Sermon Transcript — September 13, 2003
How many of you have ever attended the Feast of Tabernacles? That is all? How many of you have ever attended the Feast of Tabernacles? Virtually every hand in the room has gone up. How many of you have ever left the Feast of Tabernacles with an incredible smile on your face walking out of the arena or stadium where you were, going to your car, going to your plane, and saying to yourself, that was the best Feast I have ever had in my life? Let me see your hands.
I think many of us have made that comment over the years, haven't we. But you know, it is really interesting because I have gone to Feast of Tabernacles where I have left the Feast and I did not make that comment. I have gone to the Feast of Tabernacles where I actually felt miserable after the Feast, leaving the Feast, and saying, you know what? That was just not a good Feast. I won't ask you for a show of hands for that, but I would suspect that if you have been in the Church more than a few years, more than ten or fifteen years, that you have probably had some similar thought like that. Or, maybe you never have. And if you haven't, then that is wonderful.
But what makes the difference between a Feast that is so, a Feast that is the greatest ever, or a Feast that isn't even that good at all? What makes the difference in those types of Feasts?
Well, today what I would like to do, since we have the fall festivals coming up, is take a look at the Feast and the fall Holy Days, and ask a question, what is up with the Feast? What is it about the Feast? And what are some practical things that may be able to do if we understand more about the Feast to be able to hopefully make it the best Feast ever for us.
Turn with me if you would to Leviticus 23. We will go to the chapter in the Bible where God outlines His Holy Days. In my Bible, it is a New King James version of the Bible, the top part of the page where this all starts, it says Holy convocations. Actually what God does is He talks about all of His Sabbaths. And the Holy Days are part of those Sabbaths. What I would like to do is look at some practical reasons, and hopefully some helpful reasons that will help us in keeping the Feast in a way that maybe it will be a really beneficial Feast to us this year, looking at it only being a few weeks away before we leave for the Feast, which is just incredible.
Leviticus 23:34-35 - "Speak to the children of Israel, saying: 'The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Lord. [35] On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it.
God isn't being cynical here, is He? Why would He tell us don't work? No, I am speaking pretty much as a fool because one thing that God did tell us was that working was good, didn't He? Remember there are places in the Bible that says that if man doesn't work, man doesn't eat. So why would it be that all of a sudden on a Holy Day, one of His Holy Days, He tells us don't work. I don't want you working on this day. Even though He has told us that work is good. Remember six days shall a man work. And the seventh day is a day of rest.
Leviticus 23:36 - For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. It is a sacred assembly, and you shall do no customary work on it.
Why would God ask us not to do any customary work on His Holy Days? For His benefit? What benefit would it be to God if we are not working? It is of no value to Him, it is only a value to us. And our Father in heaven knew that. Why then, would He make this statement?
Well I think this is reason number one, or point number one about how to make the Feast the best Feast ever, is understanding this first point. I believe that God has designed this so that we can absolutely take a break.
When a kid gets out of order and out of sorts, one of the things that is used now is time outs. Take a time out. What that is telling a child is to stop what you are doing and just go sit in the corner or go to your room and just stop. I think what God is trying to tell us is that He wants us to take a break from our routine and our mundane lives. When I say mundane I mean mundane. This world that we are living in, most of the jobs that we are doing on a day to day basis are producing things for this world, for us, to just make it through this physical life that we are living. Most of it. And I am not saying all of it, but most of it has little to do with the spiritual value of our future. The value is our example, as you have heard in the sermonette and how we can be an example to other individuals in the world that we live in. And understanding the value of the truth that God has given us. And that is tremendously valuable.
But you know, having no distractions for seven solid days, actually eight solid days, is an incredible blessing. I don't know how many times I have gone to the Feast, and the day before the Feast I am frantically trying to get ready, frantically trying to pack, trying to disengage from the job I am in, trying to find the plane tickets, trying to find travel vouchers, making sure I have got my reservations in order, and scramble and run out the door heading to the Feast huffing and puffing.
Then by the time you get to the Feast you have got to unpack, you have got to get orientated to the place because you have probably never been there before, in most instances. You have got to find out where the hall is. You have got to make sure your accommodations are all set up and ready to go. And it is hustle, hustle, hustle. Then you have got to hustle Friday night to get to Friday night services.
Now I just heard at lunch today at the deacons and elders meeting that they are not going to have a Friday night Sabbath service in Hawaii this year, and I am so grateful to hear that because I have gone to Hawaii a few times. And I have never had to travel from the east coast going there, but just traveling from the west coast to Hawaii is a challenge, because of the time change. And somebody traveling from this time zone going to Hawaii, you have got six or seven hours of time change to contend with. And if you arrive the day of the Feast, by the time the Feast is starting, it is 3:30 in the morning for you. So I am glad to see that is not the case.
But what God is trying to tell us here, brethren, is not because He is trying to punish us so that we can't go to work, so He doesn't want us to work. What He is trying to do is make a very important point to us. I don't want you to do any customary work on those Holy Days, and hopefully you will break from just about everything during that eight day period, because I just want you to take a break. I want you to unwind. I want you to get the clutter of this world out of your mind. And I don't know how many times, again, I have been at the Feast and it takes me two or three days before I can quit thinking about this job, or quit thinking about that responsibility, or quit thinking about a difficulty or a problem. Or you know, get terminated or get fired the day before you leave for the Feast and wondering what am I going to do for income when we get back?
All of these worries of life are eating at us and they consume us on a day to day basis throughout the entire year, and God is trying to give us the benefit, brethren, of taking a break from the action.
And I hope when we look at the Feast this year, we look at the Feast and thinking, you know God, You are giving me a commanded eight day break. And if we go to the Feast thinking this is a break, this is getting away from the routine, getting away from the mundane, and allowing our bodies to unwind, to recover, to recuperate, to rest, it gives us a chance to focus our mind on God and His plans.
Even with this, many of us struggle because we have difficulties waiting for us when we get back home. We can't get it out of our mind. Well I think that a lot needs to be done to get ourselves prepared for it. And we need to realize and understand that God truly does want us to take a break; that He does want us to focus on His Holy Days.
In the life that we are living now is a distraction to our end role in this future of ours. It is a means to an end, it is not an end in itself. Everything that we do physically in this world is a means to that end. And what God tries to do is take us for an eight day period of time, and two days prior to that, sort of a preparation. You don't have Holy Days, bang, bang, bang any other time of the year, but you do in the fall. We have Trumpets coming up in two weeks. And ten days later you have Atonement. And four days later you have Feast of Tabernacles. And then for eight solid days, it is like bang, bang, bang, you have got God, God, God, and all of His people. And it is wonderful, if, if, we can let it be what God wants it to be.
And I believe that is one of the key points that makes it possible for us to come back from the Feast saying that was the best Feast ever. I feel so refreshed. If you came back from the Feast and all you felt was just spiritually refreshed, relaxed, rejuvenated, so that you could tackle the challenges of the world, I think that would be a magnificent Feast. It would be wonderful, because how hard is it to deal with the struggles of life when we are stressed out. When we are at our wits end. I was getting a little stressed out and at my wits end for the last two and a half weeks. I would come upstairs after working in my office after for three or four hours on the phone with a tech rep trying to fix that silly computer. And I said Jackie, where is the shotgun? I mean a couple times I was literally wanting to destroy the computer.
And then I remembered the day that it all started to turn around, I went downstairs and I hid myself away where I couldn't hear anybody or anything, and I said, God, I am not being facetious, but is there a way that I could anoint that machine? And I chuckled with Him and I hope He chuckled with me. I said I know that I am not going to do that, but I need You to intervene here. I can't get this to work. Microsoft can't get it to work. Norton can't get it to work. I am stuck. And I am extremely frustrated.
It is interesting, I got up from that prayer and went into my office and the program that I had been trying to get to download and upload on my computer for seven solid days, I pushed the button and it loaded. It is amazing. It never ceases to amaze me how and for what God will intervene.
Brethren, when we get ready to go to the Feast, let's ask God to push the right buttons. To make the machine work. To make everything click. To make the Feast be something that we can relax at. We can unwind from the world we are living in. And let it be a point of rejuvenation for us. Don't let it be a point of stress. Don't let the finances of the Feast worry you. You will get through them. You always have, you always will. And if you need help there is a means that you can go to get the assistance.
You need physical assistance, like John does, to get to the Feast. And other people needing transportation, and all of those things. All of that will work out. God commanded us to do this, God will make the way work. So don't let it worry you. Let it encourage you. Sit back and say, God, where is the next miracle going to come from? Where is your hand going to come out of the darkness and move the things forward and make that thing download, make that computer run, make this whole thing happen positively for me in my life?
God wants all of us, brethren, to really get out of the rut of the life we are living in and step in to the realm of the future. That is what these fall Holy Days are all about.
That leads me to the second point. And it really is a second point committed to and connected to the first one. That is, to be able to spend a lot more time with people of like mind. People that believe the way we do. People that have the same hope, that we heard in the sermonette, that we do. People that think about the millennium somewhat the same way that we do. People that realize that this is going to be a reality some day, like we do.
You can go to the Feast and talk about any of these subjects to anybody and feel free. Where else in the world can we do that? What other time of the year can we do that? You know, brethren, I will tell you it is really an incredible thing when you start discussing spiritual things with spiritually minded people, how easy it is to get out of the rut.
At lunch today we were talking about where people were going for the Feast, and do you know such and such? And do you know about that? And we start sharing stories with each other because you have been to some place where somebody else hasn't been. Or you were just there last year, and they are going there for the first time ever in their life. And you can start making recommendations then. You start talking about it, and the next thing you start thinking about, you know, where am I going and what am I going to do, and how am I going to do it and who is going? And maybe we should plan to get together when we get down there. And it's all exciting. And it should be exciting, because we are with your brethren. You are with thousands and thousands of other people who are your brothers and sisters. They are all coming together for a giant family reunion. And they want to get to know you. They absolutely want to get to know you. Now they might not act like it all the time. I mean how many times have we gone to the Feast and walk down the isle and walk right by people and they look at each other, but keep walking. Because we are different. We are all different. Some of us are very, very shy when it comes to opening up to a stranger. It is like, you have got to be kidding. You want me to actually say hi to a stranger?
Well I want you to think about it from this perspective when you go to the Feast this year, every single one of us has been adopted into the family. If you found out tonight when you went home with a phone call from your mother or your father, if they are still alive, or a sibling, if they are still alive, or an aunt, uncle, or a relative of yours, called you and said we have found out that you have a brother that you didn't know existed, what would you think?
You know, I have actually talked to adopted kids who found out they had a sibling elsewhere on the face of the earth that they didn't know about. Think about it from that perspective. You are being exposed to some of your adopted relatives that you didn't know existed. They want to know who you are. And I know you know you want to know who they are. It is just breaking the barrier and getting through it. They are of like mind, they are looking for the same thing.
Let's turn over to Ps 133. It is an interesting thing that God has taught about His way of life. And one of the things is the way that His children get along. And I will tell you, and I will acknowledge the fact that I have gone to the Feast and I have met one of my brothers and sisters in the hallway at one of the festival sites, and I have gone up and said, hi my name is Joe Horchak and I am from such and such a place. And they say, oh hi. And then they turn around to somebody that they know and say, where are you going for lunch today? You feel like a fool. You feel pretty stupid. And you know what? All it takes is one of those to happen on the first night, now you are gun shy. And you are afraid, because you don't want to be looking like a fool every time you look around.
But you know what? There have been other times when I have gone up to somebody and you just make eye contact and both of you smile. You simultaneously say to each other, hi my name is, speaking over each other because you want the other person to know who you are. And you meet them, and hi, where are you from? And I was from there once in my life and blah, blah, blah, you start you talking about things. And all of a sudden it is like a long lost friend. You discovered a relative that didn't exist. And they have discovered you. And the thing that is interesting about it, brethren, is they are your brother or your sister. They just didn't know it and you didn't know it. And it is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.
It is an interesting thing, last year we went to the Feast in Jamaica. I know a few of you have been to Jamaica. And we went there for a couple of reasons. One, we wanted to be with my brother Doug and his family. And we wanted to go to a warm festival site. The one thing was the drawback in my mind was that it was an all-inclusive site. And I really wasn't too excited and too keen about that because I am thinking, all-inclusive. Now let's see, what does that mean? I have got to eat with them, sleep with them, drink with them, go to church with them, fellowship with them, go to the pool with them, go to the workout room with them. They are always around. I am being honest with you. That is the way I felt. I am thinking to myself, I told Jackie, I said I am not sure I am up to this.
I went there, and I will tell you, that was the highlight of the Feast. Being indulged with and immersed in God's people morning, noon, and night. I hated going to bed at night because I could walk though the lobby, and they had a lobby bar there, not that it was a bar, but it was a meeting place for people, of course that midnight shot of rum was nice too, but you could always find somebody having a good time chatting down there at the bar. Midnight, eleven, eleven thirty, ten o'clock at night, if I just wandered through that thing and I would just pop in on somebody's conversation and sit down and start having a chat with them. Then I couldn't wait to get up in the morning because I wanted to rush down and get a fresh cup of coffee. And I told Jackie, I said I will go get coffee for us. And she says, okay. So I go down and they have the rolls, and the breads and cakes and all that stuff, so you can get coffee and bring that up to your room. When I go down, I just look at see who is down there. Somebody that I didn't know, especially the Jamaica brethren, I would just go sit down and chat with them for five or ten minutes. About twenty minutes later Jackie would come down and say, I thought you were bring coffee up to the room.
But you know, it was really exciting because everybody that was there, virtually everybody that was there, was a church member. And it was so funny because we had non-church members there too. There weren't many, but there were some. And every once in a while I would sit down at the table and say, hi where are you from? They looked at me like, and who are you? I am the tour guide director. I said, I just was wondering. I said you guys looked like you were friendly and happy people and I was just wondering where you were from. I did that about three times in Jamaica last year. And then I stopped doing that.
Psalm 133:1
A Song of Ascents. Of David.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brethren
to dwell together in unity!
It is a chance for us to be around our brothers and sisters sharing the hope, looking forward to the same things of life. Hoping that Jesus Christ is in fact going to return sometime soon. Hoping that God's kingdom is in fact going to be set up here on this earth and we can participate in the restructuring of this earth with the help of Christ.
It is an incredible time of year. I don't know if there is any more important time of the year, other than maybe Passover from the standpoint of a Christians' rejuvenation standpoint.
If you go on through Ps. 133 it is just incredible. It says it is more precious than oil upon the head, running down the beard of Aaron. He is talking about the anointing of an individual and how precious that is, and how important that is to God. He said that is what it is like for God to watch His brethren dwelling together in unity. And that is our opportunity when we go to the feast.
Turn with me to Malachi 3. What is more important at this or any other time of the year then Christians of like mind being together getting to know one another, sharing in life's stories? Now, I have suggested to people, you never know, you just never know when you are going to meet your next best friend. I mean, how many times have we been at the feast, the last day of the feast we meet this family or this couple or this individual, and it is like you just hit it off. It is like you are two peas out of the same pod. And you ask yourself, why didn't I meet you on the first day of the Feast? Maybe we just didn't look hard enough. Maybe we didn't push hard enough. Maybe we didn't go probing harder long enough. But today we can maybe take a little different perspective on this.
We are not all of one mind when it comes to dealing with things though, but at the same time God expects us to learn from one another, to be able to cut each other some slack and keep making sure that God's Spirit is working especially through us.
Let's see what Malachi has to say about this sort of thing.
Malachi 3:16
Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another,
a novel idea
And the Lord listened and heard them;
So a book of remembrance was written before Him
For those who fear the Lord
And who meditate on His name.
This is implying that because God's people were speaking to one another and getting along with one another and enjoying one another's company, God says that He was listening and He heard. He pays attention when that is going on. He likes knowing that we are doing that. He likes seeing that happen.
And then it says then, so, as a result of, because He saw all this happening, He wrote a book of remembrance. He is logging this information. It is so important to God that God wants to write it down for memory. He is probably going to use it to teach from in the millennial period of time. I absolutely believe that that is going to be the case. I believe that there are things in the Bible that are still unwritten. I believe that there may be chapters of the Bible that are still not fully written. Stories of people's lives. There may be stories about you in the storybooks of God's annals of history of the modern church that God will use to teach people down the road because of things that you have done.
This mixing and mingling of people of all different colors, creeds, backgrounds. Not creeds necessarily, but the whole philosophies that we come, the whole approaches to life that we come from and the backgrounds that we come from. We mix and match completely. And God says, you know, we are all brothers and sisters for like one giant eight day reunion.
Malachi 3:17
"They shall be Mine," says the Lord of hosts,
"On the day that I make them My jewels.
And I will spare them
As a man spares his own son who serves him."
God has a very special place in His heart, brethren, when His children play well together. And the Feast of Tabernacles is our spiritual playground with our brothers and our sisters, and God wants to see how we are going to act. He is referring to all of us.
Let's turn to 2 Cor. 13. Paul talked about God's children playing all together as well, and being nice to one another. And realizing that this time of the year, just like Christmas, I got everybody's attention with that word. Why did I make that statement? I said just like Christmas? Because it is a historical fact, it is a scientific fact, that in any other time of the year, this festival period of time, this festive season of Christmas, that last for a full month or more, that is supposedly the most joyous time of the year on the earth, okay, and people are talking about this joy and this happiness, and this gift giving and family and loving and everything like this. You know it is the highest time of suicide? It is the highest time of hospital depression. It is the highest time of problems in people's lives. And the people who are lonely are lonelier then they have ever been all year. Just like the Church of God.
It happens, brethren. It happens. Thankfully it doesn't happen a lot. But I have seen it happen and I know you have seen it happen. Those that are alone are really alone at Feast time. You go to the Feast and you can watch. I can go sit in the arena, and just take a moment sometime while you are at your feast, go down to the front of the room in a corner and an innocuous spot and just observe the audience. You will see some people that nobody goes to. Nobody.
I remember being in an arena one time where they had a handicapped section. And all the wheelchairs were up there. The first night they were just lined with people. But I noticed after services not one person from the main floor went up to the wheel chair section. Not one. And there were twelve hundred people at that Feast site. I watched the next morning and there were about only two thirds of the wheel chairs that were up there the first time. The next day there was only about half the wheel chairs. The next day there was only about a third of the opening time. I don't know if they just felt left out and didn't come. I think some of them tried to find their way down to the main floor so they could be a part of the fun and the activity. But you know, they are not capable of coming and searching you and me out, are they? And how many times do we avoid them because we just don't know what to say, because they are handicapped after all. Or somebody that has got a palsy of some kind. And we feel funny because we don't know how to deal with people like that. They are your brothers and sisters, folks. And God wants us to go up to them. God wants us to think, who could possibly be left out?
Tell you what, if you approach the Feast from that perspective, you will probably have one of the most joyous Feast you have ever had in you entire life, because you will bring joy to the lives of others. And that is what it is all about.
2 Cor. 13:11 - Finally, brethren, farewell. Become complete. Be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.
This whole prospect of dealing with one another is very, very important to God. And God, as we read in Malachi, is watching and listening. He is observing what we are doing with our like-minded brethren in how we are interacting with them at the Feast.
Let's look at the next reason for having a great Feast, or why the Feast is important to us. Obviously these are my definition of these things, but they could be elaborated on. They are by no means complete.
Point number three that I give here is it gives us a chance to experience God's blessings. Maybe not in a perfect way, but in a small way. So many can get together in harmony and peace and feel feed-off of the positive attitudes of one another. Pray for and get good inspiring sermons and sermonette. Listen to inspiring special music. And meet people that inspire you with their paths of life and realize what they even had to do to get to the Feast.
It has even been an opportunity for the communities in which we meet to see what it is like to observe God's way of life. I can remember being at Feasts in years past and have purveyors of certain establishments come and talk to individuals and say, you know what? I have never seen so many people party so hard, fill up the trash containers with beer and wine and things like this, and never see anybody drunk, never see anybody fighting, and you all getting along so well. You know, people say that about us. They observe that about us. And I think they appreciate that about us because they want what we have, they just don't know that yet.
They are awed by our good behavior. They are awed by our happy attitudes. And they are awed by the fact that we are spending ten percent of our total income in eight days.
Let's turn to Deuteronomy 14. Some of the things that I have talked about with people over the years as an elder in God's church, one of the more sensitive issues, is tithing. I will tell you that when you realize and understand the blessings of tithing, especially the blessing of second tithe, it is a phenomenal blessing. Some gripe about it as they have to save it on a day to day, week to week, month to month basis, those same ones will complain that they don't have enough when it comes Feast time. But it is a wonderful blessing to realize that if we are doing what God has asked us to do, He is saying, I am asking you to save this, but I am asking you to do it for a really important reason.
Deuteronomy 14. I love this scripture. It gives me the green light to go out and really enjoy myself. And I like green lights like that and I like admonishments like that.
Deut. 14:22-23 - "You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year. [23] And you shall eat before the Lord your God, in the place where He chooses to make His name abide, the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil, of the firstborn of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always.
It is going back to fearing the Lord. It is respecting God for who and what He is.
Deut. 14:24-25 - But if the journey is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, or if the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, when the Lord your God has blessed you, [25] then you shall exchange it for money, take the money in your hand, and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses.
The Feast site that you are assigned to. The Feast site that you have transferred to. And then He says in verse 26, and I love this; 26 And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires: Do you realize that this is God Almighty talking? He says, yeah I want you to save that ten percent of your income all year long, but then what I want you to do is I want you to gather it all together, and I want you to head off to the Feast. And when you get there I want you to spend that money on whatever your heart desires. for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, and the King James version says strong drink, for whatever your heart desires; He repeats it. you shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household.
God wants us to experience that His way works. And brethren, there is no better way to learn that experience then at the Feast of Tabernacles with ten percent of your annual income and going to spend it in eight days. It took you three hundred and fifty, what, seven days to make it? He said I want you to go spend it in eight. And spend it on whatever your little heart desires. Go out and have fun. Enjoy yourself. I want you to rejoice! I want you to go and say, you know what? Buy that bottle of scotch that cost $65. Don't worry about the price, just go get it. I want you to go out and have that sirloin or T-bond steak, and don't worry about the price, just get it. I want you to have a good time. I want you to find the finest wine that you can afford and I want you to buy it and I want you to drink it and I want you to enjoy it. And I want you to be happy as a result of it. And I want you to share it with everybody that is around you.
Let's turn to Duet. 16 because He expounds on this. He does say for your and your family and your whole household, but He expands on it in Deut. 16. A little more explanation.
Deut. 16:13-14 - "You shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days, when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress. This is after all of our blessings that He talked about back in chapter 14, and have been gathered together and we are going out and are ready to rejoice. [14] And you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, who are within your gates.
Everybody that you can find, when you get ready to go. And everybody that you can find when you get ready to go out to lunch, or you go out to dinner, or you go out to have a good time. When you are going to go out on a cruise or whatever. You look for everybody that you can find that you can possibly muster, that you can help accommodate. And you say, gang, let's go. And you head off for a party. And God said don't forget those that can't afford to do that. He said I have blessed you and I want you to be a blessing to them. Take them along with you. Go out and make this a real part for everybody. Make this fun for everybody that is going to the Feast. Don't forget the less fortunate behind us.
Deut. 16:15 - Seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you surely rejoice.
He says I am going to bless you because I want you to be blessed so that you can take that blessing that I have given you, and I want you to go become a blessing to other people. Do you want to have the best Feast ever? Follow these guidelines. I tell you what, God will bless you more than He has ever blessed you before in your life. And you will come home walking on a cloud. You won't want to come down. See, that is the down side of the Feast; you have to come back to reality.
You know, it is one of those types of things. You almost want to say let's do it again for another eight days. You know, that actually happened in history. If you want to read about it, you can read about it in 2 Chronicles 30. I think it starts in like verse 20, 22.,23, something like that.
But you know, because we have enjoyed being immersed in God's way for eight straight ways, brethren, it is a wonderful blessing when we can be a blessing to everybody else around us as well. It helps us to escape the negatives of this world we are living in, and it allows us to really appreciate and learn to know and understand that God wants to bless us, God has blessed us, and God will continue to bless us. He wants us to enjoy ourselves.
And here is another reason. And I like this one too. And I really love sermons and sermonette that start my mind thinking in this direction, especially at the Feast or at least before. It allows us to think and hypothesize and speculate on, my speculating friend back there, speculate what the future might be like. I mean, we don't know. We have bits and pieces here and there. We have got part of the story put together, but God wants us to be thinking about what is it really going to be like when it all happens?
One of the sermons that I have given at the Feast over the last few years, and I have modified it many times, is trying to point out that the fact that everything that we do in our lives, brethren, every single thing that happens to us in our lives, God is going to use. Every stupid mistake we have ever made, He is going to use. He is going to allow you to be a teacher of that mistake. Every blessing that you have ever been blessed with, God is going to allow it to be used by you to teach. It is an incredible thing when we stop and think about it.
You know, we start thinking about our lives, what meaning is there in my life. I mean, everything that you have gone through, everything, is a teaching tool.
You know, they say that experience is not the best teacher, but it is the most profound teacher. It is true. I wouldn't like to experience what it is like to kill a human being. But I will tell you, someone who has killed a human being, do you think they could talk on that subject to somebody else?
Profound, brethren, what happens in our lives and what God is going to do with it in the future. But then you stop and think about the world tomorrow and beyond, you know, thinking about what the millennium is going to be like, and you can speculate about that from now until dooms day, but there are a lot of guidelines in the Bible that tells us what the millennium is going to be like, and what God's kingdom is going to be like.
Have you ever thought about what it is going to be like once Christ is all done? The great white throne judgment is completed? Every bad thing has been destroyed and thrown and destroyed in the lake of fire, God has come down, a new heaven and new earth, new Jerusalem, God Almighty sitting in Jerusalem on the new heaven and new earth, where do we go from there? Have you ever asked yourself that question? You talk about a huge question.
I don't know about you, but when I was a kid I used to lay out on the lawn in the middle of summer night and I would look up and stars and I was thinking, what is going on out there?
That was before I really knew and understood anything about God. But you know, the reality is there is something going on out there. That is where heaven is. God is up there somewhere. His throne room is up there. The planning committee is up there. The leadership is up there. All the plans are up there. Guess what? God knows what He is going to do the day after He attends the first service on this earth in the new kingdom, the new Jerusalem, the spiritual Jerusalem, the spiritual earth. Do you know what is going to happen then? I don't. But I tell you what, it is fun to speculate what it might be. It is really fun to do that. And you know what? That is what the Feast is all about. It is getting our minds to start focusing on what God has promised is ultimately going to happen. And I am absolutely convinced, and I really believe this, and I have talked to other elders about it as well, one of the biggest problems that we have in God's church is that it is not real to us. I mean, how can it be real? God is talking about living for a thousand years and then turned into a spirit being? Jesus Christ standing on this earth talking to you? How real is that to you?
It wasn't real to Paul. That is why God had to take Paul away in a vision and say, this is what I am talking about, Paul, open your eyes. He took him to the throne room. He wanted it to be real to Paul. He wants it to be real to you and to me. He wants us to speculate. He wants us to talk about it. Not just talk about it, not just sit and analyze the sermon, you know, sit and maybe pick it apart or criticize it, or say, boy that was really a great sermon. I love to hear that kind of stuff and it made me feel really good, but where does it lead you in thinking? Where does it lead you in your discussion? And what is the conversation at lunch that day? For dinner that night? When you start reading some of these things that God says He is going to do, I mean, this is unbelievable.
Isaiah 2:2-4
Now it shall come to pass in the latter days
That the mountain of the Lord's house
Shall be established on the top of the mountains,
And shall be exalted above the hills;
And all nations shall flow to it.
[3] Many people shall come and say,
"Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
He will teach us His ways,
And we shall walk in His paths."
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
[4] He shall judge between the nations,
And rebuke many people;
They shall beat their swords into plowshares,
And their spears into pruning hooks;
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
Neither shall they learn war anymore.
Do you think the people of Iraq would like to believe that? Do you think the people living in the Congo would like to believe that? Because the people in the Congo have spears and swords killing them right now.
God is going to establish Himself all over this earth. He is going to turn everything upside down, just like Paul did back in those days. Isaiah 65. Another well known scripture you will probably hear several times between now and during the Feast of Tabernacles this year.
How real is this to us? Probably about as real as winning the lottery tonight. I mean, really, if you stop and are honest with yourself about it. I mean down in your gut in your inner most being, how real is this really to us? Do we really see it in a vision as it talked about in Hebrews 11, actually visualize it and see it happening before us because we have talked about it and meditated on it so much? Most of us not. It is one of the most inspiring things that we can come to in our lives. We saw what happened to Paul when God finally allowed it to happen to him.
God said this is going to happen.
Isaiah 65:25
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,
The lion shall eat straw like the ox,
And dust shall be the serpent's food.
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain," Says the Lord.
God wants you and me to become excited about our future and His plans for us now in the road. The Feast of Tabernacles, brethren, is an opportunity for us to get a taste of that and what it is like. A taste of that and what it can mean to us. Our families, our children, our grandchildren, our great grandchildren, and our friends that are dead and buried. It is ultimately going to lead to them too, and every human being that has ever walked on this earth.
Thinking about his might be as enjoyable as observing the Feast itself sometimes. When you start talking about this kind of thing, it gets you actually excited. That is what God wants.
The last point I am going to cover here. Keeping the Feast gives us hope for our future. That hope that we have read about in Ephesians. You know, there is not much hope in parts of Africa where there is boiling pots of carnage and genocide taking place every single day of the week. There is not much hope in Indonesia right now, is there? Where they are actually butchering one another because they don't agree with their philosophies of life. There is not a whole lot of hope for a lot of the people in North Korea and China, who have got these nuclear bombs being built and developed and being planned. You know, there is not a whole lot of hope for a lot of people who have AIDS in this world. That epidemic is raging again more than it has ever raged ever. World Health Organization said it is one of those things we have lost the battle on. Think about that. There is not much hope in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, or Palestine, is there? Not one day this week did I open the paper and look at the headlines and not see somebody was killed in the Middle East. Not one day. Not one day.
Romans 8:16. Out hope, brethren, goes so far beyond all of the nonsense and the garbage that is taking place in this world and God wants us to realize that our hope and the attitude that we have about our hope of the future, and the attitude that we have about our understanding of His truth, and where all that truth is leading, and it is ultimately leading to His kingdom being established on earth, that is actually the hope of the rest of this world. They just don't know it.
Romans 8:16-18 The Spirit Himself bears witness
with our spirit that we are children of God, [17] and if children, then heirs--heirs
of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may
also be glorified together.
[18] For I consider that the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall
be revealed in us.
There is a lot more coming. It is a lot more exciting then we have ever experience in our lives.
Romans 8:19-20 - For the earnest expectation of the creation, the whole world, eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. [20] For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; There is no hope for most people on this earth. They don't know what to believe. They don't know what to hope for. Some of them are hoping for a cup of water just to get through to the next day. That is their only hope in life. That is really happening.
Romans 8:20-23 - For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; [21] because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. [22] For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. [23] Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.
I am sure people like Jeannette Hamilton would love to have a new body, because the one she has got now is not working.
You know, that groaning varies according to our age. A twenty-one year old kid going to college, playing in sports, getting good grades, having a boyfriend, girlfriend, doesn't do much moaning for change, does he? But a twenty one year old who has no hair as a result of leukemia therapy because he is so nauseated, is getting weaker by the day and can't sit up in a chair, I am sure is groaning for a lot of things.
Romans 8:24-25 For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? [25] But if we hope for what we do not see, which is what we are hoping for, brethren, the kingdom, the spiritual kingdom of God coming to this earth, we eagerly seek, we look for it, we pursue it, we are trying to find out what the answers are to everything. It says we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. We know it is coming. How many of us really, really feel that eagerness, that groan, that moan?
Christ gave us the example prayer. And one of the parts of the example prayer was thy kingdom come. Moaning and groaning for God's kingdom, brethren, to let all this suffering and pain and turmoil in this earth stop, is something that God wants us all to be very cognoscente of.
The Feast of Tabernacles gives you and me an opportunity to learn what the truth of the matter is. It gives us a chance to live it for eight days. He gives us a chance to rejuvenate our spiritual batteries. It gives us a chance to reestablish our hope in the future. And it gives us a chance to learn more so that we can be a better example to the people around us and give them some hope, because they look at you and I and they see something different. They want what you have. They want what I have but they don't know how to get it. With God's truth finally and eventually that will come.
So how can we have the best Feast ever? I think if we focus on these five points, brethren, it will help all of us to really enjoy the Feast from the perspective that God wants us to enjoy it. Have a wonderful Sabbath.