Introduction: Will of God

This little target that you see here on your handout, you may recall seeing it from the introductory verses in Ephesians. We've referred to it a few times. So we'll kind of use it as a pictorial outline, if you will, over this quarter. Because there are some key areas of God's will that we want to come to an understanding upon. This I think will be a helpful tool in our getting there.

But you see there are three areas of God's will. Now the first and outside circle there talks about God's sovereign will. And we define that as it's fixed and irreversible and includes our position in Him. Thinking about God's sovereign will, What sort of things, I mentioned position, but what sort of things are included in God's sovereign will?

Okay, but that's about who He is, right? Okay. Certainly God's sovereign will is going to be founded upon who He is. Pardon? That's not something we have a lot of control of, isn't it? That's something... We can report on it and we might be able to get some inkling of what it might do. Although if you've lived in Colorado, or we used to live in Carson City, Nevada, surprises are also possible. So the weather, but what else can we think of as God's sovereign will?

He is the eternal king. Okay, he's the eternal king. He's the ruler over everything. What does that mean then? There are things that He has absolutely determined from start to finish. What are some of those things? He has fixed and irreversible that those who are saved have eternal life. Don't flip-flop out of that. That's another point. What else has He determined?

Ah! Okay. God has made some promises and he's not saying, gee, I'd sure like to do this, we'll see how it works out. Okay? He's not saying, boy, it'd sure be nice if this happens and it's my best guess, but we'll see. He's not saying that, is he? What are those covenants? Okay.

Christ and God and their agreement that Jesus would come to earth and die on the cross and all of those associated with that death. That's the eternal covenant referenced in Hebrews. It's interesting, we tend to look at things historically from a human perspective, don't we? We say Christ came about 2,000 years ago and this happened But you look at Revelation and it says Christ was slain from before the foundation of the world.

Wow! And that's part of this eternal covenant. That's what it's referring to. Historically, it didn't take place until a couple thousand years ago. But as far as God is concerned, it's a done deal. Already way back, before anything was made, and before the need of it was evident to human beings, it was fixed in place. That's something that God set into place.

How about things that are yet to happen that the Bible talks about? What are some things yet to happen that the Bible says will take place? The church will be raptured. That's going to happen. It's not God there in heaven crossing his fingers and saying, boy, I sure hope I can pull it off. It is a fixed and certain thing. Isn't it? What else? The tribulation is a fixed and certain thing. Christ will return to earth and rule. These are fixed and certain things that are part of God's sovereign will. They are going to take place. Now, is this earth in the millennium? Is that the last picture we have? Is that the last phase? What do we have coming next? New heaven and new earth.

So all these are fixed and irreversible events that will take place. They're going to happen. That's simply the way it is. So there is an aspect of everything that is certain, that is fixed in the past, that is fixed now, is fixed in the future, always will be.

God's not pacing the floor of heaven. wringing his hands and saying, boy, I wonder how this is going to turn out. Okay? That's not how God sees it. These are things that he has set in place from eternity past. They will happen. Now, having said that, is there possibly a problem with this view? this understanding of things. From God's point of view? God doesn't see a problem. No. God doesn't see a problem. Alright. From a human standpoint, is there possibly a problem with this God is sovereign viewpoint?

Have you ever heard of someone say, well, why pray? God's going to do what He's going to do. Have you ever heard, maybe you've heard it, I've heard it, somebody say, well, you know, there's no sense in my believing. If God wants me to believe, He'll make me believe. And if He doesn't, I'm just going to be a crispy critter forever. And that's it. Have you ever heard somebody say that? Yeah, yeah. It's interesting, while we teach God's sovereignty, it is possible for people to have a fatalistic viewpoint that makes them complacent, that makes them almost despairing. Because after all, God's going to do what he's going to do. I've got no choice in the matter. There's no sense in praying. There's no sense in my believing. God's going to do whatever He's going to do. I've got no part in this thing. I have no individual or self-determination in this. I throw my hands up.

Have you heard that? Think about what's the outcome from that? What's the consequence when you've seen and heard that in people's lives? Well people, God did give us a volition. We have to make a choice. Ah, okay. And if you don't make the correct choice, then you will be the crispy critter. Okay, alright, yeah.

What can possibly go wrong is that, you see we've got these circles? And the blue outer circle is the one that's God's sovereign will. These things will take place. It is possible that people take what is a truth and make the whole circle filled with that. And I think what Bob is pointing at here is the blue is not the whole circle. God has a sovereign will.

There's nothing that you and I are going to do that is going to prevent the rapture. There's nothing that you and I are going to do that is going to make God say, well, I guess there's no tribulation. There's nothing you and I can do that's going to say, well, I guess the Lord doesn't have to come and reign on earth after all. We're not going to make those kinds of choices. Even our position in Christ, our position as believers, is not something that we're going to say, you know, I don't like that position. I think I'll take another. We're not going to do that, are we?

So it's key to, on the one hand, remember we do have those things that are in this blue part of the circle, things that God has indeed fixed. It is an error biblically and it's an error personally for a person to say the whole circle is that. That's a mistake because then we get people being complacent, people almost despairing. I've seen people go into massive depressions thinking that I've got no choice in anything God's just controlling the whole thing as if the universe were just some large machine and God's just pushing buttons and pulling levers. So, we could have an extreme here that takes a truth too far, couldn't we? And the consequence being that people don't make choices that they ought to be making. That where scripture does in fact call upon believers to pray and encourages that at every turn. People could despair and say, what's the use?

So we have to be careful that we don't take the truth too far. Let's go to the other side of that. The one error is that the whole circle is blue. The other extreme is that we don't acknowledge God's sovereignty in things. The other extreme is that none of this is blue, if you will. God's not in charge. God has no control. God's not interested or unable to do anything.

Have any of you ever heard of a book that's titled something like, When Bad Things Happen to Good People? You ever heard of that one? I don't recommend it. It's written by a rabbi who basically says, you know, God feels real badly when bad things happen to good people. He just can't do anything about it.

That's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible does indeed call us to pray. The Bible does indeed call us to believe, to trust Him, to act based on faith in the facts. So scripture does call us as Bob used the term, to use the volition that God gave us. So as we look at these circles, and the circles may appear, well, that's pretty simple, the reality is making that blue too big or too small, either one is an error, isn't it? That's one of the reasons that we have scripture, is to give us the facts, revealing to us facts we could not know on our own, right? And it gives us the balance.

Scripture, in fact, tells us what God has, in His sovereignty, decreed is fixed and irreversible. We know, I mean this is an amazing thing, we know what God determined and has determined will be. He has told us the big picture of what's happening on planet Earth. He has told us the things that He has done through His Son and will do through His Son. He has told us our position in Christ. And we'll go into that in outline, because we would take the rest of the quarter and still not get there if we tried to do it all.

We will go through that in outline, because we want to know what indeed has God fixed? What has God, in His sovereignty, determined will most certainly be. And fortunately, we are not stuck to the extremes of the whole circle is blue, God makes the choices, and I haven't the foggiest idea what He's going to do, but He's going to do it. We're not there, and we're not in a position of controlling God, twisting His arm, or making Him slip back or reverse on something that He has said is going to be. the two errors are making the circle all blue or not blue at all.

I read this introduction, but where do you plan on going with this comment? One of the things that, and it's only part of what God is sovereign, but we want to go through, I would say, a quick outline of your position in Christ. We actually had a an elective on that subject, and we'll probably repeat it before very long. And in running fast, it took us six months to go through it. So we won't do that, but we'll basically look at a kind of a condensed outline of what those things are, because we have other things to look at in more detail in terms of what is fixed and irreversible.

So it won't be in any sense detailed, but it'll give us a sense of, in outline form, what our position in Christ is, because that is a part of what God, in His sovereignty, has determined. Does that answer your question? I realize there's a lot more detail that could be given there. Those who have put their trust in Christ for salvation have a position in Him Probably most believers don't even know most of what that position involves. But that's something we'll want to take a brief look at as we go through this. Let's look at this next circle in here, the green part of the circle.

This is God's moral will. Now, why would God have a moral will? Why does that matter? Why doesn't God just say, well, boys will be boys, boys will be boys, and girls will be girls, and oh well. Well, yeah, you're right about that. But why else? Why does God have a moral will? He outlines in the scriptures how we as believers should grow in His grace. Okay. Alright. Yeah. He's a holy God. It has to do with who God is, doesn't it? As Richard brought up, God's essence. What is God's character? This is basically saying God is a moral God.

It may come as a bit of a shock to us, but all the gods are like the Greeks and the Romans during the New Testament era. Those gods had no moral inclination one way or the other. Isn't that interesting? The gods themselves would frequently lie to each other. And so there was all sorts of lying and murdering and adultery going on amongst the Greek and Roman gods. Their deities had no morality. People who made their living by thievery and conniving of various sorts would actually pray to their gods to do it better.

So here, when Paul brought to these Gentiles this idea, here is a god and this god is a god who is basically, of his character, not just some preference, of his very character, is a moral god, that was new. That was, I mean, you can imagine growing up your whole life and your concept of anything deity is, well, they lie and cheat and steal and, you know, do everything awful too, so why shouldn't I? And then, you know, here comes Paul and he's telling them, no, God is by character a moral God. To them that's just, whoa, this is shocking news. And so, what's going on here?

God has a moral character and He, as He made us originally in the image of God, He had every intent that we reflect that moral character that is His. So God's moral will, what he desires for us in the area of morality, is based on his character, which is moral, unlike the pagan gods.

He is fundamentally of moral character and has always been for eternity, always will be for eternity future. Yes? You can say that something about God's moral will is is immutable. It never changes, like these gods and goddesses that they had. In Greek and Roman times, it seems just like, you know, you'd go to one god and say something or another, and before you know it, the next day you'd go probably to the same god. Their outlook, well, like I said, God's moral will is immutable. It's never changing. It's the same today, tomorrow, and forever. The pagan gods would flip-flop, right?

That's what I mean. They'd change our minds. I mean, well, within the same day, so to speak, a person would go say, well, something to the effect about Well, I need such and such and such a thing. Okay. He wouldn't probably get it. He wouldn't get it right away. But then, say, later on in the day, the person would go back again and ask again, you know. And, well, I mean, like I said, he's just immutable. God's character does not flip-flop and change with whims and moments. Like I said, today, tomorrow, and forever. Right, because He is the same. His character is the same.

Let's look at another aspect of it though, and we'll look at it in more detail. But again, this is introductory. Under Old Testament law, and we're not under that law, but under Old Testament law, don't we see as we look at it, it is substantially a moral law, is it not? This is right, this is wrong. You do this, you don't do that. It wasn't just simply a matter of, you know, go and sacrifice this lamb and make sure you do this offering at such and such a time, but it had personal impact on each and every person in Israel. They were given that law.

We hear a lot about the Ten Commandments and a lot of people kind of take that out of the the context in which it was given. But the intent was, right at the outset, God is a moral God and he looks to that morality to be expressed in your lives. So under the Old Testament law, it was substantially a moral law. And it was given as a moral law because morality is God's character. Now, Christ came, we are now in the church, we're not Israel, we're not a replacement for Israel.

Now that we're in the church, I notice that you folks here, you're here on Sunday morning and some of you may have had bacon over this last week, and you may have had some shellfish, you may have eaten some things that aren't kosher. And I hope you know you're supposed to be getting ready for Passover this next week here. Are you doing that?

See? We're not under that law, are we? Now, are we concerned about morality? And how and why? Okay. There is a moral principle, if you will, that still applies to the church, does it not? We don't say, well, we're not under law, so therefore anything goes, right? No, we're not there. So then the question is, do we just have a different set of laws, or is God operating differently? What's the principle there? Okay, yeah. What's interesting is you go through the New Testament, there are frequent statements of moral issue. Paul, as we'll see later on in Ephesians, remember the city of Ephesus?

They had about 50 gods and goddesses that they worshipped, so far as we have a record. Maybe more, but that's how many we have a record of. Their big one was the temple to Artemis, And that was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. And so they had this temple, and the law was, if you committed a crime, and it could be murder, it could be horrible things, but if you committed a crime, if you could get within a bow shot of the Temple of Artemis, they couldn't do it, they couldn't grab you, prosecute you, anything.

You were free. So guess what? There was a ring around the Temple of Artemis just full of criminals. Full of criminals. And what they do, they basically set up an encampment around the Temple of Artemis because they couldn't be touched. You couldn't capture a criminal there. You couldn't prosecute them if you captured them there. They couldn't be touched. So it just brought all kinds of criminals.

Well, guess what? Some of those criminals became believers. And so that's why Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus, she said, you who are stealing, stop it. I'm paraphrasing, but you get the idea. God has a moral will, and it's under the church. So God didn't just say, okay, you folks do whatever you like. But one of the things that Paul made clear as he wrote is God's moral will in the life of the believers to be carried out by the life of Christ and not our own self-effort. And it is dependence entirely upon His righteousness and not our gaining of it. That's the key difference and we'll look into that further. The Church of Colossae, which I'm sure was a little better when it came to moral issues.

The Church of Colossae, Paul wrote to them, Colossians chapter 3, verse 4. He says, Christ who is your life. Christ who is your life. The Old Testament gave the law of Moses. Paul said of it, and he was an expert on it, Paul said of it, it's a ministry of death, it's a ministry of condemnation, 2 Corinthians 3. To the Galatian church, he said, it is a curse. Now, of Christ's very life to the believer, he says, Christ is your life. So the law revealed God's moral will, but no way to fulfill it. In the New Testament, we see God's moral will just the same.

Paul writing to them, you must not be getting drunk. You must not be stealing. And laying out God's moral will, but these are instead indicators of the life of Christ, rather than a, you better do this and not do that. It is based on the believer's position. That's one of the things that we frequently repeat when we come across passages that talk about, you know, you must do this or must not do that. For the believer, that is always a logical conclusion based on the believer's position, not a moral imperative. You must or must not.

And failure to follow through means guilt because for the believer in Christ, In the church, there is no condemnation of Christ Jesus. None. So be looking at God's moral will. People who despair and say, well, God's just calling everything. God is not causing anyone to sin. God is not the author of that. So the person who wants to take the circle and make it all blue, they've made a serious error. because they've taken God's sovereignty too far and not reckoned with the fact that God has in fact given us a choice to make.

Then finally we've got this yellow part of the circle here. That's the individual will for the believer. Now, have you noticed in anybody else's life some people just almost torturing themselves trying to find God's will. Have you ever seen that or even experienced it yourself? I can see people just going out of their minds trying to figure out God's will. And one of the things you may have noticed, people go through all sorts of strange gyrations trying to figure out God's individual will for their lives. The pattern In the pagan world, during biblical times, they would use various things to try to figure out the will of God, or the gods. They would even sacrifice animals, and they would have priests that would be trained at looking at the entrails, the insides, the guts of the animal, to try to determine what the will of the gods are. It sounds strange to us, It seemed to them the right thing to do. A woman in Texas that was just in a paper this week.

How about that? One that got convicted of, I guess now she's considered being sane. Yes. She said she determined God's will and God speaking to her through the stools of her children. Yeah, isn't that strange? Think of it, I mean to us we're somewhere between laughing and horrified. But to think of it, people have this concept of God's individual will, and that has gotten so messed up. And this is just case in point.

There's one lady I read about, a little bit less tragic. She says that God keeps talking to her, and she keeps showing up at this car lot. And they keep calling the police to chase her off and getting restraining orders and stuff like that. But she just says, no, God keeps talking to her in this car lot. So she keeps going back there and back there and back there and won't leave the place alone. And they're not antagonistic about her or anything, but rather she wasn't there.

But it's again one of these things that people have strange ideas about what the will of God is. I heard of one fellow who would drive in his car and he would ask God questions and depending on what the next traffic light said, that told him God's will. Yes, no, green, red, things like that. People use all sorts of strange things. You heard of people reading the tea leaves. And of course there's all sorts of bizarre tarot cards and everything else. People are interested in trying to find out, however warped and distorted, what's God's will. And that question has caused, at times, very odd and even tragic behaviors. So the question is, does God care about what we do individually? Does it matter? Does it make any difference?

It does. Oh, good. All right. Tell us about this. Well, he was good enough to give us a savior, wasn't he? Okay, all right, all right. He is loved. Okay, these are things in the blue circle, though. Sure. Why are the yellow ones? We're talking the individual will. Yeah. To the council here? Yeah, okay, all right. this yellow part of the circle, the individual will for the believer, what's the concern there? What is God interested in? Well, I think John, what you said, you know something about God.

Even though we have been given, under grace through Jesus Christ, we've been given the right to make good and bad decisions, and God will not normally intervene with our decision, unless our decision puts us outside the sovereign will, and there's instances of that happening.

But as a rule, as long as we're staying within the parameters of God's sovereign will, he allows us to make decisions, but his will is that we make good decisions. And based on our decision-making process, it gets a little complex, because God knows what our decisions are going to be before we make it, obviously. In essence, He has to keep changing His plan for us based on our decisions, even though He knew what we were going to do in the first place, because He didn't change anything, because He knew we were going to make dumb decisions, and in His grace, He keeps helping us along. Amazing, huh? So His will, as we look at it from a humanistic viewpoint, we can't help but say, well, God has to change His will based on our bad decisions, even though from a divine viewpoint, He didn't change anything. Looking at it from our side of it, yes, God wants the best for us, but He's letting us make stupid decisions, and He's in His grace, He's continuing to keep us as His children, and suffering through our dumb decisions with us. We run into some of the same kinds of questions that we've asked before, and that is, God doesn't sit there and determine everything, He does indeed, have us make decisions. We get to make decisions. If a bad decision is made, the biblical answer is not, well, God made it. I just did what God made me do. No. That's not the picture we get from Scripture at all. Not from Genesis to Revelation or anything in between.

God does, however, care what we do. He cares about what we do. It does matter. One of the things we'll be looking at here, however, is a lot of Christians get the idea that God has a sort of a yellow brick road, and I better take the yellow brick road. I better take the right fork on the road. And frequently, people will torture themselves trying to make sure at this fork on the road I gotta make the right decision. And then people starting with that viewpoint, will then start taking that down to all kinds of details and levels.

I'm going to get up and pray for three hours whether I wear black socks or brown ones. Well, no. There is indeed an individual will of God, and the Lord does indeed give us choices in that individual will. And it's critical, I think, as we'll look in detail, what Scripture does say about that individual will of God.

What matters and what doesn't? Is God intensely concerned from eternity past what color socks I wear? Is He wringing His hands over the brand of dishwasher soap that I buy? No. These are not of intense concern. But Scripture does lay out What does matter to Him? Not just concerning His moral will, but for you individually. And how does He let us know what that individual will is?

Have you ever come across somebody who is constantly looking for messages from God about different things? I mean, they're looking for God's voices in their head. It's almost as if God sends them a telegram or something. There are people who are constantly looking for that magical fork in the road kind of indication from the Lord.

And the truth is, as we look at the scripture passages in more detail here, we'll see that that's simply not the way the Lord operates. We'll see that in fact, the Lord rarely, here we have all of scripture, 1,500 years, 66 books, the Lord rarely gives every little jot and tittle of detail. As a matter of fact, we'll look at this a little further, throughout the entire book of Acts, which encompassed, and this is a miraculous period of time, right? It's over about three decades that the book of Acts lays things out. During that phenomenal period of time, with all kinds of miracles, there's only a couple times when the Lord says specifically, do this, not that.

Isn't that something? In terms of, I'm not talking about moral will issues, I'm talking about things you specifically do this, not that. Where the path is not morally significant of itself. Isn't that amazing? We're talking the period of the apostles. We're talking a period of three decades in a most pivotal period of time in the establishment of the church. And God rarely in that sweep of time says, I don't want you to go here, I want you to go there. So that's in shocking, stark contrast to the perspective that many Christians have, that God wants me to make this fork in the road and that one, and I really better buy the Chevy instead of the Dodge, and that kind of thing.

The Lord does not appear to be terribly concerned in the individual will aspect with this fork in the road versus that one if we're inside of his moral will. And we'll see that. What's fascinating as we begin to look at this is we'll see that the Lord has laid out irreversibly our position in Christ. Guess what? You can't blow it. You can't blow your position.

God has laid out clearly what is his moral will, but more important than that We have the very life of Christ. That is what He desires to be expressed. And finally, when it comes to the individual will of God for the believer, God has laid out real clearly what the principles are.

If we are concerned, oh, I might miss God's will, probably not. Probably not. In truth, if we look at the examples of where the apostles, in those rare instances, had specific direction from the Lord, do this, not that, they weren't scratching their heads wondering. So in truth, while we ought to be very interested in and concerned about God's will, on the one hand, on the other hand, there's nothing to worry about. And that's why I think he could very easily and clearly tell the church at Philippi, be anxious for nothing. Nothing. You don't have a thing to worry about here in this whole thing.

God has revealed what you need to know. And that's a good thing. That's a wonderful thing. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for Just as we look here, you indeed have a will about so very many things, and yet you've not left us in the dark. You've not left us to be puzzled, and we thank you for that. You have laid out all that we need to know, and given us every resource, Lord, to fulfill your will, so that indeed we have nothing to be anxious about. Thank you for that, Lord, and we give you praise. In Jesus' name, Amen.

We'll be looking largely at the epistles, starting from Romans through Jude. and looking at that, and the reason is this, that that's telling us as believers, telling us what the Lord has in mind. There will be some other passages, for example in the Old Testament, there's lots of indications of what God's sovereign will is. The Psalms The Psalms say he is king of the earth. He's in charge of everything. And so this talks about his sovereignty over all things. As Bob made mention too, we have the universal kingdom aspect of the Lord. He's in charge of the whole thing.

We will see things of God's character that come out of Genesis. In the Old Testament, it's where the Lord says, Sure, sure, sure. If you'd like, we can feel free to send you handouts. We also have tapes that we can send to you, if you'd care for that. Because what we'll go through is we'll start the outside circle, spend a few weeks on that. We'll move in and look at God's moral will and how the believers are expected to carry out God's moral will, and then look at God's individual. So we'll work our way from the outside in. And so we'd be glad to send that to you if you just let us know.

To me this is all good news. I mean it's all good news. There isn't anything about it that's bad news. It's all good news. And it's a wonderful thing. Because I have run into Christians that have just gotten terribly anxious about finding God's will and knowing God's will. The truth is that there's nothing to be anxious about. Not at all. We oftentimes have this idea that the Lord's sort of sitting up there waiting for us to make a mistake and then He's going to go, Aha! Gotcha! You know? When the reality is that's not His at all. The very last chapter of the Bible was, of course, the last chapter of Revelation. And the last quote directly from the words of the Lord Jesus himself.

He says, I am coming quickly, my reward is with me. Guess what he wants to do? Yeah, he's not sitting there saying, boy, I can't wait to slap this guy. Vern makes a mistake, I'll sting him good. That's not what he's wanting to do. He's saying, I'm coming quickly, my reward is with me. That's what he is eager to do. So he has laid it all out. There is nothing to be anxious about. That's really cool. Yes. Yes.

I believe wholeheartedly that God gives us free will and allows us to make bad decisions. Those bad decisions pose an opportunity for good decisions. And we shoot ourselves in the foot and our reward can we have some control of what that reward is based on things we may not deserve. I'm just saying God's sovereign will isn't... He hasn't chosen the rewards based on His sovereign will to a certain degree. But it's still all good news. Sure, it's all good news. I think the key point is that it is the Lord's intent that He reward us.

One of the things that Hal's teaching in the other room is that there's a word that's used to translate it off in approval, DocuMos in the New Testament. And that DocuMos, it's interesting, it is a test with a view to approval. It's interesting. What God has in mind here, can we fail? Yes. What is God's intent and what is the bias in this is the Lord's looking to reward. The Lord is looking with a view to approval as he puts us in a test. So, can we fail? Yes. Is that what God has in mind?

No. I think the best news is the fact that in your note, your handout, puts our position in Christ and God's sovereign will. That's right. We don't dare gossip over that fact and too often Christians don't understand that concept. the rewards have nothing to do with our salvation. That's correct.

It's in God's sovereign will that once we accept Christ as our personal Savior, that can't change even if we want to. Untouchable. Untouchable. And that's a part of God's sovereignty, unlike folks who kind of get, you know, in this depression over everything is fixed and like some sort of cosmic machine. Unlike that, this is a good thing. As you mentioned, here I have a position in Christ that is untouchable in the heavens and irreversible. That is marvelous news. I can't blow it. I can't blow my position. Even if we decide to move ourselves? Even if we decide to.

As a matter of fact, my son Ed, I'll mention him. probably not quite ten years ago he got to a place where he was kind of going through a period of rebellion and he was really ticked and I mean ticked to the point he was you know red-faced and shaking that he he couldn't reverse this thing now he's quite glad of it but I mean there was a period of time he was really ticked off he couldn't reverse it you mean tell me that now that I've believed I can't back out of it that's right But it's good news. It's good news.

Well, anyway, that's the quick intro. We'll obviously be going into far more detail on layout, what the scriptures have in each of those areas. But I'm looking forward to it. OK? All right. And if we can get some info, I'd be glad to forward tapes and the handouts and the whole thing to you. It's up to you. It's up to you. Yeah. Yeah. And we'll just proceed ahead here. When do you tape it? It's being taped now. Oh, OK. It's being taped now. Yeah. I thought you were just trying to be alone. No. No, it's being taped now. This is wireless.

And so if you go on the back there, they've got a whole bunch of these. I mean, all these different classes are on different frequencies, which is good because all overlap. It wouldn't be any good at all. But there are different frequencies. So what happens is you've got each class being picked up, you know, the one downstairs and the one here.

And we have three electives going now for this hour. And then starting in July, it looks like we'll have about five. So we're, you know, going to. One of the things that's happened is this group here is more of the size we'd like to target. And so like this class in here is over 30, and the one downstairs is over 30 people. And that's really bigger than we would like to see. It's a bit too large. People frequently don't feel free to interact and ask questions. And so we'd like to have more electives.

So they're going to have, in part, one of the reasons would be to have a smaller class size for each one. You need to rotate. Pardon? You need to repeat the electives. At least two will be repeated. The plans, at least right now, things are still working, but at least two of them plan to be repeated from prior times. Let's see.

Currently, and things are still in planning process, so give me some room to wiggle there, but we'll have Hal and Bob Echo. And Jim Poole will be for one class. Brian White and Roger Henderson will be at another. Mike Doyle and David Daniels would be another. And a couple of the others are still working in terms of who's doing what and who's teamed up with what.

We like to generally follow the principle, not as a rule, but as a guideline having at least one or two co-teachers along with it. So anyway, we're in the process of designing it. It's about three months out, but we're in the process of designing that. Speaking of co-teachers, has our co-teacher got any feedback that he made his career or not?

Oh, you know, it's the strangest thing. I haven't heard a word one out of him. I assume they've just been swamped, you know, sort of like land running on the, you know, It's like you just get out of the plane and all of a sudden the starting gun goes off. Boom! Wow! So I think they're probably doing okay, but I haven't heard a bit out of them. Yeah, and I don't know, you know, they went over there with nothing other than what luggage they had. No, you know, so I don't know.

They were probably scrambling around trying to find a place to live and, you know, all that. I think they were telling me they were living in a high-rise about 20 minutes out of the center of Seoul, and their high-rise apartment looked across to another high-rise. So it's not like you've got a high-rise and a view. You've got a high-rise and you get a view of the other high-rises.

Anyway, that was about the scenario that I got, but I was thinking I haven't heard from them, so I might try to email them, but I'm not sure that you can catch up with that. I wish I had news to tell you, but it's one of those things that the Lord knows and I don't. Okay, well, thank you. Let's call it.