Keeping the Feast for the Right Reasons

Good morning, everyone! Good to be with all of you again. Beautiful Sabbath morning, and such a fall in the air, and it feels like the feast. We're talking about the feast, and everybody's talking about the feast, and thinking about the feast. So it's because we get close to the feast, that's why we're in that mode. But I'd like for you to turn over to Leviticus 23, and I just want to note this chapter, which we should all know, is the chapter in the Old Testament that describes all of the Holy Days, one concise location, and begins with the Sabbath, goes to the days of Unleavened Red, Pentecost, Trumpets' Atonement, Feast of Tabernacles, and the last great day, the eighth day of the feast.

And let's just read, however, verse 2, where it says, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them the feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations. These are my feasts. Now, holy convocation, we don't use that term today, but what that really is, is a holy gathering, a holy meeting, a gathering of people of like mind on the days that are mentioned here.

It's a holy meeting. And we're here on the Sabbath. This is a holy convocation today. But it tells us that these holy days, including the Sabbath, are of God. They are His days that are to be proclaimed. We all know that. And we sometimes read right over this every year when we turn to the advance of the holy days, and we take it for granted. But I want for a moment you to think about just looking at this for the first time.

Imagine that you just opened to Leviticus 23 for the first time in your life, and you were reading the Bible, or it fell open at that location, and you read that right there. And it said, Holy Convocations, proclaim these, and these are times when you are to gather before God. What would you do? How would you react to reading that?

Well, let me tell you a story, a once upon a time story. Well, like once upon a time stories. Once upon a time, there was a man and a woman who read Leviticus 23, and they read verse 2. And they saw that God said, Gather on these days and keep these days. Now this man and this woman were at a point in their life where they were wanting to obey God.

They were learning a number of different things about this book, the Bible, that they had never understood before. And they read here in this section that they were to keep these days. And you know what they did? They kept those days. They decided to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Tabernacles and the Feast of Trumpets. Just these two people, they kept them one year as they learned and figured out how they were to be kept.

And they kept them the second year. And they kept them a third year. The fourth year rolled around. These two people were still in their home. When these days would come along, they would note these days. And they would keep these days.

Fifth year came along. Sixth year came along. And the seventh year came along. And they were keeping these days. Just these two people. All by themselves. Based on what they read. I don't know if I would have done that. I can't even say that I read those at some point in my life. I don't know if any of you ever read those before you came in contact with the work of God, the Church of God, and learned about them. I don't know if you ever read them in your readings of the Bible or in your former religious life, if you'd read those and wondered in that way and your mind had traveled in that direction and came to the conclusion, oh, I need to keep these days.

I'm going to take my time off from work. I'm going to set this time aside and do it. But these two, this couple did. For seven years, by themselves, they kept these days because they said that God commanded them to be kept. Now, at the end of World War II, 1945, these two people began to see that they had to get away from their home, especially the Feast of Tabernacles. As they read other scriptures in Deuteronomy, it eventually dawned on them that they needed to get away from their home, to actually have a temporary type dwelling, a booth, as they came to understand what that booth was.

They're in Deuteronomy 16, where it talks about doing that. And so, they had a few others that were of the same persuasion that they were at that time. And so, in 1945, they found a little resort community up a river in Oregon, a place called Belknap Springs.

And they went there for the seven and eight days of the Feast of Tabernacles with a few people that believed like they did. And they got away from it all. And they kept these days for another six or seven years until they came to a point where they finally figured it all out, as to what all of these days were about. And about 1951, after doing this for now 14-odd years, they figured out how these all fit together in that proverbial puzzle that presented a very clear picture of a plan of God and salvation and what God was doing. And it all clicked 14 years after they read and came to a conviction that they should do that. Now, you may already know who I'm talking about. Let me show you a picture of these two people here. I brought along a picture of these two. This is my PowerPoint for the day. It's a book. It's the old-fashioned PowerPoint here.

These two people right here, you'll recognize Herbert Loma Armstrong. Okay, this comes out of the 1966 envoy. Mrs. Armstrong was still alive. She died in 1967. The two people I'm talking about, Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Armstrong. Way back in Oregon in the 1930s, they began to understand something about the festivals and began to keep these days. Now, that's history. That's really ancient history. As long before I was born, many of you were not even born in those days. Some of you were. I won't tell you who. I don't need to, but some of you were alive actually during that time.

This is ancient history. I was going through this with a group of our teens and their families. Last night we had a teen family Bible study down in Pendleton, and I showed this. That's ancient history. It might as well be the Middle Ages for us, anything in the 30s or 40s. I wasn't born then. Many of you weren't, and you might as well be ancient history. But this is what they did.

Now, why do I bring that up? Because we're going off to keep the feast in Jekyll Island, Fort Mitchell, Kentucky. Look around to the various sites, Panama City, all the various sites that we have for the Feast of Tabernacles. We've been doing this for many years. Jeff Wharton in the sermonette talked about the feast and from his perspective there. We've all got memories. We've got, what, 55... I've got 54 years of memories of keeping the feast. Some of you have longer than that. Anybody have longer than 44 years keeping the feast here? Am I... one, okay, one, two, yeah, okay, 43. All right, well, 1963 was my first. So I've got 44 years of memories. Some of you have more, and others of you have... We've all got our memories of the various places, Big Sandy, places like Big Sandy and Jekyll Island and Squall Valley and Rapid City and Wisconsin Dells and, you know, throw in wherever it might be that you have kept the feast over the years and these form a series of reflections for us. And this year we go off to our various sites and we continue the tradition. We continue the story. But as I was telling the kids last night, you know, the reason we're doing this... the reason you and I are going to enjoy eight days in our favorite spot or semi-favorite spot or just the spot we picked this year, whatever it might be.

The reason we're going to do this is because these two people read the Bible way back in the 1930s and were convicted, I feel, my feeling is, that they were led by God because a lot of people read those verses and they didn't do that. A lot of people read right over that and dismiss it into a theological dustbin of explanation and go on with, you know, deception and lack of understanding. But these two people did that. I heard Mr. Armstrong tell those stories for years and talk about that. I just got to thinking about it here recently. But the reason we do what we're doing here in the next few days is because these two people did this.

And they came to a certain understanding and as the church grew and developed in the culture of the Ambassador College and the Church of God grew and developed and we became a part of it. It grew to, you know, over a hundred thousand people at one time and a worldwide work that had people coming from all over the world to various places, to these campuses, to the feast sites.

The reason we do all of this is because of two people beginning to start to die. I realize it could have been two other people, maybe, but it wasn't. It was these two. And nobody else did or God didn't choose anyone else and for his reasons it was these two. And that's why we're going off. We have to understand what went before us and the history of what went before in our lives to understand sometimes why we do the things that we do. Now, we don't do it just because these two people said to do it. They did it because they saw that God instructed them to do it. And it started in the heart with that idea, with that conviction that God says to do this. I want to remember that thought. Whatever else you want to say and whatever else developed, you can't deny that in the midst of the depression, two people who didn't have, you know, two nickels to rub together, as they say, came to a conviction there. And to me, as I look back and examine a lot and, you know, I've sorted it all through in my mind over the years. And I come to a conclusion. I still feel that that was a revealed understanding that God gave to two people whose heart was right and whose heart was turned to obey Him. And a dusting off of the Bible took place in two people's lives, and they began to keep the feast. And a lot grew and developed from that. And we carry it on. It's a little smaller. It's a little different today. And let's, you know, acknowledge the fact that we've gone through an awful lot of struggle and warfare in recent years. And so, when we go off to keep the feast, you know, there's not just the United Church of God fessites. There's a whole supermarket full of fessites that people can go to and to attend if they choose to keep the feast of tabernacles. We've had issues. We've had problems. And we've worked through some of them. We'll work through others as we need to. But it's a little bit different than when two people started doing it in one sense. But wherever anyone goes, and whatever the purpose is, if we all are not going with the right heart, with the right spirit, then we're in trouble. And that's where we have to examine ourselves before God and make sure that we're all going where we are going for the right reasons and understand exactly what it is all about. The Feast of Tabernacles is the focal point of the year for God's Church. So much revolves around this period. We talk about our preparations and we go off, but the main reason is to go off to appear before God because He said to to observe this seven-day feast and then the eighth day, the last great day of the Feast of Tabernacles of the Feast there. Actually, it's a separate feast, we all know, but we kind of lump it all together. But no matter how many years we've been keeping the feast, we still need to focus our minds on why we're going and what God's purpose is to the feast.

It's easy to begin thinking of it as something other than what God intended. It is the highlight of the year for the Church. A lot of time and expense goes into keeping the festival. And you and I, we go and we spend a large portion of our income, upwards of 10% of that income, to keep the feast in the location that we feel God has placed His presence. And we have chosen to attend because of a particular taste and like that we have and that's good and right at the same time.

The Church binds us or the feast binds the Church together.

I don't think we can overestimate that fact over the years with all that we have been through in the struggles and the wars of the Church of God in the last half century. Brethren, certainly God's Spirit has been with us as well, but I will say also that the Feast of Tabernacles has been a major, major glue in the experience of binding the Church together and keeping us together because as we travel and make acquaintances and relationships, it is a unifying experience.

And we're following the example of Jesus Christ when we do that. Back in John 7, we find where Christ went to keep the feast. And sometimes we forget that that is mentioned in the Gospels. Christ is going to keep the feast. And let's just review this for a moment. John 7.

In verse 1, it says, After these things Jesus walked in Galilee. For he did not want to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him. Now the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles was at hand.

And his brothers therefore said to him, depart from here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works that you are doing. So it was the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. Let's go down to verse 10.

Now when his brothers had gone up, then he also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were, in secret. He went up to Jerusalem. And that means literally going up in a sense that it was on a higher, Jerusalem was on a higher elevation than they were in Galilee. They went up to keep the feast, but he did it in secret. The Jews sought him at the feast and said, where is he?

And they would have expected him to have been there. And this was the last, would have been the last feast of Tabernacles in Christ's life. They would have expected him to be there among the throngs of people because of the miracles he had been performing and the stir he had caused within Israel at the time. And there was much complaining among the people concerning him. And some said he is good. Others said, no. On the contrary, he deceives the people. So Christ in his message had a great deal of conflict at that time. And verse 14, it says, about the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and he taught. So midway through the feast, he showed himself and went there and taught. And then we come down to verse 37, and we find that on the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. And so we find that by the time of the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, Christ let him be stood up and began to preach openly among the multitudes that were there. Now this, verse 7, is the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, I should mention. This is not the last great day. I know that we had, some have taught that in the past and it's been taught that way, but we had to correct that in recent years and understand that this was really the seventh day. This was the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles. This was not referring to the last great day of the feast that we refer to as the eighth day in Revelation 20, the time of the great white throne judgment. This was the last day of the feast, so don't need to get into all of that. But the point is, Christ was here and he was setting an example and he was keeping the feast.

We do find in the New Testament an example of Christ being there and observing the feast among the people at that time. But when we look at the Feast of Tabernacles and we look at all the other holy days and we understand how they play such a large role within the church, we really are looking at, brethren, the character that has been developed within the community of the church that is quite unique. When you, just in listening to the sermon that was given, and you recognize you're listening to someone who has kept, like so many of us, kept the feast virtually all their life, and memories are formed, impressions are made, observations are gained, connective tissue of experiences and people that form our life are made and have been made as a result of the holy days.

The Feast of Tabernacles, because of it kind of shines the brightest and has the largest amount of attention put on it at this time of year. But really what we're listening to when we hear those types of stories and when we go to the feast and we'll hear other people's stories and reflections, and you know we'll have probably somebody will get up on the first day and say, how many of you are here for the first time? How many of you have been here for 10 years or 20 years or 500 years or whatever it might be? All of these things are really reflecting the character of the Church of God. I want you to think about that. The feast has served to develop our character, who we are, our memories, our associations, our experiences, our revolve around this so very much. I mean, there's really other than the parents that I was birthed to, nothing else has influenced my life more than the Holy Days and certainly the whole Church. But I'm looking at this as a package and talking about the character that has been developed and the community that has been built within the Church. And it is unique. We cannot underestimate that. That's why there's such an emotional attachment and feeling that comes from our minds and hearts about the feast as we hold to it, as we observe the feast, as we plan for it every year. And even among those that have rejected and walked away from God in the Holy Days, there's still an emotional reaction. Someone was telling me recently, it's one of our members down in Indianapolis. It's not a united member, but a member that we used to have back in worldwide. This person always calls around the Holy Day period. And he made his annual call. We were talking the other day. And he keeps up with people who have left the Church 10-11 years ago. And he was telling me about one couple who have gone to great lengths to try to remove from their mind every memory of their association with the Church. I don't know how you do that. I really don't think you do that. But he was describing this one couple, a little younger than me, who have worked hard and don't even want to hear any reference to a Holy Day, the Sabbath, the Feast of Tabernacles, and all. Because they have worked to just literally blot it out of their mind. And that to me is, you know, that's a sad situation. That's a pretty extreme situation. But it shows the emotions, even on that end of the spectrum of people who have been affected and impacted, whose lives have been impacted. And they're trying to, you know, they're like Lady Macbeth. They're trying to get it all off their hands and wash it all off as much as they can. And you can't do it because it's become, it ultimately becomes a part of the fabric of your life. I couldn't do it if I wanted to.

And you would have to be dishonest, I think, and somehow place certain tricks in your mind that I wouldn't even want to do to try to walk down that road. This has formed of the character and the community within the Church. If you want to understand and know God's plan, you keep the Holy Days. You don't keep the other days of the traditional holidays of this world. You don't come to a full understanding of life and God and His purpose by doing so. That's why everybody writes all kinds of books trying to figure out what the purpose of life is because they don't understand it. And they want to, but if you want to understand what's happening in this world, if you want to understand why there are the conflicts between nations that don't get resolved and why these cyclical matters continue to come up that create concern in our world, you want to understand this world and where it is going, you keep the Holy Days. And by keeping those Holy Days, you have a framework to hang the events of this world in our time and times past, especially times to come, on that framework of the Holy Days that show us God's purpose and God's plan. There is no other way to do it. And that has been a unique understanding that we have. And as a result of that, it ties even into brethren the very work of God that we are called to do because the Holy Days as well define our work. We're called to a specific job, as we see that revealed in Scripture. And the Holy Days help us to understand so much of the work of preaching the Gospel and the work that Christ has called us to perform and to be a part of.

When we look at Matthew 28, let's just go there since we're in the Gospels, let's go to Matthew 28 and look at what Christ gave to His disciples as a mission for their life. Matthew 28.

Beginning in verse 16, the eleven disciples went away into Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them.

And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him. But some doubted.

Remember, they had not replaced Judas at this point in time. That's why there were only eleven disciples. And Jesus came and He spoke to them saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. He had all authority. Then, and He has it now, by virtue of being crucified as the Lamb of God, Christ was given all authority. By living a physical life of denial, suffering, and ultimately sacrifice, He was resurrected now as the divine Son of God, as Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, and He had all authority. And He has that authority and He wields it today, not only in His church and among those that He, the elect that He has called, but in this world, He wields that authority. Not an event happens that He does not know about.

Not a move is made by any nation or group of nations in any direction that is not done according to His ultimate overall plan. A human nature and human will and choice enter into it as well. But the great events of this world that shape the lives of nations in the course of events in our world do not happen in a vacuum because Christ has all authority. And that's where we begin to look at the mission statement that comes forward because He then tells His disciples that stands as the mission statement not just for these eleven and ultimately twelve again, but also for the church down through the ages, which is to go, therefore, and Christ gives this as one having authority. Keep that in mind. He's not giving this as a suggestion. He's not giving this as something that you might do if you have a little extra time on the weekends and you want to do this. He's giving it as one who has all authority not only in heaven, but on the earth.

And when we become a part of the church of God, we come under that authority. When we become part of the body of Christ, we are under that authority. Authority is still a big word in the church of God.

Because it is right. Now, that's authority that's used right, but it is we are all under the authority of Jesus Christ. And so He commands. He doesn't suggest. He says, Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you and lo, I am with you always to the end of the age. And so He commands His disciples to go and to teach, to be an example and to baptize those that are added and those that are called. And ultimately, the purpose is to bring people to the place where they are endued, endowed with the Holy Spirit, where they have been they are given that through the repentance, through the acceptance of His life and their willing submission to His authority and are given the Holy Spirit as we are as we are all baptized into it. And that is our work. And that is tied into these Holy Days because that ties us into Jesus Christ from the very first Holy Day, the season of the Passover, the days when oven bread, all the way through to the Feast of Tabernacles and the Last Great Day. It ties us in and shows us exactly how that is going to happen and what is going to take place in the future. These Holy Days in the fall, trumpets, atonement tabernacles, the Last Great Day show us all future events yet to happen from our vantage point in history. And so we see this plan of God being brought about and we see the Holy Days having a very, very important connection to it. When people leave those days, when people neglect those days, their commitment to that very work and mission that has been given to the church begins to wane, begins to dim and grow cold. And so the Holy Days are tied into that mission. If you want to know that plan of God, if you want to understand what's happening in this world, we keep the Holy Days.

And that has been the way it has been through memorial. I went back to Mr. Armstrong here for, you know, the intro and to get into this subject, but it all began long before Mr. Armstrong.

Mr. Armstrong and his wife Loma were merely people in the early 20th century who were raised up, called to perform a rather unique role in the whole story of the church of God.

Sometimes we take for granted again what we have been a part of. We, you know, this was the envoy of the Ambassador Colleges, which at its height had three campuses, two in America, one in Great Britain, upwards of 1,500 students total. And this, you know, that was quite a bit. Today we have an Ambassador Bible Center, which is a mere shadow of what Ambassador College was. I'm not saying we ought to have any more. This is what we have. This is what we can handle and prepared for at this time, but it's perpetuating that. I was pointing out to the kids in the study last night that this man, this is slide two of the PowerPoint presentation, this man, Garner Kett Armstrong, which is a familiar face to you, now deceased, at one time was heard coast to coast in this country on hundreds of radio stations. You couldn't drive across the interstate at night without twirling across the dial and picking up that man's voice.

From Fort Wayne, from San Antonio, from stations in Detroit, Wheeling, West Virginia. And I was telling them last night in the 1960s, that boy, that man's voice, was the Rush Limbaugh of his day. He was, in terms of a voice that people were listening to every day and talking about.

It just was. And so, that was, you know, this has been a unique experience is the point I want to make from all of this, that we've been a part of. And we are carrying on. Not every era of the people of God, the Church of God, has necessarily had three campuses and such a large impact in one sense like that. It is a unique experience, even down to the manner of the keeping of the feast, probably, and what we have been a part of. I'm grateful for it. But we can't lose sight, should never lose sight of some of these basic matters that really strike at the purpose of our calling, and why we keep the feast, and what we are supposed to learn from the Feast of Tabernacles. The changes, people walking away from the truths of God, are nothing new. And people forgetting what they knew and forgetting a focus in the world is nothing new as well. We go back to the book of 1 Kings. I want to take you back there and show you where we find, in a graphic presentation, 1 Kings 12, perhaps the first major walking away and abandonment of the holy days among the people of God. This is the nation of Israel after the split of the country that had taken place after Solomon's death between the tribes Rehoboam and Jeroboam. And you had a nation formed to the north composed of ten tribes that was known as Israel in history. And then the nation of Judah was to the south with basically Judah and Benjamin. But in the northern nation of Israel, Jeroboam, verse 25, who became the king, began to make certain changes. Because he knew that if he was going to maintain his hold over people, he had to make certain changes that would solidify that hold. And the mode of doing it fell upon idolatry and changing holy time. Keep that in mind. Idolatry and changing holy time. Because what he did in verse 26, it says that Jeroboam set in his heart, now the kingdom may return to the house of David. He was setting in his makeshift palace up in the city of Shechem, in the mountains of Ephraim, verse 25 tells us. And he began to think, which is a good thing for a leader of a people to do, but he was beginning to think, if I'm going to hold on to these people, I've got to do something. Otherwise, there's this magnificent temple back down in Jerusalem and it's got an emotional attachment to these people because they've got memories. Big Sandy, Jekyll Island, it's got memories.

And they're going to go back down there and they're going to forget about what we've done and they're going to want to go back to that. And so he began to think, that's what it says in verse 26, where he says in his heart, that's where he really began to think deeply. And he said, I've got to do something. And so in verse 27, it shows where he began to set up alternative altars and idolatry. And he made two calves of gold in verse 28.

And he said to the Israelites, these are the gods that brought you out of Egypt.

Interesting that he goes all the way back to that episode, the Exodus, which was at the passover time, the Days of Unleavened Bread, where we find the Holy Days introduced. And he said, no, no, it wasn't the God of Israel, it wasn't the God of Abraham that brought you out, it was these two calves, the gods of the Egyptians. These are the gods that brought you out of Egypt. We need to worship them. We need to remember them. We need to include them. You see, they've been necessarily, they were unnecessarily put aside. And so he set one in Beth-el and the other in Dan. In other words, he put them at the two ends of his country. And so they were convenient for people to go to and rally around. And it says, they became a sin, for the people went there to worship before the one as far as Dan. And he made other shrines. But in verse 32, he did the other second stroke of his master plan, was to create a feast. He ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast that was in Judah. In other words, he counterfeited the feast of tabernacles and put it put it off a month. Feast of tabernacles was in the seventh month on the fifteenth day. So he made a counterfeit and he could have chosen the ninth or the tenth and whatever some of the time, but to be just as wrong. He was just as wrong on the eighth as he would have been on the ninth. It was just as wrong then as he would have had he put it on the sixth month, but you know, in perhaps in the fifth or sixth month in the summer period.

But he chose that and he said he made a feast like it was in Judah, offered sacrifices, and he created his ministry or his priesthood to abide by that. And they made that feast on the eighth month, as he had said in verse 33, and the month which he had devised in his own heart.

Now this began to be a whole new set of emotional sinews and tissue and bones and blood that began to work its way within the people to create memories in their minds and in their heart. They created this emotional attachment now. He's beginning to engineer something that is different and it created a whole new culture as they forgot the culture of the holy days and the story of Israel from this point on is one continual degradation down to the point of Assyrian captivity in less than 200 years. And atrocities and abominations and events that took place within that nation among those people who had once been the people of God would make your hair stand on in if you really wanted to study into it and examine all that they got into and the suffering of that that the people were led into by their leaders. And it began with this act of rebellion and this these efforts to to cement that rebellion by changing holy time by introducing a different God. Other festivals worship a different God. Do I need to repeat that? You want to keep Easter?

Do you want to keep Christmas? Do you want to marry ideas from other festivals and holidays?

They're different gods. It's not the same God. You can't mix the two. It doesn't work. It can't happen.

It's idolatry. And any idea that you can baptize it with with the truth and make it right is erroneous. It just doesn't happen. Idolatry and Sabbath breaking right here in this section engage the heart and the mind of Israel and lead them off into a dead-end canyon that ultimately caused them to lose and forget who they were. And again, it begins with holy time and the holy days and the festivals. And it begins, interestingly, with the Feast of Tabernacles. It seems the focal point of the major change that at least is highlighted here. Now, throughout the story of Israel, Israel is basically hopeless from here. Other similar situations happened within Judah to the south. But we're left with another story, another part of the story with the nation of Judah, because Judah had certain periods of revival. They also had their idolatry and they forgot about God. They let the temple grow into disuse. They didn't keep the holy days. But then, from time to time through their history, we find where God allowed them to have a righteous king. Hezekiah and Josiah are two that come to mind and stand out, because when you read their accounts, you find that these two righteous kings began their reign and they made sweeping reform efforts to change their society, to get back to the right worship of God. And in doing so, you find that they do it in regard to the holy days. Turn over to 2 Chronicles 29. 2 Chronicles 29.

Let's look at the case of King Hezekiah. 2 Chronicles 29, verse 1, who Hezekiah became king when he was 25 years old. So he was just a whippersnapper. 25 looks younger all every day for me. And he was quite young, and he had a 29-year reign. Verse 2 tells us that he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done. And in the first year of his reign, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and he gathered them. And he said, Sanctify the house of the Lord God and carry out the rubbish from the holy place, for our fathers have trespassed and done evil in the eyes of the Lord our God. And they have forsaken Him, and they turn their faces away from the dwelling place of the Lord and turn their backs on Him. And he goes through to clean up the house, the temple of God. And he finds and discovers there, as they brought out various documents and books, he begins to understand that they are to keep the holy days. And so in chapter 30, he sends out messages to the scattered people in Israel and in Judah. And he gathers and invites them to come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem to keep the Passover to the Lord God of Israel. It was in Hezekiah's heart to do this, to make a covenant with God that it hopefully would turn God's wrath away from the people. 29 verse 10 mentions that this was in his heart. I bring that up because, again, we find back in 2 Kings 12, with Jeroboam, it was in his heart to turn the people away from God. Now we find that it's in Hezekiah's heart to turn the people to God.

When Jeroboam wanted to turn people away from God according to the deepest feelings that he had, he tried to change holy time. He changed the holy days. When Hezekiah wanted to turn people to God, and it was in his heart, and his emotional attachment was to do this, he turned them back to holy time. He turned them back to the festivals, and it went hand in hand as a reform effort to get the nation back in a proper footing in a relationship with God. Now there's one other example where this takes place, and that's just a few pages forward in the time of Josiah. Because Hezekiah's reforms were short-lived, and they slipped away after his death, and it took another generation or two, and then Josiah came to the throne in chapter 34 of Chronicles. Second Chronicles chapter 34. And he was even younger. He was eight when he became king because of the death of his father, so he had to go back to regency for a period of time until he gained his maturity, but then he reigned 31 years. And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord. He walked in the ways of his father David in verse 2. He did not turn his side to the right or to the left. And he also began to make these changes that turned around completely what was taking place within his land, within his country. And he began to make these changes, chapter 34 tells us. And then I want to point out something because in Josiah's case, it does point out something that is very similar to what I mentioned to you about Mr. Armstrong. Down in verse 30. So the king went up to the house of the Lord with the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem. This is chapter 34, verse 30. The priests and the Levites and all the people, great and small, and he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant which had been found in the house of the Lord.

And he read in that book, which is really the first five books of the Bible, and he would have had to have read through the book of the law and read through Leviticus 23.

And in reading that, he read and realized that they were supposed to keep the feasts.

And so he made changes here to keep the feast. And chapter 35 tells how they kept a Passover according to what they had read. And he made the preparations to do so. And so in the example of Josiah and even in Hezekiah, because they brought out the books that had gathered dust in their own day, and they read that they were to keep a feast to God. And they determined to do it.

Now, in this ancient account of the covenant people of God and the strange convolutions that they went through, you find how God works within the hearts of individuals at various times to stir up a zeal and a desire to do what he says. You see that in Hezekiah and you see it in Josiah. And it's interesting to note, and it's important that we note, brethren, that the stirring came as a result of reading of the Word of God. Reading and saying, this is what we're supposed to do.

Reading it devoid of all the arguments, all the excuses, all the theological dust that I said that builds up and creates a lack of desire and blindness to the heart. Reading it, and because there is a flash of God's Spirit that begins to work in a mind, they begin to purpose that this is what we're going to do. Even if they don't know all the reasons for doing it, Hezekiah and Josiah didn't fully understand all the reasons other than that God commanded it to be done. And it was part of the covenant that their people had strayed from, and it was going to lead to calamity and ruin unless they got back in that framework and in that mind. Mr. Armstrong came to that understanding much later, after many, many years of just basically faithfully doing it because he said he heard that it was, you know, read that it was to be done. And then the understanding came later about the plan of God. And when that understanding of the plan comes, then, as I said, you understand the work of God that is to be done, the mission of preaching the gospel, and it all works hand in glove to create a sense of zeal and urgency among the people of God for that work to be accomplished. We can go to the example of Ezra. We could go and look at Nehemiah, and I don't have the time, but those two individuals were also men who stirred up revivals among the people of God, and we find that it was connected with the holy days. In Nehemiah chapter 8, we won't turn there, but in Nehemiah 8, they kept the Feast of Tabernacles as part of a period of revival. And those, the hearts of people were turned there because there was a leadership that wanted to do it. And, you know, in every one of these cases, brethren, there are times you have to realize human nature is at work, and from Hezekiah to Josiah was about that long a period of time, and they felt they fell off the wagon, as we say. They neglected. They forgot. It's so easy to forget. It's so quick to forget. But it's also when God's Spirit is present, it's in one sense, it's easy, and it can be quickly renewed and stirred up.

And the challenge, of course, for us all, brethren, is to keep that going year by year.

And that's, again, why we go to keep the Feast. So I come down to ask you, why are you going to keep the Feast of Tabernacles this year? What's in your heart? I could ask you, what's in your wallet?

And hopefully there'll be enough to go and keep the Feast, and, you know, because we've got either enough money or a good credit card and the money to pay for it when you get home. We don't want to do it unless we have the money to do it. But what's in our wallet? Well, that's one question, but what's more important is what's in our heart. What's in our heart as we go to keep the Feast?

I encourage you this morning to turn your hearts to worship God as we go to keep the Feast.

We read where Hezekiah prepared his heart. Ezra did the same. He prepared his heart to keep the Feast. We have to keep telling ourselves every year, it's not just our vacation time, even though it is the actual vacation time we're taking from our work. We know that. And it's the money that we've saved all year. It is the only vacation for most of us.

So we have to remember that, that it is more than a vacation, that it is the Feast of Tabernacles and its holy time. It's a command of assembly. It's connected to the plan of God. It's connected to the work of God.

It's our very heart, purpose, emotional gathering and why we are people.

And the memories we talk about and we collect each year, another chapter of photos, another chapter of ideas and people and experiences that will all gather to make what we proverbially say is the best Feast ever is our time before God, worshiping Him. And we need to bring back something that will help us to focus our hearts and our minds upon that calling and upon that mission and the work that God has given to us. Let's turn to Isaiah 2. I want to read that to you before we leave.

It's my last opportunity to talk with you before the Feast. Isaiah chapter 2 talks of the future when nations will go up to learn of the law of God.

It speaks of the millennial setting that the Feast of Tabernacles portrays.

Verse 2, it says, "...it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and all nations shall flow to it." That hasn't happened yet. Today, some nations are still wanting to obliterate the state of Israel that exists and to nuke them off the face of the earth.

Nations are not wanting to flow to Jerusalem, to the Lord's house at this time for the right reasons. But in this day they will come and they will say, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways and we will walk in His paths.

For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

He shall judge between the nations and rebuke many people. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. One of those prophecies that can only be fulfilled, that it can only be describing a time in the future, the millennium, the kingdom of God, a time that has not yet arrived on the earth. There's never been a day when the nations have beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks. It hasn't happened yet. They're still making armaments even as they try to talk peace and impose sanctions. And all of this on a nation like Iran that wants to develop a nuclear bomb to use it for its own devices.

And they talk sanctions out of one side of their mouth, and they sell technology that will enable them to do that out of the other side of their mouth. And to see contratury and double talk and evil continues to lurk. This hasn't happened yet. But this picture is that time. This is the time to anticipate because it speaks of going up. And we've made our plans to go up to wherever we're going to keep the feast. And it speaks of preparation. And the most important preparation, I know we have to get our clothes together. We have to make sure the car is in good shape, get our travelers checks, or make sure we've got the cash out of the bank, and all of that. And those are important preparations. But the most important is the preparation of our heart.

And our mind. To go eagerly wanting to be taught and to learn. Because we're going on a pilgrimage.

This is our time of pilgrimage. Psalm 84 verses 5 to 7 talk of a pilgrimage. Going on a pilgrimage. I won't turn there, but you can read that later on. It speaks of Him who goes on a pilgrimage.

This is our pilgrimage. To a place where God has said His name for this year, but where we will learn of the truth. We will go up and we will learn of His ways. And we will walk in His paths.

So it's talking of worship. And we will hear God's Word. And we will have our minds focused and framed on the future. That's what this is all about. We've got to keep that focus. We've got to keep our hearts there. You and I today read all these scriptures that I've read. There are many, many dozens of others that I could turn to to talk about the Holy Days and the Feast of Tabernacles. They'll be turned to in many ways over the coming days for the Feast. We could just read them and pass over them like so many people do. But we don't. And why don't we? Because God's Spirit has reached into our mind and revealed that these are days that we are to keep.

We have a little bit more support to do it today than two people did back in the 1930s when they read those words, those scriptures, and came to a conclusion that, well, we need to do this.

And, you know, I don't know how those two people did it in their home in 1939.

How would you do it in your home by yourself in 2006?

And then, you know, you learn by doing, you learn as you have to. My point is we have a little bit more support. We have a little bit more structure and organization to it as we go to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And, you know, we have a set routine and we know exactly what to expect when we go into the services. And that creates a community of support that is comfortable and it makes it a little easier for us. And that's right and good, too. But let's never forget that it all comes down to the revelation of God. And let's go and keep the Feast and let's enjoy it. Let's turn our hearts to worship and let's come back with something that will hopefully make a significant impact in our life in the coming days, the coming months. Let's be encouraged and let's be renewed. But most of all, let's prepare to keep God's Feast as He has given it to us.