Preparing Your Heart

Well, I mentioned the Feast of Tabernacles. I really do hope wherever you went it was an inspiring feast. We were up in Jekyll Island. It was good to see many of you there. And it was a good feast up there. I hope everyone that was there was inspired and got a taste of the kingdom. I think as we go to the feast, it's best if we come back and we can talk about the things that we learned when we were there, and not just the sites that we saw and not just the things that we did. The feast is a time for us to understand God more, get a vision of His kingdom, and appreciate that. And when we come and to have an opportunity for the only time during the year that we have to be with each other eight days in a row, nine days if you count the day that we're there for the opening night service. And that in itself is a huge reason to be at the feast, because I think if we look back at the feast and the things that were meaningful in it, yes, the messages are good. Yes, it's good to be fed from God's word day after day after day after day. Yes, it's good for the activities that we have. We all be together. One of the highlights of the feast is that we are all together for eight days. And that fellowship means a lot to us. And that fellowship should be something that even more inspires us and makes us want to feel closer to God. So I hope you came back from that and enjoyed that. And now that your fires are lit, the question that we have is, how do we keep those fires burning? Right? Well, let's go to Revelation 1. Revelation 1, and I always find this series of Scriptures here inspiring to see how Jesus Christ relates to His churches and... or the churches, the church, His church down through the ages, talks about Him walking among us. And it's always a comforting thought to realize that wherever we are, Christ is with us, watching what we're doing.

And while we're at the feast, He's there with us as well because those holy days are important to Him. Those holy days are significant and ones that we should be celebrating and embracing as we learn of His way of life. In verse 12 of Revelation 1, John, as he was under inspiration and vision, he says, He says, Jesus Christ, walking among the sons of the Christ, walking among the seven lampstands. If you drop down to verse 20, you see that he says those seven lampstands are the seven churches of God that span the time from when Christ began His church back in Matthew 16 up until the time that He returns. And He teaches His church, and His church has the truth, the keys to Hades and death. And as we've gone through the fall holy days, from the Feast of Trumpets right up through the last great day, the eighth day, whatever you call it, to that time, we've learned much about what God's plan is for mankind, and we've learned things and refreshed our minds on things that the rest of the world just doesn't know. They don't understand the hope that we have. They don't understand the salvation for all mankind. But you and I have that. God gave us the keys and the understanding of Hades and death, and that should inspire us, and that should motivate us. Now, we should have come home feeling that we want to be much closer to God, following Him much more, much more closely. If we observe the Feast, all the Feasts of God, all the holy days of God, in the manner that He says we will want to be closer to Him. If we don't feel close to Him, then we might want to look and see how did we keep those holy days? Did we do it the way God said? Because if the joy is missing, if the gladness is missing, if the desire to be closer to God is missing, probably we missed something, and there's some examination that needs to be done. Well, you know, Jesus Christ talks about those seven lampstands. Those seven lampstands, there's light that burns in His Church throughout all the ages. And God expects there to be a burning fire in us. Let's go back to Exodus 27. You know, when God gave the instructions to Israel on how to build that tabernacle and later the temple, I mean, He was detailed. He was detailed in everything that He wanted them to do. He gave them specific orders on how to construct the table, the instruments in it, and the lampstands that were in it. And He gave instructions to Israel on what they were supposed to do with those lamps. Let's look at Exodus 27 and verse 21.

It says, in the tabernacle of meeting, outside the veil—and remember in Old Testament times, God was dwelling with His people in that temple. In the tabernacle of meeting, outside the veil, which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening until morning before the Lord.

Aaron and his sons had a responsibility to do what was talked about here in verse 20 in keeping those lamps burning. But it wasn't just Aaron and his sons' responsibility. It was the whole congregation's responsibility. Verse 20, "'You shall command the children of Israel that they bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to cause the lamp to burn continually.'" Aaron and his sons had the responsibility to tend it and keep it burning, but the people had the responsibility, "'You bring the oil.'" We all have a responsibility for that light that God ignited in us at the Feast of Tabernacles and the eight days that we were away. We all have a responsibility to keep that light burning brightly.

And that's not an easy thing to do. It takes work. It takes effort. I mean, Aaron and his sons and the children of Israel, they knew we can't let that light go out at all. We always have to have a supply of oil already. We've always got to be on. We can't just, whoops, it went out for five minutes. Let's get it going again. It took around-the-clock effort, something that they were constantly doing, and it was supposed to happen throughout Israel's time. You and I have the same responsibility. The light that God is that should be burning in us is our responsibility, all of our responsibility, to keep that light burning brightly.

You know, we talk about oil, oil of lamps and lights burning brightly. It should remind you of Matthew 25, Matthew 25 and the parable of the ten virgins. And you remember the ten virgins? Five of them had oil for their lamp. Five of them didn't. Five of them didn't. Five of them let their responsibility wane during the course of their calling. We'll get to them a little bit later. But as we ask the question, how do we keep our lights burning?

And I can give you several points. You can give me several points. Well, we know that if we're going to do that, what ignited us during the Holy Days and what we did, it was God's Word. It was His message. It's His truth that did. And what we need to do every day, we know, is we need to read. We need to study. And reading the Bible is different than studying the Bible.

We have to do both of them. Not just read five or six chapters in a day and say we've done our job and we do that day after day. Because studying is where we really begin to understand the Scriptures and dig into it and apply it into our lives. We know we need to pray because without praying, there's no communication or relationship with God.

If we don't talk to Him with heartfelt prayer, then there's not going to be any light that's burning. That's part of what ignites us as well. We know meditation is part of what we need to do. We have to contemplate what's going on. We've got to set aside the time and turn off the Internet and turn off the TV. Take the time to just think about what we know, what we've done, examine where we are, think about the things that we read, think about the things we study.

How do they apply into the 21st century? Because God's Word that we have in front of us we know is absolutely as meaningful and instructive to us today as it was in the times of the Old Testament Israelites or the New Testament Christians that lived back at the times of the apostles. It's there for us. We just have to think about it and let God, through His Holy Spirit, guide us and direct us and help us. And there's another thing we have to do, too. And if we neglect any one of those, the fire is going to go out as we get back into the world and as we face our time in school or our time at work or our time in retirement, even if we're not going out into the world, we really are.

We really are in the world. You know, whether we're working out in it or going out into the school in it or not, because we shop in it every day, we listen to the news every day, we do all these things every day, and we can watch that fire just a little bit being doused out if we don't watch what we're doing and if we're not continually tending it and keeping it alive.

One more thing that we have to do and not neglect, it tells us in the Bible, is the fellowship with each other. We have to have the fellowship. Without it, the fire goes out. I was looking through, as I was preparing the sermon, some of my old notes from years ago and whatever, and I came across a story that I pulled off of the internet that kind of illustrates this. It still illustrates this. Let me just read this to you. I think it has a really good message because sometimes we discount the importance of fellowship with one another in the body that God put us into.

This is a story about embers in a fire. Let me just read it to you. It says, the story is told of a man who stopped going to church. He figured he could be just as faithful, worshiping God on his own. And we see that among us today, right? People can say, if I just listen, if I stay home today, I'll listen to webcasts. That's as good as being a church. If I just pop a sermon DVD in, that's as good as being a church.

Not so. He figured he could be just as faithful, worshiping God on his own. A few weeks went by, and the minister came to visit. It was a cold and blustery day. They sat in the living room by the fireplace and made small talk. Then the minister took the fire tongs, picked up a glowing ember, and placed it on one side of the hearth. The two men washed without saying a word. In no time, that ember began to cool.

A few minutes later, the minister picked up the dead ember with his fingers and pushed it back into the fire. Immediately, it sparked back to life. Without a word, the minister put on his coat and started to leave. The man looked at him and said, That was one of your best sermons. I'll see you at church next week. So, don't forsake. Don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together. It's an important part of God's plan to us.

The Feast of Tabernacles is one time where eight days in a row, I hope you experience the joy of meeting people of like mind and feeling instantaneous bonds with them. You may have never met them before, but to get to know them and talk with them in an easy way, I hope you felt. I hope you saw the fruit of the Spirit working. I hope wherever you were, it was a peaceful time, a calm time, a joyous time. I hope you saw people happy to be there. I hope you saw those things and kind of found yourself wishing, You know, I wish every day could be like this. I wish all the time we could be with people like this and enjoy this type of environment. But one day that will be. One day that will be when God's people are all together and we work together as a church, as a body, that He has called us to.

Well, we have to keep, but we have to keep those embers burning. How do we do that? Well, let's turn over to Luke 21, because we do find in Scripture what we need to do. It's great to come back and say, you know what? I'm going to do this from here on out. I'll be at every Sabbath service from here on out. I'm going to go to every Bible study from here on out. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. Words are great. But words, if they aren't preceded by something, can be very empty and can be very, very unfulfilling, if you will. In Luke 21, in verse 12, Christ is talking to the people of His time about a time that was going to come on them, that they were going to be persecuted, they were going to be tried. And they were going to be called before magistrates and kings. We were told today, we're being rounded up and we're going to go have an audience with whoever it is. It might be a little daunting to us. What are we going to say? What are we going to do? But Christ had a message for them. In Luke 21, verse 12, it says, Before all these things, they'll lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons.

You'll be brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake. It's His will that it would be done. But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony. See, God has something in mind. Maybe not so pleasant of an experience, but it turns out for you as an occasion for testimony. Verse 14, Therefore, settle it in your hearts, not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer.

Settle it in your hearts. I'll give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist.

Think about it ahead of time. It's very easy to say, Oh, when that time comes, yes, that's exactly what I'll do. When I'm called before someone, if I have to answer for Christ, and I have to answer for what I believe, even though I may be faced with a guillotine or whatever it is that they may be threatening me with, I will stand up and I will say exactly what it is that I need to say.

We should probably all say that. We have examples in the Bible of people like Peter, right? Peter, hey, Christ, I won't deny you no matter what happens. And then that very night, he denied him three times. The words were good, but they weren't preceded by what he needed to do, and he had to learn a lesson. The words are good, but if they're not preceded by something, things may not turn out the way that you that you hope.

Excuse me. Excuse me. So he says, settle it in your hearts. Think about these things. Get ready for it. Contemplate it. Contemplate it, he would say. Let's go back to Proverbs 27.

Proverbs 27.

Verse...

Proverbs 27 and verse 24.

I'm sorry, 24, 27. Thought they didn't look right.

Proverbs 24 and verse 27.

Concept. Proverbs full. Full of advice for us. And probably everything we ever encounter, you know, if we applied everything to Proverbs, our lives would be so much better. Proverbs 24 and verse 27. Prepare your outside work. Make it fit for yourself in the field. And afterward, build your house. Get all that outside stuff done. Don't just go into the empty field, start building the house, and then think, oh, I've got to think about this and that and whatever.

Prepare outside before you start building that house. Prepare the land. Prepare what's going on. Think about it. Have a plan. Don't just go into it and begin without thinking about it. Christ said the same thing in Luke 14 when he said, count the cost.

Who begins building a tower without first counting the cost? Because if you don't count the cost, you may only partly finish that tower. Count the cost. Think about it. Prepare your hearts. Settle your hearts. Daniel. Daniel won. Daniel found himself. A young man coming out of Judah and dropped into the courtyard of Nebuchadnezzar, who was the most powerful man on earth at that time, coming out of a society that knew of God and into a society that had no idea who God was and worshipped a different God and did things differently. And Daniel, a young man, as he entered that society, he not only survived, he also thrived in that society, not by being assimilated into it, but by purposing in his heart, we see, in verse 8, not to become part of it.

Daniel 1, verse 8. Daniel. Daniel purposed in his heart that he wouldn't defile himself with the portion of the king's delices or the wine, etc. Before he ever got to that situation where he was faced with, here's what you're going to eat, here's what the young men do in Babylon in the training program, he had purposed in his heart.

And our heart is the soul of what we are and who, what we think. He has spent time thinking, when I get there, I'm not going to be defiled by Babylon. I'm not going to be defiled even by the food of Babylon. I'm not going to be part of any of it. I'm going to remain separate because I have a calling separate than Babylon. I know what I believe. I know who the God, the true God is, and I'm going to follow that.

And I purpose in my heart, I'm not going to even eat their food. And Daniel didn't. Young man, and he had the guts to stand up and say, No, I'm not going to eat that. I won't defile myself. And you know, Daniel, throughout his life, he never did become part of Babylon. He perfectly fulfilled. I don't know about perfectly fulfilled 2 Corinthians 6, 14, where it said, Come out of her, my people. Be separate from them. Don't even touch what is unclean. And Daniel did it in a little thing here with food. But he never allowed himself to become defiled with the doctrines of the Babylonians, with the beliefs of the Babylonians, or anything.

Throughout his life, until the end of time, he remained true to God. Did he want to do that? Yes. What did he do in order to have that be fulfilled? He purposed in his heart. Purposed in his heart before he ever got to Babylon, I won't let myself, as God gives me the power, to become defiled with Babylon. Settle it in your hearts. Purpose it in your hearts. Back in 1 Samuel, when Samuel was talking to the people of Israel, he puts it another way.

1 Samuel 7. 1 Samuel 7. At the time, Israel was wanting to bring the ark back from the Philistines, and they had a desire. Bring it back. Bring it back to where it belongs. Good desire. Bring back the things of God to where he is, to where he is. But Samuel had some words of advice to them. If they want to do this, if they want to be successful in bringing this ark back to their land, in verse 3, 1 Samuel 7, Samuel spoke to all the houses of Israel, saying, If, there's that little word, if, if you return to the Lord with all your hearts, with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods, put away the foreign gods and the ashdereths from among you.

Let's just stop there. If you're going to return to God, there's work to do. Not just words, there's work to do. Look at your life, look at your landscape, look at the things you do, and you know what?

Put away the things that are apart from God. Get those things out of your life. Israel, if you're going to come back to God, you need to put away the foreign gods from the land. You need to take the ashdereths and these shrines that are there, you need to get them out. Don't come before God and just give him words. Show him you are intent on cleaning up your life, of purifying your life, and putting out the things that are not of God.

And come before him. So put away the foreign gods and the ashdereths from among you, and prepare your hearts. Prepare your hearts for the eternal and serve him only, and he will deliver you from the hands of the Philistines. Samuel says a lot in those verses, or in that verse. Prepare your heart. You know, our heart, as I said, is the essence of who we are.

We need to train it. We need to make it become, with God's power, of course, and as he leads us into what his will is. The light will continually burn. God will do his part with giving us the things that we need. We have to do our part in continually keeping that fire alive, and it begins with our hearts. What do we want? You know, there's a song out, I don't know, a few years ago, The Heart Wants, What the Heart Wants.

We need to train our hearts that today, or when we're called, don't want what God wants. Over the course of our lifetimes, they have to become hearts that want what God wants, and that takes effort, and that takes determination, and that takes focus, and that takes you and me doing that. That's our part, and our together part, in keeping the lights burning, keeping those lamps lit, helping each other through the weaknesses that we have, bonding together with one another, serving God with one mind and one heart focused on him.

Let's go back. You know, the kings of Israel and Judah are awfully good examples to us. Let's go back and look at a king that we haven't talked about in some time here, back in 2 Chronicles. He's a good example, a really good example for us today, because he lived in a time similar to us where he had peace around, where they had prosperity, where they weren't being faced every day with a trial or some kind of confrontation that they were having to deal with.

Asa was just a good example of who we should be, but also who we can become if we don't watch what happens with us. So let's look at 2 Chronicles 14. In verse 1, we see that Asa becomes the successor to Abijah, and it says, In his days the land was quiet for ten years. You know, we live in a time of relative peace for God's people.

We don't have anyone knocking at our doors. We're not sitting here wondering, is the police going to come and arrest us for observing the Sabbath or what we're preaching here? We live in a time of peace. No one is persecuting us. No, we're not through any tribulation. We live in a land of freedom that God has given us at this time so that his word could grow. And that was similar here with Asa. Asa says in verse 2, Did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God.

For he removed the altars of the foreign gods in the high places. He broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the wood and images. He took care of all those things. When he became king, get rid of them. They're not of God. We don't need them in our landscape. That's not part of who we are anymore. That's not part of the God we worship. Eliminate them. He commanded, verse 4, Judah, to seek the Lord God of their fathers and to observe the law and the commandment. He was king, and he was going to live that way.

The people were going to live that way as well. He removed the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah. And the kingdom was quiet. They had peace. God was allowing them to develop and to grow, much like He's given us a time of peace today to grow and develop the fruits of the Spirit.

A relatively peaceful time. During that time, in verse 6, Asa built fortified cities in Judah, for the land had rest. He had no war in those years. He had no war in those years. Because the Lord had given him rest. And it's nice when we have those peaceful years, isn't it? When we don't have any major trials that confront us. No sicknesses, no health challenges, no financial challenges, no one threatening us for anything or anything that way. We shouldn't look at those as just good times.

We should look at those as opportunities to grow. When Judah, or when Asa looked at that, it's like, here's a time to grow. Here's a time to grow. Here's a time to build. This is a time for us to grow and a time for us to build. Not a time to just fall asleep or take life easy.

And so, even though they were a time of peace, Asa said in verse 7, Let us build these cities. Let us make walls around them. Let us build towers and gates and bars while the land is yet before us. Because we have sought the eternal our God.

We have sought Him, and He has given us rest on every side. So they built, and they prospered. Now, there's a danger when we build and prosper. We can build and begin looking at the things we built and begin trusting in them. We can begin prospering and begin trusting in that prosperity. I don't have to worry where my next meal is coming from.

I can buy whatever I want within reason. I've got a safe and secure place here. And so it was with Judah. They built those cities. They built them well. They grew during that time, and they built the house. Verse 8, it tells us that Asa had an army of 300,000 from Judah, who carried shields and spears, and from Benjamin 280,000, who carried shields and drew bows, they were mighty men of valor. So they had an army of 580,000 at his disposal. But then after 10 years, a real challenge came. A real trial came.

After 10 years of peace, of 10 years of building cities, fortified cities, high walls, well done, all the things that need to be done, an army of 580,000, all of a sudden something comes up. Verse 9, "'Zeroth the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million men, and 300 chariots, and he came to Marisha.'" Well, you could do the math. That's two to one odds. We've got 580,000. We've got cities that are fortified.

We've got all these walls built around us. He's got a million men. He's got a million men coming at us. What do we do now, Asa might have thought? In this day and age, if we saw an army coming against us, we would. Who knows what we would do. But notice what Asa did in verse 10. He could have said, let's retreat to our fortified cities.

Let's hide behind those walls, whatever we need to do. But Asa didn't hide behind those walls. Asa went out against him, even though the odds were stacked against him. Asa went out against him, and they set the troops in battle array in the Valley of Zavatha at Marisha. No wavering, no waiting, no panic, as if he was prepared for this time. Ten years of peace, ten years of growing. A trial comes, and look how Asa handles it.

In verse 11, Asa took his people out to battle, and Asa cried out to the eternal his God and said, Lord, it is nothing for you to help, whether with many or with those who have no power. Help us, O Lord our God, for we rest on you, and in your name we go against this multitude, O Lord. You are our God. Do not let man prevail against you. Pure faith. Pure trust in God. Not looking to his own resources, of which he had many, not looking to people around him, saying, what do we do now?

Not getting all the generals together with a powwow and saying, don't know what we're going to do here. And as a last resort, we'll ask God, there was no thought other than we go out to meet and we trust God. You are all we need. And God responded. He struck the Ethiopians, verse 12, before Asa and Judah, and the Ethiopians fled.

And they never recovered from that defeat. It didn't occur to Asa just that morning when he saw the Ethiopians to go out there and do those things. The natural thing would have been to panic. The natural thing would have been to go and look at what we can do, what do we have, how do we battle these people, what can we throw against them, where can we hide, where can we run, who can help us.

Asa did the unnatural thing that came from years of preparing his heart. In times of growth, in times of peace, that when that time of trial came, he could simply and calmly turn to God and say, it's in your hands, I trust you. All those ten years of peace, Asa was burning, the fires in Asa were burning brightly. He didn't waste them. He didn't fall asleep during them.

Those fires were burning brightly. The words that he said mirrored what was in his heart when we will turn to God. If we go over to chapter 15, we find that five years after this incident with the Ethiopians, God has given peace to the land again.

But the fires are still burning. Sometimes we have a great thing happen in our lives, and then we can just let down. Not so with Judah in this case. Five years later, it says in verse 1, The Spirit of God came upon Azariah, the son of Oded, and he went out to meet Asa, and said to him, Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he'll be found by you.

But if you forsake him, he will forsake you. A warning, a warning, if you will, to Asa. And the people had been doing the right things at that time. They still had the fires lit. If we drop down to verse 8, it says, When Asa heard these words in the prophecy of Oded, the prophet, he took courage, and he removed the Abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and from the cities which he had taken in the mountains of Ephraim. Same thing we do. When the fires are burning, when the light is being illuminated, we see more and more with each passing year where the things of our life have to be cleaned up, where our minds have to be purified.

Those little things we might not see then, we do see now, and that we will see in the future, all the way until the time we die. As those fires are lit, as those fires burn brightly, and so Asa, who did a good job, he cleared the land before that. He got rid of all the idols. He got rid of the things he saw. But you know what? As he continued to see God, there were more there.

There are more things I have to throw out of my life. There are more things that aren't of God. We're not the way we would say today. We're still not like Jesus Christ. We have work to do.

And that will always continue, year by year, as long as we draw breath. And so he took these things away, and he restored the altar of the Lord that was before the vestibule of the Lord. Verse 9. And when he heard those words, much like we might hear the inspiring words of the feast, or something that we listen to, he was excited. He was motivated to do more. And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those who dwelt with them from Ephraim and Assimian. For they came over to him in great numbers from Israel, when they saw that the Lord his God was with him. And see that? Even Israel. Israel, the little nation of Israel, when they split off, they never had a righteous king. They were never again taught to learn God's way. But when there were people over there that saw Asa, and he was living God's way, and they were watching what was going on over there, they came over.

They came over. When we do things God's way, God's people will respond. God's people will respond. And they came over. So they gathered together in Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa, five years after this Ethiopian ordeal. In verse 11, they offered to the Lord these sacrifices. And verse 12, then they, the whole congregation, the whole nation of Judah, then they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul.

They had done it years before. Asa had shown them what was being done. But here, five years later, let's enter into a covenant. Let's renew it again. Let's seek God with all our hearts, with all our minds. Let's keep that fire burning. Let's prepare our hearts. Spend five years of peace. But you know what? We need to prepare our hearts again. We need to remember who we are, what we are.

Not allow it to just fade away in good times. Remember what it is that God has called us to. Understanding what He has called us to, and when we prepare our hearts, we're preparing them for a lifetime. For eternity. Not just until the time we're baptized, not just for the first few years of our calling. For eternity. And that requires a continual tending of the lamps. That requires a continual preparing of our hearts. Not just once in our life, not just twice. Ongoing. Ongoing. Ongoing submission. Ongoing examination. Ongoing preparation of our hearts.

Ongoing settling at our hearts. Ongoing purpose. That we will follow God and reminding ourselves, no matter what occurs, I will follow Him. No matter what the cost to me personally, I will follow Him. No matter what else, I will follow Him. And that takes a lifetime of doing that so that we are ready when trials come and whatever will befall us between now and the return of Jesus Christ and beyond.

So Judah did that. They were there. They were at a time of peace. Let's go out and enter into a covenant with God that we will seek Him with all our heart and all our soul. And they were all in one accord. The whole congregation fed off of each other. The fellowship was there. They encouraged each other. It says in verse 13, whoever wouldn't seek the Lord God of Israel was to be put to death. Whether small or great. Whether man or woman. They took an oath before the Lord with a loud voice, with shouting and trumpets and ram swords.

And all Judah rejoiced at the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and sought Him with all their soul. And He was found by them, and God gave them rest all around. You know when we commit to God? When we simply lay away the weights that are before us and say, I can't do that. I don't want to do that. I don't really like that. And we just say, simply, God, I understand that you are God. It will be Your way, not my way. It will be Your ideas, not mine. It's the way You tell me to live, the way You tell me to keep the feasts, and not the way I determine to keep the feasts.

You know what? There's gladness. And there's peace. And there's joy. Just as Judah experienced here, when they just yielded to God, and with all their heart and all their minds, they committed to Him, and laid down the self, laid down their own personal interests, laid down their ideas, and surrendered to Him. If we're not at peace, if we are not at peace, and if we don't experience joy, maybe we need to look at how are we, or if we're preparing our hearts.

Because to keep that light burning brightly, that is lit when the time that Jesus Christ returns, it takes that. It takes that. Let's go over to 2 Chronicles. Let's look at another king here for a minute. We'll come back to Asa in a minute. 2 Chronicles 30. We find King Hezekiah. King Hezekiah was a good king as well. He restored truth to Israel, restored the law to Judah, I'm sorry, not Israel, to Judah. And as they were coming in and understanding God's law, they realized, man, we haven't kept the Passover.

We haven't kept the Days of Unleavened Bread in years. And they read through the law, and they saw, you know what? The priests can't really do this. They can't offer the sacrifices until there's a cleansing period for them. It's too close to the Passover for them to do that. So they decided, as it was prescribed in the law, that they would keep the Passover and Unleavened Bread in the second month. The same thing we say today. If someone can't keep the Passover for a good reason at the time that it's held on the 14th of the first month, they can keep it in the second month.

And so they were going about this. The priests were cleansing themselves. They were getting ready for the Passover to do God's will. That was in their hearts. We want to do things the way that God said. And so they go through all of this in chapter 30 and verse 12. As God watched what was going on, as he saw where their hearts were, he says this. It says, the hand of God was on Judah. They were working. They could have just gone in and said, whoops, the Passover's tomorrow. You know what? We don't have time.

Just go ahead and do it. We've got to do it. Nope. They were going to do it exactly the way God said. The hand of God was on Judah to give them singleness of heart. Singleness of heart. Singleness of heart is that you have one purpose in mind, one overarching goal in mind. They weren't there saying, okay, we've got to do this, but this and this and this. One purpose they had in that time, and that was to please God, and that was to do things his way, exactly the way that he said.

The hand of God was on Judah to give them singleness of heart, to obey the command of the king and the leaders at the word of God. When we have singleness of heart, when we want to do things God's way, when we get ourselves out of our way and our excuses out of the way and our reasons out of the way, and we want to do things God's way, he'll open up the means.

He'll open up the means. We don't have to rely on self. We don't have to doubt. He'll give us that singleness. When we have the singleness of heart, he'll reward. And so the people did it.

And as they came to the Passover in the days of Unleavened Bread, the people rejoiced. There was gladness all over Judah at that time. They were doing what God said, the same gladness that you should have experienced at the Feast of Tabernacles, the same gladness you should experience when you come to church, the same gladness we should all experience when we do things God's way. And get ourselves and our own ideas out.

Just as we read before the Feast of Nehemiah 8, when they kept the Feast of Tabernacles God's way, the people rejoiced. If we don't rejoice, if we're not glad, we might want to look at whether we're preparing our hearts and what we're doing and how we're doing it. Over in verse 18, we have the same chapter as the people come together and as they're celebrating their feast and the priests are sanctified, but not all the individual people were.

Hezekiah makes this prayer. Looking at the last line of verse 18, he prays, saying, May the good Lord provide atonement for everyone who prepares his heart to seek God, the Lord God of his fathers, though he is not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary. May God provide atonement to those who prepare their hearts.

Not just those who quickly go through the motions or make an attempt at it, but those who prepare their hearts. What's going on up here? What's going on here that God looks at? Are we doing it the way God said? Are we doing it the way we want? Are we putting our own parameters on it?

If God doesn't look for us to change his law or to amend it, he looks for us to follow. To follow, we have to prepare our minds. We have to let go of some of the things that might hold us back. Some of those foreign objects, some of those old ideas, some of those old things that we want to hold onto, that eventually we have to learn. We have to yield to God and adapt and allow him to put within us the correct attitudes, the correct way of doing things, even though that can be difficult at times. No preparing your heart. Some people say you have to tend your heart.

I know many of us have tried gardening and some of the things we do with gardening. Gardening can be a chore in Florida. I learned. It's a chore anywhere. It seems to be more of a chore in Florida than it was in the Midwest with some of the things that grow in here and some of the weather patterns. But if you set your heart to prepare a garden, there are things you have to do. You can't just go out into your backyard and say, I'm going to throw a few tomato plants out here in the middle of the grass, a few pepper seeds out here, and have this wonderful garden. It doesn't work that way. You have to do work, right? You have to go out and fill up the soil. You have to get all the weeds, the stones out. You have to have this nice bed that is primed for things to grow in. And that field is kind of like our minds, kind of like our hearts. We need to have all the rocks out. We need to have all the weeds out. We need to have all the things so that what God plants can grow to its fullest capacity. And that's what we need to do in a garden. And you know when we plant a garden and then we go out and we put the seeds in it and we plant the plants in it, that's not the end of the job. You can't just come back in three months and say, okay, I've done it. You know, I'm going to get the reward at the end of three months. No. There is all sorts of things that have to be done during the course of that. Weeds will crop up and they will choke those plants out. If you're not out there weeding those things every day, you might even have to go out until the soil again. You might have to prepare things all over again if you want to have the crop that you desire to have. And if you have a singleness of mind and if you prepare your mind that this garden, I'm going to do this garden now until the time it produces, and you don't give up in mean stream because it's kind of embarrassing, isn't it? If you have a garden and all of a sudden one comes over and you think, wow, can I just put a fence there so people can't see? I let my garden go. I've had that happen, actually. And I've learned, if we start a garden, we finish it. But we've got... it's the same thing with our hearts. It's the same thing with settling in our hearts. It's the same thing of counting the costs. It's the same thing of preparing our hearts. We have to prepare our hearts. It has to be for the fertile soil that we tend to and we keep. And it has to happen throughout the course of our lives. If we go back and want to plant that same garden the next year, it's not that we just go out there and do nothing. We have to till the soil all over again. It gets covered over. And if we don't do it, not good results. And so a continual thing in life is we prepare our hearts before we're ever baptized. We prepare our hearts to follow God. We have to continually do that.

Now, Asa, when we look at him, for 10 years, it appears that he prepared his heart well. For the next 5 years, after the challenge with the Ethiopians, he prepared his heart well. They were ready and the whole country was ready to say, we will commit to God. Everything you say we will do, we will obey you and follow you with all our hearts and all our souls.

Good for Asa. Good for Judah. But if we go back and if we look at Asa's later life, we find out how important it is to keep those fires burning, to keep preparing our hearts. It's not a one-time or two-time or 10-times or 20-times thing we do. It's something that is continuing throughout our lives. If we pick it up in chapter 16 here of 2 Chronicles, and we go back to Asa, who has set us some tremendous examples in what he's done. Tremendous examples. But in chapter 16, 25 years after the incident with the Ethiopians, and now some 20 years since the time of the covenant with Judah, a time of peace, and during all that time that God has given them a time to grow, a time to be preparing. It says, In the 36th year of the reign of the king of Asa, Beisha, king of Israel, came up against Judah and built Rama, that he might let none go out or come into Asa king of Judah. So it's a siege, basically. We'll conquer this city, and we'll conquer Judah. Now, following the pattern of the Ethiopians, we would expect Asa to behave one way. Back 10 years into his reign, he just went out and said, God, I give it to you. I trust in you. But now 35 years have passed. Now 20 years of peace have passed. Verse 2, Asa brought silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the Lord and of the king's house, and he sent to Ben Heydad, king of Syria, who dwelt in Damascus, saying, Let there be a treaty between you and me, as there was between my father and your father. See, I've sent you silver and gold. Come, break your treaty with Beyashu king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me. Ben Heydad did it, and Israel retreated. Where's God? Where's God in this trial that Asa has come up with? It's nowhere to be seen. Now he's relying on something else. Now he's gone back to his father's way. You know what? My dad had a relationship with you, Ben Heydad. Can you withdraw your treaty from Israel and save us? What happened to Asa in those 25 years? What happened to Asa in those 20 years, between the 15th year when they made all this covenant with God?

Somewhere along the line, he let his fire go out. Somewhere along the line, in a time of peace, in a time of prosperity, where things were good, he kind of got lazy. He kind of got complacent. He kind of began to rely on himself or the things around him and forgot God.

Somewhere along the line, what Oded told him back at the beginning of chapter 15, if you forsake God, he will forsake you, came to pass. All during good times, peaceful times, where there was no pressure on Asa at all for 15 years. You know, we have times in our lives where we have no pressure, no real trials to speak of. We always have little trials.

And during those times, we can fall so thoroughly asleep. We can forget that we need God. It's a challenge during those times. And so, that's what happened here with Asa. You don't see God anywhere in the picture. It's like he's no longer there. Maybe it was an afterthought with Asa, but it doesn't say that anywhere. We drop down to verse 7. It's called to his attention what the difference is. Verse 7, at that time, it says, Anani the seer came to Asa, king of Judah, and said to him, Because you've relied on the king of Syria, and haven't relied on the Lord your God, therefore the army of the king of Syria has escaped from your hand.

You relied on things. You relied on the world. You relied on other things. You didn't rely on God. And you know what? God had a plan to deliver the army of Syria into your hand. But now, because of what you chose to do, that's not going to happen. You didn't do it, God's way. You didn't seek him first. You took matters into your own hands and thought you knew better. He goes on and says, We're the Ethiopians and the Lubim, not a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen. Yet because you relied on God, he delivered them into your hand. Remember what you did back 20 years ago? 25 years ago? Look what you did then, compare it to what you did today. Look at yourself. Where are you today, Asa? For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to him. Whose heart is loyal to him. In this you have done foolishly, therefore from now on, you will have wars.

Wasn't that a sad thing? No wars for 25 years. But because you made the wrong choice, because you looked, you didn't look at God and you trusted in someone else, from here on out you're going to have wars. We can apply that into our lives a little bit and see what we do. When do we look to God first? Have we prepared our hearts that no matter what comes our way, we seek him first. With singleness of heart, do we trust on him? I wasn't here for the sermon yet, but I know you were talking about the trusting in God, that you trust in God completely. Or do we look outside and say, well, yeah, God can do it, but... And I, you know, this is the way we used to do it, and this is okay, right? Where is faith? Where is trust?

And sometimes when we don't act in trust, the rest of our lives are comprised of what we didn't want to have happen. But God says that that's what you're going to seek, that's what you're going to have from here on out. Now you would hope, because those were some pretty hard words that Hennady said to Asa. You would hope a person of God, when that's brought to his attention, maybe scratch his head and say, you know, you're right.

You're right. That's exactly... I blew it. I made a mistake. Twenty-five years ago, that's what I should have done this time. I know I need to repent. I know I need to get myself back into shape. I know I need to rely on God totally. But that isn't what Asa did. That isn't what Asa did. Not what you would expect him to do. In verse 10, Asa was angry with the seer and put him in prison, for he was enraged at him because of this. And Asa even oppressed some of the people at that time. Is that the attitude of God? When something is brought to our attention, that we get mad?

So mad, we throw him in prison and oppress people? Where have you fallen from, Asa? Where is what used to be? Look at the light that has gone so thoroughly out in good times, in peaceful times, in prosperous times.

He's fallen asleep. He doesn't even recognize anymore. He's not the same person. He was so good at the beginning of his kingdom. So good through the first 15 years. Some of us have been here 10, 20, 30, 50, 60 years. It can happen to any of us if we don't continually prepare our hearts, if we don't continually keep those fires burning, if we allow ourselves to go to sleep through the different courses of life and say, I don't have to do this anymore, I don't have to do this anymore.

We always have to tend the fires. We always have to be preparing our hearts and seeking God. Drop down to verse 12. Three years later, in the 39th year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet, and his malady was severe. Yet in his disease, he didn't seek God. He sought the physicians. And so, two years later, he died. A sad story of Asa. Let's try to finish this up here in a minute. Second Chronicles.

Let's go back to 2 Chronicles 12. Because one of his predecessors, his grandfather, was a king by the name of Rehoboam. And Rehoboam, you know, remember, he was the son of Solomon, and under him the kingdom of Israel was divided into two houses, into Judah and Israel. And Rehoboam was an interesting man. He, I say, he liked to play games with God.

He played games with God. Let's see how he did that. Chapter 12, 2 Chronicles, verse 1. It came to pass when Rehoboam had established the kingdom, and it had strengthened himself, that he forsook the law of the Lord, and all Israel along with him. And it happened in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, the Chi-Sha king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against the Lord. God is sending this tribe, this army against them, because of what they've done. And it gives us the name, the number of people that they had there.

And so, you know, they were there. Shemaiah, verse 5. Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah, who were gathered together in Jerusalem, and said to them, Thus says the LORD, you have forsaken me, and therefore I have left you in the hand of Shai-Shaq. Okay, this is the reason you've been defeated. This is the reason you're having this problem. And so, they listened, and the leaders of Israel and the king humbled themselves, and they said some good words. The LORD is righteous. Good words to say. Did they come from the heart?

We'll see. Did they come from the heart? Or, you know what? This is what we've done. We've forgotten God, and we've done that. So, okay, let's say the LORD is righteous. Now when the LORD saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the LORD came to Shomaiya, saying, They've humbled themselves, therefore I won't destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance. My wrath won't be poured out on Jerusalem by the hand of Shai-Shaq.

Nevertheless, they will be His servants, that they may distinguish my service from the service of the kingdoms of the nations.

They're going to suffer some punishment on this. And the pattern went on. Are you a bong? Oh, okay. Let me say the words. Kind of like, God is like a magic genie, right? The old Aladdin's lamp. If I say the words, He'll do what I want. Now it went on the pattern of this way. And in verse 12 it says, When He humbled Himself, the wrath of God turned from Him, so as not to destroy Him completely, and things went well in Jerusalem. Verse 13, Thus king Rehoboam strengthened himself, His reliance wasn't on God, but in strengthening Himself, and reign. And then it gives His age. And then in verse 14, God says what He thinks of Rehoboam. He did evil. He did evil. Why? Because He didn't prepare His heart to seek the Lord. He said the words, but there was no singleness of heart behind it. He said the words, but there was no purpose behind it. He didn't prepare His heart to seek God. He just used words. I'll just do this, and God will be pleased. He never changed His heart. He never repented. He never did things the way God did. God said, even though He said the words, even though He checked off the boxes, even though He might have been at every Sabbath service, His heart wasn't in it. He just did what He had to do, but He didn't follow what I had to say, and He never gave Himself to me.

So Rehoboam kind of played games with God. Sometimes we can play games with God and think, if I just do this, that's enough. If I do that, that's God's okay with that. No. God is pretty clear. When you read through the Bible, it's all your heart, all your soul, keeping all of His words. Jesus Christ had lived by every word of Christ. Rehoboam was a double-minded man. He wanted to use the things of God. He wanted what God had. He wanted to say the things and have God's blessings, but He didn't want to give up the things of His. He didn't want to really yield to God. He wanted to strengthen Himself. Over in James 1, he talks about this spiritual malady twice in the short book of James. James 1, when it's speaking of, if you lack wisdom, ask God wisdom. But if you're going to ask Him, ask in faith. Don't doubt, because He's not going to pay attention to you.

If you're asking in doubt and just going through the words, ask in faith, believing that He will give, and He's the source of those things. Verse 7, let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from God if he asks without. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all His ways. Rehoboam was a double-minded man. We don't want to be double-minded men. We want to be following God with all our hearts, all our minds, all our souls, doing things the way He said, exactly the way He said, how, when, and down to the details as we learn His way. Over in chapter 4 of James, verse 8, he repeats it again. Any time we see something in such a short space, being repeated again, draw near to God, and He'll draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Serve Him with singleness of purpose, or singleness of heart. Purpose in your heart to follow Him. Train your heart that this is where I am and this is who I am. Repeating it to yourself daily. This is who I am, this is what I need to be, this is who I follow, regardless of what it is, as I prepare my heart to follow God.

I could talk about the Laodicean Church in Revelation 3. They're double-minded people. They're very close to the world, and yet they think they're very close to God. And God's admonishment to them is, go buy yourself gold refined in the fire. Go buy yourself gold refined in the fire, that you may be clean. You read about the Philadelphian attitude, the Philadelphian Church in the first part of Revelation 3. What are they like? They serve God with singleness of purpose. They follow Him wherever they go. They're not holding back. They're not looking at the world. They're not trying to do this and that and everything, and obey God. They are simply obeying God. What people do we want to be? What are we here for? How do we keep the light burning? Well, I think maybe you've gotten some indication here, but since we've just all returned from the feast, let's go back and let's think about the Feast of Tabernacles and the eight days just passed. I hope you've taken some time to think about it. When I look at the Word of God and He says, Leave your home. Go and worship me in the place that I put my name for eight days. Did we do it? Did we do what God said? It is an opportunity. It is the one Feast of the Year where He says, You will be coming out of the world and you have a taste of the kingdom. You're going to be with people of like mind and all the other things we discussed before the Feast of Tabfist pictures. Did we do it? Did we come home from the Feast with joy in our hearts? Did we come home with gladness? Did we wish that maybe the Feast could go on? Did we get a taste of the kingdom and think, you know what, this was great? What about how we prepared for it? You know, God says, prepare for the Feast of Tabernacles all year long. It's not something we wait until April when the announcement comes out from the home office about the brochure is going to come out, pick what site you're going to register for and things like that. That's not when we start preparing for the Feast. We start preparing for the Feast now. For now, for next year. You know, God put in the way, the way that we fund, the way we finance going to the Feast. It's second time. Every single paycheck it should be on our mind. I'm preparing for the Feast. I'm preparing for the kingdom. I'm saving. The Church gives assistance where necessary, but we need to be putting our effort into it. We need to be preparing now for the Feast next year. We need to be preparing now, even for the Passover. Don't wait until a month before Passover to start examining yourself. Start now. Do it all the time. Be surprised at what you learn about yourself. Be surprised about the fires that can be ignited when you look at those things. How do we do it? You know, I say, and every year I'm beginning to see that how we keep the Feast of God, all the Feast of God, is a pretty good indicator of our spiritual condition. Pretty good indicator of our spiritual condition. If we're trusting in Him, if we're yielding to Him, if we're doing what He says, not worrying about self, not making accommodations—I don't mean hotel accommodations—accommodations for self, it's a pretty good indicator. Pretty good indicator. Let's close here in Matthew 25.

Matthew 25.

Speaking of the 10 virgins.

And of course we know the virgins are those who aren't defiled by other churches. They cleanse their lives of those things, as we read in Revelation 14. So we have 10 of them here in chapter 25 and verse 1. And it says, They took their lamps, they went out to meet the bridegroom, but five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish didn't pay attention to what God told Israel in Exodus 20. Didn't pay attention to the fact that it's our responsibility to be having the oil with us to keep those lights burning. Five of them were wive and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps but took no oil with them. They're empty. Man, it's been good times. It's been peaceful times. I don't have any oil. What have you been doing? What have you been doing? But the wise did have oil in their vessels with their lamps. They were preparing their hearts. They were settling in their hearts. They were doing the things of God. They were continuing to tend that garden, tend their heart, and develop that heart. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered, they all slept. It was a peaceful time.

Nothing was going to keep them awake at night. At midnight, a cry was heard. Behold, the bridegroom is coming. Go out to meet him. And everyone arose. When that cry came, hey, we're ready. We're ready for Christ's return. They all went out to meet him. And they trimmed their lamps. Ah, but the foolish didn't have any oil. They were caught with their pants down, so to speak. Whoops. We have no oil. We're not ready. We're not prepared. We didn't listen. We didn't do the things that we were told to do by God and led by His Holy Spirit to do. And the foolish went to the wise and said, give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out. But they learned a tough lesson. We can't do it for each other. We can't give some of our oil. It has to be us who does it. It has to be us who does it, individually and collectively.

As we study the Word of God, as we're led by the Holy Spirit, as we're in fellowship with one another, and as we encourage one another to follow God closely, to follow Him implicitly, to do the things that He said, to be ready and to follow Him. As I said at the feast, carefully, diligently, faithfully, completely. The foolish said to the wise, come, give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out. The wise answered, saying, no, lest there not be enough for us and you, but you go rather to those who sell and buy for yourselves. And it was too late. Too late. They had wasted the time. They had wasted the time. I hope, and my prayer is that no one that is hearing this will find themselves in that situation, but that we will all heed God's Word, that we will all keep our lights burning, that we will all keep our eyes focused on His kingdom year-round, that we will be in a continual state of preparation and preparing our hearts and settling at our hearts ahead of time and forever, that we will follow God from now until the time that Christ returns, that we find ourselves in His kingdom.

Thank you.