Beware That You do not Forget

How long did you think you were in Cape Town?

Well, it was a little bit late, and I'll catch a late night. But that day for some reason was somewhere around about 2 or 3 o'clock in the afternoon. The business was finished, I said, well, let me take the flight and go back home. And you know at the airport lounges you've got these big TV screens? And what's there? It's CNN. It's a worldwide thing. You see it all over the world, so. And the program is interrupted, and what I see, I couldn't believe it. I could not believe it. This was like 2 or 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and I couldn't believe it. So I found Kathy. She was running a play school from home, said kids, and I said, turn on the TV. I've got kids, I said, turn on the TV. You'll probably recall a similar reaction that you went through. In your case, it was in the morning. Because in South Africa, because of time zone differences, this was in the afternoon. And so, my message today is, beware that you do not forget. You see what I was watching is on CNN at the airport, starting to catch a plane to fly to Johannesburg, was watching that the North Tower had just been hit by a aircraft, as it was mentioned in the sermon. And then, I'm sitting there, and I'm watching, live, and I see another plane coming in and hit the South Tower. I couldn't believe it. And that's when I found Kathy, and I said, turn on the TV. Little later, we hear about flight, American Airlines flight 77, falling on the Pentagon in US time at 9.45 in the morning. And the jet fuel of that Boeing 757 caused a huge fire in what is the US Department of Defense. And then, I got a call, or rather the loudspeaker said, please board your flight to Johannesburg. So, kind of, you have dual thoughts about where you're going now. Obviously, nothing happened. But brethren, you all remember, 2001, September 11th, the Tuesday. And then, later on in that afternoon, American time, the building number seven of the World Trade Center also fell down. And in total, just in that area, some over 2,700 people died. And then, obviously, there was also the flight 93 of United that, because it had been delayed, departing, therefore, when it got into the air, it was later some of the passengers that heard what had happened, because it had been earlier, the passengers would have not heard. But because they heard, this group of passengers and flight attendants planned an insurrection. And then, you probably heard the story many times. A gentleman called Thomas Bernard Jr. found his wife and said, I know we're gonna die. There are three of us. We're gonna do something about it. I love you, honey.

And then, the line was left open. I don't know if it was that line or a different line. A gentleman, Todd Beamer, said, Are you guys ready? Let's roll. And the result was an aircraft at 500 miles an hour, crashing in a rural field, near Shanksville in Pennsylvania at 10.10 in the morning, where another 44 people died. Beware, lest you forget. I want you to turn with me to Deuteronomy 8. Deuteronomy 8. And we're going to start reading in verse 3.

Deuteronomy 8.

Every commandment which I command you today, you must be careful to observe that you may live, not fly, and go in and possess the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers. And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way, these 40 years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And so he humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manner which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. What is our 40 years test? What is our difficulty? What is our challenge? Satan puts difficulties and God allows in front of us. Are we going to fail? Are we going to pass the test? As we read in James 1 verse 3 says, the testing of your faith produces patience. What is patience? Patience is perseverance. It's sticking to it. Do we have faith in God? Or do we just break down when we have a challenge or a test? Or are we going to give up? Let's continue reading in verse 6, Deuteronomy 8. Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God to walk in his ways and to fear him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks, of water, of fountains, of springs that flow out of valleys and hills, a land of... Reverend, what is the land that God is bringing us to? God is bringing us to the real promised land, which is the kingdom of God. That's our promised land. And look at in verse 10, and when you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which is given you. In other words, when you are blessed, give thanksgivings. And yes, we do have a day of thanksgiving in this country. Thank God. Verse 11. And this is where I got the title for today's sermons. Beware that you do not forget. The Lord your God by not keeping the commandments, his commandments, his judgments, and his statutes. When we are full, when things are good, and brethren in this country, we have a lot of blessings. We have a lot of blessings that people in other countries do not have.

And then, what is that say is that when we are full, beware that we do not forget. Look at verse 12. List! ... beautiful houses to dwell them in. And when you have all these things that multiply. Verse 14. When your heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God. The heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God. Brethren, the biggest enemy for all of us is lack of humility. When we allow our hearts to really get puffed up and lifted up, and you know the first beatitude is exactly about that. Be humble. Satan's original sin was that he wanted to be like God. He lifted himself up. And you know, I cringe when I hear ... and I accept we have been blessed. But I cringe when people say, we are such a great people.

Because I read in verse 17, and it says, and then, because your heart is lifted up, you say, my power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth. When I hear leaders ... Whatever spectrum of belief they are in, when they say, we are yeah because we are.

... ... physical things that look for us, it's all from God. ... It's God who's given it to us. And look at verse 19. Then it shall be if ... Oh, such a small word in English, isn't it? If ... If you, by any means, forget the Lord your God. Therefore, beware. That you do not forget. Because if, by any means, you forget the Lord your God, and then you follow other gods. What other gods? Could be our materialism, could be our physical things we might, could whatever it could be. If we follow the gods and serve them, you shall surely perish. You shall surely perish. Verse 20, as the nations which the Lord destroys before you, you, so you, shall perish. Because, and he has a reason, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God.

Brethren, I'm going to use a metaphor now. And a metaphor is a figure of speech, in which a word or a phrase is applied to an object or thing, which is not literally the case or applicable, but it is like an analogy, a metaphor. And so, I am going to use a prophecy, but I'm going to use it metaphorically speaking. In other words, we can apply the principles to us, even though it may not be exactly this way. And I want to turn to you to a scripture which addresses this very question that it says here in verse 19, that if you forget God and if you disobey what's going to happen to you? And that's in Leviticus 26. So, turn with me to Leviticus 26.

Look at it in verse 3. If, if indeed you are by God, if, Leviticus 23 verse 3, if you walk in my statutes and keep my commandments and perform them, then I'll give you rain in its season. What a blessing it is! Rain in its season! The opposite is drought, and the other is drought. Or just drenched. But rain, lovely, gentle, rain at the right time. Even rain at harvest time is not good, because, you know, you want to harvest, and the stuff is getting rotten. So, rain in your season. And look at verse 6, and I'll give you peace in the land. But, look at verse 14. Look at verse 14. But, if you do not obey, brethren, this is a prophecy in the book of the Lord. Think about it. Leviticus 26 is prophecy. It's prophecy of blessings and cursings. And what is prophecy, brethren? Prophecy is a warning, so we repent. So, God's wish is that these negative prophecies would not happen. Why? Because He wants us to repent. But if we don't repent, it has to happen. It's like, we were in a car and we were driving, and my wife was saying that, well, this week, a deer just crossed in front of her, and she had to put on the brakes, and everything on her back seat fell to the front seat. Do you know there's a thing called a law of inertia? And those things fell to the front. And you will never say, well, God punished because those things fell. Well, it's a law. And you put on the brakes suddenly, there's a law of inertia. It happens. Brethren, God's spiritual law is a law. You break the law, there are consequences. Consequences. And God is telling us, yeah, what are these natural consequences?

Spiritual consequences. So if you do not obey me, and do not observe all these commandments, if you despise my statutes, and if you so abose my judgments, so that you do not perform all my commandments, but break my covenant. Look at verse 16. I also will do this to you. I will appoint terror over you.

And look at the end of verse 17. And you flee when no one pursues, because you are in this situation of fear.

I'm talking about a prophetical metaphor. A prophetical metaphor says, yeah, that if you don't obey me, I will bring upon you fear. And in this prophecy of Leviticus 26, there are five waves of punishments. In five waves.

And the first one is terror. Could that be, in a metaphoric sense, be pointing to the first wave of terrorism that we had in 9-11?

Of these five waves, when you look at them, the last one, the first, is basically the Great Tribulation. Now, I'm going to look at a little bit of history for you.

Seven years later, to 9-11-2001, which was 9-11-2008. Do you know what happened to the day? The day Lehman Brothers' holding reported a loss of $3.9 billion on 9-11, including a write-down of $5.6 billion and a major strategic restructuring of its business. The same day, Moody's Investor Services, reviewing Lehman's credit ratings, said that they would have to sell a majority stake to a strategic partner to avoid a writing downgrade. And that led to a 42% plunge in the stock market of the value of Lehman Brothers. On that Thursday, September 11, 2008, Lehman Brothers then had to look for something and do something, and that whole weekend, they tried to get in negotiations, some of you may recall.

And what happened on the Monday, on September 15th, they filed for bankruptcy, or for bankruptcy protection. That day, it triggered a whole lot of events, that you may recall, which led to, as if, you know, these events, they're all building up, it led to, you see, so there was this like, spark here, and a whole lot of events, it led to, on September 29th, 2008, there was a Monday, I remember like, if it was yesterday, because at that time, I was working as a financial advisor, and we were watching the market every day. We were watching the shares, and that was my job. And as the day finished, and I was leaving to go home, before trumpets, because that night was trumpets. And as I got home, I turned on the TV, and I saw big headlines on the news, headlines on the wall of stock market, the market crashed by seven, seven, seven. Do you know that was just before the day of trumpets? You see, these events happen, and we don't take note. Now, I wrote to somebody, oh, I said, to me. What did I think? A writing on the wall. Do you remember a story of a writing on the wall written without hands? That was not written electronically, but man did not say today the stock market will fall by seven, seven, seven.

Look at Daniel chapter five. Daniel chapter five. Brethren, I'm talking metaphorically speaking. I'm just giving you some examples that are kind of coincidental, maybe, but interesting. In Daniel chapter five, we have this case of a king called Belshazzar, reading from verse one. He made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in the presence of the thousand. While he tasted the wine, Belshazzar gave the commandment to bring the gold and silver vessels, which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple, which had been in Jerusalem, that the king and his lords and his wives and his concubines might drink from them.

They brought the gold vessels that had been taken from the temple of the house of God, which had been in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords and his wives and his concubines drank from them. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood and stone. In the same hour, the fingers of a man's hand appeared and wrote opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote, and the king's countenance changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his hips were loosened from his knees, knocked against each other.

And the king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, the Susaias, and the king spoke, saying to the wise in Babylon, whoever reads this right thing and tells me its interpretation, and have a chain of gold around his neck, he shall be the third ruler in the kingdom. That's interesting, because that means he was the second, right? People, a lot of people, have not known that, but that's, but it was a co-regency, that's why.

So there we have. And then, let's read a bit further. Verse 13. Then Daniel was brought in before the king, and the king spoke and said to Daniel, Are you that Daniel, who is the one, is one of the captors from Judah, whom my dad, my father, the king brought from Judah? And you know the story. Then let's go read a bit further what Daniel says. Verse 18. O king, the most high god gave Nebuchadnezzar your father a kingdom and majesty, glory and honor.

And because of the majesty he gave him, all the peoples, nations and language, trembled and feared before your dad, before him. Whoever he wished, he executed. Whoever he wished, he kept alive. Whoever he wished, he set up. And whoever he wished, he put down. Verse 20.

But when your dad's heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened with pride. Do we see a trend here? Pride? Lack of humility? Let's continue. He was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him. And when he was driven from the sense of man, his heart was made like the beasts. Oh, interesting clue. He is a human being. But it's actually, he was like a beast. Hint, clue. But we'll continue. And his dwelling was with the wild donkeys.

They fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the jewel of heaven, till he knew that the most high god rules in the kingdom of man, and the points over it, whomever he chooses.

But, now says Daniel too, Belshazzar. But you, Belshazzar, his son, you have not humbled your heart. Although you knew all this was your dad, you know this happened, you remember it. And you have lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven, and he took the vessels, and he took this, and therefore now the hand appeared, verse 25, Mini Mini take a lufarsa, which says, God has numbered your kingdom, and he's finished it.

You've been waiting the balances, and found waiting, and your kingdom has been divided, and will be given to others. And this number appearing of 777 on the stock exchange war, on the day before trumpets, kind of brought the scripture to my mind. Maybe right, maybe wrong, maybe it's just a coincidence, maybe it's just another metaphor.

Let's go back to Leviticus 26. Leviticus 26, and read verse 18. And after all this, if you still don't obey me, then I'll punish you seven times more for your sins. Interesting, that this was exactly seven years later. And I'll break the pride of your power. A big stock market crash causing the dollar to tumble, to me, is breaking the pride of the American power, which is the dollar. I might be wrong, I might just be a metaphor, but it's interesting. I'll make you heavens like iron, and you earth like bronze, and your strength shall be spent in vain. So brethren, we see, again, related to pride, lack of humility, arrogance. And what do we have is a more intense punishment. Sure, 9-11 was a very shocking event. And brought terrorism and war that proceeded with that. But the financial crisis has brought not only the states, but for many years, took as many years to recover out of that. And should we make physical corrections over the years to minimize these challenges? But we as a nation, have we repented? Have we repented? Or are we continue sinning? So, let's look at the third methodical prophetic statement here in Leviticus 26. But before that, let's look at history. What happened about six years and seven years in that time frame after 2008? You are brought to 2014-2015. On August 19, 2014, ISIS posts a video showing the beheading of US journalist James Foley, which was missing in Syria since 2012. Then, in September 2, 2014, the beheading of Stephen Stoloff. And on September 11, 2014, the CIA announces the number of ISIS fighters maybe more than three times what was previously estimated. And then, just a few days later, on September 13, ISIS posts a video showing the apparent execution of British aid worker David Ains. And you know what? Follow with that. With these killings, to me, people acting like beasts. Really, it was not. The actions they were doing were nothing less than really terrible behavior, like the minds of wild beasts. Therefore, let's now read Leviticus 26, verse 21. Then, if you walk contrary to me, and are not willing to obey me, I will bring on you seven times more plagues according to your sins, and I'll send wild beasts among you, which shall rob of your children. When I first read this, I said, well, are we going to have lions and tigers? And then I thought, well, maybe it's diseases, microbes, beasts. But when you read things like Belshazzar and the story of Nebuchadnezzar, that it became like a beast, and you read examples like the beast power and all those which are humans. So maybe the metaphor is wild beasts, people behaving like beasts, and because of that, they're killing our children. Are our children being sent to there and die?

Okay, it's a metaphor. I'm not saying it's exactly like this, but prophetically, it is an interesting pattern.

Brethren, could it be that that is the third wave of this metaphorical punishment due to disobedience? And has the nation repented?

And by the way, you can apply this to every other nation, not just to the states. Has the morality of our nation got closer to God?

Has it improved or worsened? Or you can look at the morality of what's happening now, and you just hear on the news of what court cases and this person wants to do that, and and you can or can't, and whatever. You've got to look after your body. I don't want to get into details. You know what I'm talking about. The morality of the country is gone one way. It's definitely not obedience to God. And there are two more waves. What is the next wave? Look at Leviticus 26 verse 24, 23 and 24. And if by these things you are not reformed by me, but you will contrary to me, verse 24, then I will contrary to you, and I'll punish you seven times more for your sins, and I'll bring a sword against you. Could that mean silver war? Could that mean silver war? Is the country of Vanguard? Is the country becoming more immoral and sinful or not? Are we becoming more divided? You just watch TV and you see there's the bites. Are we on the verge of a silver war? Brethren, I do not rejoice when I tell you these things. It is too painful to me, and it's too painful to all of us.

We all sigh and cry for the sins of the nation.

And what is the next after that? The next after that is Leviticus 26 and verse 27. He says, And if you still don't obey me, then verse 28 says, I'll chastise you seven times more, and then he says, I'll destroy your high places. Verse 30 and verse 31, I'll lay your cyst in waste. And verse 32, I'll bring the land to desolation. And verse 33, I will scatter you among the nations. To me, brethren, this is metaphorical of the Great Tribulation. Now turn with me to Matthew 24. Matthew 24. Verse 21, For then will be Great Tribulation, such as never been since the beginning of the world until this time, nor shall ever be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved alive. We saved, but for the left's sake, those days will be shortened. Brethren, time is short. By no means am I trying to imply Yah any timeline. But I am trying to say the following in verse 36, it says, But of that day and hour no man knows, nor even the angels of heaven, but my father only. God can control these things, can accelerate them, can slow them, can change them, if we but repent. But brethren, look at verse 48. But if the evil servant says in his heart, my master's delay is coming, and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards. Brethren, what I hear today when people talk, it's an outright lack of love. When people, they say something and then it's kind of maximized to something completely different, and people are actually beating one another with words. It's happening. It says, then the master will come a day when he's not looking for him in an hour that he's not aware of.

And that's why it says a little later, after the parable of the 10 versions, says in chapter 25, verse 13, Watch therefore, for you know not neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. Brethren, what am I to do as a minister? What am I to do? Should I just keep quiet and not show you how these sequences, metaphorically speaking, could be actually telling us something? Please, brethren, I am not by any means implying that there is a time sequence, yeah, that this will happen on that year or that date. No, but it does appear to have an analogy applicable to our age. So my job, I read it in Isaiah 58. In Isaiah 58, verse 1, it says, Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet, let my people, or tell my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. It doesn't say, tell the wall their transgression, tell my people, tell the church. In other words, we in the church need to wake up.

We need to be alert. We need to watch. Are we cleaning ourselves or no?

I say we, because I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to myself. I'm not pointing the fingers at you. I'm pointing the fingers at myself. I need to seriously analyze myself, particularly now as we get to the festival season and Day of Atonement and all that. We really need to analyze ourselves very carefully. Are we alert? Do we see these progression of things? And are we tending to forget? Beware that you do not forget.

You see, you and I get involved, I get involved with the hustles, hustles and bustles of a daily life, don't we? Yeah, Sabbath is over and then we got all these things to do. We got all these things to do. And look at Mark chapter 4 verse 19. Mark chapter 4 verse 19. We've got the other pedal of the sower. Mark chapter 4 verse 19. And then he says, because some of the seed falls on ground, which has got a lot of things that choke it. And verse 19 says, In the case of this world and the seed from of reaches and the desires of other things, entering in choke the world and it becomes unfruitful. Brethren, we have to be careful. We're all busy and I mean we live in a fast-paced town. There's all these things just coming around so quick. It's just the pace is increasing more and more every day. And it's easy for us to just maybe spend a little less time praying. Maybe spend a little less time studying. Maybe just, I don't have time. And we got to make sure we have those priorities so we're close to God. We're really, are we allowing these things to choke us? To choke the world. That's what it says, the world. Choke the world. You know what's God's word? And then it gets a lot easier to slip up and to do something or say something that I shouldn't have said. I mean, I had a situation. I was mentioned to a few people in the car as we're driving in today. Somebody wanted to come to the feast and this and that. They knew they're coming to the church and they got all these trials of their job and the pressure and this and that. So in the end, he told me, God told me not to go to the feast this year. I just went like this. God didn't tell you not to go to the feast since when does God tell you, don't obey my commandments.

You see, but the trial of your faith works patience. We all have tests and challenges in our lives. And you know what? We have to act in faith. Sometimes take faith, the trial of your faith. Was not God told you not God? Was you second in your little faith? And brethren, I'm not judging, please. I'm not judging this individual. I'm praying for him that I can still help him. But the lesson is, when we have trials, it's so easy to find an excuse to justify us, isn't it? We're human beings and we see, well, all these things are happening and you know what? The economy is kind of looking good. Reminds me of 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 3. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 3. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 3. For that they'll say, peace and safety. Well, things are looking good. The army is there and we've got all these measures. We're building this. We're building the wall and whatever it is, peace and safety is looking better. Then, sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pangs upon a pregnant woman and they shall not escape. Brethren, when we have a sense of false security, be careful because then you feel confident and there's that little enemy called pride that starts creeping in. It could become lethargic. Lazy? We okay? What does the Bible call that? Nothing else than lukewarm. Nothing else than lukewarm. And you know what? The status of society today is lukewarm. Society, whatever you are, people don't want to listen to God. I'm okay, Jack. I don't have to do those things. Look at Revelation 3. Revelation chapter 3. Brethren, I'm not saying it's this church or that church or this group or that group. I'm saying it's the age we live in. It's breeding this attitude. Revelation 3 verse 14, talking about to the church of Laodiceans, and it says, it says, the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God, which I was referring to Christ. I know your works, Christ says, that you're neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you look warm and you're not a cold or hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth. Vomiting is not a nice feeling. When you feel like vomiting, it is a terrible feeling. And you know, that's what God is having about us, if we all look warm. Because you say, I'm rich. Does not mean that you're rich in money. It could mean that we are rich in the spirit. You see, we're told to be poor in the spirit, which is humility. The opposite of rich in the spirit is proud and arrogant. We are more righteous. We are okay, Jack. And see, we get back to one thing. Back to one thing, a problem of pride versus humility. And the answer is in James chapter 4. James chapter 4 verse 6 through 10. He gives more grace. And he says, God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil. He will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. L'Amé, be with him. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. L'Amé, and mourn, and weep. Basically, brethren, what is it saying? It's saying, Be clothed with humility. That's what it is. When you and I submit to God, we are humble. And that's what in 1st Peter 5 verse 5 says, Be you clothed with humility.

You know the story of the parable of the wedding, and there was this man that came. He did not have the wedding garments, remember? And then it says, Hey, you do not have, do not, how come you are not dressed properly? Do you know what that man replied? Nothing. You're speechless. Why? Because he knew better. He knew better. Why? Because he knew better because he was proud, and he says, I can come wherever I feel. He was not submitting. But you know, brethren, there will be a time when the bride will be ready. He says, there is a time that the bride will be ready. And what is the bride dressed with? What is the bride dressed with? Look at Revelation 19 verse 7 and 8. Revelation 19 verse 7 and 8. Verse 7 and 8. It says, And let's be glad and rejoice, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, his wife has made herself ready. And to her was grant to be a raid, to be clothed, in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is what? The righteousness or righteous acts of the saints. What is righteousness? Righteousness is obeying God. He's doing what God says. He's submitting to God. You know, brethren, righteousness acts of the saints is something inside. What do we do? What do we do? It's not just outside appearance. It's inside. Yes. But you know what, brethren? Just like out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Just how you think you're going to dress. You think clean and proper, you're going to dress clean and proper. That's what it is. So the question is, how do we ready ourselves? How do we ready ourselves? Well, we were reading in Matthew 24, right? And then we went on to Matthew 25, and I said at the end of Matthew 25, I was about the parable of the virgin who says, therefore, watch and be ready. Well, let's read the parable of the virgins. Matthew 25. Matthew 25.

You probably know this parable of the heart, so I don't have to read it all, but you know, there was 10 virgins. The kingdom of God was the kingdom of heaven was like into 10 virgins. To Pilate to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them are wise, and five were foolish. Those were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them. Now understand, brethren, there's a lamps, and there is a container that carries extra oil. So the lamps would have a little bit of light, but as they would burn, they would burn, you would have to put a little extra oil. But the wise took, verse 4, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. You see, they had a vessel where they had oil, and then they could, you know, as the oil got used, there was oil in that vessel.

And the bridegroom was delayed. They all fell asleep. And at midnight, the cry was heard. And they said, hey, get ready, he's coming. Then all those virgins arose and turned their lamps. You see, they turned their lamps because they were working still, they turned, but the oil was kind of running low. And the foolish said to the wise, give us a little bit more of your oil. And he says, no, go out and buy. And verse 10, he says, and while they went out to buy, see, they went to buy oil. And they came back. I assume they had bought. That's an assumption. I don't know. But the point is the oil, yeah, is God's Holy Spirit. Those who were ready had enough of the Holy Spirit with them. So, how do we watch and be ready? By having extra portion of the Holy Spirit with that. How do we get the Holy Spirit? Acts 5.32 says God gives his Spirit to those who obey Him. How do we are going around the circle? We need to be obeying God, as we obey God. We get more of Holy Spirit, as we obey God. We're submitting to God, so we're not going to be proud. And God says, if you don't obey me, you're going to have these punishments. But if you obey me, you'll be blessed. Beware that you do not forget. Because by keeping God's commandments, by putting on the garments of righteousness, and practicing Christianity, by being humble, where does it start? And in there, that's where it starts. That's where it starts. It starts in the mind and in our heart. So, we must not chuck the Word. We're going to be close to God with our basic things, making sure we give God enough time through prayer, Bible study, meditation, so that we are a true disciple of Jesus Christ. So that when we have these tests and challenges, we are ready. We must have a close relationship with God by being humble and having therefore a good supply of God's Holy Spirit. And this is important because your life depends on it. My life depends on it. Our life depends on it. So, remember when we started reading Deuteronomy chapter 8, and it says, I'm bringing you through this 40 years in the wilderness. Brethren, we all have trials and challenges in this wilderness of our lives. But it says, to test us. If we humble, God will allow us to be tested. And the testing of our faith produces patience, perseverance. And God is bringing it to this good land, which is the kingdom of God. But all we found people today, I think of Ezekiel 33. Don't have to turn there, but it says, you know, it's a nice sermon. It was a good music. I felt comfortable. But it says, they don't do it. Brethren, we mustn't forget. Am I going to change? Are we going to change? Are we really becoming disciples of Jesus Christ? Our lives depend on us sticking to the basics of obeying God and being humble. As we approach the festival season, let's keep in mind of that and beware that we do not forget.