Going Forward From the Feast

We anticipate the feast for months. Right around the days of 11 bread, we have to select where we're planning on going for the feast. So we plan for it a long time. It takes time. So for around six months, and not only where we're going to go, but then work on transportation, work on housing, and perhaps other activities or special tickets or plans that we need to make or buy.

We plan for this for several months. Then we get to the feast, and there's a certain anticipation that's in the area. This excitement. The feast begins in the blink of the eye. It's over. It's gone. And we have to wait for another year until the feast comes again. It's interesting, with the blessing of the little children, and as I mentioned, there were two here today, and I was kidding with somebody before.

In these congregations, we started out several years ago with not that many children. It basically was an older congregation. And now, exponentially, we've got all sorts of little ones all over the place. So you start with two, and then, you know, who knows where it's going to go.

But they're a welcome addition. They have a certain excitement. And again, when our children, when they were young, we'd tell them about the feast, and they were all excited about it. You know, little children have no concept of time. They have very little concept of time. And so we would make a paper chain, you know, a chain with paper links in it. And again, I'm sure we're not ourselves in this regard.

And as each day passed, the children got to cut off another link, you know, so they could see, you know, that the feast was getting closer. And it's exciting. And one of the scriptures that Mr. Sealy read, it really strikes me year by year, as we have this service for the little children, is that Christ said, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter into it. Little children get all excited about the feast.

They get all excited about a lot of things. But it's something to think about. The blessing of little children as a service for children, very definitely. But it has meaning for adults. It applies to each and every one of us. We need to receive the kingdom of God as a little child. Well, back to the Feast of Tabernacles, they say that our children would get excited as the time approaches and then the time to leave and go to the feast.

And hopefully we all did as well. There's a certain excitement in the air when it comes feast time. God gave us much at the feast this year. He gave us a lot. We brought things back from the feast. Some of us may have brought back souvenirs from wherever we went, or even locally, perhaps. Certainly pictures. Pictures of people, places, things. We have our notes that we took in, you know, our sermon and sermonette notes. We took notes at the feast, or at those who take notes, took notes at the feast.

And we have our memories, all sorts of good memories from the feast. And perhaps as well we may have brought back a couple extra pounds. One never knows, but it's highly probable at this time of year that we brought back a little bit more than we went with. But what do we want to remember from this year's Feast of Tabernacles? Again, it was mentioned before services. This song, it brought back feast feelings, feast memories. What do you want to remember from this year's Feast of Tabernacles? What do we want to keep? What do we want to hang onto from this past feast?

And more importantly, what will we do with what we have brought back from the feast? So today, this being the second Sabbath after the feast, not the first, but the second, I'm going to talk about going forward from the Feast of Tabernacles.

In fact, the title of this message is, Going Forward from the Feast. And when I say feast, it's really Feast of Tabernacles and Last Great Day. I'm sure we all understand that. I'm just going to use the word feast so I don't have a lot of verbiage up here. Going forward from the feast. I'd like to encourage us to maintain as much as we can, for as long as we can, of what God gave us at this year's feast, to maintain the zeal, the encouragement, and the inspiration from this past year's feast. The world has a tendency to welcome us back and want us to forget about the feast.

You know, oh, you're back here. Have a trial. Have something else. You know, problems that we had before the feast are still there. Plus, sometimes we get new ones. The world wants to rob us of what we gained at the feast through problems or trials. So how do we maintain our zeal and our enthusiasm? And hopefully we all have zeal and enthusiasm. Well, today I'm going to cover three points to maintain as much as we can, for as long as we can, from this year's Feast of Tabernacles.

These are by no means the only points, but three points to help us in going forward from the feast. Point number one. Point number one is to review the feast. Review the feast. Well, what does that mean, review the feast? Well, there are several ways to do this. One, I've already mentioned that many of us take sermon and sermonette notes. We can review these notes from the feast. If you don't take notes, we all receive, at least every family received, a festival brochure in which there would be a list of the speakers and perhaps even message titles.

Look that over, you know, try and put yourself back in a feast setting. Now, we are not all impacted by messages the same way. However, there's something that we can learn from every message. In fact, sometimes, you know, as we review messages, we have thoughts in our mind that the speaker didn't even cover.

But that, you know, things that will help us, inspire us, encourage us, or strengthen us. Sometimes, as I say, we get meanings from things that are not even said. We can review pictures that we've taken. Again, people, places, and things. Think about the activities. Think about the music, you know, such as the special music today. Again, as I mentioned, we had come across this song on the Internet, and it just brings back to it, a good feast feeling. We need to stir up our memory to bring back the sights and the sounds, the experience of the feast. Again, first of all, for those that take notes, why do we take notes?

You know, why do we do that? Well, the answer is, it helps us remember. Remember all sorts of things, to recall facts and information, to recall the messages. Now, we all have good memories. The problem is, our memories are short. And not only short, but when you get a lot of information in a short period of time, like the feast, things could tend to blur.

So it's important that we do take notes to sort things out. We've all heard of short and long-term memories, but we tend to forget things quickly. According to a Hermann Ebbinghaus in wisagheap.com, he says, in 20 minutes, 20 minutes, we forget 40% of what we hear. And just as an encouragement for me, just think, by the time you leave today, which is probably more than 20 minutes after services, you'll have forgotten more than half of what I said.

But you'll have the main point. In 20 minutes, we forget 40% of what we hear. Again, that's almost half. In six days, we forget about 70% of what we hear. So we're still hanging on to 30% even after about a week. And to illustrate my point in this, how many remember the service, and I'm not asking for a show of hands, how many remember the sermonette from the AM service on the last great day?

Think about it. Know for yourself, yes or no. Who gave the sermonette in the AM service on the last great day? Or maybe, since that's pretty recent, last great day is a special day, maybe get a little bit tougher. Who gave the sermonette on the second day of the Feast of Tabernacles? And what was it about? No cheating, no helping one another. It gives a point, you know, as far as our memories. Now, the good news is that taking notes helps our attention. It helps a lot.

And if we review our notes, it helps significantly. And a brief review is all that's really required. Our minds tend to do the rest. We recall the inspiration that's given, or the lessons learned, or what struck us. Maybe there was something further we wanted to study, you know, when we come across it again. So, you know, I want to look at that a little bit further.

Maybe there was a point that we saw that we needed to work on. It could be all sorts of things that we're getting from our notes. Again, it brings back the sights and the sounds and the experience of the Feast, putting ourselves back into a Feast setting. Now, the information we're given at the Feast is valuable. And actually, for the first scripture that I was going to turn to today, or one of the first scriptures was Matthew 13, verses 44 and 46, of which I will cite because they recovered very well in the sermonette.

But basically, you know, how do we value our notes? Our notes just, you know, something that we take, and then toss on the shelf for another year, never look at again. How valuable are those notes? There's a lot of value in there that can help us. They can help us now as we reflect back to the Feast of Tabernacles.

I will turn to Matthew 6, verse 2, which says something similar to what's in Matthew 13. Matthew 13 talks about the value, the value of the pearl of great price, the treasure in the field. Those notes are a treasure. Again, you could say that they have the words of life, not that they are the Bible by any means, but certainly the messages are based on the Bible, and they explain and they expound the Bible.

But Matthew 6 said Matthew 6, verse 2, and that definitely is not the place I wanted to turn to. Well, this is a bummer. Twenty. Twenty? Thank you. I mean, Matthew 5, that doesn't help either. But I've been looking around for twenty... No, that's not the Scripture I'm looking for, is where your treasure is.

There your heart will be also. Twenty-one. Twenty-one. Thank you. Excuse me, I'm going to make a note here. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Now, how valuable are those notes to us? How valuable is the information in those notes? Where our treasure is, there our heart will be also. Turn back to Matthew 13, or I don't know if you were there to begin with, but Matthew 13, which is where we were also in the sermon, but I'm going to start reading in verse 3.

I hope I'm going to start reading in verse 3. Matthew 13, in verse 3, it's a parable of the sower and the seed. It says in verse 3, it says, Then he spoke many things to them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went out to sow.

And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside, and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places where they did not have much earth, and they immediately sprang up, because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away. Verse 7, Some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them.

But others fell on good ground, and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. And then in verse 9, it says, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Now this word here at this point is not just receiving vibrations or wave sounds. This word is here like, listen up, understand. So it's not really talking about our ears receiving a sound. It's here. It means to attend to, to consider, to understand, to perceive. And that is based on a Greek lexicon based on Thayer and Smith's Bible dictionary. The word here, for those who are interested, is transliterated, a-k-o-o, a-k-o-u-o. And it's strong 191, again, if you'd like to do any further study on that.

But basically, again, it's to perceive, to understand, listen up. This is important, is what Christ is saying. And then dropping down into verse 18, we see there's four categories, and Christ gives the explanation of the four categories to His disciples, and for that matter, to us. These four categories apply to all people, all are included. I'm going to apply this message to us at the Feast of Tabernacles. We're all at the Feast of Tabernacles.

We all heard messages. So starting in verse 18, He starts to give the meaning of the parable. Well, in verse 18, He says, therefore hear the parable of the sower. And again, that word, hear again, is perceive, understand the parable of the sower. Verse 19, when anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away. That was sown in his heart. This is he who received the seed by the wayside.

So this is category number one. And as I said, this could be us at the Feast. We've heard words, and we have different reactions. Here, category one is probably not applying to any of us. Now, it might be from time to time. Perhaps you're listening and somebody coughs, or a baby cries, or someone gets up, or there's a distraction.

You might miss a word or a thought or two, but basically you get the message. We understand the message. So as probably none of us here would be in category number one. Verses 20 and 21 is category number two.

But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word, and immediately he receives it with joy. It's happy. Yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a little while. So, in true relation, persecution arises because of the word immediately stumbles. So this actually could start to apply to some of us. We receive the word with joy, and perhaps don't have the strength to endure to carry on. Third category, verse 22, it says, Now he who received the seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.

Now this could be some of us. We're faithful, at least for a while, but life is busy. There's many distractions. As I mentioned, we return home from the feast, and usually the world has one way or another of welcoming us, which is not pleasant. There are things that confront us pretty quickly. Again, because of various effects of the world, we can become unfruitful. We need to have right priorities and to be able to bypass the distractions.

And then verse 23 is category 4, which we'd all like to be in. It says, So this is a group that translates what they heard into action, either basically from the feast or from reviewing notes and thinking back to the feast. But notice in this group, even though they heard it, some produced different amounts of fruit, some 100, some 60, and some 30. Some produced more fruit than others.

Now the activities of the feast, in fact the feast itself, will eventually fade from our minds. It's just a fact of life. This happens, but memories will remain. So I want to encourage all of us to think back, reflect back to the Feast of Tabernacles, keeping it fresh in your mind, again, for as long as you can. Some will quickly lose what we receive at the feast. Some will be fruitful. And again, with this parable, some will actually become more fruitful than others.

I hope that we can all bear much good fruit. That was point number one. Reflect back to the feast. Point number two is to be alight. Be alight. Turn to John the first chapter. John the first chapter, and I'll start reading in verse one. John one, I'll read verses one to five. We should be alight. John one, verse one, a familiar passage to many of us. It says, In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. In Him was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness. And the darkness did not, my Bible says, comprehend it. It's kind of a missing the meeting. Other versions say that the darkness did not overcome the light, did not extinguish the light, did not put it out. The light came into the world, and the darkness did not put out the light.

I just think when we enter a room that's dark, you know, at nighttime, we flip a switch. And, again, light. Where does the darkness go? I talked about little children earlier, you know, that's a question a little child would ask, you know, like, daddy or mommy, you know, where does the darkness go when the light goes on? Actually, scientists ponder that question as well, you know, where does the darkness go? The light overcomes the darkness. Darkness is an absence of light. Light is an interesting, I was going to say, substance.

It's not really a substance, but an interesting entity, if you will, as it behaves somewhat like a wave and somewhat like a particle. And it actually can be influenced by gravity. So it's got some interesting characteristics, but one of the characteristics it does have is it overcomes the darkness. The light comes on, and the darkness goes away. There's John, the Apostle John, says a lot about light and darkness in his gospel message here. Turn to John the third chapter. John the third chapter, and I'll start reading in verse 18.

John 3 and verse 18. It says, he who believes in him is not condemned. Just breaking into the context here. But he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world.

Again, Jesus Christ. Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, and that they have been done in God.

This is a rather interesting passage. We have come to the light, and it's really talking about attitudes at this point. Attitudes of light and of darkness. And you think about, you know, when people do the wrong thing, or if their heart is set to do the wrong thing, they like to hide. You know, you don't want to do this out in plain sight in daylight.

You'd like to do it at night, in the dark, when nobody sees and nobody knows. I saw another little... I guess it was a YouTube clip. I think I saw it through Facebook, where there was a dog. And the dog had done a bad thing. It chewed up something of its owner. I think it was a piece of clothing. And the dog is sitting there, and the owner is waving this clothing in front of the dog.

You know, and probably talking in a raised voice, and the dog is... He won't face it. He won't face the owner. He won't face the idol. It just, you know, I don't want to see it. I'm hiding from it. If I don't see it, it's not there. This is kind of what this is talking about here. You know, if we do something... Well, hopefully I'll say not us, but let's say somebody does something, and they like to hide it. They don't want to change.

Their heart is determined to do whatever they want to do, regardless. And so they try to hide it. We do the right things. And, as it says here, in verse 21, and we come to God. And I'll even say the other. Sometimes we don't do the right things. Sometimes we stumble. But we still go to God. We don't try and hide. We don't try to cover it up. We go to God. You know, we confess and we repent.

This is what it's talking about here. It's talking about an attitude of going to the light. Actually, each one of us is given some light. God gives us... well, for those of us who are baptized, He gives us His Spirit. Some obviously have more light than others. Some have different starting points. Some have been in church for different lengths of time. We all have different amounts of light, but we all have light. And, of course, the light is from God. It's not something that we generate among ourselves. And I'll say that, again, this point is to be a light. We should be glowing brightly following the feast. And, to use a phrase, we should be all charged up, so to speak.

Not to have a pun in the wrong way. Turn to Ephesians 5, Ephesians 5, and I'll start reading in verse 8. Again, talking about more light and darkness. Again, we have light, and we should be reflecting this light, again, to give honor and glory to God.

Ephesians 5, starting in verse 8. It says, for once you were darkness. Again, just bringing in the context. So it's not that we were in the dark. We were darkness. It says, but now you are light. We are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.

Behave as a child of your father. Walk as children of light. And then in verse 9 it says, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. Now that's a parenthetical expression, but really what it's saying is that as we have light, we should automatically be bearing good fruit. Fruit of righteousness, goodness, righteousness, and truth. Automatically, you know, it comes from the light.

And then in verse 10 it says, proving what is acceptable to the Lord. This proving is an ongoing situation. It's not something that we do once. I dropped down to verse 17. It says, therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. We don't understand the will of the Lord all at once. Not at all. We understand some, and we understand some more, and we understand some more.

It's progressive. Likewise, it's another way of saying verse 10, of proving what is acceptable, what is acceptable to the Lord. We need to continue to understand. We need to continue to be lights. We can continue to let the light shine for us. Actually, not for us, from us. Again, for God. Turn back to Matthew 5. You might want to put a marker in Matthew 5. I'll come back there probably a couple more times.

Matthew 5. I'll start reading in verse 14. Again, it's a familiar passage to many of us. Matthew 5. And in verse 14, it says, you are the light of the world. Again, God sends us forth as lights. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand. And it gives light to all who are in the house.

Let your light so shine before a man that they may see your good works. And glorify your Father in heaven. So again, it's not for our glory. It's to glorify God in heaven.

God wants us to be a light. He wants us to shine. Again, not to hide under a basket, so to speak, but to shine. Not that we should be confrontational and go about in somebody's face. Usually when a light makes noise, it's about when it's ready to fail. Now, that doesn't mean that we should be completely silent all the time. There's a time to speak. But basically, a light shines. A light doesn't have all sorts of doctrinal arguments.

A light shines. People notice. And then from that point, they ask questions. And as it says, we need to be ready to answer. Turn to 1 Peter 2, and I'll read verse 9. 1 Peter 2, in verse 9. Actually, we sang this second song today, was based on this particular verse. 1 Peter 2, verse 9. It says, But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that, and again, as you've heard me say before, when there's a that, that means what's coming is based on what just went before.

You are a chosen generation, that you may proclaim the praise of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. So we're to proclaim God's praises. And again, how do we do that? Turn to 1 Peter 3, verse 15. Across another page in my Bible, 1 Peter 3, 15. Another familiar passage to many of us.

It says, But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you for a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Again, we should be ready to give an answer. People notice the way we are, the way we live. And we should, again, give an answer. It's not confrontational. It does say with meekness and with fear. We need to be careful, not to be offensive. We can be on the offensive, but to not be offensive.

People tend to notice us. And you probably had that experience, where someone has made a comment either to you or for you or about you, and say that people notice. Whether we're trying to be noticed or not, people do notice us. As a result, they ask questions, and as it says here, we should be ready to give an answer for the hope that is within us.

Mr. Cuban wrote this week about an experience at the Feast of Tabernacles in Panama City Beach. He received a compliment from a shuttle driver that was shuttling our people around to and from services. And I will read the comment.

It says, Well, it says, a shuttle driver said that he's never seen a group of people that have shown the kind of courtesy and kindness that the people of the United Church of God do. What a very nice comment, and that very nice compliment. We actually had a similar comment in Galveston. It applied mostly to our children, but also to our group as well. People tend to notice. Now, actually, at that time, you've got, I say, a high concentration of us, your people, of God's people, I should say.

It's not like the old days, and you know, where you have a feast site that's 600, and that's a big feast site nowadays. In the old days, it wasn't so large, but there's still, it's a concentration of God's people. People notice big concentrations. They also notice us in our neighborhoods. You know, where we work, where we shop. People notice. Sometimes giving an answer can be a frightening thought. Maybe you don't want to give an answer, and hopefully that doesn't apply to us, because it's said we should be ready for the hope that is within us.

Again, not necessarily giving a doctrinal explanation, but an answer about the hope that is within us. It's not like a minister that's conducting a Bible study, you know, taking questions, you know, any question on the Bible, you know, write it and send it forth.

No, it's not that type of thing at all. It's to give an answer for the hope that is within us. People notice us, and they have a question, well, why do you do that? Why don't you eat that? You know, what about this, or what about that? Another example, there is a person in another area at another time, he's not a member of the church, he was a man, he had surgery, went into the hospital. And, you know, you're in the hospital, you're recovering, you're, you know, basically you're in bed all day.

So he had plenty of time, there was a Bible there, and he picked it up and he started reading it. He got as far as Genesis 1.26, where it says, let us make man in our image. And he looked at that, let us, let us, and he had a question, you know, who were the us? You know, what is that? Well, when he returned to work, he started asking his co-workers. One he asked was a church member. And I would say, you know, how would you answer that question?

What does that mean, you know, let us? Who are the us? Well, think about it, and really think about it, don't just wait for me to say the next few words. Think about it. And by the way, the next few words are not going to be the answer to that question. Anyway, he asked several people at work. One of them he asked was a church member. And the answer he received was a simple answer, but it led to many discussions. It led to a lot of discussions.

The man became a subscriber to the monthly magazine at that time. He ordered booklets. He actually asked about coming to church. Now, when he asked the first question about let us, he was not looking for a deep theological answer. He wasn't. The answer to that question can be very complicated. I don't know how many months ago.

He gave a sermon on the nature of God. It can be very complicated. The United Church of God has a study paper 68 pages long, including seven appendices. But that's not what the man wanted. He just said, who is, who are, let us. What does that mean? That's all the man wanted to hear, and he received an answer according to the hope that was in the church member.

The church member gave him an answer according to the hope that was within him. So following the feast, brethren, then we should let our lights shine. You will not be putting them under a bushel at all. We should be charged up and have zeal and ready to go. We should let our light shine and glorify our Father who is in heaven. Now, sometimes it's not easy being a light. Sometimes it's just not. And that brings me to my third point. Point number three, be a Christian soldier.

Be a Christian soldier. Christians are to be fighters, but we need to fight the right battles according to the right rules. There are many analogies to fighting and warfare in the New Testament. I'll just quickly go through a few of them. We're told to put on the armor of God. We're told to be a Christian soldier. We're told we're in a battle. We are in a war. We wrestle.

We fight. We overcome. We win. We are more than conquerors. Paul described himself as a fighter. He encouraged Timothy to endure hardship as a good soldier. There's many analogies to fighting for Christians. Maybe you can think of other scriptures that I haven't referenced or talked about. Make no mistake about it. We are in a battle.

That's part of the...as I said, coming back from the feast, and the world says, you know, here, you know, have a trial. The world wants to take from us that extra zeal and enthusiasm that we receive that the feast. But at this time, the battle is spiritual. It's not a physical battle.

Remember when Christ said, when his kingdom does come, his servants will fight. There is a time and a place to fight. And certainly, I'm sure you're aware of this, but just to say it, I'm not suggesting to any that we go out and buy guns or any other weapons or learn karate or any other fighting techniques. There is a time and a place to fight. And a time for a physical battle is not now. The fight will be God's battles. Again, God's battle is not our own. And it's unlikely that if we are fighting right now, I should say it's likely if we are fighting now.

We're probably not fighting God's battles, but we're fighting our own. We may want to say, you know, we're fighting for God, you know, we're defending God, you know, we're defending the truth. But really, we're not. We need to do, we need to remember at this time we are called to be peacemakers as much as possible.

But we are in a battle now, and the battle is a spiritual battle, and we do need to be fighters, to be Christian soldiers.

Turn to Matthew 11, back to the book of Matthew. Matthew 11, and I'll start reading in verse 11. Now, how should we be fighting? What should we be doing? Matthew 11, and I'll start reading in verse 11, where it says, Assuredly I say to you, among those born of women, there is not risen one greater than John the Baptist. But he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. The violent take it by force, and again, the word violent here means violent.

And again, Strong's 973, transliterated it being Biaestes, B-I-A-S-T-E-S. It means being strong, forceful, using force, being violent. The battle we're in takes great effort. It takes determination. No one's going to drift into the kingdom of God. No one's going to coast into the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is not for passive people. It's not for the shy. It's not for the timid. It's not for the fearful. It's going to take great effort and determination. And again, when I say this, I know we all know that it's going to take effort on our part, but we're not going to earn salvation at all. Salvation is a gift. As we heard earlier, Christ died for us. That's our salvation. However, there are things that we need to be doing, and there are also our rewards, which is different than being saved. That's a different message for a different time. But it does take great effort. Turn to Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11, a familiar passage to many of us, talks about the heroes of faith, so to speak.

Hebrews 11, and we'll notice what they did. And they all did something. They had actions. Hebrews 11 has verbs, actions. Starting in verse 4, and I'm just going to skim through this chapter. It says, By faith Abel offered. He did something. Verse 5, by faith Enoch, and then dropping to the end of the verse, it says, Enoch pleased God. Verse 7, By faith Noah moved with godly fear and prepared an ark. Verse 8, Abraham obeyed. Again, actions, verbs. They were doing something. He obeyed. Verse 9, it says, He sojourned. He dwelt in tents. And verse 10, He waited for a city. By faith Sarah received the strength to conceive, and she bore a child. Verse 13, it says, These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off. And they were assured of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. And then continuing on a little bit, verse 17, it says, Abraham offered up Isaac. Verse 20, Isaac blessed Jacob. 21, Jacob blessed each of the sons. And you may think, well, how is blessing? How is that a real action, if you will? Well, it is an action. But notice, if you were a rich man, and they were, you would say, Well, I would give all my camels to this son. I would give my tents to that son. I would give whatever other valuables, my jewels or whatever, to this son. He didn't do that. He talked about gifts in the future. He talked about where nations would go. He talked about what people would be doing. That took a lot of faith for those blessings, for both Isaac and Jacob. And then verse 22, it says, Joseph gave instructions. He knew that Israel was going to be leaving Egypt. Dropping ahead to 24, it says, Moses refused. And I could continue a couple more, or a few more. But I think we'll get the idea. They all did something. And if they all did something, we all need to be doing something, too. We need to be having actions. In 1 Timothy 6, and I'm not going to turn there, just reference this, 1 Timothy 6, verses 18-20, Paul tells Timothy to lay hold of eternal life. Grab it. Don't let go. Hang on to it. Lay hold of eternal life. And again, in Luke 16-16, which I'm not going to turn to, that's Luke 16-16, it says, The law and the prophets were until John, similar to what we read in Matthew. It says, Since the time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it. So they're pressing. There's no coasting going on here. No sliding. Now, obviously, as I said, we're not going to storm the gates of the kingdom, and we're not going to somehow push our way in. That isn't going to happen. However, what is going to happen, what needs to happen, is for us to put forth effort to be Christian soldiers. Turn back to Matthew 16th chapter. Matthew 16th chapter.

Look at an interesting passage.

Again, it's familiar to many of us. Matthew 16, and I'm going to start reading in verse 13. It says, When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked the disciples, saying, Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?

And again, this is an interesting area. There's a lot that could be said about this short passage, the next few scriptures. I'll try to condense it.

Caesarea Philippi, for one reason, this is inland. There's Caesarea Maritima, which is on the Mediterranean coast. That's not this one. This is Caesarea Philippi. And it's an interesting region. If you have a Bible with pictures in it, generally there's a picture, and you see this great, massive rock face with a big hole. There's a cave in the rock face.

If you have pictures in your Bible, you can see that. Otherwise, later, you can look that up on the Internet.

If you just type in Caesarea Philippi, and very likely that picture in that rock face, with this big hole in it, will come up.

This place of...excuse me, it was a place of pagan worship.

According to William Barkley in his New Daily Bible Study series, it says, the area was scattered with temples of ancient Syrian Baal worship. No fewer than 14 temples were in the neighborhood. It was a, quote-unquote, sacred precinct.

The breath of ancient pagan worship was in the atmosphere.

So now we have Jesus Christ taking His disciples into this area of pagan worship.

It's a place that you don't go to by accident, and especially, you know, Jesus Christ. He's not going to a pagan place by accident. He's doing this for teaching. We'll continue reading down through here. I'll read verse 13 again. It says, when Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? So they said, Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. He said to them, But who do you say that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said to Him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Chona, for flesh and blood is not revealed this to you, but my Father, who is in heaven.

And then in verse 18 it says, And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. Well, I've already mentioned that in this area there's this big cliff, there's this tremendous rock face. And Christ is not saying that the rock is where He's building His church on, but He's comparing Himself to that rock. And I also mentioned that there was a hole in the rock, it's a cave. And it's a place of, you know, pagan worship. People at that time believed that, you know, the quote-unquote gods lived underground. But occasionally they like to come out, you know, from underground, for whatever reason. I won't speculate. I was tempted, but I won't speculate. And how do you come out from underground? Well, there's a cave. The cave was a portal. Or you could say it was a door or a gate. So here you've got this big rock, and you've got this door or gate into Hades, where the quote-unquote gods lived, quote-unquote. So they had this rock face, and you've got this portal. And Christ brought His disciples there, and He's teaching them. And He's teaching them an important lesson. Now, the Scripture says that the church will prevail. Excuse me, it says the gates of Hades will not prevail against the church. In other words, the church is going to prevail. So what does that mean? Well, gates, if you had a city at the time of Christ, and you wanted to defend it, you built a wall around the city. And to get in and out of the city, you would have a gate. Now, if you were going to attack the city, where would you attack? You would attack the gate, which is the weak part of the city. In the time of Christ, it says that that was where you would have an attack. You'd attack the gates. Here, it's saying that the gates of Hades will not prevail. In other words, they're not going to stop the church of God. And remember who the church is, or what the church is. The church is made up of people. The church shall prevail over the gates of Hades. We are empowered by the Holy Spirit, and we are fighting, as it were. But the gates of Hades are not going to prevail. The church is the one that is going to prevail. So this is actually a picture of the church attacking the gates. And again, the gates are not going to prevail. Turn to 2 Corinthians, the 10th chapter. 2 Corinthians, the 10th chapter, and I'll start reading in verse 3.

2 Corinthians, the 10th chapter, in verse 3. It says, It says, And as I mentioned, our warfare is spiritual. Where the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, not physical, but mighty in God, for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments in every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. So here, the battleground is in our minds. It's in our hearts. This is where the battle is taking place. And we can overcome again. It says, These are things that we need to do as we move forward from the feast, in order to maintain the spiritual glow from the feast. Turn ahead a few pages to Ephesians 6. Ephesians 6, chapter, I've alluded to this a little already. Ephesians 6, chapter, it says, in verse 10, So again, we're to be fighters. But again, as I mentioned, fighting the right battles in the right way. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Verse 12, We tend to think so at the time, but they're not really the problem. There's a spirit that is causing the problem. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of darkness, of the darkness of this age, and against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. And then it says in verse 13, So again, our enemy is not physical, the battle is not physical. Our enemy is not another person. If we are fighting against another person, we're likely fighting the wrong battle.

Christians are to be fighters. And again, reading verses 14 to verse 20, talks about the various pieces of spiritual armor, which I'm not going to go through at this time. But there's ways to help us fight the spiritual battle. How we can fight, how we can succeed, how we can win. Again, we're to be fighters, but we have to fight the right battles, and we need to fight them by the proper rules. We need to stand. We need to go forward. Remember, the church, Christians will win by the power of the Holy Spirit. The church will prevail. So these are the three points as far as how to maintain as much as we can, for as long as we can from the feast. But what if we come back from the feast and we don't feel uplifted? What if it's just another week of our lives? What if I went to the feast, I kept the feast, I come home? What if any of us would feel that way, and I hope that no one here will feel that way or does feel that way? But if you do, we might not want to ask why. Why do we have that feeling? Why is everybody else all buoyed up? And why am I not? Think about the answer. Think about the why. Turn back to Matthew the 25th chapter. Matthew the 25th chapter with this thought in mind. And we'll look at... there's some parables in the 25th chapter, but I'll just look at one parable, and that's the parable of the ten virgins. I'm not going to read a lot of this parable. I think we're familiar with it. They were the ten virgins. They all went to sleep, every last one of them. They all slept. When the bridegroom came, five woke up, and they had oil in their lamps. The others didn't. The five that didn't said, you know, give us some of your oil. And they said, no, we can't do that, or there won't be oil for us. So all of these virgins were church members. All would say we're at the Feast of Tabernacles. All were there. All heard the messages. Some came back and didn't have any oil. Some came back and had oil. What I do want to do is start reading in verse 10, where Christ concludes the parable. Well, He told the five that didn't have any oil, you know, go and buy. Buy and sell and trade and get oil. In verse 10 it says, And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came. Those who were ready went in with Him to the wedding, and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But He answered, and said, Assurely I say to you, I do not know you. And then there's a warning at the end. It says, Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour on which the Son of Man is coming. Again, Christ said He never knew them. We need to watch because we do not know when Christ is going to return. And He's given us this parable for a reason. He's given it to us for a warning. But brethren, as I mentioned, for most of us, hopefully for all of us, we go forward from the feast with zeal.

And with a high hand, you can picture like Moses and the children of Israel going through the Red Sea, we have a high hand. I want to encourage all of us to remember and to use the points that I've given. The points in summary, again, just to go over them, are to review the feast. Review the feast. Number two, be a light. Number three, be a Christian soldier. It's going to take determination to be a light and to go forward.

So with that, we should all look back at the Feast of Tabernacles and go forward. And we should all rejoice. We should rejoice that we know God. We should rejoice that we know God's plan for all mankind. Yet not just for us, but for everyone. And we should rejoice that our names are written in the Book of Life.