Home is Where the Heart is: Songs of the Pilgrims

I'm going to be speaking about something that is very, very important to God. As a minister of Jesus Christ, I really love talking about it. That's a four-letter word that I'm going to begin this message with. Home. And that's what we're going to be talking about this evening, is home. It has been said that home is where the heart is. Oftentimes, if we're not careful, we can mix up terms. House with home. We can say, well, where's your house or where's your home?

And we get those mixed up. But they're totally different words that bring out totally different definitions that bring out totally different outcomes. Let's consider that for a moment. That a house, when we talk about a house, a house is a structure. A house is that which is built with hammer and nails and wood and with concrete.

But ultimately, a home isn't about where. Not where, but who is there. It's about relationships. And that's what we're going to be speaking about tonight, is about relationships. In conjunction with the word of home. It's about hearts that are ultimately bonded together by experiences. They're interwoven. They're tied tight. And even if you haven't seen those people that are in what we call home for some time, maybe even sometimes for years, the strings, the human strings, the human attachments are so tight that when you hug one another, even if you're not even in the house, the structure yet, you know that you're at home.

Ultimately, Scripture that's in your lap or on the table this evening reveals to us where home is. And most importantly, who waits for us in the ultimate home of all time? Scripture is the ongoing story of God's desire for humanity to dwell in his very specially prepared home. We've heard a lot about those different would-be homes already in the course of this festival week. We've heard about Eden of old. We've heard about the promised land of Canaan. We've heard about the return of the Jews from Babylon coming out of exile and coming back home.

But there wasn't too much of the house of the Lord left. But they were back home. We also look forward, especially as we come to the eighth day festival about that ultimate home that is granted to us by the door of Jesus Christ. That we can one day be with our Father, not just for a moment, not just for an hour, not just for a festival, but forever.

I'd like to share a thought with you for a moment, especially as we move towards the eighth day, and about what home is like and what home really is. Because so often as human beings we like to be finite. We like to measure. I'd like to share a thought with you. I've been giving messages on the eighth day and about eternity and about a home, probably for over four decades plus some. I remember as a young minister that I used to like to talk about eternity as far as dealing with people's minds.

You start thinking, what is eternity? You start stretching people's minds like a rubber band. It kind of goes here and goes here. It kind of becomes so much that after a while that rubber band, the one that's in your brain, just kind of snaps because you can't handle it. I've had all sorts of gimmicks over the years as far as trying to allow people to understand what eternity is. Then about ten or twelve years ago I gave up on trying to measure God. I don't know if you're there yet, but I am.

Because I came to a scripture in John 17 in verse 1 if you'll join me there because this is the definition of eternity. In John 17, the Gospel thereof, and picking up the thought in verse 1, Jesus spoke these words, lifted up his eyes to the heavens, and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you. As you have given him authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him.

Oh, now we're moving into eternal life. Now let's notice verse 3. Here is the definition, and this is eternal life. That they may know you, have relationship with you, Father, the only true God, and with me, Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Oftentimes, people, when opening up the scriptures, they get intrigued by rules, even by doctrines. Rules are good. Rules are a part of the scripture. Doctrine is a part of understanding what God wants us to do and what he is performing, just like the festival days that you and I are observing. But rules without a relationship is like a postcard. It has a picture, but it doesn't have a stamp to go anywhere.

Sometimes I find that people that are in religious communities are really good in stuffing rules down the pockets of their hearts, but they've never come to the point, the end zone, of what those rules are leading to, and that is a relationship. That is a home. That is an intimacy, as we say in this time period. This is up close and personal with the Creator of all.

Oftentimes, people talk about Matthew 6.33, which is a scripture that many of us know in the Church of God community. Matthew 6 and verse 33, seek you first the kingdom. Sometimes we'll just say, Matthew 6.33, you know what Matthew 6.33 says?

It says, seek you first the kingdom. But eternity in itself is not a destination. It's a way of traveling. It's a way of being with God the Father and with Jesus Christ heart to heart because home is where the heart is.

I'm talking to you this evening as one believer to another, one pilgrim to another, to recognize that perhaps you've come to this festival in faith, in obeying God, this ruler of the universe. He tells us for us to appear before Him. Good. Good start. That's where God wants us to be. But more than appearing before Him, He wants us to be with Him. It's what we call the withing. I don't have a list. But the withing factor. You can be with God, but you're not really with God because you've stopped short of the end zone of where He wants you to bring the ball of His kingdom over that goal line.

And that is to have an intimate relationship with Him in His home. The echo that comes down through the ages to you and to me and to all those that open Scripture and our believers is simply this. I will be your God and you will be my people. And that's what we're going to be talking about this evening. We're going to be discussing something that is of interest. Actually, we're over here. It's like being in the middle of the movie and we have to go back for a moment. The reason why we're reading the Psalms of Ascent during the announcement period of services is because in giving this message on the Sabbath day, I gave everybody homework.

I'm an old teacher, so I love to give homework to people. And it's actually heart work. And people were supposed to be reading the Psalms of Ascent two at a time every day as we go through the feast. Actually, I'm very thankful that we've been able to read them. I do hope that we'll continue to read them on our own to give it a little bit more time to allow what those Psalms of Ascent are about.

The Psalms of Ascent, if you like to jot it down, are the Psalms from Psalm 120 through Psalm 134. There's 15 of them. And they're all about going back home. They're about going back home. The ongoing story of return with God waiting for us on the front porch of eternity. They're about tabernacling. They're about dwelling with God in intimate oneness. The Psalms of Ascent are oftentimes called the songs of degrees. They're called the pilgrim songs. They're called the gradual Psalms. There's a lot of handles on these 15 Psalms. They're named this because of the phrase appearing before each Psalm, Psalm 120 through Psalm 134.

And they're called the Psalms of Ascent there. Each is called a song of Ascent out of the New King James. Or it's also sometimes called the song of the pilgrims. But what do these Psalms teach us?

They teach us about this journey of home building through Scripture, of God working with the chosen people, whether it was Adam and Eve, whether it was later on the Israelites that were going to be centering on, those people that he rescued from the muddy banks of the Nile in bondage for hundreds of years, with no hope, with no future, of only being in bondage. And God looked down and he took something that was nothing. And he molded that and molded them and rescued them and led them into a home called the Promised Land.

He wanted them to be special to him. He wanted to pour out all of his love upon them. And he only asked that he might be loved in return. But it gets complicated. When we go through the story of God with Israel, there are chapters of ruinous choices. There's displacement. Then there's repentance. Then there's reconciliation. Reconciliation of God always saying, I want more out of you than you're giving me.

Yeah, you're showing up for my festivals. Hello? Does that relate to any of us? You're showing up for my festivals, but I despise your festivals. There was something missing there. They were sacrificing animals, but they weren't sacrificing their hearts and giving them to God and surrendering themselves to God. Sound familiar? Perhaps you at times, perhaps me at times, over the years. We're showing up, but we haven't really shown up.

We're willing to give God our mind, but we're not willing to give God our heart. We're not willing to give God, what shall we say, friends, our all? And to be that living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, as is our reasonable service, as it brings out in Romans 12, 1-2. The Hebrew term for a saint is meh'alot, and it means going up.

I'd like to give you the title of this message, just so that we're all on the same page, after this message is done in about three hours. That's to wake you up. And it's simply this. It's going to come in two stages. Susie, my wife, really likes short titles, so I'm going to give you a short title first. Then I'll give you the rest of the title. We'll make two titles into one. Home is where the heart is.

Home is where the heart is. Number two. Rest of the title. Song of the Pilgrims. Songs of the Pilgrims. Join me if you would. Let's go to Isaiah 2. Isaiah 2 to get a feel before we move into the Psalms of a Scent. This has been read before, but this is what it's all about. Can't study it enough during the festival. In Isaiah 2, and it's also over in Micah 4. But in Isaiah 2, in verse 1, let's pick up the thought here. The word that Isaiah the son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house, the mountain of the Lord's house, shall be established on the top of the mountains. And it shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it.

Now notice, this is Bible talk. This is not just talking about terra firma. This is not talking about mountain ranges of and by itself. There is an akin thought to it. But this is talking about kingdoms. And we heard about that kingdom this morning, and we've been hearing about it throughout this festival.

That the kingdom of God is going to be established on earth, and it's going to be over all kingdoms. Jesus Christ is coming back to this earth, and His feet are going to land on the Mount of Olives. Glorified feet, kingly feet, and feet that are going to bring this world in its wrongful ways under His subjection. And there's going to be the greatest restart in history. In time and space.

And Jerusalem, as I mentioned a few days ago, is going to become the centerpiece of the earth. Not all nations are flowing up to it now. So this isn't talking about now. It's not talking about 2,000 years ago. It's not happening, but it is going to happen. And notice then what it says. Many people shall come and say, Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord. Let us go up into the house of Jacob, and He will teach us His ways.

And we shall walk in His paths. To just as one like you when we studied the Bible, and this is a Bible study, we always want to unpack a scripture in full, because it's only like eating one third of a meal, one third of a dish. There's three things that are happening. Here we go. Number one, it's the desire to let us go up. And that's why we're here at the Feast of Tabernacles as well, which is a microcosm of that kingdom.

It's not only lecture, but it's a laboratory as we go up. Every time we do that flat road in from the highway out here, and every time, you know, just, oh, what is it, about 300 feet out there? You start going up that rise towards the barbecue area over here, and I think that every time I'm coming up that hill, let us go up.

So the first is, let us go up. And then it says, where it says number two, he will teach us his ways. We just don't go up, because this is not just a vacation. It's not just a spiritual vacation. It's our vocation. One letter, one letter, separates vocation from vacation. And we want to do wonderful and nice things, and enjoy that fatted calf. Enjoy being with one another and doing things that we might not be able to do, but that's a byproduct. We're here to be about our Father's business. It's a vocation, because then it says, if we seek that kingdom and his righteousness, then it says, then these things will be added.

So enjoying the life around us and the area around us, and being with the family around us, that's a byproduct of seeking first the kingdom and his righteousness. So we take a look at that, and then we make this commitment, and we shall walk in his ways. God does what only he can do, then he asks us to comply. That's the covenant. The covenant starts with God and God's grace. He is the engine. He is the motivator.

He is the caller. And he calls us, and he opens up that red sea for us, and he says, I want you to walk through that. And then the rest comes about. For a moment, let's ask ourselves, what does a cent refer to? I'd like to study with you on that for a few minutes. What is the depth and the breadth of that term? Because there's always more than one handle that can be used on a scripture or a topic.

When we use the word Psalms of Scent, this has led some to believe that the 15 Psalms are representative of the 15 steps leading up to the temple in Jerusalem. The temple in Jerusalem had 15 steps, and so people would go up those steps, and they would be singing a psalm as they go up each step.

That's a maybe. Others also see this as an ascent or return to Jerusalem from the exile from Babylon. Most scholars, though, believe the ascent refers to the Israelites' Jewish pilgrimage during the three annual festival seasons. Just as we know in Deuteronomy 16, verse 16, where it says, And you shall go up to where I have placed my name. Let's talk about that aspect of going up and some of the thoughts that gives us some color of the Psalms of ascent. We need to realize that Jerusalem was positioned in the hills of Moriah, and I spoke to that the other day.

It was up on top. Jerusalem is actually at about 2,500 foot elevation. So when the pilgrims would come in, I'm thinking one road would be that they would go through Bethany, then they'd go up over the Mount of Olives, and they'd go down into the valley of Kidren, and then they would proceed, and they would go up, up, up to Jerusalem, which was on top of a mount. That's actually one way of looking at it. They did that soul in order to be able to worship at the temple complex.

The authors are, you know, when I was growing up, and maybe you're a little bit like me, when I was growing up, I thought that David wrote all the Psalms. Because we always say, well, David wrote the Psalms. So I thought, that was one busy shepherd. He wrote all those Psalms. But we also realized that the Psalms were not only written by David, but they were written by Solomon, and some of them were written by the sons of Korah, which is a whole sermon in itself.

And also then they were some written after the exile period. So there's a composite of those authors, even in the Psalms of Ascent. So rather than being dogmatic with all of these handles, we kind of want to put them all together. And let's integrate them into a holistic picture to gain entrance into the hearts of the pilgrims, then and ours now, here and now. We are going to be reading some of them this evening.

We're going to take little appetizers out of each of those Psalms of Ascent. But let's get it in the mind of the pilgrim. They've come from afar. They perhaps saw in the time of Jesus, they've come up from Egypt. Alexandria actually had more Jews than did Jerusalem. They might have come from Babylon, because Babylon had more Jews than Jerusalem. They might have come from the Hellenistic world. Some of them would even come from the Latin-speaking world. In the book of Acts it talks about Pentecost, the strangers from Rome. And they would all come, and they would be sharing these Psalms.

But for a moment, let's just center on those that came out of the post-exile period. What would have been on their minds? I'm sure that, as some of us were coming to this festival, are you still out there? Because I don't see anybody. Have you ever? Hello? I know what we're going to do. Let's do this. I can see the way. I'm just passing through. Ready? One, two, three. We're just passing. There you are. I see hands. Good. Okay. There's movement. I'm having fun with you. It has to keep you going for the next two hours.

Okay. That's great. So anyway, what would they have been thinking? I know you had a lot on your mind. Maybe some anticipation, some trepidation, some wonderment, some excitement, perhaps some doubt, some angst, some concern. Maybe you knew there wasn't something quite right that's going on in your heart, or things that you would want to have patched up at home, or maybe that you're needing to reconcile with some folks that are under one tent with you for seven days plus one. What would have been on the mind of those that were coming back to Jerusalem after the exile?

Imagine that you've been years in exile, and you've been booted out of your land because of your people's disobedience, your family's disobedience. I often think of Daniel, Daniel 9. Gorgeous, wonderful words of this prophet Daniel. Daniel wasn't pointing the finger at everybody else. Just like Mr. Miller's message today, if there's going to be change, if there's going to be transformation, it's got to begin with us. It begins one man, one woman, one heart rubbing up against one other heart, and all rubbing up against the heart of God the Father and Jesus Christ.

It's easy to say, well, they did it. And Daniel, in his prayer, he would say, we have done this, and we have done this. He did not remove himself as the perfect believer. He took ownership. He was with thing, with his people. He grieved for them.

He longed for them. He realized that, in a sense, they had blown it. And, oh God, would you hear us? And, of course, the angel Gabriel comes and said, even as those words came out of your lip, because they were good words, that it was a good heart, we! He says, God's already heard.

The answer's on the way. Maybe that was your prayer as you came up to this festival. And maybe you're meeting your prayers. If you've been praying about God intervening in your life and interrupting in your life during this festival, then you and I, John, you and me, you and I, remember your message today? Us. We have to be ready and prepared to meet our prayers. If we pray thinking we'll never see our prayers met, then why do we pray? We pray, and when we get off of our knees, then we go out to meet our prayers.

The prayers may be yes, the prayers may be no, they may be wait. But we'll understand that if we have an anticipatory heart, recognizing that God wants to have a relationship with you and with me.

So what would have been on their mind? They'd been booted out of their homeland. The temple had been destroyed, Solomon's temple. The walls of their capital city were now nothing but ruins. The rebuilding process has begun, but questions will still linger during that time. Has the Davidic Covenant failed because of our sin? These questions and so many more would have permeated the post-exile community. How do you then encourage people to go up, up, up to the temple when the temple is not even present?

It's a faint shadow of what it's been. And even when they built that temple after the exile, they were sad. Because the Solomonic temple had had the presence of God. The shekinah, the cloud had come down and filled it up in the Holy of Holies. And now this smaller temple. What shall we do? What shall we do?

Were they called to a pilgrimage of emptiness and just go through the motions without anticipation? Let me share something with you. I shared it the other day and it resonated with some people. The bottom line is simply this about the temple of old. The temple that was no longer the Solomonic temple. And later on it would be the same with the second temple, Herod's temple. The temple was never designed to be an end in itself.

You might want to write that down because we're going to build on this. It's going to be like Lincoln Logs going up. You can tell him from the 1950s, Lincoln Logs. The temple was never designed to be an end in itself. Yes, it would be rebuilt. But even the second temple, which was glorious, which could have been one of the wonders of the ancient world, but it was 300 years after Herodotus had already named the seven wonders of the world. But it was always about the presence of God. The temple was not an end. It was a means to understanding the presence of God. The temple exists so that the dwelling place of God could, at least in some fashion, be with humanity. Again, as I discussed the other day, where heaven above touches earth below. In one sense, then, you say, well, we're not doing temples these days. But let's take it a step further. Can you stay with me for a moment as I explain this? In the same sense, the festivals that we observe are not an end in itself. These festivals, while they explain God and God's purpose, the festivals themselves are not an end in themselves. The festivals are what we might call temples in time. The Sabbath is a temple in time. Just as much as Solomon's Temple and the Herodian Temple were temples in space. What you and I are experiencing this evening is we are in the presence of God in a temple of time that he has set apart. Why do I call it a temple? Because he made it holy. He put his presence into this 24-hour period as much as he puts his presence into the holy days and the festivals that he ordains his people to observe. These Psalms of Asin are about the restoration of the presence of God.

It's not about visiting a tourist attraction. It's about a vocation. It's about a vocation. It's about God being our God and we being his people. Let's look into some scripture now, Psalms 127 and verse 1. Join me if you would, please. Psalms 127 and verse 1. Let's take a look at this.

It's a comment that from one of the Psalms that Solomon made comment on. Psalms 127 and verse 1. And they would have been singing this as they went up to Jerusalem. Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.

Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late to eat the bread of sorrows, for so he gives his beloved sleep. And behold, children are a heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. Happy is the man who has a quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but shall speak with their enemies in the gates. Let's unpack this for a moment.

Solomon, who built the original temple, begins with, Unless the Lord shall build the house, those who build it labor in vain. This would serve as they came up towards Jerusalem, chanting, singing this song in community, as families came together. And some of those families were really, really big. And they would be talking about these psalms. They would be singing these psalms. This would serve as a reminder of those rebuilding. But even the mention of a house or a city and sons would have been a great encouragement to the returning exiles, remembering that they were a possession back in Babylon. But now that God was allowing them, allowing them to come up and to worship Him back in Jerusalem, this encouragement of God through Solomon centuries later to this exile community resonates today to we that are the Israel of God more than ever, unless the Lord shall build the house. But I'm here to tell you from one pilgrim to another, He doesn't want us just to build a house. He didn't just want Mr. Miller and all of the people that have helped He and his wife to put up this tent, to create this stage, to create this aura of pilgrimage, this tabernacling in the woods, which is so enjoyable. But if this is just a house, if this is just a physical dwelling and not a spiritual home, I've got an idea. Let's pack up and go home, because we're wasting our time.

For those of you that were here and heard this message on the Sabbath a week ago, maybe it still hasn't resonated, and maybe that's why there's this second coming of this message. Maybe you've been using up 750 years of millennial experience of this week, and you're still just dwelling in a house, entering a tent.

But I've got good news for you. We've got 286 millennial years yet to go over these next two nights, and God is never tired of seeing people return to him and give them their heart, not their mind.

Not just a Bible, not just a booklet from an organization, but yourself. Somewhere you've maybe been holding back, thinking God doesn't care, God doesn't love you, unless the Lord shall build the house. And what did Mr. McNeely say last night in Revelation 3, verse 20? Behold, I stand at the door and knock, and he that opens that door and bids me to enter.

I'm going to sit down. That means he's going to stay a while, and I'm going to dine with him. I'm going to feed him my spirit. I'm going to feed him my word.

I will never leave him nor forsake him. I will never leave her nor forsake her.

They've bid me come in. This is no longer a house. I'm here. I'm home. And so are they. Isaiah 26, verse 1.

In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah. We have a strong city, and God will appoint salvation for walls and bulwarks. Unless the Lord shall build the house, this is a different kind of wall. This is not concrete. This is not brick. This is not stone. Salvation. Knowing that if God be for us, who then can be against us? Knowing that if we have that sure foundation, as it says in 1 Corinthians 3 and verse 11, no man can lay any foundation other than Jesus Christ. On that rock, on that sure foundation, Jesus would tell his disciples, I will build my church. But even as he builds a church, it can also be spelled H-O-M-E. Open the gates that the righteous nation, which keeps the truth, may enter it, and you will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind has stayed on you because he trusts in you. He trusts in the Lord forever, for in you the Lord is everlasting strength. For he brings down those who dwell on high, the lofted city he lays low. And the scripture goes on. As the pilgrims would come into Jerusalem, they would come up to the temple, and the priests would receive them, and the priests would bless them as they were instructed all the way back to the time of Moses. Join me if you would, please. And join me if you would in number 622. In number 6, in verse 22.

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, speak to Aaron and his son, saying, This is the way, this is the way, you shall bless the children of Israel, and say to them.

And allow these words, dear friends and fellow pilgrims, as we hear these songs of ascent and these songs of the pilgrim, allow this blessing to be upon this campsite, this tabernacle, this evening. And not only that, let's not be selfish, but that God who sees all, and is in all and through all, to recognize then that this blessing be upon the entire body of Christ around this world. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.

There are two things that are so beautiful about how God designed the human face. The eyes that light up and sparkle, that lead right to the soul, and a smile. Now, I realize this evening that we have people out here because of reasons that they need to wear their mask tonight. Good for you. But because most of the COVID scenario has, at this time at least, for now, passed us by, isn't it wonderful to see people full face again? What did it do to us as a society for two years? Not to see people's full face and to see their smile? I'd even settle to see their frown.

And then pray for them. But to see the smile, the warmth.

And that's what our God does for us. He smiles.

His face shine upon just as much as that full moon shined on this entire area three or four nights ago. That was God smiling at the body of Christ around the world. It was beaming His joy.

It was Jesus, I can hear Him. I wasn't really up there. This is just a part. Is that, Father, isn't this wonderful? Our children are gathering around this globe. And they understand, they get it. Oh, they'll slip and they'll fall. They'll put their smack right down in a mud pile and fall again and again. But they climb up, we clean them off. They accept my sacrifice. They pray to you. And they're here again. With everything that's happening out there in this world and in their family and in their life and in their mind, they've made the pilgrimage.

They're with us. Someone understands that you sent me.

They got it.

Join me if you would in Psalms 98. Psalm 98. I'm picking up the thought if we could in verse 1.

O sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have gained him the victory. Christ secured the victory on the altar of Golgotha. When he said, Father, into your hands I commit my soul. It is finished.

The victory was complete.

Of course, the details have to keep on being worked out here below. But Satan was displaced.

That's the God that we worship. The Lord has made known his salvation, his righteousness, as he is revealed in the sight of the nations. And he has remembered his mercy and his faithfulness to the house of Israel. At the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. And as the Apostle Paul says in Galatians 6, 16, We, the body of Christ, are that Israel of God today under the new covenant. You see, the story of Israel, God never gets tired of thinking about Jerusalem. He never gets tired of Israel. And it's always about the return. And the great story of Scripture, you know, one of the joys that we have is simply that we look at this as one revelation, from Genesis to Revelation. We don't divide it up. Man has made an Old Testament. He's also made a New Testament. That's man-made. Yes, God has an Old Covenant that he gave to a chosen people of yore, and now we are under the New Covenant. But it's always the story of Exodus. It's like a tsunami. It's like a flow of God's purpose through the Scriptures from Exodus to Revelation. It's the story of a people who were not a people, a people who were nothing, but he has made them something to his glory and to his honor, that no flesh should glory. And even in that, as he cleaned up Israel of old, he said, I'm going to give you a song. And here in the Psalms, as the Exodus and that experience in the Passover experience came to David, he said, Sing a new song. And tonight, as that Exodus experience and the New Testament Passover comes to the spiritual Israel of God, sing a new song. Now, as I mentioned to the group on Saturday, and you get the second edition, and it's simply this. Have you been singing a new song during this festival? Or are you still sending out SOS signals? And they're all over you, you know. That is my imitation, okay?

And you may not even think that you're sending out SOS. You are, okay. To recognize what are those signals. They're SOS. And maybe you are crying out for help, but you know what SOS means? Same old stuff.

Susie, where are you out there anyway? Oh, there, you're in the dark. Susie's been coming to these festivals for 60 years. I've been coming for 59 years.

My time on my earthly and her time on her, because we're the same age, earthly pilgrimage. We only have so much space. We only have so much time left. We don't have a lot of time to expend like we did 30 or 40 or 50 years ago. Time becomes more precious. But as it becomes more precious, it can become more expansive moment by moment. To sing a new song. Maybe you came to this festival without any expectations, other than hopefully that they'll read out of the Bible. But maybe what we're reading out of the Bible is pointed at you and pointed at me. As John said this morning, it begins with us. Transformation. We can be so worried about everybody in our local congregation, or our neighborhood, or our family, or the world. And there are a lot of concerns. But God's asked us to start here, in our heart, and surrender ourselves as a willing and sacrificial pilgrim. On our journey to the kingdom of God.

Same old stuff just as not going to do with what's ahead of us. And I do that message this morning, talking about all the things that are happening in our country. And when I think between 2012 and 2022, and think how society in America has been literally turned upside down. We need to be that light to one another. We need to be that encouragement to one another. We need to be praying back home, up above, more often, lest we become enraptured and shaped by the culture around us like those seven churches of Revelation were. We need to come out of this world, absolutely. I just want to go through a few of the Psalms very quickly with you. Join me, if you would, in Psalms 120. In Psalms 120, we're just going to take a verse out of each one. This is going to go rather quickly. And as we do, these are Psalms about repentance, God's presence, God's protection, God's mercy, God's help, God's goodness, God's sovereignty. I mean, they're ready for you to unpack, starting tomorrow morning in your own personal study, because it's the Sabbath. Guess what? Oh, that's right. Mr. Miller does have something going on tomorrow, but that's going to be good, too. That's going to be the Bible study. But anyway, look at Psalm 120 in verse 1. Let's wet our appetites here and get you started. In my distress, I cried to the Lord, and he heard me, Deliver my soul, O Lord, from my lips and from my deceitful tongue. What shall be given to you, or what shall be done to you, you false tongue? And sharp arrows of the warrior with coals of the broom tree. And it goes on. In a sense, there's despair for the moment. But most Psalms always end up on a high note. Psalm 121 and verse 5. Notice what it says. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, neither the moon by night.

The Lord shall preserve you from all evil, and he shall preserve your soul. Now, what I want to share with you, and I want to kind of give you this thought. Imagine thousands. Think of the time of Jesus when probably Jerusalem would swell up to a quarter of a million people. The people were like streams of ants coming from every direction. And there was a young Jewish boy out of Nazareth. His name was Yeshua. You know him and I know him. And he'd be with Joseph, and he'd be with Mary. He may have been with his cousins, John and James. He would have been with his village. You talk about community, and sometimes that's, I think that's what Mr. Miller has been trying to get us to understand the importance of coming up together and being together. Sometimes all through the day and all through the night at this site. But community, talking about God, studying about God, loving what God is sharing with us in the messages during the week. And so there would be the young Jesus going up. He would be singing these Psalms. This is what our master sang, chanted, looking over at cousin James, looking over at cousin John, looking for Joseph and Mary. And I know we have some young people back there tonight. And they would all be singing, too, looking at one another, smiling at one another. We're going up! We're going home! That's where God has placed himself, where heaven touches earth, and there would be such joy. They're no longer in Babylon. They're no longer in Egypt. And they would go up together as, what's the word? Community. And that's what this feast has been all about. Psalm 122, verse 1, I was glad when they said to me, let us go up to the house of the Lord. Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem. What a joy it was to be where heaven touches earth and to be where God has placed his name. Psalm 130, verse 6, My soul waits for the Lord, more than those who watch for the morning. Yes, more than those who watch for the morning. The waiting, the waiting for daylight. There's an anxiousness within the pilgrim crowd, waiting for what God will deliver. That his light might shine in us in a dark world. Psalm 131, verse 3, O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forever. Psalm 133, verse 1, Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It's like a precious oil upon the head, running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments. It's all over. It's on the move, that oil. It's just going down, down, down, all over. It's like the dew of Herman, descending upon the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord commanded the blessing, life forevermore. Psalm 133, Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.

Your family, your brothers and sisters, with the experiences that some of us have had over the last 25 to 50 years, how precious is unity of spirit and being all at home together rather than apart. We have brothers, we have sisters that are not with us this evening, for purposes and reasons.

Most of the time out of pride. Most of the time because the shepherds of Israel have thought more about themselves than you and me as fellow pilgrims.

In their rightness and in their selfishness, they have divided the body of Christ.

And that makes me very, very sad.

We cannot, brethren, as we read these Psalms, and it says, behold how good and how pleasant it is, we've got to get back to God's kind of math. God hates division. God hates subtraction. Do you know what God likes? He likes addition. He likes multiplication. When you read the Luke and commentaries in the book of Acts, and it says, and God added accordingly, it says, and then, it would say, and then the number of the disciples multiplied. Brethren, when we prize the unity that God desires with us individually with one another, and that we humble ourselves as pilgrims, as pilgrims on a journey in these songs of the pilgrimage, and this one right here, this is prime, I'm encouraging you as a fellow pilgrim as a member of the body of Christ, do everything that you can this year in your family and in your local congregation to be a uniter, not a divider, to keep the flow of pilgrimage going together in the unity that God desires. So often we get settled on something that is way down the totem pole. It may be interesting, but we think it's new truth. And at the end of the day, it just winds up as being old error. But we get excited about it because we think we discovered it. Remember that, and I'm going to finish up with this, with the pilgrimage that was occurring during the first century AD. And the Apostle Paul recognized that he had a real kind of diverse quilt going on of what God was sending him his way. There were those that spoke Latin, there were those that spoke Greek, there were the Jews, there were the Gentiles, there were the slave owners, there were the slaves, there were the men, there were the women. And sometimes they were all in one house church, one home church with God present. And he recognized that if that body was to stay together, hear me please, then they had to stay high and look up, and they had to stay wide.

And what they didn't understand is to allow God to fill in the pieces, rather than them determining how the jig saw, puzzle, ought, to fit, and look. Do me a favor this evening, and that is simply to consider Ephesians 4, 1-6. The apostle Paul recognized that if we got down into the weeds, we wouldn't be able to see God and we wouldn't be able to see one another. And sometimes that's what we have done as a people. We get down into the weeds, we get down into things that don't really matter. Stay high, stay wide, stay big, look up, and what we don't know, let God reveal it to us. Most of all, allow Him to reveal to us our own pride, that we might get rid of it as a pilgrim on this sojourn. God can't use pride. He cannot use pride no matter how great it is. But He can use humility, no matter how small it is, to His glory and honor. And that's why Paul says, remember our calling. Remember the steps of the pilgrimages we move forward to, the ultimate home that is revealed in Revelation 21 and 22. One faith, one hope, one Lord, one baptism, one calling, one Spirit, one Father, in all, through all, by all, for all. That's the road map along with the festivals of God.

Let's be about our Father's business. Let's be about being a pilgrim. Let's remember this night forward, that eternity is not a destination. But here and now, this moment forward, let's make this bond together as community. That eternity is not merely a destination, but it's a way of traveling with the songs of the pilgrims. Good night to each and every one of you. And as I've been saying during this feast, thy kingdom come, thy kingdom become.