Preparing Our Hearts for Christ's Interruptions

Well, it is that time of year, that third season of the festivals that were going through them together or at least have started.

This past week we were observing the Feast of Trumpets.

And I want to build upon that, build upon a little bit of the message that I gave to Redlands.

But with Susan here, who's already heard it, we're going to make it much different than she heard the first time.

Sometimes Susan say, you know, I've lived with you for 50 years.

I think I've heard every message.

I think I kind of got your drift on God.

But we're always going to be full of surprises somewhere down the line.

There may be new truth in this, so we'll find out.

But here we are in the midst of the festivals, and we look forward to them.

But as members of the body of Christ, those that are called out, those that are in the Church of God, those that recognize that holy days are not just activities.

It's not just a matter of showing up.

It's not just an event.

You come, you stay, you go, it's over.

Here we look at the festivals.

We look at the holy days as something that God has designed, and I choose my words carefully as I was going over through this this morning in my notes.

God designs the festivals to saturate.

Know what it means to see ladies that are cooks.

Know what it means to have a juice, a gravy to saturate whatever you are cooking, whatever you are preparing.

Well God's preparing a people.

He's preparing a people to serve him, not only now, but in the future as well.

And the festivals that we observe then are not just meant for a 24-hour period, but are to saturate and to nourish us and to live out, not just simply as an event, but a part of our spiritual existence before our Heavenly Father.

It's very, very important that we're looking at it being a, not just a day of worship, but one more portion of a lifelong existence towards an ultimate outcome.

And I'd like to have you open your Bibles for just a second.

In Psalms 15, why does God give us the weekly Sabbath?

Why does he give us the holy days?

And why does he think that we should be so thankful every day of life to get to know more about him?

Because this is a question that the psalmist David asked and we find it, notice in Psalms 15.

Lord, who may abide in your tabernacle and who may dwell in your holy hill?

This is the big question, but that is the goal.

The goal is that ultimately God is calling those that are made after his image and likeness at first physically, but upon the call of the Father spiritually to be in his image, to be in his likeness, to walk, to talk, to think like the one that he sent down here below that he loves, that he has confidence in, and is the example that he gave us to spiritually mimic, not only from the outside, but from the inside.

And when you notice that who may abide in your tabernacle and who will dwell, notice, and who will dwell in your holy hill?

One thing that's very important of why we're going through what we're going through in this life is to recognize that when it says who's going to dwell in your holy hill.

The word dwell there is more like abide.

It's like who's going to remain there?

Who's going to, stuck might be a bad word, that'd be a great place to be stuck, but who is going to abide there?

And recognize what God is calling us to, to make it in modern terms, God is not giving us a rental space.

God is not giving us a time share.

He's not giving us one of these B and B, whatever the call that you rent out.

He's not just giving us a condo.

He is allowing us to exist with him forever.

It's not a guest house.

Just as Jesus said, he says, in my father's house, in my father's way, there's expanse, there's room.

And what he's wanting to do is when you think about it, the kingdom experience ultimately touched upon that exclamation point is God is not, not, not, not, it's not just a house.

It's not just a structure.

You know, it's interesting, God, Jesus, speaking in revelation says to the Philadelphians as an aspect to all of the churches, all those eras of those that follow God, he says those that are the saints, there's going to be no more going out and there's no more coming in.

I mean, you're not going to need keys.

You're there forever in the very literal presence of God almighty.

This is the long range scenario and every holy day and every Sabbath and every day of your existence points to that.

I remember an old phrase heard years ago, about 30 years ago, and it was simply this every day may want to chop this down every day points to the Sabbath and every Sabbath points to a holy day and every holy day points to the kingdom.

And God is pointing down to you and me today and he's saying, I want you to be a part of my kingdom experience.

Such continuity and forward seamlessness is discovered in this time span between trumpets and atomena.

I'd like to share something with you.

Our Jewish friends, and no, they do not know Christ at this point and we pray that that day will come, but it's interesting that our Jewish friends call these 10 days between the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement, they call them the days of awe.

They call them the days of awe, not awe, shocks, but awe, A-W-E.

These are days of wonderment.

These are days that are to make our mouths drop open as if in our hearts to drop open as to what our heavenly father is doing for us and towards us through Jesus Christ.

To recognize again, there's this intervention, there's this interruption, but it's not just on the day it continues, there's this seamlessness from trumpets, which the Jews, and there's no proof of it, but it's their understanding of it, that we've got to remember that the sacred year begins in the spring.

But they look at the civil year, the new year, the start of life.

They believe that creation began in the autumn.

And so that's why you have this celebration of life and new beginnings and a new start.

We all would want to have a new start over at times.

And maybe even in that sense, as far as in the Christian life that you and I are living, you know, God, I need a new start over.

I've been in this trek, I've been on this journey.

I've been on this pilgrimage for 40, 50, 60 years.

I need a new spark plug.

Well, I hope this will be one of them today to each and every one of us and to me.

And that, you know, when they come up, what the Jews do at the time of Rosh Hashanah is they say, may your name be written and or imprinted on in the book of life.

It's a blessing.

It's a greeting.

It's a blessing.

It's something that we can all grab a hold of with that thought, with the thought of the days of all those 10 days between trumpets and atonement to use that as a springboard as an example.

And we're going to go elsewhere with this, though, is simply this.

I would like to speak to such seamlessness and expansive continuity in reference to Jesus and his comments when it says, I will come to you.

We're going to make it simple.

That's going to be the building block scripture that we're going to look at.

I will come to you, which is first mentioned in the gospel of John.

Now, the reason why I say that is we often look at what we call the first coming.

And we think of the infant being born in Bethlehem and the incarnation and the first coming.

So we think, okay, he came.

Then he says, I'm going to return.

And yes, he is going to return.

The Bible is full of that glorious return.

We find that in, we find that in Revelation 19, we find that in first Thessalonians 4, we find that in Matthew 24, and we may yet touch on some of those verses today.

But to recognize that, so we say what there's the first coming and there's the second coming makes it simple, right?

For those of you that don't like math first coming and second coming.

But I want to mention to you today is simply this.

There are a lot of comings in between.

We kind of do the first call and we do the big call at the end as if, okay, God's done his business here and he's going to come back and rescue all of us because he did his business here.

And but we've got some homework and we have some understanding of recognizing that we need to keep our ears tuned to the trumpet that is yet sounding in between that first call and that second call.

And therefore I'd like to give you the title of my message today.

Here we go.

Preparing our hearts for Christ interruptions.

Preparing our hearts for Christ interruption.

Often you talk about, do you hear the sound of the trumpet?

And so we think of that in an audio sense.

We think of that in a hearing sense, but hearing is not necessarily listening, is it?

And listening is not necessarily understanding and understanding is not necessarily action.

Got those four points?

In a sense they bump into one another, but there's a wide gulf of outcomes if you don't understand all of those.

Join me if you would please in John 14.

Let's go to John 14.

In John 14 and picking up the thought in verse one.

Now let's understand.

This is on the very last evening of Jesus' physical life.

He's with his dear friends, the 12 disciples, and they're in the upper, what we call the upper loft.

Let not your heart be troubled in verse one.

You believe in God, believe also in me.

And in my father's house are many mansions.

In other words, there's space.

That's going to be thought out.

And if it were not so, I would have told you.

I do go to prepare a place for you.

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I know now notice this.

I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, there you may be also.

And where I go, you know, and the way you know.

Now let's understand something that's happening here.

Christ is only talking about a destination and a spot where we will be forever with our father in heaven and with him, his son.

But notice what it says here.

It says, and where I go, you know, and the way you know.

There's two things happening here.

One is a destination.

The other is about traveling.

And I'm always remember in Matthew 6 33, if you're with me where it says, no, seek you first the kingdom of God.

Seek you first the kingdom of God.

That's a biggie, isn't it?

In the church of God culture, seek you first the kingdom of God.

So full blast towards the kingdom.

But it's the second part of that sentence that allows it.

Seek you first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and his righteousness.

See the Feast of Trumpets is about kingdom awareness and God interrupting human history.

But when we think of the day of atonement that's coming up, we recognize and we are all struck to recognize that what is the day of atonement about?

It is about coming in the presence of holiness, something that we're not too good at as human beings that there is that time that the high priest would go into the temple or into the tabernacle and would sacrifice for the people.

He was going into the holy of holies, holy of holies, rather than the tabernacle or later on in Solomon's temple.

So it was a cube, it was a square and a cube was always thought in antiquity to be a statement of perfection, of holiness, of completeness.

So the priest would go in there and he would be in that holy spot.

He was sacrificing before a holy God for a holy people that had been chosen by him for a holy purpose.

So we take a look at all of this.

But now let's notice something here.

It says here that I go and I will come back.

Now join me the next page over and let's take a look here where it says in verse 18-19.

He says, I will not leave you orphans.

I will come to you a little while longer and the world will see me no more, but you will see me because I live, you will live also.

Notice the cadence.

Notice the one, two, do I dare say punch in this.

And at that day you will know that I am in the father and you in me and I in you.

Now let's take it just right there a little bit further.

So Jesus blatantly said twice here in the upper loft, he says, I will come to you.

My question is this to fill our understanding.

We know that he came to us by God the father calling us at first because no man can come into me unless first God the father called and then he allowed us to understand further what the sacrifice of his son was all about.

That he would be our champion, that he would ultimately be the Lord of our life and that he would be the one that would go to heaven and then return to us ultimately in fullness of the kingdom as armies of heaven come down as we can read in Revelation 19.

But there's more to the story.

Join me if you would in, join me if you would in Acts 1.6.

In Acts 1 verse 6.

That's what it says here.

Therefore, when they had come together, they asked them saying, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

And he said to them, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the father has put in his own authority, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

Now let's pick up the thought in verse 10.

And while they looked steadfastly towards Jesus, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven?

This same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven.

And so then they returned.

So here we are.

What are we receiving out of all of these verses?

And that is to recognize that when Jesus said, I will come to you, stay with me just a second.

And it said, I will come to you.

He said that on the last night of his life.

But then we recognize after he died three days later, he did come in part.

I think we all want to be in agreement.

He came.

He first came to Mary Magdalene.

He later on came to Peter and John.

He later on came to the disciples.

He would later on come to them by going through a wall.

Hello, here I am.

And he came later on.

Even after that, he would come to them as he told them to go to Galilee and he met them and had a fish fry on the beach at the Sea of Galilee because especially he had some work to do with you know who there to interrupt that apostles train of thought that he might forever after that be assured and confident and know who he was serving.

We'll talk about that later on in the course of this message.

Why am I bringing this all out?

This is not to discount the glorious fulfillment of the kingdom of God coming to this earth under the auspices given him by God the Father to Jesus Christ to land on the Mount of Olives and to interrupt human history once and forever.

Because when as it says in Daniel when it says in Daniel that the stone which is disallowed is going to enter and shatter the kingdom of the beast it says there will be no more people in charge.

There's going to be no more systematic up and down of empires from Babylon to Persia to Macedonia and Greece to Rome.

Nada as we say no more and he does come back and he stays and everything begins to change.

What I'm trying to share with you is simply this in my and I'm when I'm talking to you I'm talking to myself.

We can look at trumpets and we can look at that fulfillment the glorious ultimate fulfillment but what I want to share with you and get into your minds today is that be ready to hear the trumpet call today.

Be ready to hear the trumpet call tomorrow.

Be ready to hear the trumpet call next month.

Have your ears tuned to the trumpet call because God still has business with each and every one of us and I want to put it this dynamically and this bluntly that you and I worship the God that interrupts not only human history but human history and he will continue hear me he's going to continue to interrupt the lives of his flock the lives of his people he's going to interrupt he's going to intervene it will be intimate it will not always be necessarily happy but it will be towards our growth as he molds us and we have to understand and listen carefully and understand why he is doing what we're doing because we said well why is God I've been in this way I have been a faithful servant I'm doing this I'm doing that I'm doing doing and I'm doing and and then this comes up and you find out that sometimes oftentimes bad things tough things happen to the people of God it's not that they won't happen it's what do we learn from them that the Spirit of God the Spirit of the Father and the Spirit of the Son activates the situation or life and there's a trumpet call as to our movement what do I mean by all of that join me if you would and we're going to go to numbers nine join me if you would please numbers nine fascinating story and this revolves around trumpets in the book of Numbers I'm picking up the thought in chapter nine because what happens is we're going to go through numbers nine numbers ten for a moment because this is the play of trumpets in the camp of Israel but to recognize what it is about notice what it says here in numbers nine and picking up the verse in 15 now on the day that the tabernacle was raised up this is in the wilderness the cloud covered the tabernacle the tent of the testimony from evening until morning and it was from above the tabernacle like the appearance of fire basically the brightness and the light of God so it was always the cloud covered it by day and the appearance of fire by night and whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle after that the children of Israel would journey and in the places where the cloud settled there the children of Israel would pitch their tents at the command of the Lord the children of Israel would journey and at the command of the Lord they would camp as long as the cloud stayed above the tabernacle they remained encamped so we take a look at that what was being talked about the the cloud was the represent what we call the shekinah it was it represented the presence of God it represented the presence of God and that cloud would come down it would shade the tabernacle during the day and then of course it'd be the the fire by night but what's that all about and what is happening that there was movement and God was in control of that movement now let's go to numbers 10 because we're going to be talking about two different sets of trumpets that maybe you're not acquainted with one would be the trumpets of silver which we're about to touch on the second is the shofar which we are more familiar with this is now and and what what are those trumpets about i'm going to bring it down to just two simple phrases that sometimes are first and foremost associated obviously with the scripture and one with Jesus Christ but also i've written both columns over the years what is the trumpet call whether it's in revelation or whether it was to the people of old in israel simply this two words number one this is the way this is the way walk in it that's what the trumpets going to tell us in numbers 10 number two you know it's one thing think this we might this is the powerpoint you might want to look up from it it's one way to this is the this is a gesture of God of old and Jesus Christ in persona where he'd say this is the way walk you in it you know you can tell somebody that but the second part is the most beautiful it's an invitation isn't it follow me there's an interruption you're going the wrong way this is the way walk you in it right but by the way now you follow my foot you you follow me the invitation is on this is a beautiful now it's chapter 10 and the Lord spoke to Moses saying make two silver trumpets for yourself you shall make them have hammered work you shall use them for calling the congregation and for directing the movement of the camps and when they blow both of them all the congregation shall gather together before you at the door of the tabernacle of meeting but if they blow only one hello is anybody listening to now they're blowing one now notice but if they blow only one then the leaders the heads of the divisions of Israel shall gather to you and when you sound the advance the camps that lie on the east side shall then begin their journey and when you sound the advance the second time not just the first time but second time then the camps that lie in the south shall begin their journey and they shall sound the call for them to begin their journeys out verse seven and when the assembly is to be gathered together you shall blow but not sound the advance now i could go on and on i want to keep this shorter than longer would you what's the bottom line with numbers 10 if you're a covenant individual you're in the wilderness you're moving towards the promised land what is the instruction here and what do you have to know i'm gonna ask you you thought i was going to do all the talking what's this telling us good before but before you move what's that mike time to go time to get up get out and get going okay yeah somebody else you have to first of all be hearing number two you have to be alert day hearing number three you have to be alert to listening then you have to move and you know what you're going about your business and all of a sudden oh come on not again have you ever been talking to somebody i know none of you have ever done this before and you say you know come on you are interrupting me i'm doing my thing that's jargon for i'm doing my thing don't you see i'm busy i want you to understand something as christians and as as doulos as servants as as slave bound to to the great master his business is our business his ways are to be our ways we should never be too busy not to have our ears open or our eyes open to the word and like a trumpet make a sound and just stop stop what is the message what is the message of the living word what is the message of the spoken word from that living word what is the message that comes from the written word and to stop to look to hear what is being spoken to listen to it to absorb it to understand it and to change our ways and that's not only always quote and quote are you with me the good stuff it's when the tough stuff of life comes along and god interrupts our life and we have to make sense of it interesting there was an interruption i want to share a thought with you there is come with me to luke nine now familiar scriptures luke nine and picking up the thought in verse excuse me luke luke nine verse 56 no verse 57 and now it happened as they journeyed on the road that's one of my favorite words in the bible now when it says now you know something is about to happen now so so and but b-u-t that is the time to open your eyes and hearts and to know something is about to happen and as paul harvey used to say and now for the rest of the story now it happened as they journeyed on the road that someone said to them lord i will follow you wherever you go and jesus said to them foxes have holes and birds of the air have nest but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head and then he said to another follow me but he said lord let me first go and bury my father and then jesus said him let the dead bury their own dead but you go and preach the kingdom of god and another three is not always true and then he said to another follow me but he said and another three is not always a charm and another said lord i will follow you but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house but jesus said to them no one having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of god transcribe numbers nine and numbers ten that when the trumpet sounded and there was going to be the movement of the people weren't they to follow weren't they weren't they to heed the invitation of god and know that god is good and god knows best and it's time to move hmm you see i i have a firm belief that we continue to hear the words of christ his spirit and the spirit of the father and you might just want to transcribe this down roman's 8 11 14 this is a core verse of our understanding of what the holy spirit is it is the spirit of the father it is the spirit of the son given to us implanted in us by the call of the father of when you heard it wherever you were all of a sudden i that that is a trumpet i have never heard that is a message that i have never received from another pulpit it's making sense for the very first time and you responded to that trumpet what i'm sharing with you 30 or 40 or 50 months or years down the line we've got to stay attuned to the trumpet if we don't stay attuned to the trumpet of god's spirit now what does that mean for when the great trumpet sounds in revelation remember this remember this god is going to be rewarding those that have been with christ now we know that the the early disciples it says in acts four about verse 13 there was a difference and it said and the the notifiable difference with the Pharisees and the authorities verse that they had been with christ it's a great line they had been with christ and that is our difference from the world that we've been called out of that we have been with christ we have recognized that by the father's auspices that the voice of christ continues to come through us by the holy spirit and therefore what will we do we all look forward to rising to the occasion in the future when there that there's that great resurrection of the saints but we will only rise in the future if we rise to the calls that are before us now as we follow the ways of jesus christ i want to share a thought with you here join me if you would in revelation three and verse 20 revelation three and verse 20 simple notice what it says here behold i stand at the door and knock if anyone hears like a trumpet if anyone hears my voice and opens the door i will come into him and dine with him and he with me open invitation but you christ does his part but we've got to do our part and when we either hear the knock on the door of our heart or we hear the sound of the trumpet of god's word and inspiration we need to respond to that i want to share a thought with you about about uh face of trumpets which which the jews call raschishana and they blow a shofar and i'm going to actually end with the story of the shofar but they blow a shofar you know one of the you know horn like this and what they will actually thought i was going to make a sound i didn't okay so anyway that and they will blow it 100 times no i don't like doing this but you got it now you know we know like that that's the last time i'm going to do that in my lifetime okay in front of people anyway but they do that a hundred times it's very interesting that they don't just do it once i take i take something out of that that god is going to keep on knocking on my door more than once in my my christian experience the trumpet is going to sound it's going to interrupt interrupt my life that i might gain christ that i might become a fuller and more mature child of the father i need to be prepared for that i need to understand that and god is an equal opportunity provider when that comes i'm going to pick up on the shofar later just so you know you know sometimes it says that misery loves company but also the saints love company and god gives us a lot of company to understand down through the ages i want you to think of lives that interrupted and i say this as one outside of the goldfish bowl looking in and i tried carefully and sensitively because i realize that some of you have had your lives in different occasions over different years turned upside down please understand i want to be careful what i say but i would be irresponsible if i i didn't say this because all of us are on that same journey and god has his purposes purposes that sometimes can only be made sense in hebrews 2 9 through 10 that it says through suffering that jesus learned obedience and he was perfect and yet god used the tool of suffering that that interruption where he was taken out of the garden beaten to a pulp marched through the streets of jerusalem nailed to a piece of wood mocked by awe for you and for me that we might learn and that god allows at times tough things to happen to his children into his saints i want to just share some things about interruptions i'm going to by the way i'm going to pass out my notes because i'm going to use about half of them today so i'm going to pass them out to you so just listen for drink of the lives that have been interrupted in human uh in biblical history noah was interrupted you think you've done everything in your life god called noah at 480 years of age and he said you're going to build a boat it's probably tells you that you can teach an old dog new tricks but god outlined what that boat was going to be like too there's another thing so he was kind of a bifocational minister because while he was boat building he was also a preacher of righteousness but god interrupted him for a purpose jobe not excuse me noah number two jobe jobe's life was interrupted i'll share a thought with you very quickly i know over the years we said well you know god god god you know jobe was all right but he was self-righteous and so the god was teaching him and kind of moving him through the self-righteous not i never agreed with that i think i think the book of jobe i think the book of jobe is about the life of a christian today it's about the journey it's about the journey somebody once asked mr harvard armstrong said mr armstrong was jobe ever converted mr armstrong thought about the for a moment he said well yeah it was but it took him 42 chapters it's when he came to chapter 42 verse five i've heard of you by the hearing of the ear but now my eye it sees you jobe was a good man i think he was a good father you're a good husband but god was taking him to a different place and expanded outlook that no matter who we are on earth we have to leave some things to god and we will not always be able to understand everything we will not always be able to have our jigsaw puzzle pieces come together perfectly down here below we have to you know you ever had a box of jigsaw puzzles it's like you take the box and say god i've i've tried here's the box i'll leave the rest to you and you know for nearly 3,500 years the what the jews took from the book of jobe is you've got to leave some things to god just as much as when we're talking about trumpets you know i've you know i've been in this way of life for six years and biblical prophecy and hearing people and you know sometimes god jesus said and angel no man's going to know the day or the hour but then you know just leave it to man don't try to find the month there's just always that squeeze god says you're not going to know i don't set dates because i've always said many years ago as a youngster growing up in this way of life i just stopped trying to set date the only date i i said is with my wife and she may say no so don't set dates but look and long and pray as jesus taught us thy kingdom come what about moses moses was over in self-exile over in midian had his time share had his flock and one time he looked up and there was this fire going on up in the crevice of the sinai mountains and he said what goes on here his life was interrupted what about samuel young samuel hannah's boy oh by the way hannah's life was interrupted and she prayed to god and god opened her womb and then there's this kid that she does follow through and gives him over to the lord so he's with the the high priest eli and god comes to samuel in the middle of the night like a trumpet with a voice with the sound and it's interesting he keeps with a voice with the sound and it's interesting he keeps on waking up the kid and finally and the kid keeps on going to eli eli what's going on third time's a charm at the third time at the third time with that trumpet of the voice in his ears something happens here and we know the rest join me if you would in first three first samuel three first samuel three if you don't know where first samuel is it's in front of second samuel that's all i'm going to tell you first samuel three picking up the thought if i can get there yeah here we go first samuel three okay and first samuel three and picking up the thought here let's just go into verse six then the lord called yet again samuel so samuel arose and went to eli and said here i am for you called me and he answered i did not call my son lie down again verse seven now samuel did not yet know that the lord nor was the word of the lord yet revealed to him and the lord called samuel again the third time so he arose and went to eli and said here i am for you did call me and then eli perceived that the lord had called the boy therefore eli said to samuel go lie down and it shall be if he calls you that you must say speak lord for your servant hears so samuel went and lay down in his place and now the lord came and stood and called as at the other times samuel samuel and samuel answered speak for your servant hears remember the shofar raschishana again and again and again telegraphing something god's going to come at us again and again because he loves us he'll come at us from this side he'll come at it from this side be aware i'm only asking you as one spiritual friend to another and your family understand and god does not have favorites all of us are going to go through this in our life things are going to happen things that we're not expecting not always disaster eruptions they can be good eruptions we're going to have eruptions during are you ready to have some interruptions during the feast of tabernacles or are you just going to have a spiritual vacation you can do that in any other church feast of tabernacles is about a spiritual vocation you know it's amazing what one letter can do to change a word vacation to vocation and does god want us to have good things absolutely we may already whether we're here or whether we're going to be abroad we may have our plans we're going to do this i want to do this and i i want to do this we want to do this i want to do this ask god as we're coming up to the feast of tabernacles what does he want you to do to do whether it's here whether it's in cedar city whether it's wherever around the world be like samuel allow this message to interrupt you and to interrupt me to recognize it's not about us but as god grooming us as the potter we are the clay we are that new beginning every day in our life for god and for one another what about amis amis was called of god and he was just a shepherd guy out in the field and before you know it god interrupted his life and he was telling the king of judah and the king of israel the trumpet call of god and what was going on what about jeremiah young guy right jeremiah and what what what did what did what did god say you're going to you're going to do big things for me jerry and what did jeremiah say i'm too young to die that's kind of a mistranslation but you know what i'm saying he said i'm just too young he said and then god gave me advice love it he says don't look at their faces don't i'm looking at bob i'm staring you down bob got a good face he said don't look at their faces how often does that thwart us from doing god's will or doing what we ought to be doing because we're looking at other people's faces don't we know bottom line the weber one one not holy but it's good is that don't look around don't look around look up that's my favorite you some of you have gotten that over the years i've got i actually got that i've got i actually got that from marty guts i think you know the gentleman that sings you know the troubadour he says keep looking up don't look around look up that's where our that's what really gets us in trouble more than anything in this walk of life we're looking around looking at everybody's faces listening to all of their their their small sounds uh rather than listening to god so remember that as we go up no matter what's going to be happening during this month with the the feast travel the pilgrimage tour you look up look up don't look around we know where the world is going is not a good world out there and i don't need to repeat what's happening that we are in a terrible anise a terrible that's latin for a terrible year of what's happening in this world when these things happen what did jesus say then look up what about the example of a young jewish girl whose life was interrupted the trumpet of an angel came to her and said you're going to have messiah she said let it be another person's life was interrupted that was her husband her fiance the way it worked out in those days and a good man joseph was a good man and he wasn't going to have her stoned he was probably just going to quietly put her away because of the situation but she didn't fully understand gabriel came to him and he gave gave said okay joseph saying i've thought of this and i've thought of that and i'm doing really good here and you know what i'm going to do i'm just going to put her away and god god gave a third option that he hadn't thought of marry her his life was interrupted forever what's another example we have the example of the apostle peter was interrupted again and again one of the great interruptions found at the end of found at the end of book of john john 21 there there it's after the beach fry you know on on the on the coastline of Galilee and he gets peter off and got some unfinished business and maybe god has some unfinished business with us and he said by the way peter do you love me oh lord you know that i love you you was enough he interrupted do you love me that was enough and he had to interrupt a third time until he knew and sometimes that's what god is going to do with us and our march towards the kingdom as the trumpet sound tells us to go hither or yon or this way or that way or hold or what part of that trumpet is it is it one trumpet is it two trumpets what is the movement as to recognize with the story of numbers the the cloud that we were talking about are you with me the cloud that we're talking about hovering that that that was the pre-existence of the one of jesus jesus was in that cloud he is the i am he was as it says in first christians 10 he was that rock he was that cloud that israel followed in the wilderness and so he's going to have this business with us what about the the example of the apostle paul interrupted fell off a donkey on the way to damascus and what happens what happens he goes blind when you lose your sight voila that's an interruption but then after so many days the light of the gospel came to him and he was never the same individual what about the example of paul paul trying to do the work of god and sometimes we're trying to do our best in whatever we are whether we're living up in raimona whether we're living down in chula vista whether we're living up in north county wherever we are and you know what what's paul doing he's trying to spread the gospel he thinks you know maybe we should go down to you know towards ephesus no well then i'll go up here to uh to put the no and the trumpet call comes the voice of god the spirit of jesus along with the spirit of the father the holy spirit tells him go west young man go west go to troy get ready to make troy a diving board to take the gospel take the gospel to europe for the very first time but i want to leave for a moment i want to talk about something can you say well you know robin haven't you left out somebody yes they have we've left out abraham the father of the faithful how many of you think we should leave out abraham okay so this message is going to go another half hour no just joking let's talk about abraham for a moment i'm just going i'm going to send out my notes so you're going to i'm just watch this what a beautiful man that god has given us to be the human father of the faithful let's remember that abraham had a son he had a son of promise you talk about an interruption i'm 73 i think what uh uh abraham got the news that he was going to have a kid what around 75 or so whatever it is nothing but he had now he and sarah had not had a child of their own he has that child and that child is growing up now probably a young guy probably 19 or 20 we're not sure i not that old i wasn't there i'm not the fly on the wall but god said to him what he said here's what i want you to do i want you to take your son i want you to go to the hills of mariah which is jerusalem interesting in that area and you're going to sacrifice them you're going to sacrifice the son of promise the son of promise abraham goes there and so they start going up the hill they on isaac as he picks up a bundle of wood it's on him which is symbolic of what would happen later on in glaucom the carrying of wood and they're going up you know isaac's about 19 or 20 he's not a dumb there's nobody too young here he's not a dumb kid okay he's looking around he's going i don't know if dad's okay hello what's going on here and then it right abraham says don't worry god will provide god will provide so they keep on going up long story short isaac is going to be sacrificed abraham goes up with the life it's held back and god says now i know after that guess what oh look over there in the thicket there's a ram hello and that becomes a sacrifice there's two things i want to really penetrate into your heart just listen to me for a second please if there's anything that i could share with you today as one christian to another and the trumpet call of god the trumpet call of jesus christ that continues until that great trumpet call in the future take this with you and tuck this in your heart god will provide god will provide once they got down off that mountain you know what they named the mountain the mountain's name is god will provide what mountain were you listen what mountain range were they in what what hills were they in pardon the mountains of mariah well it's defined as mariah the hills of mariah and where's that that's jerusalem stay with me he was able to say that because he recognized that as it says in the book of hebrews that god was able to raise his son up he knew this god that he had been faithful to here's the man called out of er which is like the manhattan of the of antiquity he says you're going to learn to camp the rest of your life as everybody's pouring into this megalopolis called er there's one car going out of town maybe with a trailer on a journey that only god knows that god is going to be his compass this one man who gives everything and the two things about this man is that there's two things that he's known by number one he is he tents he is the man of tents he's a pilgrim he does not put down roots and number two he only worships the one true god and will only offer on the altar that he builds he will never synchronize he will never cheapen the call of god by sacrificing on another altar and then this happens and god will provide do you know why the jews blow a ram's horn and what that means to a jew and what should mean to us as spiritual jews as the spiritual house of israel the body of christ they use a ram's horn and they the shofar because when they blow that what they are saying is god will provide the ram's horn from the ram caught in the thicket to which he had said when the call of god came to him when his life was interrupted and his son was about to be taken away from me even if it were for a worthy cause to be given to god he went through with it here's one thing i'd like to share with you as we conclude and it's simply this i'm gonna put on my glasses so i can read wherever you are today i want you to know that god will provide i wrote this many many years ago and it goes like this speaking of jesus christ the son of the father to realize that the one that god has provided for us to sound the trumpet in our hearts he speaking of jesus walks on waters headed our way in the stormiest moments of our life jesus will move through walls and nothing can keep him apart from us because nothing can keep us apart from the love of christ he appears in gardens when we are saddest thinking of mary magdalene sad because her good friend is seemingly gone he stands besides us when we are loneliest nobody around like the blind man abandoned by all by his family by his neighbors and by his church and by his church he appears as a stranger on the way to amaeus to prepare to share something more about god and lastly he encourages us and stands before us when we need and stands up for us when we need him the most just like he did just like he did for stephen and stephen looked up and he saw the son of man standing saying i've been there i'm with you bro i know what you're going through i love you more is going to be coming the last thought i'd like to share with you is simply this what i've been trying to share with you probably inadequately today is simply this jesus christ didn't only say lo i am coming for that big coming in the future he did say this though lo i am with you always to the end of the age hopefully this has been the trumpet of god to make a difference in all of our lives on this day sabbath day that points to the holy day that points to what the kingdom of god and the sounding fourth of the glorious trumpet come come my good and faithful servants