[Len Martin] Well, thank you to the choir. That was a beautiful job. Any of you that have family members that are in the choir know that they work for months. My wife is in the choir. We often hear her in various corners of the house practicing on her own. But it's wonderful when they all come together and they harmonize as beautifully as they did. So certainly enjoyed that special music. And thank you all for all the hours that goes into preparing that offering to God. And we get to enjoy hearing that, so thank you for that. Well, the past 18 months, since the pandemic began to consume our lives, we have all had to deal with many stressors, certainly to some degree, fear of infection, fear of losing jobs, financial burdens, isolation, masks, no masks, vaccine, no vaccine.

A recent study showed that the result of the pandemic and all these lockdowns and mandates has created a significant amount of mental health issues in...well, I would say in our nation, but worldwide actually. There's a growing body of evidence to suggest that this has led to anxiety, depression, various manias, even to some degree acute suicidal tendencies. Suicide rates last year have gone up significantly.

In a familiar verse in 2 Timothy 3:1, Paul told Timothy that certainly know that in the last day, perilous times would come. The word that he uses in that verse for perilous means difficult or dangerous. Furious is a translation of that as well. The only other place in the New Testament that that word is used is in Matthew chapter 8, when Jesus Christ is casting out demons, if you remember the account, into the swine, and they were described as exceedingly fierce. So that is a word that describes the times in which we are moving. Yet we have come here to get a taste of a better time yet to come, a perfect time to come.

As we've already heard the feast pictures a 1000-year period after Christ's return, when His first fruits will bring harmony and peace to this earth. And as we heard last evening, it'll take time. It won't start out immediately that way, it'll take time. Jesus Christ will be assisted by His saints, the first fruits, those of us who are baptized, when Christ returns, those that are in the grave awaiting the resurrection will have the opportunity, if we're found worthy, as we heard even in the first message today, to rule with Jesus Christ. And so we come here to enjoy just a small taste of that. We know we can never make that fully happen here, but we come together as a family to enjoy a small taste of that at this time. We're going to be working in the Kingdom, we're going to be serving in the Kingdom. That's what ruling with Jesus Christ will be all about. And so, although we're living in very challenging times, God never tells us, "Well, in challenging times, don't come keep my feast." He says, no, in spite of all the challenging times, I still want you to go and assemble and to rejoice and to keep this feast of Tabernacles.

Notice Leviticus chapter 23. In Leviticus chapter 23, we see all of the feasts of the Lord spelled out for us, beginning with a weekly Sabbath.

Leviticus 23:1, it says, "And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, 'Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, the feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations.'"

These are my feasts, my days. And He begins with the weekly Sabbath, the words that are used here in verse two, Moad as an appointed time, an assembly convened for a definite purpose. If you study into the definition of that word, it is a place of solemn assembly. The word that's used there is used to distinguish those places where God places His name and where His people are to gather and to focus on God and their relationship with Him. And at these places, these appointed times, we have a holy convocation, as it says here. The words there, you can look them up later, Kodesh Mikra, words there. It is a convoking of His people, an assembly, a summoning of a flock to come before God. And it's at a set time and a set place, that's what we're observing right now. A holy convocation as God has summoned us into His presence at this time.

And so each and every year, as I said, regardless of what's going on in the world around us, God summons His people to leave the caress of this world behind to the best of our ability and come before Him. Let's continue here in Leviticus 23. We'll drop down to verse 33.

Leviticus 23:33-36 "And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, 'Speak to the children of Israel saying the 15th day of the seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacle for seven days to the Lord. On the first day, there shall be a holy convocation," Kodesh Mikra, again. "You shall do no customary work on it. For seven days, you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. And 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.”

A sacred assembly. Some translations say solemn assembly. If you look up that word, it means it's a restrained gathering. We're not here to to party when we come together at this time as we're gathered and we're sitting here right now, it's not the time for that. It's sacred, it's solemn. And we're gathered here as God has commanded us. Let's continue on here.

Levtiticus 23:36-40 "...is a sacred assembly. You shall do no customary work on it. These are the feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire, a burnt offering and a grain offering, a sacrifice and drink offerings, everything on His day besides the Sabbath of the Lord, besides your gifts, besides all your vows, and besides all your free will offerings, which you give to the Lord." Verse 39, "Also on the 15th day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of land, you shall keep the feast of the Lord for seven days." Verse 40. "And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of the beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, bowels of leafy trees, and willows of the brook." And when I was a kid, this was my favorite part. "And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days".

You know, we've often heard those four key enemies of our faith, our anxious care, fear, doubt, and human reasoning. In spite of what we've gone through in the last 18 months, God wants us to set that aside and come before Him as His people summoned to be here. And He wants us to rejoice. He wants us to be able to rejoice. It's finally then in verse 41.

Leviticus 23:41 "You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations, and you shall celebrate it in the seventh month." And he goes on to speak of dwelling in booths.

Brethren, we need to be here. God knows we need to be here. He knows we need this time to refresh, to rejoice, and to gather together. In the time I have yet today for the sermon message, we're going to examine more closely what God expects of us while we're here and how we can make the most of the time that we have together coming before God. Mr. Cobb, in the first message mentioned the way of give versus the way of get in one of His contrasts. I'm going to talk about that myself. Did you come to give or did you come to get? And maybe the answer should be both. I've titled the sermon, "Give or get. What does God expect?"

Come with me to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. In Hebrews 10, we are reminded, familiar verse, verse 25, "To not forsake the assembling of ourselves together." So let's look at that quickly. It is a memory verse, and yet back home, I've probably brought this up, they would probably tell you too many times. I bring it up a lot because I think we should remember why it is we do gather.

Hebrews 10:25 is a familiar passage, "Not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much more as you see the day approaching."

Now, before I go on, we all understand there are reasons why some people can't assemble. I'm not going to go there. We know there are some legitimate reasons why people cannot, but for those of us who can, we need to understand why it is. Let's back up one verse, verse 24, because here's our why.

Hebrews 10:24 "Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works."

This is why God wants us to assemble, that we would come together as His people considering each other and how we might stir up love and good works amongst each other. Can we do this for the next eight days? Feast of tabernacle plus last great day. Can we consider one another and how we might be able to stir one another up to love and good works? And as He says, not forsaking the assembly. We see here that we should, as the words say, consider one another. Think of them, think of their trials. You know, even on a weekly basis as you're preparing and going to Sabbath services, do you think about your congregation and who's having a trial? And when I see them, what can I say to encourage them or as I consider them to stir them up? These are all outwardly focused purposes. It's why we come together or part of why we come together, that we would consider each other and how we might stir one another up towards love and good works.

God wants us to come here with a mindset of giving. God is a giver. God is a giver. You know, in fact, each and every holy day we give an offering. We just gave one a few moments ago. And why do we do that? Well, certainly we do it because God commands it. That's part of who we are as His people, we do what God commands us to do. But there should be much more to it than that. I believe it's because God wants us to learn His character. He's a giver. And so on the holy days, He wants us to give. You know, on each and every holy day, His character of giving is seen. We were talking back home about this, on Passover, though it's not a holy day, He gave His only begotten son. We jump ahead to the days of unleavened bread, He gave us freedom from sin. He gave His law. We go to Pentecost, He gave His Holy Spirit.

See each of the holy days, God's showing us He's a giver, of course, atonement, He gives the world freedom from Satan's control. We come to the Feast of Tabernacles and He gives humanity a perfect world in which to dwell and rulers, us, to help bring that about. He gives that to mankind. And then we come to the eighth day and, of course, He gives everyone who ever lived a chance. Every holy day, God shows I'm a giver and I want you to be a giver too. And so as we give an offering, that's just a little part of learning to be the way God is, he's a giver. So let's consider what we should give while here at the feast. What can you and I give while here at the feast?

Number one, join me in Deuteronomy chapter 12, Deuteronomy chapter 12. There are things you and I can do to show God that we're givers too, more than just our offering. Deuteronomy chapter 12, here in Deuteronomy chapter 12, we find specific instructions given to Israel on how they were to conduct themselves in the Promised Land. And notice what we can learn from this instruction.

Deuteronomy 12:1-4 "These are the statutes and judgments," beginning verse one, "which you shall be careful to observe in the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you to possess. All the days that you live on the earth, you shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations, which you shall dispossess, serve their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. And you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire. You shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place. You shall not worship the Lord your God with such things."

Number one, give God your undivided attention while you're here. That's what He wanted them to do. Destroy all those distractions. Get rid of all of them. Destroy the idols, the pillars, all those things. Give God our undivided attention. That is a challenge in our world today, giving God our undivided attention because it's something we have to strive and focus on doing. They were instructed to cut themselves off of all those things that their eye would look to, to maybe want to follow, or to copy or to emulate. You know, for us, how does that apply today? You know, God wants us to give Him our undivided attention, certainly right here, right now in a holy convocation. And sometimes that can be a challenge because of the world in which we live in. We're highly connected.

You know, I sometimes use my tablet during services as a bible app and I'll follow along. I can look up words quickly. So I like doing that, but I have to make sure I turn notifications off. Because you know what happens all of a sudden, boop, you got email, right? And what does your mind want to do? Wants to go check the email. Your attention just got pulled off. And so for us, we should look at, you know, what we can do during a holy convocation to give God our undivided attention. And as I said, I'm guilty of it if I'm using my phone or my tablet to follow along. That if something pops up, your natural tendency, it's like an addiction, right? Like, how long can I not look at it?

So one of the things we could do is turn those things off during services so that we can give God our undivided attention. You know, avoid social media and tweets and posting all that stuff that so often can consume our lives. But show God, as He said, just get rid of all those things and give me your attention. And we come here and we'll be here for about four hours. No, I'm kidding. We'll be here a little while, but we're giving God our attention, right? All the messages we're going to hear, the men have worked diligently to prepare not their words, but God's words. And so listen to what God has to say and give Him our undivided attention. You know, try to avoid texting and emailing.

You know, in my corporate environment before being hired by the church, I too had a boss that knew that he could reach me on my phone. And so I would turn my phone off during church because otherwise...he didn't know when I was sitting in services, so it wasn't like he was deliberately trying to annoy me. But that's what I had to do. I had to turn it off, leave it in my bag. So again, we should be able to give God our undivided attention.

Matthew 6:33 Jesus Christ said, "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you."

You know, put God first. Seek Him first. Put away distractions. Give God...it's the first thing we can give, give God our undivided attention. So that's my first point.

Number two, give God His deserved respect. His deserved respect. His reverence. Give Him that. Deuteronomy chapter 31. You know, the Hebrew word for respect or reverence is yirah. And it's a verb meaning to fear, to respect, to reverence, to have awe, to be in awe. Like, oh, that's God. To have that level of respect for the God of the universe that opened up your mind. I mean, he's the reason you're here, right? If it wasn't for Him calling us, we wouldn't even know to be here. But it means to have reverence and respect. You know, the fear of the Lord, as it says, is the beginning of knowledge. That's in Proverbs 1. That's a use of that word for yirah. But in Deuteronomy 31, during the reading of the law, every seven years on the Feast of Tabernacles, notice what it says beginning in verse 10.

Deuteronomy 31:10-13 "And Moses commanded them saying, 'At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time, in the year of release at the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God, in the place which He chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing." Verse 12, "Gather the people together, men and women and the little ones and the strangers who is within your gates that they may hear and they may learn to fear," oh, revere, "the Lord your God and carefully observe all the words of this law. And that their children who have not known it may hear and learn to fear," oh, same word, "the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess."

God never wanted a relationship with His kids where they fear Him trembling. I think Mr. Preston mentioned that last night. There's a time for that. And willful disobedience is a time to maybe fear God. But that's not what He's wanting from us. He wants us to want a relationship with Him, to love Him and revere Him and respect Him for who and what He is and all that he's done. And that's part of what we come here to do. And so we should give God His deserved respect. Notice Deuteronomy chapter 10. He does expect us to obey Him, but our obedience should be of our heart. Deuteronomy chapter 10, we'll look at just a few verses here.

Deuteronomy 10:12-13 "And now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you but to fear the Lord your God," same word, "to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes, which I command you today for your good".

That's what He requires. He doesn't want us trembling in fear. He wants us to have a heart that desires a relationship with Him, that desires to want to revere Him and respect Him and serve Him.

Deuteronomy 10:16 "Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart and be stiff-necked no longer."

Deuteronomy 10:20 "You shall fear the Lord your God, you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast and take oath in His name."

Again, fear God. And serve Him with all your heart, with all your soul. God wants that level of relationship with us. And so while we're here, we should give God His deserved respect, His reverence. As I said, He's why we're here. None of us did this on our own. You know, He called, we responded. That's the part we did. But He initiated it.

This message of fearing God and having reverence for Him is repeated frequently in scripture, giving God His deserved respect, honor, reverence, awe with all of our heart, with all of our soul...we know in other scriptures, all of our mind, all of our might is what he's asking. Deuteronomy 14, again, this is the second thing we can give. God is a giver and we can give while we're here as well. Deuteronomy 14. Here we see instructions on the handling of the tithe for purposes of keeping God's holy days. And in giving these instructions, there is again a purpose stated here.

Deuteronomy 14:22-23 "You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year. 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."

And so I know when I was younger, my whole planning for the Feast of Tabernacle was all the rejoicing part. That's a childhood immaturity, right? "God did say rejoice, so..." And He does, but yet He also wants us to become like Him. And he's a giver and He gives us opportunities to give back to Him. And so as we see here, the tithing principles are about learning to fear the Lord. And so when God sets a place for us, we need to honor and respect that. Let's drop down. Let me see where I'm at. No, right. Well, it's right here.

Deuteronomy 14:23 "Eat before the Lord your God, in the place where He chooses to make His name abide."

God sets a place and a time and a location, right? God says to come where He places His name. And it's in that time and that place where God's going to be.

Today, it happens to be 2:00 in the afternoon right here, tomorrow it's going to be 10:00 in the morning. That's where God will be. And that's where He wants us to be tomorrow morning at 10:00 AM. Give God the due respect he's owed, be there at services at the place and the time that He has appointed. And there we will give God due respect. You know, the entire period of time we are here is an appointed time. The entire Feast of Tabernacles in the eighth day is an appointed time. And yet we take a portion of that and we have services, and we certainly hope and desire that everybody makes it a priority to be here at services. Show God you desire to be where He is. If we desire to be in the Kingdom, if that's where we want to be, then show Him that by being here at services, "God I want to be where you're at. And if services are 10:00 in the morning, that's where I'm going to be because that's where God's going to be." All of these show God what our heart is comprised of because we can all say things and think things, but our actions tell everything.

Deuteronomy 14, drop down. We'll continue here in verse 24. Because we don't want to just show up. We want to be prepared when we do arrive. I often tell, you know, my family, the thing I look forward to most at the Feast of Tabernacles is I get to take notes. Because I'm speaking every week. So I get to come here and sit and take notes. You know, I've got a, I have my feast...I have my sermon notebooks going back to like the 1980s, three ring. I just keep 'em all. And, you know, once you get hired, all of a sudden there's not a lot of notes going in it because you're usually the one talking, right? So I love the Feast of Tabernacles because I get to come here and I get to take notes. It's about being prepared and wanting to learn.

Deuteronomy 14:24-25 Again, speaking of the tithe, "If the journey's too long for you and you're 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, then you shall exchange it for money. Take the money in your hand and go to the place where the Lord your God chooses."

And so this is something we understand. You know, back in the day when they were an agrarian society, it would be a hard thing to take all your flocks and your herds and go. So there was a way to convert it. We don't think of it much because we just automatically put away our second tithe, and it's already in the form of money when we leave. But we show God that we want to be where He is by showing up at the appointed time. So again, let's show God that we want to be where He is. Let's give Him the due respect that he's deserved. Remember these services are holy convocations, a summoning of the flock. God has set a time. He's going to be here and He's calling for the flock to come and sit and hear what's been prepared. So again, not only does our attendance show God that you want to be where He is, but more importantly, it shows that you want to be like He is because you want to learn more about who and what God is and Jesus Christ as our elder brother and His example as well. And so if it's important to God, it should be important to us. It shows our heart.

Deuteronomy 14:26 "And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires. You shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice you and your household."

Twice in this verse, it says that you shall spend it for whatever your heart desires. I always like to ask the question, what does that phrase mean to you? Have you ever considered that when God says for you to go spend your money on whatever your heart desires, He just sits back and watches to see what your heart desires? This was touched on in the sermonette message as well. Is it all about me and spending money on me? Or is there a part of me that can give to others? What is it your heart desires? Because whatever you spend...He does say spend it on whatever your heart desires, but that shows God what your heart desires. So we want to show God that we want to be like God is. God allows us to do this. He tells us to do it, but then He learns a lot about us and how we handle these things.

Now, one of my favorite verses about the feast is in Romans 14, of all places. I love to read this before the feast every year. Paul is addressing, of all things, not judging each other, avoiding disputes. But notice what he says in Romans 14:17 because it says a lot of what we should remember while we're here. And again, I'm not saying...please understand, God says, spend it on what your heart desires. Right? We have, you know, more money in our hands right now in the next seven, eight days than we do all year long. But it's about being balanced.

Romans 14:17, Though notice as Paul is addressing this, he says, “The Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

The way I remember this is that the Kingdom of God is not physical as much as it is spiritual. It's not saying it's not physical at all, but our focus should be on spiritual more than physical. So point number two is give God His deserved respect His reverence.

Point number three, give other people some of your time. Give other people some of your time. Once again, the feast pictures that thousand-year period where Jesus Christ and His saints will be rulers. And as Jesus has said on many occasions, His type of rulership is serving. We'll hear more about this during the feast. That's the example He set, so it's the example we should be trying to copy. We want to be like God, we want to be like Jesus Christ. And the example they gave was to serve. You know, in that thousand-year period of time, if I simplify it and say there's two groups of people or beings, you have those ruling and those being ruled, which part do you identify with? If we identify with the first fruits as rulers, that means we'll be working, we'll be serving, we'll be providing that millennial experience. We'll be the ones making it happen. And as we come to the feast, we have a chance to practice some of that here and find ways to serve one another while we're here. Micah chapter 4. Again, this period of time pictures that wonderful world we're all looking forward to.

Micah 4:1-5 "It shall come to pass in the latter days at the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and people shall flow to it." Micah 4:2, "Many nations shall come and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. And He will teach us His ways and we shall walk in His paths. For out of Zion, the law shall go forth, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many nations,'" or between many peoples, "'and rebuke strong nations that are far off. They shall beat their swords into plowshares or spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation. Neither shall they learn war anymore. But everyone shall sit under His vine and under His fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid. For the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.'"

We're going to be making this happen. So we have an opportunity now at the feast to find ways to serve now, to serve one another while we're here. There's a lot of different ways we can do that. Again, here we see that people are going to be taught God's way of life. We're going to give them knowledge of the truth. It says as well that righteous judgments will be made between all people. We're going to give righteous judgment. Implements of war will be turned into instruments of peace. We're going to give peace, we're going to maintain peace. And it says everyone will own their own vine and fig tree. We're going to help to give prosperity as we follow Christ's example and serve and bring these things about. So again, if we're practicing and learning to be a part of that, we should find ways here now. I know some people probably go to the feast and serve probably too much, yet there's others who don't serve at all. It's all about balance. And you have life stages you go through. My wife and I went through that stage where we felt the best service we could give the congregation was just to keep our kids in line. It's a short period of time, but it takes time, it takes energy, it takes focus. There's a lot of ways that we can think about, how am I serving those around me and making sure that everybody has a wonderful feast experience.

2 Corinthians 9 that we sometimes turn to in an offertory message. But let's look at this not from the perspective of giving our money, but giving some of our time or service towards helping all of us to enjoy the feast.

2 Corinthians 9:6 "But this I say, who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. And he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as He purposes in His heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver."

God is a giver. And so it's still early in the feast. There's probably still areas that could use some help doing something. If you're not sure, go to the information table. They'll find something. Find a way to give, be like God, be a giver. And just give a little of your time to help everyone else enjoy the feast. You know, it was mentioned in the offertory message, I won't go there. We typically go there. Deuteronomy 16:16-17, it talks about not appearing before the Lord empty-handed as it often says in the new King James. The actual word there is empty. Don't appear before the Lord empty. And the word is translated vainly, without thinking about it. And surely empty-handed is a part of it, but the underlying message there is don't just routinely show up here without giving it any thought, without any purpose. Vainly, we should not appear vainly. And so, as we have the opportunity, let's consider giving up our time serving one another as something else to give.

Now remember in the introduction I talked about getting, right? Because As a kid, I always liked the get part. What am I going to get, right? I used to get feast presents my mom would give me. And we know God is a giver, but let's consider some things we should get while we're here at the feast. Number one, get on your knees. You're probably waiting for something else, right? I put get in quotes, let's get on our knees and remember why we're here. Sometimes we put such a high priority on the physical preparation for being here, we forget the spiritual preparation we should make. We should get on our knees while we're here and remember why it is we are here, what this means now and in the future.

You know, it's important as we begin the feasts that we think about how we can make this one of the most memorable Feasts of Tabernacles spiritually. You know, sometimes when people talk about their best feast ever, it's physical things that come up. And that's fine. It's not wrong. But do you have a plan for yourself on how to make it the best spiritual feast ever? We can get on our knees and ask God to help us in that regard. You know, I'll just give you these, you know, in the familiar story of Daniel, we know that it says that he knelt three times a day as was His custom. I bring this up because the feast is one of those experiences where we often get busy and, you know, the day turns into an afternoon luncheon and, and then you squeeze in a meeting with somebody, then all of a sudden you're meeting somebody for dinner and then you get home, you're exhausted. I'll pray tomorrow morning and then tomorrow you get up late, services are at 10:00. We have to make the time. If we don't make the time, it won't happen. And so it's worth a reminder that we would all set time to get on our knees during the feast so that we can have the best spiritual feast we possibly can. So my first get is to get on our knees.

Secondly, while you're on your knees, ask God to help you get something from each of the messages. There's something in there for each and every one of us. How many of you have ever had those experiences where after a message you talk to somebody about the sermon and you heard something and they heard something completely different, right? But that's God speaking to you. And so ask God to help you get something from each and every message that you'll hear during the feast. Psalm 119, Psalm 119. Let's look at a few verses. Psalm 119. It's right after Psalm 118 if you're looking for it.

Psalm 119:104 We'll begin there. We're just going to look at three of them here, "Through your precepts, I get understanding, therefore, I hate every false way."

Ask God to help you get understanding. He's a giver. He'll give it.

Psalm 119:130 "The entrance of your words gives light, it gives understanding to the simple."

Again, God wants to give us these things. So we just got to ask Him, you know, ask Him, especially at the feast, "I'm here and I'm immersed in this. Let me get the most out of all the messages."

Psalm 119:144 "The righteousness of your testimonies is everlasting. Give me understanding and I shall live."

And He will. Tell Him, you want to get understanding. Maybe you have a personal part of your Bible study that you've struggled with. Now might be a good time to ask God to help you with that. And maybe over the next eight days with all the messages you're going to hear, that little nugget might be in there and might answer something that's been on your mind. Ask God, don't be afraid to ask Him. He's a giver. He's made that clear.

1 Corinthians 2:12 "Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit that is from God that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God."

He wants to give. And so if there's things that you want to get, you want to gain understanding, while you're on your knees, ask God. So get on our knees and ask God to help us get something from the messages. And thirdly, get to services on time. We've heard that announced a few times, right? So there's something else you can get while you're here at the feast. You can get to services on time. This is connected to what we looked at in our first give point about giving God our undivided attention. Let's go back to Deuteronomy chapter 12 because it's connected to that. Remember we looked at the place where God chooses to place His name. It says, and there, it says, you shall go.

Deuteronomy 12:5 "But you shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses out of all your tribes to put His name for His dwelling place, and there you shall go."

Okay. So if the decisions have been made to have services at a set time, as I said earlier, that's where we should go. And we should get there on time and do our best to make that happen. Show God that we want to be there.

Deuteronomy 12:5-7 We just read, "Seek the place where Lord, your God chooses out of your tribes. Put His name for His dwelling place and there you shall go. There," verse 6, "you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your free will offerings, firstborn of your herds and flocks, there," verse 7, "you shall eat."

I mean, "there" is stated over and over and over. We don't go where we want to go, we go where God's going to be. That's the message. And so we've done that today, and I pray we do that tomorrow. You know, as we often hear, sometimes attendance drops off during the middle of the feast. I am going to ask you to try to avoid that happening, unless of course, you're sick, as has been announced, which is another point in a moment. So again, we should seek where God will be and that's where we will go.

Finally, my fourth get point is to get to bed on time. Get some rest, stay healthy, don't get sick, don't get worn out. We can get that at the feast too. And so let's make sure we're doing our part to maintain our health so that we can be here each and every day. We need to be careful that we don't get run down. Oftentimes, what I'm afraid would happen this year would be, oh, I usually get worn down at the end of the feast because I've been going too long. And then it's actually not, you're worn down. You actually have something you can spread. So be really extra careful this year. Monitor your symptoms. And if you're unsure, you know, if you're not sure, then maybe you should stay home. You should stay home that time. But it starts by not overdoing it, not getting worn out, not getting run down.

You know, we are here to picture a time when the entire world's going to know God like we know God. That's a wonderful time. I expect sometime during the feast, somebody will cover the scriptures over in Isaiah that speak about even the nature of animals being changed. I didn't want to go there because there's several guys that have to follow me and they're all worried about who's covering scriptures ahead of them. But we know that this is more than just a head problem, a knowledge problem. It's a heart problem, right? And we're here having an opportunity to show God our heart so that we will be ready to serve. Ezekiel 36, we won't go there, speaks about how God's going to fix things by giving you a new heart, right? He will give mankind a heart that desires a relationship with Him. God is a giver. He wants us to be givers, and we have an opportunity to practice that while we're here at the feast. We do live in somewhat perilous times, there's no doubt about it. It's going to get worse. Unfortunately, that's the case. But Luke wrote over in Luke chapter 12, this is where I want to end. Luke chapter 12. Because as I said in the beginning, in spite of the world around us, God doesn't give us the one-off like, "Well, yeah, it's pretty tough out there, so don't come this year," right? You know, last year was an odd year, we still made it happen. Some sites got canceled. But, you know, God wants us, in spite of what's going on around, to still gather. And as was mentioned I think by Mr. Cubic in the opening video yesterday, that this is a highlight that we look forward to every year. We plan for it. We put away our ties to be here. And so it's a huge disappointment if it can't happen. But notice what Luke writes in Luke chapter 12, we'll begin in verse 22.

Luke 12:22 "And He said to His disciples, 'I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or about the body that you'll put on. Life is more than food and the body is more than clothing.'"

It sounds a lot like Romans 14:17. The Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, right? Sounds similar to that. Drop down to verse 29.

Luke 12:29 "And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have any anxious mind."

We're at the feast. Let the cares of what's going on...just let 'em try to let go of them. Try to try to ignore your boss if you can. If it gives you grief, tell them to call me. No. Do your best to just put all that away. Right? Put all that aside.

Luke 12:30-31 "For all these things the nations of the world seek after. And your father knows that you need these things." Verse 31, "But seek the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be added to you."

Put God first. Give Him your full attention. Give Him the respect and the reverence that He deserves. Give other people some of your time while you're here, get on your knees. Get something from every message while you're here. Get to services on time. Get your rest. If we can do all of these things, notice then what it says here.

Luke 12:32 "Do not fear, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom."