We Made It!

In 1803, so it's a while ago, 222 years ago, President Jefferson commissioned one of the greatest expeditions in American history. When Thomas Jefferson became the third president in 1801, the United States basically stopped at the Mississippi River. The land west of the Mississippi belonged to other countries and was under foreign control.

But just before the journey began, the U.S. struck a deal with France to acquire a vast amount of land west of the Mississippi, known today as the Louisiana Purchase. The Louisiana Purchase consists primarily of today's states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, half of Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, half of Wyoming, and southern Minnesota, southern or South Dakota, part of North Dakota and the majority of Montana. Can I see a show of hands of anyone who believes or knows that they're from these states, from where the Louisiana Purchase? We have Minnesota. I know Wisconsin doesn't count. Sorry. Not part of the Louisiana Purchase. Ohio doesn't either. Michigan does not. Quite a few hands from these states. Quite a few people are represented. In 1804, two men, Mary Weather Lewis and William Clark, left what is today now the St. Louis area and led a team of about 45 men to find the source of the Missouri River and a water route to the Pacific Ocean.

Along the way, they gathered information about geology, geography, climate, and indigenous tribes of the unexplored area. To say they encounter difficulty is an understatement. They encounter torrential rainfalls, some of the hardest winters that mankind has experienced. They shared, and I'm sure this is backed up by other, well, they had their journals and they had their accounts that they recorded. But that first winter in the southern South Dakota area, they encountered 45 below zero temperatures.

That's the lowest recorded that they hit. They were often for a spell in the fall and winter into minus 30, minus 40 below, but on one day they reached minus 45 below zero. They would send men out on watch parties and, you know, a normal watch party would be maybe a few hours. Well, in those temperatures, they started bringing the watch parties down to one hour because that was as long as the men could stay out in that type of frigid temperatures.

And then even in those more extreme, they would only be out for 30 minutes at a time before they would need a break. They had encountered, at times, hailstorms that would be strong enough to knock almost some of the men out and to cause gashes in their head.

They lost one of their men early on this journey from an appendicitis, which was incurable at that time. There was no known surgeries for a burst appendix. They also almost lost a man on the journey because he went off on a hunting expedition and got himself turned around and came back to where he thought they were on the river and assumed that they had left him behind. What he didn't realize is when he came back to the river, he actually was further up the river than the party had advanced yet.

He was ahead of the game, as some would say. So in his haste, he decided, I must catch up with the party. So he started further down this unexplored river, further continuing on, thinking, if I run hard enough and fast enough, I will catch the party, having no clue that they were actually downriver behind them still.

And if he would have gone the opposite direction, would have met back up. He spent two weeks in the wilderness and almost starved to death before he finally, and they were able to reunite, and he was able to find the men again and to be recovered and strengthened and to be rejoined. They found new animals that had never been seen before in any one English-speaking North America. The groundhogs, which with their little holes and their chirp chirp that they would make when they would communicate with one another, was a bizarre animal for them.

And they decided, we want to catch one and send it back to Thomas Jefferson. Anybody ever tried catching a groundhog? Not easy. So they decided, well, we'll dig down into one of their burrows because they have to have a place that they stop, right? Deep enough, they dug down six feet and then shoved a pole along one of their oars down there, and it still didn't hit the bottom. And they're like, this is hopeless. So they tried to flood them out. It actually worked. They caught one. And they fed it, took care of it, and eventually it was sent all the way back to Thomas Jefferson, still alive.

And he put it into what was their time, one of the most renowned zoos, or I don't know if they called them zoos back then, but it was in Philadelphia. And so that groundhog was sent there to where it could be so others could see this strange animal that had never been seen before. They encountered prog horn. That was a new animal for them. Mule deer, white-tailed jackrabbits, American elk, and coyote, just to name some.

And the most fearsome new animal they discovered. Any guesses? Somebody say grizzlies? Yes, grizzly bears. And so the Indians had warned them about this ferocious animal, and so they were ready with their guns the first time they encountered one. And somebody, I believe, had a lucky shot and took it down quite easily. So I don't remember if it was Lewis or Clark wrote in their journal entry that the story was a tall tale of how ferocious these animals were, and that took hardly anything. And that it was an exaggeration until they met the second grizzly bear and fired ten shots into it before it finally succumbed to its injuries.

Lewis and Clark's men wrote further stories about their adventures with grizzly bears, being chased, being ran back to their canoes, lucky shots, again, trying to bring these massive and new animals down. One adventure that I thought was almost what you would see in a cartoon. At times they would send scouts ahead up the river because the men had these large boats, and one was very large.

I should have wrote down how many tons this one boat could carry, but it took many men to continue to maneuver it up the Missouri, especially when it would drag on ground and they would have to get off and then pull it further up the river. So they sent advance scouting parties out to just know if they ran into a fork, it would give them some time to evaluate which fork would continue to go west. So they had sent an advance scout party. A party ran into one of these forks.

They did their scouting. They took a sign and they banged it in like a pole, and they banged it into the ground as they had agreed that this is how we'll note which fork we take, which one you should follow. They put a sign on it to make sure that they knew which way to go.

And a beaver came along, ate the post, knocked it down, and so when the men arrived, there was no post, and so they had to guess and they went the wrong direction for a while up the river. Those rascally wabbits. Or beavers, in this case, right? Almost like a cartoon that you would see.

Something silly. But eventually these men made their journey to the origin of the Missouri River, and this was one of their goals of the journey that they reached in Montana. But this is when their journey became difficult, if it wasn't hard enough already, as they met the Rocky Mountains for the first time.

Now, they envisioned the Rocky Mountains would be very similar to what was known as our today Appalachian Mountains, that are not really any mountains in comparison to what the Rockies are like. And even with the stories that they had heard, they figured half a day's journey they would be over this mountain face. Anybody driven across the Rockies? Didn't get very far in half a day, did you? It was an adventure to take a car today across this, and they were still using boats and dragging them along the way. And so it did not take them half a day to journey across the Rocky Mountains. I share this opening illustration because, similar to Lewis and Clark, we are on a journey to a new land commissioned by God. None of our journeys have been easy, and we've battled things, some of which we never envisioned would ever come across our path. And sometimes we are standing at the base of our own Rocky Mountains, wondering if this is just too much of a mountain to climb. How do I go forward? Now, this is Mike Phelps speaking. I'm going to put myself into the Lewis and Clark expedition. Third Seaman class, Mike Phelps. Maybe the right rear oarsman, because I probably wouldn't have been that high up on the ranking. And I'm not a hunter, so I would have been the berry-gathering man on this journey. But I think when I reached the Rocky Mountains, I would have went to Lewis and Clark and said, you know what? We've done quite a bit. We've seen a lot to send back to President Jefferson. We've done a great job up to this point marking and creating maps. We've even sent home live animals. They sent also a bird home, which was, oh, I forget which kind, it was almost like a raven that they had never seen before. And so maybe in my mind, I would have said, you know what? This is now too big of a hill to climb. This is not what we thought it was going to be. Maybe we need to just say, this is a good job what we've done. Maybe we should head on back and maybe they can set another party forward and they would be ready for these Rocky Mountains. We've already laid the path. We've already blazed the trail. Someone else maybe can finish this journey. Sometimes it seems like we exhaust all of our resources to accomplish a major event in life. And when we look back and we imagine the journey going differently, reaching the end goal is not something to minimize or take lightly. Like Lewis and Clark, while they celebrated finding the source of the Missouri River, they knew that their journey was not over. Their end goal had not yet been realized. I can't help but think about Hebrews 12 and verse 1, if you'll turn there with me. As I consider the spiritual journey that you and I are on today, Hebrews 12 and verse 1 and 2.

Hebrews 12 and verse 1, it says, Let us run with endurance the race that is set for us. It's taken quite a bit for many of us to make it here to this Feast of Tabernacles this year. Some of our journeys have been outright difficult. Some of us have had to face challenges this year that have been greater than any challenge we have encountered in our life. And some of us have suffered loss that has made this year more difficult and different than any other year. But on this opening night of the Feast of Tabernacles, I want us to focus on the ideal that we made it. We have made it to God's Feast. We've made it to another Holy Day. This is a momentous time to celebrate and reflect that we are here right now, and this is not something to take lightly. Our great God does everything to support our lives. There's not an aspect of our life that He doesn't see or doesn't understand. There's not an aspect of our life that He does not step in and provide for. He is perfect in this way and deserves all credit and glory for bringing us to this moment tonight with Him. The Apostle Paul understood this idea completely with all of the journeys and accomplishments. He also had tremendous hardships along the way, but He never lost heart, and He always acknowledged where His strength came from. Turn with me to Philippians 4, verse 10.

Philippians 4, verse 10. Paul writes, But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last your care for me has flourished again. Though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity, they were not always able to support Him the way that they wished they could. He appreciated when they could, but He knew that they couldn't always do that. He goes, Not that I speak in regard for need, for I have learned for whatever state I am to be content. And this is where we're like, Paul, tell me how that goes. Because there's times in our lives where, as hard as we try, it just feels like there's something missing. Like, can I be content in this trial? Can I be content in this moment? This is more than I've ever had to deal with in my entire life. Is this going to be the moment that I break or crack? Paul's saying that he has learned in whatever state he is in to be content. He says, I know how to be abased. I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. And then he points to where and how he has become this way. He says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. In another one of his letters, he spoke again of this concept. Turn with me to Ephesians 6, verse 10. Paul writes here, he says, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and then the power of his might. So he points immediately to where we get our strength. Where do we get our power? We're not strong in the Lord on our own. He says, and in the power of his might. And then he says, we must put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. And he points to why we have to put on Christ and put on his armor. He says, For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. The Apostle Paul had a lot of challenges. We could go through a lot of books and a lot of the accounts we have here of others who went through tremendous challenges. I'd like to pivot a little bit and go to Old Testament and look at King David, who also experienced his shares of ups and down. And I'd like us to put ourselves as a family into David's family or into David's community. What if David grew up in our midst? What if he was a little kid on a blanket and we saw him start to grow up? We knew him as a child. We knew his parents. We knew him and his zeal for life. We saw maybe some bad moments too, but we also saw some shining examples. And so imagine he was part of our family. Imagine we saw him then to continue on and to go and be the king of Israel. This is what we would have seen if we would have been in his midst. We would have seen him anointed as king. That's my boy!

That's that David that we saw. That's that zeal that we're so proud of. We would have heard the story of him killing Goliath, which would have been an amazing thing. What faith, what courage the one from our midst was able to have. We would have seen him have to flee from King Saul, which we would have acknowledged. That was a challenging time for our boy. We would have seen him crowned King over Judah. We would have then seen him crowned King over Israel. There he goes. That's the boy that we knew.

We would have seen God make a special covenant with him, and Israel would have been in a time of peace.

But then we would have seen one of his lowest moments and heard the stories about how he had committed adultery and murder, which would have broke our hearts.

We would have seen that he had a son Solomon born, who we'd find out later would be the next king.

We knew about his son Absalon, and then we heard about his rebellion against his father, which again brought sadness to our hearts.

But then we would have rebounded when we saw David anointed and restored again as king.

But then we would have heard about how David took a census of Israel, and that many of our fellow countrymen died because of it.

Then we would have seen him acquire wealth, and we would have seen how he was involved in the planning of the future temple that Solomon, his son, would build.

There's this back and forth, these highs and lows, these challenging moments and times where he acknowledged his sin and turned back to God.

Turn with me to Psalm 63.

Psalm 63 was probably written when David was seeking refuge during Absalon's rebellion.

David would have been hiding from his enemies, and he probably was very lonely in trying to figure out what did God want for his life.

What would be those next steps?

He knew that only God could provide for his path out of this situation, and only God could give him the direction.

Notice Psalm 63, verse 1.

A psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah, O God, you are my God. Early will I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.

Have you ever been in a place like David where you just longed for God's comfort? You longed for his support as if you were fasting for more than one day, and you just desired a glass of water.

He says, So I have looked for you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory, because your loving-kindness is better than life.

David knew what life was like. He lacked nothing that he did not want. He had the money, he had the power, he could get whatever it was. And yet he says, Your loving-kindness is better than even life. My lips shall praise you. Thus I will bless you while I live. I will lift up my hands in your name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise you with joyful lips. When I remember you on my bed, I meditate on you in the night watches. Sounds like a late-night prayer to me. A late-night calling out to God, can you help this pain to go away so I can just sleep tonight? Because you have been my help, therefore in the shadow of your wings, I will rejoice.

God gives us these Psalms of David and these accounts of others because we will find ourselves in similar situations at different points in our life. When we don't know up from down, we don't know our left hand from our right hand because of the grief that we're in or the challenge of the trial that is in front of us.

These trials can mess with our concentration. They can mess with our sleep. They can mess with our relationships. And David was experiencing all of this, not sure how God is going to bring him through this one. But he knew, regardless of what his next steps would be, God would be his support and his comfort.

He closes in verse 8 saying, When we reach a significant milestone, we can reflect on the journey that we've made. There are a lot of Holy Days that arrive, and it feels like we climbed a mountain to reach that particular Holy Day. Sometimes it feels like we have to claw and drag our way to the sunset that marks the beginning of this new Holy Day. And when it arrives, we feel like we can finally breathe and say, I made it. Am I the only one that has ever had that feeling? That you get to a Holy Day, and you finally feel like it's here, and I can breathe, and I know that I made it.

It's a powerful feeling, because sometimes we are attacked, sometimes we have horrible trials we're working through, sometimes we have so much on our plate that to make it to the feast feels like one of the most largest accomplishments that we've ever made in our lives. Laura and I, from time to time, chat about how thankful we are about that God has given us His Sabbath and His Holy Days, and He doesn't ask us, is this a good time for a Sabbath rest for you? Is this a good time for my Holy Days to arrive?

Are you got all your chores done? Kids are all clean, ready, schools going well, houses in order? Because if it is, let me know, and then I'll usher in the next Sabbath. We are so thankful that God does not check in with us and say, are you ready for a Sabbath rest?

What He does is He makes it arrive every week on the same time, whether we're ready or not. And I'll be honest with you, there's been weeks that I've asked God, no, I can't ask Him because I know He won't answer this one, but I've said, God, if I had just 24 more hours, I would get done these things that are still on my plate. Now, I'm going to ask, am I the only one that's ever felt that way? You get to the end of the week and you're like, if I had just one more day, I would get everything done that I need to.

I've felt that way many times. And then I reflect, no, Mike, if you had one more day, you still wouldn't get everything done. And then you'd be asking for two more days. And then you still wouldn't feel satisfied. And then you would have blown through the Sabbath and Sunday and still be exhausted going into Monday.

And then we would keep going and keep going until we are just beaten down from exhaustion and this race of life. That's why God didn't ask us, is your house in order for Sabbath? Because he knew we would fall, succumb to everything going on around us, and we wouldn't make it. We wouldn't be ready. And so he says, I'm not going to ask you. I'm going to give it to you. And I'm going to expect you then to follow it. I'm going to give you a Holy Day. You may not be ready, but I'm going to give it to you anyway.

Because I love you too much for you to miss out on these days. And he knows that we're going to have difficulties that are going to pop up, things that are sometimes completely out of our control, and he understands that. And he says, the Sabbath is still coming. The Feast of Tabernacles is on its way. And I still want you to keep these days because of the importance and how much you need these days.

This is why I'm so thankful that the Sabbath and the Holy Days come on a regular basis, even if sometimes I am not ready for them. If this is how you have felt this year leading up to the Feast of Tabernacles, don't fret because you made it. You are here tonight. What a blessing and a relief to be here. Regardless of the challenges that you may have had recently, or how difficult it was for you to drive or to arrive in Lake Geneva, you are here tonight at God's Feast of Tabernacles.

It started just a few, not a little, about an hour ago, right? A little bit over an hour ago. You made it. And this is a great accomplishment.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition was a tremendous journey. As an eyesight shared, they encountered difficulties. It was not easy. And it came with many interruptions. Lewis and Clark wrote back to President Jefferson on different occasions their timeline of where they were and what they felt their timeline would be on this journey.

And it took, it's similar to our mail system today, it took about a year for some of these letters to get back to the President.

And so as he received these letters and he's reading about their story, he pulled out a big map that I understand, put on the floor, and started tracing their route on the map. And then was like, this is where they said that they were when they sent this letter. And this is where they said they expected to be in a month's time and then two months' time.

And he goes, they've got to be there by now. I can't wait to hear the next letter. I can't wait to hear back. You know what? They weren't there yet.

They suffered another interruption, followed by another interruption, another difficulty, and what should have been a few more weeks of what would I say, a day, a half a day to get over the Rocky Mountains?

They were well behind schedule. They were dealing with a tremendous interruption.

Like his Sabbaths, God's Holy Days are so important that he interrupts our lives on a regular basis and commands that we pause.

He interrupts our jobs. He interrupts our schooling and our advanced learning. He interrupts our doctor appointments. And he interrupts our regular household chores and the way that we care about our homes.

God purposefully interrupts our lives, the normal things that we have going on. And he does this so that we will celebrate and remember his Holy Days, including this one that we are celebrating tonight and tomorrow here in Lake Geneva.

Our God is a God of interruption. And I mean this in a good way, right? I don't mean like our kids that go banging on the bathroom door when you moms are getting just a few minutes of privacy. I'm not talking about those type of interruptions. You moms know who you are.

No, I'm talking about God interrupting your life like this right now with his Feast of Tabernacles. Because of God's perfect and complete understanding, he knows that we need to be reminded of his plan of salvation. So he gave us his Holy Days to remind us of such. He purposefully interrupts our busy lives to say, take Paul's and remember what I am doing in the lives of man.

Remember there is something much larger happening behind the scenes. Remember this life is not all there is to enjoy or understand. And remember, I want you to be part of my family and to work alongside of your elder brother, Jesus Christ, in bringing healing to a very broken world.

God has interrupted your lives to bring you purpose and understanding for why you were born and why he has called you into this family. Turn with me to Romans 8, verse 31. Romans chapter 8 is to me one of the most encouraging passages that we have in the New Testament because in a very concise one-chapter account, we have in a beautifully written plan of God. If you need a subject to study this week while you're here, you're looking for something for Bible study, maybe make Romans chapter 8 just your study. It won't take you long, but I find so much encouragement from Romans chapter 8. And notice what Paul writes in verse 31. Again, tying into why we are here and what God has done for us.

Who can be against us? Have you felt like you might have had an enemy against you this past year? Maybe even this past week? How many crazy things happened just before the Holy Days? That if you've done this enough times, you start to recognize are just odd.

Comes out of left field, strange things, things that blow up, relationships that are strained, and you're just like, what is going on here? And then you're like, oh yeah, the Holy Days are going to be here in about a week, two weeks. And Satan, our enemy, is stirring the pot. It's happened so many times for us who've spent years in the church that you can't just deny it and ignore it.

You can't just chalk it up to time and chance. We have an enemy who wants nothing else but to distract us and derail us, especially as God says, I want to interrupt your lives. I want to interrupt your schedule. I want you to take pause. I want you to recognize what's coming up. And then Satan goes berserk, it seems like. And if he can't get to us because God is keeping him at arm's length, then he goes, what can I mess up in the world?

What fear can I instill in other people's lives that will then ripple into God's people to where they have to question what is going on with this world?

And so we have to, at this time, recognize that when Paul writes, if God is for us, who can be against us?

This is the focus that we need to have this coming week, and as these trials and as these challenges of life, our own Lewis and Clark expeditions continue to go forward. Because if our Father is behind us, there is nothing that can stand against us. He goes on to say, So God interrupted our lives to bring us here in Lake Geneva this year because of his love and his abundance that he wants to pour out. And so you've made it. You've made it.

God wants us so deeply for us to finish our races and enter into his family that he is, again, holding nothing back and allowing nothing to interrupt his plan for our lives. He wants us to win this journey we are on. He wants to aid us.

And in fact, in an effect, God has called a time-out for you and for me this week. Very similar to how a coach brings the action of a sport or a play of a sport to a temporary stop so that they can provide instruction or guidance on how to play better. God has effectively called a time-out for you and me this week.

Time-outs for anybody who's played in sports, you're going to understand this. Time-outs are an important part of any sport that utilizes this break because coaches use this tool to give the players a break and to catch their breath and to recharge. Is anybody looking forward to being recharged this week? To being renewed? I am. I shared a message back home on being renewed and refreshed at the Feast of Tabernacles. I asked my wife to hold me to that because it can be a lot to be a coordinator for a feast site, and I don't want to go home on empty.

I need to purposefully want to be recharged and renewed. That's one of my goals for myself this week because God has given me this opportunity right here in front. So a coach will call a timeout to give their team a break, to let the players recharge a bit. They'll also call a timeout to allow their team to be instructed on a better offense or defense to run at this particular time.

I look forward to hearing the messages that will be shared this week that will offer us encouragement on how to be on the offensive and also how to play defense in this life that we're continuing to live. A coach will also call a timeout to be instructed on how to gain an advantage over their opponents or how to redirect their energy to achieve a better outcome and to win the game. But for a timeout to be effective, there must be a focus on listening to the coach and clearing our minds of any distraction that are present.

If we don't do these things, then that timeout that the coach calls is most likely a wasted effort. I'm going to tell a story of an interruption that had occurred in a timeout when I was a teenager within the church playing basketball. It's a story about my mom, and the story at first is going to sound kind of bad, and if mom is listening to this later on, it's a good story.

So just hang in there with me. I'm going to praise you at the end. I struggled with talent as a basketball player. I wasn't very gifted in basketball, but I was extremely competitive. If you look up the definition of a bad attitude, then it'll say one who is probably extremely competitive and has no talent. I didn't look it up, but I'm sure that's what it says, and it might even have a picture of me next to it. I loved to play basketball, but I wasn't very good. But I was super competitive.

And so when I would get fouled, or what I thought I was fouled, and I'd get knocked down, I'd look to the ref and no whistle, and I'm like, throw your hands up. My mind's not in the game. Players are going on. And instead of having that short-term memory and being able to get back into the sport and be like, well, I don't know, maybe I didn't get fouled, or whether jump back up, keep playing, I would just get mad.

I'd get upset, and I'd have a horrible look in my face. That's something that I think I've carried with me. Many people say, we can read you by your face. And so I don't know if that was a good thing for me just to share with you guys or not, because now you're going to be watching me off-feast and being like, oh, there's that bad attitude.

No, I'm teasing. And so I don't remember how it all played out. This was not a good game for me, as most games were not. Most basketball games were not. I'm having a bad attitude. My mom's watching it from the stands. Mom would like to crochet blankets while she was sitting there in the stands and worked the crochet needle and crochet and watch me play. And somehow a timeout occurred in the game. I don't know who called it. I don't remember some of these details. And so the coach calls us over to the side, and I'm standing there in the huddle with the rest of my teammates.

And all of a sudden, the coach starts giving some guidance, and all of a sudden, somebody grabs my arm and spins me around. And it's my shorter mother who had walked out onto the court, grabbed my arm, spun me around. She looks at me, and she says, Michael, if I see one more bad attitude out of you, we're going home. True story. Mom remembers it. If I see one more bad attitude out of you, we're going home. And then she turns around and walks away.

And I turn back into the huddle, and everybody's eyes are on me, including the coach. And everybody's eyes are about that big, like, what just happened? And then the coach, who was giving instruction, doesn't know what to... he just stops. He goes, I guess just get back out there. And we get back out there with a blown timeout. No instruction from our coach. Because that timeout got interrupted by my wonderful and loving mom.

And I went back out and played some more, and I got tripped probably by my own big feet, fell down, looked to the rough, bad attitude, and quickly realized, oh no, my mom is still watching the game. And I woke up to her, and I get this big smile. Thankfully, she did not come down and drag me out of that gym and us go home. I'll never forget that story.

And the reason why, because mom would be like, I can't believe you told that story. That was one of the greatest things she ever did in my life. That's a mom who is tired of seeing her son with a bad attitude. And I'm so thankful she did that, because for the first time in my life, I realized an inner part of my life that was broken, that I was struggling with, and had to be fixed. Because we've seen those people in life that just go through life with a bad attitude, with no talent, with super competitive, things aren't going right, and it's always somebody else's fault.

And in that moment, mom taught me a lesson. I know that part doesn't tie in with this message, but the message was about an interruption and a timeout that wasn't effective. Are we going to have our timeout this week with God interrupted? Maybe. Could it be interrupted by something legitimate, like something that happens back home that is out of our control, or something that occurs here that is, again, not what we could have planned for?

Yeah, it's happened. There's been some very difficult feasts. If you keep the feasts for 50 years, you're going to have some feasts that are hard feasts to enjoy all the way through because of life's challenges. Could be an illness, could be an accident, could be a multitude of things. But I share this because there's also been those feasts of mine where interruptions came in that were all this guy's fault.

Things that I got involved with that probably shouldn't have spent my time during the feasts doing. Attitudes that I brought up that had no business being part of my family during this week. Emotions or dislikes or frustrations or I wasn't getting my way when I wanted it, didn't work out, I didn't get a go eat at the restaurant or the activity. And so I'm going to have a bad attitude today.

God has called us to have a time out this week. He's interrupted our life because He knows this is the best place for us to be right now as family together, keeping His Holy Days. And so He's done His part of interrupting our lives. He's called a time out. He's going to give us coaching this week. He's going to give us instruction. He's going to give us encouragement.

Let's not blow the time out. Let's listen to our coach. Let's pay attention. Let's get everything that we can get.

God has done so much to bring you here to this feast of tabernacles. And you have done your part as well. Don't lose sight that you made it. And this is, again, something that is not insignificant.

As we wrap up tonight, there will come a time when our races will come to a close and we will cross our finish lines. And at that moment, we can rest assured that we have done everything we can to follow God. And in another sense, we will make it to His kingdom.

Our lives are similar to the Lewis and Clark journey. They discovered the source of the Missouri River, which gave them an opportunity to pause and to celebrate a major milestone in their journey, similar to what we're doing here tonight, pausing and keeping God's feast of tabernacles.

But every man on the team knew that this was not the end of their journey. They would continue forward. They were unaware of exactly what they would encounter.

But they went forward anyway because their vision of reaching the Pacific Ocean was real in their heart and their minds.

It's amazing how fast these next eight days are going to go.

Before we get to, it feels like catching our breath from the things going on in back home and in our lives, somebody's going to stay here at this lectern and say, Well, everyone, we're halfway through the feast.

All right, day six. It's going to come. It's like camp week, right? All you go to camp. The best day of camp is day number one because you got all week ahead of you.

And before you snap your fingers and blink an eye, it feels like you're on Friday and camp is coming to a close after the Sabbath or Sunday.

We have all week ahead of us. I'm asking us to pause along with God to embrace his interruption, to embrace his time out, and to get everything that he has prepared for you, because he's been in the works on this for a long time, to prepare this week for you. His inspiration has been with the speakers, with those who have been putting together special music, with all those who are coming together.

His inspiration has been with every single one of you because he wants you to get everything that you can get this week from what he has prepared.

And he wants us to do it all together because in eight days, the Feast of Tabernacles will come to a close and we will be closing out the eighth day, the last holy day of the year.

Our time out will come to an end and we'll have to get back into the game.

I pray and hope that we will all come out stronger, refreshed, ready to get back in, ready to re-engage, recognizing that we still are behind in one sense.

We still have a hard game in front of us. We are still going to have challenges. I may still have a bad attitude from time to time.

But we have a Savior who has gone before us, who has blazed the trail, who has left no stone unturned so that we have an avenue to our Father for support, for strength, for resources.

So when that bad attitude pops up, we can go back and say, you know what? I messed up.

But I want to get back into this game. Give me the strength to go on.

And He's going to say, remember that message you heard at the Feast? Get back in there.

Let that be your driving force for today. Let that be the hope that you need to keep going the rest of this week.

I pray that we'll all take everything that we can, because just like the Lewis and Clark expedition did not stop at the Rocky Mountains, our journeys with this life will continue to go as we exit these days and as we return to our homes.

Turn with me to Matthew 25 and verse 14 as we close with this passage.

Matthew 25 and verse 14.

If you ever run into my mom, tell her that I shared this story here.

And she'll probably roll her eyes and say, yep, I did exactly what he said.

And I thank her for that.

I don't know if I've ever thanked her in person. I'm going to have to do that when I give back home or I'm going to have to call her.

She's in Temecula, keeping the feast there with my father and some of the rest of our family there. Matthew 25 and verse 14.

And after a long time, the Lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.

And so he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, Lord, you delivered to me five talents.

Look, I have gained five more talents beside them.

And as Lord said to him, well done, good and faithful servant.

You were faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord.

What talents from God are you going to utilize this week to make this week better for you and also for those in our family here?

Because he goes on to say, he who also had received two talents came and said, Lord, you delivered to me two talents.

Look, I have gained two more talents beside them.

And as Lord said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things.

Enter into the joy of your Lord.

We won't focus on the one who had one talent and hit it because it didn't end well for him.

The point is that you and I have worked hard to be here at this feast of tabernacles.

We have worked hard to diligently save God's tithe. We have asked off from school or from work. We have wrapped up things at home, and we have got our families ready to make the journey here tonight.

God has most definitely been with us and assisted us so that things could fall into place allowing us to be here.

But don't lose sight that you also have done your part.

And all of you have made it to this feast of tabernacles.

Congratulations! You made it!