Processing the Harvest

Thank you very much to our children's choir and all the hard work putting that together. It's something to be said about the joy that's on the faces of young kids as they sing praises to their God, and it's certainly a heartfelt and a heartwarming thing to be able to see. Well, brethren, as you might be well aware already, the fall Holy Day season is in full swing. We just had our Feast of Trumpets here this past week, as well as the Day of Atonement here upcoming, and the Feast of Tabernacles right around the corner.

And as a result, we're all in varying places with the process of making our preparations for the fall Holy Days. Part of that process today, as you think about our modern life, we make our preparations for travel to the feast. We might purchase supplies. We might pick up clothing. We might pick up various things that we need for the Feast of Tabernacles. We gather our homework for the kids to make sure they can keep up on things while they're gone. We get the vehicle taken care of so that it'll actually make it to the feast. For those of you that have been back in the day and did Piney Woods and did some of the long-distance feast sites, down to Squaw Valley, etc., that was a big integral part of the Feast of Tabernacles, was make sure the car can make it to Texas, or make sure the car can make it to California.

We might be planning for our meals. We might be making connections with people that we know that are going to be there so that we can connect up for meals and plan and get together and just be together with people that we love in the place where God has placed His name. So it's a busy time of year as these final bits of preparations take place and get ready as we come into the Feast of Tabernacles. And when you look at the lives of the average Israelite at that point in time, during the time of the Old Testament when God dwelled in a tabernacle in the wilderness, or later in the Temple period, and during the time of the New Testament when God dwelled in among His people, the time leading up to the fall Holy Days was a time that was incredibly busy.

And it was a time in which there was a lot of work that had to be done in order to ensure that the feast could be kept. Let's start today by turning over to Deuteronomy 14. Deuteronomy 14 will turn to a passage that we read each and every year at the feast. But I want to look at it today from a standpoint of considering the preparation and the planning that we make coming into the Feast of Tabernacles.

Deuteronomy 14, verse 23, as that's kind of the direction that we're going to be going today, we'll see God's command throughout time regarding His feast and the principle of tithes. Deuteronomy 14, and we'll pick it up in verse 22, says, It says, So we see this command that's put into place for God's people to tithe their grain, their wine, their oil, first born of their herds and their flocks, and the very specific command that God gives to them is to do so in order to be able to eat those things before the Lord their God in the place which He chooses to place His name.

And so we recognize, speaking of what we would call today the second tithe, in this case, that is being taken to utilize at the Feast of Tabernacles. All of these blessings, all of these, quote-unquote, increases that the Israelites experienced were expected by God to be tithed upon. They would take one tenth, one tithe, of their agricultural yield, whether that was grain or wine or oil. In this case, speaking of the time period leading into the Feast of Tabernacles, much of that would be the olive harvest or the grape harvest. But God expected that those things were to be taken, they were to be used before Him during the fall Holy Day season, or in this case, specifically, the Fall Pilgrimage Festival of the Feast of Tabernacles.

Obviously, for us today, we're not packing the sheep in the minivan with the kids. I've never done that. I don't know about you guys. We're not sitting the kids in the back of the car in amongst vats of olive oil or vats of wine, barrels of wine, things like that.

So we see that, in today's day and age, that there is, even in this passage, an extension of an exchange for those goods for money, or in our case today, an exchange of our services for some form of a wage. So we see that kind of in this place. Verse 24 actually begins that, But if the journey is too long for you so that you're not able to carry the tithe, or if the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, when the Lord your God has blessed you, verse 25, then you shall exchange it for money, take the money in your hand, and go to the place where the Lord your God chooses.

So there were times, we can see, scripturally, that the journey for those traveling was too far. It didn't allow for carting the sheep and the oxen, the grain, the vats of oil and the wine to be able to consume. And so God enabled and allowed for the exchange of those goods for money and the use of that money in celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles. Verse 26, it says, And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires, for oxen or sheep or wine or similar drinks.

So for some of those things that they may not have otherwise been able to cart with them. But also then it says, For whatever your heart desires, you shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household. Now we've talked before about how whatever your heart desires is a little bit of a litmus test. To kind of consider what exactly is it that our heart desires. What is it that we want to be able to spend our money on or spend our funds on at the Feast of Tabernacles? But verse 26 tells us we should spend it on what our heart desires.

We're to eat those things before our God, rejoicing us and all of our household. Now why? Why? Well, to learn to fear the Lord our God always. That's ultimately the goal. That's the reason and the purpose. And one of the most wonderful aspects of our fall Holy Day season, that we're able to learn more about our God. That we're able to be in awe of Him. Absolute awe of Him with regards to what He is doing in our lives, what He is doing in the lives of mankind and the plan that He has set forth. To have a strong respect, to have a fear of Him as we see. But something goes down to the fiber of our very being.

One of the best aspects of the Feast of Tabernacles and from these fall Holy Days that we're coming into and are a part of now, is that we're able to be surrounded by His people. That we're able to be focused all on these same future promises which God has given to us. And it's a beautiful thing that God has put a system into place that enables us to be able to afford to travel and keep His feasts as He's commanded. During the time of ancient Israel, we mentioned earlier, the months leading up to the fall Holy Days were months of a significant amount of work.

There were grain harvests, there were fruit harvests, olive harvests. And then, of course, there was a processing of all of these things that were being brought in from the fields at that point in time that were to be taken to the feast. For the most part, we're pretty removed from an agricultural world. There are a few of you who farm, and a few of you who have various ways of doing these things.

And you understand some of these things better than most, but I think a lot of us, we can read these things and we can academically understand them, but that is absolutely no replacement for first-hand experience, in-person experience of these various things. For the olive harvest, I mean just thinking about the olive harvest, thinking about an entire field full of olive trees.

That meant the actual physical act of harvesting them, it meant going out and ensuring that all of those olives were off of the trees. It meant for those that you planned on eating, you'd need to brine those olives, because they're not going to stay...

there's no refrigeration at that point in time. So they're going to have to be brined so that you can eat them later. Or, if you're processing them into oil, that required you to then process that oil, store it, transport it, etc. It meant for the picking of the vineyards, you would clean the vineyards, you would get the grapes off the plants, you would process them into wine of some kind, you would process them potentially into vinegar, some sort of thing that you would process those for and use.

And for the harvested grains, and in the summer months, we're not talking about wheat and barley, we're talking about a much smaller set of grains. We're talking about flax, millet, and sesame, most likely, a second planting of these things. The point is, it was an incredible amount of work. An incredible amount of work coming into the Fall Festival season. And the months leading into this timeframe were wrapping up of the agricultural year in Israel. The Feast of Tabernacles we know is known as the Feast of In-Gathering, which is bringing in the crops in the field, bringing that in.

And it marks the end of one year's agricultural year, and then after the feast, the start of the next agricultural year. So at this point in time, as we come into these Fall Holy Days, the fields would be fully processed.

The trees would be picked, the feast would be a time for those workers to be able to relax a little bit from their labors, to be able to really, truly reflect on God's blessings and be thankful for all that he had done in their lives over that coming or over that past agricultural year. So these months coming into the Fall Holy Days, and the incredible hard work that was present in those months, enabled all of these individuals to be able to rejoice at the feast, to eat literally of the fruit of their labors. Today I'd like to take some time to consider this concept, and I want to consider the agricultural work that goes into the planting and the nurturing and the harvesting of the tithe in ancient Israel, but I want to focus, rather than focus on the physical side for us today, what I'd like to look at is the spiritual side for us today.

The planting and the nurturing and the harvest of the spiritual harvest as we come into these Fall Holy Day seasons, and I'd like to consider some agricultural principles that we see outlined in Scripture to do this. The first of those principles is that you reap what you sow.

Agricultureally, you reap what you sow. The second of those things is the importance and the absolute critical nature of good soil and abundant water. The importance of good soil and abundant water. And then the last thing I'd like to look at is the processing of the harvest.

Gathering in in the processing of the harvest. So what do you sow? The importance of good soil and abundant waters. And lastly, the gathering in and the processing of the harvest. So we'll start with the concept of reaping what we sow. I don't know how many of you have seen the movie Secondhand Lions. Some of you might have seen it. So those of you nodding your head, you'll recognize this reference.

For those of you that have not, then you might not. It's a fun movie. It's about a couple old men who take in an orphaned nephew. And they have millions and millions and millions of dollars to spend, and largely nothing to spend it on. They live in an old rundown house out in the middle on this land that's kind of in varying states of decay. And once the nephew shows up, they buy all sorts of things to be able to have a little bit of fun.

But one of the characters in the movie, who's played by Michael Caine, decides that they all need to become farmers. That's what they should do. They should become farmers. So he goes down to the hardware store. He buys them all matching overalls, straw hats, because that's what farmers wear. That's the farmer uniform, right? Straw hats and matching overalls, and they set to work turning a section of the property into a small garden. The older gent that is played by Robert Duvall, the other brother, thinks that they all look silly.

And he thinks this is pretty stupid. They don't want to do it. Most of the stuff that they buy, they don't really go into town all that often. Most of the stuff that they buy come from traveling salesmen, which finally started coming around a little more regularly after they stopped shooting at them when they'd show up. One day one of the salesmen shows up, and knowing that they have an interest in putting together a garden, sells them a bunch of packets of seeds.

Sells them a bunch of different packets of seeds. And they were just thrilled. Now they can plant their garden. So they go in, they get dressed up in their overalls and their straw hats.

They come out and they start tilling the ground, and they start planting these packets of seeds. And all over the garden, they do that traditional thing that you see where you put the packet for the vegetable on the stake in front of the row and you know exactly what you've planted in that area. And so they watered it, and they nurtured it, and they worked it, they weeded it. They did everything that they needed to keep the plants healthy, and lo and behold, the plants began to grow. They waited until they got about 6 to 8 inches above the ground, and one day they're out there working, and the nephew looks down and he says, What's this row right here?

He says, Oh, those are Brussels sprouts. Okay, what about this row? Points to another one, and all those are carrots. What about this one? Beets. This one? Corn. And it's at that point that Michael Caine's character realizes that they'd been had. The traveling salesman had sold them corn kernels, labeled in different packets of vegetable seeds. The whole entire garden is corn.

Every single thing. And they realized that they all looked the same. But none of them had noticed, because they just were a little bit green when it came to growing. They grew the entire garden full of corn. You reap what you sow. What goes into the ground is what comes out of the ground. That's the agricultural principle that's being referenced here. Where it comes from is Galatians 6 and verse 9.

Let's go ahead and turn over there. Galatians 6 and verse 9. You know, you would not expect to plant a corn seed or a corn kernel and have a beet show up. Although they did, because they were mislabeled. But the truism of life and the truism of nature and the way that God intended is that the seed that is planted is the plant that grows. Galatians 6 and verse 9. We see the Apostle Paul here uses an agricultural concept to make a spiritual point. While you're turning there, the book of Galatians was written to a group of people that hailed from an area kind of due east to that area that we talk about when we talk about the churches of Revelation.

It's kind of Asia Minor. Galatia is that center area there in Anatolia. It housed a group of believers that came out of the Roman world. It housed a number of Jewish converts as well that settled in Galatia by about the 50s AD. There was some conflict and some back and forth between the Jewish converts as well as the Gentile converts and even the general population of people at that time in Anatolia. Galatians 6, and we'll pick up Paul's words in verse 6. So Galatians 6 and verse 6.

I didn't turn there while I was telling you to turn there. My apologies. Galatians 6, and we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 6. It says, But he who sows to the spirit will of the spirit reap everlasting life. Verse 9, Let us not grow weary while doing good, and in due season we shall reap, or if we do not lose heart. Paul makes the connection here between the actions that we do, ultimately, because this is a spiritual analogy that he's making, using an agricultural analogy. He's making the connection between the actions that we do and what we reap as a result of those actions.

This concept, this idea of reaping what you sow, it's throughout the Bible in various places. In fact, you can find it in the book of Proverbs, you can find it in Isaiah, you can find it utilized in the Gospel accounts as well. And in this case, kind of talking about generosity, talking about the difference between sowing to the flesh and sowing to the spirit, but the adage that he's referencing here is one that's made it into the common vernacular.

You reap what you sow. Actions have consequences. But even more than that, even more than that, the things that we place our time and our energy into, our effort into, are the things that will mature. Those are the things that will ultimately be harvested. You know, we talk about a musician who wants to be very good at the musical instrument that they choose to play.

Putting in the time, putting in the effort into that is going to provide a payoff in that skill. So in the vein of that concept of reaping what we sow, the question I would ask of all of us today is, what have we spiritually sown this year? From a spiritual standpoint, what did we put in the ground? What did we nurture? What did we weed? And ultimately, what will we harvest as a result of what we have spiritually sown this year, coming into the fall holy day season?

Have we sown to the things of the flesh, to the things of this world, or have we sown to spiritual things? And again, before we answer that question, I think maybe it's an even better question to ask, to what do we devote our time and our energy, to what do we devote our emotions and our mental capacity? Would we approach this concept in our life differently and shift our perspective if we felt that we didn't have much time left? Would we change our approach? Would we change how we consider the things that are truly important in life?

Let's turn over to Psalm 90. In Psalm 90, we see a quote from Moses, it seems, based on the way that it's written, that these are the words of Moses that have been recorded. Psalm 90, and we'll pick it up in verse 10. Speaking of the temporary nature of life, speaking of the fact that this human body only goes for so long before it eventually wears out, sometimes it'll go a little longer, depending, but overall there's a certain number of years, by and large, and a boundary upon our years which has been set.

Psalm 90, verse 10, says, the days of our lives are seventy years, and if by reason of strength they are eighty, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off and we fly away. Ultimately, it goes on, and it says that who knows the power of your anger, for as the fear of you, so is your wrath. Verse 12, teach us to number our days. Why? So that we may gain a heart of wisdom. The perspective changes as you consider the amount of time that you have remaining.

Often people reach the end of their lives, and they look back and they think, man, if only. If only I had spent the time here instead of there. If only I had developed this relationship instead of forsaking these relationships. The shortening of time has a certain focus that it provides, and it just, quite frankly, it cuts through the noise. It absolutely cuts through the noise, and it helps to identify to you that which is truly, truly important.

It gets to the core of what is really, truly critical. There's been a lot of noise in the past couple of years. There's been a lot of noise. There's been a whole lot of stuff going on. Quite honestly, it's been an absolute cacophony of just constant noise. We could all use a little bit of the ability to cut through that noise to what is critical and what is truly important.

The Book of Ephesians, if you want to turn over there, carries an admonition for all of us. We've been here before. This is nothing new. But I want to remind us again as we come into the Feast of Tabernacles and as we consider the critical nature of what God has planned here in these fall Holy Days, as we come into atonement, as we come into the Feast, and as we come into these fall Holy Days, the Book of Ephesians has an admonition for all of us.

Ephesians 5, we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 16. Ephesians 5 and verse 16 says, I'm sorry, verse 15. My apologies. Verse 15. See then that you walk circumspectly. See then as you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise. Verse 16, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Verse 17, therefore do not be unwise but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Understand what the will of the Lord is. You know, we've been in various places throughout this past summer as we've talked about the will of God and as we've talked about various things that God wants in our lives. I'm going to reference this location. It's John 6, verse 39, that we can consider what the will of God is. One of the aspects, one of the components of God's will is that of all that he has given to his Son, that Christ would lose nothing but that he would raise it up at the last day.

The will of God is that we become a part of his family, that we are resurrected to spirit, become adopted sons and daughters in joint heirs with Jesus Christ. That is God's will for us. And there's other aspects of his will. His will is that we are sanctified. There are many aspects of God's will, but one of those primary aspects and desires that God has is that we become a part of his family, adopted sons and daughters into the family of God.

And as such, God desires that we walk circumspectly. He desires that we redeem the time. He desires that we walk wisely. He desires us to sow righteousness. He desires us to reap mercy. He desires us to break up the fallow ground, to break up the soil in our lives, to be able to accept that which he is planting. He desires that we seek him. The first agricultural principle is that we reap what we sow.

Brethren, what have we reaped this season? What did we sow this past year, spiritually? The second thing that can't be overstated when it comes to a physical harvest is the importance of good soil and an abundance of water. Ancient Israel had to rely on God for rain and deuceason for their crops. There was some ability to irrigate in Israel, especially kind of early – not early on, later in Israel's history. There was some ability to irrigate, but initially, when they went into the Promised Land, the rain that God provided, both the early rains and the latter rains, provided them with the ability to put their crops into the ground. And their obedience to God led to the blessings of God being poured out on them. Let's turn over to Deuteronomy 11. Deuteronomy 11. And we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 13. And we see here God's instructions to them as they come into the Promised Land, as they enter into this land that God had given them. Deuteronomy 11. And we'll pick it up in verse 13.

Deuteronomy 11.13 says, Verse 14.

It says, You know, fruit, crops, abundance, yields, they couldn't be produced without that ever important water. They couldn't be produced. You don't water your plants, they die. That's another agricultural principle that my wife and I have learned quite well. You don't water your plants, they die. That's kind of our Achilles heel when it comes to growing plants is we'll leave for camp and forget to water them or something or whatever and forget to set it up and then we come back to a partially dead garden. But spiritually, brethren, it's no different. It is no different. God talks in so many places in Scripture about the blessings that are to come, the healing of this world, the blessings of God Himself on the land. Agricultureally. The book of Amos, we talk about this at the feast, the book of Amos talks of a time in which the people plowing the fields will overtake those reaping the fields. That the land is so abundantly sustainable that it can just a continuous process of planting and reaping a harvest. The Bible talks of a coming time in which the fields will be green and be productive and be restored to God's intent. One of those passages talks of God's blessing in this process. That's in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah 30.

Isaiah 30, if you would turn over there.

There we are. Isaiah 30.

And we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 23 of Isaiah 30.

Isaiah 30 in verse 23.

Talking about the blessings that God provides.

Verse 23 of Isaiah 30 says, There will be on every high mountain and on every high hill rivers and streams of water. Notice what it says in the day of the great slaughter when the towers fall. Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold as the light of seven days. In the day that the Lord binds up the bruise of his people and heals the stroke of their wound. Then we get into a judgment on Assyria beginning in verse 27. And so we see God telling his people, you will be exceedingly blessed for turning to him. For putting away their idols, walking in his ways, God will pour out the rain for the seed in the ground. The crops will be plentiful. The oxen, the young donkeys will eat well. There will be rivers and streams of water, even in the midst of the judgment on those that do not. Even in the midst of the judgment of those that do not. And that water, its prevalence, that increased solar activity as it talks about there, you know, the sun being sevenfold, enables the crops to grow with just incredible, incredible yields. Now the description of this water, at least in this location, is largely physical. But there's a definite analogy to the spiritual as well. Mr. Miller went there in his sermonette today. The Bible uses frequently the concept of water to talk about the Spirit of God. You know, that is a connection that is made scripturally. Talks about that being a fountain of water that dwells within us. In fact, Christ, and this is what Mr. Miller had read this morning, was in John 737, and we won't turn there, we'll just reference it. But he said, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Not a trickle, not a small babbling brook, rivers of living water that will ultimately sustain not just that individual, but sustain those who are around them. Now, he's talking here, Christ, in John 737. He's speaking of the Spirit of God, whom those who would believe in him will ultimately receive. I did some just quick digging, just out of curiosity. It's estimated about 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. Chronically dehydrated, which means that they are losing more water on a daily basis than they are actually taking in. That's what it means to be chronically dehydrated. 75% of Americans. Chronic dehydration can lead to kidney issues, renal failure, fatigue, confusion, brain fog. It can also result in irritability and difficulty regulating emotion.

For all of those that are physically chronically dehydrated, I would venture a guess that significantly more are spiritually dehydrated. Brother, the question I have for you today is, what about you and I? What about you and I? Are we remaining close to this source of living waters?

Or are we drinking from other wells?

Are we spending our time and our effort and our energy drinking from wells that are not this living water that will provide eternal life?

Let's turn over to Psalm 1, verse 1. Psalm 1, verse 1. We read a passage similar to this on trumpets in Jeremiah 17. But Psalm 1 and verse 1, we see this promise throughout. It's in a number of locations in Scripture. We'll see a passage here that is the description of the blessings of a man who trusts in God, who places his hope and trusts in the Lord, who maintains his focus in God and walks circumspectly. Psalm 1, and we'll read verses 1 through 3, said, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. Verse 2, But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. He is drinking from that well. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper. God said, blessed is that man. Blessed is that man. And that man shall be like a tree that is planted by the rivers of water. We mentioned on trumpets in Jeremiah 17, 7 and 8, talks about who has no fear of drought, who has no fear of heat, no worry of any of those things, because that life-giving water is always right there, and that that plant is drinking deep of that life-giving water. I don't know if any of you have ever been out on a hike in a relatively arid landscape. I was amazed driving through bits and pieces of Phoenix on the way up to Prescott. You go from a city full of people to just nothing but desert and cactus. And I say that in jazz, too. There's other plants in there, too. But it's a pretty bleak landscape in certain aspects of that drive. But what amazed me is me and Mr. McKeon were driving up the highway, as I'm looking out over all of this, you can see where the rivers and the streams are, because there's green plants in these lines that just ultimately connect in various places. So when they do get rain, you can absolutely tell where the little gullies are, where the rain goes. The plants that are in those little areas, they're green, even in the midst of this lunar landscape of parts of that area in Arizona. The trees that are planted by that water, the trees that are there spreading out their roots, they have no fear of the heat or the drought. They have no fear of those things, and they will always yield fruit. Now, why is that? Is it because they have their own particular strengths and their own depth of root? No. It's because they're beside the river. They're in proximity to that life-giving water. They are drinking of it. They are taking it in.

That water provides that plant with the ability to bear much fruit. That plant just happens to simply be next to it, in proximity to it. So rather than the question I have for you is, what are we drinking from with regularity? Are they spiritual things? Are they things which are focused on the coming kingdom of God? Or are they physical and temporary things that will ultimately no longer be a thing to even consider?

The source of that water is critical because only God can provide that crystal-clearly life-giving water that fulfills our thirst, that truly satiates our thirst. And from those that are hydrated in this way, from that proximity to God, Scripture talks about how rivers of water will flow outward from them. Think about what a river does. It brings life to that which comes in contact with it. Individuals who come into contact with a person who has rivers of living water flowing from them, they come away strengthened. They come away encouraged. They come away restored. If our interactions with other people leave them sapped of energy, angry, more bitter than when they started or frustrated, if our attitude is one of bitterness that doesn't encourage, edify, and uplift those we come into contact with, brethren, those rivers of living water are not flowing from us.

They are not. In fact, if that is the case, we are dried up and we are desperately in need of being in proximity to that water. But it's not just water. The soil is critical, too. Let's go to Mark 4. The soil is equally critical. Maybe not equally critical, but it's critical. It's pretty important. Mark 4. Nothing like monologuing and then turning all the way to revelation.

I told my wife I only get to claim COVID-19 for a little while longer. Take it as long as I can. But no, it's real. It really is. It's crazy. Mark 4. Mark 4, and we'll pick it up in verse 1. We see this the parable of the soil. Some of your scripture, or some of your Bibles may call it the parable of the soils. It's probably a more apt description, to be honest. It says, And again he began to teach by the sea, and a great multitude were gathered to him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea. And it says, Christ understood the magnitude and the ability of amphitheater basics, to make sure sound carries so much better over water if you get everybody on the shore and you're out in the boat. Sound carries quite well as you're speaking into that group. But then he taught them many things by the parables and said to them, And happened as he sowed that some seed fell by the wayside, and the birds of the air came and devoured it. Some fell on stony ground where it didn't have much earth, and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away. And some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. But other seed fell on good ground, and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced, some thirty-fold, some sixty, some a hundred. And he said to them, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. The soil is important. Soil has to be ready to accept seed. It has to be ready to nurture and grow that seed as time goes on. If it's full of weeds, if it's full of things that are pulling the water and the nutrients from that soil out into someplace else, the seed's going to get choked out. It's not going to grow like it needs to grow. So the importance of that soil, and nurturing that soil, and caring for that soil, clearing the weeds from that soil, making sure that it is watered appropriately is incredibly important. Because if there's no fruit or minimal fruit, because the soil and the water's not there, how do we gather in a harvest to tithe on to go to the feast?

Last thing that we want to take a look at is the idea of gathering and processing the harvest. Many of you have gardens, many of you can, many of you, I talked to somebody the other day that said that they were up to their ears in tomatoes. And they were just like, what am I going to do? I'm looking at the time that I have between now and the feast, what am I going to do in all these tomatoes?

If you haven't grown a garden, if you haven't grown something along those lines, maybe you've grown a small flower bed or container garden. But Shannon and I have a garden each year. This year it's been quiet, we're on our land rest this year. But we are looking forward to getting it going again next season. And each year we grow tons, we grow tomatoes and green beans and peas and garlic and onions. Usually Shannon every year gets a hankering to plant some random plant, so we've grown bok choy and kohlrabi and other things we don't eat.

But they look pretty in a garden. And Shannon is becoming notorious for growing a ton of squash. A ton of squash. And it's almost become a running gag in our household because Shannon is prolific with the growing of squash. She grows butternut and delicata and spaghetti squash and zucchini squash, occasionally acorn and crookneck squash, butternut, I already said butternut.

And then Shannon's new favorite game has become how many different dishes can I hide squash in with no one else noticing. And to that end, Joanne Emery helped by giving her a squash cookbook. So now we have all kinds of new fun ways to try to determine whether there is squash in the food or not.

Shannon's common dinner time refrain now has been, Mom, is there squash in this? They're starting to lift the tortillas in the casserole to look if she somehow stuck some cubed squash in there or not. But she stores them under the dresser in the bedroom to overwinter. I mean, she stashes them any place she possibly can. And we eat through them as the year goes on. I think we made it almost a full year on not this year's crop, but last year's crop of spaghetti and butternut squash. But it is so fun to go out in the garden when it's fully producing and just look at all the little jewels on the plants. You know, all the little tomatoes and all the fruit and all the wonderful things that are out there.

It is so incredibly beautiful to go and see them. You know, the jalapenos and the hot peppers and just all the stuff. But, brethren, you don't grow fruits to look at. To just wander the garden and appreciate their beauty, you grow fruits and vegetables to use. You grow them to use. Those tomatoes, those peppers, those onions, they become salsa.

The green beans are processed. They're put up to last the year. The peas, same story. The garlic, the same story. Everything that's in the ground has to come out of the ground. Everything on the vine, as much as possible, has to be harvested and used. And our spiritual fruit is no different. It's not enough to know that it's there and we just look at it.

It has to be used. It has to be used in the magnification of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. The Bible talks about a couple of scenarios where someone was unable to harvest their crops and wouldn't have necessarily the ability to rejoice in these upcoming fall festivals because of lack. Let's turn to one of those, Proverbs 20 and verse 4. And there's plenty more. This is just a couple of examples. Proverbs 20 and verse 4, and one of the reasons in this case why there was no fruit or vegetables, or in this case to be able to harvest, was a lack of effort on behalf of the person who was harvesting and planting.

Proverbs 20 and verse 4 says, The lazy man will not plow because of winter. It's cold outside. I'm not going out there. It's too much work. He will beg during harvest and have nothing. So we can impact our own spiritual harvest, so to speak, through inaction. Through our own inaction. If we don't plow, if we don't prepare the soil to accept the seed, it can't grow. And ultimately, through our own inaction, physically and spiritually, we've inhibited the ability of that crop to grow.

Again, we reap what we sow, and if we sow nothing, well, we reap nothing. Ecclesiastes 11, verse 4 is another example, not too much further over from where we are. The second scenario it talks about in the Bible is ways that this can happen is through our concern about other things, external things. Ecclesiastes 11, and we'll pick it up in verse 4. He says, In other words, if we are more concerned about the external factors that are out there, if we are more concerned about, ooh, that cloud doesn't look good, I'm not going out there today, or, oh, I can't take in the harvest of my field because, yeah, it's looking like it's going to rain, or, boy, I don't like the look of that wind, I'm not going to mess with it.

If we maintain our focus on other things, if we don't focus on the task at hand, if we look at the wind or its potential for damage or the clouds because they're going to affect the harvest, we'll just wait. Those things impact the sowing and the reaping of the harvest because we become so focused on the external things that we lose sight of what's really important. We lose sight of what's really important. Spiritually, the harvest of this year's crop is what we will bring into the fall holy-day season and ultimately into the Feast of Tabernacles this year. Sitting and contemplating the wind, observing it, looking at it, considering it, it doesn't get the work done. What gets the work done is getting the work done. That's what gets the work done.

Brethren, how is your harvest? How is your harvest spiritually? Are you bringing in the crops that were sown over this past year? Are you reaping the fields that you've planted? Are your yields up this year? Or are they struggling a little bit? Let's go to Proverbs 27, because knowing where we're at is important. Proverbs 27, and we'll pick it up in verse 23.

Proverbs 27 and verse 23, it is important to know where we are. It's important to take the time to stop sometimes and ask ourselves the hard questions. To really ask ourselves, where are we at? How are we doing? What is the status of our flocks? What is the status of our fields? Proverbs 27 and verse 23 says, Be diligent to know the state of your flocks and attend to your herds. For witches are not forever, nor does a crown endure to all generations. When the hay is removed and the tender grass shows itself, and the herbs in the mountain are gathered in, the lambs will provide your clothing and the goats the price of a field. You shall have enough goat's milk for your food, for the food of your household, and the nourishment of your maidservants. Knowing the state of our flocks, knowing the state of our fields, is important. Reflecting on where we are spiritually, reflecting on the condition of that harvest, the yields as we come into these fall holy days of our grapes, and our figs, and our pomegranates, and our olives, the flocks and the herds. Really taking the time to consider what it is we've planted, what we've put in the ground this year, what we've spent our energy cultivating, what we've spent our time cultivating. What we have weeded, what we have watered, really considering the quality of those fruits and vegetables, and the work that needs to go into harvesting those things. Now, this fall holy day season, I hope that we'll all take some time to consider these things as we think about the wells from which we drink, where we get our life-giving water. The attitudes, the traits, the actions that we've sown, whether we are close enough to those rivers of water to be able to remain watered in times of drought. And then how we'll use the fruit that God has blessed us with. One of the beautiful things about the Feast of Tabernacles in the fall holy day season as we come into the Feast is that it made a demarcation line of the end of one agricultural year and the beginning of another. After the Feast of Tabernacles is over with, the preparations begin for the next agricultural year. The ground gets plowed, the seeds get planted, the waters and the irrigation gets set up to be able to provide for those crops. So there's opportunity. If we look back this year and we determine, you know, this year was rough. There's always that opportunity to set it up in a better place for next year. I'd like to close today in Deuteronomy 8. Deuteronomy 8, we'll pick it up in verse 6. Again, as we kind of consider that concept of one agricultural year ending in the next agricultural year starting, Deuteronomy 8 and verse 6 says, Verse 10 is what I want to leave you with.

I hope you have a spectacular remainder of your Sabbath and a blessed and enriching remainder of your fall Holy Day season.