Preparing for the Feast of Tabernacles

Well, good afternoon again, brethren. It's really great to be able to see all of you. It's nice to have almost everybody here today. That's great. We always are happy to have as large a crowd as we can get. Actually, we set a new record up in Fulton today. We had 17 there. We usually have 15. So we had 17. That was even better. And so that was really encouraging. And it looks like our numbers are up today from what they often are. So we're glad to see everybody's able to be here today. Through this past week, not only have I been thinking about getting stuff over to the summer camp to be able to have the things that they need to be able to operate here this week, I ask that you be praying about that because I know that just trying to put together a camp with people scattered all over the country and young people coming there and staff coming there. It takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of effort to be able to do that. And so I'm thankful that we're able to have that. And in addition to preparing for that, which is what I was doing this past week, I've also been thinking a lot about the preparation and the planning that's coming for the upcoming Feast of Tabernacles. I think most of you got another notice about services, about announcements, activities. At least I got one this past week, and I assume most of you would get that in the mail. If you've not already got it, you will get it shortly.

But I've been thinking a lot about the Feast of Tabernacles, and it's only, what, two and a half months away. It starts on October the 13th, and so you might think this is a little unusual to have a message about the Feast of Tabernacles in the middle of the summer. But, you know, we can be thinking. We can be preparing. We can be planning to have, you know, a wonderful festival here in the fall. And of course, some of it does depend on the type of planning we do at this point. But I thought I would mention to you, as I know you know, there are a number of different chapters in the book of Isaiah that talk about the world tomorrow. They talk about a transition that is going to take place when Jesus intervenes in world affairs, and when He stops the warfare and the fighting, He puts aside Satan and his obvious distortion to everything on this earth today, and He installs the kingdom of God. He installs the law of God, giving boundaries, giving guidance, giving direction, showing people, you know, how they can relate to the Father and to the Godhead. That's what everyone is going to be shown. In one of those chapters, you can go to chapter 2 in Isaiah, you could go to chapter 35, you could go to chapter 11, which is where I want to go today. And I'd like to read a few of these verses because it, in a sense, leads into what I want to cover today in this sermon. It says in Isaiah 11, and actually in verse 6, you know, we find a verse that is a description of the symbol that the church of God has used for years. It says, The wolf shall lie down with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the cat, and the lion, and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. Now, that's a picture of a peaceful, a calming, a tranquil setting. And yet, when you read the entire section here, and I want to go back a little to read part of it, it is describing, you know, an intervention in world affairs by the King of Kings. It says in verse 1, A shoot shall come out of the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. This is talking about Jesus Christ having been descended from David, from Jesse and David, and then ultimately, you know, through the lineage down to Mary and Joseph, and of course, God the Father, being the Father of Jesus Christ. But it says in verse 2, The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel, and might a spirit of knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord, and his delight will be in the fear of the Lord.

To Jesus Christ, as he intervenes in world affairs, is going to set things right. And this description is a wonderful description. It says he will not judge by what his eyes see or decide by what his ears hear, but the King, the King at that time, will with righteousness judge the poor. You know, the author of righteousness, the one who has righteousness to give, if we ask him to give us that type of righteousness, which we should ask for, but the one who has that, the one who is that, the one who lives righteousness, is the coming King, the King that we want to ultimately rule the whole world, and of course, the King that we should have as the ruler and leader in our lives. But it goes on to say that he will strike the earth with the rot of his mouth and with the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked. And so, you know, there's going to be a, you know, there's going to be a takeover. There's going to be an overthrow of the system. And if people don't happen to like it, then, you know, they'll have the opportunity to wait. Wait until God works with them in a little stronger way. But in this case, it talks about him overthrowing the earth. And it says in verse 5, righteousness will be the belt around his waist and faithfulness, the belt around his loins. He's the one who will be installing the system that will work. And of course, it mentions the, you know, the animals here living in peace. The cow and the bear in verse 7 will graze. Their young will lie down together. The lion will eat straw like an ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den. They will not hurt or destroy on all of my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. See, that description that Isaiah gives is a wonderful description. It is in many ways speaking about a utopian setting, speaking about a ruler who really has concern for those who will be ruled, for mankind, who live into this age. And whenever I read, of course, verse 9 is depicting, you know, the knowledge of God being everywhere, and that clearly is a need. That's not something that we have on this earth today, but it's going to be. It's ultimately going to go forth from Zion. The law will, and it will be spread throughout the whole earth. But what you see described there in verse 6, the wolf lying down with the lamb, the leopard lying down with the kid, the calf and lion faddling together, a little child shall lead them. We're going to have a symphony here, I guess. My ringtone wouldn't say that.

I've got this old-fashioned phone. It's not a song or anything. It's just an old-fashioned phone ring, and I've got that on there so that it'll wake me up. So thank you for waking us up today and helping us. But whenever I read verse 6, whenever I think about what this describes, this always causes me to remember a cemetery. Now, I say that because, and there may be numbers of reasons why whenever you read these verses of restoration, these verses of the restoring of the earth, of the rule of Jesus Christ, of the peace and tranquility that's going to come, they're not going to be hurting. Pain is going to be minimized. There's going to be some healing that will clearly take place in the world tomorrow. That's available today, as we know, and we ask for that. And of course, we often wait for that. And yet, in the world to come, that's going to be much more available because the powers that be will be able to provide that.

But I mentioned to you about verse 6 that it reminds me of a cemetery because I've been in a number of cemeteries. I've conducted a number of funerals. And I often, even if I'm in a cemetery and I'm there for any period of time, I may walk around and look at the headstones and see what different people have on their headstones. And if you go, some of them that are more modern are pretty elaborate. Others are not very elaborate. Actually, there used to be, in the past, 100 years ago, there used to be some pretty elaborate headstones, large headstones. And it's interesting to see what different people write on there. And some of them would be similar. Some of them would have a certain amount of commonality to them. And yet, others are quite unique.

And why I mentioned verse 6, causing me to think of a cemetery, is that on the tombstone or the headstone where my mother is buried, my dad had the emblem that we have used in the past of a wolf and a lion, a lamb, I guess, and a little child, probably are what are on that. And of course, that is a known kind of symbol, certainly with Ambassador College and with the worldwide Church of God of the past. That was a well-known symbol that we used. And of course, that was something that dad wanted to put on mom's tombstone whenever she died, because they had been a part of the Church for a long time. And certainly, it looked forward to a time of peace, a time of tranquility, a time of transition in the world. And so, whenever I read that, that's what I am reminded of and I think about that because, and it's certainly not just simply for my mother, but for so many other, you know, many people who will rise from the grave and I think very much welcome what Jesus Christ is doing at that time. And yet, it also reflects what we read here in Hebrews 11. In Hebrews 11, speaking about the heroes of faith that are listed here in Hebrews 11, you have Abraham and Noah, you have Moses and many others that are listed here. You have others who went through quite a bit of trauma in their life, considerable difficulty, who, you know, look to God in faith. And yet, here in Hebrews 11, in verse 13, it says all of these, talking about those that are listed here in this chapter, says all of these died in faith without having received the promises. See, the writer of Hebrews points out that, you know, these people that he's writing about, most of them Old Testament personages, all of these people died in faith having not received the promises, but from a distance they saw the promises and they greeted the promises. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, and for people who speak in this way, make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. And if they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, then they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country. That is a heavenly country, and therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, and certainly He has prepared a city for them. See, what the look of Hebrews, and particularly chapter 11, is talking about is these people who were living faithful lives. People who were living in connection with God, and people who died not having received the promise.

But see, they were aware of the promise. They were aware of the country that they were to seek, the homeland that was a heavenly homeland, that they were going to seek that kingdom, that country. And of course, that gave them vision. It gave them encouragement. It gave them something to work toward. It gave them a vision of the future. And that, of course, is what we find whenever we observe the Holy Days as we go from the Passover and through the spring and summer, and then the fall Holy Days, we find the Feast of Tabernacles depicting that homeland. We find the Feast of Tabernacles depicting what it is that we're looking forward to, the kingdom of God, the reign of Jesus Christ on this earth. And in essence, one of the greatest values of the Feast of Tabernacles is that it reminds us. It reminds us of God's plan, but it reminds us of that wonderful kingdom, that kingdom that we need to have a focus on, as it says here in Hebrews 11. It says that we want to, let's see, as it points out here, they didn't receive the promises, but from a distance they saw them and they greeted them. See, they had them in mind. They were aware of them. They knew they were looking forward to something greater, something that is much better. And that, of course, is something that we can benefit from as well. So I ask the question of all of us, and as we think here for the next couple of months at the end of the summer and as we get into the fall, will this coming Feast of Tabernacles enhance our desire for the heavenly kingdom? Well, will that actually occur? And, of course, I'm telling you, I certainly hope that will. I hope that will be the case as you look toward the Feast now and as we get to the time of the Feast of Tabernacles and the celebration that that will be. There are a number of things I think that we could focus on that can actually ensure that that would be the case. And so I wanted to point out several of those things today and just encourage you to have that vision and to keep that in mind as we work toward the Feast, but then as we also look beyond that to the intervention of Christ and the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth. I'd like for us to go back to begin with here the Leviticus 23, because in Leviticus 23 you find some significant things about the Holy Days. Now all of us are familiar with certain holidays. We're familiar with national holidays like the Fourth of July. That's one of my favorites. I'm always interested in the Fourth of July. But you also have Valentine's Day and you have Halloween and you have, of course, Christmas and Easter are also celebrated holidays in this world. You've got some other national days, as all of us here, at least in the United States, celebrate the Labor Day or the Memorial Day time or even the President's Day. President's Day today, and we used to celebrate Washington's birthday and Lincoln's birthday, two different days, and now they're combined into one. They're combined into one celebration. What I want to point out by that is just simply at least these holidays are driven by a selection from men. They can change them. Like I said, we used to have two presidents acknowledged and now we've got kind of all presidents acknowledged, I guess. At least they have a President's Day. I believe it's in January, I think, February or February.

And that can be changed. That can be changed just by changing the laws of the land.

And yet, whenever we look at the Holy Days, we see something totally different.

Here in Leviticus 23 and the whole chapter deals with a delineation of the Holy Days and how it is that Israel was going to observe those. But the first thing that we want to keep in mind is what's mentioned right here in the first few verses.

In verse 1 it says, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, These are the appointed festivals of the Lord.

Now that's quite a different delineation. A different delineation than human beings designating a day to celebrate for whatever reason. This is an appointed festival of the Lord. Whenever we go through these Holy Days, the appointed festivals of the Lord that you shall proclaim as holy convocations. And so whether we meet together, when we convoke together, a congregation and a meeting, we are asking for God's guidance. We're asking for His blessing. What we're doing is at His request. And so as this points out, these are the appointed festivals of the Lord that you shall proclaim as holy convocations. They are my appointed festivals. So they come with a considerable amount more authority than anything that we might come up with in this country or in any other country or any other type of a derivation of that as far as a holiday. These are the festivals of the Lord. These are festivals that are designated by God Himself. And verse 3 talks about the Sabbath also being a holy convocation. And of course, we do observe that in that way. But in verse 4, these are the appointed festivals of the Lord, the holy convocations which you shall celebrate at the time appointed for them. And of course, then throughout the rest of the chapter, it's going to explain when that is, usually in the first or the seventh month, and then with the exception of Pentecost that could vary as far as which month it actually is in. But you have to count it. And yet the guidance that's given here in Leviticus 23 is direction from God about when this particular holy day has been set aside, when it is to be observed. And all of us, I think, are fairly familiar with the Hebrew calendar. Or at least I know that I've been shown the calendar and I can understand why we do what we do, whether I can fully explain all of it. I know that there can be a correlation between the Hebrew calendar and what calendar we currently use today. And we can know. We can know this year. We can know next year. We can know the year every year down the line when it is that God appoints the festival to be observed. And so the first thing that I point out about the coming, not only the fall holy days, but specifically the Feast of Tabernacles, is that these are the festivals of the Lord.

And so most importantly, we ought to ask God for His blessing upon those festivals. I know He's interested in them and I know He's interested in people who observe them. He's interested in people who respect what He says. He's interested in people who honor God with their lives and with their time. And in this case, acknowledging that these are the appointed festivals of the Lord. And I think that's extraordinary. It's also neat to see, if you look back here in John chapter 7, it's neat to see what Jesus emphasized during the feast that we see described here in John 7.

Now, John 7 is an example that we want to be familiar with and I think certainly appreciative of.

Because here in John 7 we see a description of what Jesus did during the Feast of Tabernacles. And I think most importantly, we may want to learn what it is that He focused on. What it is He taught. What it was that He was saying. Because in this case, in John 7, we have this account during the life of Jesus, during a later part of His life, during the time close to when He was later going to be taken and crucified. I don't know exactly which year, but it had to be within two or three years of when He would ultimately give His life as a sacrifice for sin. And yet, in this fall time, in verse 2 it says, the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near. And of course, it's called Jewish just simply because the Jews were the ones who were maintaining the knowledge of the festivals. You know, the rest of Israel pretty well was scattered. They were essentially lost. They weren't maintaining even an identity. And yet, the Jews were. They were well known. They respected and were given the oracles of God. And so, they were maintaining the Bible. They were maintaining the Old Testament. They clearly were maintaining the knowledge of the Holy Days and when they were. And it's interesting to see what Jesus had to say. Now, at this time, Jesus' brothers said to him in verse 3, Leave here and go to Judea so that your disciples also may see the works that you're doing. And so, they thought, well, you know, you need to spread the wealth here a little. You need to spread the ability that you appear to have of, you know, healing people and helping, performing miracles and providing for people. You know, you can feed thousands of people at once. You know, they were becoming aware that Jesus did some unusual things. He did some extraordinary things. And yet, they didn't believe who He was. They still thought He was brother Jesus. They still thought, yeah, we know. We know who He is. He's just one of us. He's just like us. He seems to be able to do a few more things than we can, but we don't really believe that He's the Son of God. And that, of course, is mentioned here, I think, in verse 5. Not even His brothers believed in Him. They didn't really understand. They weren't given enlightenment to understand who it was, not at least at this point. Later on, many of them did. But at this point, they didn't. And they were chiding Him, well, you know, come on, go up to the festival and show everybody who you are.

And it says in verse, well, the latter part of verse 4, no one wants to be widely known, or no one who wants to be widely known, is acts in secret. If you do these things, show yourself to the world. So Jesus said to them, and so I think, again, this is important that we focus on what it is that Jesus said. This was during the time of the Feast. This was actually prior to the Feast, and we're going to get to the time during the Feast. But prior to the Feast, He says, my time has not yet come, but your time is always here. He said the world cannot hate you.

It doesn't hate you. You know, you're just like them. You fit in with everything they do.

But He says the world cannot hate you, but it does hate me, because I testify against it that its works are evil. See, Jesus had something to say about what was happening around Him. He certainly had something to say about the religious leaders that He was in conflict with. He certainly had something to say about the fact that, you know, you need to make a differentiation between what is in the world and what does God really want? So He says in verse 8, you go to the Feast. So if we need any direct statement from Jesus about what to do, you know, He was telling His brothers, you go to the Festival.

He says, I am not yet going to be going to this Festival, for my time has not yet fully come. And after this, He remained in Galilee. So this was an exchange that He was having with His brothers, and they were telling Him, oh, go up and show what you can do. He was saying, no, that's not even what I'm going to do, even when I go. But He did direct them to go. He said, you guys go ahead, go up there. And of course, He didn't really want to be identified with Him, because it'd be a little easy to find Him, or much easier to find Him, because if He's there with the rest of His family, and that's what we're going to find. What is it? In verse 11, the Jews were looking for Him at the feast and saying, where is He? They could find His brothers. They could find the band of people that He would normally be among. And yet, what we find after Jesus directed His brothers to go on up to the feast, to go to Galilee, or from Galilee, up to Judea, into Jerusalem, He says, you go on to the feast. And verse 10, after His brothers had gone to the festival, then He also went. Not publicly, but as it were in secret. So He was going to the feast. He was going to be there. He clearly understood far better than any of the rest of them, the value of being there, and what it really was going to portray. What it would actually identify. And yet, He says in verse 12, there was a lot of complaining among the crowd, and it says in verse 14, about the middle of the festival, Jesus went up into the temple and began to speak. And so He was there. He was not easily identified, apparently, and He was able to hide, you know, not being among His brothers. But in the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and began to speak. And the Jews were astonished by what He said. How can He speak without our learning? That's what they were really saying. How could He possibly have anything to say that would be of any benefit because He's not been taught by us? And of course, He was going to be able to overcome that limitation. You know, that really would have been a limitation if He'd been taught by them. But He had far more to say, how does this man have such learning? He's never been taught, meaning taught by us. And Jesus answered and said, My teaching is not mine.

But it is His who sent Me. Anyone who resolves to do the will of God will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I'm speaking on my own. Those who speak on their own seek their own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of Him who sent Him is true. And there is nothing false in Him. So this is what Jesus had to say in the middle of the feast. This is what He had to tell people. Now this is important in that we've seen that, well, the festivals, as we see them outlined in Leviticus, are directed to be the appointed festivals of the Lord. They're designated by God. They are given by Him as at the time frame that He wants us to observe. And also, He wants us to focus on our relationship with God. And of course, what Jesus was saying is that My teaching is not mine, but God's. He said, I want to focus on the Father. I want you to focus on what the plan of God is. I want you to focus on our relationship with God or your relationship, as He would have stated it. But to us, it is, you know, we want to focus on our relationship with God. That's what Jesus continually focuses on as we read down through the remainder of this chapter. It says in verse 28, He follows this up. Jesus cried out as He was teaching in the temple, He says, you know Me, and you know where I'm from. And I have not come of My own, but the One who sent Me is true, and you do not know Him. I know Him because I am from Him, and He sent Me. So what again is He talking about? Well, He's talking about His relationship with the Father. He's talking about the rapport that He and the Father have. He's talking about the union that they have, and they are projecting a plan of God that He is kind of unfolding as He goes along. And as we look back, we can kind of see the big picture. And yet Jesus was speaking about the Father. He was speaking about the focus that people should have. And when you drop on down to verse 37, you find kind of the concluding statements of what Jesus had to say. And it says in verse 37 on the last day of the feast, that great day, the great day of the feast, you know, we call it the eighth day, or we call it the last great day from this reference here because you don't see it referred that way in the Old Testament. But in the New Testament here, it talks about the last day of the festival, the great day. While Jesus was standing there, He cried out and said, let anyone who is thirsty come to Me, and let the one who believes in Me drink.

And as the Scripture is said, out of that believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water.

And now He said this about the Spirit, which believers in Him were to receive, but as yet, there was no Spirit because Jesus was not yet glorified. So He was talking about something that was yet to happen. He was talking about things that were yet to occur, and certainly, you know, we have an understanding of the fact that He was speaking this on the last day of the festival, in essence, giving understanding about what that festival is about. Giving understanding about what it is that every single person on earth needs.

And clearly, you know, we can be thankful for that, that we can have an appreciation for our Heavenly Father, that we can have a communion with our Father, that we can appreciate the ruler of our life, Jesus Christ, and that we can be grateful, grateful and thankful for the Spirit of God, that He has granted us, and that He wishes for, you know, to be just gushing out from us, to be sharing the love of God with other people. See, this is what Jesus emphasized whenever He spoke at the Feast of Tabernacles in 3031-32, whenever it was that He was speaking. He was telling people about a relationship with God. He was telling people about, you know, the fact that He and the Father are one. He was telling them about the fact that they need the Holy Spirit. But, of course, He also points out here, and John does in verse 39, that this Spirit was yet to come. It was going to come after the Day of Pentecost, at least in a limited way, and it would come then even in a greater way as time went forward. And as we look into the future, as we look into the world tomorrow, as we look into the time beyond the world tomorrow, we know a time is coming when the Spirit of God will be available to absolutely everyone. And yet, this is what Jesus talked about. This is what He thought about, and this is what He wants us to think about as we consider the upcoming Feast of Tabernacles. I'd like to go back to Leviticus 23 again, because you find in Leviticus 23, you find what we read earlier about these being the appointed festivals, my appointed festivals from God. But you also find more detail here as you look into the latter part of chapter 23. It says in verse 33, Moses, or the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, speak to the people of Israel, saying, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, lasting seven days, there will be a festival of booze to the Lord. And the first day shall be a holy convocation. You shall not work at your occupation. Seven days you shall present the Lord's sacrifices by fire. And down in verse 37, he says these are the appointed festivals of the Lord that you shall celebrate at times of holy convocation. And in verse 39, this fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall keep the festival of the Lord, lasting seven days, a complete rest on the first day, and a complete rest on the eighth.

On the first day you shall take the fruit of majestic trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for these seven days. And so here he points out that this festival is going to be a little longer than some of the others. Actually, I guess the spring holy days were in a sense similar as far as in length of time. But the Feast of Tabernacles and then the eighth day, as it's described here, is going to be even a longer feast.

It's going to be eight days long. And you're to rejoice before God during that time. And he says you shall keep it a festival to the Lord. So it's more meaning than just simply going to the feast, just simply going on vacation, just simply, you know, whatever entertainment like we'd be able to, you know, to get into whenever we're at the feast. There was to be more to it.

More to it. More meaning to it. And he says you were to keep that festival to the Lord and you shall keep it in the seventh month as a statute forever throughout your generations. You shall live in booths for seven days. All that are citizens in Israel shall live in booths so that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.

I am the Lord your God. Here, again, I know all of you are familiar with this description of the Feast of Tabernacles and of how it was that it would be observed in Israel in this directive, but he talks about the temporary dwellings. He talks about the booths, the Tabernacles, and whenever we go to the feast today, you know, we're for the most part living in temporary dwellings.

They're temporary to us. Now, they're pretty permanent dwellings in that they're hotels or motels or condominiums or what other... you know, many people may, at least some people, may be living in tents. I know when I think back during, you know, 20-25 years ago when the feast actually came to me whenever I was living in Lake of the Ozarks, I lived right on the feast site, and it was always neat to have, you know, thousands of people coming in, but, you know, living there in my own house, it didn't feel like a temporary dwelling.

So, the boys and I would put a tent up out in the yard, and they thought that was great to be able to have a tent out there and, of course, have the dog running in and out, tearing it up. And so, that was always an interesting aspect of our feast, and, you know, I don't know if they ever entirely stayed a whole night out there in the tent, but at least they had fun preparing.

And we could think a little bit about what the Feast of Booths is about, and that we could think about the temporary dwellings, and as it says here in verse 43, you're doing that to be reminded. To be reminded, as the Israelites were, that we've been delivered.

We've been brought out of a way of life which we have become accustomed to, a way of sin, a way of disregard for God's law, a way that He would have to describe as simply one of disrespect. And He has delivered us from that by calling us and bringing us to an awareness of Him and of His way, of His forgiveness, of His mercy, of His love, and that He wants us to be reminded that we are in temporary dwellings.

And even today, you know, we are in a temporary dwelling wherever you live. It's a temporary dwelling. It won't last forever. It'll last for a while, probably last during your lifetime, perhaps, but beyond that, it'll fade. Just like all houses built 100 years ago are fading, or at least many of them are. Some of them would be maintained, but many of them, if they're not maintained, they're just going to, you know, go back to the dust pretty much, you know, start collapsing and falling down.

And yet, the reminder here in verse 43 is that we are, you know, we are temporarily dwelling in this physical form, and that we are strangers, and that we are foreigners here on this earth, and that we look forward with vision, with hope, with gratitude, with delight to the permanent home, the heavenly home, the homeland that's described there in Hebrews 11.

We look forward to that time. We look forward to that Kingdom. And so, I think it's exciting to see how God offers this information to us so that it can benefit us as Christians, and then it can uplift us and inspire us as we prepare from year to year as we get ready. And then finally, I want to go to Deuteronomy 16, because you see an account here.

Deuteronomy 16, again, is kind of a review of what we find in Leviticus or in Exodus. Deuteronomy is a repeating of the law. That's what the word Deuteronomy means. It's a repeating of the law. That's what, you know, was happening whenever you find Deuteronomy being written. The children of Israel are closer to going into the Promised Land, and God rehearsed all of this information again. And here in chapter 16 of Deuteronomy, it tells us in verse 13, you shall keep the Feast of Boos for seven days when you gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and your winepress, and you will rejoice during your festival. So here he again gives us similar information. And I'd like for us to back up to verse 11, because this is talking about Pentecost, but it clearly is talking about kind of an outline of the people that we should hope to impact, or the relationships that we should enhance whenever we go to the Feast of Tabernacles, described there in verse 13 and 14. It tells us that that would be when we would do that, as far as going to this festival. Here in verse 11, in talking about the Feast of Pentecost, but as it also applies to the Feast of Tabernacles and to the time when we normally would be traveling somewhere and we would normally be meeting with a larger group of the people of God and be able to share the wonderful vision of the kingdom of God. Here he points out how it is that we can do that. In verse 11 he says, rejoice before the Lord your God. See, that's the first primary thing. That's what I mentioned initially. These are the festivals of God. He wants us to keep a feast to the Lord. He wants us to keep our attention and to realize that we are there before God. We're appearing before God. We are asking for God's blessing and we want to keep Him in mind. We want to ask that God would enhance our relationship with Him. We all have a relationship with God that's been cultivated for months, years, decades. Some of you, closer to more than half a century or more, you've had a relationship with God for a period of time. As I have. I've celebrated the feast for, what, 45 years.

It's a fabulous thing. It's a wonderful thing to be able to think about that. But see, there's always more. There's always closer. We can always be closer to God. We can always draw closer and humble ourselves before God because He's always wanting to provide His guidance to us. He's wanting to provide His blessing to us. So He wants us to continually be growing closer to Him in the type of communion that He wishes. And yet here He says, rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters. And so He was directing that, well, your family would be involved in that. And whenever we go to the feast, we want to keep that in mind that we're here to appear before God. We're here to worship God. We're here to praise God. We're here to keep this festival to the Lord, but we also want to serve other people. And I know that that's something that we emphasize every year. I know we always have a great deal, a great number of people who wish to serve and help out in different areas. And clearly, this year is no different than any other year that we need a great number of people who are willing, who wish to help out with different aspects of the feast, whether it's with the choir or the music, the ball in the festival, whether it's with ushring or the parking or the mother's room, or whether it's other things that we'll also get into. But those are things that God wants us to be thinking about. As we rejoice before God, then we want to be inclusive. And including, in this case, He mentions your family, your sons and your daughters, your husband or wife, your male and your female slaves.

You know, what's that reference to? Well, that would be a reference to perhaps others within our household that may be relying on us, relying on our help, relying on our compassion. That, in the case of this directive to Israel, these were servants that worked within a household, and they were to not direct family, but they were to be cared for, in a sense, as a family member. It goes on to say you should be rejoicing, not only before God, but with your family, with those of your extended family, with the Levites, resident in your towns, as well as the strangers.

And so we're going to be celebrating a festival. You know, we want to be, and this is this reference to the Levites. The Levites actually were the ones who were, at least in Israel, they were doing a lot of the work, because there were a lot of sacrifices that need to be occurring during that time, as far as, you know, when the festival was occurring. There were specific sacrifices they were to be doing. The Levites were the ones who were the butchers.

You know, they were the ones who did a lot of the sacrificing of the sacrifices that were to be given. And so, you know, they were providing a service to the people. And, of course, today the ministry should be providing a service to the people. We should be sharing with the entirety of the congregations and the church the celebration of what it is, you know, that we're looking forward to in the world tomorrow. He mentions the strangers.

I guess this would include people that we come in contact with that we don't yet know. And perhaps, you know, we certainly do have an obligation as we go to the feast, wherever that is. And I know, you know, a number of you are going to Branson, and I will see you there. But a number of you are scattering to, you know, many different parts of the country and the world. And wherever you go, you know, you're going to be interacting with strangers.

You're going to be interacting with people that need a good example. They're going to need the right example. And that's what we want to exemplify. And I think that's what this reference is too. It also then goes on to say that you should rejoice before God, not only with your family, with your extended family, with the Levites, with the strangers, but with the orphans and the widows who are among you.

See, again, talking of people who may need help, people who may need encouragement, people who may need assistance. So this is God's plan of helping all of us be able to rejoice together if we have an attitude, an outlook of serving other people. That's really what this is talking about. Of serving other people, of having an outlook of focusing on God, of asking God to infuse and empower us with the Holy Spirit, to be able to reach out, to be inclusive, to maybe adopt someone for that period of time.

Someone who may have need. Sometimes that may be even hard to identify. And yet I think we find, certainly, that if we look around, we can find someone that we can help and that we should do that during the Feast of Tabernacles. So in reaching out to others, being inclusive, you know, if we plan in this way, then we're going to actually exemplify the love that God wants us to have, not only toward each other, but toward the entirety of the world, but the love that He is going to extend to the entire earth during the time of the Kingdom of God, and then even beyond that, whenever He draws up so many others out of the grave to be shown a way that works.

Instead of watching ways that don't work, which we have all around this world, and which we clearly have in this country right now, and we have TV bombarding us with something that doesn't work, something that is dysfunctional at best, it really is sad to watch the type of arrogance and distress that our political system creates, and yet there'll be a stop to that as well whenever Christ intervenes and sets up a system that will work.

So these are the things that I thought I would mention to you as we think about the Feast, as we prepare for that. It will be here before we know it. It'll be a couple of months from right now, and we'll be celebrating the Feast of Trumpets, so it's not that far off. But I mentioned this so that you can be thinking not only how to prepare, but how I can serve other people. And if you wish to volunteer for things, we certainly will be glad to hear that. I know I'm going to be sending out some more information about the need that we have as far as in different areas for Branson, so be open to that. If you wish to do so, I would very much appreciate being able to have people who are able and willing to help. And then ultimately, this will help us do what it says here in Hebrews 11. To envision, to see afar off, and to greet what we know to be the real answer. To greet the Kingdom of God, to greet the coming of Christ, to greet the intervention in world affairs. That's what we want to do. And in so doing, that enables us to have the right vision of the solution. And of course, that gives us hope. It gives us encouragement. And I think it actually enables us to really thrive in our lives today, even as we struggle with different things. We all have certain struggles that we're going through, but that vision of the Kingdom of God is to push us forward. It's to help us go forward as we keep our eyes on the Kingdom that will be a Kingdom of love, a Kingdom of joy, and a Kingdom of peace. That's clearly depicted by what we read there in Isaiah 11.