Preparing for the Feast

Well, that was a pretty familiar song, so it sounded like we were able to sing that one with a little more enthusiasm. So, good to see all of you this afternoon and look forward to being able to go through the sermon today with something I hope will be helpful. Actually, we all know that the fall Holy Days will be here in just a matter of a few short weeks. So, it won't be very long, and we'll have the Feast of Trumpets. We'll hold it here and be here on the other side of this building. The Day of Atonement is actually on Saturday, so our normal meeting times and places. Then, ultimately, the Feast of Tabernacles and the Eighth Day. As many of you have celebrated those days for years and years and years, and often it's certainly something we look forward to. We are often planning for that, maybe throughout the year. We should be planning throughout the year. But then, as we get closer, there are some critical things we have to finalize and then we have to prepare for. I thought it would be good. I don't know that I've given this type of sermon here in the recent. I don't think I have in the last couple of years. But I think it is good, in preparation for the Feast, to go through a couple of references that we have in the Old Testament. You actually have the festivals mentioned. You find them mentioned in Exodus and in Leviticus and in Numbers, some more than others. But they are actually somewhat minimally mentioned in just direct statements of the Law. Then, in Deuteronomy, you have a little more explanation, in my thinking at least, as I look at those topics. I'd like for us to look at Deuteronomy 14 because in Deuteronomy 14, we have a very clear description of what Israel did in the past and of what we are doing today. We can go to the book of John and see that Jesus and his brothers were going up to the Feast. He was there in the middle of the Feast, even though they didn't know it.

He was there and he revealed himself. He was later speaking at the Feast at that particular year. This was certainly a year or so before he ultimately would be put to death. He was observing the Feast.

Yet, what I want to show here is how it is that God designs the festival. How it is that he wants us, as we come together in worship of God, to interact with one another. Here in verse 22, he says, He describes tithing and a tenting. He describes saving a tithe or a tent. Not that you would give back to God, as he also directs, but that you would eat. This is when we see eating and drinking, we think, that sounds pretty good. That is something not only that we commonly do, but that we are actually guided to do in this statement.

That we are to go and appear before God, and then we are to eat this tithe. That may be that we would have more than normal to spend on things. But it says you would eat the tithe of your grain and wine and oil, and the firstlings of your flocks, so that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always.

That is a spiritual reason for going to a feast of tabernacles, or any of the Holy Days for that matter, but particularly because this is talking about a fall, a festival time after the end gathering, and after the fall season has come. It says, I want you to appear before me to learn to properly respect God, to properly honor God, to honor God when He says, and where He says, He would like for me to appear. But, He says in verse 24, when your Lord your God has blessed you, if the distance is so great that you are unable to transport it, and so of course talking about an agricultural society, talking about transporting livestock and vegetables and bottles of, or jugs of wine, perhaps. I don't know how they were storing that in the past. But trying to haul all of that somewhere might not be very likely, and of course our situation today, we are essentially using money whenever we go to any feast.

But it says, if and when the distance is too far for you to transport all of that, because the place where the Lord your God will choose to set His name is too far away from you, then you may turn it into money, turn it into money with the money secure in hand you are to go to the place that the Lord your God will choose. And you can spend the money for whatever you wish, oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink or whatever you desire.

And you shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God. And so here he's describing going to a festival, having the money that's been saved throughout the year to do that, to go wherever it is, to go to the place where he has selected, and then to celebrate. To celebrate before God, and as he goes ahead to say, you and your household rejoicing together. And so it's to be a time of thankfulness, a time of rejoicing, a time of joy, a time of happiness, a time of delight.

And of course he says in verse 27, As for the Levite resident in your town, do not neglect them, because they have no allotment or inheritance with you. So he said you're going to need to look out for others who need your help, whether it's a Levite or whether it's maybe others in the congregation that also need our help. If we turn over to chapter 16, we've got another couple of verses that I want to cover here.

In chapter 16 you have the Passover and then the Day of Pentecost explained. And then starting in verse 13, you have the Fall Festival. You find the Feast of Tabernacles, Feast of Booth mentioned. You shall keep. In verse 13, the Festival of Booth or Tabernacles for seven days. When you have gathered in the produce from the threshing floor and your wine presses.

And so this again is talking about the same thing we read about in chapter 14. And it says, you are to rejoice, rejoice during your festival. You and your sons and your daughters, your men and women, female, male and female servants. As well as the Levites, the strangers, the orphans, the widows, residents in your towns. And so here he describes a little wider range of who all might be involved in being able to, or going to the festival and being able to rejoice or to celebrate before God. And this again was done in Israel and was done in a way that perhaps is a little different than what we're doing today because we obviously are dealing with people scattered around the globe.

We deal with ten or so feast sites here in the United States, three or four in Canada. Maybe four or five, I'm not sure. And then 60 or 80 further around the world. Where people are able to gather together where God has said His name and where we are able to then share in a family setting, share in a spiritual family setting.

That could include any number of people as we see described here in verse 14. It says in verse 7, Seven days you shall keep the festival for the Lord your God at the place that the Lord will choose, for the Lord will bless you and all your produce and all of your undertaking, and you shall surely rejoice. You shall surely celebrate. And so the instructions that we have regarding what Israel did and then how we apply that today to the setting that we are in here in a modern day Church of God are still very much applicable.

If we are to come together, God has drawn us as He intervenes in our lives, as He gives us the understanding we need of repentance and forgiveness and of the receipt of the Holy Spirit. He draws us together into a spiritual family. And He draws us together telling us that He wants us to fellowship with one another in a certain way.

He doesn't just say, come together, only think of yourself, don't think of anyone else, just have a good time. It says to rejoice together. It says to come together in fellowshipping with one another in a certain way. I'd like for us to go over to Acts 2 because in Acts 2 you see this kind of described by the very initial people who were brought into the Church of God on the day of Pentecost after Jesus died and was resurrected.

On Acts 2 you see the day of Pentecost coming, you see the coming of the Holy Spirit, the inspiration that Peter was given to preach an inspired message to tell people what they should do regarding their response to God. And in verse 41, those who welcomed His message were baptized, and that day about 3,000 people were added to the Church. And so God intervened in their minds. They were drawn to be a part of the Church of God.

They were given an understanding of their need for God. And it goes on to say, this is how they acted. They devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching, and they devoted themselves to fellowship, and they devoted themselves to the breaking of bread, and they devoted themselves to prayer.

Now that says, that's a very short sentence or short verse, but it says a lot. It says a lot that they devoted themselves to the teachings of God, what God was revealing through, in this case, the Apostles of the New Testament Church. They devoted themselves to fellowshiping with one another, to breaking bread together, to praying together. It goes on, verse 43, "'All came upon everyone,' because many wonders and signs were done by the Apostles." And it talks about them having all things in common.

They would sell their possessions, distribute to those who had need. Verse 46, day by day, as they spent much time together in the Temple. They spent time together going to church. Part of what we'll do at the Feast is go to church. We probably have around 10 services, and we'll be able to come together with others in worship of God, in service to God, in praise of God. And in some ways we'll pray together. In other ways, we pray separately, but certainly a description of what the New Testament Church did.

It says, "'They gathered together in the temple. They broke bread at home, ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the good will of all the people.'" See, they were fellowshiping in a way that was constructive and uplifting and inspiring and encouraging for the whole. And that, of course, is what God wants.

Whenever we go to the Feast, whenever we have a Holy Day here, that's what we ought to do on the Sabbath. But whenever we have a Holy Day or at the Feast of Tabernacles, we're told that the type of fellowship, the type of discussion that we should share, ought to be with an understanding that we're drawn together. And we are from a scattered area. Some of us live right here within the Kansas City Metro. Some of us live way out. Some of you live an hour or more away. Some of you live up by Perry Lake.

Some of you live up in St. Joe's. Some of you live out in Topeka. Some further out to the east. I'm not sure all of the address names that I could list. But we're all coming together in this congregation. And we want a fellowship together in a unison with an understanding of the purpose of God, with an understanding of wanting to please God, and with a desire to share with one another in a way that is meaningful and uplifting. I know when, this is thinking back some time ago now, when Pat and I were first sent out from college to start to work in the ministry, that we were told, and one of the things that we were taught in college, as well as beyond that in the leadership training classes and different things that we were allowed to be a part of, there was a kind of a general statement that was made that was really extremely good advice.

It was very simple. That's what I needed. Something pretty easy. Easy and simple. Clear. And the statement that stands out in my mind is that you should get to know and love the brethren. That was what it was. Get to know and get to love the brethren. Now, that was certainly a good point.

A good point to begin with, because as we got out of college or as we came from small towns, and we were being sent into, we actually went to Portland, and we were in Portland for three years. Whenever we moved from somewhat of the rural setting of Big Sandy and a campus of about 400 students, we knew all those students.

We at least knew them by name, and many of them we knew quite well. With 400 students, you knew all the bows in the church there in the Big Sandy area. Big Sandy, Texas, probably was a thousand. Some of those people I knew, many of them I didn't. I could have done better as far as learning who many of those people were. And yet, starting in Portland, at First Sabbath, I find out that there are 600 people in Portland, and there are 400 people across the Columbia River in Vancouver, and those make up the church circuit.

So learn these thousand people, learn their name, figure out how you can know and come to love the brethren. And of course, that was kind of a daunting task for me, because you can even have a list of people, and you still don't know who people are. And yet, I point this out because, if God, whenever we go to a feast, whether we're going to Branson or whether we're going to some other location here in the United States, or even other parts of the world, we have an opportunity to get to know those brethren.

We have a privilege. Actually, I want us to look at Ephesians 2, because here in Ephesians 2, it tells us in verse 18 that through Jesus Christ, both of us, all of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. And so we are all drawn into a spiritual family. We are all a part of a spiritual group called the Household of Faith, or it's called other descriptions that you have the body of Christ, or there are other descriptions that I don't have all right in mind here, but we're drawn into a spiritual family.

In verse 19, since so then, then you are no longer strangers and no longer aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and you are members of the Household of God. So we have been drawn into a spiritual grouping. We've been drawn from wherever we are, from wherever we live.

Some of you have grown up as a part of the Church of God. That's been mostly what you've done throughout your life. Others were brought into the Church at a little older age. And yet many of us have been around the Church for quite a long, long period of time.

And yet we need to know what this says about getting to know others and realizing that it's really important that we do that. That we learn to be able to relate to one another. That we're able to interact with one another and spend time with one another so that we are close. It's very hard to know people if we've never talked to them or if we don't know anything about them. And even if we know where they're from, we might not know very much about how it was that God brought them to this point in their life, what it is that they've experienced.

Those are part of the relate ability that we need to think about. I know sometimes it's easy when you get into groupings of people in a part. Here we have 40 or 50 people that are commonly meet together. And most of you know quite a bit about each other. Most of you know maybe a lot about each other. We know certain things about certain attributes, what we can probably say, idiosyncrasies sometimes. You basically know that I'm going to show up here at 230. That's always my goal.

I might get here before then, but I'm trying to get here at 230. But then you know a little bit about me if I tell you certain things. And yet there are certain of you that I know some about. And I know more about some of you and maybe less about others. And yet that's true with all of us. All of us know a certain level about others of this group. And of course, up in Fulton, we have about 20 people up there. And so I can tell them, look, you all know that Tom is going to show up two minutes till 10.

You know, that's when he's going to show up. Because they drive some time to get to where they've got to be. So we all know what's going to happen. And yet whenever we go to the feast, you're going to have Branson. We'll have about 500 people. And in other of the locations, there will be 2-3-500 or 800 in some of the bigger areas. And so we have an opportunity to get to know the brethren. But that takes some effort on our part. It takes a desire. Here in 1 Peter 4, 1 Peter 4, it says in verse 8, Above all, maintain constant love for one another. For love covers a multitude of sins. But in verse 9, it says, Be hospitable to one another without complaining.

It just says, be open to meeting and learning about others. And so I would say, I've got 3 points here. This is the first point, to get to know and love the brethren. That's the second point I'll point out to you. Those who go together quite well, the more we learn, the more we relate, the more hospitable we try to be. If we make an active effort to not be clique-ish, but to be inclusive, that takes some effort.

Because sometimes when you're even in a bigger group and you know certain of the people there, then you tend to talk to them because you already know them. And yet, reaching out to the others is important as well. And to be inclusive in that way, in order to develop, I think, meaningful relationships with other people, now we've got to have somewhat of an approachable personality.

We've got to strive to approach others in a way that is accepting and encouraging. And I will mention that a little bit later. So, the first point that I'm mentioning is just get to know the brethren. Meet new people. Find out who they are. Find out where they're from and a little bit about them. The second part of that, of course, was not only to know the brethren, but truly love the brethren. To have love for one another is an identifying sign that we are yielding to Jesus Christ and that we desire to be the disciples of Jesus.

He says so in John 13. I know you're familiar with that, but we'll read it because it's very important. Here in John 13, Jesus says in verse 33, where I'm going, you can't come. He was telling the disciples, you know this is going to be shocking, but in a very short time you're going to be on your own and need, or at least you're going to be without me, and somewhat on your own, but with the help of the Holy Spirit.

That's what He was encouraging them with. But He says, where I'm going, you can't come. But He says in verse 34, I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you should love one another. And by this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.

Now that should be a hallmark of the Feast of Tabernacles. That should be. I don't know that that always is, but it should be, because if we're going to represent Jesus Christ, if we're going to be identified as the servants of God, that's what He says is going to be meaningful. And of course, whenever you say, love the brethren, there's really a little more to it than that.

You can read a lot of verses, I can and you can, that say we ought to love one another. But see, what it actually points out is, we've got to move away from where we are normally, naturally, self-centered, to where we are less selfish and more selflessness. I'm trying to really mix that up. We are trying to move away from being self-centered and being selfless. In order to include others, in order to relate to others, in order to talk to others, to know others, and then to love others, we're going to have to move away from some of the, what we probably find, somewhat natural, somewhat ordinary inclinations.

We can be shy, yeah. We can be a little bit restricted in what we feel we can do. But we want to move away from being self-centered and having everything focus on me and what I'm doing, and focus on others. Focus on including others. Focus on loving others. Focus on how can I care for others.

I want us to look in Galatians 5. Galatians 5 is a marvelous chapter and one that we could talk about for hours, because what Paul writes in this chapter is amazing. Because he's talking about a complete transformation of a human being, from a carnal-minded, selfish human being who is led by the Spirit of God to exemplify a divine nature, a complete transition. He talks about the works of the flesh, he describes that, and he talks about the fruit. In verse 22 of the Spirit.

And of course, this is our goal. This is one of the great mysteries, one of the great questions of life. What is God's purpose for man? Well, it's described here, transitioning from a selfish, self-centered approach to an outgoing, loving, giving, caring love for other people. But what I want to focus on is really in verse 13. Galatians 5, verse 13 says, You were called to freedom, brethren. And so we have been called to have a great deal of freedom.

That's not saying freedom from the law or away from obeying God. But we've been called to a glorious liberty, a glorious freedom within the framework of the Word of God. He says, You were called to freedom, brethren, but don't use that freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence.

Don't use the freedom that we have to be in Jesus Christ and to be a part of the Church and the work of God. Don't use that to be self-centered, or to continue, in a sense, to continue to be self-indulgent and self-centered. But he goes on to say, Through love, through love, becomes servants to one another. How is it that we can love other people? We can get to know them. We can try to think of their needs and somewhat anticipate things so that we can show them love, show them service. And of course, I know all of you are certainly not opposed to that.

It's something that we just simply need to be reminded of and certainly try to do, even in a setting that is less than ordinary, less than our normal setting whenever we attend a feast of tabernacles. But we are learning to break out of the self-centeredness and, through love, serve one another. And in many ways, we are fulfilling what Christ wants us to do in bearing the burdens of others, helping others, and even praying, as we learn of special needs that others have, of concerns, of difficulties. Often, you have people at the feast who are there with some job-related difficulty, but they are there because they want to be there.

They're there not knowing exactly how God is going to work that out. We can bear that burden with our prayers. If we're aware of it, if we want to commonly know that, but if you talk to someone, you become aware of that, then that is a part of what God is wanting all of us to do as we unitedly fulfill our role of getting to know and love the brethren.

That's part of what we're called to do. The last point that I want to mention is not just getting to know people and learning to love others, or expressing love in service and moving away from being self-centered. How can our words and actions be an encouragement to others? How are your words and actions an encouragement to other people? Whenever you talk to someone and they are dragging you down, that doesn't make you feel too good. That makes you feel sorry. Yet, if you talk to people and you know, there are people that you can talk to who are very uplifting and positive and optimistic and in many ways, perhaps, trying to be encouraging.

That certainly makes you feel much better. That makes you feel uplifted. In Proverbs 27 verse 17 it says, Iron sharpens iron. And I'm going to need to find that to be able to further cover it. Proverbs 27 verse 17 it says, Iron sharpens iron and one person sharpens the width of another.

As iron does sharpen iron, if we are interacting with others in an encouraging and uplifting and positive manner, we're going to be helping them. We have a constructive uplifting exchange. We are able to truly add to the joy that someone has whenever they don't feel all that good. Maybe they're struggling, and I know all of us. Many of us struggle with different health issues that we may not initially see, but we still struggle with them, and we still labor with that, and yet we could use encouragement.

I guess the third point, as I mentioned as far as our words and actions, are they in encouragement? Are we really applying what Barnabas was? Barnabas was known to be the encourager. He was known among the New Testament church as an individual who was able to be uplifting. He was able to be inclusive. He was able to be, in some ways, almost impossibly inclusive. Because here he was, taking this outcast, this guy named Saul, who had been killing the church, but claims he's now become a Christian.

Most people didn't like Saul, and of course his name was changed to Paul. And yet Barnabas seemed to love him. Barnabas seemed to have a real ability to be inclusive, and to be uplifting, and to encourage. Certainly he took Paul by the hand and said, I'll help you. You see that in many ways. You see their interaction, you see the way that they uplifted each other, because Paul went through a lot of stuff. Whenever you see the listing of things that Paul went through, you wouldn't think, this was party time. This was not party time at all for Paul.

Paul went through so many beatings and shipwrecks, and being charged by others, and being dismissed by people who earlier probably thought he was quite a well-known person. The Jews, they were well acquainted with Paul, many of them at least around Jerusalem.

I'd like for us to look at Romans as we think about how our words and actions can help others. Romans 15, as Paul is concluding this book to the church there in Rome, Romans 15 actually gives a lot of instruction about how to help other people. It says in verse 1, we who are strong ought to put up with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. We need to try to help each other, and even when we see failures or limitations, we can overlook that and we can still try to be encouraging. Each of us must please our neighbor for the good purpose of building up the neighbor.

That's a responsibility that we have. In verse 7, he says, He really wanted them to be encouraging to one another and to lift each other up. I want to point out here something that I know will be applicable to the feast at Branson. I'm pretty sure, perhaps anywhere else, you might go. He says in verse 25, presently, he's talking to the people in Rome and he said earlier, I wish I could get there, but I haven't.

In verse 25, presently, I'm going to Jerusalem. I'm going to Jerusalem in a ministry to the saints because the people in Macedonian and Achaia have been pleased to share their resources with the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. In verse 27, they were pleased to do this. And indeed, they ought to do it for them or to them, for if the Gentiles have come to share in the spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to those in material things. Now, clearly, this was not a feast setting when he was describing this, but what he was pointing out was that the people in Achaia, the people in Corinth and Athens and in the area around Thessalonica, was a little north of there.

This is kind of between Rome and Jerusalem. He's right in the middle. He said, I've got to go back to Jerusalem. I'm not able to go to Rome. I'm going to go to Jerusalem because I've got to take these things that people have contributed for the saints. And so he was pointing out how that sharing their resources was a part of what they felt a Christian obligation to do.

And clearly, this is applicable as we go to the Feast of Tabernacles and as we desire to be hospitable and as we know and then love the brethren. Being encouraging to others, even with helping with resources, that's something that we can do on an individual basis. It's something we can do collectively.

I know here in Branson, we have commonly in the past taken up a collection, really, or donations for some local charity. And we've given to those different charities at times over the years. This year, we're going to change that a little bit. We're going to have a donation box, but we're actually going to call that families helping families, primarily for the purpose of being sure that everyone there at the Feast is able to go to any of the activities that we have, whether it's a senior citizen's activity, luncheon, or whether it's a family day or any of the other activities, and they don't have to be concerned about whether or not I can afford to go to that.

And we are wanting to encourage people to donate, again, helping families within our spiritual family in order to provide the resources that would be needed to help everyone truly rejoice. And so I'll mention that to you so that we know that that's something that I will be asking people to be aware of there at the Feast, but it's a part of the type of encouragement that we can be.

And again, whether we do that collectively or whether we do that individually is still a good and right thing to do. I'd like for us to look at Proverbs 3. Proverbs 3 is a directive that we can also follow as we meet together, as we get to know, as we get to love the brethren, as we are trying to be encouraging.

Again, one of the ways, and many ways or many times, this could just simply be with our words. Simply be with what we have to say to other people. In verse 27 it says, Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do so.

If you have the ability to encourage, if you have the opportunity to uplift, don't miss that chance. Don't miss that opportunity. It goes on in verse 28 to say, Do not say to your neighbor, Go and come again. Tomorrow I'll give it, when you have it with you. And simply saying that, well, when you see the opportunity, do it. When you see an opportunity to uplift and encourage, when you see a way of encouraging or trying to make something nicer or better for someone, do it.

That's a part of what we are learning as we draw closer together as a spiritual family. And so, of course, what it says is just don't put things off, don't delay, but offer those words or offer those actions in order to help other people in that way. So those are the three areas that I wanted to cover today. I wanted to be able to point those out because they're all known to you. But I encourage you to remind you of those things that are clearly a part of what is going to set us apart.

What can set us apart is the people of God. What can set us apart is really the way that we interact, the way we relate to one another, and even as Ken mentioned in the sermonette, the way of Cain, you can think of that as being, well, he was a murderer, and yet what was really wrong was his rotten attitude. And God could see that way far away. He could see that Cain was certainly following in the inclination of his father and mother to disregard God and to embrace the prince of the power of the air, whether he realized that or not.

That's what he was doing. And I think it's really amazing to see how his attitude was described by the things that God hates. And of course, as we identify those things in ourselves, we move away from those as well. So I want to conclude here in Malachi, the final scripture here for today. Very listened-for words in every sermon. The final scripture. Of course, it may or may not be, but it probably is.

It's the last one I have written down. I want us to just be reminded as we learn to get to know and love the brethren, as we learn to be encouraging and outgoing and uplifting to others. You find a statement that seems to be very important here in Malachi 3. And it says in verse 16, that those who revered the Lord spoke with one another.

It's talking about our fellowship. It's talking about our sharing with one another, and talking about how we relate to one another and how we uplift one another and build up, as we saw there in Romans, build up one another. And yet it says, those who revered the Lord spoke with one another, and the Lord took note of that. It doesn't make any difference whether I see it or whether somebody else sees it. Someone you think might want to impress sees what you do. What it says is, the Lord took note of that and listened. He seems to have quite a bit of capacity to do that.

He's always able to see and know. It says, the Lord took note and listened, and he wrote a book of remembrance. A book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord, those who revered the Lord, and who thought on his name. See, who were fellowshiping in a way that was helping others draw closer to God, helping others to fear the Lord always, as we're told about the Feast of Tabernacles, particularly that we go there to learn to have a right respect for God, a right fear of God, and not an apprehension or being afraid of God, but a right respect for God and for His Word and for His action in our lives, and for His uplifting power through His Holy Spirit to work in us and to live in us.

And so I encourage all of us, as we go to the Feast this year, as we have opportunity, as we fellowship with one another in a positive and uplifting way, as we serve one another, that we truly are reminded that God will take note of that. God is going to write a book of remembrance of those who feared the Lord and who thought on His name. And so with that, I hope that we will take this guidance from God's Word to heart, and that we can enjoy a very uplifting and a very outgoing festival season.