we're just so disconnected from all of that story, that whole history of what Holy Spirit has done, and who's that, what the King of God is, at least just sort of floating this, never, never, never land, it's just Jesus' name, you know, that's, you know, never, never land, there is no such thing as a never, never land, and it sort of begins to feel that right from time, because it's just, there's just the kind of the face I'm making eyes, as I go along, it's sort of personal, but reaching the Jesus, floating in the crowd somehow, it's the same card enough that way I believe it, but this is real history, you're involved in that real thing, you can look at the world and see it how the world is true, it happens, and it's happening right before our eyes, yeah, yes or sorry, yeah, well, yeah, I mean, that's that reason, as well, I don't know, say otherwise, it's been very traditional to say that all three persons of eternity are found in Genesis 1, okay, often the way they people do that is they'll say that God, the Father, it's been God's word, I'm not sure that's really all they get is true, and nevertheless is what they say, then you have God speaking the word, his open word is the word that John's talking about, okay, and then you have the Holy Spirit as well, the one that John focuses on is Jesus, the second person changes, the wisdom of John, the logo of the word, and yeah, I think that these are the various ways of saying the same thing, just focusing on different persons of the Trinity in a different way, all involved, all right, or frustrated by all three, how did Israel view the Holy Spirit? I think in the Old Testament, I think a lot like what we're talking about right now, okay, we haven't finished with them, but this is the background of what they believe, they understood, I'm afraid that sometimes in those we just, we don't get it, we don't get what's happening in us because we don't get, because we don't have this background, they have this background without the future, there's some of things, so like they have the background, the sort of anticipation of things to come, they didn't have the things to come, we've got the things to come without the background, I don't know which is worth to tell you, it's true, but it's just the fact that if I stand here and tell you you're the temple of the Holy Spirit, you're going to go, on there, that I've heard that for, next, I mean, when was the last time you just went, when was the last time you got, when somebody said you're the temple of the Holy Spirit,
like whatever, you're the temple of the Holy Spirit, you've got nice haircuts, you know, whatever,
right, and then my line, okay, and one of the reasons for that is because we don't have this background, you say, simple, we go, whatever, say, Holy Spirit, we say, whatever, and that's because we don't understand the cause and the significance of being a temple of the Holy Spirit, which is where we're moving at this point, so to get that, you've got to understand this is the importance of Utah being and why Holy Spirit was there and what was going on when Holy Spirit was there, how it was having not just on a couple of people who were going to die anyway, but on the universe, now you're a part of that too, you start to gasp at the idea of what it means, what happened in the temple back then, it's happening inside of me, and then it's happening with us, gasping is a good thing to be able to do by the way, and when it comes to Bible truth, occasionally you shouldn't do it every day, but you see the, at some point, I should also learn that it's put, I can't put, I can't put the camp there, okay, you take another step and all of it, basically what we said is that in the beginning God established this big program and began the program of bringing the kingdom of God to the earth as it is he's having, and it started off by dealing with the primeval chaos that was covering the world and it was the spirit that was going to do this, but the spirit was also going to do this through human beings and their activities as well, and he called, came into the world, God decided to do this in a very special way of choosing a particular people to become the instrument by which he would then bring about this sort of redemption of the whole universe, the reordering of the world into the way that he thought was very good, and it's a lot of things to see to discuss the case, that's what the patriarchs are all about, is that God made certain promises to them, that don't just sit into the life of a few Israelites back then, but actually are part of a bigger program, that the whole world would, when they'd be filled up with the image of God, and that the spirit of God would cover the earth as the waters cover the decent, that the whole world would become this great temple of God, and you know that in the days of Moses, for example, who's the next big figure of course, that big things happen and that the people of God began to experience the nearness of God in their lives in a very special way, and that is their brought to this evening land, and their brought to this promised land, where they are going to begin to be fruitful and multi-time, and still the earth, and from there they're going to reach out to other nations. You see it was always the plan that Israel would not be redeemed just for herself, but that she would be redeemed in order to redeem all people, and that of course is the goal of the New Testament as well, and it was, it was Moses that you get one of the very first times that this great thing happens called the Tabernacle, which of course later on leads, as to the days of David, the days of Solomon, to an even greater expression to this sort of permanent Tabernacle or the temple,
and if we were to say that there is one thing that's true about the Tabernacle slash temple, it is that God decided that he would concentrate his spirit presence there. This is where the spirit of God welled in a very special way. I know it's sort of strange in our ears to hear that God is present in different places in different ways, but I think that's what the Bible says, that the Bible says that yes there's a sense from which God is everywhere. He's omnipresent, and that's really good, and that's really true, you can't get away from him no matter where you go, but there are these places in the world, not these places, based on time, where God concentrates his attention. There are many analogies that can be used for that, but as you can think of it in terms of some kind of energy force, as they're sort of nuclear reactor, the core of the nuclear reactor would be in a particular place, and from there it would radiate you to all the world, but at the core is where the real power is, there are effects everywhere, but at the core is where the significant power is, the life transforming power, and that's what the tabernacle, last temple was, it's like the core of the reactor of God's presence, because it was at that place where the people could find redemption for their sins, it was at that place where you found the throne of God where you could approach worship, it was at that place where, as Solomon says, in 1st Kings chapter 8 no matter what kind of trouble you were in, no matter how hard things were, you could always look toward the temple and pray toward the temple and ask God to help, and he would send his power to you to rescue you. You see, the temple becomes, as it were, the core of the ordering, redemptive power of the spirit in the Old Testament. People had the Holy Ghost, living with them and going with them when they were traveling and things like that, but the significance of seeing the really powerful presence of God was at that place called the temple, and of course, that meant that the city of Jerusalem became very important to them, yes, because this is the seat of God. This is where he's here as a cousin to his in a remarkable way, and so the temple of the Old Testament becomes, as it were, the house of the spirit of God. It's where his work takes place, it's where he can be experienced and very dramatically. Now, I think you all know that the difference in human relationships when you experience the presence of someone else, I just talked to my mother on the phone just seconds ago, and it's very long distance, okay, and I experienced her presence. I mean, she was here with me in a very real way, and I was there with her in a very real way, talking to the nurse, you know, we have three ways to conversation, that kind of stuff. So, it was a very real presence that we had there, but there's a lot of difference between that presence, and the presence that my mother and I had when I was first born, or when I was a nursing child with her, or when I was held in her arms and I was sick. Very different experience for that, because there's a lot of the same kind of variation in the presence of each other, and the power that the presence of another person has. If you're, if you're very long distance and you're writing letters to each other, well, you know, as you may, I'll go letter you, I'm with you in spirit, you say, you know, things like that, and send it off. And there's a real sense of which you can't say that, well, that's a story, that's just imagination. No, there's a genuine effect that you're having on each other, even at long distance, but that's very different from the times of intimacy between the husband and wife. When they are so close that they become one as it were, when they're so close that they're just having this kind of interlacing of each other, and that's where their real formativeness comes, that's where the powerful and influence from one to the other is. That's much the way it is with the temple. The temple is a place where God is present in such a way that everything around Him has to be kept separate from everything else. Now, whereas this is, this is the very sensual place. You don't just walk in and just hang loose from the temple. So you have to go through rituals, you can get in. And when you get in, it's a very fearful and frightening thing because you're at the core of the nuclear reactor. And this is where if you're not right with Him, you get melted. If you're right with Him though, you get such unbelievable blessings that it's just indescribable. And so the closer you get to that core, the more you have the potential of the great curse, the great blessing, and the further you move away, the less you have potential for cursing blessing, which is why the 42nd Psalm, you know this, as the deer pants. So the living wife said, my soul pants after you, long after you, what's the longing for it? I know you know the song. You know, I know how it's going to be. But what's the, what's he talking about in the song? Going where? Somebody said the temple. The temple, that's right. If you read on in the song, he says, I remember when I used to go to the temple, but now I'm stuck up here in the north and I can't get there, and I long to be there. Why do things long to be there? It's how that was supposed to, only place you to hold for that kind of transforming power to a place that's the temple. And it's a transforming power that's not just for individuals to have certain kinds of blessings in their lives and things like that. So rather, it's a transforming power that is designed to bring about and to accomplish this great goal of creating the world as a place to God's kingdom. It was a place for power when you were in battle. There's a place for power when you're dealing with enemies, you're dealing with sickness, you're dealing with trials, the whole thing, the temple, the tapernacle, it's the centerpiece of the presence of the Holy Spirit among the people at times. I don't think that we get it. And I think one of the reasons we don't get this kind of way of looking at the Holy Spirit is because we have been sort of doped into thinking that it's better to tell people that God is always with them, that it is to remind them that he is sometimes with them more dramatically than he is at other times. Let me repeat that. Let me repeat that. We get doped into thinking that it's good to tell people God is always with you, rather than telling them that God is sometimes with them more dramatically than he is at other times. This is the lesson of the temple and it's going to be the lesson for you as a Holy Ghost temple too by the way, just a few minutes, but the lesson we've got to get at this point. Israel understood that God would be with them wherever they went. That wasn't a new, that's not a new testament idea, that's true of the whole Bible. God's with them in this traveling, God's with them when they're in the boat, God's with them when they're in the north, but they also knew that that wasn't as dramatic as it would be at the temple. It wasn't as life transforming, as responsive, as formative, as life changing, as cosmic, didn't connect them to the redemption of the world the way that they would want to be. That could only happen at the place of the temple. So they understood the difference between being close to God in that sense and far from God in that sense. But sometimes Christians fail to realize that that is our experience too, nearness and be far away. And the reason that we don't do that is because I think sometimes we just go overboard in talking about, you know, Jesus will be with you wherever you go. That's true, but that was true also in the Old Testament. That's why I'm trying to get trusted here. But still there's this extra thing that happens. There's this extra dramatic thing that happens at a place called the temple. Let's put it in human terms. You are together right now. You're together right now. You're in the same room. Some of you are actually touching and getting blinded at it. So it's very sweet, very nice to get together. Now I hate to say this to you, but I'm going to say it since there's a room full of adult here. If this is as close as you ever get, it's a pretty sad relationship.
Does that make sense? Does that communicate with you? Do I need to be more explicit? I hope not. Okay. Okay. Now the point is, the point the thing that is is that if you're satisfied with what you've got in this room, or as you're driving down the road, or as you're stopping at the mall, or as you're taking the kids off the stool or something like that, or as you're talking on the telephone. You're present. Yes. You're with each other. Yes. But if that is the height of your intimacy and your life transforming each other, then you're missing something really deep. And let me tell you what happens to Christians that talk about God being wisdom all the time, the Holy Spirit being with me all the time. And that's constantly what they talk about. It's not that their whole life's experience is listed up to this heightened experience of God. That's not what happened. Oh, is that what happened? That would be great. Instead, what happens is their experience of God gets lowered down to the mundane. It's for the like people who do this who say, I don't need to get it. Church, I worship God every day. Well, that doesn't mean that they're having great dramatic experiences of worship every day, like you would have in church. That's not what it means, but it means that every day they worship this flower, because they never have the bump up. You see, some days not important to me, because there's not a bump up. It's not more intimate, more powerful. And that is the lesson I'm talking about here. Until you are aware of the fact that there's a difference between being in the temple and being and not being in the temple, you can't really grasp the importance of the Holy Spirit in your life today. And in the fact that you are the Holy Spirit temple, and that this church is the Holy Spirit temple. And this is where he's asked us and involved. I can easily record. I can easily record. So it's important for us to say and to tell each other that the Holy Spirit is well, and that he never forsakes us. But it's also important to say to each other, that there are different ways or different degrees of experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit in life. And that just like Israel had this temple, as the center of their focus of the Holy Spirit's power in their life, we need to do that as well. See, you're on this date with the Holy Spirit. And what he's saying to you is this. He says, you know, one of the biggest problems I have is that I kind of go everywhere. And often when people talk about me being everywhere, traveling around doing this, doing that, with them wherever they go, they sort of get used to the mundane. They get used to not being very close to me. And experience these all that I have for them, because they don't remember that. I'm also present in a very special way at my temple, at the Holy place, the place that separated from everything else. I'm very special in present there. And that I can hear them so much to make them experience so much more of me, if they'll just go there. If what he would have said to an Israelite, and we'll see in a few minutes, is what he will say to us too right now. Does that make sense to you?
Now, you know, something, I wonder, the sort of missing links in the Bible, and I often wonder why this is such a missing link in our understanding of the Bible, but it is, that the people are just unaware of, is something bad happens to the people of Israel after the time of David. David's descendants are on the throne. It's supposed to be a great time, but it isn't because of him, he's continuing in the lives of God's people. Something really bad happens, and it's sort of a huge hiatus in the Bible. It's a time when the people of God experience a great deal of absence as God, or even the curse of God. If anybody know what time this is, what's the period of time this is, what do we call it, certain ease. And for hanging? Okay, just for hanging.
Yeah, okay, so who wants to take the first letter? E, that's right, good job. X, I, L, that's right, it's the X time. One of the things that God told Israel was that when they got to the land, it was going to be just like it was an easy to begin with. And that is, if you're faithful to me, it'll be great. And from there, you will spread out throughout the whole world. But if I take you back to Eden, and I re-establish you like I did at him in the beginning, and you rebelling against me like they did, guess what's going to happen? You're out of here, just like in the beginning. And the fact is that they did so flagrantly and horribly rebelling against God that he threw them out. The northern tribes, remember, he exiled off to Assyria, and the southern side, he basically exiled off to Babylon. And this one on, he knows for, well, he turns to the north for a couple of hundred years, and then for the south, nearly a hundred years too, that these people were exiled from the land. And they were kicked out and booted out. And one of the things that happens here, in the picture of all this, in the prophet. And I know this is, again, the sort of the black hole of the Bible. So you'll remember the story of Ezekiel, remember the story of Ezekiel and how he had all kinds of different visions and things. One of the visions he had was the vision of the glory crowd of God, which is the spirit of God, rising up out of the temple, Ezekiel and he's going off into the desert, toward the end. And that picture of his vision of the spirit rising out of the temple and going off was a picture of what? What was happening? What was that symbol of God's presence is gone. The nuclear core, the core of the reactor, is gone. Now that didn't mean that God didn't care about his people, or that somehow God was not omnipresent anymore. Okay? What it meant was that for this time, he has taken his special presence out of the temple, and there's no place for them to go to get that kind of experience of him anymore. It's a kind of action. It's one of the odd, weird times, you know, experience with the people of God when he dramatically deserted them, because of their rebellions against the years and years and generations and generations. And the lovely thing about it is, is that Ezekiel had another vision and it was the vision of what would happen in the future. And the vision, of course, was just as the glory crowd went up and went out to the east, something would happen in the future. And what was that? Imagine? The river, the clouds would come back. That the presence would come back to this place. And so there was a time when the people of God came back to the land, around 539 BC, this is the X-row, around 539 BC, and they came back, and one of the very first things that they were told to do, when they came back, this was the prophet Haggai and the prophet Zechariah. One of the very first things they were told to do, can you imagine what it was? It wasn't to build walls around the city. It wasn't to get an army. It wasn't to establish the economy. Nothing like that. What these flows it was, it was one of the first things that were supposed to do, rebuild the temple. Why would you want to rebuild the temple? I mean, wouldn't it be much more important to establish international trade? You know, it makes a travel route safe, and that'd be more important to get the bandits off the street? No. Why? Because the only hope that Israel would fulfill her role in history of bringing about the kingdom of God, the redemption of the entire universe, was that they would have the core of the nuclear reactive. Present lessons again. Holy Ghost, how are they there in the kingdom? And as you know, the story, they started to rebuild the temple. Yes, and this is found in the book of Ezra, chapter 1. It started to rebuild, but everybody turned and looked at it and went, well, nothing's really happening here. It's not that we could deal. Let's stop. It's where they stop. And they started building their own houses, you see. And this was that famous stewardship Sunday, chapter, had guys after one, every stewardship year. You know, they're always putting that burst of, you live in a house, there's a lot of houses, God lives in ruins, okay? And what had guys telling them is, is that you're ignoring the temple of God. You're building your own houses, and you're ignoring the temple of God. And again, you see, it's only reasonable. If you and I were to face a great crisis, let's say YPK actually had happened. You should have known it wasn't, but let's say it did happen, okay? Oh, it's really fair. Or let's suppose it had happened. It's like major chaos, I believe. What would do the first thing that would come to our mind? What was the first thing that came to most middle class and upper middle class Christian minds? There was to secure what? Your family and your home. You go out and get food, you go buy guns, you buy generators, you get a villa out there with a nice green pool, so that has plenty of drinking water, things like that, okay? I mean, what I'm going to take care of is my own abode. And I see no ministers, ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ who did this, and ignored the temples of God. Made no preparations for the temple of God and all. What do I mean by that? It's true. They're actually planning on resorting their parishioners in the cities and going out to their devils out in the countryside. That's sort of struck me with awe, frankly. I never bought into the YPK thing, so I sort of laugh at the whole thing. I'm happy to say that there are some prophets who are looking for a maid that have some truth before I die, okay? That's one of them. They're not going to happen. I'm afraid that that would work. But anyway, I know ministers who were actually saying, well, it's up to them. If my church members don't get out, I can't help them. That was not, by the way, what ministers did during, by and large, during the black slaves of Europe. What they did was the ministers were the ones who stayed in there and worked with the people in the city, but fascinating. And we had just the opposite of them. You see, ignoring the very source of hope, thinking that our hope lies in and done or two, which is going to hold off the horde for rioting people coming up in the city with a pistol, and making sure you're secure, rather than making sure the temple of God's victory. I don't know of a single church that met on January, December 31st at midnight to make sure that it's at all birthlies today were together in the temple of God. I don't know of a single one. I'm sure there were, but I don't know of a single one. But I do know where it is, but a lot of our church is canceled few years ago. I don't know if you were to deny, but a lot of our churches did. And the reason it is, because they wanted people to be at home, regimented in the temple of God, so they're kind of strange. That's how nonsensical it was when they had an impact on God today. He constantly said, I'm building this.