Post Feast Build-up

You know, the festival experience is obviously the high point of the year for all of us. We've gone through all the Holy Days to this point. We've traveled down the road of God's plan from Passover in the spring to the eighth day of the feast. And that's a journey. That's a journey of seven Holy Days and the festival or Passover occasion for all of us. And over the years, you know, we have developed various phrases to convey the impressions about the Feast of Tabernacles, especially, as I said, it's the high point of the year for us. In the weeks leading up to the Feast of Tabernacles, we start talking about what we call over the years, Feast Fever. We start talking about getting Feast Fever. To be honest with you, I've never really understood that phrase. When I think of a fever, that's a sickness.

That's a disease. You've got an infection, something. Your body is fighting that off. And I know that, you know, we can, you know, you can use that in an allegorical or metaphorical sense to describe a, you know, kind of a fever-pitched anticipation and all of those things. But Feast Fever, I don't know. I've anticipated the Feast. I always look forward to it. But that's one of those phrases that we kind of been using over the years as a part of our culture and our tradition. Then we come back from the Feast of Tabernacles. And what do we talk about when we come back from the Feast of Tabernacles? Post-Feast. Yeah, let down. Let down. How many of you are let down from the Feast of Tabernacles? Okay. There's just a few hands that go up.

Okay. Rest of you are just chicken to raise your hand because you think it's a trick.

Post-Feast let down. You know, let me ask you a question. And I'm not going to, I'm not doing it, I'm not jumping on anybody because I've given sermons in the past about post-Feast let down. But I thought, I rethink everything. And I'm trying to continue to analyze the things I speak on, how I present things, and even to the jargon that we use within the Church. And stop and think about it. Post-Feast let down. Why should we come back from the Feast and have a let down?

Why is it that we would be let down to whatever degree we're let down and experience that? You know, if we've properly planned for the Feast, according to God's financial principles, keeping the festival tithe, setting that apart, and having the ample funds to keep the Feast, if we've done it that way, then we don't come back with a huge debt on our credit cards that we are going to begin to wonder, how in the world am I going to pay that off? I recognize that sometimes that's how the Feast is financed, and there may be circumstances that would necessitate that, and then sometimes choices are made as well. But again, God does lay out a plan in the Scriptures how to keep the Feast, and if we do it that way, then we don't have a big burden of debt that's earning 18% interest for months and months and months after we come back. That's not the way, that's not at least how God intends anyone to keep the Feast. So that shouldn't be there. You know, people keep Christmas, and if they go all out for Christmas, rack up hundreds or thousands of dollars of debt that they haven't planned for and prepared for, then we know what happens come January and February. They have this big letdown after Christmas, and that's always what people talk about afterwards. But that shouldn't be for us, at least certainly on a financial physical level for the Feast of Tabernacles. If we focus on the spiritual, at the Feast, over the physical, then we come back and we should have a treasure, a real pile of treasure of memories, of thoughts, of experiences, of sermon notes, of lessons learned, of reflections that we have had during that period of time that amount to a great spiritual treasure for us to reflect on that has built up. And we come back and we begin to think about that. Again, that was one of the things I was thinking about by just not having services last week. Give everyone a chance to keep a Sabbath, a restful Sabbath, and use the time to go over some of the notes and to reflect on what was learned during the Feast and what was covered with eight days of sermons before we plunge back into our work. So again, if we have focused on the spiritual over the physical, then we come back with spiritual treasure house full of memories and experiences that enrich us rather than impoverish us, that build us up rather than let us down.

But if we're looking at the Feast only on the physical level, the beaches, the restaurants, the other excursions that we go on, whether it's Israel or Disney World or horseback riding or the other things that we do, if that's all that we're focused on, then sure, I can understand being let down when we come home because we're not partying, we're not eating steak, or having somebody service in whatever restaurant that we frequent during that time, we've got to come back and cook. Come back to clean our own homes, make our own beds, and we don't have room service for it any longer. We are room service. So I can understand it on that level if, again, that may be all that we are looking on.

The Feast of Tabernacles was a truly spiritual experience for us, rather than a lavish vacation, that we should be coming back refreshed and ready to take on the challenges of life, the trials that come our way, and the realities that we get hit with of everyday life, and we should be able to face all of those with a renewed sense of vigor and purpose. If we have kept God's Feast, as He gives us the principles to do it, and we put the spiritual first, then we should come back on a high, a high that is focused on the spiritual matters and spiritual principles because we have made this trip, we've made this pilgrimage in the right sense and in the right way. I think over the years, we learned to keep the Feast in a right way that enhances our life rather than take things away. You know, as I mentioned, Christmas, and we could talk all day about the problems there, but even where people go and travel today, and they go on vacation and they take lavish excursions, boat cruises, or excursions down the Nile, or on a safari, or to some Asia, or some exotic locales, or a trip to Europe, or this or that. People spend thousands of dollars to just take a major trip, to take a big vacation. You know them, your co-workers, your neighbors, family members, and sometimes, in addition, you and I may have those opportunities to do something apart from the Feast like that. But, you know, let me ask you, why do you, what do you learn, and why do you choose a spot that you travel to, whether it's the Feast or some other vacation that you might take? And what do you, what do you focus on when you get there? I was reading an article in this morning's Financial Times, and this newspaper is a pink newspaper, so don't think anything odd about me because I read a pink newspaper. Financial Times is published in London, and they, on their weekend edition, they have, always have a lot of other frou-frou that's not necessarily always business related. They have a lot of travel articles, and there was one in here about travel and how people travel to exotic places, and it was about, they'd focused on Karnak and Luxor in the upper Nile, where we had to, where again, we went there two years ago, and some of you were there on that particular trip and went to the Temple of Karnak, and the pyramids, and all that was there, just, just fabulous place. This article was about people who go, who went there and go to some of these places with all the money in the world to travel to these places and how they take them in. Let me, and it's instructive, let me just read a little bit about it to you and tell you about this story.

This was a travel writer. It says, some luck, some visitors to Luxor seemed to mistake the area for somewhere else. It was barely 10 a.m. in the morning, but the red-faced man in the elevator was already sweating profusely without a word, without any warning. He thrust a bundle of tattered Egyptian pounds, their money, toward the hotel manager, interrupting our conversation. Good morning, the manager said, turning to the man, and you want another massage today.

Yeah, he says, it's the shoulder. He scratched his belly, hiccuped, exhaling, beer fumes. He said, my shoulder's all knotted up, but I couldn't sleep at all. The manager says, oh, I'm sorry to hear that. The chill of the manager's voice and his gaze belied the warmth of his voice. I cannot take this money, sir. Please go to the health club. They can arrange it for you. Leery-eyed, the man turned away as the doors opened up on the roof, terrace. He waved his money. He shouted across the terrace to his two companions, floating in the pool, and he said, hey, I've got to go downstairs to pay for the massage. Do you want any cigarettes? He said, once Luxor drew travelers fascinated by its history, Karnak, the Valley of the Kings, the Queens and the Nobles, the Ramaseum, the Colossi at Memnon, and all the other sites, the greatest concentrations of UNESCO World Heritage sites on Earth drew amateur Egyptologists, cultural tourists, and travelers generally in search of a little more than a tan. Not anymore. At about $400 for five nights at a three-star hotel, including half-board and return flights, Luxor is a better value than some European locations.

And he quotes a tourist agent who says, there are high-end tourists that stay mostly at the boutique hotels on the other side of the river. Most of the ones who stay in Luxor are what we call the Bucket and Spade Brigade. They got lost on their way here. He says, Luxor's transformation into a mass market destination has been underway for 10 years or so. And this tour guy goes on to say that, you wouldn't believe how often people ask me when they get off the plane at the airport in Luxor. They ask me, where's the beach? Where's the beach? The truth is, there's no beach nearby.

The tour guide says, the first time I was asked, I thought it was a joke and I laughed, but then they got angry. I asked her how she deals with that. She says, I look as professional as I can. I tell them the beach is four-hour drive across the desert. That way, it still makes me laugh. You come to Luxor for ancient history, not an all-over tan. And she goes on in the article to explain how some people go there looking for an adventure and a mate. And told the story of a one middle-aged man from England who met a woman from a local Egyptian woman, fell in love with her, bought a house, and then lived with her there for a few months, and then went back to England and to his other wife, and then decided to go back to Luxor, only to find out that his Egyptian wife had moved her family in, and he wasn't welcome.

And because he had bought the home in her name, under Egyptian law, it was her home. So he lost all of his money, plus his family back in England, because he had something else on his mind when he went there. And honestly, I chuckled when I read this article because when you, you see people like this in Petra, you see them in Jerusalem, you see them in Alaska, you see them in all the places that you've gone to, and maybe some of us have been that way too.

You go to a site like this, which is rich in history, but you're more interested in the beach, is the beer cold, and how, you know, a lot of other physical amenities.

People travel like that today. They have money to burn, and they go for other things other than the cultural and historical enrichment that they can get. That's what the point of this travel article is on. And I thought about that, and I thought, you know, it's so easy for us in the church when we go to our sites, exotic sites like Jordan, or the common everyday sites like Northern Kentucky.

Wherever we go, if we don't keep our mind focused on why we are going, we'll get distracted by the cool sites, the cold beer, the good restaurant, or something else, and we'll miss out. And people who will come off of these travels like this, can you experience the post-vacation letdown this man had who realized that his Egyptian wife had taken him for all he had, and he was left penniless and high and dry on both sides of the coin that he had created for himself? What a letdown!

But he was focused on other things. And again, if we go to the feast, and we just don't, we focus on things that are not the core of the spiritual matters, then yes, you know, we might come back and things again hit us in the face, and life gets up with us, and we can get caught up in this idea of a post-feast letdown, and we miss the point.

I'm not denigrating any aspect of what we enjoy at the feast on a physical level. That's not my point at all. My point of this sermon here today is to encourage us with the fact that when we come back from the feast, we really are at our peak. And with what we have done, not just with the feast, but with all of the holy days, we have been on a spiritual journey through God's plan of salvation.

And there's no letdown for any of us. We are prepared to take on every challenge that we come home to. We are prepared to take on every opportunity and meet it head on as children of God with a proper heart and focus because of what we have learned and what we have experienced, and because Jesus Christ is living his life within us. And we are his children. And we have kept his feasts, and we have focused our hearts and our minds upon the spiritual messages that are inherent in every aspect of the sermons, the sermonettes, the fellowship, the atmosphere that is created at the feast, and all the people that are there and what is so special.

And I commented before the feast how the day after the feast, the whole mood of a place changes. It's not the same, regardless of where you are. God's people have moved on. The feast has moved on. But again, as we move back into our lives, we have wonderful opportunities.

And when we go to focus on things, we keep the Holy Days, all of them, walking through the plan of God, his job of bringing many sons to glory. The experience is intended to lift us out of our ordinary, physical lives and get us in a mood to be able to glimpse and have the vision of that city whose foundations and maker is God. That's what it's all about. That's what all of the Holy Days are for, and that's what we build toward as we observe the Feast of Tabernacles, the vision of God's kingdom, to fill up our minds, to fill up our hearts, our lives and our spiritual well with that vision.

So that then, as we move on through the coming months, there's no need to fear the dark, dismal winter months that are ahead of us. There's no need to be concerned about school, teachers, employers. There's no need to be concerned about anyone's opposition to who we are, what we're doing. And any problem is thrown our way. There's no need to fear any of that because we have gone up to keep the Feast.

We have gone to observe God's Holy Days, and we have been filled with messages, with hope, with inspiration, with the real meaning of life.

And to the degree we've set our minds to accomplish that, then we are following in the footsteps of Christ and what He said in John 16, verse 33. John 16, verse 33, where He states this, "'These things I have spoken to you that in Me you may have peace.'" He wants us to have peace, but we have it only in Him.

He said, "'I have spoken these things to you that you may have peace.'" Did Christ speak to you during the Feast? Did He encourage, inspire? Did He bring insight to you by what you experienced, by what you heard, by what you studied, by what you read, by how you approached people, how you approached the services, how you approached every opportunity for fellowship and everything that you did? Did He speak to you? Was there peace in how you walked through those and handled the situations? Was there contentment and joy and happiness as a result? That's what He said, that you might have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. And in the world, we do.

We talk about we've got to go home after the Feast and probably wherever you were, it was put this way, we're going back into the world after we come home, right? Well, that's true. We create this atmosphere for us. We create a cocoon for the most part of the Feast, and that's good, right, and as it should be. And then we say, well, it's over. We've got to go back to the world, into the world. And Christ says, you will have tribulation.

Years ago, when we would travel to Big Sandy to keep the Feast, my father was very generous with us. He was not a member. He'd get the car all set up. He even bought us a camper to keep the Feast in for a number of years, give us the money and see that we got there. And he was always accommodating. But we would be gone for nine or ten days. Now, a 40-year-old man, having to cook his meals for that period of time and come home to an empty house, after a few days, it gets kind of grumpy. So when we would be coming back from Big Sandy, driving through Arkansas, there's always a long drive driving through Arkansas in those days, and slowly approaching Missouri, miles clicking off. The hours getting closer, we know we'd be going home. And we never knew which dad we were going to walk in to see, because my dad could be a bit grumpy on occasions like that. And so the car would get a little bit tense the closer we got to home. And on some occasions, when we walked in that door, we got the cold shoulder. On some occasions, we got a few words along with that cold shoulder. But we were back in the world. You know, it would blow over. And, you know, he never held a grudge and never threw us out or did anything extreme like that. But, you know, what did you come home to? What do you come back to? Christ says here, in the world you will have tribulation. And that's true. We have difficulties, challenges. We have trials. But then he says at the end of verse 33, Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. Be of good cheer. This is Christ's instruction to every one of us. That we have to have good cheer. I have overcome the world.

Sometimes we might think, well, that's good for you. We haven't got there yet. We still live with that. Now, that's true, but let's not be cynical about it. We don't need to worry. What we need to do when we come back, all of us, is seize upon what we have learned. Seize upon words such as this, and let it be the light that guides us as we move into our lives, what we've been called to, to the extraordinary purpose that God has given us, to glorify Him and Christ, and all that we do in word and in deed. It'll be a number of months before we have another holy day in the spring, and we'll go through winter months. But, you know, brethren, we don't need to worry.

We don't need to obsess about walking in the dark or, you know, the long winter months or anything like that. You know why? Because the light is in us. The light is in us. By the presence of God's Spirit dwelling in us, we literally have the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us, and that's all important. Let's remind ourselves of that. In Romans chapter 8, chapter 8 of Romans, and verse 10, Paul speaks to this truth, which is something we focused on back in the spring holy days and the meaning of the Days of Unleavened Bread, but that's not a meaning. We just leave with the Days of Unleavened Bread. We carry that meaning all the way through the year with us, not just the holy day calendar, but throughout all 12 months, this reality that if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If Christ is in us, the Spirit of Christ within us. Colossians chapter 1, verse 27.

Colossians 1, verse 27. He says, To them God will to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Scripture after Scripture teaches us that with God's Spirit in us, at baptism, the laying on of hands, Christ is in us, and that is the hope of our glory. The same Christ who said back in John 16, Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world, is the Christ that is in us. And to the degree we live by that reality, every day when we get up and go about our jobs, go about our life, meet the challenges that we face, will be the degree to which we surmount those or we have the joy to deal with them, and we approach them in a way that helps us to be victors and to win and to overcome, to meet the challenge, because it is Christ in us. It's not our work. It's not what we are able to do. You know, we could, if we have the money, we can buy any vacation we want with all it takes is a pile of cash or a credit card with a whole lot of credit limit on it. As the, you know, was a MasterCard a few years ago, tried to get us to rack those debts up because we deserved it or, you know, it was something we really needed. We can buy any exotic luxury and vacation and trip and experience that we want. And you want an extreme experience? You want to float in a hot air balloon over the Rockies? You can buy it. You want to cruise the Mediterranean, the Caribbean through the Panama Canal, first-class cabin with enough money? You can buy it. We can do any of those things.

As human beings, depending upon our size of our checking account and the desire that we have, we can do those things. And what we have is what we accomplish. But it's not the work of Christ in us. It's not the work of the Holy Spirit living the life of Christ in ours that gets things accomplished. We have to come back for many of those experiences and still deal with ourselves, still deal with life. Christ is in us. These feast days are not just events. Their meaning lives in us day to day. That's what Paul is really saying here. We're in collagions. Let's look at collagions 2 and verse 17 and read this verse from a different perspective. We often read collagions 2 and 17 to prove the holy days, which it does prove that the holy days are to be kept. It's not a verse that does away with the holy days when you properly understand collagions 2 and 17. But let's look at it from a little different angle here. These days are in us today. Collagions 2 and verse 16 he says, Let no man judge you in food or drink or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.

Again, if we focus on the latter part of that verse, this is not some proof text that we argue about as to whether or not we keep the holy days. We look at what it says and we see that the substance of the holy days is Jesus Christ. He is in each one of them. And to the degree he is in us living his life, then we walk through these days every day of our life. That's not some weird idea or some different angle to try to get us to think that the holy days are every day. That's not what I'm saying. The substance is of Christ. The substance of the meaning of these days is embodied in the life of Jesus Christ. And to the degree we live that, think on that, every day of our lives we are then experiencing the holy days and their meaning throughout our life and they carry us throughout the year. And we've come back from the feast, but we're living the feast every day. We're living this way of life every day and we're doing it through the help of God's Holy Spirit. We don't have to travel from pillar to post in a state of worry or panic because, oh, the holy days are over and six months before they come again. We don't have to experience any letdown. We don't have to go through any of that. We don't have to even worry and let that worry even take us to the point that we begin to again worry about our spiritual state or worry about our salvation or anything like that. Because we realize that our Heavenly Father has allowed Christ to set up shop in our lives and to live in our minds and live in our hearts as He now defines the temple. We are that temple. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. And verse 17.

In a basic verse, we all know this, but let's think about this. Let's focus on it in this context.

Paul is saying in verse 16, Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. The temple of God is holy. Which temple you are? That is a literal reality that we must focus on and think about as we've come back and we go on the weeks and the months ahead of us. You go to a place like Jerusalem and you walk up on the temple mount. For those of you, the temple mount is this spot in Jerusalem. It is the most important piece of real estate on the face of the earth. Donald Trump could not buy the temple mount. I don't care how much money Richard Branson has or the Queen of England has. You cannot buy that piece of real estate. It is the most important piece of land on the face of the earth. This gold dome, the dome of the rock, sets over what was once the peak of a hill called Moriah where Abraham climbed to take his son Isaac, as God commanded, to offer him, but was prevented from doing so. That peak of that hill was the center of the Holy of Holies in the temple that Solomon built. And later the second temple that was refurbished by Herod the Great. And there sat the Ark of the Covenant in a little niche carved out. If you could go in there today, you could see it probably, the very niche carved out of the top of that hill where the the Ark of the Covenant rested in that Holy of Holies. And at one time, God's presence was in that spot. We read about it in the Bible, in that first temple. God's presence filled that temple, that Holy of Holies.

But when Jerusalem was destroyed the first time by Nebuchadnezzar's armies, God's presence left that temple. And he was not in the second temple. He wasn't there. There's no scripture that can show us that, even though offerings and sacrifices were there. The Jews to this day, they want to go back and they built and to build a temple on that on that piece of property. Every year, beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles, a group of ultra-orthodox Jews carry up the streets toward that temple mount a stone that to them is going to be the cornerstone for a new temple. And every year they go up to do it. And every year they're stopped by the Israeli police. Because if they would somehow get up on that mount and go through some prayer and ceremony, they would bring the wrath of all the Arabs down upon them. And they would create an international incident. Because they feel that they have to rebuild a temple and offer sacrifices there. And you walk in those areas and they talk about this being a holy site and a holy place. And I kept telling our people this year, this ain't holy, folks. It ain't holy because God's presence is not there. And God's presence is the only thing that can make things holy. Our tour guides that we, we had one tour guide that we'd used two years ago and she knew a little bit about us. And she's still trying to figure us out. She can't understand why we don't want to go to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre or to some of these other holy shrines. And I keep telling her they have no, I don't go into all of that. I just said, Doreen, they have, they have no relevance to us. We're not interested in those. But she's a tour guide. She's a very good tour guide. And she starts talking about this place or that place. And she's Jewish, but she respects the Christian tradition, as she would put it. And she says, she made a slip one day and she was talking to us and she says, she was talking about a particular altar or a church or a site. She says, these sites earn their veneration. They earn their holiness by what people venerate and go there to observe through the centuries. And everybody in the group understood what she was saying. We talked about it later. I didn't call her on it. It was not necessary. But what I could have said to her is, Doreen, no amount of veneration by any human being can make a place holy. It just doesn't happen. But that's why they make these pilgrimages to these sites, whether it's in Jerusalem or a place where a miracle took place in Europe. And people crawl on their knees to these places because they feel that it's a holy site and it's something holy happened there and maybe it will happen to them. And they do not know the lesson that the Bible tells us that God's Spirit is in the individual. We are holy by virtue of that. And that's what Paul is saying. He said, if God is in you by His Spirit, you are the temple.

That temple is holy, which temple you are. When we fully understand that, brethren, that puts a tremendous opportunity at our feet. That puts everything open, wide open to you and I, to observe, to live, and to do in our life. That's what it's all about.

God doesn't dwell in temples made with hands, Stephen said in Acts 7, 48. He dwells in His people. He dwells in us individually. And it's not about whether we can make it. We can't make it on our own. We will make it because we've got God's help, because we have the grace of God. And He is doing a work in and through us. And He works in us to do His good pleasure. And He will do that work. Philippians 1 verse 13. Philippians 1 verse 13. Let's read verse 6 and verse 7. Philippians 1, 6. Being confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

Just as it is right for me to think of this of you all, because I have in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and conformation of the gospel, you all are partakers of me with His grace. That's how we make it, because of the good work that He has begun in us. And that's what we focus on. No, we can't face any of our challenges and any of our trials by ourselves. We can't make it to the Kingdom by ourselves. We will make it by the grace of God. And to the degree we submit ourselves to Him, we will learn in that direction. Back in John 16, this is what Jesus wanted all of us to understand and what He left His disciples in this long discourse after the breaking of the bread and washing the feet.

He talks about the giving the work of the Holy Spirit in verse 7. He said, It's to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send Him to you. I help Him. It goes alongside. And when He will come, He will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.

And then down to verse 16, He says, And some of His disciples said among themselves, What is it that He says, a little while, and you will not see Me? And again, a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father. And they said, therefore, What is this that He says, a little while? We don't know what He's saying. We don't know what He's saying.

A little while you'll see Me? A little while you won't see Me?

In the time from the next few hours when they would see Him, He went through suffering. And when they saw Him after His death, He was a different being. He was the glorified Jesus. A little while, a lot can happen in a little while. A complete transformation can take place in a little while. The disciples didn't fully understand at that point. They said, you're inquiring among yourselves in verse 19 about what I've said a little while, and you will not see Me. And again, a little while, and you will see Me. Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice, and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.

So He talks about joy. That sorrow is turned to joy. God wants us to live by the path of joy, one of the fruits of the Spirit. He doesn't want us to live by fear. He doesn't want us to live by intimidation. He doesn't want us to live by concern and trodden down with care, woe, and triumph. That's not how He wants us to live. He wants us to turn that sorrow to joy.

Again, I ask, what did we come back with? Not just from the feast, but from all of the experience of the Holy Days this year. What have we learned? What have we developed during this period of time? How much joy do we have of God's way of life, of God's work within us, of God's work collectively to preaching the gospel? He said, a woman when she's in labor has sorrow because her hours come, but as soon as she's given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish for joy that a human being has been born into the world. Nobody can understand that like any better than a mother. Men, we don't understand that. There's no way we can on that level. We have to find our own way to adapt that meaning and how we learn that. Therefore, you now have sorrow, but I'll see you again. And your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you. Jesus desires that joy we have as His disciples. Nobody takes from us. So don't let anybody take it from you, and don't deny yourself the joy as well. Gather up all of your memories and your experiences from the Holy Days, and realize that those days live in you every day. And the little bit that we've experienced on the high of the Feast of Tabernacles, that's how we are to live in terms of a confidence, and an ease, and a pleasure, and a joy throughout the year. Keep that in mind. Don't let anyone, don't let anything take that joy from us. That's point number one to learn today. Don't let that joy be ripped from us by the things that we come home to, by what we've already had to deal with.

Look at them as opportunities. You think you're the only one that's had trials hit you in the face or something unpleasant, and the reality of coming back into the world? Well, so have I.

My phone rings in the middle of the night, too.

Things happen. You just have to get right back into it.

I walked off the plane, jet lagged, up 24 hours, traveling 5,000 miles, two hours sleep, and the phone rings.

We're back to the reality. I'm not leading some tour on the Temple Mount.

Whoever's on the phone or whoever I have to deal with, they don't care.

They don't care that I was teaching dozens of people wonderful truths with picture-perfect PowerPoint right in behind me, because life goes on and we have to deal with it.

I have to plunge right into it with joy, just like you do. I have the same obligation that I'm telling you that you should have, because life goes on. But we know what we're doing. We know who's with us. We know the power that we can tap. That's what Christ says. Don't let any your joy be taken from you. Let that be a point that you learn. And in that day, you'll ask me nothing. Most assuredly I say to you that whatever you ask of the Father in my name, He'll give it to you. And then he goes on in verse 25, these things I've spoken to you in figurative language, but the time is coming when I'll no longer speak to you in figurative language. I will tell you plainly about the Father. I read that verse and I realize, you know, the Bible is pretty plain. It's not something that you have to look at and wonder, well, what does that mean? It's not figurative, metaphorical, allegorical, spiritualized, balderdash. The Bible is real. The Bible is plain. Christ said, I will speak plainly about the Father. And He inspired Paul and Peter and James to speak plainly about the works of the Father. And so when you and I read those, we don't have to worry because some goofy theologian reinterprets the ideas and thinks, well, that's not really what it means. We can read Revelation, which are the words of Christ, and know that that's what it says and that it is real. And it's not some mystical allegory of the church and the world and the empires and all. It's a real outline of God working with His church, of events to happen and of the kingdom to come, the reign of Christ, the Great White Throne period, Judgment period, and the New Jerusalem. It's real. It's plain because Christ said, I will tell you plainly about the Father. And what He inspired through Paul, what He inspired through John is plain. And we can stake our life on it with confidence. And we don't have to worry.

The disciples said to Him in verse 29, See now, you are speaking plainly and using no figure of speech. Now we are sure that you know all things and have no need that anyone should question you by this. By this we believe that you came forth from God. And that's how we believe that Christ came forth from God. To the degree we put that to practice in our life, and we know that it means what it says and it's real. And we dig into that when we need it, that help, and we let Christ do it. And we rely on Him. And we take the substance of these days, which is Christ, these holy days, and we really believe them. And we live it. We leave all the theological arguments behind.

We don't have time for it. We had a Baptist preacher on our tour this year. Didn't tell you that, did I? Retired Baptist preacher, PhD in theology. Nice enough gentleman. His wife was in the church, and that's why he came along. And, you know, I was friendly with him, but he basically avoided most of the group. And that's okay. I guess if I were on a Baptist tour of the Holy Land, I'd avoid the group, too.

But, you know, I just, I didn't, some people would discuss a few things with him, but I don't have time for that anymore. Somebody came up to me and said that there was some discussion about the Sabbath and all. And I thought to myself, I didn't have time to even get into it. I thought to myself, you know, I went through all that 12 years ago again. And, you know, I know what I believe. I know what I'm doing. I don't have to get entangled in some theological argument. And I don't, life is too short. I don't have time for it anymore. What we need to get involved with are the realities of life and move forward. And, you know, you prove what you're going to live by, you prove it, and you don't get distracted by the arguments, by the mundane things that can detract from the truths of God. Because this is what, you know, the disciples said here, you're speaking, you're not using any figure of speech. We're sure now that you know these things and have no need that anyone's to question you. By this, we believe you came forth from God. We've come to that belief, that rock-solid foundation, just as these disciples did, by really knowing the things that are in front of us and believing them and then beginning to live by them. And that's why Jesus was able to say in verse 31, do you now believe? Maybe he was questioning, maybe he knew that they would still have to go through a few bumps and grinds to get a few of the rough spots knocked off, like Peter, who was going to going to deny him three times. And so he raised it as a question, do you now believe? Maybe he was, well, in the back of his mind thinking, well, you've got a few things to learn, but you're heading in the right direction. Sometimes we profess faith, and we have confidence. And I think God might even be saying in his mind, well, now you do believe. I'm sure you do, but we've got a few more things you're going to learn down the road. But that's okay, because he's right there with us, and he is going to see us through. And he's not going to let us fall. He's not going to let us fall flat on our face and fail. He'll keep us from falling. That's why he went on and said in verse 32, indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered each to his own and will leave me alone. And yet I am not alone because the Father is with me.

Christ came to the point in his mind, he said, I'm not alone. His friends were going to leave him for a period of time, but he said, I'm not alone. You and I are not alone when we come to that same realization. We are not alone because we know that we have God's help. We have God's Spirit within us.

So there's no letdown. There's no faltering or stumbling. There's no discouragement that can completely override us. These things he said, I have spoken to you that in me you may have peace. That's how we come to have that peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. So rather than measure the months till the next festival season, let's be about our Father's business. Let's be measuring ourselves in accordance with the fullness of our Savior and our elder brother, our high priest, Jesus Christ, in us, doing the work, bringing us to the full measure and to the full stature of Jesus Christ.

And before you know it, it'll be time once again to rehearse all of the saving acts of God through Christ as given in the fullness of the Holy Day expression.