Maintaining a Feast Spirit

God certainly knew that at the end of the week we need to rest. And of course, we have that design from the beginning as we read in Genesis 1, and in the beginning of Genesis 2, it talks about Him designating the seventh day. A day that was blessed, a day that was sanctified, a day that was set apart, and a day that, in essence, we're following God's example to rest. And yet, as we think back over the last couple of weeks, it's been a couple of weeks since we've been here, or I guess even two weeks ago, we were not here. We were here on the day of atonement. We've all been able to enjoy the fall Holy Day season, Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles, and the last great day. And of course, during that time, and I'm thinking mostly here about the feast that we just returned from, during that time, we have a very busy schedule.

Services every day, sometimes twice a day. We have activities, different either singles or senior or young adult or children or teen. We have numerous, and we have the family picnic that we have been able to enjoy at a little bit of wind this time. It turned a little cooler than we thought it might, but it wasn't 85, so it was very, very enjoyable. I appreciate the work that I know numerous of you put into that. But we not only had those activities, we spent a good amount of time in fellowship, just getting together. Several of you had get-togethers at your room where you were staying, and those turned out to be very, very pleasant, very enjoyable, very uplifting. And of course, we have not only spiritual food at services, but we have a lot of physical food that we eat that we can be very thankful for. And I have to say, as you think back, as I think back to this past feast, it seemed like it was remarkably blessed by God. It was encouraging, it was uplifting in many ways as you go to those activities. And as I said, even though I know after about four or five days, I start getting tired, and the last two or three days, I'm feeling like I need to get up, but then I don't want to get up. I want to stay in bed. But I have to get up, as all of you do, in order to get going and to get... I was... I wondered whether I should even mention this. You know, starting at 10 30 in the morning, did that work out okay for everyone? Okay, I know in some of our sites, we have 10 o'clock services. There are some reasons, and we've always had 10 o'clock services down here, at least in the past, or at least most of the time. But I thought 10 30 worked better for me, and I hope it did for everybody. But during this time, I think you find that all of us are encouraged. All of us are encouraged. In a sense, we're kind of prodded. We prod each other to enjoy, to celebrate, to rejoice, and of course, ultimately, we are to do that to learn to fear God. That's our purpose, obviously, for being there. But in essence, you know, we're thinking about the kingdom of God. We're reminded of a kingdom that's coming, a new world government, a government that will work, one that will guide people in the right direction, give people purpose, and will help them to be able to come to a knowledge of the truth and to embrace the Father and the Son. That's what ultimately we are striving to do today. That's what people in the millennium will do in a wider scale. And that's what people in the white throne judgment after that, you know, it's going to be an even wider scale, which would appear to be billions of people. See, God is kind of incrementally increasing the size of his family. Where did he start? Jesus Christ. He started by sending his Son to the earth to redeem us from death and bring us into a father-child relationship with him. And then, of course, what does he call us? This is why we're observing the festival today. It's why we keep the Feast of Tramernacles in the other holy days. He calls us out of the whole harvest, out of the whole growth and development, he calls us first fruits. And when you see the pattern that is described in the Old Testament, there are first fruits, which are a very, very tiny, tiny part of a harvest, just the very first stuff.

Now, any of you who grow anything, you know first fruits are not always the best stuff you're going to get. Sometimes first fruits almost look like you have to throw them away. You know, they're not fully developed, they're not growing too much, and later on maybe your tomatoes or your ochre or some other kind of stuff is it's even better. But to follow the example of what God says, you know, he starts off with, he identifies first fruits. He points out that there's an earlier harvest that again is somewhat smaller with the earlier rain, and then with the latter rain, the huge harvest, the much greater harvest. And of course the Feast of Tabernacles was to be a celebration of the entirety of the harvest, but it's called the Feast of In-Gathering, when all of the harvest for the year is brought in. And that is to symbolize, in essence, the growth and the development of the Kingdom of God. God is helping us to embrace His government today. That's what we're embracing. We embrace a kingdom that we know Jesus talked about. He said, I'm the King of the Kingdom. I'm not setting it up right now. I'm going to come and set it up. But see, there are some people who actually know that today. Some people who are aware. We can say we're aware of that. We have to be embracing it. But then during the millennium, there's going to be a larger harvest, but beyond that, an even larger, a greater, an abundant, and an incredibly huge spiritual harvest that God is going to bring about. And so He's bringing about, He's bringing about tremendous development in the lives of human beings that He has created in His image, and yet, in a sense, has even allowed us to be somewhat limited. Now, yes, you know, we're far different from the cats and dogs and horses and other animals that we deal with, perhaps even on a regular basis. We're far different from the animal kingdom or the plant kingdom, obviously.

So man is different because we have the spirit in man. We have an ability to think and reason, to make decisions, to make choices, to choose good or bad. And yet, even at that, we're we're not all there. We're not complete. We need the Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit that is going to empower, that is going to draw us to a close walk with our Savior and with our Father. See, that's what the Holy Spirit empowers us to do. And it actually causes us, even though we've been created in the image and likeness of God, we have to grow in His nature. We don't start out with the nature of God. We have to grow in that nature. And see, I would say, you know, He set it up to where we're never complete. We're never the finished product, at least not until we die or for a life when Christ returns. At that point, you know, we're the finished product. He's the one who has to determine that. But I brought up the fact that, you know, we enjoy, in a sense, being together. We enjoy fellowshiping. We enjoy the love of one another and the encouragement. And that's exactly, you know, what we read about here in Hebrews 10 that I want to encourage us to continue to do. As we come back, Mr. Crosby mentioned in our opening prayer that we're revitalized. Now, we should be revitalized spiritually. We may be a little bit run down physically, but we'll recover from that. But we do want to be revitalized spiritually. But here in Hebrews 10, you know, this is what we were actively doing. This is what we were engaged in whenever we were at the feast. It says in verse 23, let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who is promised is faithful. See, God has drawn us to Jesus Christ. He has drawn us into a relationship with Him. And He wants us to hold fast to that because He's faithful. He's the one who's going to see us through. And in verse 24, let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds. I would say that during the feast, that's what we're trying to do. We're getting together. We're enjoying one another's company. We're learning maybe more about each other because that takes time. It takes opportunity. It takes a blessing to be able to have the opportunity to relate to one another in a way where you learn some of the background and some of the struggles that different people have. But that way we can encourage them. We can pray for them. We can lift them up. Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds. That's what we have a responsibility of doing. Not neglecting the meeting together as a manner of some, but exhorting or encouraging one another. And all the more, as you see the day approaching. So more so, as we know, that we're getting closer to the time of Jesus' return. That's what we want to do. Whatever area we might be in, this would be applicable to how we should be toward one another. And I think this is what we were actively doing at the feast.

We're there to worship God. We're there to praise God in song. We're there to study His Word, but we're there to fellowship and to provoke one another to love and good deeds. And so we had those daily reminders. And actually, as I think back through the messages that we heard, at least here in Branson, of course, where I would be aware of what we were teaching, I was thankful to see that a couple of the messages, one to begin with and one toward the end, both of them were on being focused. Being focused on why we're there, being focused on what God wants of us, being focused on drawing close to God, not neglecting that, but pursuing that and pursuing, when it says, seek the kingdom of God, that says to do something. Seek that kingdom, desire that kingdom. That's not something that we do without any action or attendedness ourselves. But we did have a couple of messages that dealt with being focused.

And say, I know, as we return to our, what you might say, our regular lives, our normal activities, and even as we return to some of our common habits, you know, we need to be reminded to be focused. See, that's why we enjoyed what we did during the feast, because we were focused on what God wants. And we don't want to let that get away. We want to maintain that even as we return here to our homes around Kansas City. We had a sermon about receiving the gift of God, because he wants to give us the kingdom, but he wants us to pursue it. He wants us to be diligently engaged in receiving the kingdom. We had a sermon about lumps and bumps. I talked to Mrs. Wilson about this, and she told me that she was there at that service, and my college buddy Bruce Anderson gave that sermon. And he was kind of speaking in somewhat of a little dialect, I guess. I don't know. He's from Minnesota. I don't know what to expect of him. But I told him afterwards, because Mrs. Wilson told me, well, I couldn't understand him real well, and surely I couldn't either. And I told him later, well, I didn't know you could speak in tongues, because, you know, that was what it seemed like. Not that it was really speaking in an unintelligible way, but with a different accent. And if you couldn't understand what he was saying, then it didn't have as much meaning. But clearly he was talking about the lumps that we can expect. Things that are going to happen, which obviously we did have. We had some things that needed to be overcome. We had information about God's family, about him wanting us to be a part of that, about how that Jesus is. And I thought this was really insightful to go through John, Chapter 9. Because, you know, that example of the blindness that was removed from the blind man is exactly what God has done for us. He has brought us out of darkness and into his marvelous light. And yet, when you read through John 9, you see that what this blind man came to see was not just the physical things around him. Not just his mother and father, whom he'd never seen before, it was not just the Pharisees who were haranguing him and trying to get him to turn on the one who had actually healed him. And yet, what this blind man came to see, he started out not knowing who Jesus was at all. He says, I don't know how I got this way, I just did what he told me. Well, who told you? Well, you know, I don't even know where he is, I don't know what he looks like. He didn't know who Jesus Christ was. But later, he would have to admit, well, there is no way this man was not a prophet. And later on, there was no way he is not the Son of God, because he couldn't do the things that he's doing without having access to the Father. And ultimately, when Jesus encountered him in the latter part of John 9, you know, he came to see who Jesus Christ was. He came to understand, he came to a comprehension of how he had not only been healed, but in essence, his vision had been created by the Creator. It had not just been restored, he had never had vision. He had never been able to see.

That sight was given to him. So that was a wonderful explanation, I thought. We also had a sermon about fearing God, and of course, understanding the difference between servile fear, just fearing apprehensive, afraid of doing something because you think you have to, to the type of fear that God really wants us to grow in, which is a reverent fear.

A filio fear that is out of respect, out of awe, out of appreciation, out of love, out of gratitude. We appear before God. We thank him for what he's given us. We ask him for his help. We pray for his blessing and his encouragement. We studied in John 11 how that Jesus has an incredible power. He had an incredible power when he was here on earth. He has that still today. The resurrections are absolutely sure. One resurrection is going to be to eternal life. That's the one we want to be in. But one for many, many people is going to be a resurrection to physical life, just like with Lazarus. Lazarus had been dead, admittedly a short time, not like the Valley of Dry Bones in Ezekiel 37. And yet, the facts were still the same. The power of God raised Lazarus from the dead and caused him not to have eternal life, but to just have physical life, to go ahead, to live, to eat, to breathe, and then die again. And, of course, always when we read Revelation 20, we see that there is a second death. There is a resurrection to those who refuse, who refuse to repent, who refuse to yield to God, and then that resurrection is simply to what is described as eternal death. Now, that's within God's prerogative, because He's the one who's working with us. We also were encouraged, of course, to maintain what God has been doing in our lives and endure under the end. And we had a remarkably good mix of, in essence, things that we need to be aware of right now as we go forward. So, as we think about the focus that God gave us during the feast, and as you go back and either review notes or listen to sermons that would be online, or they will be eventually, we've got them recorded, I don't have them up yet, but I will when I figure out how to do that. What can each of us do to avoid letting down as we come back? What can, there were actually some keys, very good keys, that were given to us even during the feast. But I want to point out just three things that will be helpful. The first one actually was mentioned. I thought it was a remarkably good description because it was talking about being focused during the feast, and that's really what we've got to be doing now to be focused.

And that regarded Mary and her sister Martha. Now, that example in Luke chapter 10 is really an incredible example, and I don't know, I didn't look to see if there was other accounts that we could read, but I know in Luke and in John you have somewhat of a discussion of these friends of Jesus. They were apparently very close friends. It says Jesus loved them.

Now, I'm sure he had that kind of love for others, but he was familiar with them. He knew them. He knew how they were. He knew some of their characteristics. Here in Luke 10, it says in verse 38, as he went on their way, he entered a certain village, I believe this would be Bethany, where they lived, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. And she had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying.

You know, you start seeing a contrast almost immediately, although it would appear, this is Martha's home, and that's what it would appear, that it's her home. Mary lives maybe with her, or at least she was there. But in verse 39, of course, we see later, rather Lazarus is also involved, but in verse 39, she had a sister Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying.

But verse 40, Luke 10.40, that's an easy one to remember. At least it is for me. I can remember some numbers. Luke 10.40 would be a good one to remember. Martha was distracted. Martha was distracted by her many tasks, many things that she had to do. This was her home. She was caring for some guests. She had things she needed to do, things she needed to straighten up, tablecloths to put on the picnic tables, stuff to put on top of the table, food, a lot of different tasks that she would need to do at home, make the beds, make everything look good, bring whatever was needed to maybe allow people to wash their feet as they came to the home.

A lot of things that maybe Martha did. But Luke records that Martha was distracted by these many tasks. She even came to Jesus and said, Lord, don't you care my sister's not helping me? Tell her to help me! You know, you can almost, when you read that, it almost seems like she's kind of screeching at him. Tell him, tell her to help me!

But of course, it doesn't quite go the way that Martha thought it should. But the Lord said, He answered her, Martha, Martha, you are worried and you are distracted by many things. But there's one thing that you really need. And of course, he wasn't just saying that she really needed, but that everyone really needs. And Mary has chosen that better thing, which will not be taken away from her. Now, he was pointing out that Mary was sitting listening to what Jesus had to say. She was in close contact with the one that perhaps she was coming to understand to be the Son of God.

I think they recognized who he was in whatever way they could, kind of like the disciples. Well, we know who we're following, but we don't know how what he says has got to happen. We don't know how that could happen. And yet it did. And of course, we then are going to be dying for that message. And yet it's amazing when you read this in Luke 10, verse 40, that the problem was that Martha was distracted by the many different things that she involved herself in doing.

Now, were those wrong things to do? No. Those were fine things to do. They certainly look what appear to be serving others, taking care of others. But see, Jesus said, your focus on that is obsessive. And you need to be like Mary, who is focused on what I'm saying, focused on what she really needs to know, because I have the words of eternal life.

I have I'm the source of living water. I'm the bread of wife. He could have gone ahead. We don't see what he said exactly to her. But it's very obvious that Mary had a different respect and maybe fear for Jesus than Martha had. So the point that I wanted to make is the fact that Martha was distracted. And I guess the first question I'll ask here for all of us is we return here from the feast in order to maintain the type of camaraderie, the closeness, the love, the respect for one another that we want, that we enjoy during the feast.

I think it'd be good for us to consider what are our, and maybe we can make this personal, what are your distractions?

See, because that can vary for any one of us. We have different responsibilities, different things we have to do. There are things that we do need to do. I'm not saying don't do those.

But what are the things that could be distractions? See, the things that are distractions to me might be different than to you. Like I was saying, you know, not listening to the news was helpful. I think I'll plan to not do that, or I'll do that less and do something that seems to help me more. But there are a lot of different things that you could think of.

And it's, I think it's exciting to look on over in John 11, because it's, whenever you read through John 11, you see that, you know, after Lazarus died, Jesus finally showed up. And Mary and Martha are both brought to him. I want to start in verse 28, because this is already after Jesus had run into Martha, and she kind of, it almost seems, complained to him. Well, he should have been here. You would have been able to help, I know. And yet, I think in some ways you'd say that Martha probably was limiting Jesus' power in the present. He knew, or she thought, well, he'll be resurrected eventually. She didn't comprehend the fact Jesus could raise him right now if he wanted to, if he chose. In verse 28, she went back and told Mary, she told her privately, the teacher is here, the master is here, and he wants to talk to you. He wants to see you. Now, that's a pretty impressive invitation. Not only had he been talking to Martha, and of course we're not going through all of this, but in verse 29, when she heard it, she quickly got up, and down in verse 32, when Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, John 11, 32, another kind of telltale verse here, Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet, and said, and again, you see virtually the same words, Lord, if you had been here, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. That's what Martha said, too, but Martha almost said it. It sounds more of a scolding tone. Clearly, Mary is kneeling before Jesus. Clearly, she is out, saying out of respect, you know, you could have changed this, I know. I know you could have. And of course, Jesus would say, well, when he saw her weeping, and the Jews who were with her weeping, he was greatly disturbed, and he was deeply moved. He had a sensitivity toward Mary, toward Martha, toward those who were with them. He had that compassion that all of us want to grow in. Now, we find too many times we're not as sensitive, we're not as compassionate as we should be, because that would be following Jesus' example. But clearly, Mary was not distracted. She was yielded to Jesus Christ. And, like I said, Martha had been distracted, as Jesus had pointed out, and even if you drop down to chapter 12, you see another little exchange here, and again, there may be more that I haven't taken the time to look up. Six days, verse 1, before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, a home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead, and they gave a dinner for him.

And at this dinner, wonder who served, wonder who got everything ready, wonder who was it, Mary? Wonder who was putting the plates out, wonder who was washing things up, wonder who was tidying things. Well, it says that this dinner Martha was serving. She was engaged in the activity, the tasks that would be needed. And Lazarus, of course, was one of those at the table with him, so that had to be quite the draw. You know, here's a man who was dead, and now he's alive. Here he is, sitting at the table eating spaghetti or whatever it is that they're having. And in verse 3, Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard and anointed Jesus' feet and wiped them with the hair of her head. So you see a different focus than Mary had. That, you know, is not represented in Martha. Now, I'm pretty sure the example is for us. I would assume both of them were, you know, learning what they needed to learn, perhaps. And yet, I ask us, what are our distractions? What are the things that would distract us from focusing on the kingdom of God and our relationship with God and with Jesus Christ? You know, if there are things that are distracting us from that, then we ought to figure them out. Actually, if you identify them, then there's a whole lot better chance of making some changes. Because if you don't identify them, if you don't even know what might be distracting to you, well, then you don't know what to do. So that's the first point I want to make. The second point is when we read the parable of the sower. Now, all of us are familiar with it. It's in Matthew 13, as maybe the most common place we usually turn. It's in Mark and it's in Luke as well. And I want to go to Mark 4. But the parable of the sower discusses the seed of the Word of God being planted.

And I want to focus, as we know, there are four categories. We all want to be in the fourth category. We want to be growing. And yet, I would say we ought to be careful not to be in the third category. You know, since we're still here, I'm going to say we're probably not in the second category. But the third category seems a little squirrely. The third category, chapter 4 of Mark, verse 7, seed fell among thorns. And the thorns grew up and choked it and it yielded no grain or no fruit. Now, we don't want to fall into that category.

But of course, this is about plants that are growing like my yard. Grass seed struggles because the weeds are prolific and they are, in essence, taking over in many places. And yet, what you see Jesus teaching in verse 18, in talking about the meaning of this parable and this part of it, these others were sown among the thorns in verse 18. And these are ones who hear the word.

But how do they get choked? But the cares of the world and the lure of wealth and the desire for other things come in and choke the word and it yields nothing.

See, that's something to avoid. That's something to recognize. Recognize that, well, I don't want to get caught up and get choked. I think in some ways, even as you think through Solomon's life, and we had some lessons about Solomon, about his kingdom, about the summation that he came to at the end of his life. And yet, certainly during part of his life, he was off base. He was in outer space as far as getting choked by the world around him. He had been given many, many blessings. And yet here, you know, it just talks about the cares of the world, the lures of wealth, the desire for other things. See, I think this is describing, and this is the second point, what temptations could choke your growth?

See, again, it could vary and will vary. For some of us who are younger, I guess I'm in that category, and some others who are older, I mean, those things throughout our lives, those things would vary about what might be enticing, what might be a temptation.

But see, besides determining, you know, what might be my distractions, that I want to identify and be able to conquer, what temptations could actually choke my spiritual development? See, if you identify those, then you can do something about them. You don't have to be choked. You can produce fruit. You can put priorities in their place, or the right priorities in their place. I want us to look at Hebrews 10, because in Hebrews, you see Paul telling the Christians who had a Jewish background, they were aware of the law, they were aware of the Old Covenant, they were schooled in it, but they had become Christians, they had become to be believers in Jesus Christ. They knew who He was, and they wanted to be Christians, and yet Paul was writing this book in order to show them the superiority of Jesus Christ to anything else. Angels, Moses, see, they put emphasis on those things. Paul was telling them, no, Jesus above all of that. He's of a priestly order that is above everything else, and yet it says here in verse 32 of chapter 10, 1. Recall those earlier days when after you were enlightened, see, they had come to see the light. They had come to see Jesus Christ as their Savior.

So recall those earlier days after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with suffering. You know, initially when you became Christians, you struggled with a lot of things. There was a lot of obstacles. There were a lot of difficulties. And sometimes, verse 33, being publicly exposed to abuse and persecution and sometimes being partners with those so treated. See, sometimes you were directly persecuted. Sometimes you were just kind of indirectly, but at least nonetheless you were persecuted. For in verse 34, you have compassion for those who were in prison, and you cheerfully accepted the plundering of your possessions. Knowing that you yourselves possess something better and more lasting. See, they had come to understand the incredible value of their relationship with God in their quest for eternal life.

And so he says, verse 35, don't therefore abandon that confidence of yours. It is going to bring a great reward. For you need endurance so that when you've done the will of God, you may receive what he promises. See, that's an instruction of hanging on. That's an instruction of enduring, but it's an instruction of figuring out, you know, what might choke your growth and keep you from producing fruit. You see in chapter 12 another thing that I want to mention because this also could be could be a factor in our growth. Chapter 12 verse 14. Hebrews 12 verse 14 says, pursue peace.

Pursue peace with everyone and pursue holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.

So if we don't learn to be peaceful, if we don't learn to be peacemakers, if we don't learn to be able to produce peace, and if we don't learn the holiness of God, which is not going to come from us, it's going to come from God living in us through his Spirit, it says we're not going to see God. But verse 15, see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God and that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and through it many become defiled.

See here he's talking about a root of bitterness, that he uses the example of Esau, and it seems that Esau never did really understand a right relationship with God. He never did have a heart that was pleasing to God, even though it seems that he sought it at times. He never did really turn his life over to God, and unfortunately you see in the example of Esau, and then the people of Esau being the Edomites. You read the entire Bible, you don't see hardly any good words about them. You know, almost all the words are somewhat catastrophic. But see here he says, be careful that you're not choked by allowing bitterness to keep you from being repentant. See that's what he's saying. And so, you know, we can take a look at what distractions might bother us. Like we can take a look at what might choke our development and keep us from growing. And finally, the third thing I'll mention is just in 2 Timothy 1.

2 Timothy, back a few pages here.

I guess I could say back, depending on which way you go.

2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 6 and 7. I think in order for us to grow and maintain the high that we have coming back from the feast, we want to ask God to motivate us. We want to ask God to stir us up. And 1 Timothy 1 verse 6 and 7 is Paul's directive to Timothy saying, for this reason I want to remind you, Timothy, rekindle. Stir up the gift of God that is in you through the laying on of my hands. He says, don't be mindful. You know, if you just allow that spirit that I have extended to you, that God extended to you, and that you are able to use, if you just allow it to be somewhat dormant, you're not asking it to be stirred up. You're not asking God to motivate you. You need to be doing that. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but He's given us a spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind.

And some translations translate sound mind to self-discipline. But see, the third thing we can do is ask God to motivate us. Give us a motivation that is from God. A motivation when we thank God for His Holy Spirit, we can ask God to stir up that spirit, to stir it up to where we are, receptive to Him, receptive to His direction in our lives. So those three things could help us. I want to finish in Romans 14. You see an admonition here that directly ties in with the Feast of Tabernacles because it's talking about the Kingdom of God. And yet it also is describing what we've enjoyed being at the Feast, how we've been able to meet together in peace and cooperation. And yet in order to maintain that, we want to keep from being distracted.

We want to keep from being choked. And we want to be stirred up. We want to be fired up with the Spirit of God. And here in Romans 14, Paul is kind of concluding a section here. He's talking about some of the things people were stumbling over. One of them was involving food. Verse 15 says, if your brother or sister is being injured by what you eat, then you're no longer walking in love. Don't let what you eat cause the ruin of one of those that Christ died. So he's telling them to be careful about what they're doing. So do not let your good be spoken of as evil. Because in verse 17, he says, the Kingdom of God, and you actually find God listening. And I think this may have something to do with memory, although I don't know for sure. But God lists many, many things that we need to know or that we need to remember in phrase.

You know, in 1 Corinthians 13, you've got faith and hope and love. And the way to your matters of the law, you have judgment and mercy and faith. In Micah 4, you have justice and loving mercy and walking humbly before God. You find in the Old Testament, the patriarchs are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You know, almost all of these have freeze to them, and there are many others that I'm not directly thinking of right now. But here you see in verse 17, the Kingdom of God is not food and drink, but it is righteousness, God's righteousness. It's not our righteousness. It's not self-righteousness. It's God's righteousness that we receive through faith in Him. The Kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. If we embrace the kingdom that we just celebrated during the Feast of Tabernacles, then we're going to embrace righteousness and peace and joy. And as we do that, then we're going to benefit from that. We're going to grow spiritually. We'll be able to overcome barriers because we'll always have those obstacles.

There's simply something that has to be overcome. It's not that they never happen, it's just that we've got to be overcoming. So I hope that all of us can maintain, as we come back again from the Feast, maintain the benefits that we receive from being there, be able to share that with one another, stir up the gift of God that is in us, that He's given us. It gives us power. It strengthens us. It gives us the love of God, which you can never have too much of. And it gives us a sound mind or a certain self-discipline that enables us to truly love God and then love one another.