Let's Go up to the Mountain of the Lord

Good morning, everyone. Thank you very much for the special music. Always adds for the Feast of Tabernacles. It's good to be here in Canmore, Canada with everyone. Debbie and I have been to... we were counting it up this morning. This is our sixth Feast of Tabernacles in Canada over the years. We've been keeping the Feast of Tabernacles as a family in our lives. We've gone from St. John's in Newfoundland all the way out here. This will be the furthest point west, I guess. Although we did start a feast in Vancouver a few years ago, but wound up in the inside passage. We've been all over for the feast and several other personal trips through the area as well. We've been up here to Canmore a couple of times before this, but they were more on personal excursions to see the area. We're looking forward to being able to explore it a little bit more in detail through this Feast of Tabernacles season. It's good to be with our family and to be with all of you. Once again, we enjoy coming to Canada. We've made so many trips that Tony Wozelkopf has said that I'm on the verge of becoming an honorary Canadian. I'm waiting for the National Council to ratify that here in Canada and somehow make that official. We do always enjoy coming up here. There's more to Canada than Tim Hortons coffee. However, I did not realize that my good friend Rainer Saloma was going to be so abusive to us Americans with his announcements and his little sheets of paper that he brings up. When we had decided to come up here, I just appalled. His comment yesterday that basketball was invented in Canada just stirred me to ask Siri. So, we had a discussion about that last night and we went to that most authoritative source of all Wikipedia and found out that, indeed, it was invented. I knew it was invented by Dr. James Naismith, but he was a Canadian-American of all things. He had a Canadian in front of America. So, I see where he's getting his information. Wikipedia. So, he wasn't born in Canada, but he was in America when he invented the game of basketball. So, anyway, it's become an international sport that we share in America, even with Canada. Anyway, we all are one very large family in a spiritual sense in the church, and that's the most important thing. It's always a warm welcome when we come up here to this area. Brethren, as we see in this wonderful setting of Canmore and the Canadian Rockies, and are blessed to be able to once again attend the Feast of Tabernacles and keep it in peace, I think that many of us recognize that in other parts of the world right now, there is not that peace.

The last several months on the world scene, we have seen a refugee crisis of the First Order take place. Streaming out of North Africa, across the Mediterranean, refugees from Libya and other areas in the north of Africa have sought to find a stylum in Europe, in southern Europe, primarily in Italy. As this developed several months ago, I was watching this and reading about it in the news that migrants were on shabby boats and in treacherous manner going out across the Mediterranean Sea to Italy and into Greece.

And this was creating a major crisis for the Italian government, what to do with all of these refugees who were seeking asylum in Europe. And in just recent weeks, then, the problem has increased as refugees out of Afghanistan and Iraq and Syria have also now been streaming into Europe through Turkey and across the Aegean Sea into Greece and up through the Balkans, through Hungary, into Austria and Germany now, creating an even larger refugee crisis for Europe from that angle, so much so to the point that it has created what is an unbelievable scene on the world chart right now.

The fact of refugees flowing into Europe. In our time, we have seen many refugees flee out of Europe even in recent years. The Bosnian crisis of 20 years ago saw people heading out of Europe, out of regions, and being displaced. Even many Jews have emigrated out of Europe because of anti-Semitism into Israel. And, of course, historically, we understand that.

Even many of you here in Canada and in America as well are the recipients of many, many refugees over the last 100 to 150 years out of parts of Europe to Canada, to America seeking a new life. But the current crisis has created a major crisis politically in Europe, almost to the point where the entire European structure, the EU at this point, could be pushed to reconfiguration, even more so than the economic crisis that has been deflecting it for an even longer period of time.

Their borders have been threatened, just as we in America have seen our borders threatened, and that issue become a major matter for the political debate that we're going through right now because of the desire to secure our southern border with Latin America.

And so, these refugees coming out of the Middle East, out of Africa, into Europe fleeing war, present a situation that is a heart-rending humanitarian matter. When you look at the cause of this and why people flee their home country to go to another place and will risk life and limb to do so, we all recognize that primarily war will generate that. And they go looking for peace.

They want a settled land. They want security. They want a better life. They're looking for that. And for either religious, political, or just dire economic crisis, they have to uproot themselves and move, sometimes virtually overnight, to try to find that. And it's a remarkable situation that they go and do in seeking to find peace, as in a sense they go up or go out to these places seeking a better life. As I began to think about a message for my time to be with you here in the Feast of Tabernacles, it seemed that my thoughts kept coming back to a basic Scripture in Isaiah 2.

I'd like for you to turn there this morning. Isaiah 2 is one of those Hallmark passages of Scripture that, to me, should always be read. There are several Scriptures that, to me, it's not really the Feast until we read these Scriptures, certain ones.

Isaiah 2, to me, is one of those Scriptures that should be read in some manner during the Feast of Tabernacles. And in looking at it, it describes a time in the future of a movement of people. And as we look at a refugee crisis of hundreds of thousands and even millions of people on the move today, seeking peace, a better life, security, freedom, economic security, think about that, juxtaposed to this passage that shows a time in the future when nations and people will once again be moving, but in a different direction and for a different reason.

But to seek peace, and in this case, to seek the way of God. Let's look at Isaiah 2 and see what it tells us here, beginning in verse 2. 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 mountain and shall be exalted above the hills.

And all nations shall flow to it. Again, you see this movement of nations and people. In this case, to the mountain of the Lord's house. And from Isaiah's perspective, there was only one spot where that would be the house of the Lord was the temple in Jerusalem on Mount Zion. Nothing near as large as the mountains around us right now, but for Israel and for that setting, at least the mountain. And not the largest of all the mountains in Israel, but the place where God had placed His presence and His position. And there, in this language of a time when people will begin to move toward God, literally, spiritually, to seek God in His ways.

They will go to one source and all nations will flow toward God. In verse 3 it says, Many people shall come from all different nationalities, from all the peoples of the earth, and they will say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord. What more fitting verse to read, sitting here in Canmore, Alberta, as we have come up to the mountains, the Canadian Rockies, to observe the Feast of Tabernacles. But this verse here, where it says, 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 shall walk in His paths. We are walking in God's paths every day of our life. We have come to learn that in our lives and all the years that we have assembled to observe the Feast for many of us. And as we go about our daily life, we walk this path. This is our journey. This is our calling. There will be a time when all will seek that, from different ways and different backgrounds. But they will come and they will come to learn of God's way of life, just as we are learning about that through the experiences of our life today. This there, for out of Zion, shall go forth the law. The basic, eternal, spiritual law of God will be taught and applied to the world then. And the statutes and the judgments will be configured right out of the same passages that we read today to show how to establish a community and a way of life for those that have come through a time of tribulation, those who will be born during that period of the millennium. They will all be taught and based upon the law of God. The Word of the Lord will go forth from Jerusalem. And that, in a sense, will be where Christ is. The saints ruling with Christ for a thousand years, as the book of Revelation, Chapter 20 shows us. And that will be the center from which it will go out and a process that will begin at that time at the beginning of the millennium and take every bit of the thousand year period that is allotted to this situation to spread the ways of God and to teach people. Verse 4 tells us that He will judge between the nations and rebuke many people. There will be a time of teaching and as human nature is tempered and controlled with Satan's influence removed, there will still be a few wrinkles and a few rough spots. But the judgment will be merciful. It will be patient and it will be kind, but it will be sure and it will go forth. And they shall beat their swords into plowshares. And this famous passage that has been immortalized in the statue right in front of the United Nations of people beating their swords into plowshares. And their spears will be turned into pruning hooks, turned toward more productive matters of vegetation and growing and producing good for the nations. And nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. And that great hope, that great dream for all the world, for all mankind, for all peoples, for all refugees will be realized. The art of war will no longer be practiced. Instead, it will be the art of peace will be taught and practiced. And that in itself will take some time. But it will produce the freedom, the peace, and the security for those who go up to the mountain to learn the way of the Lord. Now, we hope not yet at that point. And as I said in my opening comments, we see a major refugee crisis taking place right now in the world scene.

I ran across an article a few days ago that I found fascinating. It got down to the micro level of this human crisis. And it's one of those feeds that we all subscribe to, and it came across on my phone. I just kept it there.

But the headline was, What's in a Refugee's Bag? See what people carry as they flee. What's in a refugee's bag? is the headline article. And what they did, they had snapshots here. And if I could project it up on the screen, we could have done that, I suppose. But little thing yes, of what little kids, adults, are carrying with them as they flee into Europe.

Here's a picture of a 34-year-old pharmacist who came out of Syria. He has a pack slung across his chest. He said, I had to leave my parents and my sister in Turkey, he told the reporter. I thought that if I die on this boat crossing over the sea, at least I will die with the photos of my family near me.

What he had in his bag was a flash drive with family photos. A flash drive with family photos. He said, if I die, at least I'll have pictures of those that I love near me. And he made the crossing with 53 other people in a little dinghy into Greece. He only had, it says he had only a handful of possessions left, a flash drive with family photos, phone chargers, headphones, some money, and two phones, one of which was ruined in the water.

Here's another refugee, a 17-year-old from Afghanistan. He escaped through Iran and Turkey. He came into Greece with a single backpack, a few possessions including face whitening cream. Face whitening cream. He said, quote, I want my skin to be white and my hair to be spiked. I don't want them to know I'm a refugee. I think that someone will spot me and call the police because I'm illegal. Inside his backpack, he had a change of clothes, $100, some SIM cards for Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey to get him through a smartphone, a comb, nail clipper, and a few other toiletries and face whitening cream.

He thought it through. A little boy, a little six-year-old boy named Amran, on his way to Germany with his family. Six-year-old Amran from Syria, and if you could see, he's got a little backpack here, just like very similar to the backpack my granddaughter has in carrying around with her. He's got a tiger on it. And in his backpack is a single shirt, a pair of pants, along with marshmallows and sweet cream, his favorite foods, a few toiletries and a couple of bandages for a rough journey.

The tiger backpack contains everything that Amran, a six-year-old Syrian refugee, owns. What's in a refugee's bag as they make a perilous water crossing to an unknown land to try to find peace, freedom and security? It goes on ahead and listed several other people's ingredients in their backpack there as they make their crossing to another life.

It's instructive, I thought, as I read that article, to see what people will carry with them in such a dire circumstance. In a sense, these people, if I can borrow the term here from Isaiah, they're going up. They're fleeing a past life, war, suffering, persecution, if it's for religion, political or otherwise. And in the broad mane, I recognize that these refugee crises, that you get some rather evil people slipped in there that are terrorists and will create other problems. But the broad majority of these people in these camps and in these crossings are, indeed, just seeking a better life. They just want to survive.

But in a sense, they're going up to Germany, to Austria, to the Netherlands, to a place called Europe, seeking freedom, seeking peace, and seeking security. The very basic fabric of life, they're not going to necessarily learn of God's way, they're not going in a time or a place that Isaiah 2 describes, but it's the best that's in front of them at this moment, at this time in their life. And they carry with them a very small amount of goods that they could carry. They carry what they need for the journey, and what they hope will give them a leg up on a better life wherever they land.

They are leaving behind an old life, and they're striking out for a new life. They have to leave the big things. If they had a car, they have to leave it behind. If they had a home, they have to leave it behind. They can't carry that with them. If they had a job, a profession, whatever, that's gone. Their best hope will be for a limited type of job in their new home in most cases. They leave behind a lot of stuff. We all know what stuff is.

The stuff that we accumulate in a life. And they put what they can carry in a bag. And they start out seeking a new life. I found this to be a very instructive lesson and thought for myself, and I think for all of us to consider as we have come up ourselves to the Feast of Tabernacles out of the abundance and the plenty of our homes in America and in Canada.

And we continue to live at a very, very high level of life compared to these people and others in other parts of the world today. And as it was explained in the opening night message, we know why we have that. It is because of God's blessing, God's faithfulness to Abraham, and to the promises that he made to Abraham and to his descendants. And we come out of that. And we go up, and in our best effort at the Feast of Tabernacles, picture a temporary existence, to learn certain major spiritual lessons as we ourselves go up to the mountain of the Lord in our time and way at this point in our life, to learn of God's way a little better, to find out what God has provided for us at this time in our life.

I always go to the Feast, and one of the prayers that I make and one of the things that I ask God is, Father, help me to see what I need to learn this year, through the messages, through the conversations, through the fellowship, through the entire experience of the Feast. You've called us to do this.

You've commanded us to come before you during these seasons. And this is the major one for us as we have evolved our tradition in the Church of God in our time. God, teach me what I need to know as I go up this year before you. And I think that many of us come with that approach, and we take our notes, and we make our prayers, and we listen, and we hear, and if we allow our hearts to be opened up to one another, God always answers that prayer.

God always answers that he never fails because he is working with us in his patient, kind, and tender way to fashion us for a time in the future when we will then be the teachers to help those like these Syrian, Iraqi, and Afghan refugees today who will be coming out of an even greater time of trouble. God will use us to fulfill what Isaiah 2 says here.

And so here's my question for us to consider this morning. What's in your bag? What is in the bag that you are carrying with you as you have come up to the mountain of the Lord? We will go home, back to our lives, in our jobs, in our schools, in our routines afterwards. What are we carrying? What's in your bag? One of the first things I learned when I started as a camp director in the United Youth Camp Program 20 years ago this past summer, actually, it was 19 years ago when I became a camp director and was responsible for a couple hundred campers and another hundred staff and got myself into one of the biggest jobs I'd ever... never knew what to expect and got into it. But one of the things that helped prepare me was an article that said when campers come to camp, they are carrying usually one, maybe two bags of their clothing for that week at camp. But that's not their real bag. Kids come to camp and they have other baggage. There's another bag that they're carrying. And it's to be emotional, spiritual, but it's not what you see. And it taught me Alaska, and I bring it to us this morning. What's in your bag? What is it that we are carrying? What do we need to be carrying if we don't have the right tools in that bag to get us to our new life? What needs to be there? What do we need, in essence, to come before God, to come up to the mountain of the Lord and to come into God's presence? That's what I asked you to consider this morning. There's one passage that I think can help us to understand that and to answer that question. Let's take you all over to the book of Psalms, number 15. One of the great Psalms. We sing, I believe, as one of our hymns in our hymnal, but it is a great Psalm. In five verses, it packs in a lot. It is called the Psalm of the Perfect Gentleman in one of the commentaries that I have on my shelf. The Perfect Gentleman, the Perfect Gentlewoman, if you will. But the Perfect Individual. Verse 1, Lord, He prays, Who may abide in your tabernacle? Who may dwell in your holy hill? It echoes Isaiah 2. To go up before God, to come up and to learn of God, the Psalmist asks, Who can stand in your holy place in your tabernacle?

Who can dwell with you on your holy hill? It's not just everyone, as we go on to see here in this Psalm. And what is needed, and again recognize that the feasts that God gave them to Israel were pilgrim feasts, and especially this feast in the fall of the year, was, I don't know how much larger it may have been from the others, we don't know that for sure, but certainly the instruction given to us in Deuteronomy about this feast shows it to be a certainly big pilgrimage, a journey, to where God had placed His name first in Shiloh and then later in Jerusalem where the temple was, and you carry with you. And again, we read back in Deuteronomy, they took what they needed to keep the feast, and they would sell certain things to have money to buy other things where they would go. A very unique type of structure that we really have to try to imagine what it was. But they traveled to do that, to stand in God's presence. And who will do that? Well, it goes on in verse 2, The answer is that the person who goes to stand in God's presence, who goes up before God, has to look at the baggage, what's in his bag, it's not stuff, it's spiritual qualities.

Walk upright, walk in righteousness, walking before God in uprightness and in truth. We read yesterday about the covenant God made with Abraham, and He said at the essence of it, walk before Me in righteousness.

That's the type of person who can stand in God's presence. And speaks the truth in his heart. God holds the high value of truth to where we speak it in our heart.

This is of the essence of integrity, of a personal integrity, where we speak it to ourselves, even in our innermost thought. We are truthful people. We don't harbor lies, we don't harbor untruths.

And He goes even deeper and He gets stepping on our toes even more. In verse 3, He who does not backbite with his tongue.

This is the type of person who doesn't gossip, who doesn't move towards slander, who doesn't want to even listen to it, much less pass it on, but has come to their life to recognize that that's not what we need in our bag.

What's in your bag? As you come up to the feast, as we live out our lives, do we carry things along with us? Do we carry certain prejudices and attitudes? What's in our heart?

Nor does evil to his neighbor. He seeks to help, to serve, to get along, to go along. In other words, just to be Canadian.

Helpful, polite. We watched a couple of weeks ago in my life when I watched a movie called How to be Canadian to prepare ourselves for this trip.

We had made enough trips, as it were, coming up here. So we watched a very informative movie, and How to be Canadian. So we came prepared in that way.

But doesn't do evil to people, nor does he take up a reproach against his friend.

He thinks the best, looks for the best, is willing to even overlook. Here he's speaking to the essence of humanity, and that is relationships.

The relationships, the family relationships, the way we think all the way down into our heart.

In whose eyes a vile person is despised.

One who engages in flagrant sin. That person is not held in honor, esteem, or glorified in the life of anyone who wants to stand before God.

We live in an age that glorifies celebrity and status of people and lifestyles that are flagrant sins.

And those are the pictures that Grace recovers on her magazines, and that soak up endless hours on television and in other forms of media, and are glorified.

How much of that do we secretly honor, or marvel, or wonder at?

The person who wants to stand before God is going to have in his bag an approach, hey, that recognizes that's not anything I want to be near. I don't want that.

A vile person is despised. But he honors those who fear the Lord. He wants to be with those who fear God.

You've made your decision once again this year, and it's the correct decision to come to the feast, to go up to the feast.

And every year it always presents its challenges for us, that in the last minute job conflict, perhaps a health issue might arise, some other personal or family matter might come. Every year God's people, sometimes to get to that opening night, that opening day service at the feast for some certain years, can be literally a struggle. But we do it because we honor those who fear God, and we want to be among those brethren of like mind, and we do this. And every year that we do, we make the right decision. You made the right decision to come to the feast this year.

Don't ever think otherwise, regardless of what it took for you to leave your home and come up to the mountain of the Lord, and to come into His presence, because you wanted to be among those who fear God, as we are to do, and to learn to do during this time.

It goes on, he will swear to his own hurt, and he does not change.

He will suck it up, and not change. Not be tempted to chuck it all in, if it doesn't seem to work out this time, or over a period of maybe a few years.

He will swear to his hurt, and does not change.

To keep the feast for multiple decades, as many of us have, indicates a direction of life that we don't intend to change. It is not my intent after 50 years. I think this is feast number 53 for me. It's not my intent to change.

By God's grace, I won't. But for you, you've set your course. You will not change.

Verse 5, he goes out, he says, This person will not put out his money at use, nor take a bribe against the innocent. Things don't sway one who stands before God.

He who does these things shall never be moved.

He who does these things will never be moved. This is what is in the bag of one who goes up before the Lord today and seeks him.

And will want to stand in his presence and dwell in his holy hill. These are spiritual things that we must have in our bag.

We could go to other passages and define this in other ways and by other principles. There is a lifetime right here for all of us to look at and certainly it doesn't take away from anything else.

This is the spiritual stuff that we need in our bag. We don't need a flash drive, we don't need a cell phone, we don't need a sweet cream or face whitening cream for the new life. We need these qualities. And these are the hard things. These are the hard things to deal with and to develop. It is the stuff that we need to go up and to stand in God's presence.

We all had the thought, and maybe we've even gone through the exercise, that is often done to answer, What would you take with you? You were in a burning building and you had just seconds to get out. What would you take with you? As an exercise to determine your values.

Last month in Cincinnati, Mr. Finchel and several others there organized a weekend for the men. We had a men's weekend. They called it the Man Up Weekend. Many of the men in Cincinnati went out for a Friday and Saturday night, and Sabbath, and for just a retreat at a camp out in the woods. And to go through that... And one of the exercises they went through was just such an exercise that they had to... It broke down into small groups and it was a means of determining values.

What is it that you value? It was kind of a team-building exercise. What would you take with you? And the results were always illuminating when you go through something like that. I had just such a real moment in my life about ten years ago. Ten years ago we attended the feast in Amman, Jordan. And afterwards, Scott Ashley and myself, Scott, is our managing editor for the Good News and pastor of the Denver congregation. We decided to stay for an extra five or six days after the tour group left and tour Israel on our own and see the things that we had not seen on the tour. So I sent Debbie home with the group and Scott and I got our backpacks.

We set out for another five, six days in Israel. And then we crossed back over the border back into Amman, Jordan to catch our flight. We had flown in and out of Jordan. And the night before we were to leave, we were in our hotel room. We had gone to bed early. We had an early departure the next morning. We were exhausted and ready to get back to the States.

We had just dozed off at about eleven o'clock when the door started rattling. Somebody was knocking at our door and got up, groggily got to the door and opened it. Here was one of the hotel personnel saying, Get out! Now! Get out! He didn't tell us why. He said, The hotel is being evacuated. Get out! And he spoke in such a voice that you didn't, you know, quibble. What would you take it? What do you think I took out? I had to get out of this hotel room. What do you think I took with me? What do you think Scott Ashford took with him?

It was instructive. We all got out into the streets. It was about eleven o'clock. We stood out in the streets outside our hotel for about three hours. Until up in the early hours of the morning, it got cold. Sirens going all around us. We didn't know what was going on. I kept looking at the hotel thinking that it was going to blow up. You're in Jordan, you think terrorism. Well, what had happened, terrorists had to sell off bombs in three other hotels. Fortunately, ours was not touched. About 150 people died that night.

But they evacuated all the hotels. And what I took out? I grabbed my passport and my airline ticket. I left my computer. I left my cameras. I left everything else. One thing I want, I didn't know if I was ever going to get back in that room. But I wanted to get out of that country the next day. Scott Ashley, he grabbed his cameras. Scott is a photographer. See the court heist is down here. They understand exactly what he would have taken. They're from Denver.

He has big cameras, extensive cameras, and he was sitting out there, huddling and shivering in the cold, nursing his cameras around him. Well, I had my passport and my ticket. I knew I was going home. First opportunity. Well, we got back in that night. About 2 in the morning, they let us back in. But it was instructive as to what you would take with you. Buildings burning or you've got to suddenly evacuate. It tells you a lot about what you value. Now, I might make a different decision at a different time with different things, but you think about such an exercise, you live through such an event, and you learn that you're going to grab those things that you are most valuable.

It might be your Bible. It might be your family pictures on another occasion. But ultimately, when we are going to have to make a journey, whether it's sudden, planned, or whatever it might be, it's the daily slog of our life. We want to make sure that we've got the things in our bag that are going to help us ultimately stand before God and help us to make it to that destination, which is His kingdom, and put the right things in our bag.

So, I ask you, what's in your bag? You have to answer that question yourself. Draw up your list of what you want in your bag. I hope that it mirrors, and I think it will, these spiritual qualities. If you find this or a few others from another list that aren't there, write them down.

Clean those. Put those in your spiritual bag that you're taking with you along your journey. In Luke 12, in verse 15, a statement from Jesus that perhaps gives us a defining guideline of what we will put in our bag. Luke 12 and verse 15, He says, Take heed, and beware of covetousness. For one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses. What kind of stuff do you have? We all have stuff. One of the most therapeutic things he can do is move.

Four years ago, Debbie and I had the chance to move out of our home we'd been in for 22 years. Now, my wife is German, and she does not accumulate things and let it lay around. She's very organized, very efficient. She's very good for a rambunctious Scots-Irishman like me that doesn't want to throw things away. My parents both grew up dirt poor in the Depression, and my mother didn't throw anything away. I kind of got that honestly from her.

But through the years, Debbie and I, we kept always trying to keep a lean house. But when we moved four years ago, we gave things away. We took things to the Goodwill, to the Salvation Army. We had a garage sale. We tried to pare down our stuff. I even got to the point where I sold books, and I highly value books.

I got lucky with books. I haven't looked at that for years. I don't think I'll need that anymore. Put it on the table for the garage sale. You know what happened? I got to my new location, new home. And through the recent years, I've started saying, looking for certain books. I think, did I sell that book? Oh, no, I did! Seeing what I did, in a few cases, I've gone on Amazon and bought it again.

I like my books. But I unpacked on the other end, and I said, why did we move this? We thought we had pared it down, and we were all like that. We accumulate things, and we feel we'll need them, want to keep them. We have to have sentimental value and whatever else. So, it's a good exercise. You may not have to move to do it all, but Jesus is teaching us something here. He said, beware of covenants. Don't covet. For life, one's life, does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses. That is not our life, much as we think that it is. We certainly value certain treasures and relics and parts of our life that remind us of this and that, and I have plenty of those still. If you were to see my house, you would see the things we have kept. It reminds us of our family, my parents, my wife's parents, and going back as far as we can. I treasure certain things, but I can walk away from it. Our true life consists of the spiritual values of God's kingdom, and those are the things that should be in our bag. Create your list. Look at your list and your life, and ask what it is that will help you to come up before God, stand in His presence, and endure to the kingdom and make sure that you are holding it firm to those. Years ago, I heard a statement in another sermon by another minister, and I never have been able to find the source of it. I'll paraphrase it here in conclusion, but it always struck me. It was something like this. Don't covet or lust after gold or silver or money or possessions or things, young man. For one day, you will meet someone who doesn't covet those things and doesn't hold them in high regard or value. And when you do, when you meet such a person, then you will know just how poor you really are. So Christ said our life does not consist in the things that we possess. Let's make sure that the things that we do possess, though, are the important ones that will get us to the kingdom and enable us to stand in His presence on His mountain.