Fan or Follower

Well, good morning, brethren. Good morning! And thank you so very much, Children's Choir. One of my absolute highlights of the feast. I always love watching the children's choirs sing, and watching those young people just singing their hearts out with such joy on their faces and the smiles. It's just a beautiful, beautiful thing.

Well, brethren, it is a pleasure to be with you here in Big Fork, Montana this year, and I hope you're all having a wonderful, wonderful feast of tabernacles thus far. We did the whole hand-raising thing earlier in the feast, but we asked for the number of individuals and number of years that people have been to the feast.

We didn't ask specifically at Big Fork, and so I'm kind of curious. Just indulge me for a moment, if you will. How many of you have been in Big Fork for three years or more? Three years or more in Big Fork, Montana. All right, would you please keep your hand raised if you've been here for five years or more? All right, now I'm curious. Who's been here all seven?

Wow, awesome. That is awesome. Now, real quick, because we can't leave you guys out either. Who's here for your very first time? Yeah, me too. Look at the hands! Look at the hands! That's incredible. I don't know if you know this or not, but you guys have a reputation out there. You do. You really truly do. I have heard nothing but wonderful, wonderful things about this feast site. Just incredible things about this feast site, about the atmosphere that you guys have created, about the people that attend here, about all of the just wonderful, wonderful things that occur at this location.

We are absolutely enjoying ourselves immensely and looking forward to getting to know you all better as the week progresses. You know, it is amazing. Mr. Carson mentioned it in the sermonette this morning. It's amazing how fast it seems the time passes each year. I'm finding as I've gotten older, the time just seems to go by even quicker. You know, it does seem to go by even faster. We finish up with the feast.

We, before long, it's a spring holy day season. You know, you start to get into the summertime. You start looking forward to the fall holy days. As it gets to the fall holy day season, we start counting it down. We hit trumpets. We hit atonement and then, hey, it's time for the feast. And then, before you know it, the eight days are gone.

And you're back to then looking forward to the next year yet again. You know, the days of the Feast of Tabernacles do seem to just fly by. They do seem to just fly by. For the next several days, we're going to have an incredible opportunity. In fact, I've said this before, you will never have the same combination of the people that are in this room ever again. This is a very unique opportunity for you to be with these specific brethren for this time.

You know, as we're here, we're surrounded by the beautiful wilderness, the scenery of Montana. We're off of work and school. You know, some of you are probably very thankful for that. And we're here, and we have an opportunity to share time and meals with family and friends. And you know, we in the churches of God, we take the command to rejoice at the Feast of Tabernacles very seriously. We do, and that's an important, important aspect of these days. But it's important that we also recognize, if we're not careful, we run the risk of the Feast of Tabernacles becoming nothing more than a vacation, rather than what it truly represents for us as God's people.

The Feast of Tabernacles represents a chance for us to learn. It represents a chance for us to serve. But more importantly, it gives us an opportunity to grow spiritually. And we're going to hear a lot of wonderful messages at this Feast of Tabernacles describing the coming Kingdom of God. We're going to look at what these days picture. We're going to talk about the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ, the marriage of the Lamb. We're going to look at the values that the Kingdom of God will contain.

What I'd like to do with the time that I have today in this message is to set the stage in a way by examining the attitude with which we keep these days.

And what it is that we must do in this life with an emphasis at the time that we have at this Feast of Tabernacles, as well as once we've gone home from this assembly, in order to claim the incredible promises that these days commemorate.

In order to do this, I'd like to begin today by asking a simple, yet I feel extremely profound question. Are we attending the Feast of Tabernacles as a fan or as a follower? Now, before you jump to an answer in your head real quick, because I know all of us want to say, well, I'm here as a follower, there's a definite difference.

And for us to answer it properly, it's going to require a little bit of background and a definition in terms. There's a book out there called Not a Fan, and I can't recommend it highly enough. It's written by a man named Kyle Eidelman. This is the book here. It's called Not a Fan. And in interest of full disclosure, Kyle Eidelman is not a Sabbath keeper.

He is a Sunday-keeping Christian who is, I believe, Baptist in his background. But, you know, occasionally somebody out there hits a home run, and they occasionally get something absolutely correct. And that's the case with this book. A member in our congregation in Salem passed it on to me. And throughout this book, he talks about the characteristics of what makes somebody a fan, and then he contrasts that with the characteristics of a follower. Throughout the book, he draws lessons from various scriptural examples and really makes a very good case that many quote-unquote Christians today are really nothing more than fans.

They want all the benefits that Christianity provides, but they're unwilling to make the sacrifices necessary to obtain them. In the interest of full disclosure, while he may be writing about the, you know, specifically modern Christianity today and the attendees of these large mega churches around the country, I think it would be very presumptuous of us to automatically assume that we in the churches of God are exempt.

Like, it would be very presumptuous of us to think that we are exempt. People in the world today are fans of a lot of things. They're fans of musicians, sports teams, books, music, movies, and people who are fans at their base are really enthusiastic admirers of a person, of a place, or of a thing. As Mr. Idleman puts it, he says, the fan is the guy who goes to the football game with no shirt and a painted chest. He sits in the stands and he cheers for his team. He's got a signed jersey hanging on his wall at home and multiple bumper stickers on the back of his car.

But he's never in the game. He never breaks a sweat, never takes a hard hit in the open field. He knows all about the players. He can rattle off the latest stats, but he doesn't know the players. He yells and he cheers, but nothing's really required of him. There's no sacrifice that he has to make, and the truth is, as excited as he seems, if the team he's cheering for starts to let him down or has a few off-seasons, his passion will wane pretty quickly.

After several losing seasons, you can expect him to jump off the fan wagon and begin cheering for some other team. He is an enthusiastic admirer. Let's turn over to the book of Luke to begin with. Let's go to Luke 14. Let's turn over to the book of Luke, please. The book of Luke chapter 14. And we'll kind of see an example of the fan within Scripture.

I've seen an example of the fan here within Scripture. In this particular parable, it's the parable of the Great Supper. Christ illustrates the attitudes of the fans of his day.

Here he illustrates to the disciples and those gathered how important commitment and preparation were to this particular way of life, and he gives them the following parable beginning in verse 16 of Luke 14. So Luke 14 and verse 16, he says, then he said to them, a certain man gave a Great Supper and invited many, and he sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, come for all things are now ready. Verse 18, but they with all or they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, I bought a piece of ground. I have to go into have to see it. I ask you have me excused. Another said, I bought five yoke of oxen and I'm going to test them. I ask to have me excused. Still another said, I've married a wife and therefore I cannot come.

The invitations had been sent. People were called to the supper, and when it was time, when they were actually required to follow through and to commit, they found more important things to do. Something came up, so to speak. In the modern vernacular, we might say they had to have a root canal or they had to have their hair done, those traditional excuses that people have used. But we see the response of the man to all of this in verse 24 of Luke 14. If we skip down just a little bit, Luke 14 verse 24, says, For I say to you that none of those men who were invited, speaking of those who had provided the excuses when they had the invitations, I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste of my supper. Now, we recognize this particular parable to be about the kingdom of God, that he has called people to the kingdom. He's offered them a long-term relationship with him. But that kingdom that we're here commemorating and learning about this week requires something. It requires follow-through, and it requires commitment. In this particular example, in this parable, there was no commitment whatsoever. Because of that, they lost their opportunity. Their seat was filled by someone else, and the kingdom of God was lost to them. When offered a long-term relationship with God, the fan answers back, Yeah, the benefits of this relationship sound pretty cool, but I still want to be able to see other people. I want the gift of eternal life, but I don't want to have to give up X, Y, or Z, whatever those things may be.

You know, if we continue on in Luke 14, we'll see in the contrast the characteristics of a follower, what Christ required of his disciples, those who would follow him ultimately. Let's go to Luke 14 and verse 25. Luke 14 and verse 25. It says, Now great multitudes went with him, and he turned, and he said to them, If anyone comes to me, and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Verse 27, And whoever does not bear his cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple. You know, the requirement that Christ personally set was that those who wish to come after him must love everything else less by comparison. Love everything else less by comparison, even their own life, their wants, their personal desires, the self, quote unquote, had to be put away. They had to take up their cross and come after him. Luke 9 verse 23, we won't turn there, but you can jot it down if you'd like. It's kind of a similar passage. It puts it, Let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. Christ desires followers who put the self, quote unquote, to death daily, who deny their own will, and instead follow him wherever it is that he may lead. Let's go over to 1 Kings 19. Here's an incredible example in 1 Kings 19 of a true follower of God. 1 Kings 19, and we'll pick it up in verse 19.

1 Kings 19 and verse 19, we'll pick up the story of Elisha. We'll pick up the story of Elisha in 1 Kings 19, 19, and we'll see what this expectation is. 1 Kings 19 and verse 19, picks up the story, says, So he departed from there, speaking in this case of Elijah, and found Elisha, the son of Shephat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he was with the twelve. So he's in the back of the column here. Then Elisha passed by him and threw his mantle on him. Now you put yourself in Elisha's shoes for a minute, and you might go, Hey, wait a minute, what just happened? What is this? You know, what's going on here? Verse 21. Oh, I'm sorry, verse 20. Then he left the oxen, and he ran after Elisha and said, Please let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you. And he said to him, Go back again, for what have I done to you? So Elisha turned back from him and took a yoke of oxen, slaughtered them, and boiled their flesh, using the oxen's equipment, and gave it to the people. And they ate. Then he arose, and he followed Elisha and became his servant. You see, Elisha here is chosen by God and kind of symbolized that choice. Elisha cast his mantle on his shoulders. Elisha, in this case, was working in the fields at the time. He was the son of a wealthy family. The account says he was plowing behind 12 yoke of oxen. That's kind of the equivalent of driving BMW in those days. Kind of a status symbol. They were a well-to-do family. He had a lot going for him. This wasn't a guy with a dead-end life with nowhere else to go. Elisha had options. Elisha comes along, casts his mantle on Elisha, and we see the response of a follower. He runs home, kisses his father and mother goodbye, slaughters his yoke of oxen, builds a fire out of the harnesses, barbecues it, throws a huge feast, and then joins Elisha on the road. He never looked back. He never looked back. Elisha burned the team of oxen that he had. He didn't reserve anything just in case this whole, you know, prophet thing didn't work out. He gave up everything to follow God. His old life was over, and a new life was beginning. A new road, so to speak, he found himself on. This road that he was on with Elisha was a one-way street. Brethren, what have we given up for this life? Maybe a worldly existence, maybe a life in the world. Perhaps we've given up a job. Maybe we've lost family members. As Mr. Carson asked in the sermonette this morning, which I really appreciated, have we given up everything? Have we sacrificed everything, ourself, our desires, our wants, for God's will in our life? Because just like Elisha, this road that we walk, this life that we lead, is also a one-way street. This life is also a one-way street. God has called us. We've responded to that calling. We've all put our hands to the plow. Let's go to Luke 9, verse 62.

Luke 9, verse 62. Turns out Mark 9's not going to do what we want it to do. Luke 9, verse 62.

Luke 9 and verse 62. Christ makes the point that no man really having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. I'm looking out over a room full of plowmen, a room full of plowmen. You have taken that implement in your hand and you have begun that furrow. You have begun to plow that field and we have to keep our focus forward and finish that furrow without looking back, without having that opportunity. If yeah, but what have I given up to be a part of this particular life? The reality is, when you look at the plan of God that encompasses these days, once we've made the conscious choice to follow God, once we've been baptized, once we've received the Holy Spirit, when we've made that commitment in full understanding of what it entails, the second resurrection ceases to be available to us anymore. We know God. We understand what He requires of us. We know His ways. We know His teachings. We're either going to be resurrected or changed to spirit at Christ's return, serve as kings and priests in the millennium. We're going to be cast in the lake of fire. We cannot afford to look back. We cannot afford to have that moment. I've had a conversation with a young person just south of our area, actually, and it was interesting when we were talking. He had said something in the effect of, well, I'm kind of holding off on getting baptized. I'm just going to kind of... I'm not quite ready to sign on the dotted line yet, kind of thinking, well, I don't want to be held accountable, so to speak, for what I know now. You're walking a fine line in that situation. You know what you need to do at that point, whether you sign at the dotted line or not is a different story, but it's a fine line to walk. Brethren, we either get it right in this life or we don't. Plain and simple. 1 Peter 4, verse 17. Let's go ahead and turn there. 1 Peter 4 and verse 17. Pardon me. 1 Peter 4 and verse 17 says, For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God. Brethren, that's us. That's us now. Each and every action, every word, our attitudes, our heart being weighed and being measured each and every day. For if judgment is... For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God, and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Our actions and our words and our attitudes and all the things that we do in this life are being weighed and measured each and every day. Thankfully, our God is merciful. He grants us repentance and the power to make the changes in our life that we need to make, and we have a lifetime to work towards getting it right. But, brethren, our time is now. Our time is now. Let's go over to Luke 12. Luke 12, as we kind of continue to build here towards where we're headed today. Luke 12.

Luke 12, and we will visit one of the most sobering passages in the entire Bible. Luke 12, at the conclusion of the parable of the wise steward in Luke 12, we see Christ really lay it out there for his disciples. Luke 12. We'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 47. Luke 12 and verse 47. Luke 12 and verse 47 says, And that servant who knew his master's will and did not prepare himself, or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required, and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more. The individual who knew better and did it anyway is held to a significantly higher standard than the individual that didn't understand what they were doing. To whom much is given, much is required. And that statement should give us all serious pause. We have been given much. We've been given a lot. God revealed to us his plan. He's given us his truth. He's given us the knowledge of these feast days and what they represent. And again, to whom much is given, much is required. And really, that's the biggest difference between a fan and a follower. A fan has a lot of head knowledge. That's where it ends. The follower instead has application. They deny themselves. They follow through. Head knowledge isn't enough. Action's required, and the follower really lives what they know to be true, sacrificing the things that get in the way of that life. God expects that we will redeem the time that we have and that we will make use of what we've been given. One of the things that we've been given is eight days here in Big Fork, Montana, and we're expected to use that time wisely while we're here to build godly character, to learn to be kings and priests, to serve others and grow spiritually. So again, I'll ask the question that we began with. Are we attending the Feast of Tabernacles as a fan? Here for the fun, the friends, the time off of work? Or are we attending the Feast as a fully committed follower of god, to learn, to serve, and to grow? There's a big difference between the two, and in my own life I've seen and experienced both. I'm going to tell on myself a little bit here. I'm not particularly proud of this, but before I was baptized, I once attended the Feast of Tabernacles in Kelowna for the express purpose that the drinking age in British Columbia was 19. That was my sole purpose in deciding to go to Kelowna, British Columbia for the Feast one year. You know, in the words of Jeff Foxworthy, if you've ever chosen a feast site because the drinking age was 19, you might be a fan.

If you've ever gotten frustrated and gotten a bad attitude about the entire feast because serving others got in the way of what you wanted to do, you might be a fan. If you've ever blown off an opportunity to attend a Bible study so you can go play paintball, instead you might be a fan. You know, that young man has matured a bit since then, but the same underlying attitudes require constant checks. Turns out the Feast of Tabernacles wasn't about me.

Once I got myself out of the way, once I learned that lesson, these days took on all new meaning. Suddenly it became more about what I could do for others, how I could serve others and learn and grow and be more like Christ, be more like our Father. The reality is that these days provide us with numerous opportunities to build God the character. These days provide us with—and these are the points we're going to take a look at today—they provide us with an opportunity to learn, they provide us with an opportunity to serve, and they provide us with an opportunity to grow.

Learn, serve, and grow. And so with the time that we have left today, I'd like to take the time to explore these briefly. Firstly, we have an opportunity to learn while we're here. We have an opportunity to learn while we're here.

As this week progresses, we're going to spend time examining the roles that God's people will be fulfilling in the kingdom. We have places in Scripture that we see numerous locations in Scripture, the roles that we will be fulfilling within the kingdom itself. We are called to be kings and priests. We're not called to be doorman. We're not called to be janitors. We are called to be kings and priests. You know, in America, the concept of a king is really removed from us. This whole concept of royalty, in some ways, is very removed from us here in the United States.

But recently, you know, the last few years, the world had a chance to kind of experience royalty again with the marriage of the duke and duchess of Cambridge and the birth of their son, Prince George. We have now a young man who was born who might very possibly become king someday over England. And so, as you might imagine, as a young man and his future king, Prince George is going to be trained from a very young age how to be a king. You know, there is a lot of training that is going to go on in that kid's life, you know, just as his father was trained to be a king.

He's going to have numerous lessons and classes throughout his early life and into his teen years and into his early adult years that will prepare him for the day when he will eventually take over the throne of England. You know, our Sabbath and our Holy Day services, the ABC program, really in the church is about the closest thing that we have to formalized king training in our church, you know, formalized classroom-type setting training on how to be a royal.

And while this is really essential, while the stuff that we do in Sabbath services, Holy Days, ABC, all those things are very important, the majority of our royal training takes place by experience. It takes place out there in the world around us seven days a week, 365 days a year, by applying what we've learned in the classroom to real-life situations. Practicing this way of life each and every day is how we learn to be kings and priests. We're in training every day of the feast, every day that we are here in Big Fort.

We are in training. The way that we deal with the others whom we're up in the campsites with, you know, we're over here, there's a whole bunch of people over here camping in the campsites, you know, how we deal with one another and how we treat one another is training. The patience that we exhibit while we wait in lines or while we might deal with inconveniences, you know, we had the other morning, I'm not, it seems like when everybody's getting ready for services, power will trip. So we're down there in our cabin the other morning and we're just getting ready to get going for services and all of a sudden just there goes the lights.

Kind of, what? What just happened? Who turned the lights off? We thought Mallory grabbed the lights and was playing with the lights. But, you know, little things like that, they might be inconveniences, but how do we deal with those inconveniences? How do we, how do our attitudes or how are our attitudes with regards to those? Maybe the interactions that you've had with camp staff, the love that you've shown to your brethren and to the people of Big Fort and Kalispell, the service that you provide to other people.

You know, we serve as ambassadors of God to the people of this area and brethren, they are watching. The people at this camp are watching. They are seeing our example. They are seeing who we are and what we are and what we profess to be, just like the people of Big Fork and the people of Kalispell. Not only that, our Heavenly Father is watching, and that's far more important. We're learning the skills now that are going to be invaluable in the beginning time of the millennium.

If you think about what this world is going to come out of, the individuals who will still be alive at that time coming out of the horrible events that are going to precede Christ's return, there are particular skills that are going to be absolutely essential skills. One of those skills is likely to be conflict resolution. Despite Satan's influence being removed for the thousand years of the millennium, human nature is still present.

You know, we're still going to have issues occasionally crop up. Peace will not necessarily be immediate. It'll be ongoing as time goes on. People who remain will be from every nation on earth. They will be Jewish, Muslim, Catholic, Protestant. You add a bar and you have one of the most awkward jokes in human history. I mean, you imagine the kinds of conflicts that we are going to have to work out among people. Major issues that are going to need to be mediated, and God's law and his way of life will need to be taught to all regardless of their backgrounds. Conflict resolution is going to be essential. Reconciling people to one another is going to be critical.

Brethren, how has our track record been on conflict resolution so far? How well do we do it? Conflict resolution. Have we got it down yet? Do we in the churches of God have reconciliation figured out? I think if we're honest with ourselves, I mean, if we're honest with ourselves, I think we'll admit that we don't do this particularly well.

And frankly, never have. That has to change. That has to change. We as humans always seem to desire justice when we've been wronged. We always want justice. Oh, that guy. We always want justice. But boy, when we've wronged someone else, we sure hope and pray for mercy, don't we? It's interesting dichotomy. We always want justice for others. We always want mercy when we've wronged someone else. Let's go to 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 17.

2 Corinthians 5 and verse 17 discusses the importance of reconciliation and just really how crucial it really is. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 17 says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

Old things have passed away. When we look at our lives, the things that we used to do have passed away. They are done. They are buried. That new creation has come out of those waters. It says, Behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, the top part of 18 there is God the Father. All things are of God the Father, who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, again reconciling to God the Father, not imputing their trespasses to them and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. You know, as begotten children of God, our Father reconciled us to himself through Christ's sacrifice. His blood bridged that gulf between God and man once and for all, enabling us to come boldly before the Father's throne, enabling us to come before God's throne with Christ as our mediator and ask for repentance when we've gone the wrong way.

As such, that sacrifice was made not just for us in this room, not just for those in the United Church of God, and not just for those in the United States. That sacrifice was made for all of mankind, and all will have their opportunity. God doesn't desire that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And we are ambassadors to this world, and we must reconcile ourselves first to God, but then secondly to one another. This process takes work. It takes love, and for us to learn it well, we have to practice it constantly. It's just like music. You've got to practice it a lot to make the piece sound good.

You have to go through it time and time and time and time again. All those little nuances to make it work. You can't expect to figure it out the very first time you run through it. But thankfully, Christ outlined this process for us in Matthew 18. Let's turn over there real quick. Matthew 18. Because it turns out in Matthew 18, the sheet music is all right there. The process that has been provided for us for reconciliation with our fellow man is right there.

Matthew 18. We'll pick it up in verse 15. Matthew 18 and verse 15. It says, Moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.

If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if you will not hear, take with you one or two more, that by the wealth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established. And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses, even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.

God lines it out for us to see the process and to practice. The problem comes when our human nature gets in the way of the process. When we want to go straight to our friends and tell them everything that so and so did to us.

We want to go and just, or we want to go and line ourselves up a couple of people that weren't there, but we'll tell them what happened, and then we'll go with two or three witnesses. Or we want to avoid the conflict with the person entirely so we never bother to go to them directly.

Instead, we jump to step three and we take it to a higher authority, complaining about what that person did, or worst of all. And this happens a lot, unfortunately, in this day and age. We jump on the internet and we air it out to the digital world. God line this process out for us explicitly in this passage so that we'll use it, so that we will reconcile ourselves with one another.

We see as Matthew 18 progresses, we see Peter, kind of ever the pragmatist, asks Christ the clarifying question in verse 21, kind of hoping for a finite answer, and maybe not expecting the answer that he received. Verse 21 of Matthew 18, Peter came to him and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me?

And I forgive him. Up to seven times, Jesus said to him, I don't say to you up to seven times, but up to 70 times seven. We've always kind of joked, hey, that's only 490 times. Man, 491, you're getting your comeuppance. You know, no, not at all. This is this idea that we are to have a forgiving heart. We are to be someone who forgives and who is merciful. You know, our brothers and sisters in the church, we are commanded to forgive again and again and again, to be patient with them as they grow spiritually and as we grow spiritually.

Now, not in a way that's going to put us in danger of financial or physical harm, you know, not in that manner, but as much depends on us with a forgiving heart dealing peaceably with one another. You know, imagine how hard it can be to deal with some in the church sometimes, you know, as we have issues with people and our brethren in our church areas. Imagine the difficulties that we've had with one another in the past, and then imagine for a moment dealing with people in the world, people new to the law of God who have just come out of an incredibly difficult time of tribulation, and who frankly have thousands of years of hating one another under their belts.

We got our work ahead of us. Rather than from a reconciliation and a conflict resolution standpoint, we better keep training. We'd better keep training because those skills are going to come in, you know, incredibly useful in the millennium. Secondly, the Bible talks very much about our need for service to one another, to serve one another. We're all aware of numerous scriptures in the New Testament that it's better to give than receive.

We're not to be like the Gentile leaders and lord it over others, that we should serve one another with the various talents that we've been given. Really, the overarching message of Christ's ministry was service to others. We recognize that as a primary tenet of Christianity. But in the book of Deuteronomy, we actually see an interesting progression as God was very clear with his expectations for ancient Israel as well. Let's go to Deuteronomy 10. Let's go to Deuteronomy 10. Deuteronomy 10, and we're going to pick it up in verse 12. Deuteronomy 10 and verse 12. The first part of this sounds very familiar to Micah 6.

It sounds very familiar. What does the Lord require of you? Deuteronomy 10, verse 12, and now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways and to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and his statutes which I commanded you today for your good. Here we see Moses is letting the people know what God's requirements of them are. And it's almost like he's holding up fingers as he lets them off. Fear him, obey him, love him, and serve him. You know, here's your four things.

And there's two ways really you can look at this. You can either look at it as these are four things that we need to attain at some point in time in our lifetime, or the way I personally prefer to look at it, one thing leading to another. Fear to obedience, to love, to service. True obedience cannot occur without godly fear in place. True obedience can't occur without godly fear. Love for God can't occur without proper obedience.

And a truly serving heart can only come from the agape love of God. As you progress through these stages of our faith, the fear of God leads you to obey him more fully. When you have a good and awesome respect for your heavenly Father, you want to obey. The obedience of God leads you to then love him. And once you've loved him, you'll serve God and his people. You can shortcut this. You can be shortcut. You can serve before you fear God or before you love God, but it's a good possibility that you'll burn out if you're not bought into the reasons why.

If you're not bought into the reasons why, we're just going through the motions. And service will become a burden. But if it's done in the right order, service becomes a natural extension of our relationship with God. It's not burdensome. It's invigorating and it's energizing. Now, these days in the Feast of Tabernacles provide us with a number of opportunities for service. And traditionally, we tend to think of service as the outward things, the things that people see. You know, we think of service as speaking. We think of it as ushering. We think of it as seeing in the choir, serving on the sound crew, you know, doing decorations or manning parts of the hall.

Safety, security, things like that. And there are plenty of those kind of opportunities available. But what we sometimes don't recognize as service opportunities is simply getting to know and fellowshiping with the brethren, which is something all of us can do. Praying for those that are in need of prayers or maybe even providing a smile or a word of encouragement to the mom or the dad who's been in and out of services with the same fussy child again and again.

You know, Hebrews 10, 24, was mentioned in this feast, but let's turn over there again. Hebrews 10, verse 24. The importance of getting to know one another cannot be overstated. It can't be overstated. Hebrews 10 and verse 24. Hebrews 10 and verse 24 says, let us consider one another. That word consider is kotunoueou in Greek. And it's really looking deeply. It's not a surface-level observation. It's not this, you know, kind of surface-level observation that really doesn't take into account the internals.

This is a deep, deep introspection of something or someone. Let us consider one another, really get to know one another, in order to stir up love, provoke love, and good works, not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much the more, as you see the day approaching.

You know, we have to get to know each other well enough that we can provoke one another to love and to good works. Now, I try not to use my children as examples all that often, but there is one of my sons who shall remain nameless who has really learned how to provoke his brother well. Like, he just knows exactly what it takes to push that little button to get the reaction. Would you say that he knows his brother pretty well? Yes. You know, do we know our brethren well enough that we can push that button for love and good works in a positive way, obviously.

But do we know each other well enough to be able to do that? Getting to know each other so we can provoke one another to love and to good works is service. Taking care of the widows and the elderly, as it talks about in the book of James, is service. Putting the needs of others ahead of your own is service. And that really is how we begin to move the needle from fan to follower. Denying the self and serving others by putting their needs ahead of our own. There are some in this room who are the only people in their church areas, you know, very small church areas, and they don't have a regular opportunity necessarily to assemble with others.

It's crucial that they get that opportunity at this feast, and it is a service to provide that opportunity. I've attended feast sites in the past where individuals bail out of services immediately after the worship service is done. As soon as the closing song is coming to an end, the guy still got his arms in the air, and folks are headed up the aisles to go do something that afternoon. You know, I've been to places where folks come in a little bit late because they were up late the night before or whatever, but you guys have a really good thing going on here.

Everyone on site or most people on site, and such a huge focus on fellowship and getting to know one another. That is uncommon in most feast sites today, and it is a beautiful, beautiful thing that you have going in this area. You know, we don't want to find ourselves keeping the Feast of Tabernacles and missing out on these opportunities to get to know one another or to serve one another, because we're so concerned about making it to this place or to that place to go and do this.

If the activities that we undertake while we're at the feast don't have some aspect of edifying our brethren, fostering relationships or iron sharpening iron, then frankly, we're spinning our wheels. We're spinning our wheels. We have eight days to squeeze every drop of spiritual energy from the time that we have here, because when these days are over with, we are entering the dark days of winter when we get home. And they do get—up here, it gets even darker. We're kind of incredibly amazed at how dark it gets up here comparatively to over in Oregon.

But we enter those dark days of winter, and we've got to be able to draw from what we've stored up while we were here during that harvest to get us through those long winter months. The last thing that we have an opportunity to do while we're here is to grow spiritually. And that is one of those incredible opportunities of the Feast of Tabernacles and what I really appreciated Mr. Carson bringing out in the sermonette today. That, you know, we have opportunity to be zealous and to grow while we're here at this Feast of Tabernacles. We all come to God from different places. We all come from different backgrounds. Some may have had the ball on the 50-yard line.

Others may have gotten it on the 10. The expectation of all is that we move that ball forward. Regardless of where we are, the expectation is that we move it forward. And we talked earlier a little bit about how God puts situations in front of us and measures our way of responding to those situations as a way of teaching us and training us. And, you know, sometimes maybe the first time he puts that situation in front of us, we fail miserably. I mean, like, plain as in flames kind of miserably. And God says, all right, we need a little more time on that one.

Let's put it out there again. Let's see how he goes—how he deals with this one the second time. How are you going to do the second time around? Did you learn your lesson? Right? Maybe that next time that lesson comes around, we've learned a little bit more and we respond perhaps a little bit better.

Maybe when it comes around again, we do even better. And eventually we reach a point where our response to that situation is in line with what God expects of us. When we've reached that point, we've grown. We've grown spiritually. And really, it's through that growth that God determines whether we're there yet, whether we've moved from fan to follower. And really, he's looking at these rubber meets the road kind of aspects of Christianity.

The nitty-gritty stuff. You know, keeping the commandments, but not just physically. Looking at the spiritual aspect as well. How do we love our fellow man? Do we love our enemies? Do we do good to those who spitefully use us? Do we repay evil for evil? Will we turn the other cheek? Will we have patience? Will we have gentleness and kindness? Again, each and every day he gives us opportunity to prove ourselves. Let's go over to Genesis 22. Genesis 22, as we kind of start to draw things to a close here today. Genesis 22. Genesis 22, and we'll pick it up in verse 9. Genesis 22 and verse 9.

This is in that section where Abraham gets this kind of strange command from God to take his son and go up to Mount Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering. Genesis 22 and verse 9. You might think as you're turning there, put yourself in Abraham's place. This sounds a little bit different. This isn't along the lines, maybe, of what God has asked him to do in the past. This is the only son that he's been provided. He had a three-day walk to get there. You might consider what in the world was going through his head for three days as he's walking towards Mount Moriah with his son by his side. But we pick it up in verse 9 of Genesis 22. And then they came to the place where God had told him, and Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order, and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And it's another aside, but interesting to consider. Isaac would have been so much stronger than Abraham at that point in time in Abraham's life. And Isaac yielded himself in this process as well. He could have fought back. He could have... it doesn't say that. He bound his son, laid him on the altar upon the wood. Abraham stretched out his hand. He took the knife to slay his son. Verse 11. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham! So he said, Here I am. And he said, Do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me. Now I know, now I know that you fear me. God knew at that moment that Abraham was not a fan. He proved it. He proved it. Brethren, what will be our now I know moment, this feast? Perhaps God offers us an opportunity to serve this feast in some capacity. You know, we heard a call for volunteers to help pick up chairs and whatever else. And we just don't hesitate. We sign right up and God says, Hey, now I know. Now I know that person's willing to give up whatever it was they were going to do and go and help. Maybe we find out about a need in somebody else's situation and we step in to help them out in some way. And God says, Now I know. Now I know that you're thinking of other people's needs over your own. Maybe we'll be confronted with some form of trial or temptation and we make it through in faith. And God says, Now I know. But on the other hand, maybe we have an opportunity to serve and we choose not to. And God says, Oh, now I know. Now I know. Or maybe we discover something about somebody else's situation and we decide, I don't want to get involved. I'm just going to let somebody else take care of it. And God says, Now I know. Now I know. Or maybe we'll be confronted by trial or temptation in our faith waivers. And God says, Now I know. Every day we're faced with situations and choices. God is proving his people as a master silversmith proves and refines silver. God expects it will grow and that will become more pure as this process progresses. Let's go over to Proverbs for our final scripture today. We'll go to Proverbs 17 and verse 3. Proverbs 17 and verse 3. Proverbs 17 and verse 3. Proverbs 17 3 says, The refining pot is for silver, the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the hearts. Brethren, God is trying our hearts. He's proving our level of commitment to him. He doesn't desire fans. He wants truly committed followers, individuals who will give him their all, who will bow their very lives at his feet.

Scripture is very clear. If we don't get this life right, the incredible kingdom of God that we will spend so much time learning about this week won't be available to us. Our time is now. So are we here for the right reasons? Are we here as committed followers of God, ready to learn the lessons that God has provided us each and every day, denying ourselves and taking up our cross? Or are we here because we're fans of what these days can provide us? A nice vacation, maybe away from work and school, a chance to buy the things we couldn't normally afford because we have some second tithe? You know, the feast provides us with numerous opportunities to learn daily lessons to prepare us for the kingdom. It provides us with opportunities for service so that we can learn to be leaders in God's kingdom. And it gives us an environment that really is optimal and conditioned for spiritual growth. We need to use it. We need to use it well. Our Heavenly Father desires committed followers. So are you in the stands? Are you on the field? Are you a fan or a follower?