The Importance of Rituals

Many people dismiss the New Testament relevance of much of the Old Testament, as we've gone through several times already this year. And they claim that most of the laws of the Old Testament are ceremonial or rituals. And they make a delineation. And they say, the moral law still applies, but the rituals don't apply. Is that true? Are the rituals, the ceremonies, archaic, simplistic, and totally unnecessary for Christians today? Or is there value to the New Testament church in ceremonies and rituals? What are some of the ceremonies that we observe today? Baptism, laying on of hands, Passover, weddings, funerals, the blessing of little children. We fast on the Day of Atonement. We leave our homes and go dwell in temporary dwellings for the Feast of Tabernacles. All of these things are rituals. What's a ritual or a ceremony? It's something that's repeated over and over again. Are rituals valuable to the New Testament church? Or is that sort of archaic the kind of thing we don't really need to do today? I'm going to go through why rituals are so important to us. Why we are not above them and why we actually need them. I could give you the five-minute version right now. Why do we need them? Because we get distracted every single day by life. We forget and rituals remind us. They just do. Right? We've got the bills and then we get in an argument with the spouse and then the child does something absolutely outrageous. Then the boss calls. Then the doctor calls. All of these things. Life is like a whirlpool. And just like ancient Israel, we're people, believe that or not. As Solomon said, nothing is new under the sun. Solomon didn't mean that we don't advance and don't have computers now and smartphones. Right? We do. We have computers and smartphones. Ancient Israel didn't have a smartphone. Ancient Israel couldn't dial up and know that Hurricane Matthew was in the Caribbean. They would have to wait months to find out what happened after the fact. We watch it live. We're so much more advanced than them. Right? No. What do they do when they read something? They open a scroll and they go like this. And they scroll down. And what do we do with our smartphone now? We scroll down. It's the same thing. We're people. People are people. And I'll tell you, we are as easily distracted today as they were back then. And the ritual in and of itself didn't do anything. Let me explain what I mean. What are some rituals that we observe? Well, the definition of a ritual is a ceremonial act or action that's often repeated. Putting out leavening in our homes. Foot washing. Fasting on the Day of Atonement. Daily prayer. Daily Bible study. Rituals. Something we repeat over and over again. Rituals and ceremonies differ from moral laws in the fact that they have no intrinsic value.

What does that mean? That means they're only a means to an end. They, in and of themselves, do nothing for you. And very short-sighted, narrow-minded people see that fact and say, therefore, they're not valuable. When they are actually incredibly valuable. If you get the end that they're trying to point you to. The problem is, a lot of people don't get the end that the ritual is pointing to. They only see the ritual. Which, in and of itself, does nothing for you. Which I will show you from the Scripture today. The apostles themselves said the rituals themselves do nothing. It's what they mean and what they remind us of that does everything.

For example, you don't get the Holy Spirit through my hands. If I baptized you and I put my hands on you, the Holy Spirit does not literally transfer from me to you through my hands. It doesn't even come from me. It's only a ritual. It's an important ritual. Imagine if it was just all in our heart. Just love Jesus in your heart. A lot of people do that. Right? Oh, I gave my heart to Jesus. Oh, yeah, when? Back sometime. No. When you do a ritual, when you counsel and you prepare, and you repent and you have faith, and you mark the date on the calendar, and you invite certain special people to come witness your baptism, and then you actually get dunked in water and it's cold and you come out of the water, let me tell you what you're going to do the rest of your life. You're going to remember that baptism. It's going to remind you it's just a ritual. It's baptism. It's a ritual. But you will never forget it. I remember my baptism decades ago, more decades ago than I care to admit. But I still remember it. I remember who was there. I remember what was said. And you probably do, too. Because you went through the ritual. God's a genius. He created us and He knew what it would take for us to learn. And He gave us these repetition things that we needed to do every year. Remove the leaven from your house. Every year you got to wash somebody's feet. You know what? If you don't get the meaning of the ritual, you just walk away with clean feet. You just walk away from your baptism having taken a bath.

In and of itself, the ritual doesn't do anything. They're just a means to an end. Let's look at baptism, for example. Romans 6 and verse 1. What shall we say, then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! We'll come back to that in just a second. How shall he who died live in sin any longer? Or do you not know that many of us who are baptized into Christ were baptized into his death? Now, I ask you a question. When you were baptized, did you drown? Did you die? You didn't. Now, I know that's a facetious statement, but Paul is making a point. You didn't actually die, did you? But you remember your death, don't you? You remember that baptism. Because it was a big deal. It was a major ceremony that we went through.

You were baptized into his death. Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death. And when you go under that water, symbolically, you realize, my life, I give it up. I let my old person die. You know, that's only a symbol. When you come out of the water, it's still you. You haven't changed one little bit. It's symbolic. And if we get the symbolism when we come out of that water, we get that we are making a commitment to God that that old man will die. And that someday, we'll actually be dead. It's the commitment at baptism, not the actual event. Baptism is just a ritual that symbolizes the reality. You didn't literally die. You went under the water and came back up in probably less than one second.

Therefore, if we were buried with him through baptism into death, justice Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. Even so, when we came out of the water, it represented the resurrection of Jesus Christ that saves our life. It's a symbol. If we get the symbol, it means something, and we remember it the rest of our life. You know what? If we didn't get the symbol, and we didn't really repent, and we didn't really make the commitment and say, you know, I repent. I let the old man die. My life is now yours. It meant nothing. It was just a ritual. Lots of people get baptized. In lots of different religions, they get baptized. All they're doing is taking a bath if they're not actually making a commitment to God and to Jesus Christ.

Verse 4, therefore we're buried with him through the baptism of death, justice Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. Even so, we also should walk in newness of life, which is Paul's point here. We've got the rest of our lives to actually fulfill the commitment that we made at baptism. For if we, being united together, come back to that phrase in just a minute, in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection. And that is our hope, brethren. That's what we're going to talk about today at Mary Jollimos's funeral, at her memorial, I mean.

And if you don't go through the ritual, you're very likely to forget that you made the commitment. But I can still look back, even though my memory is terrible, and I have vividly burned in my mind my baptism. And I bet you do, too.

The word, the phrase, united together, means associated by similar experience. And this is the neat thing about a ritual. It's a similar experience that points us to the reality, which I'm leading to a point at the end. But you need to understand that phrase, united together. It means we didn't actually die when we were baptized, but we did a symbol that was similar to it. We weren't actually buried in dirt, we were buried in water. But it was similar enough that we can get the point.

We wash each other's feet now at Passover. We don't actually need to wash each other's feet. I mean, back in the Middle East, they wore sandals, and they literally needed to wash their feet. When we go to Passover, what do we do? We trim the nails, we file them down so they don't hurt the other guy's feet or the other lady's feet. You're worried about, oh, I've got that little thing on my heel, I better get that. We prompt those feet before we go to Passover.

Then I always take my socks off, and I always have lint from my socks, and it floats in the water. And we're all embarrassed. We don't actually need to wash our feet. It's a symbol! Right? It's just a symbol. It's similar enough to the reality that it helps us to remember the reality. But brethren, if we don't remember the reality that the ritual is pointing us to, the ritual in and of itself is useless.

In the baptismal ceremony, we're simply acting out our repentance and faith. The act of baptism is similar in experience to the death and burial and resurrection to Jesus Christ. It's closely associated enough that it reminds us of the spiritual significance.

And that's the whole point Paul was trying to make at the very beginning in verses 1 and 2. That if we continue in sin and deny the significance of that baptismal ceremony, then we're actually denying the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It's important. He's making the point, Hey, you know what? This baptism, it's actually similar to the death of Jesus Christ. The ritual is important to the New Testament church. Interesting, isn't it? The ritual was important. Not that it in and of itself did anything, but it reminds us. And that's important.

So you don't forget your baptism. What about the laying out of hands? Just by example, symbolizes the transference of the Holy Spirit. Ordination, healing.

You know, there's actually no spiritual anything when you're sick and I anoint you, and I take the oil and I put the oil on your head and I lay my hands on your head, and I ask God to set you apart for a special blessing. He's the one who told us to do it. James chapter 5, look it up.

But it doesn't actually do anything. In fact, sometimes God says, no. I've anointed people and they've died. And I've anointed people and they have been healed. I've anointed a cloth and heard that they were healed before they ever got the cloth. They were healed when I anointed the cloth. So obviously, touching of your forehead with a little olive oil and putting my hands on your head doesn't do anything. But the symbolism is huge! It symbolizes the fact that you are reaching out to God, and that oil symbolizes His Spirit. What He uses to heal you and your act of asking for an anointing symbolizes that you trust Him. That no matter what His decision is, you trust Him to do what's best for you. And you put your life into His hands when the elders' hands are put on your head. The elders' hands mean nothing! The symbolism is huge! So the ritual is actually important. Footwashing. We already went through that, but let's just take a quick look through the Scriptures. Let's go to John 13 and look at footwashing. It symbolizes one of the great commandments. Footwashing reminds us of the second greatest commandment in all of the Bible. What a huge ritual! It's massive in significance.

John 13, verse 1, Passover. Before the Passover celebration, I'm going to read this from the New Living Translation.

John 13, verse 1, New Living Translation. Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that His hour had come to leave this world and return to His Father. He had loved His disciples during His ministry on the earth, and now He loved them to the very end. It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that His Father had given Him authority over everything, and that He had come from God and would return to God. So He got up from the table and took off His robe and wrapped a towel around His waist, poured water into the basin, and He began to wash His disciples' feet, drying them with a towel that was around Him. Now Peter objects to it, and he tells them, you don't know what I'm doing right now. You don't understand the symbolism right now, but you will. Then drop down to verse 12. After washing their feet, He put on His robe again and sat down and asked, Do you understand what I was doing? Peter and the disciples did not understand the spiritual meaning of the foot washing at that time. But Jesus said that they would later. It symbolizes service to others, the great commandment, love your neighbor as yourself. And when you have to bend down and wash somebody else's feet, that's close to the lowest thing that you could do.

And symbolically, that is so powerful to the human experience. When we take action, when we do something, and we don't just think it and say it and say, Oh, Jesus is in my heart. We realize we have to take action. And we bend down and we wash somebody else's feet. We are so powerfully reminded that we're bonded together, that we are to love one another, that Jesus said they will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. And we get that meaning in that ceremony. When we wash somebody else's feet, and we don't get to pick who we wash either, do we? And we do that on purpose. We just line up and some people sit down and some people take the water basin and start washing. And you don't get to pick whose feet you wash. Anybody in the congregation, one of your sisters will wash your feet, or one of your brothers will wash your feet if you're a man. And we remember that the second greatest commandment in all of the Bible is to love your neighbor as yourself. It's just a symbol. If we don't get that out of it, we're just washing feet that don't need to be washed.

Remember the warning? How important is this symbol? How important is it to wash feet and then eat a piece of unleavened bread and drink a little thimbleful of wine? How important is that? 1 Corinthians 11, verse 27. Pretty important. The apostles put emphasis on rituals as great teaching tools. They did not put them down or say we didn't need to do them. We don't do all of them. Because Jesus Christ fulfilled some of them in a way that we don't do them anymore, like sacrifices. They will start up again, and they will be just as important a ritual in the future as they were in ancient Israel.

We are not priests. We do not have a temple. We do not sacrifice right now because Jesus Christ is our sacrifice. But that doesn't mean that all rituals have no value or relevance to Christians today. They're not as archaic as some people would think. 1 Corinthians 11, verse 27, back to New King James. Listen to that. If you take this ritual, these symbols, which in and of themselves do nothing, but if you take them in an unworthy manner, then you are guilty of the blood of Jesus Christ. Paul says you're not a forgiven Christian. You're someone who does not walk worthy of the blood of Jesus Christ anymore. Because you went to the Passover irreverently and disrespectfully, and you disregarded it. How important is a ritual? Well, I would say that's pretty important. The manner in which you do the ritual makes the difference, whether the ritual is worth doing or is worthless. What about fasting and prayer? Does fasting and prayer make you righteous by virtue of doing them? If you pray every day and you have a quota and you meet your quota every day, I pray 30 minutes a day. Does that make you righteous? How about reading the Bible? I read for 30 minutes a day, or I read nine chapters in the Bible a day. Does that make you righteous? Or what about fasting?

Are they requirements for being righteous? Let's go back. We'll read this from the net version, Luke 18, verse 9. Luke 18, verse 9, NET, New English Translation. Jesus also told this parable to some who were confident that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this. God, I thank you that I am not like other people, extortionists, unrighteous people, adulterers, even like this tax collector. I pass twice a week. I give a tenth of everything I get. The tax collector, however, stood afar off and would not even look up to heaven, and beat his breast and said, God, be merciful to me a sinner that I am. I tell you that this man went down to his home justified rather than the Pharisee. The fasting and the prayer did not justify the Pharisee. Does fasting and praying do Bible study? Does that make you righteous? Does that justify you? Nope. It benefits you if you get while you're doing it. But if you don't get while you're doing it, there's no benefit in the ritual whatsoever. A ritual or ceremony has no intrinsic value. It doesn't do anything for you. Don't worry. I'm leading to a point.

Verse 14. No? No, we're good. Okay.

Yeah, no, let's read the last half of verse 14. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted. The Pharisee did not really go to pray. He was going through a motion that seemed like praying, but he was actually telling God how good he was. He wasn't actually praying. Do we do that? You know, sometimes we tell God, Would you give me this and give me this and give me that? Oh, and by the way, please heal the sick and protect people in the Caribbean. Yada, yada, yada. Oh, and oh, by the way, could you give me this and give me this and give me that?

Are we developing a relationship with God when we pray?

Or are we going through the motions?

What about fasting? You know, the only command to date a fast is the Day of Atonement, but some people fast a lot more often than that. And it is mentioned in the New Testament to fast more often than that. But does it actually do you any good?

Does it actually benefit you to fast? Isaiah 58, verse 3.

Isaiah 58 is sort of a trial where people are on trial, and then they're testifying on their own behalf. And in Isaiah 58, verse 3, it says, In their defense the people say, We have fasted before you, and they say, Why aren't you impressed? This is the New Living Translation. I'm giving the Bible Projector guy a hard time. We have fasted before you. They say, Why aren't you impressed? We have been very hard on ourselves, and you don't even notice it. I will tell you why, I responded, it's because you're fasting to please yourselves. Even while you fast, and listen to God's point of view on fasting. Does it change you on the inside? Are you getting why you fast? Or are you just making yourself out to be righteous? Are you just pretending? Or are you actually becoming converted? Listen to this, litany that God gives them.

Because when you're fasting, you're fasting to please yourselves. Even while you fast, you keep oppressing your workers. What good is fasting when you keep fighting and quarreling? This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me. You humble yourselves by going through the motions of penance. Bowing your heads like reeds, bending in the wind. You dress in burlap, you cover yourself with ashes. Oh, you go through the motions, brethren. But it's useless because you don't get the meaning of the ritual. And God says, it's useless. Is this what I call fasting? I'm sorry, what you call fasting? Do you really think this will please the Lord? No. This is the kind of fasting I want. Free those who are wrongfully imprisoned. Lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free. Remove the chains that bind people. Share your food with the hungry and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to them who need them. And do not hide from relatives who need your help. Then your salvation will be like the dawn, and your wounds will quickly heal. Your godliness will lead you forward, and glory of the Lord will protect you from behind. And then you will call. The Lord will answer, Yes, I am here. And He will quickly reply, Remove the heavy yoke from oppression. Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors. Brethren, we need to take heed of that. I have dealt with so many rumors in this past two weeks. It's not even funny. And they're just... the vast majority of them are baseless. They start with a little bit of fact, and they take on a life of their own. And they're actually not even remotely true.

Oh, but we fast! Oh! You know, we fast every whatever it might be. Is that what you call fasting? God's not looking for that.

So this whole topic of rituals and ceremonies, it depends on what you get out of it. Whether or not the ritual or the ceremony has any value. Because in and of itself, the ceremony doesn't justify you. Jesus Christ's blood justifies you. You can't earn salvation. I can't earn salvation. So what's the value of the ritual? You can see why a lot of people would use that as an excuse to never do the rituals. They don't baptize anymore hardly. You hardly ever hear of people baptizing. And if they do, it's a little sprinkling on the forehead. It's not the symbolism of the burial and resurrection, the repentance and walking in newness of life.

Why? Well, because they look at the rituals as having no value.

Well, if you get out of it the spiritual lesson that the ritual is designed to teach, the ritual in and of itself has great value. But if you walk and you do everything you're supposed to do, every ritual you keep diligently and you don't, you are wasting your time. This is what God has said over and over that we have read to you. You can also see Matthew 6, verses 16-18. We don't have time to go through it today, but you can read that for Jesus' commentary on fasting as well.

What about prayer? Did you know that prayer can be a meaningless ritual? Absolutely meaningless. If our hearts aren't in it, if we're not actually talking from our heart to God, God's actually not listening. You might as well just be going, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, because you're wasting your time. Matthew 6, verse 7. From Jesus' own words, New Revised Standard Version, the NRS. Matthew 6, verse 7. When you are praying, do not keep up empty phrases as the Gentiles do. Empty phrases can be vain repetition. Empty phrases can also be you're not putting your thought into it. You're not putting your heart into it. Something along the lines of, Good morning, thank you for this day.

Please bless me in this. Please protect me with this. Please guide our kids and church members and heal those who are sick. What time is it? Man, I gotta go.

And your heart's really not in it.

Yes, I've done that before. That's how I know.

That's not prayer. Those are just empty phrases. But when you're engaging God, you do get a reply back, and it's not verbal. If you hear voices, come counsel with one of the elders. You may be a prophet, but I would be a little worried for you. But God does guide you through the day. Through His Spirit. Actually helps you make decisions. Actually helps you think the right way. You do get an answer to prayer when you pray from the heart. And when you have a relationship with God, you know what I mean. You do get the answer. Sometimes people say, Well, God won't answer me. And what we really mean is, God won't do what I want Him to do. Because the answer is something different than we want. But we do get an answer. When we pray from the heart, it's a relationship with God.

Certain faults have crept into certain peoples with bad habits in Jesus' time. And they would often do these ritualistic prayers. You often hear people say, Oh, I've got to get in my prayer and Bible study. I've got to get in my prayer and Bible study every day. You know, it's good to pray and study your Bible every day, if you're doing it from the heart. If you're doing it by rote, just some mechanical thing that you're going through, you're actually wasting your time. Interesting how God wants sincerity. Real children who really love Him and are really engaged with Him. And then, wow, do the rituals have meaning. And when we don't, we're just spinning our wheels. Christianity has the Lord's Prayer. A lot of religions have a lot of memorized prayers that we could be doing. And Christianity is no exception. We have the Lord's Prayer. Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, and they go on and on. Say that over and over. And there's all kinds of other things that they've memorized that are meaningless, if it's not from the heart.

The Jewish religion has the Shema, which they say every day, three times a day. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. The Muslims have a prayer call five times a day, starting with Allah, Al-Aqbar. God the Great. It's a memorized thing.

I remember living in the Middle East. Great place to live if you're at peace with the people around you. Great place to live. Hospitality, culture, food. The warmth of the people. The passion of the people. When they get angry, they get angry quick. But when they forgive, they forgive quick. It's great, but everything in every human system has its flaws. And I'll tell you, getting woken up five in the morning with those prayer calls is one of those flaws. I'm just saying.

Other religions have their prayers, too. And if we mindlessly go through a ritual and repeat the same thing over and over again, as I've said before, and I will continue to say, it has no value.

So, Matthew 6, verse 8, Therefore, do not be like them, for your Father in Heaven knows the things which you have need of before you ask Him. In this manner, therefore, pray, our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on this earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power, and as we heard in the sermonette today, the glory forever. Amen. And if we use that as an outline to frame a prayer from the heart, what a meaningful ritual that is. Because we actually develop a stronger and deeper relationship with God every day by going through a ritual called prayer, and a ritual called fasting. And if we just go through that mechanically, there are so many better things we could be doing with our time.

Some rituals that we keep are baptism and the laying on of hands, Passover and weddings, blessing of little children, funerals or memorial services, fasting. And what about going to the Feast of Tabernacles? Yes, that is a ritual. A ritual that a lot of people will criticize you and say, that's Jewish. It's actually God's feast.

It's actually God's feast. The Jews happen to be very smart people who keep God's feast. Good on them. We need to keep them, too. We're about to go to the Feast of Tabernacles. Is that some archaic ritual no longer necessary for the New Testament Christians to keep? Let me tell you what. If we don't go to the feast and keep the meaning of the feast, we are wasting our time because it's a ritual that we repeat over and over again. And if we don't get the meaning, we don't get the benefit. If we mindlessly keep the ritual, our critics are actually correct. We are just keeping an archaic ritual that means nothing.

The Feast of Tabernacles in and of itself does not justify us or make us righteous or make us holy in any way.

But when we consider the meaning that the feast symbolizes, then we derive the benefit from the ritual. What is God teaching us by repeatedly going to the Feast of Tabernacles? Let's review that before we go and let's get this in mind so that wherever we scatter, when we come back here as a congregation after the Feast of Tabernacles, we are lifted up and we're recharged like a battery that was really, really low, like your phone is just about to die and we plug in. And we are completely back up to 100%. And the only way to get that isn't to go stay in a motel and fellowship and sing some songs and then go eat some food and drink some drink and go play and go to bed and do it all over again. It's just vacation! This is so much more than a vacation. Let's review Leviticus 23, verses 42 and 44. This is where we read about the instructions to keep this ritual, these ceremonies, that we call the Feast of Tabernacles and the Eighth Day, as some affectionately call the Last Great Day, which I have no problem with whatsoever.

Verse 42, You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All of you who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths. Anybody who is a member of the congregation will go. It's a command.

That your generation may know that I made you, the children of Israel, dwell in booths when I brought you, brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God, so Moses declared the children of Israel the Feast of the Lord. Interesting. The first clue here is to remember that we are to dwell in temporary housing. And this symbolizes the fact that life is short. That this life, this body that we have is temporary.

And when we go to that hotel or that RV park, some people might even stay in a tent. We remember that life is short. And when we go to that motel or RV park or tent, and if we don't remember when we wake up in a temporary dwelling place that life is short, we miss the first symbol of keeping the ritual. Just whoosh! And it's so easy to do. And I've done that before, where you get so busy at the feast and you go, go, go, and you're just happy to see that bed when you get back to your motel room at night. And you wake up in the morning and you're like, ooh, I just have time to shower, grab some coffee and get to services. Okay, I'll skip the coffee. No, I'll skip the shower. And you go to the feast, and you don't remember, oh, I'm in a temporary dwelling because this life is short and a better day is coming. And that's what that reminds us of every year at the feast. A better day is coming, and every time we wake up in a motel room, that's what it's supposed to remind us of. Are we going to get the point this year? I bet we will, because we just reviewed it. 1 Peter 1, verse 24. Now, Peter is quoting Isaiah 40. In 1 Peter 1, verse 24, he says, Because all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass, the grass withers and its flower falls away. Our life is like a temporary dwelling place at the Feast of Tabernacles. And that ritual reminds us that life is not what we're living for, but that's not the only symbol. The second part of the ritual is to go to the feast and rejoice and celebrate. It is not a somber feast. It is a rejoicing feast, a happy feast. Do you know it's commanded to rejoice? Because a better day is coming. And if we don't rejoice, we miss the symbolism of the feast. How many of you kept the feast when you were a little kid? Me too. Loved it! Didn't even get it! And I loved it! My favorite feast site when I was a kid was Jekyll Island, called it Choc-le Island. Because we got chocolate ice cream anytime we wanted because we rejoiced! Can I have chocolate ice cream? Yup. Really? Yes, it's the Feast of Tabernacles. You never let me have chocolate ice cream. Once in a blue moon do I get chocolate ice cream, until it's the feast.

I get chocolate ice cream every day if I wanted.

Because it's the feast. Deuteronomy 14.

It's actually commanded. This is New Living Translation. Deuteronomy 14. We'll read verses 22 through 26. And we need to wrap this up because we've got a potluck to attend. Deuteronomy 14 verse 22, You must set aside a tithe of your crops, one tenth of all the crops you harvest each year. And bring this tithe to the designated place of worship, the place of the Lord your God chooses. For His name to be honored.

It goes right along with the sermonette today. God's name be honored. To God be the glory. And eat it there in His presence. This applies to your tithes of grain, your new wine, your olive oil, first born males of your flocks and herds. Do this. I'm sorry. Doing this will teach you always to fear the Lord your God. Notice that doing it teaches. And that's the purpose of rituals. That's the stated purpose of rituals. It's not even implied. It was the stated purpose from the beginning. You will go to keep the Feast of Tabernacles and it will teach you to respect God.

It will focus you from all of those nightmares that you go through during the year. All of those distractions, as Paul says, pressed on every side. And then you go to the Feast of Tabernacles in faith. Because it's not always easy to go to the Feast, is it? Right? It takes faith to go to the Feast of Tabernacles in the middle of the fall. And everybody looks at you like, now you're taking a vacation in the off-season. Kids are out of school. You have to take them out of school. You have to take time off of work. It's difficult. Your boss doesn't want to give you time off of work.

And you have to tell him, well, it's religious, so you have to give me time off of work. Which really makes an uncomfortable situation. And you have to trust God. And you get there. And you get plugged in and your batteries get recharged. And you come back able to face the next year. Because you had faith. I have no idea where I ended. Hold on. Okay, verse 24. And now, when the Lord your God bless you with a good harvest, the place of worship he chooses for his name to be honored might be too far away for you to bring the tithe.

So you may sell the tithe of your portion of your crops, of your herds, and put money in the pouch. And that's what we do. Okay, so we put our money in the pouch and we run off to the Feast of Tabernacles. And verse 26. When you arrive, you may use the money... Listen to this. It's awesome! You may use the money to buy any kind of food you want. Yes! Cattle, sheep, goats, wine. Notice there's not an unclean thing mentioned there.

God would never tell you to do something harmful. You should never want to do something harmful. So that is outside the context of this Scripture. Anything you want in context of what God said you could do. And you're going to need that information in Galveston. Because if you order any fish in Galveston, they love to put shrimp on it and they don't tell you.

You just come, oh yeah, I'll try the sea bass. Oh, that looks great. It comes with some sauce with shrimp all over it. You've got to ask. Fair warning. Galveston loves the shrimp. Cattle, sheep, goats, wine and other alcoholic drink. If you are not an alcoholic, you are not a drunk. A drunk will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Do not tempt yourself. If you have a problem with alcohol, leave it alone. If you don't have a problem with alcohol, have a little bit. But have a little bit and rejoice. It is the feast and it pictures something. And if we go to the feast and we just enjoy a nice steak and some nice seafood and we hit the beach and I'm going to wear my really loud Hawaiian shirt.

You know I will. Right? We have a nice, just a great time and that's all we do. We could have stayed home and worked and made money. But if we get the fact that a better day is coming and we are to rejoice, wow! Do we learn to respect God? Do we get hope for the future? Brethren, keeping the rituals is not archaic.

It's wonderful. It teaches us something that we never forget. And we're people. We would forget if we didn't do the rituals. We just would. That's the way we are. If we didn't keep the Sabbath every week, oh wow! We would just drip so far away from God. Imagine if the Holy Days were just annual.

Only annual Holy Days, no weekly Sabbath. We need a reminder every seven days to stop and reset and refocus. God is such a wonderful teacher, a merciful teacher. He's the best teacher in the universe. And He built the entire universe, the solar system, like a clock, for the very purpose of teaching us when to go to the Holy Days so that we will learn these lessons.

And if He set the stars and planets in motion, if it was that big of a deal to God, then you know what? This ritual? Really important. Really important. There's a better day coming. There's a psalm that combines these two concepts that life is temporary, that we live in booths right now, but a better day is coming. Psalm 103, verses 14 through 18. We'll read this from the New King James, Psalm 103, 14 through 18. This is what we should get out of the feast.

Psalm 103, verse 14. For He knows our frame, and He remembers that we are dust. As for man, His days are like the grass. As a flower in a field, so He flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place is remembered no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to the children's children, to such as keep His covenant and those who remember His commandments to do them. It is from everlasting to everlasting, brethren.

A better day is coming. That's what the Feast of Tabernacles symbolizes. Let's go to the Feast of Tabernacles this year, and remember that. Remember that the trials in this life are temporary. The things that you're facing right now will not last forever, and a really, really good time is just around the corner.

So I hope that we can see the foolishness in the reasoning that ceremonies and rituals are archaic and have no value to Christians. So that when we go to the Feast and we keep this ritual over and over again, we will truly come back absolutely recharged.