Without him was nothing made that was made, even the day. This is a day that the Lord hath made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. That's what he made it for. He didn't make it for you to be miserable. He made it so that you'd rejoice and be glad in it. We don't think about God making days, but you know, he's made some really odd days. And if we get time today, we'll get into some days that he changes and makes them quite different than this one. Anyway, And it says, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise thy works to another and shall declare thy mighty acts. You know what praise means? It means to magnify or glorify. Well, if he made all of this stuff for his glory, which you've been hearing over and over and over and the heavens declare the glory of God, and we're supposed to praise him according to his mighty acts, then we're supposed to be glorifying Him to our next generation. You see that? Now, we've heard over and over, some people just don't get it. They don't get it. Do you get it? Well, I don't get it. Well, who gets it? Well, what is it? It has something to do with understanding the glory of God. Oh, yeah, I know, I kind of get that much of it. Well, let me give you a little test and see if you get it, okay? This is a test to see if you get the glory of God, and you'll know whether or not you get it. And you'll know how much you get it without even me telling you. I don't have to give the answer. You'll get the answer yourself. Last week, I asked Brother Mark to do me a favor. True story. Asked him to go over to a bookstore and get me a catalog. I'm looking for one of these little computer Bibles again. And I wanted to see what they had over there and the prices they had and the models they had. And I said, would you mind doing that? And he said, no, I'll do that. So he went and got it for me. Brought it back, sent me an email, hey, I got your catalog. He brought it to me this morning. That's not much of a story, is it? But it's gonna help you understand the glory of God and how you respond to it and how much you understand about it. So how can a little story like that work like that? Well, were you thinking when I said something like that about him going to get me that catalog that maybe you could get him to help you? If you were thinking like that, you're thinking about yourself. How can I benefit? Now, if you're thinking, why'd he do that for you? That's because you can't stand me and you hate anything good that happens to me. I've told you before, if you wanna know who your enemies are, boy, all you gotta do is wait till something really good happens to you and then you spring it on them. You watch their face. And if that face goes into this state of confusion even for a second, you know they don't care nothing about you and they're jealous, boy. Oh, that's real nice. Oh, I'm really happy for you. Yeah, right. Anyway, what else? If you've thought about some of the things that he's done for you in the past when I tell you that, then you're still all about yourself. You're thinking about how he's benefited you. Last of all, if you think, Brother Mark, he's a good man. He's a good preacher. He helps a lot of people out. Now, if that's what you were thinking, then you're starting to get it, a little bit, if you understand it in relationship to God. Why? Now listen real close. If I brag on somebody that you love, your attention is focused on them and not what they did. Do you hear me? If I'm bragging on somebody you love, your attention is focused on the person, not on the action. If your attention's focused on the action, With regards to God, you're just like the rest of the Laodicean church that's focused on what we do and what He did, and it's not about Him. That's a fact. So when you start to see some of these things, And you hear this story of Bommie the Bombardier Beetle, and you're fascinated by the chemical plant, and you're fascinated by how he can shoot that thing like a machine gun and blow away big spiders, you know, and not burn himself up with that asbestos line chamber, and how he's making these crazy chemicals out of the same food that all the other bugs eat, but they can't do it, and all this other stuff. You hear about this giraffe and how God designed him, would just let the earth bring forth in abundance the living creature. If when you hear that, you say, what a creator, my, what a creator, then you're getting it. If your attention is on the beetle or the giraffe, then you don't care anything about the artist. You're impressed by the artwork. And that's how you can tell where you're at in relationship to the glory of God. And when you see that kind of stuff up there, if that doesn't draw your attention to God, you don't get it at all. If you hear this kind of stuff and your attention's not on the one, look, the one that made this stuff. Did you know that giraffe is simple compared to me? He is. You know, one of the major differences between him and me, I've got a living soul, and it's so valuable that God let his son die for it. And there's a bunch of people that never take advantage of that, and they won't take advantage of it, and they're gonna wish one day they did. But that is special stuff that God makes. Now you can go ahead and waste his time if you want, but I don't want to. I'd like him to feel like I was worth making. How do you do that? You try to do something in return. When he's in the foremost parts of your thought, and I got a whole long list, but one of the first things you do is you wanna pay him back somehow. Brother Mark does something for me, I wanna find some way to do something back for him. I'm like that with anybody. Somebody does something for me, I wanna try to at least do something back for them. I don't care how little it is, I'd like to try to do something. Don't you wanna do anything back for God? And it's not duty, it's desire. I think one day the Lord's gonna look at that woman that poured that ointment on his feet and then dried them with her hair, and he's gonna say, here's your reward, and she's gonna say, well, I don't deserve anything. I talked to a preacher this week about the glory of God. He said, how are you gonna do at the judgment seat of Christ? The thought struck me, I hadn't thought about that for two years. Man, I used to think about it all the time. There's five crowns you can win, you know. Soul winner's crown, crown of righteousness, crown of rejoicing, you know, and all this other stuff. I thought, my, how would I feel at the judgment seat of Christ now? Well, the honest truth is, It's he that worketh in me both the will and do of his good pleasure. Without him, I can do nothing. It's the Lord that giveth the increase. When I've done that which was my duty to do, I'm supposed to say I'm an unprofitable servant. I looked at him and I said, how in the world can I take credit for anything? If there's any credit, he gets it. And he gets it because I get it. What do you mean you get it? I understand the glory of God. I understand why he made me and it was not so that he could have some place to send his wealth and his riches. It wasn't because he was bored. He did it for himself because his glory is that important. Anyway, let's move along into our lesson, and we started talking about the millennium last week and what it's gonna be like. So what's life actually gonna be like? Look over in Isaiah 51 again real quick. Isaiah 51, Isaiah 51, three to five, it says, For the Lord shall comfort Zion, he will comfort all her waste places, and he will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the gardens of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving in the voice of melody. Hearken unto me, my people, and give ear unto me, O my nation, for the law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for the light of the people. My righteousness is near, my salvation is gone forth. Mine arms shall judge the people, the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arms shall they trust. He says, there's gonna be certain things that take place, and one of them he starts out with talking about the Garden of the Lord and the Garden of Eden. Like I said last week, I don't know if those things are two separate things or not, but why would he say it back to back like that if they weren't two separate things? So I have a tendency to think that the Garden of Eden and the Garden of the Lord are two separate places. You say, how is that? Well, part of it could be the stuff for man, and what if he decides he wants his own garden? How many of you ever been over there to Bellingrath? You ever been over there? The guy made his money off of Coca-Cola. So you go over there and you see Bellingrath Garden and he's got this Chinese garden and he's got this rose garden over here and he's got all these other kind of gardens. Where do you think he gets the idea to have a great garden for himself? Remember I've told you there's nothing new under the sun. Every desire you've ever had, every thought you've ever had was originated and designed by somebody else. Who was it? It was your creator. So when he says the garden of the Lord, I got a feeling that he's gonna set himself up some gardens over there that are gonna knock your eyes out. I mean, it's gonna be absolutely unbelievable. Garden to Eden was something else, but when he makes a garden for himself, it could be something else entirely. Anyway, moving along here, he says you got the garden of the Lord. Now, water starts to play a major role in the millennium. Where do you get that? Well, let's start over in Isaiah, Isaiah 30. Isaiah chapter 30, Isaiah 30, 23, 24. It says, then shall he give the rain upon thy seed, and thou shalt sow the ground withal, and the bread of thine increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous in the day, shall thy cattle feed in large pastures. "'The oxen likewise and the young asses "'that ear the ground shall eat clean provender "'which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan. "'There shall be upon every high mountain, "'upon every high hill rivers and streams of water "'in the day of the great slaughter when the towers fall.'" Anyway, what's he saying there? He's saying the first thing that he's gonna do is he's gonna start bringing rain. How many of you ever tried to grow grass or grow a garden or anything else, and you fertilize it, you do everything else you can to it, and then here comes one rain and everything gets green? You ever wonder why rain makes it green and the water of that hose doesn't make it green? It has something to do with nitrogen. And there's nitrogen that's created, especially in thunderstorms, that nitrogen's created and added to that rain. He doesn't just send water, he sends the stuff that needs to make it grow with it. He talks about the treasures in the snow. I mean, do you realize how much stuff would be growing on a mountain if there wasn't snow? You ever try pouring water on top of a roof and see how much of it stays up there? That's the way it works in a mountain. If it wasn't for that snow, the water would just run off. So the snow is up there and it melts slow and it keeps soaking into the ground. Makes a huge difference. So water is a major role in this thing. Now, on over into Zachariah. You say, Zachariah, where's that at? Oh, it's in the Bible. It's over there near the book of Hezekiah. And the reason some of you aren't laughing is because you don't know if the book of Hezekiah is in this Bible or not. It's in here, not Hezekiah, not the book, the man is. Everybody heard about Hezekiah. You think, oh yeah, that's right, that's one of the Bible names, must be true. Preacher gave a story at one time about there was a certain man, you know, went down to Jerusalem and he fell among the thorns. And he tells this big old long story about how they see Jezebel up there on top of the wall and they said, chunk her down, he chunked her down 70 times, seven, and the fragments that remained were 12 baskets full, including men, women, and children. He said he told that in one church and one old boy sitting there said, amen. Amen, my goodness, man, if that's the extent of your Bible knowledge, boy, your future is in great jeopardy, let me tell you the truth. Anyway, so moving along here, now this particular chapter, Zechariah 14, the last one in the book, it deals with exclusively the entire period of time of the millennium. Look at the first four verses. Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and the spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished. And half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations as when He fought in the day of the battle. "'And his feet shall stand in that day "'upon the Mount of Olives, "'which is before Jerusalem on the east. "'And the Mount of Olives shall cleave "'in the midst thereof toward the east "'and toward the west. "'And there shall be a very great valley, "'and half of the mountain shall be moved "'toward the north and half toward the south.'" That sounds like some kind of earthquake, don't it? I mean, they talk about the San Andreas Fault out there, and they talk about the earthquake at Sylmar. I mean, I remember that Sylmar earthquake. I was living in California, 30 years out there. My wife was off at work at the airlines, and I'm laying there in bed, and all of a sudden, blam, blam, blam, blam. What's going on? Oh, earthquake, oh, neat. You're supposed to be afraid of earthquakes. I never was. They always just entertained me. That old bed just banging against the wall wakes me up. I says, oh, cool, man. I remember hearing stories where you stand out there above those lemon groves and those orange groves they used to have out there by the millions and watch the waves because those old trees would go up like this and then back down just like a wave of water with a bunch of styrofoam beads on top of it. Man, you can just see the thing moving across there. Here's another wave and here's another wave. That's something else. San Francisco was the second most costly disaster up until Katrina. First one was Andrew and then that San Francisco earthquake during the ball game. We were watching the ball game and when it started, everything started going nuts. Oh, we got an earthquake going on over there. How do you know? Well, the camera could be shaking, right? Like they do in the movies. That ain't the real deal. You can tell it's a real deal when the people start doing, boy, they all start looking around like this. When they start looking around like that, you know something's going on. You ain't seen nothing yet. He says in the last days there'll be earthquakes in diverse places. That's places not normally seen. Anyway, so what happens up here on this Mount of Olives when the Lord comes back? He comes back and he puts his foot down on the Mount of Olives. Guess where he left from? Mount of Olives. He says this same Jesus shall return in like manner as you see him go. Like manner, does that mean to the same place? Says so. He's just like Manor. You mean he's gonna come down like that? No, he's coming back in a different way, but when he puts his foot on this mountain, that thing splits, and it splits east to west, and that thing moves north to south and opens up this big chasm. When I got saved, there was a tract that I had that told about the Mount of Olives and a fault line that runs from the Mount of Olives to the Dead Sea. They were over there doing exploration for oil, and they found a bunch of oil in that area. Now, you know what it's like over there. Them guys want some oil. You know they're not drilling there? You know why? Because they said that that thing is under such stress that it could break open at any time and destroy everything they invest in it. God's not taken by surprise. You know that Valley of Megiddo? He says he's gonna call the birds of the air, right? When this battle takes place. So what are you talking about? I never heard of this stuff. Well, you've been spending too much time playing video games. You've been playing with stuff that don't matter, and you've been avoiding the stuff that's really important, that's really interesting, and it's really fascinating. In that valley of Megiddo over there, there's this big old valley, and he says when he comes back, that's where the battle of Armageddon takes place. And the blood will flow to the horse's bridles, and when he gets done, nobody's gonna clean that mess up. He's gonna call the birds of the air down here and eat the carcasses. The vulture was extinct in that area for hundreds of years. And back about 20, 30 years ago, they began to inhabit the caves along the sides of that valley. And they said, they're different vulture species than anything else on the earth. All the rest of the vultures lay one egg at a time. These are laying three and four. That's been going on for the last 30 years at least. You don't think you're living in the last days? We're right on the dropping off place and I hope you don't drop off. I hope it's the taken up place. Well, there's a whole lot more in this book, and we don't have time to get into it this morning, but one thing you really need to understand is the one that made you has more genius than you can comprehend. The one that made you has a greater purpose than you can imagine, and he did not make you to be a self-serving entity. He made you for His pleasure. It says, for thou art worthy to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are, present tense, and were created. This thing is past and present. Everything He ever made, He made with a specific purpose, and it was Himself. And as long as you're self-serving, it's just like having an employee that comes to work, and the only reason he comes to work is all he can get out of you. Everything he can steal, everything he can carry off, he tries to leverage everything to his benefit, and that's not the kind of person you want around you. And God says, me neither. Listen, I want those subjects down there to perform the manner I designed them to perform. How is that? That thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. That's what he desires. He wants your affection. Let's close in prayer.