A Journey to a Heavenly Country

A few hours from now, almost all of you will be gone. The people who spend hours setting the stage up will come up here and haul everything off. The sound crew that was here an hour, at least before services every day, and an hour after services every day, those are the guys you never noticed that something's wrong. I mean, it goes wrong. So, day after day, we don't pay much attention to them, and then something goes wrong, and we notice, oh yeah, there's sound in here.

But they'll tear things down, and we'll clean out all the offices back here. And a few hours from now, it'll be strange to walk through this building. I usually walk through it one last time after everything's done. And it's like, did it really happen? Did it really happen? Did we really spend eight days here with over 400 people and share this time?

But it really did happen. It has been a very special time. Have you ever planned a journey, a trip, that you planned as an adventure? How many of you ever planned an adventurous trip? A few of you. I always, when my kids were little, I always planned adventurous trips. And I remember one time we were going across South Dakota, and we were camping, and a tornado came through and tore our campsite up.

Unfortunately, we weren't in a tent at the time. And I'll never forget my daughter, Kelly, looking at me and saying she's about 10 years old, this is the best adventure you ever planned. Like I did it on purpose. But there's something about it. I'm one of these people. I love an adventurous journey. I can remember when I was a teenager, three of us decided that we were going to go and live in the wild for a while.

And we packed up our stuff, and I still don't know why our parents let us go. And we grabbed shotguns and our packs full of food and stuff, and we hiked up into the Appalachian Mountains, and we knew where there was a cave, and we were going to live in a cave. And we came back and we were going to hunt turkeys to eat.

Now why we figured, I don't know, none of us has ever filled dressed a turkey or even shot a turkey. I don't know why we thought we were going to eat turkeys, but we didn't have to cook a turkey, but off we went. And we came back and we told everybody what an adventure it was. Wow! Of course, you know how we spent most of the time, since it's snowed almost all the time? We spent most of the time freezing cold. You ever tried to keep a fire going with soaked wood in a damp cave?

We never thought you really can't keep a fire going in a wet cave, you know, with 25 degrees outside. And we all found out that turkeys were a whole lot smarter than any of us. But I look back and it was sort of a rite of passage, you know, a rite in the manhood. We went out and lived in a cave for a couple of days, and somehow I still don't know why, because my parents never let us do it.

Maybe they figured, well, they can't hurt each other that bad. They just don't want to go off and be in a cave. You know, here we are. We have been here eight days. Now think about the themes that have run through all the messages. We've heard messages about how the world is going to be so terrible before Christ comes back, and how it's all going to collapse and be on the very edge of total complete disintegration.

How the church itself will be in trouble, as Mr. Kubik went through Matthew 24. And we did the Bible study on Revelation. And how Christ is going to come back and set up God's Kingdom on this earth. And then we heard messages about how He's going to heal the environment. And He's going to start one world government and one religion, and how wonderful it's going to be. All these great things. And then we heard sermons about how difficult it's going to be.

As entire nations decide, we don't want to go to the Feast of Terrainites. And you have Gog and Mangog. And you actually have a rebellion of human beings at the end of the millennium, which seems almost impossible to imagine. And then we heard, of course, about what this day represents. The time of the great white throne judgment, the great second resurrection, Mr.

Erikson talked about this morning. And then where Ezekiel talks about that, Revelation talks about that. And then there's that third resurrection and the lake of fire. And then we have beyond what Revelation 21 and 22 is about. We also had a core theme that ran through all those messages. And that was, you and I need to be prepared for that.

That just coming to the Feast of Tabernacles isn't enough. Just doing what we've always done, going to church every Sabbath, but living a life sort of half in the world and half in God's way isn't enough. We must be immersed in what God is doing to be prepared for Jesus Christ. I talked about a journey. Do you know that in ancient Israel, when they kept the Feast of Tabernacles, part of what they celebrated was a journey.

Let's go to Leviticus 23. Leviticus 23, where all the Holy Days are mentioned. Verse 39, also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the Feast of the Lord for seven days. On the first day shall be a Sabbath rest, and on the eighth day a Sabbath rest. So here we have the Feast of Tabernacles, the last great day, or as it's called here, the eighth day. And he says, this is the Feast you're supposed to keep.

Verse 41, you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You shall dwell in booths for seven days, temporary dwelling. So most of us have been staying in temporary dwellings throughout this last week. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths.

And now here's why they were told to do this. That your generations may know that I made, God says, the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land in Egypt. I am the Lord your God. He said they are to keep this. And for many, many generations, and even today, in many Jewish celebrations of these days, they are reminded that God made them dwell in booths while they were on a journey. They were going someplace. Now we have been here for the last eight days celebrating all these very important aspects of these tabernacles, the Millennium, Christ's reign on earth, the first resurrection, the second resurrection, the great white throne judgment.

We've looked at all those important elements. I want to talk about the journey aspect. Because you and I are actually celebrating a journey over the last eight days. Not necessarily the journey of the ancient Israelites, but we are celebrating a journey. In fact, because of this journey, it's one of the reasons why we're supposed to still be keeping these days, that these days haven't been done away with. Let's turn to Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11, of course, is known as the faith chapter. There are all these incredible examples of men and women who obeyed God. Sometimes in situations where they received great rewards, sometimes they were killed for obeying God.

Both examples are here, or they suffered for obeying God. Sometimes they were rewarded. They went through it, whether they received the temporary reward or not, because of a very important concept that was at the core of the way they thought. This is at the core of every successful person in the Scripture. When you go through every story of every successful person in this Scripture that ended up at the end of their lives, right with God, this was at the core of how they viewed life.

Hebrews 11, verse 13. Hebrews 11, 13 says, these all died in faith. Now, he's talking here specifically about Abraham and Sarah and a few others, but if you read through the entire chapter, he's talking about everybody in the Bible, except those who were alive at that time, some of the apostles were still alive, the first century church was still around, people who knew Jesus were still around, but those people were going to die too. So we can say, we can look back now over all these thousands of years and say, except for us who are alive today, wherever the people of God are today, they are alive.

But outside of that, all the people who have come before us have died. They have all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them. That's a very important word, assured. They knew. And we talked about expectations. Remember I told you, this is the third in the series of the three sermons I've given here at the feast. The things I covered in the first two are going to be covered again, but we're going to zero in on certain aspects of them. They had certain expectations. They were assured of those expectations.

They were assured of them, and they embraced them, and they confessed them that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. You will never be. I will never be a true kingdom patriot until we are willing to accept that we are strangers and pilgrims on this earth. We're passing through. We're on a journey.

Oh, the house seems so important right now. That, you know, that car seems so important. The jobs seem so important. And in a temporary sense, they are. But we're just passing through.

For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland, we're on a journey to our home. We're not home yet. We're on a journey.

And truly, if they had called to mind the country from which they had come out, they would have had an opportunity to return. If you want to think about what you left behind, you will have the opportunity to go back. Guaranteed. Some of you here have already started back.

Slowly over the last few years, you started to go back.

But now they desire a better that is a heavenly country. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, and He has prepared a city for them. We heard about that in the song, the special music. God is prepared for us a home. And that one statement is remarkable. I hope, you know, there's times I think, well, does God tell that way about me?

That He says, I am not ashamed to be. Now think about your name. So I'm not ashamed to be your name. I'm not ashamed to be your name God. Put your name in there. That God ever says that about you. I'm not ashamed to be that person's God. That person seeks the home I am preparing for them.

You and I have been here for eight days celebrating a journey.

It's a journey you and I are on. We're here to picture something that hasn't happened yet.

We're on a journey towards these days when they're truly fulfilled.

That's why we still keep them. That's why they're not done away with.

So we're reminded of the journey. And that's what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about the journey. You and I are on a journey towards a heavenly country. Now what kind of journey is this? What does this journey look like? What does it look like to be on this journey? Now, you remember in both sermons, I said there were five major things I wanted to really drive home at the feast this year. That when we truly give our hearts and minds over to God and what He's doing, some fundamental changes take place. We went through and showed how they changed that happened in the life of Paul. There's a change of allegiance because now we are monarchs, or monarchists. We believe in Christ as our King. We become our expectations change as we expect suffering, hard times, difficulties, because we're on a journey. If you forget you're on a journey, then we'll start asking why? Why? Why? We're on a journey. Our values change. Our motivations change. And our lifelong mission changes. I want to talk about that lifelong mission. What does it look like to be on this spiritual journey that you and I are on? For those of you who like American history, if you've ever studied the Westward movement in this country, especially in the early days of it, in the 1840s, it was an amazing thing that happened. Millions of people decided they were going to go from the East Coast to what is now the Midwest, and they were going to move Westward, and they were going to go to California or Oregon. And so you have the Oregon Trail.

Well, my kids were little as we trekked across the United States with all these adventures. I took them one time on part of the Oregon Trail, and we talked about the Oregon Trail. What was it like to be on the Oregon Trail? What an adventure! You have some people say, wow, I wish I could have done that. Just like there's probably some young teenager here, that boy that said, I wish I could go live in a cave for a few days. Right? He's not that fun. But I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I wouldn't trade it for anything. But we were all secretly happy to get back home and have mom cooking supper. Okay? What's it like to be on this spiritual journey? I think in a lot of ways, it can be compared to what those people went on. If I go through this sermon, I'm going to read from a book that I picked up on one of my journeys with my kids about the Oregon Trail. And much of this is actually taken from diaries. They collected diaries from people who were on the trail, what it was like. The name of the book is The Oregon Trail, The Voyage of Discovery by Dan Murphy.

Here's from one diary. One girl wrote, We left the Missouri for our long journey across the wild, uncollevated plains, uninhabited except by the red man. As we left the river bottom and ascended the bluffs, the view from them was handsome. With good courage and not one sigh of regret, I mounted my pony and going some two miles, the scene changed from bright sunshine to drenching showers of rain. Liddy Rudd wrote that.

Tells us something, reminds us something. Almost all journeys start with a lot of excitement.

You know, you get up, you get in the car, it's all packed, you're all excited, we're off.

She got on her pony and we're starting across. Now, you have to understand, they really didn't understand what it was like to ride a pony 2,000 miles. They had no idea what it was like to ride a pony for 2,000 miles. They actually had no idea what it was like when they left Ohio or Massachusetts or North Carolina. They had no idea what it was like once they got past Indiana.

They just knew they were supposed to go to Oregon. As Dan Murphy says, choosing the starting point for the Oregon Trail, and even the starting date is a little arbitrary, the trail itself was like a long strand of yarn connecting the United States to the Oregon Territory. But the yarn was frayed at both ends, you know, just frayed at both ends and then there's a straight line as people tried to get across a continent by foot, riding horses, covered wagon. People had different starting points, but they all decided they were going to Oregon. Each journey began at a kitchen table in Wisconsin or Missouri or Illinois, where a family talked around a candle and decided to take this great leap. Probably they had one of the guidebooks. Some were actually best sellers at the time.

Some of the best sellers in 1840s was what it's like in Oregon. And people would sit around their table until they would read it and they'd say, this is where you have to go. It's a better life. And they began to have a vision of that. They began to believe, I have to go there.

This rock, dirt in Virginia, I don't know if you've ever been through Virginia, some great farming land. And some of it has been farmed so much as just rocks.

We could go there and grow anything. That's what the book says.

And they knew what they'd have to have. They'd have to get a wagon, at least six mules or some oxen. They'd have to eat some coffee and some beans and some bacon and some cornmeal and spices and flour and sugar and fruit. But the family had to select not only what they would need for the journey, but they had to take everything with them they would need when they got there.

And they had to sort through their lives and decide what is it we'll leave behind.

You know, they took school books and butter churners and farm implements and furniture.

And they were going to pack this all in a wagon and drag it for 2,000 months.

These people were big dreamers. They said their goodbyes. They sold their farms. They sold their towns and their little villages or their cities like New York. And they packed up and they started.

And they had no idea where they were actually going.

How many of your spiritual lives started because you were sitting around a kitchen table reading a Bible and saying, you know, this is where I'm going to go.

As God opened your mind to where He wanted to take you. And you believe there was something better than what you have right now. We have to question ourselves from time to time, though I still have that. And I believe what I have right now is better.

But you know, you're not sitting at that kitchen table anymore. You and I are on the journey.

We've already started the journey. It's too late to make the decision. I don't want to sell the farm. You already sold the farm.

It's too late. You packed the wagon, loaded the kids up and started out.

They really had no idea how long it would take to get across there.

Most of them had never heard of a tornado before. They saw them. They went through wagon trains.

They had no idea. They just knew that's where they wanted to go.

Some of you have been at this a long, long time. If 40 years ago someone would have told you, this is what it would be like, I wonder if you would have packed up and sold your farm and started on this spiritual journey. Because we haven't arrived yet.

But we're celebrating that journey. The ancient Israelites were to keep these eight days celebrating their past journey. We're celebrating a journey. We're on!

I find it so fascinating. We're celebrating a journey that we're on. And we're looking forward to the first resurrection and the second resurrection and the millennium and the reign of Jesus Christ. And we're looking forward to New Jerusalem coming to this earth when Satan's gone and never will be around again to bother anybody. We're looking forward to that. But it's not here yet. But we're not standing still. We're either moving towards that, or we're not because we already packed the wagon and we sold the farm a long time ago.

This is the journey we're on.

And they had no idea. They had no idea there would be rivers to cross.

And that the prairie went on and on and on. And you're going 30 miles, 20 miles a day.

Sometimes 10 miles a day. And all you see is prairie. And then a wagon would hit a stump and break the axle. And they would say, oh, that guy's stumped. You ever hear that? When people say, oh, that guy's stumped, that's where he came from. Broken axle from hitting a stump.

Well, that guy's stumped. Because now everybody's going to stop and help him fix his wagon.

And they would go on. They had no idea how cold it would get. They had no idea how hot it would get.

They didn't understand what it was to get there. And after a while, it didn't take long.

After a while, every day, the vision of Oregon was tested by the journey to Oregon. Every day, the vision of Oregon was tested by the journey. It didn't take long before they had gun fights. And people beating each other up. Two guys over a girl. Two girls over a guy.

Over some business deal that went bad.

People were fighting. They would get in little groups and argue with each other.

And the poor wagon master had to keep the thing in line and keep them together.

Catherine Sager was crossing in 1844. This was in her diary.

The hem of my dress caught on an axle handle, throwing me under the wheels, both of which passed over me before my father could stop the auction.

He picked me up, a glance at my limb dangling in the air as he ran, and in a broken voice he exclaimed, My dear child, your leg is broken to pieces. They were in the prairie. There were hospitals. There were no doctors. So, as Catherine says, they cut her leg off and they went on.

So, there reaches a point where you either go on or you go back.

They had to decide that every day. Because as one month went by and two months went by and three months went by, they had to cook food with buffalo chips. You know what a buffalo chip is? I don't know what food tastes like cooked over buffalo chips, but it can be good.

The food ran out sometimes.

And maybe a neighbor would sell you some, but it might cost you every cent you have to get it. The vision of Oregon became tested every day by the journey. Your vision, your mission to go to the kingdom of God is going to be tested every day by the journey to the kingdom of God.

This is why we sold the farm. We can never forget that. The writer of this book says, what did Rebecca Winters look like? What life circumstances let her and Hiram be in a wagon on the Oregon Trail out on the plains approaching Scott's Bluff in August 1852? Whatever her plans were, they came crashing down in hours. They both knew as soon as Rebecca showed the dreaded signs of cholera. She died on August 15th and her husband, Merida.

Death was a constant on the Oregon Trail. Journals become restrained, cryptic, as though saying anything more might release too much. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of entries just like this one. We passed a new grave today, a man from Ohio. We also met a man who was going back. He had buried his wife this morning. She died from the effects of measles. We have come 10 miles today, camped on a small stream, wood and water plenty.

10 miles? Oh, he only had 1,800 more to go. They had no idea.

One man started back. Lots of them started back. They didn't make it back. They didn't make it back because they lost their vision and some Indians would get them, or animals would get them, or they would die from exposure, or they would simply catch another disease, or they would starve to death, or from dehydration. And you know what? What they didn't realize is there was nothing to go back to. There was nothing to go back to anyways. You and I can't go back. Luke 9, the price is too high to go back. What we think is the price is too high to go on.

The price is too high to go back. Because this is our day of salvation.

This is our day of salvation. And God has promised us the kingdom. And to say no is too great a price. Luke 9, 57. Luke 9, verse 57.

Now it happened as a journey on the road that someone said to him, said to Jesus Christ, Lord, I will follow you wherever you go. I've read the pamphlet, you know, and we decided this is a great trip. We want to go on this adventure.

I'll follow you wherever you go. Now remember, at this point, Jesus is walking around with 12 other guys going all over the place. And he said, I'll come with you. Let's do this. Let's heal people.

Let's teach people about God. This is a great thing.

This wasn't some terrible guy. This was a Jewish man who would have been keeping the Ten Commandments, who worshiped the true God. Jesus said to him, Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.

Remember what he said to this man? It doesn't say the man followed him. He just looked at the man and said, you don't understand the journey. Are you willing to go on this journey? This journey is everything. You've got to give up everything for this journey. And obviously, the man must have walked away. That's what it costs for this journey. That's what it costs to get everything.

You know, what is God offering us? It says, all things. Afterwards, I'd like to talk to anybody who could tell me what's not included in all things. I haven't come up with anything yet, and I've been thinking about it for decades. What's not included in all things?

And it's what has promised us.

Verse 59, Christ said to another, follow me. But he said, Lord, let me go first and bury my father.

Now, this is not what it meant. You know, my father's died and I have to go bury him.

People died in that culture. They buried them very quickly because it was a warm culture. They didn't embalm. It was a very religious ceremony. He's not saying, no, you can't go bury your father. The point is, wait till my father dies.

Wait till I fulfill, you know, these obligations.

He says, no, this, the follow me will cost you that too. It may cost you your family.

It may cost you your family.

Jesus said to him, let the dead bury their dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God. Another also said, Lord, I will follow you, but let me first go and bid them farewell for at my house. Jesus said to him, no one having put his hand to the plow and looking back, that's for the kingdom of God.

You know, these people had to find out they couldn't go back to where they came from.

And those who did died, those who tried to go back died.

An important spiritual lesson for us. If you and I go back, we will die.

And our death could be an eternal death.

So we continue the journey. We go on Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10.

We've covered so many things in this last week.

There wasn't a split sermon, a sermon or a sermonette that I didn't get something out of that made me think, that made me look at the Scripture.

But we didn't cover the journey part. We did. And we kept saying, you have to be prepared. You have to be prepared. Okay. Our preparation happens on the journey. You can't say, well, I'll go on the journey since I'm prepared, which is sort of what that one man said. Let me take care of everything that I'll go. And he said, no, you can't. You can't. You take what you have. You're like, go on what's not important. And you start on this journey. How far is it?

I'm not going to tell you. What's the cost? I'm not going to tell you. What do we get there?

I'm not going to tell you. Let's go. Do you believe that what he's offering to give us is worth it? Do we believe that we'll stay on the journey? Because I've seen many, many, many people get on this journey, dump the wagon, and head back. I've seen hundreds of them over the years. Just head back. Hebrews 10. Verse 32. Very interesting. He says, remember how exciting it was when you started? You know, these people had to remember how exciting it was when they sat around the kitchen table, when they first went out and bought that wagon for the first time. Ah, new wagon smell. You know, I got the wagon with the mag wheels, you know. We got all the fancy wagons. We bought mules. We bought horses. We had to figure out what they loaded up with. You know, grandma's piano that's been in the family since the 1700s, you know, or, well, harpsichord or whatever. I mean, they loaded up everything they could. Thousands of pounds of stuff, by the way. Sometimes on our journey, Paul says, I want you to go back to that kitchen table.

He says, verse 32, but recall the former days in which after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings. Either remember you started on this journey and it started to rain. Remember that one diary? Oh, the first couple hours was great. It started to rain.

It had never dawned on her. It could rain. It never dawned on us that some of the Christians would die.

It never dawned on us that we in the church could get along with each other.

It never dawned on us that people we respected and loved, you know, I know people I respected and loved as a child who after 30 years of following this way turned around, went right back out in the world, and can't even remember today what the Holy Days mean or can't even remember what they are. Oh, you know what those days you go keep? Well, you kept them for 30 years. You know, I only kept Christmas for seven years and I can remember Christmas.

And I can't even remember Pentecost. They went right back. We never thought anybody would do that.

We never thought we'd see anything like that.

He says, partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so traded. Remember what it was like to be persecuted, maybe by family and friends when you first came into the church, and how the members of the congregation became your closest buddies, your closest people? Remember that, he said?

You know, when they all started on the wagon train, they all became really close friends real quick.

Well, you know, Uncle Joe and Aunt Betty said going to Oregon is the stupidest thing anybody ever did. Why would you go to Oregon? Vermont's not pretty enough for you?

Why are you going to Oregon? What's wrong with Georgia? They couldn't figure it out.

And so they said goodbye to those people, and they made new friends, and they went on. He says, remember those days. For you had compassion on me, Paul says, and my change, and joyful accepting the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and enduring possession for yourselves in heaven, knowing that we seek this heavenly country. He said, so you sacrificed here for the work of Paul. He said, you sacrificed for what I was doing. He said, in order, because you were going to a better place. You're on a journey to a better place. You know that that thing exists. Therefore, do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. It's just don't give up that expectation, that confidence, that hope. Don't give that up.

Because you just didn't know how long the journey was.

For you have need of endurance. Oh, it's about three months into the Oregon Trail, they needed endurance. They were losing endurance. So you have need of endurance so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise, a promise of being part of the family of God.

He quotes the Old Testament, for yet a little while, and he who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith, but if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him. You can't start back from this journey. Verse 39, that we are not of those who draw back into perdition, but of those who believe in the saving of the soul. We continue to move forward.

And you know, a few months into going through the down the Oregon Trail, they weren't green horns anymore. They knew how to do all kinds of things. They had survived raging rivers.

They had survived Indian attacks. They had survived cholera. You know, the ones who were still alive, which absolutely amazing was the majority. The majority always survived.

The minority didn't. Some had turned back, but those who were left, they headed down pretty good.

They knew how to fix a broken bone. They had never done that before. They knew how to mend a wound.

They knew how to fix a broken axle. They knew how to sew up canvas that had been ripped. They knew how to horseshoe a horse. They had never done that before. They had learned all this stuff. They were tougher and stronger and healthier than had been in their whole lives. A little bit tired.

A little bit tired. A little bit tired.

As the book The Oregon Trail says, somewhere pulling through the heavy sand, the realization came that the Oregon Trail would demand its full measure.

The promise of a new life at the end of the trail demanded payment with the old. This is where we reach. Some place in your Christianity, some place you will reach a point where you'll start to realize the full measure of what it is to be called by God, what He's offering you, but the cost. The cost He paid in Jesus Christ, and the cost we pay to go on the journey.

And you, all of us, come to a realization that the old life demands a payment because this is what this book says about what they began to realize.

One could not simultaneously live in Iowa and Oregon. There is a point where you begin to realize, I cannot live simultaneously in the world and in the kingdom of God. I have to choose one or the other. That was a hard realization because they were taking Iowa with them. When they started on this journey, they took the old life with them. Many, of course, hoped that the sacrifice would not be complete, he continues. Perhaps just a little of the old life could be taken along for comfort in the new, a treasured call for a foot table, a family picture, some luxury from the old to help the start of the new. Now the tilt of the land was rising. They were reaching the Rocky Mountains. The tilt of the land was rising. Animals and men were tired with bone weariness, that one night's sleep could not cure. And the wagons were heavy.

Objects hauled from homesteads of the Midwest farms began to be cast off along the trail.

One named Bluff describes what it was like on the Oregon Trail when you got close to the Rocky Mountains and what he saw in 1849. The abandonment and destruction of property is extraordinary.

True, a great deal of it is heavy, coverless, useless articles. A diving bell with all of its apparatus. Probably someone from the East Coast that said, I'll need this on the West Coast.

He couldn't take it with him. Was it an important item? Yes. Did it have value? Yes.

Could he take it with him? Could he take the old life with him? No.

Heavy animals. Well, you need an animal where you're going to go.

But the mules of the oxen were too tired to carry an animal. And if your animals died, you died. You got left behind. The wagon trail couldn't wait for you.

Animals, iron, steel, forges, bellows, lead, provisions, bacon in great piles, many cords of it, good meat, bags of beans, salt, chests, tools, buckets, stoves, trunks, a considerable accumulation of ox chains and yolks. And it was frustrating.

It was frustrating because they were throwing away the old life. And they kept hanging on to a little piece and hanging on to a little piece. And so many of them, when you got down to it, all they had was an empty wagon. That's all they had left was an empty wagon.

Well, at least they could live in the wagon, so they kept the wagon.

The wagon and food were sometimes all they had.

They had no idea the cost was that. They had no idea that they had to give up the past, the old life to that extent.

The book goes on. There were possessions, tons of possessions scattered. Some were neatly stacked along the trail, free for picking. Everyone knew that they might need some of this later, but they could no more drag those things to Oregon than could the people who came along behind them. Wagon trains came along, the item was like, wow, look, a fortune! And they had to leave it because they were dumping their stuff. The other ones who benefited were the American Indians at the time because they stopped attacking the wagon trains. They just waited until they threw everything out and they gave and got it. So they were getting quite rich off of it, or some of the tribes in that area. But, you know, why fight for it? They would just wait long enough. They'd throw it away. They went on.

What are you holding in your wagon? How much useless spiritual and emotional baggage do you carry in your wagon? How many sins are we still carrying in our wagon? And it's wagging us down and it's making it tough. And we keep pulling that wagon. One more step. One more step before I give up.

I know I shouldn't be so covetous. But one more step.

I know that I shouldn't, you know, treat my wife that way. But just one more step. Let me drag this wagon. One more step. Come on, God. You don't mean everything. How many times this feast has Luke, the passage of Luke, been read where it says, you have to love me more than mother, father, sister, brother, children, your own life also, or you cannot be to my disciples. It's been read over and over again. Yeah, but you don't mean that.

And that wagon, we're carrying this stuff. We're carrying anger and hatred and judgmental attitudes towards other people. And we're carrying anger towards God.

And we're carrying a desire to have fun instead of getting to Oregon.

The fun's good, but you understand what I'm saying. We're trying to live one foot way back in the home that we left, and one foot in a place that we can't even quite totally see yet. And you can't drag that wagon. We can't drag that wagon. In fact, there isn't a point that only God can drag that wagon for us. You and I have been called by God to go on this journey, the journey to His kingdom. And He's requiring from you and me that in order to receive all things, you and I have to give up everything.

What we want from God is, okay, God, You give me a few things, and I give up a few things. Okay, we sort of negotiate here. And there is negotiation. This is what it is to be on this journey to where God is taking us. This is what it is to go to the kingdom of God. We must give up all things in order to get all things. We can't take the old life with us. We can't teach our children to take the old life with them. Now, they make their own decisions when they get older, but that should be our child-rearing principle. You can't take the old life with you.

If you want to go on this journey, it's everything.

And these days are about a journey, not the ancient Israelite journey, the Hebrews, Chapter 11 journey. That's what this is about.

When we leave here, it's not like we forget everything we've been taught during the days of Feast of Tabernacles and the end of the last great day. We take this back to do what?

Go home and bury ourselves someplace and wait for the Passover to come?

You and I go back, figure out what should be in the wagon, throw it out, and we keep going on the journey. Colossians, Chapter 3. Colossians, Chapter 3. It was a Mr. Anderson that said that it's always a little frightful when we see somebody, we know they're headed back, I think we'll see this at it, because you know they're not praying anymore. They're not studying their Bible anymore. They don't think about it anymore. They just sort of show up at church.

They forget they're on a journey, and they forget that the Sabbath is just part of a journey.

It teaches us about the journey. It's an everyday journey. Colossians, Chapter 3, Verse 1. If then you were raised with Christ, if you were baptized, or if you haven't been baptized yet, but you believe this way, God is working with you. And that can happen at a very early age. I knew God was working with me when I was about seven years old. They didn't understand it, but something was happening.

If you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Stay focused on the heavenly country, because it's coming here. Don't worry about it. You say, well, wow, I'm sort of out of step with the rest of the world. There's going to come a time where everybody else is out of step. When Christ is here, guess what?

Those who aren't with Him are the ones out of step. So don't worry about it. Someday you'll be in step. Everybody will be getting in step with what we're teaching.

Well, what Christ is teaching through us. We heard about that. You'll hear a voice behind you. Who's that going to be? Set your mind on things above and not on things of the earth. Remember what we just read? They would have thought about going back, but they began to realize the price was more than they thought. They couldn't take Iowa with them. They had to leave Iowa behind.

For you died and your life is hidden with Christ and God. And when Christ who is our life appears, that you also will appear with Him in glory. Therefore put to death your members, which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetous sis which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. But now you yourselves are to put off all these things, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, that you have put off the old man with his deeds, and you have put on the new man who was renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him.

That's what this journey produces. At the far end of this journey, what God produces in this, you and I can't do it, it's God who, we just keep on the journey. He's the one who does it. What this journey produces is children of God, images of Jesus Christ at the far end. But we finally get to our Oregon, where we finally get to where God's taking us.

The Oregon Trail, with interest at the end of the book, he says this, the writer, the textbooks are right. The Oregon Trail was that explosion which leapfrogged from the United States of the West Coast in the 1880s, and in the end stretched the United States across the continent. But the textbooks miss one thing that was the most important thing to the tired, sometimes grumpy, worried immigrant urging his oxen along the Platte River. Is that us? Tired, worried, grumpy, pushing ourselves one step farther. Having God draw us one step farther, having God take that wagon one step more, thinking, how far is it to the promised land?

And God says, just get through the day. Okay, we've gone 10 miles. God, you're down. You only have a thousand left. There was one thing that was important to them. It was the going.

It wasn't just the getting there. It was the going. It was the journey itself.

This isn't just about getting there. This is about the greatest adventure anybody has ever lived.

You and I are going to the Kingdom of God.

It's about the greatest adventure that anybody ever lived.

More than a couple, three boys living in a cave.

He says it was the going. It was the experience. Now listen to this going, because I just find the way he discovered it by going through these diaries. It was the experience of giving all to gain all. Sounds like the Apostle Paul. It was the first time you picked up a buffalo chip or forged a river with frightening water up to your hips, or buried a neighbor, or crested Flagstaff Hill and saw the view.

It was the going to Oregon.

The next generation wouldn't understand. I guarantee you, Mom and Dad sat around and talked about, oh, you were too little to remember.

That time the Indians attacked. You were too little to remember Uncle Bob.

Oh, he had to bury him. Where was that? I don't know. Somewhere between Flagstaff and the Rockies. You never met Uncle Bob.

You'll never know the time we actually saw a tornado. What was it like to see a tornado? And Sunday the grandkids come up and say, Grandpa, what was it like to see a tornado? You should see what a tornado does to six mules. For generations after they got there, the story was not being there. It was how did you get here?

The people who were there wanted to hear about the adventure of getting there. You and I have been called by God to embark on a journey. Well, we've already embarked on it. Can't go back now. Don't you see we're trying. You can't get back to Ohio from here.

It's now possible. So don't even try. We've been called by God and we're on a journey to give all to gain all. And that's part of what we've been celebrating the last eight days.

Just like the Israelites, we're celebrating a journey when they kept these days.

But our journey is our journey. Our celebration is our journey.

And the journey of those who were before us, and the journey of anyone who follows us.

It's all the same people on the same journey.

Sometime after the horrible events of the tribulation, which we heard about, when the earth is on the brink of destruction. Sometime after that, when Christ is here, and He's been able to stop the wars and heal the earth and bring prosperity, and a certain peace starts to come on the earth. And then the next generation comes along, and they don't even know that stuff. And then another generation comes along, and they don't know that stuff. And we're, you know, maybe a hundred years into the tribulation.

Someone may come up to you in a time when God's truth covers the earth like the water covers the sea. How many times have we heard that this week?

Someone may come up to you.

And they may ask you, tell us your story.

What are you going to tell? Oh, man, it was cold and hot and sweaty, and it was terrible.

What are you going to tell? Of course it was cold and hot and sweaty and terrible. It's an adventure.

It's an adventure.

And they will come and they will ask, tell us, tell us your story about the going to the kingdom of God.