Times of Renewal and Refreshing

But we're in a wonderful time of the year of transition, both physically and spiritually. And there's going to come a time of transition that this world desperately needs, and that's also what we're celebrating with these holy days. A time where Jesus Christ will return and implement His righteous kingdom, His righteous rule for all of the world, and how desperately we need that. And as we heard with the sermonette, which I really appreciate that—thank you, Mark—the removal of our enemy, so His influence isn't cast over this planet any longer, and so that God will be able to institute and show this vastness of a better way to live and to go and to operate and to raise families and to interact with one another. And so we look so forward to that. And with this season of change, both physically but more important spiritually, I have an illustration about change that I'd like to share, but this illustration is also about destruction and renewal. It's an article entitled, How Trees Survive and Thrive After Fire, by Lubah Mullen, and this is from the summer slash fall edition 2017 of the magazine, Your National Forest magazine. And so they share this illustration or this story, which I think will help provide some insight to this season of change that we're in. And also at times that—well, in what this season also pictures in renewal and refreshing that we also desire. The article says, Bigger, Small, Gradual, or Sudden, Change rhythmically punctuates human life. In the natural world, change is just as intrinsic and pattern-based. Seasonal fluctuations in temperature, shifts in sunlight, and natural disturbances like fire are all part of nature's cycle. Most people resist change, especially change they consider destructive. Perhaps that's why uncontrolled wildfires have been suppressed since the early 1900s. Fire can be damaging, and its effects certainly scar a once-verdant landscape. But this destruction can also prove beneficial. In recent decades, ecologists and land managers have realized more fully how important fire is to the natural patterns of many ecosystems. This pattern, known as fire regime, is different for each ecosystem. Each fire regime is important to maintain forest and grassland health, even if it seems harmful at first glance. Then it goes in, the article does, of some of the ways that God created the trees to be able to withstand fire, or even to regrow after something as destructive as a forest fire. It talks about how some of these characteristics and the characteristics some of these trees have. One is thick bark. It talks about trees and fire-prone areas develop thicker bark, in part because of the thick bark does not catch fire or burn easily. It also protects the insides of the trunk, the living tissue that transport water and nutrients from the heat damage during high-frequency, low-intensity fires.

Then it gives some illustrations. Ponderosa pines are one of these examples with that really thick bark. If we've seen them, it almost looks like a jigsaw puzzle the bark does on the outside. But if it ever comes off, it comes off in a very thick piece. It talks about how God has designed these types of trees. Even the Ponderosa pines, as they continue to grow and the lower limbs die, they actually drop off the trees. They fall off so that they no longer are there to catch fire if a fire does sweep through. And so it's these ways that these trees and how God designed these trees to be able to withstand these types of disasters. Also, it talks about fire-induced sprouts.

This fire survival strategy allows the complete destruction of above-ground growth. Typically, species that regenerate by re-sprouting after they've burned have an extensive root system. Dormant buds are protected underground, and nutrients stored in the root system allow quick sprouting after the fire. And so it talks about some yellow pines are this way, and some of us are familiar with that as a building product. But those types of trees, they can be completely demolished above ground, but because their root system is vast, they can then shoot up new trees in a short amount of time and continue to regrow in that area and revitalize the area.

Another aspect that these trees have is that some of them have serotonous cones.

In an environment where hot, fast-moving fires are frequent, some pine species have developed very thick hard cones that are literally glued shut with a strong resin. These serotonous cones can hang on a pine tree for years, long after the enclosed seeds mature. Only when fire sweeps through melting the resin do these heat-dependent cones open up, releasing seeds that are then distributed by wind and gravity. And it references a lodgepole pines are through much of the west are those types of trees that have this these serotonous cones. Another type of seed is a fire-activated seed. As opposed to serotonous cones, which protect enclosed seeds during a fire, the actual seeds of many plants in fire-prone environments need fire directly or indirectly to germinate. These plants produce seeds with the tough coating that can lay dormant, awaiting a fire for several years. Whether it's the intense heat of the fire, exposure to chemicals from smoke, or exposure to nutrients in the ground after a fire, these seeds depend on fire to break their dormancy.

And so there's all of these ways that God has designed into nature that when a disastrous, what we would view, right, as a disastrous fire comes through, that damages everything above ground, the whole landscape, and what we would consider scarring the landscape, that in a relative short amount of time, new growth comes back. And that would not be there if it wasn't for the fire sweeping through and destroying much of what we appreciate and much of what's there. Last week, when I shared this in Flint, Mr. Shafer mentioned, and he may have shared this in a message that you heard as well, but when Mount St. Helens erupted out in Washington, I believe it was in the 80s, early 80s, if I remember right, the experts in the area, so one side of the whole mountain was pretty much devastated and gone. All trees were covered up or knocked down, and it was just devastated, and the experts said it would take a hundred years before it would look like it did prior to the eruption, but what was astounding in what Mr. Shafer shared, living out there during that time, it was about five years, and you couldn't tell that Mount St. Helens even erupted or did that damage. It's amazing how quickly that God has designed into nature to refresh itself, to rebuild itself, and to renew itself after what we would view as a complete destruction.

I'm obviously thankful that we don't live in a fire-prone area like this, but we have other natural disasters that occasionally come through and do its destruction and do its damage. This is part of living on this plan, and this is part of our interaction with the earth that God created and gave to us. Restoring and refreshing are important topics to consider as we are in the midst of this fall Holy Day season. In one of the first inspired sermons that Peter shared in the book of Acts, he pointed his listeners and, in turn, to all of us who read God's word to these instructions about two mankind. This is found in Acts chapter 3, and we'll begin looking at verse 19.

Because we'll find that Peter, in this message, shares instructions about refreshing and restoration and the truth that both of these are vital for our lives today and also a time in the future that will still occur. Acts 3, and again verse 19, Peter says, "...repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord." So this is for you and me. This is our human opportunity to be refreshed, and it's present day. This can happen as whenever we repent, whenever we are converted, whenever we give our life to God through baptism, that this time of refreshing can come into our lives today. But then he's going to pivot to a future time still to come of renewal and restoration. He goes on verse 20, "...and that he may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before." And notice verse 21, "...whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things." This obviously has not yet occurred. These times of restoration of all things. This is what we're in that season of picturing a future time when this will come. It says, "...which God has spoken by the mouth of his holy prophets since the world began." So this message I share with you, this message of the holy day and the instruction and the significance of these holy days that we're observing, we're not the first ones to understand this. Even going back a few decades, those pastors and the church weren't the first ones to understand this. This goes all the way back to, as Peter says, the mouth of his holy prophets. This goes all the way back, that God allowed his people to understand that there's going to come a time when our enemy will be removed and a time of refreshing, a time of restoration, can come into the lives of humanity. And this is what we're reminded of through these holy days, and this is an opportunity we have in celebrating these days for ourselves to be renewed and refreshed. And so this is an amazing opportunity that we have. And so as we continue through these holy days, and specifically as we enjoy the Feast of Tabernacles in just a little over a week, we're probably about eight days away, nine days away from the Feast of Tabernacles, I'd like us to consider what approach will we take towards this annual time of refreshing? What approach will we take towards this annual time of refreshing? Obviously, to have this understanding of what these holy days mean and signify is tremendous. And we did not stumble across this by chance. We're not smarter or wiser than most other people around us. It's only because God has opened our minds to be able to see these understandings. Again, as Mark shared with the sermonette, the understanding of the two goats, what they signify, and then what they point to in a future time still to come. These types of aspects that we can see clearly in Scripture, and it makes total sense to us, is not an accident, but it's a gift from God. Jesus shared as much with his disciples about this in Matthew 13 and verse 11.

I always like to go here because it reminds us of this gift that we have from God in understanding, and this gift that he wants to extend out to everyone at some point. And he's done it in the past with a select number of people. He will do it again in the future as we continue on in this physical world with a select number of people. But a time is coming when he's going to expand this out to all to understand the significance of these holy days and the plan of salvation that he is in the process of working out for all of humanity. And Jesus is talking with his disciples, and he's reminding them of this blessing that they have to see things that others don't see. Notice Matthew 13 and verse 11. And it says, Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. Verse 16, he says, But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For assuredly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desire to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.

Now, these are God's people. These are the righteous. These are the prophets that didn't fully understand the significance of their Messiah coming and what he would unfold. And so, Jesus is telling them, you see how I'm behaving. You see how I'm acting. You see what I am bringing and what I'm magnifying in front of you right now. The prophets of old would have loved to understand the significance of this, but they didn't understand everything because they weren't alive when Jesus came. And he's reminding them that.

And as we have been able to be born in the time we are, we have the full New Testament writings. The writings from the Gospel Accounts of Jesus Christ, the Book of Acts, how the early church began and sprang to life, and then also Paul's writings, and Paul getting further into the understanding and showing us more fully the magnification that Jesus Christ came and implemented. We're so blessed because of all of this together, we can see much more clearly with the book of Revelation, this plan of God that he's working out, how it's going to unfold, who the players are, even though there's still a lot that we can't see because it's prophetic.

We understand the bigger picture now, and we are so blessed to see this. And so, as we enter into this time that we're in right now, there's an opportunity that we have in front of us to partake in a semblance of this renewal and this refreshing that Jesus Christ is going to come and pour out on the entire face of the earth. He's not done that yet, obviously, but he's inviting us to partake in this in a small way, in this upcoming Feast of Tabernacles and, of course, the Day of Atonement, which is right around the corner.

And so, this is a time of refreshing today, even as we live in the physical world. Just like the forest fires that come through, the destruction that sometimes occurs on this earth, we still live a physical life. We still have trials. We still have challenges, but yet there can still come a renewal. There can still come a refreshing if we do our part. It's also a time of renewed focus on the most important things of our life.

While we're in Matthew, let's go to Matthew 6 and verse 33. It's a short Scripture, but one that shows the magnitude of something we'll be continuing to try to internalize and to grow in our lives for the rest of our lives. But there's an aspect here that I want to draw out, an action aspect, that you and I must do with what Jesus is sharing as his instructions. Matthew 6 verse 33. Christ says, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then all these things shall be added to you. Seek first. Sometimes when we read this passage, we can view the word seek and maybe a more, what would be the word I would use, and not as active oriented as it should be.

But when you dive into the word seek and you understand the different meanings it can have, it means to seek in order to find. This isn't just casually going through life and bumping into the kingdom of God or into his righteousness, or even just maybe lazily or haphazardly seeking it and saying, well, if I find it, great. If I don't, because we've lost things in life, right? I've lost things that I was like, man, I wish I didn't lose that. But in the grand scheme of life, it's not that big of a deal. If I come across it again in my garage or in my car in my basement, it'll be nice.

But I'm not going to go and buy it again. I'm not going to replace it. I'm not going to scour the house looking for it. We found those items and we have those items in our life. We also have those items that we have literally tore the house apart, right? At times, I've lost things in my office.

I know it's there somewhere and it's important. And it means I'm going to have to go through all the papers on my desk. It's got all the papers on my shelf. I put it somewhere and I can't remember where I put it. And I need it. And so we seek with a focus to find it.

And we don't quit until we do. We ask our spouse, have you seen this? We ask our spouse, have you moved this, right? Shifting responsibility, of course, off ourselves for losing it in the first place. But we do these things because it's like important. Maybe it's jewelry that you have. Maybe it was an heirloom piece of jewelry that was handed down and suddenly you can't find that ring or that necklace or those earrings. And you're like, I have to find this. This is what that word seek means.

It means seek in order to find and to receive. And I bring this out for today's sermon because with this idea and this concept of renewal, refreshing, that we have in front of us, if we don't move or seek after this with an effort to find these things in this season that we are, we run the risk of coming back from the Feast of Tabernacles here in about, what is it, three weeks time?

A little bit less than three weeks time. We may come back right into our regular life, right into our regular flow of things going on without having this renewal, without feeling refreshed. And so I bring out this aspect because we're not going to just go to the Feast and bump into renewal. It'll be there. God will God has built this in to his Holy Day season for us to be able to achieve this, but we have to seek it.

And I'm talking to myself today because you know, I was saying I'm already having those dreams waking me up about feast planting and coordinating.

I have to make sure that when I go to the feast, as busy as I will be and in service, and some many of you will be serving in different capacities, that I don't allow these aspects to crowd out my ability to be refreshed and renewed. If I don't, then I'll come back, maybe saying it was a good feast, but I may come back tired. I may not have this renewal because I didn't seek it. And so this sermon is as much for me as a reminder. And I'm going to ask Lord to hold me to it. Ask me if I'm being refreshed and renewed at the feast this year, because I need this as much as anyone else does, right? We all need this because we're about to enter into our wintertime. All right, I don't need to keep talking about it, but I do. We're about to enter into that time of the year, and this will be the longest period of the year between God's holy days until Passover in the spring. And winter's going to come. Life's going to continue. Jobs will be busy. School will be busy. Everything will continue to go on as it has, as God ordains. And we need, desperately, this season that's ahead of us. It's why God gives it to us, because it will give us what we need. It'll fill our tanks. It'll give us that renewal to get us through the winter months to Passover in the spring, to help give us a new life and our focus, to maybe bring to light some aspects that God wants us to consider in these next months for us personally. And it gives us this opportunity to be refreshed as we come out of these these fall holy day seasons. But it's only going to be there if we seize it, if we seek after in order to find these things. And so that's the genesis of what I want to share with you and why this is on my heart today. At the beginning of John chapter 6, we have the account of Jesus feeding the 5,000 from just five barley loaves and two fish. Obviously, this would have been an amazing miracle to see. I put myself in the shoes of the disciples who are around Jesus when he asked them, well, how much money do we have? And they're like, well, we can't buy much with it. He goes, well, then how much do we have any food? And they said, well, there's some loaves and some fishes. And he goes, well, that'll be enough. And I can only imagine the disciples and turning around and looking at the crowd and being like, has he lost his mind? Like, this is a huge group. And I also put myself into the crowd because maybe there was like a mic fell up close to the front of the multitude that's overhearing all this. And he's like, and then I elbow my friend. I'm like, oh, this is going to be good to see. Jesus is about to feed us all with five loaves and two fishes. Good thing we're up front. We'll get some of the food at least. But poor guys in the back, they're not going to get much, if anything. And then to see this miracle unfold in the way that not only was it enough for everybody to be filled, but then they collected the fragments into basketfuls. There was more than an abundance. And again, what this signifies in a spiritual way connects to these days when God will bring that renewal to the earth and people will not be lacking. That's not to be missed with this. But the focus that I want to focus in on, John 6, so if you'll turn there with me, John 6, verse 22, is what occurs afterwards.

John 6, and verse 22.

So this is after this miracle happened. This is the next day, it says, on the following day, when the people who were standing on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boats except that one which his disciples had entered, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but his disciples had gone away alone. However, other boats came from Tiberias near the place where they ate bread after the Lord had given thanks. And so they're looking for Jesus. Where did he go? And when the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there nor his disciples, they also got in their boats and came to compare them seeking Jesus. So at a surface level, this sounds good, right? They're seeking after Jesus. But Jesus is going to show them in a minute, you're only worried, you want the next meal. You're worried about the next physical miracle I'm going to perform. And that's not the point of what all of this is about. Because notice they're seeking Jesus, it says at the end of verse 24. In verse 25, and when they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come here? Jesus answered them and said, Most assuredly I say to you, you seek me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. He says, do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which a Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal on him.

Through this holy day season that we are in, God blesses us tremendously with physical blessings of being able to gather. Many of us can travel away. We'll be able to enjoy some foods that I hope that we maybe not get to enjoy at other points of the year. God has baked into these holy days physical blessings, physical aspects that he gives us, and he wants us to enjoy. And he says, rejoice! But we have to be careful that the physical, as we always talk about, doesn't outweigh the spiritual. Because this physical food that we're going to eat after the next day, we're going to be hungry again, right? Like, I remember, like, some of the amazing early memories of going to the feast, because this was, in some sense, in a little kid's mind, a vacation, right? This, I get out of school, even though I had to take homework with me, so I knew it wasn't a vacation. But you go away. You stay at a hotel. We hardly ever stayed at hotels before. We didn't eat out at nice restaurants. We ate out occasionally, but it wasn't anything nice. I remember the first steak I ever had, I believe, in my earliest memory, was at the feast. And they said, order whatever you want. And you tell that to a little kid, and it's like they won the lottery. It's the most amazing thing. And did I appreciate the the the fineness of some of these things I had at that age? Of course I didn't. But this is part of the physical aspect that God has placed in these holy days, to to rejoice, to to eat things that you really want to enjoy, and to do things that you really want to do. Because it's it's a small part of what He is going to do in providing vast amounts of food, clothing, shelter, things that people are missing today on this earth. And He's going to bring abundance, and it's and it signifies that. And the rejoicing that will occur when people have things that they've been lacking for some of them for their whole lives. And so God has baked this sin. But if we make that what we take away from this feast, we're going to come back spiritually hungry for that next spiritual meal. We won't be refreshed. We won't be renewed. Just like that steak, as fine as it was that we have at the feast, the next day we're hungry again. It's not the food that's permanent. And that's what Jesus is getting at here. You're seeking me because you're looking for the physical. And there's been times where I'll admit I was seeking the feast for the physical aspects. And when I came back, there was something lacking deep inside that wasn't filled because my focus wasn't right. And so Jesus is getting to the point. He goes, you got to seek after this food that is everlasting. And this is that opportunity that is ahead of us at this feast of tabernacles, whether you're online with a site, whether you're at a satellite site, or whether you're able to go and be present there at one of our designated locations. This is that opportunity to seek after the spiritual food because with it comes that refreshing and renewal that we need so desperately in our lives. All around us, society is so focused on the physical. What can I get from today? What will satisfy my needs for today? And this just creates a cycle of seeking for the next item, seeking for the next thing to fill us internally. But yet, we realize that all fails. And so as we continue, and as we consider this message, I'd like us to consider these two different aspects of renewal and refreshing that we can focus on this year at the feast. One, the first aspect that I want to focus on is that a symbolized renewal and refreshing that is symbolized in the Feast of Tabernacles is the rest that the world and that society will have with God at last.

This is a time of refreshing that this planet so desperately needs. Right now, we recognize, because of everything going on in the lives of man, priorities are often out of balance. Families are under attack. People are just worn out and tired. You can just see it in society. The drama, the emotional fatigue, we could just talk all day about the negative impacts that people are experiencing in life right now. And so we have to ask ourselves, how much do we also need a rest from the events occurring throughout the world right now at this time of the year? Will we take, will we seek after in order to find the spiritual and physical rest offered in these fall holy days?

But I recognize this can be a challenging, right? Because society around us is continuing to struggle from news reports to political problems to war. The issues going on in society is endless. And it's hard to not recognize or see, pick up on the evening news, see in our social media feeds the negative things going on.

And at times, it is a distraction for us. And at times, we can't help that our eyes move over and to see these events going on. But even the physical aspects of our lives, from our own work, from our own children being in school, to our own health issues that people go through, these can all be heavy matters that we also wrestle with around us. And so we're working on a physical trip, many of us, to go to the Feast of Tabernacles, which brings its own challenges as well.

And so we have a lot of these physical aspects that are just weighing on us or that are surrounding us as we're moving through this time of the year.

Turn with me to Mark 10 and verse 13. On surface level, this may seem like a kind of a strange passage to turn to, because it's the passage where they bring the little children to Jesus, and then they tell them, oh, he's too busy. How does this fit into this time of renewal that we're in? I hope it'll make sense as we go through this. Mark 10 and verse 13. It says, then they brought little children to him, Mark 10 verse 13, that he may touch them, but the disciples rebuked those who were brought to them. Maybe they were saying, oh, he's too important for this. Like, yeah, he's supposed to be talking to us.

We're the adults in the room. We're the ones that are supposed to take this and go teach others, or we're the ones that... who knows what was going on here? But they rebuked him for his time that he was spending with the children. Maybe they were worried about the physical aspects of what was going on, or what they needed to hear and to learn from their rabbi.

But then Jesus saw and he said that he was greatly displeased and said to them, let the children come to me, and do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of God. He goes on to say, assuredly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it. And he took them up in his arms and laid his hands on them, and he blessed them.

So he's referencing the kingdom of God, which is what is baked into these fall holy days and what we're picturing is this new kingdom that Jesus Christ is going to implement. And he's saying that if we don't receive it like the children do, then we're missing the mark. So how how can we, as God's children, receive these holy days in the way that children would? I can't help but think about like going to the feast many years and then seeing the joy that are in children's faces and in their lives as they're enjoying the holy day season, especially the feast.

Like I said, many don't have a pool at home, and so when they stay at a hotel that has a swimming pool, they think they've won the lottery, right? They're the richest kids in the world to be able to swim every single day, to be able, as I mentioned, to have foods that they normally don't have, maybe a steak, or maybe it's their favorite pasta meal.

And mom or dad says, yeah, just order whatever you want. And it's like, whatever I want? In dessert, too? It's these types of things that you just see the way that they're not worried about their homework. They're not worried about what their friends are doing back home. They're not worried about what their job is going to be, right? And you just see them at the feast enjoying and embracing as much of these things. Now, granted, they're kids. It's physical, right?

That's what they're grasping onto. But as we mature, our focus is we're still enjoying the physical. But I think we recognize what a relief, what a break that these holy days give us during this time of the year spiritually to reset our minds, to focus on the more weighty matters, to focus on what God wants us to be learning from this physical existence, so that we can then pivot and use that in a spiritual way to help others in their journeys later on. And so this opportunity exists as these children came to Jesus, probably not with very many cares on their mind and he received them.

Can we enter into this season putting the challenging aspects that are going on around us? Obviously, again, we can't just ignore everything that's happening, but can we shift our focus away from society, from political, from emotional issues, and focus on this time of refreshing and restoration that God wants to bring not only to the world, but to us right now. And I think if we can put ourselves into the mindsets of children during the feast and to seek after it in order to receive it, it will give us an advantage to be able to get everything out of these holy days that God wants us to enjoy. So that's one aspect of renewal and refreshing.

I like to touch on another aspect of renewal and refreshing through the Feast of Tabernacles is the rest from our physical trials and challenges. This is where it really gets internal for us.

The weight of our internal trials at times seems too much to ever maybe be refreshed from, or maybe we're too tired from stress or anxiety or concern for others that we feel we're incapable of being refreshed in our mind and in our spirit. It could be considered to a fire that is raging through a forest, devastating everything in its wake. We have physical trials and spiritual trials that sometimes come on to our life and come into our lives that literally feel like a raging fire that is devouring everything going on. That we feel we're going to just be burned to a crisp at the end. We're going to have no strength, nothing profitable to show from it. It's just going to be a total disaster. We know and we can probably think of either yourself in a time where this has occurred, or we can think of others where their trial seems to be so weighty that how could there be any hope still left in their life? Or at least it appears to be completely devouring, right? Sure, the physical damage of a forest fire and some of the physical damage that we go through with trials, we can't ignore. It's real. But the healing that comes with the forest fire, as we looked at at the beginning, comes naturally. God designed it into that system, that ecosystem.

And He has designed in our life an opportunity to find healing and refreshing, even through severe and sore trials. Just like the wildfire goes through, everything is black, everything is burnt, but it doesn't take very long before green, new green shoots start pushing through the destruction.

Life begins to reappear, and you give it a summer. You give it a couple summers, and often it's completely refreshed. Maybe there's still little trees that are going to have to grow for another 10 years, but it's changing that quickly. And that's what we want in our lives, even in the midst of these heavy trials, is we want God to bring renewal. We want Him to let us grow from our experiences, let us grow from what we go through, and to be similar in a similar way to these forests that are devastated for a time. We are going to have many opportunities to be refreshed from the weights that we carry through life, through the messages that are going to be shared with us at this time of the year, through the fellowship and the encouragement that we can maybe give others or even receive ourselves, through the extra family time or just being present with our spiritual family at this time of the year, and through a renewed focus on God and His Word, through the extra prayer time, extra opportunity to study or to meditate. All of these opportunities is what fuels the renewal within us. It gives us this newness of life that we can then proceed forward with. You can put in your notes Philippians 3 verse 20 and verse 21. I want to just reference it because God has even baked into our lives the ability to be transformed and conformed towards Christ's glorious body. It says, For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, which the Lord Jesus Christ. This is that focus on the kingdom. This is that citizenship that we have. This is our homeland that we look after. Verse 21, Paul says, Who will transform our lowly body, that it may be conformed to His glorious body. And so that's that renewal, ultimate spiritual renewal that we must keep our mind on. But that spiritual renewal comes piece by piece, even in this existence today, as we partake of this time and as we focus on what we want to draw from it. So as we observe the Feast of Tabernacles, we recognize that these days of challenge and trial are truthfully temporary, because life is temporary. Jesus Christ has not yet returned to this earth. And so each of us live in physical bodies, and we bear the wear and tear of our physical existence. But we can look forward to a time of renewal, a time when the physical will be changed to spiritual and bring this spiritual existence to us. I know it's not easy for many of us to be able to attend the Feast of Tabernacles. Many of us have to work extremely hard to be able to even journey away from our homes. I know that some will be tuning in online to the national webcasts. I know some will be able to only get together a few times during these days. But again, as we, regardless of where we're at in our abilities, we have this opportunity to seek after what God wants us to draw from these days. So we have to, in order to seek to find, we don't just haphazardly go through life and bump into the holy days and get what we can get. We have to prepare our minds. We have to prepare our lives to observe these days so that we can get this renewal and this refreshing in our bodies both physically and also spiritually.

When we consider those who have battled through physical challenges in the Bible, we have to move the Apostle Paul pretty high on that list. He was not spared from a physical illness or a physical aspect that held him back. He prayed three times that God would remove it, but he still had to go forward with it. He also battled through trial, through shipwreck, through beatings, being left for dead because they literally thought he was dead.

They thought they had killed him. So when we talk about someone who has battled through physical challenges, Paul has to be close to the top. Notice his admonition in 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 7. 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 7. Notice Paul's focus, even through the physical issues.

Notice even through the hardships he maintained, the spiritual focus that then he encourages us to also maintain. 2 Corinthians 4 verse 7. Paul says, Jesus, that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our body. And so we go through these physical challenges, but it's also to demonstrate God's grace and his working in our lives.

And so we can't lose sight of that. Skip to verse 14. Knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that grace having spread through the many may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. Therefore, we do not lose heart, even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is before a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

While we do not look at the things which are seen, remember they were the the the multitude was like, where's our next meal? Where'd Jesus go? We want another we don't look for the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Paul's reminding the the listener and us in turn that yeah, the hardships are going to come through life.

We can go down our list of the things that we've been battling or that we know and we've been praying for others who are battling them, but he's saying don't lose focus that we have an opportunity for the inward man to be renewed day by day. And part of what God has blessed us not only day by day, praying and being able to read and being able to find encouragement from God, he gives us these holy days as a time of refreshing, as a time of renewal.

But again, we have to seek it out. We have to internalize it. We have to make sure the balance between the physical that God wants us to enjoy is balanced with the spiritual so that we come back feeling refreshed from our trials and maybe our challenges. Granted, we're going to come back and whatever health challenge you went away to the feast, you will most likely have when you come back. If you have a job issue, when you come back, your boss probably isn't going to be some transformed perfect person that is going to make your life easy breezy from that point forward.

You're going to come back into some of the hardships that you had, probably the majority, if not all the hardships that you had when you left your homes. But we have this opportunity for a week to do our best to shut it out, do our best to navigate through it with a spiritual focus and then focusing on the aspects of renewal. And it's not always easy, I get it, but if we can seek in order to find these aspects, God's going to present them. No matter where you keep the Feast of Tabernacles, I know because this is how God works, He will provide you opportunities to be refreshed and renewed. He does that because He loves His people so much and so that we can't say, well, God didn't bring it this year at the feast or God didn't inspire it.

He doesn't mess this up because it's too important to Him, but it's about what we want to take from it. That's what it comes down to. He will provide the opportunity, but when we seize this opportunity to be refreshed and renewed, we desperately need it. But again, as with so much of God, it comes back to us. What's going to be our focus? What will we receive from this time?

As we wrap up, I want to turn to Isaiah 2 and verse 2. This is one of those passages that most likely, wherever you tune in to the feast or wherever you attend this year, you'll probably have read to you. Or maybe you'll read it yourself because of what it pictures. But the prophet Isaiah was inspired to capture for us the beauty of the time of refreshing and renewal that God plans to bring to the earth. Isaiah 2 and verse 2. It says, Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations and rebuke many people. They shall beat their swords and the plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation. Neither shall they learn war anymore. Going back to that opening illustration of forest fire and the destructions that lay in the wake of a natural disaster like that, it's devastating. And there's going to be a come a time where there will be more devastation than even what we have today politically, economically, emotionally, that many people are going to go through and experience. But as we see here in Isaiah, God's going to unwind the way that man thinks. He's going to unwind the way that man operates as leaders and as national governments. And he's going to put in place a way that says, here's a better way to go. Walk in it. I'm going to fix your governments. I'm going to fix your how you battle one another. I'm going to remove this. We're going to take these implements and rethink how they can be used for good. This is what God wants to bring in, and he's going to bring in new life. He's going to be bringing in refreshing. He's going to restore the way that mankind operates between each other and with their God. We have an opportunity right now this Holy Day season to share in this present time of refreshing and renewal as we partake in the Feast of Tabernacles. But the question comes back to all of us and to this guy included. What are we going to seize? How are we going to grasp it? How are we going to internalize it? Because, again, God is going to provide it. Just as a good parent provides food to their children, God will provide this to us. He always does. But what will we do with it? We must seek first the kingdom of God, which means we must seek after these spiritual elements that God wants us to have. We must seek after the rest that God will bring to this earth. We must seek after the rest that we need from our trials and our challenges. And if we do, we will have a time of refreshment and renewal that we all vitally need.