Keep the Joy Alive

I did want to share greetings from the Mexican feast site that where we were at this year and share a little bit about our story.

I know many of you have shared with your feast experiences with each other, but this is our first week back here in Ann Arbor and we did have a great time in Mexico.

It's a unique site, one of the most unique in the way that the entire resort.

It's a hotel complex that can hold about a resort complex, about 700 people, a little bit more than that, but just about that.

They have multiple restaurants on site there because it's a resort and several pools and a little bit of a beachfront.

It's a unique setting in that if we get enough people to come, which we normally do, we get the whole hotel to ourselves, the whole resort.

Everywhere you go, it's church members.

Lauren and I went down a couple days early before the feast and when there's other people still staying there because until the day the feast starts, it's not that everybody else in checks out and then our members, whoever is still arriving, checks in.

It's just a different feel when before the feast and things, you go around, you have to be a little bit more careful with your belongings, you recognize there are people who are not maybe dressed the way that we often will dress, even behave or talk or language and things like that.

Then as the day before and the day that the feast starts at Wednesday, in the case this year and you see the transition and you just see it's a different feel as God's people, as God's family walks in the door, right?

Just kind of being like being here on the Sabbath or being at many of the feast sites that you're at.

It's one of those sites where you can get on an elevator because you know everybody's with the church and you can ask somebody where they're from and their name and where they're from and they don't look at you like a weirdo, like most other places would.

It's a place where you can be standing in line behind somebody, getting ready to go into one of the restaurants on site and meet somebody in front of you you've never met and then say, do you want to get a table together and get to know one another?

It's unique in that way as well.

To see the kids playing by the pool and to see moms and dads, just tell somebody else, keep an eye on my kids and they'll be gone for a bit, but know that the kids are safe.

The kids are going to be looked after.

You can leave your belongings on a bench or on a pool chair and you don't have to worry about them walking off.

We did that several times after the feast started.

We didn't do it before because we were advised not to, but once the feast starts, you can do it.

Leave your stuff on a pool chair, walk away and 30 minutes later come back and it's still there.

It's an amazing environment in that way.

The sermons were excellent and inspiring too.

That's the primary reason we go to the feast of course, but we just had a fantastic time and it was reenergizing.

It was exhausting in some ways, as you know, many of our sites, we either do activities or in our service even, we can be very busy with service, which makes it also exhausting.

I'm always shocked that when you get back from the feast and you feel like you need another more time away to recharge your batteries, but spiritually they were recharged and coming back was just amazing.

Look forward to hearing some of your stories and the excitement, the amazing things that also happened for you.

I know some of our members weren't able to go to the feast.

Some had to stay home.

Some joined like they do each week with us online.

They joined into other congregations.

Some stayed here locally in the state and went to Flint.

Some tried to attend the feast like Mr. Chase and then had to leave early.

We know that's just the case, but I know that God looks after his people wherever they are.

As we try to draw near to him, he draws near to us through sermons, through notes, through gift bags and different things that people do.

But it is an amazing time of the year, a time we do come back and we recognize that we're not still at the feast, right?

We're not still picturing the millennial time that God created in that holy day, the holy day of the Feast of Tabernacles, not being reminded of any more in messaging of what the eighth day pictures of a time when the entire world would have an opportunity to know God.

So with that joy and that excitement that we come home, sometimes we can come home and kind of have a little bit of a letdown.

Sometimes we can come home and maybe hit even a little bit of a depression because of how much spiritual food we are getting during the feast, how special that time was, how unique of a time it was to go away and to be able to enjoy that or to get together here locally to share meals together or go to restaurants.

And then that starts to taper off as the feast ends.

And then we kind of get back into our normal swing of school or work or raising our families or being home and things like that, not being as close together as some of us were this year.

I know that part of the letdown comes from the excitement that we have, the joy that there is in keeping God's holy days, the specific ways that we go away for the Feast of Tabernacles or we do different things locally here, or we make these days more special in our heart because God tells us that we're to do these things.

He tells us that we're to rejoice.

And we'll look at that here in a minute.

But we know that one of the challenges we face is continuing to keep the momentum that we had at the feast going after we return home, to continue to have the hope rest in our hearts that God places there and the reminders of what he is going to come and do and the fix that he is going to make to this world.

Some of these things are difficult to keep in mind as we come back.

And this past week, we know the distractions that we face this past week, we had one of the greatest distractions and a national election.

We know that there's brokenness in our societies and sometimes in our families that impacts us when we come back.

We know there's challenges we have maybe with their jobs, things that maybe somebody's frustrated that you went away for a week when they wish they could go away and maybe they make your return a little bit more difficult.

There's always these difficulties that we face and we know that the reality is that Satan still has a great influence on this world and we remain a part of this world.

And because of it, we can sometimes have a little bit of a post feast let down.

But I want to pivot off this because obviously we don't God doesn't want us to be let down.

He doesn't want us to have a momentary depression or these types of sadness slip in.

He wants us to go forward with his hope that we have in our hearts that he is our God and then he is going to return and to fix the things on this earth.

And so with the Feast of Tabernacles in the eighth day, just a little bit, a few weeks past, it's still fresh enough in our mind for us to recall how this feast went.

Both positive, hopefully, but also some of those challenges that we faced and we'll talk about that a little bit further.

So with these thoughts still fresh in our minds, how and with these ideas fresh in our mind, I'd like to consider how we can keep the joy alive.

How can we keep this joy alive?

And regardless of where we kept the Feast of Tabernacles this week, whether it was in our homes at a satellite site or at a out of state, we look forward to a period of renewal and spiritual rejuvenation that we could enjoy from these days.

This is something that's unique to God's Holy Days.

This is something that he has built into them spiritually so that we can come back and we can continue to go through the rest of the year because we're about to hit a time period and we are now in it where we're not going to have another Holy Day for quite a while, right?

And for us here in Michigan, we've got winter to look forward to and all the joy that it brings with it.

And I see somebody nodding her head in the back, the normal negative Nancy about summer who enjoys winter.

So she's happy.

The rest of us are about to, I'm just going to leave it there, about to go cry.

But winter is around the corner.

It's going to be here before we know it, along with shoveling snow and getting our snow blowers out and also having to go to work in this mess.

We need to keep the joy alive, right?

We've got a long winter to go to go through and we still got a while until we reach the spring holy days, that feast of Passover that we know is coming in the spring.

But if we do not work with purpose in our hearts to keep this joy alive that we've experienced, it will slowly dim.

But the truth of the matter is that we don't have to lose our joy, but to maintain the joy will take thought effort on our part.

Open your Bibles to Deuteronomy 16 verse 13 with me.

We're going to go back to a passage that maybe we read about before the holy days, we read through or most definitely wherever you kept the feast or wherever you watched videos or webcast this year, you somebody would have shared this passage with you.

But in it, we have that command that we are to keep these days and also to rejoice in these days.

It's a unique holy day period where God adds in this command to rejoice.

We know first and foremost, we're to go to the feast to learn to fear God, to show him respect to learn to grow in all of his amazing attributes and who he is.

But here in Deuteronomy 16 verse 13 and referencing the feast of Tabernacles, we get this command to rejoice here with this recorded.

You shall observe the feast of Tabernacles seven days when you have gathered from your threshing for and from your wine press, and you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your sons and your daughters, your male servants.

And he goes through everybody in the entirety of one's house is to keep the feast and rejoice verse 15.

Seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses because the Lord your God will bless you in all of your produce and in all of your work and all your hands so that you surely rejoice.

And so we have this command from God, not that that rejoice if everything's going well or not or rejoice if your health is great or rejoice if you're able to go out of state or out of the country.

No, wherever you are observing this holy day, God says that we are to rejoice.

Why?

Because he has put so much so many aspects into his holy day plan that should bring us joy in our lives and hope from the brown drivers breaks Hebrew definitions for the word rejoice.

It means as we know it means in our English language to show joy or you who rejoice so collectively we are a group of people who should rejoice and breaking down the word rejoice to its base word joy again from a Bible definition of the word joy.

It can mean joy of course and peace cheerfulness calm delight.

I like the calm delight aspect of this word joy because it brings to mind and it brings to heart that we rest our peace and we have our peace and we're calm in the hands of God that he is the one that looks after our lives.

He was the one that provides for us.

He's the one that leads us down a good path and even when that path gets rocky or bumpy we know that we remain in his hands.

The Bible knowledge commentary shares this about the word joy and rejoicing says joy is a deep and abiding inner rejoicing which was promised to those who abide in Christ and obey his commandments.

It does not depend on circumstances because it rests in God's sovereign control of all things.

Matthew Henry's commentary defines it as a constant delight in God and we know that sometimes in our especially in our English language joy and happiness can be used interchangeably when one describes an event going on in their life but it's much deeper than that when we get into the true meanings of these words.

We know that happiness is an emotion.

We can be happy that we got a new job but it doesn't take long for sadness often to come in because we could lose that job right or we're happy with the birth of a child but then we could be saddened because of a death of a friend or a family member.

So happiness is an emotion that can come and go and it can be affected by the events we go through and it's natural to be happy at times and to be sad at other times but joy is not an emotion but rather a state of mind.

That's the best way I've ever been able to really think through and separate these two out.

It's a constant state of mind that comes from a belief that regardless what happens in our lives good or bad we remain in God's sovereign hands.

We remain under his care.

We remain under his watch.

So regardless of where our life leads God remains on his throne right.

Regardless of the events that happen in our society God is aware and he has a plan to fix that.

Regardless of what we go through he looks over our life and he provides his care for me and regardless what goes on ultimately whatever happens I'll be okay because I'm in the eternal sands.

And so you can see where joy is different from happiness.

We can be happy some moments.

We can be sad others but joy is a state of mind and we can maintain that right state of mind of being able to rejoice and maintaining joy regardless of the circumstances because we keep that focus on God.

Now I don't believe your joy can be stolen from you.

I believe we can give it away though.

I believe we can allow our mind to change in a way where our joy can be dimmed and then we either let go of it or we give it away.

I don't believe someone else can come in and just take your joy away kind of like sometimes life events go with something that comes unexpected and we can become saddened because of that.

We may not expect a death in our family but that and that can come out of any direction and that can create sadness but joy has to be given away.

And so I want to encourage us to continue to let this joy that we felt during the feast the joy and peace of mind that we have from God to remain in our hearts as we go forward from these days.

You'll turn with me to John 15 verse 9.

Jesus talks about the joy that we're to have in our lives.

And he talks where that joy originates from.

John 15 and verse 9.

Jesus shares as the father loved me I also have loved you and then he says abide in my love.

Live in my love.

Make that your home.

Make that your place.

Make that your abode.

The word abide we don't use or abode we don't use much in our English language but we know what it means.

It means to be present there to make oneself there.

And so he's saying live in my love.

Make this your home.

Make this your abode where you wake up to and you think of the first when you wake up in the morning you think of the love that you're in being with God.

And when you lay your head on the pillow you can praise him that you remain in his love.

Notice verse 10 if you keep my commandments you will abide in my love just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love.

These things I have spoken to you and notice that my joy may remain in you.

So the joy that we have this peace of mind this security that we have we didn't just originate it from ourselves we didn't just somehow dig deep and bring it up and now we have this joy.

This joy originates with God and it rests on God.

He says that my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full.

So we have this reminder that if something can be full it can also be empty right.

If something can be full it can be restful right.

So we have an admonition to continue to let God's joy remain in us fully regardless of challenges regardless of society regardless of the different things that go on in our lives and he finishes in verse 12 saying this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you.

So he bookmarks either side or bookends either side of the aspect of joy with the reminder that love is what allows us to go forward forward.

We abide in God's love but we also love him in return and ultimately this brings joy to our lives and a peace of mind.

The life application study Bible says this about the passage we read when things are going well we feel related when hardships come we may sink into depression but true joy transcends the rolling waves of circumstance.

Joy comes from a constant relationship with Jesus Christ.

When our lives are intertwined with his he will help us walk through adversity without sinking into debilitating lows and manage prosperity without moving into deceptive highs.

The joy of living with Jesus Christ daily will keep us level-headed no matter how high or low our circumstances and this aspect of rejoicing and this aspect of hope and joy should have been in the messaging that you heard wherever you kept the feast this year.

Whatever webcast you tuned into whatever sermons maybe you downloaded whatever passages that you studied into at this time of the year should have been on rejoicing and should have been on the joy that we have in God.

But then it doesn't take any time at all for us to return back to our lives to get busy with our children or with school or with work or with a health trial that comes up and we had a lot of people go through health trials right after the feast this year for it to feel like some of our joy is being robbed or some of our joy is diminishing because of these difficulties.

So how do we maintain a joyful state of mind and keep the joy alive?

I have about three aspects that we'll kind of look at today and then the first aspect is that it starts with a plan.

We have to have a plan.

I think with any major project or any project we have in our lives any goal that we want to accomplish we start it with a plan.

I think about I'm going to use it like a home building project analogy because it seems to fit well in my mind and I have some examples I can draw from but we don't normally if you're going to remodel a bathroom in your home if you're going to start a major product or fix something that needs to be fixed you don't just wake up one Sunday afternoon or morning when you sleep in stretch your arms and decide this is a good day to start remodeling a bathroom right maybe you've done that I know there's a few projects I woke up and I'm like I'm going to get that project done today it usually doesn't go very well why because I end up making eight trips to those because I didn't have a good enough plan and I'm always embarrassed by the third time I go back because you know the check out people they're still working there and they saw you twice already and once they see you three times they know you have no clue probably what you're doing and then when it's like the fifth or sixth time they're like they start pointing you towards that contractor desk where the people who know what they're doing come and go they may be an offer hey we can we can install that for you you know that right and so that's because there's not a plan or that you run into other aspects you haven't fully fleshed out yet there's been several times I need a different tool or I need more parts or something I measured didn't fit and then I got to go back and get you all know if you've done this yourself or if you supported a struggling spouse through this you know what this is like in your lives we need a plan as we go forward in life so much for so many of our goals and projects we recently well I guess I'm gonna be transparent like you guys know I am two years ago we I was mowing the yard or I was outside doing something and we have these little corner gutters on the each side of our back house it's not a full gutter that runs across just two little corner gutters because of the slope of our roof and everything and I was looking up underneath it and I saw all this black wood right and I thought well maybe it just needs to be repainted maybe the paint come off or whatever and so I go it up there and I have to take these little corner gutters each one's about two feet by two feet it just wraps around and I take one of them off and which well first I started touching it and it started wiggling a lot more than it should and then when I took the screws out and took it down you could just see all that black the black was all the rot somehow the water flooded the gutters back flooded them and so it ran down the wood and over how many years 20 years 18 years rotted a lot of that wood out and so I thought well maybe this is just on the surface I can take a piece off and I see the head shaking you guys have done this before no it wasn't just surface level it was about three levels deep it extended into other pieces of wood that wrapped around the corner so next thing I know I'm exposing a whole corner of our house because you got to get down and got down to the house wrap because before I finally got to where it wasn't damaged and so now I'm like oh great now what do I do because I'm this is not my forte as you guys know I mean this is more my forte or IT work sound work is more and but I'm like I don't want to pay somebody to do this I can do this and I'll slip in forward two years later if I'm gonna finish it up but that's an oh that's later on in the sermon but so I went over to the other corner same thing so I got had both corners of our house exposed and I'm fearing figuring out how am I gonna now tackle this project this is one of those Sunday wake-ups and you look up to it you're like all this will be nothing and then you realize oh no this is a major project from that spiritual perspective we are we need to actively consider the value and worth of keeping our joy alive coming out of this feast this is a spiritual project that we need to be working on we need to be maintaining a focus on in our life if you just come back from the feast and you just like oh I'll just naturally keep the joy alive it's gonna slip it's gonna start getting pulled away distractions are gonna come in problems difficulties will come in if you don't have a plan naturally your joy will slip so we need to envision what this finished project is going to look like the spiritual project we need to envision what will be different for us this year if we can maintain that joy and keep it alive what is it that you spiritually want to take with you from this feast that we just closed out a few weeks ago is it a sermon is it something you heard what is it that you want to take away what is it that your life needs from a spiritual point of view what is it that you will put in place to keep the joy alive from this previous feast this is that planning part this is where you're starting to envision what is it that you want to be different this year than it was last year what is it that you were inspired by what is it that you saw or witnessed we heard a great example in the sermonette of something that was witnessed a great example of letting one's light shine maybe you let your light shine in a unique way this year and you want that to continue to go forward you want god to use that as a jumping point that you continue to build upon this next year but you need to answer these questions from your own envision your own vision from your own mind and there needs to be a not only a project a goal but also a plan the next aspect as you continue to go is like any other project you have to start gathering the supplies you need to get that project done right again what is it that you want to take home with you this year and then what are the tools that you need what are the resources that you need to continue to go forward there's so much that in those ways that when you're asking those questions what is it that you want to take away what is it that you you saw differently about yourself whatever these things and I know and I recognize that not everybody had maybe a feast that felt more normal or maybe not the feast of tabernacles that you looked forward to having I know like some people had to come home early midway I know I've spoke to one person I didn't realize never got to the feast of the feast away from their home or away from out of state their last minute their plans changed where they had to remain home this year I know others had health trials that kept them from being able to go I can't help but remember different feasts that we've kept that were difficult because of health or because of a death in the family different things that that you didn't see coming but then dramatically impacted your feast I know many of us and many of you may have had that maybe some online battle that this year can't help but one of the things I've had to learn through the many feasts that I've kept is that if if you go keep the feast of tabernacles if you're in the church long enough and you keep enough feasts of tabernacles you're going to have one you're going to eventually have a hard feast you're going to have a very challenging feast of tabernacles it's just time and chance in a lot of ways because we're not spirit beings yet we're still physical beings we live in a physical world there are physical challenges that pop up some years I couldn't help but think about one very challenging one we had not so many years ago it was um Kelsey was just 12 um I think it was the feast of 2016 um I had just resigned my job from my previous employer and accepted the to go into the ministry and so it wasn't that long ago that I was in this transitional period and thinking okay here's my life going to go a whole other direction and I resigned before the feast of tabernacles and the church was going to hire me on right after and then we get to the feast and I'm thinking okay this is going to be a great transition feast we're going to be different new adventure and then Kelsey gets the sickest that she's probably ever been uh most most of her life with she came down whooping cough which we didn't know it was at that at the time ended up two different urgent cares that couldn't diagnose it they just thought it was some sort of illness but any parent who've ever and thankfully we're thankful she was a pre-teen almost a teenager because she could communicate with us we could reason with her but anybody who've ever supported somebody through whooping cough that's a that's a fear that I've not explored in my life when they can't hardly breathe and then the panic sets in and the coughing is uncontrollable and you don't know when it's the next attack is going to come on and so we spent pretty much Kelsey especially spent the whole feast in our condo she sat on a balcony watching kids play in the beach and in the pool while she sat there just staring at them and it was hard because then Laura missed one day and then I would miss one day and I remember hitting a point in that feast where we were all kind of on our low end of it we were all kind of worn out and and didn't know how to continue to grasp onto that joy that hope we're supposed to have and I remember then then that evening then the night that we were kind of hitting our lowest the doorbell rang on our condo and I went out nobody's standing there but there's a gift basket at the foot I had some lego set for Kelsey I had a card there was a balloon get well balloon I had a DVD like one of the Disney or something cartoons I had some fun food in it somebody who knew we were going through a lot took the time out to go and and share part of their joy with us when we were struggling at ours and so it totally opened my eyes to because most of my life had been a feast where we were able to go we weren't limited we were able to go do the things that we wanted to do but in that moment going through that really hard feast when everybody else is not everybody's you know what I mean but it seems like everybody else's feast is going great yet we're the ones stuck we're the ones struggling but when somebody else thinks of you in that way when they recognize that that you're the one having a really hard time it brings it helps you to recapture some of that joy and I'll never forget that because now whenever I go to the feast I think there's other people maybe at this site that are struggling there's other people back home and I know some of you were close on my mind during the feast knowing what you were going through it helps us to to reframe our lives right these are those lessons that we can take with us even in a difficult moment even in a hard feast of tabernacles that we can take away and there's a spiritual lesson that we can learn through that is it perseverance sure is it maintaining and hanging on to that joy absolutely is it thinking of others that may be having a hard feast yeah there's you could see there's so many things that we can take from a difficult experience of life or something that we know that god wants us to rejoice in when you're struggling maybe to find what it is that you can rejoice in there's a lot that we can draw from so maybe what you're going to grow in this year maybe what you're going to take with you maybe what's going to be part of your plan isn't what we would consider a happy or positive experience but I can't help but think about the trials that our brothers and sisters have gone through before us the trials that we see our our fellow saints have went through in in their journeys with god I mean I haven't been martyred yet yet they kept their vision on the kingdom I haven't given my life for the sake yet but we know there's plenty of examples who did and then talking about just persecution being shipwrecked or being stoned I haven't had those things come on my life but others did and they kept that vision alive and they kept that focus on the future and that focus on the kingdom and so we live in the company of others who have done some incredibly difficult things not on their own strength but on god's strength living within them they kept that joy alive because it wasn't an emotion that came like happiness or sadness but it was a state of mind that they maintained as they kept their vision on the kingdom and so maybe that's what we come out with as we exit these days and as we get back into our lives that vision that we were hoping to build and capture at the feast of tabernacles that we keep that vision alive that that might be a goal that you make in your life that might be something you want to make your goal this year there's so many aspects let's look at a passage in Romans chapter 13 Paul is talking to the church in Rome encouraging them to go forward encouraging them to grow in the stature and the and the way of of Jesus Christ and we know that Christ again suffered tremendously more than any of us ever have and he did it not deserving a single thing that he went through whether it was the persecution whether it was mocking whether it was trying to be killed but but god not saying it was time yet ultimately up to the stripes that he bore in his body the squirt scourging that he went through the mocking uh the belittling and ultimately just being left alone to die for the sins of the world and Paul in here Paul in this passage tells us we're to put on Christ we're to let that example be in our heart to go forward regardless of the things we go through but to go forward knowing with that vision that Jesus had on the kingdom of God and his purpose and the things he could grow and learn in in this life he went forward as our example notice Romans 13 verse 11 Paul says and do this knowing the time that now is high time to wake out of sleep for now our our salvation is nearer than when we first believed the night is far spent the day is at hand therefore let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light let us walk properly as in the day not in revelry or drunkenness not in lewdness and lust not in strife and envy so we live as in a world where there's good and bad and there's things we can get into that we have no business getting into and he's saying time is not going to go on forever so wake up and notice verse 14 but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts we are to put on Christ it's like putting on a garment Mr.

Cook gave me his jacket today I had to put it on it's symbolizing like this putting on of Christ wrapping ourselves in this example of living God's way and letting Christ live within us to maintain that joy that Jesus had to ultimately even give up his life for the sake of humanity and he did that willingly and he did it with joy in his heart did he suffer incredibly horrible things he did did he like going through that he did not like it but he did not lose his joy because his joy wasn't an emotion his joy was eternal in his heart it was a state of mind that he maintained so what is it that you want to put on this year as we work towards these spring holy days and then we get to the last part of this message a final step of bringing that joy alive this is a fun aspect because we get to with God's inspiration and guidance bring our plan to life this vision that we have in our mind we get to now allow God to then grow this in a positive way in a fun way what words have you used to describe the feast of tabernacles as we have returned home now some of us may have said it was a challenge this year because we're being honest and upright and and letting everybody know we're not making up anything but most of us if we've had a good feast we come back with these these these colorful fun words that we can share with people of what we were able to do or the the messages we heard the new experiences in life i had um one of the the highlights of my feast was getting to run into a friend that i had at camp up in scp in 1992 um i'll share the story a little bit because every year we go to camp and every year we tell the the campers you may meet somebody new that you'll have as a friend for the rest of your life and i believe that and this year it came to fruition for me i was um walking out on the very first day of the feast and i ran into two young adults that we know from camp and they called me over and i came over and then a gentleman they were talking with reached out his hand and said hi i'm paul baler from camp and if you could have seen my face my jaw was literally and i don't get shocked in that way taken back too many times i was speechless in that moment because i couldn't believe a friend and you know i back it so and this isn't just an acquaintance this is not somebody who i just knew from camp so back in those days up in scp up in ore each dorm was made up of about 30 to 32 campers with just two staff which blows my mind because now we try to keep that ratio down to about like 15 for two counselors and they were dealing with like 32 of us crazy kids and so on and so the dorm was split into two wings the building was and about 15 or 16 guys on one side and 15 and 16 on the other and paul and i were on the same wing and there was a group of about four of us that pretty much became buddies quick and we did everything together and i started recounting some of the things we got ourselves into we shouldn't have gotten ourselves into because just seeing a friend that you hadn't seen in that many years started bringing back some of those accounts that we trouble we started and i started telling him the stories like you remember this and you remember when this happened and i looked at the two young adults that have been campers under like me being the director and they go you would never let us get away with that at camp and i said absolutely i would never let you go that's why i know what you shouldn't do at camp because i was the one doing that stuff at camp so um but but 32 years disappeared in a moment right when you run into somebody you haven't seen in a long time that you didn't just know as an acquaintance but you knew as a friend 32 years can disappear like nothing and we were sharing stories he had two daughters there i introduced him to laura uh he introduced me to his wife and it was just amazing to then suddenly catch up like i i was still shocked coming into church that day and i was sitting with my nephews and their families they're like what happened because they could just see i was giddy i was like a little kid running around like you will not believe what happened even laura was shocked this is one of those stories that i'm going to carry with me because i'm sharing it with you i'm going to carry it with me this feast of what an amazing experience to run into someone and you don't see to rekindle a friendship that that you for kind of forgot each other because your paths just hadn't crossed in a lot of years i didn't know what he was up to he didn't know what i was doing what is your story going to be coming out of this feast what is it that you want to take forward with you again bring that alive ask god to work with that ask god to to grow that within you ask god to make that something you keep on the front of your mind not just for a couple weeks not just when somebody says how was your feast of tabernacles pray that god will let this impact your life i have in my notes matthew chapter five and verse 14 somebody's already used that today 14 15 16 this is that passage that says you are the light to the world just as we heard in that sermonette because maybe that is part of what you want to take away with you this year you you just went and you lived the millennium for a week's time hopefully there's a lot of positive influences and positive aspects or if you kept it at home there's an aspect that you learned from keeping the holy days at home there's something that you did something that you were able to examine within yourself that you're taking with yourself one of the the neat things so you know i'm law is a native michigander i'm i'm a married in right i'm i don't know what you would how i don't know how you would refer to that i pay taxes here so i guess that makes me a michigander now but this wasn't my home state but when we moved up a few years ago one of the things that quickly you learn about michigan is the joy of uh and the thing that we have of lighthouses here there's lighthouses all over the place and i did a little bit of research into that and realized that we are the lighthouse capital of the us uh in a lot of aspects there's more lighthouses in michigan along our coastline than any other state and and i just never thought about that because when you think about lighthouses in a lot of ways most of us not for michigan think about the east coast right that's where some of those iconic lighthouses are at but if you and so the the aspect that there's 129 different lighthouses that are still built and still visible some are working some are not some you can tour some you can't but dotting the coastline of the up and mainland michigan are 129 lighthouses from this graphic i found and what's crazy is when you if you were to outline all of our coastal regions so we've got lake michigan to our west lake uron to our east lake superior to the north of the up if you were to draw and like measure the distance of the amount of coastline that the state of michigan has it's over 3200 miles so 3200 miles and it looks kind of crazy on a map until you look at all those little inland parts and you start your your line would just keep wiggling in and out and then um the up the amount of shoreline the up has that would be like driving from 3200 miles it's like driving from miami florida all the way to seattle washington i mean that that visually 3200 you just throw that number out and i'm like that's a big number but that's the distance mileage wise from miami florida to seattle washington which if you and i jumped in the car and started driving that we'd be like that's a long drive that's how much shoreline michigan has and that's why we have so many lighthouses and these lighthouses because of the business and the the traffic on the great lakes um the iron ore the copper mining all these different resources that go shipped get crafted or manufactured or mined and then shipped to other parts of the world um we have these big ocean vessels that can come into our our lakes here or at least major size ships that then transport things away and so because of the great lakes because of their size because of their distance uh storms huge storms as as you know have arisen on these great lakes including some that have sunk some of these major ships and so lighthouses were established and placed to provide protection to point out dangers to point out a safe harbor so that the the mariners and the people who are on these ships can come home and get back to their families and can be safe on these waters and it's interesting if you ever look into all the different lighthouses in michigan they're all different shapes and sizes some have stripes on them some are shorter some are out on piers some are out on almost a little island out in a bay because it's where the best location is for it some have houses attached to it and so they're all different looking there many of them are are unique to one another but they all serve one primary purpose right it's to shine a light into darkness and to lead people to a safe harbor or to point out a danger so while they're all different and this is where it ties back into this example that we heard in the sermonette to be a light to the world that's our calling we're called to be a light to be a beacon of hope to be a beacon of joy to point out the dangers of life and and to help people realize you can go your life without god it's not going to be what you really wish it would be and so we're all different we have different talents different gifts different abilities that god has blessed us with maybe this is something you can pray about this year's how can you be a stronger light to a society that is often in darkness society that often is wanting to escape the perils of the rocks they want to just get home to their families and to be safe and to be reunited we know how to navigate the storms of this life because of this truth that we have in our labs this this knowledge of god's way i'll just reference matthew 5 and verse 16 let your light so shine before men that they see your good works and glorify your father in heaven maybe that's something you want to explore what is your light saying about you right now what is it that you want your light to become over this next year that you can take some of these lessons from the feast of tabernacles that you can take some of the joy that you were able to re-establish and build in your life and to let that affect your light in a powerful powerful way love the the sermonette and that illustration because we're going to see there's a counter to this if we're not careful this isn't a focus of ours we can we can slip into something else negative we know that we must be about our father's business and our lord and savior was always about the father's business when he walked this earth we have to be doers with with what we've been given we have to bring this joy alive in our lives it's not enough that we just gather the supplies that we have a plan and this is where we circle back to my corner gutter project i mentioned i started that two years ago i just completed it before the feast i did take into consideration it's going to rain we're going to have snow and thankfully the roof line kept it away from the house that it didn't like damage anything i didn't expect the birds to find a hole and to make a home in my house that one happened all of a sudden lord's like i hear scratching above our bedroom ceiling i'm like i was hoping you didn't hear that because i'm hearing that too and so and it's going on for a couple days i'm thinking nah it's just some weird critter got in our roof or in there uh it'll just it'll just it'll just go away it'll just decide there's a better place and after a few days one day i came around the corner of that house still with it exposed and insulation is like scattered in the yard now and i'm like okay so now this this bird's making this at home he didn't like the insulation so i'm up there now nailing boards to close up this hole that was in our house i can't finish the project yet because i don't have the supplies the weather's changing but i've got to now try to get keep the birds out of our house this is part of like when you you start a plan or you got a idea but you're not really putting it all the pieces together right there's lessons that we learn even through a challenge but this past summer i knew we got to wrap this up and we finished that that project it wasn't enough that i had a plan it wasn't enough that i even gathered the supplies we got to put them into action we got to ask god to help us spiritually begin building these aspects in our lives because often we could start it off with good intentions right i had intentions to repair my house to fix the rot and i was going to do it in the right way but then all of a sudden the weather changes or all of a sudden i get busy with other things and that's life but if we don't go forward with this plan and if we don't bring it to life it doesn't matter that we have the supplies doesn't matter we have this vision that we'd like to like i want to grow in this area i want to keep this joy alive this next year if we don't actually do it it's not going to happen turn with me to matthew 25 this is a lengthy passage we're going to read through but it it ties into the the work part of what we have to do if this joy is going to stay alive matthew 25 and verse 14 this is towards the end of our the book of matthew and jesus's disciples are asking them like what is the kingdom of god going to be like when will this these events occur when will he return and he gets into this this parable that relates to each one of us individually right now today this is this is something we have to keep on our mind and something that is for us that jesus shared here not just for people in the future or for others that are not here this is for us matthew 25 and verse 14 and notice notice the action that needs to take place notice the work that needs to be done in our lives christ shares this parable for the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them and to one he gave five talents and of course these talents are sums of money in the parable but we know it relates to spiritual talents gifts attributes that god has given to us today he says he gave some five talents another two and another one and notice to each according to his own ability so god knew what their ability was he didn't give them something that they couldn't use just like god has not given us talents we can't utilize not we don't have the skills we don't have the knowledge or we don't have the ability it's not like that if god has given us skills he's given us talents then he knows we're able to use them question comes in will we right and notice and it says and immediately he went on a journey and this is the the man who who gave these talents to his servants and then he left waiting for them to to do what they were going to do with what he had given him and then it says and then he who had received five talents went and traded with them and made another five talents and likewise he had received two gained two more also but he who had one received who but he who had received one went and dug in the ground and hid his lord's money and after a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them and so he who had five talents came and brought another five talents saying lord you delivered me to five you delivered to me five talents look i have gained five more talents beside them and his lord said to him well done good and faithful servant you were faithful over a few things i will make you ruler over many things enter into the joy of your lord and so he was blessed he was he was um he was thanked by his master for for growing in these talents for using them effectively and says enter into the joy of your lord and then he goes on and says then he who had received two talents came and did the same thing he brought two more back and his lord said to him the same thing he said to the first servant but notice verse 24 then he who had received one talent came and said lord i knew you to be a hard man reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed and notice and i was afraid that's the key aspect to this this parable this talent this this person with one talent which was enough to go and do things to be effective his his lord gave him something to go and use didn't do it because he was afraid appreciated mr saint charles alluding to this point a little bit in the sermonette because what if we become afraid when we see a situation occur there's an opportunity that our conscience is being pricked to do something or to say something or offer encouragement but we're like well what if it's hard or what if it isn't received well or what if that person snaps back at me when i'm trying to say something nice and and that's just the truth of it any of those things could happen right but we don't we're not giving an out to not do good we're not giving an out to not use these talents because we can come up with all sorts of fears all sorts of reasons why i can't do this i can't use this gift or i can't try this and so many things that comes back to fear and our lord gave us these talents knowing our abilities right we can't forget that he gave it to us knowing we can handle these things we can use these things but sometimes we get in our own way as this as a servant with the one talent did he was too afraid maybe he didn't have confidence to know how to invest it or whatever reason but he acknowledged i was afraid and i went and hid your talent in the ground look there you have what is yours but that wasn't the point because the lord answered and said him you wicked and lazy servant you knew that i reap where i have not sewn and gather where i have not scattered seed so you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers and at my coming i would have received back my own with interest he says so take the talent from him and give it to him who has 10 talents for everyone who has more will be given and he will have abundance but from him who does not have even what he has will be taken away and so god didn't just have us exercise and rehearse these fall holy days or the holy days throughout the entire year just so we can have knowledge of his plan just so we can understand what he's working and doing today because god's not about just knowledge he's about what do you do with that knowledge how does this transform your life how do you use this to go forward god has given us knowledge he's given us gifts and talents in our lives how do we then take those and then invest and use and grow them so that we can then give back more to god than he has given to us in those these ways in this as this parable states because he says to everyone who has more will be given as we use these talents as we utilize as we look for opportunities to grow in the joy of god as we look for opportunities to let our light shine god will then help us to walk that walk and even if we do face trial and tribulation for trying to do good right it happens god is the one who then comforts our heart and says no don't get down you did the right thing here the world just can't receive it yet because it's not my world yet but imagine the good that we can do not only today but we'll be given an opportunity in his kingdom to do tremendous good to impact the world as it's never been impacted god is inviting us that's one of those things we practice and rehearse this year by keeping the holy days and keeping the feasts of tabernacles he's inviting us into to become servants along with jesus christ to change this world for good for better that has to be our vision that has to be where our joy rests as we continue forward that's why we are admonished to seek first that kingdom of god his kingdom and his righteousness and so we have to keep that vision of his kingdom alive in our mind as we go forward there's a lot of work to do there's a plan that will be accomplished and god has invited us along for this we need to be practicing this way of life now it's not enough that we just go through life today and then when god invites us into his kingdom that's when we become lights that's when we become servants that's when we utilize our talents it's not enough to wait until that moment so you and i have to take our talents we have to take our gifts we have to take this vision we have to take this joy that we had partially and more fully established in our lives and then go forward even if it was a challenging feast what is something that you can take a spiritual lesson that you can grow in like i said one the hardest feasts we ever had was because of illness but i took away from it there's other people who struggle at feasts where i'm having a fantastic time and so i recognize not everybody has that best feast ever and so there could be even into the negative and even the hardships even the difficulties we face a spiritual gift that we can go forward with and we can learn and then we can apply and grow in so bring that joy alive as you go through and as you go forward from this feast i'm sure you heard this message shared with you or this this passage but let's look at it here today to revelation 20 and verse four because this isn't just a story that that maybe we'll get to serve alongside with jesus christ this isn't just a hope or a dream that he's going to invite us along and we can do amazing things in his kingdom we see it as a promise from god to those who endure to the end those who do not quit those who continue to push forward we are in a group of people who will get to do amazing and awesome things revelation 20 and verse four it says and i saw thrones and they sat on them and judgment was committed to them then i saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to jesus and for the word of god these are martyrs these are people who stood the line and held it to the end and their lives were taken from them and notice it says and they had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their forehead or on their hands and they lived and reigned with christ for a thousand years and then it goes on to say but the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished this is the first resurrection then he says blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection over such things over such the second death have no power and they shall be priests of god and of christ and shall reign with him a thousand years this is why we do what we do isn't it god knows we're physical people he knows we kind of need that carrot out there in front of us often to motivate us through life he knows that we can't envision the fullness of his kingdom and the greatness that it'll bring so he gives us glimpses of what we're going to do he makes sure that we know we're going to be part of this if we just keep on keeping on right and so this is why we got to take this joy that we have built over the years the joy that god gives us in this holy day to re-establish that joy and to refocus on his kingdom and then he says don't just put it away in a pocket don't just put it away in notes and and put it on a shelf but live it so how will you bring this joy alive this year i've got some ideas in my own head of what i want to do differently what i want to bring to life because it's it's like that project we go through again right you you can see that there's a project you want to accomplish you can even gather the supplies but then we got to go forward in actually working towards that goal what is the goal that you're going to establish in your life this next year more times than not when we as we near the conclusion here each year we look forward to keeping god's holy days i know we do every year we look forward to keeping god's holy days we look forward to practicing again what he tells us to do at these holy days we look forward to the spiritual uh refocus that it brings into our lives and before we know it the spring holy days will be here and we'll be starting a whole new cycle of going through and rehearsing and reminding ourselves the significance of god's plan and how jesus christ is at the center of all of these holy days and i know as we get to the feast i i i've shared with you before growing up as a kid the day of atonement i missed a lot of the the the spiritual goodness of that day because i was struggling not eating all day right it was not my favorite holy day but then growing in god's truth i understood more the purpose for that day i understood more the purpose why we fast and it has now become one of my favorite holy days because of all that it pictures we grow in this knowledge we grow in his truth and as we've observed the feast of tabernacles we look forward to this more times than not because we know we get to go here or we get to experience this or we know what comes out of it that we get to put into our hearts we know that there are often more smiles on people's face as the fall holy days come through and as we go to the feast of tabernacles there are more hugs pats on the back there's more fellowship often with people who are excited and and we have that common bond with there's more encouragement often offered to continue to run our race there's more spiritual food and more application in one week than we get i mean the amount of sermons and messaging that we get in eight days it would take us months to get that amount any other time of the year and there's more hope established on a future that we need to come to this earth that this earth desperately needs we get to live the millennium one week out of the every year and it continues to give us encouragement and support the seven days of the feast of tabernacles and the eighth day is special that's why we god has made it that way that's why he says to rejoice in it the feast is unique and the feast of tabernacles is such a joy and such a gift for us to enjoy again what is it that you will take home with you from the feast that we observed this year how will you live the kingdom of god in your heart as we return home and how will you keep the joy alive