Our Time for Revival

Well, good afternoon, everyone. I'd like to extend my welcome as well to Cincinnati. My wife and Debbie and I live here and have for the last more than five years and appreciate the being here. Mr. Jones left it many years ago. We came late, I guess. But we enjoy our time here and I hope that your time here will be profitable and enjoyable for the Feast of Tabernacles this year. We have – looks like a lot of things are planned for you. There's a lot of things to do and to see here. And we appreciate all of you being here. I did want to mention one item since Mr.

Jones referred to it in his offeratory sermonette. And I've had several of you ask me about it, and that is the status of the addition that we are planning to build onto the office, the home office here, for a new media center for Beyond Today production efforts. And so I thought I'll save a whole lot of other conversations by just taking a minute here to – first of all, just say that the membership you and others have been very, very generous in helping us to reach the stated goal that we had put out of – needed for the building, and that has come in.

And we appreciate that very, very much, the extra offerings that have been provided for that. We're right now at a point where the – we have three bids that are going to be considered right after the Feast of Tabernacles and looked at a little bit more closely. They had just come in just a few days ago before the Feast started, and not everyone has had a chance to go over them closely. And hopefully a decision will be made by the first week of November that will allow a contract to be signed with a contractor to build a building architect through – architectural plans are already all drawn up.

And before the snow flies in this winter, we'll hopefully be able to even yet break ground before the year is out. But that's kind of the status there. Once that happens, then hopefully by this time next year we will be already working in that new facility, which will essentially be a large sound stage where we will have multiple sets and the ability to do a whole lot more with Beyond Today than we do in the current setting of the office with the studio that we worked with for about 12 years now. So it'll be a much-needed expansion, and we certainly appreciate the support and the offerings that have come in for that.

But that's kind of where it stands, and we appreciate it. Those of you that come to the home office tour later next week that are here, at least you'll see the existing studio, and we'll at least show you the little patch of grass where the new one will be in a few months, God willing. So I look forward to showing you where we do have the opportunity to work. There's a traditional question that's often asked at this point in the Feast of Tabernacles, ever since I've been coming to the Feast, and that is, why are we here?

I'm not going to ask that question today, even though I already did. But I think what I will say is a more direct statement, and that is, we are here because of the command and the summons of the God of heaven. That's why we are here. And enough said on that. And we have come to appear before Him, as we have already understood and to realize by scriptures that were read and gone through last night, will be touched on again. But we have come because of God's command, to appear before Him on a holy assembly, a sacred time for the Feast of Tabernacles, His festival.

You came here, and what will you learn during your time here at God's festival this year? Will what you receive in sermons, sermonettes, and fellowship, conversations, and messages, will it impact your life for the good now and beyond today? I kind of like that term. Well, what you hear make a difference in your life, no matter where you are in your relationship with God and our journey in life.

Let's turn over to Acts chapter 3 and look at what is a scripture from the New Testament that points to the very essence of this time that was described by the Apostle Peter in Acts chapter 3 beginning in verse 19.

We're in a message, a very strong message of repentance to the audience and the crowd of the first century in Jerusalem. Peter issued a call and a summons to repentance, and to an acknowledgment of Jesus Christ of Nazareth as the Son of God, whom they had crucified, now was resurrected, and that they needed to obey, and was alive as a result of the resurrection. And in verse 19 of Acts 3, Peter repeats what had been in chapter 2.

He said, "...repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, that he may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all of his prophets since the world began." Those few words, what some have called a benchmark or the benchmark of the entire Bible, that Christ has been received in the heavens and waits until the times of restoration when he will come. And all things will be restored when this world will be changed. And as we have kept on the Feast of Trumpets, we have rehearsed the time of Christ's coming. We've kept on the Day of Atonement a necessary step of the binding of Satan and his influence taken off and away from the world. And now we come to the Feast of Tabernacles. And this verse describes the very essence of the time that the Father and the Son are anticipating, a time they have been anticipating from before the beginning of this age. In Ephesians chapter 1, the Apostle Paul writes about the plan that has been in place before the foundation of this world. Ephesians chapter 1, a very beautiful passage and very beautiful chapter in Scripture. In Ephesians chapter 1, he says in verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Here Paul writes that God chose us in Him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world. A group of people, not necessarily you or I individually, God didn't know that you and I would be in existence. Human beings have the option of choice. And all the decisions that created and led to you and I and our families, that is because of human choice and decisions. But the fact of an elect, the church, a body of people before the foundation of the world that would be in place at a particular point in time, according to God's purpose, that was determined. And as Paul says, we have been chosen in Him to be blameless, to be holy before Him. And this is a time that reflects on the calling that God has given to each one of us. The calling to a group of people in our time and in our age to prepare for what we just read in Acts chapter 3, a time of restoration. And that's why we are here to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, to remember that, to look forward to that time.

It is a time that is spoken of throughout all Scripture in great detail from the Old Testament into the New Testament, the writings of the book of Acts of the Apostle Paul, Peter and others, and John add more depth and spiritual dimension to what we begin to understand at the beginning of Scripture and God's dealing with mankind. Romans chapter 8, just again, a little bit of a glimpse of how this theme is woven throughout the Bible. In Romans chapter 8, Paul talks about our role as sons and our relationship with God as sons and daughters.

And in Romans chapter 8 in verse 18, after describing that very intimate spiritual relationship, he says, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. An encouraging Scripture.

The sufferings of our time, of your life and of my life and our time right now, are quite evident. We don't need to rehearse all of that. We can recognize that suffering is a part of this life, and as we age and the body begins to go through its changes and as events happen in people's lives, we all must deal with levels of suffering. But Paul says it is not to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us. In verse 18, Paul is talking to the very individual relationship of suffering and the human condition that we have. But then in verse 19 here, he then connects that to the larger creation and the expectation of a larger creation because, he says in verse 19, the earnest expectation of the creation, the larger physical world, eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. And again, in a very grand high language in one sense, Paul connects what you and I deal with in our lives, the physical suffering, the setbacks, the aging process, the unexpected problems that come just because of life. In many ways, this past year has been quite unique for a number of people, a number of families in the Church of God.

I can't take the time, I won't take the time at this point to rehearse all of that.

But perhaps it's just, maybe it's just me in terms of just focusing upon it. But there has been, it has been a very trying year in many ways. And yet, Paul here connects that to the larger issue about the world and about life. And we can understand that the world does wait eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. It goes on in verse 20 to say that the creation was subjected to futility. Solomon had a lot to say about the futility. He called, he used the word vanity in the book of Ecclesiastes to describe what he observed about life. But this is all because of him who subjected the same in hope in verse 20. Because the creation itself will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

So the creation waits for the revealing. And when you connect it all together, it waits for what is going to be revealed in the individual creative spiritual process into the lives of each one of those who are called and chosen and faithful to that calling that God has given. And so, in just a few verses that we can look at here in the New Testament, we see that the creation, the people of God, all of creation are eagerly waiting for the appearance of Jesus Christ.

And a time to restore all things. Our number of scriptures talk to that very specifically. And as we go through the sermons and messages of the feast, we will have opportunity to go through a number of them. I'd like to turn back to just one right now in the book of Isaiah chapter 25.

Isaiah chapter 25. One of my personal favorites, I always remember hearing this being read as a young man sitting in the aisles and in the seats of the congregations during the Feast of Tabernacles and in Isaiah 25, in the very beautiful language here, as the prophet is inspired to put it.

Beginning in verse 6, In this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast of choice pieces, a feast of wines on the leaves, of fat things full of marrow, of well-refined wines on the leaves. Verse 6 is a rather poetic image of a time of abundance and a time of plenty for all people and for all nations under the guiding blessed hand of God. That Isaiah and Amos and Micah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel all spoke to in so many details that there will be a time when there will be a feast of that nature. And this Feast of Tabernacles that we are here to observe portrays that and gives us a taste of what is to come. And to the degree we are able to experience a removal of ourselves from our daily life and the world, so to speak, even though we're in the middle of a city and here on a nice holiday end, we do at least change our routine. We come together. We have a program set to bring us together as God's people and to be taught and to observe this. And it is a foretaste of what these scriptures talk about. Going on in verse 7, he will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people and the veil that is spread over all nations. There is a veil over all nations today. There is a deception. Revelation 12 talks about the author of that deception being Satan the devil. We rehearse that meaning on the day of atonement. There is a veil upon the nations that prevents them from seeing God, His Son Jesus Christ, and in all the fullness, even though we live in a Christian nation, even though we have the name of Christ spoken so often and so much, there is a veil. And the condition of so much in our world today testifies to that veil. And there will be a time when that will be lifted. In verse 8, he says, he will swallow up death forever and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces. The rebuke of His people He will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. God's will has made it known it will happen regardless of how many believe or don't believe. It will happen.

Regardless of the numbers, it will happen. And it will happen by God's plan and purpose.

And no human being, no human organization, no church, no philanthropic effort will create what the scriptures reveal to be the kingdom of God on this earth. We call it the millennium. We call it a time like this. It will not be brought by man's efforts. It will come in spite of those. And every human effort, and there have been many, to create a utopia, to create a perfect society, whether it's a small town that is living in harmony or some larger system such as communism has tried and failed in Europe through the Soviet Union of the past and even East Germany and failed in all of that, it will not happen because of human effort. God has spoken it. It will come as a result of the direct intervention of Jesus Christ at His return. And the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.

And that's the time that we look forward to, and that is the time when we wait for.

This begins with the Feast of Tabernacles, God's time, to bring human beings to the peace and the joy of that reign.

And so we are here today to keep this feast as a forecast, a foretaste of that time. In Colossians chapter 2, as we look at a statement that the Apostle Paul was inspired to make, and some teaching regarding the Holy Days and the festivals and people in the world at the time of the first century, the Church beginning to keep God's laws as they understood it. And in this case, a group of Gentiles coming out of a thoroughly pagan culture to begin to worship the one God and to worship on the Sabbath.

And even the festivals. Paul makes a statement here that many twist to their destruction, but also can be very easily understood when it is taken apart to teach us that the festivals and the Sabbath are shadows of things to come. Verse 16 of Colossians 2. He said, Let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substances of Christ.

What we keep is a shadow. Every one of the Holy Days, every weekly Sabbath, is a mere shadow of what is to come of something yet ahead of us. And the beauty of those Holy Days help us to understand that.

The Holy Days and the weekly Sabbath, though, he says, have as their substance, meaning that they're real, what casts the shadow. What is the originator, the creator of the shadow, is Christ.

And Christ is the Lord of the Sabbath. Christ created the Sabbath by resting.

Christ kept the Feast of Tabernacles. And Christ is in His festivals, the Holy Days of God.

We keep them only as a shadow now, but when Christ appears, the full glory will be known.

We have kept the Feast of Tabernacles and the Holy Days for many, many decades in the Church of God, in our part of the Church of God. For me, this is number 55. I know for some of you here, it's even longer. And even as we saw last night, we have someone here for the first time. And that's great. Because that is what God is doing. But we have kept the festivals for many, many decades in the Church. And because we have, we have a very clear understanding, not only of the plan of God, not only of the purpose of God, but we also have an understanding for where we are today in the timing of that plan. And we know that timing because we keep the festivals.

In other words, we know our times. We understand our times. We can discern our times in which we are living. In 2017, and understand where we are in the purpose and the plan of God. We don't know every detail. We will not, even. But we know quite a bit. And we can place ourselves in the timeline of God's purpose and plan. And we can do so because we keep the Holy Days. That's how important they are to a Church that bears the name God. And any group that professes the name of Christ to the degree that they do not keep these days are that far divorced from the fullness of the knowledge, not only of Jesus Christ himself, God the Father, but of their purpose and their plan with the elect, with the creation, and where we are in that. That's how important these days are to the Church. To be observing them, to be remembering them, to be keeping them. We know our times. And as a result of that, we are motivated to good works.

So let's take a minute and just look a bit at our roots. Last night, scriptures were read from the book of Deuteronomy. And as inevitable, as Mr. Seelig was saying, we start scratching off.

But I would rather turn to just one in Deuteronomy chapter 14 and add a little bit to something there so that we can understand a little deeper. Our roots go back to why we do this, again, to Leviticus 23 here in Deuteronomy 14, Deuteronomy 16, that rehearsed the law.

As God gave these festivals, first through Israel, and as scripture shows, ultimately to the Church, and then ultimately even for all mankind, as we will see.

But in Deuteronomy 14, there is this passage that begins in verse 23 that talks about coming up before the Lord on the festivals and eating before Him and taking of our substance, whether it's grain or animals as it was in an agrarian society of this time. We do it just a little bit differently in our application of this today to a modern setting. But we still gain a lot as we come before to, as it says at the end of verse 23, to learn to fear God. We're here because, as I said, God has summoned us and we come here to fear God, not in a trepidation, but respecting God, just as we have hopefully had parents that we could look to, other adults in our life that we, in a sense, we feared in that we respected and we loved them and we did what they told us to do as we were being raised and hopefully have been and are the better off for that. But in verse 24, he says that if the journey is too long, then he tells what to do, convert it into cash.

But let's look at that word journey. If the journey is too long, that's the application for us right now. We're all on a journey. A Israelite that went up to either Shiloh or to Jerusalem ultimately to keep any of the feasts had to journey. They had to pack up things, walk, ride an animal, and go up to keep the feast. It was a journey and it would take several days depending on how far away they were from those locations. Now, we all have made a journey here and I know every year it seems for some of us it gets a little bit harder to make that journey. Pack up, make the trip, to go. We all made the right decision when you came here.

No matter what difficulty you encountered to get here today, you made the right decision because of God's teaching and God's command. But in a larger sense, we're on a journey toward God's kingdom.

In Hebrews chapter 11, we're called pilgrims. You know that. We look for a city whose builder and maker is God, like all the other patriarchs and others who have gone before us. And the accurate description for us is that we are really pilgrims. The festivals were pilgrimage festivals to which people went up. But we're in a pilgrimage of life, as I said, for many decades in some cases, in this way of life. And as we go up, we learn many things. We have many things to encounter as we go along. Verse 26 here of Deuteronomy 14, one of my favorite descriptions about what we are to do. You will spend in verse 26, you'll spend that money for whatever your heart desires, whatever your heart desires. I remember hearing that when I was 12 years old and thinking, oh boy! Now, as a 12-year-old boy, and a 13-14-year-old boy, what my heart desired is different from what it desires now.

I had to tell this story that when I was first starting to go to the Feast of Tabernacles down in Big Sandy, Texas, my heart's desire at one point, the biggest thing that I could come up with was my own full bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. That's all I wanted. All I wanted for the Feast. One year, I got it. I spent the money for a full bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Probably cost me three bucks at the time. This was in the 60s.

And I ate chicken until I was just sick. That's the only time I've ever bought a full bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. I don't do that anymore. But, you know, gradually my desire got a little bit different. I remember going to one feast as a student, college, and kind of by myself, a single young man, and thinking, you know what? I need a wife. My desire was for to have a wife. Well, God blessed me with that. Now, after 44 years of marriage, grand and children and grandchildren, and a few years of journeying, what's my desire? What's your desire? What is it that you desire most at the feast, at this feast? Think about that. What is it that you desire most? What would help you to gain the meaning of the Feast of Tabernacles the most if you had it?

I guess back to the question of truly, again, why did we come and why are we here and what are we to learn as God has called us here? If we just go back to Acts 3 and looked at what God is going to do, He's going to restore all things to this earth. Let's look at that in terms of your life.

What would you like to restore to your life? Full health? Full use of everything? Someone? What is it that you would like to restore? There's another word for that restoration.

I like this word because it applies to all of us right now today.

Revival. How about a revival? How about to be revived spiritually? We'd all like to be revived physically in many ways. We can take our vitamins and do they still make Geritol? I don't know if they still make Geritol. I haven't seen any commercials of that, but I remember for years that was the elixir to rejuvenate. But how about a spiritual revival? In our lives, in our relationship with God, in our relationship with one another, how about a spiritual revival? How about using this feast to gain a step up of personal revival with God? In Matthew chapter 24, we're told something about our times that we should understand as Christ responded to the ultimate question that the disciples seemed to put to Him, and that is what will be the signs of your coming and of the end of the age and the Olivet prophecy. Matthew 24, and he goes through a lot to teach that, but let's drop down in Matthew 24 to verse 36, where he makes this statement, but about that day or hour, meaning of His coming, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven nor the Son, but only the Father. That's why I said earlier, we'll not know all the details and understand everything fully. This is one of them.

And then he says, as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. Up to the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. And that is how it will be, at the coming of the Son of Man. Man, too, will be in the field, and will be taken to the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand-mill, and one will be taken and the other left. Therefore, watch. You don't know what day your Lord will come. Eating and drinking and giving in marriage. Another way of saying that life will be going on as if it will always go on. That's going to be the prevailing attitude. No changes. No time of judgment, as in the days of Noah. No consequences before God for sin, as in the days of Noah. Society being prosperous. Society probably experiencing the more prosperity even than we have now. Unprecedented global wealth at that time.

Eating, drinking, giving in marriage. Describing a time of plenty, but also a time when people will not know their times and will not be able to understand. That's what is described by Christ in the days of Noah. Now, I know some of you probably plan to, while you're here, go down the roadways in Kentucky to see the recreation of Noah's Ark by a group of people here. And I hope that you, if that is in your plans, I hope that you will be able to make that happen. And you will see it. I haven't seen it. I've been told that it's quite stunning and quite impressive. But no matter to what degree the people who built it have whatever their purposes and goals are, Christ gives us a quite large illustration as we connect to that to understand the times in which we live and a bit of warning. Christ is saying, as he conjures up the time of Noah, he's saying to us to not become so immersed in the present moment that we forget that the kingdom of God is at hand.

Never become so immersed in our daily lives that we forget that life and death are in God's hands. And never become so immersed in our own lives and what it is that's taking place that we forget that God has called us in advance, called us today to prepare for the kingdom of God and our place and our role in that. And that preparation takes place each day now, beginning now. And so, for me, I will say my heart's desire is to be revived spiritually through the keeping of this feast and all feasts that I will have ahead of me in the holy days, to be able to clear away anything that can distract and take away my preparation for what this time portrays. So that I never lose sight of that. That's my heart's desire.

That I will be able to understand the times in which I live and be able to help people to understand it and to teach it, to proclaim it as whatever as the opportunity gives.

So that I'm not going to fall prey to what Christ describes here will be a time of people who will be content with the world. The writer C. S. Lewis described Christians at large as people who were involved or consumed with what he called a contented worldliness. A contented worldliness. I've often thought about that from the time that I first read about it. Does that talking about me? That is really what Jesus is talking about. And as he's speaking to his disciples of the day, he's speaking to the disciples of today as well. And it would be good for all of us to ask ourselves, are we content with the world? That's a hard question, and we don't really like to consider that, but we should from time to time and make sure that where we are and who we are is not lulling us to sleep about our times and the world in which we live. What I'd like to do in the remaining minutes here is to give you three keys to what I call living in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. Three keys to living today in the spirit of what Jesus says here in Matthew 24, the days of the coming of the Son of Man, that we are able to keep it all in balance, whether it's the prophetic implications in the dire state of the world at any given time in our own lives as we battle ourselves, as we battle the world, as we battle Satan.

To be able to maintain the joy, the hope of our calling and of our relationship with God and the knowledge of the truth that we have and the understanding of who we are so that when we get out of bed every morning we have a meaning and purpose in our lives and we don't lose that and we don't let the sufferings of this time or anything else or just the ravages of time upon the mind, upon the body, upon the will to take that away from us so that we are revived and we are alert and we are involved. Let's talk about the first key. Very simple. Wake up.

Ephesians chapter 5.

Paul tells his own audience the same thing in verse 14.

Therefore he says, awake you who sleep.

Arise from the dead and Christ will give you light. Awake you who sleep.

Arise from the dead and Christ will give you light.

Awake you who sleep. That's what I tell my students at ABC or Ambassador Bible College a lot about 2.30, 3 o'clock in the afternoon because that's an optimum time to fall asleep after turkey and dressing for lunch or taco salad or whatever it might be. This year I drew a 2.30 time slot for one of my classes and it's a challenge. You've got to turn cartwheels until jokes and have light shows and banners at times that keep people interested. And I can't do that when I'm teaching fundamentals of belief. Always so you just have to sometimes say, let's all stand up for 30 seconds and stretch our arms. But that's not what Paul's talking about.

He's saying those of us who sleep spiritually and slumber and let down.

Don't be caught unaware. Awake. Arise from a life that may have been leading toward death and even after many years of conversion and in this way of life, we still have to look at ourselves afresh, as if it's day one of our conversion.

And see if there's any decay there that has crept in, any calcification that has come in, to keep things from working the way they should spiritually. And we all should have that in our toolkit, knowing ourselves well enough as to what can cause us to slumber, to get a bit draggy.

As I've grown older, I've become more of a morning person. I never thought I would. I was always hard to get out of bed in the morning and wanted to sleep as long as I could and got going but then would stay late at night. But in recent years, I'm up at, you know, five o'clock in the morning. Or at least I'm awake at five o'clock in the morning.

And I figured, well, all right, might as well get up. And go through the day. But inevitably, I know the point in the day when I'll begin to drag. And I can take certain steps to alleviate that. Get out, take a walk around the building, up and down the office park where we have our office here in Cincinnati. Or get a cup of coffee or go down and talk to somebody in one of the other offices, bug them and interrupt their day and cost the church money and things like that.

But you do what you have to do to kind of get refocused and energized. And we have to do that spiritually. Rather than there are powerful forces amassed against the church of God. Scripture tells us that. And yet we have been delivered from that. In Colossians chapter 1, we're right here at the brink of Colossians. Turn over to chapter 1. We don't have to worry about the spiritual forces that are constantly pushing at the church. But in Colossians 1 verse 13, Paul writes that he, meaning God, has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. We have been delivered from that.

I will not be totally immune from his wiles and his ways, but we have been delivered from the kingdom of darkness, the power of darkness. And we have been exposed to the kingdom of God, a kingdom of light. And that is, again, to where we are headed. But never forget that we are pilgrims. And pilgrims have to travel light.

That's why we keep the Feast of Tabernacles and why we tabernacle with God. We come to be reminded that parts of this life so often cause us to forget that it is temporary. Tabernacle is a temporary dwelling, and a temporary place. And so we must never forget that we are pilgrims and we need to travel lightly. Ask yourself what it is that you need to be happy. Again, going back to the Scripture, Deuteronomy 14, spend your substance on the things that whatever your heart desires.

What is it that would make you happy? What is it that you need?

I need the calling to the kingdom of God.

I need to know that God has placed me by His calling into the body of Christ to grow toward the resurrection. That's what I really need. I think that's what all of us really need. I also need to see that love of God reflected in the eyes of those who are closest to me.

My wife, my children, my grandchildren, my members that I interact with. We all need that.

We all need most the love of God shed abroad in our hearts, motivating us to overcome this world and to do the work of God.

So ask yourself what it is that you really need that would be your heart's desire.

Another pair of shoes, a faster smartphone, cheaper pizza.

What is it that we really need? I mean, we're told what we need every time we need to.

We need to pass a bill board, go into a store. We're told what we need. You need this.

Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple Computer, was brilliant as a marketer because he anticipated what people needed before they ever knew that they needed it.

You didn't know you needed an iPad, did you? You did not know that you needed a touch screen phone. He knew that. He created it, and the rest is history.

But what do we really need? I've come to the point where I think I can get by with a two-year-old phone now.

Until I see the next new one. But, again, that's the way our society works. What is it that you really desire? What is it that we really need? We live in a physical world, but most people don't see that this world is more than what it seems. There's two parts to reality—the physical and the spiritual.

And throughout the Bible, God tells us a vital truth—that there's more to this world than meets the eye. And that's key number two. The world is not what it seems.

The world is not what it seems. It is a world at war.

There is a great spiritual battle that is raging behind the headlines of today. And we don't struggle against ourselves, even though we think we do at times.

You don't struggle with me. You don't struggle with someone else that may be your nemesis, or you think is your nemesis. Paul tells us here in Ephesians chapter 6 what we really struggle against. Beginning in verse 10, he says, finally brethren might be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. For we do not wrestle, verse 12, against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. That's where our real battle lies. And to the degree over the years in our journey in our pilgrimage toward the kingdom of God, to the degree that we learn that, we will grow in unity and a true love for one another.

You know, I have words that echo in my mind from people that I've known in my life through the years as well as you do. My father died of cancer, and as he lay for several months on the bed where he would finally die in his home, my mother tended to him. My brother, who lived next door, would come and go and take care of him. I would come in from living several hours away as time would allow. My father was never a part of the Church of God. My father was not a religious man. The only time I ever in my life saw him darken the door of the Church was when he came once or twice to hear me speak in my younger days. Other than that, he had survived Omaha Beach. He didn't need religion.

He saw things that kind of ripped that part of his life out. And yet, when he was dying of cancer, he turned to my brother one time and he said, you know, what we really need to be doing here is loving one another. We need to love one another.

I would have never, I didn't, my brother told me that story. And those were words, and growing up around my dad, I would have never heard him say.

But it probably came out of the depths of his experience, probably going back to his youngest years and whatever. We all know the things that happen in families and what creates families and people and lives and things that are remembered and things that are forgotten and things that do come back out and sometimes come to a full blossom and bloom and that final chapter of life.

What we need to do, he said, is really love one another.

Well, that's true. Those words were spoken by a man who was never a part of the church of God, wasn't a part of any religion, but believed it. He believed it. And this is what Paul is saying, we're in a time where we need to understand where the real struggle lies.

We just kept a day of atonement, which shows us this world is under the deception until the binding of Satan. It's a world that is deceived. The God's church and God's people, the elect, are not and should not be.

It's been quite a week. We got up on Monday morning. We learned of the terrible tragedy that took place in Las Vegas on Sunday night. And what President Trump described, the words that he used, was an act of pure evil or true? An act of pure evil. It's true.

You have to, whatever motive they find, whatever they will yet uncover, we hope that they will find at least something to understand why it took place and why this particular individual snapped. He's not the first, and unfortunately, he won't be the last. And just when we think it's safe to come out, something else happens in our society. We can't even, it seems, can't even blame this one on Islamic radical terrorism. It's just pure evil. And brethren, that's why we kept the day of atonement to be reminded that when what science describes as chaos, it sometimes goes off in a mind to create something like this, where a man mows down dozens of people and injures hundreds for seemingly no reason.

And others, whether it's the random, the brutal act of a serial killer that may go on, and what science will describe as they try to understand a criminal mind is they call it chaos, is the word that they come up with. Something enters and happens, and they can't blame it on abuse, they can't blame it on religion, they can't blame it on ideology, they cannot blame it on alcoholism.

It just happens. Something chaotic happens. They call it chaos. The Bible calls it evil.

The Bible has a different name. Christ said that he was a murderer from the beginning, a liar. That is, he speaks of Satan, the deceiver of the world, and the prince of darkness that works in the minds of men to certain degrees, just like that. We kept the day of atonement to be reminded of that. We cannot forget that as we seek to understand what has taken place, and we cannot let down our guard individually against the wiles of Satan that he uses to try to prevent us from being prepared for what this day brings about. This is where we are. Key number three.

First one is wake up. Second is the world is not what it seems. Key number three is that you have a part to play, and so play your part. Play your part.

We all have a part to play in what God is doing. We're all in that parable of the talents, whether we've been given ten or five or just have one. We're all in there. And God's attention is upon his people today. Second Peter chapter 3, we are told to grow in grace and in knowledge. Second Peter chapter 3 verse 17.

You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked.

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

To him be the glory both now and forever. We are to grow in grace and in knowledge.

Right now, Christ is preparing the church as a bride to which he will one day return and he will marry. Revelation 19 verse 7 says that the bride will have made herself ready. It speaks of it as something has already happened, which means it's going on right now. The preparation of the bride of Christ is happening. That's what scripture tells us. The only question I have for myself about that is, am I part of it? Because scripture tells me it's taking place. Christ is doing it. In my father's house were many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you, he said, told his disciples. So I know it's happening. Am I a part of it? I hope I am. I pray that I am. I think that I am. I believe that I am. How about you? Are you being prepared? Are you playing your part? That's really... strip it all down. Strip it all away. It's being prepared. Are we a part of it?

Are we with the program? Are we with what God is doing?

Our life, your life, my life is all part and is being lived today in preparation for what this festival represents. And that's why we are here. So how are you doing?

How you doing, as they say in New York City? Or as Mayor Ed Koch, the deceased mayor of Chicago, Ed Koch for many years would say, how am I doing? Whenever he saw anybody on the streets of Chicago, he'd say, how am I doing?

Meaning, am I taking care of things? Trash being picked up, water turned on, snow being plowed. How am I doing? How are you doing? What have you learned since last year's Feast of Tabernacles?

Have you grown in grace and knowledge? Again, we had someone raise their hand last time. I met a gentleman who's here for the first time this year. I met someone earlier today, but this is their third Feast of Tabernacles. I said, this is my 55th.

And I know that there are some of you here that will go far beyond that. Ask yourself, what have you learned in all the Feasts that you have kept?

What have you learned? Let's put it another way. Have you kept one Feast, one Feast of Tabernacles, 20 times, 40 times, 60 times? But every time you keep the same Feast, you don't learn. You haven't grown in grace and knowledge. Have you kept one Feast, 20 times?

That's something to think about. I teach every year at Ambassador Bible College, and I try to grow in my ability to teach and how I convey the information to make sure that it gets across to the minds of the students better each year. I don't want to be having it said that I taught 25 years at ABC, but I only taught really one year 25 times. If you saw the notes in my syllabus and my note, you'd see that they're typewritten, they're scribbled, they're crossed through, handwritten notes in the midst of everything else, because every time I go through it, I add something to it. I'm getting to the point where I have to, I'm going to have to ask Dr. Dunkel for more time just to get through the book of Acts, because I add things to it every time. I don't want to have to have it said that he taught the same class 20 times. Have you kept one feast in the same way and not grown? When we say it's the best feast yet, it's because we grew in grace and knowledge. That's how it should be. That's where we are going. Do we learn more about God each year? Do we learn something new about the kingdom of God?

Do we learn something new about ourselves?

The Feast of Tabernacles is like a seven-day kingdom of God seminar.

With what we learn, what we experience, as we come to where God is chosen, we are as God's people to learn about him and about his kingdom.

Wherever we go, for whatever reason we go to the Feast, it must be measured against the biblical landmarks. And we must keep a feast to learn. We must keep a feast unto God. God has put his name on the feast. For us in the New Testament, under the New Covenant, we should understand that. In the Old Testament, under the Old Covenant, there were only two places.

First in a place called Shiloh, and then when David built the temple, and everything was moved there, where David didn't build it, he wanted to, but he moved the ark up there, and Solomon built the temple. But then that's where they all went. There weren't multiple places. And that's where God had placed his name. Now, we're under a different setting today, and we have a different administration, but we've adapted that. But in the reality, where God has placed his name for you and I is where we are. We're in Cincinnati. We decided a few years ago, I kept the feast across the river in northern Kentucky. Different state, but we call it Cincinnati. You could go to Jekyll Island. You could go, you know, with the United Church of God, any number of places. I corresponded with a lady earlier this week who's keeping the feast at the bedside of her dying daughter. I think God's name is right there. And if the member is in a hospital or in a nursing facility or shut in, and they're not able to travel anywhere, God's right there. God's name is right there. And he's dwelling with them as he's dwelling with us. He is here. In John 7, we find where Christ told his disciples to, said, you go on up to the feast, John chapter 7. I'm going to come later. And probably about halfway through the feast, then he goes up to the feast and kind of stays along the outskirts of everything going on in the temple. But he did go up in John 7 and verse 10. He went up to the feast from Galilee.

Christ kept the feast of tabernacles. He went up. And Jesus Christ, and there Jesus Christ, on that last day of the feast, stood and said, if any man believe on me, out of his belly will come rivers of living water, speaking in a direct connection to a water ceremony that was going on to help them understand that it's the spirit, that is the true life-giving waters that would come from him and believe in him. And he said that during the feast of tabernacles, because he kept the feast, because he is in the feast, because he said, you go and you keep it, and you learn to fear the Lord, and you will be blessed as a result. When we read in Zechariah 14, that when Christ touches down on the Mount of Olives at his coming, and the nations begin to be taught a different way, and they come up to keep the feast in Jerusalem, year by year, it says, any nation that doesn't come up will be cursed. And it says specifically that Egypt will not come up. Now, think about that. We read back in Deuteronomy that we go to the feast to obey God, to learn to fear God, to rejoice before God with the Levites and the widows and all the people that we journey together with, and we come up to keep the feast in that way. And as a result of that, we come before God and that we might be blessed in all of our ways. That's what obedience to God is to bring, not only physical but also spiritual.

Christ kept the feast, as we read in John 7. And in the millennium, after his return, the nations will be taught to keep the feast, and if any decide they've got a better idea, if they decide it's too old covenant, they decide that it was too Jewish, they won't get any rain.

Is Christ in the Feast of Tabernacles? Is Christ in the Holy Days? Is he the Lord of the Sabbath? You bet he is. Christ is here. And so was the Father. And we are here by their command.

And so, how do we prepare ourselves then for that time? Well, I've tried to open up a dialogue and some thinking with wake up. No, the world is not what it seems and to play your part, to be prepared and to be ready. In Deuteronomy, or excuse me, Daniel, chapter 2, D is for Daniel in this case.

Fascinating Scripture. I always pause when I teach the book of Daniel to help people understand. And we all should, as we think about why we are here. Daniel, chapter 2, Daniel interprets the image Nebuchadnezzar dreamed about, that the whole chapter comes down to. And the point where the stone cut without hand strikes the image on its feet and scatters it all to the heavens. In verse 44, Daniel says that in the days of these kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people. Daniel saw down through history to the time, even in advance of our day today, and he said that there will be a kingdom set up which shall never be destroyed. That's the kingdom of God. And the kingdom, it says, shall not be left to other people. They will have had their time. The leaders, the kings, the prime ministers, the princes, the queens, the presidents, the congresses, the parliaments, the pollock bureaus, the commissariats, the dictators, they will have all had their opportunity, they will have all had their chance and will have brought what they will have brought upon the earth. This kingdom to come will not be left to them. This kingdom will be left to other people. That's the elect of God.

That is those who have been foreordained before the foundation of this world, and that's those who have been prepared and accepted that calling. It will not be left to other people. It shall break in pieces, consume all these kingdoms, and it will stand forever.

And that's why we're here. And that's what we should learn and that's what we should prepare for.

So I again welcome you and hope that your feast will go well in every way over the next few days. You will be blessed with good health and certainly spiritually blessed to deepen your understanding and your grace and your knowledge of Jesus Christ and God the Father.