What Comes After the Feast?

So, how many of you get the uh United News weekly update? Few of you.

Anyway, that you can get this online. You just go to ucg.org and you can sign up for their weekly update. It's it doesn't get handed out anymore. Uh it comes out as a as a just a an email or yeah, comes out as an email. Anyway, Mr. Myers has a has an article in it in which he describes the natural thing that can and tends to happen to some which is a term we've called I think historically at least I've used this term post feast letdown.

Does that make sense? It's that natural feeling of it's over. How many people like to stay at the feast site after the feast is over? You like to stay? I've never liked staying after it because it's like it's over. It's over. You just might as well go home. There's nothing fun about staying in the feast to me anyway.

Maybe I'm the only one, but anyway, um there's this thing. And so Mr. Myers is trying to deal with it. What's funny is it's on a lot of ministers minds because, you know, Mr. Slokum sent sends out something on it. Mr. Moody sends out something. I put something in the did you know last night and I'm thinking maybe it's a thing.

I'd like to try to change our mindset today. So, I titled this message, what comes after the feast? What comes after the feast? It's as all it's it's as though it's easy for us to slip into. We're going to the feast. It's the culmination of the year. It's an exciting period of time. We're sharing food every day, hopefully avoiding getting sick.

That's, you know, that's the least fun thing about the feast this year for me was that I got sick. But other than that, we were eating out with brethren. We were getting great messages, very encouraging messages in Montana, I thought. Um, and we had some really, really talented speakers who who know their stuff, who gave us some really good messages.

So, we felt spiritually fed. We ate a lot. I'm not saying, you know, to the point of gluttony, but I am, you know, we we ate fairly liberally. Uh, we ate at people's homes where we had fantastic meals um and good conversations and bonding and all the things. And I'm sure you had similar experiences. Most of you had similar experiences.

Plus, you got to explore maybe an area you haven't been to before. We've we've been to Montana, but I've never been to Glacier. What's it called? Glacier Park. I've never been to Glacier Park before. So, we we took a day and we w up and did a walk there. They actually it was the day that I was assigned to speak during the feast.

They didn't tell me that. They met an hour earlier so that that's called glacier day so that everybody got an hour earlier out of services to be able to go to the park and have more of an afternoon up there. And so we went up there as many people didn't. It was a very beautiful day. So we got to see some terrain, some some beauty that we haven't seen before.

And I'm sure that's true for most people. I know the people who went overseas saw lots of things they might not have seen before. And we saw lots of pictures online from some of you who did that. If you went to Australia, which I know one family, a couple people from that family went that magnificent, right? And the people, I mean, aren't they incredible? I loved it there.

So, you have all of that, right? But why did we go to the feast really? You know, we talk about it when we're there, you know, as we try to remind ourselves and one another that the feast is a taste, isn't it? It's a foretaste of the millennium, right? But who's that foretaste actually for? Is it for you and me? Because if we're human, if we're alive and in the flesh when the millennium begins, we're in the wrong place.

We're supposed to be spirit beings. And so, if I'm not a spirit being when the millennium starts, I'm gonna be very disappointed. That's what we're supposed to be. That's the future and the destiny of the first fruits. So, so when we keep the feast, what are we keeping? Well, the feast is a vision of what's going to happen in the future.

So, we generally rehearse both aspects of that, don't we? What the world will be like, we will be ruling and reigning with Jesus Christ over that world. And whatever assignments that we're given, however number of cities or whatever that ends up being for each and every one of us, we will have some kind of an assignment to help Jesus Christ establish the government of God across this entire planet.

So, so I want you to to stop and think about that as what you come out of the feast on that should be on our minds when we come out of the feast. The feast wasn't picturing my future as a human being. It pictures my future as a spirit being. Is there something I should be doing? I asked this question. We only had one message this year on our future role as king uh roles as kings and priests.

I didn't remember that we were only going to have one, but at least we had one and I was grateful for it. Mr. Joe Nef gave a very good message on that. I mentioned in my message which was before his this question and I think I've asked it here before. Does God need eternal spiritually born electricians? plumbers, wastewater authorities, architects, accountants, salespeople.

Does God need that? Is he is he resurrecting us or changing us if we happen to still be alive when Christ returns so that we can go to work rebuilding the world ourselves? Is that our future? Well, when we read what the scripture says about the role of kings and priests, the answer is no. Yet, we come back from the feast and we go back to what? Most of us, if we're still gainfully employed or have our own business, we go back to work.

I'd like to just shift your mind on that to say, yes, I want you to be thinking about going back to work, but not at your job. That's a means to an end. that we should be looking forward to something when we come home from the feast and it isn't gainful employment unless you're unemployed and you need to be employed in which case I would say yeah you want to get a job but even so it isn't the point there's work to be done but that's not the work that I want us to be thinking about because it's awfully hard to get excited

unless you really really really love your job it's hard for me to get excited coming home from the feast to go to work even Even if I really love my job, I'd still rather be at the feast. Probably you feel something similar to that as well. Well, obviously this is this is what we do today.

Let me feed the thought a little bit. What we do today when we come home from the feast ought to be preparing us for what really our role is in the future. That's what I want to walk through today. give us a better perspective so that we don't have to worry about those feelings about the feast. The feast was meaningful for giving us vision, but it's coming home from the feast that puts us back to work doing what we need to do to get ready for our future role.

And that that should excite us. Being a first fruit should be exciting. It should be incredible. So, what is God preparing us for? Well, I mentioned it already, but let's go over to Revelation 20 and be reminded. Revelation 20 verse 6. It said, "Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection." This is what we anticipate at the return of Jesus Christ.

Over such the second death has no power. This is birth into eternal life. No possibility for death. There is no second death for the first fruits. But they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years. Notice two things are described in chap in in verse six here.

our future life and what we should be doing, what we will be doing work. Our our role in the kingdom serving Jesus Christ is not floating on clouds with harps playing songs and music and hymns or whatever for all eternity. That is not our destiny. It says we will be priests and reign, which is a job, rulership, authority. And it says that we'll do that with Jesus Christ for a thousand years.

This is the future of Christ's first fruits. And we're going to be carrying out responsibilities entrusted to us by God the Father through his son. Shouldn't we be focused on becoming ready for that? That's where our focus should be. That's what we need to come out of the feast thinking about. The feast only gives us a vision of the future.

Our future isn't physical. It's spiritual. We will be eternal spiritborn beings. So, what are the kind of people Christ is going to trust with authority? Let's look back here at Luke for just a second here. Luke chapter 22. Luke chapter 22. And and I'm going to pick this up here beginning in verse 24. It says in Luke 22:4, "Now there was also a dispute among them, that is his disciples, as to which of them should be considered the greatest.

And he, that is Christ, said to them, the kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called benefactors." Well, what is a benefactor? It's named after a Roman emperor and the Greek word is not benefactor. Obviously, there's a word underneath benefactor that is translated as benefactor, but it's the word that's behind the words we think of as beneficence.

This particular emperor would retain his loyal citizens, let's say his military, because every emperor doesn't reign without a military. So what they would what he would do and he was prolific in doing this is when they would conquer new lands he would give land to his most loyal soldiers to ensure their continued loyalty.

That's called his beneficence. And they relied on him therefore for this kind of gift for them which would purchase their loyalty. It's a way for him to ensure his own rule and reign. It had nothing to do with him being kind or merciful. And this person is so well known that Christ uses him as his example word.

We call these kinds of men who manipulate others, who use other people for their own gain benefactors. But he says not verse 26 says, "But not so among you. On the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. For who is greater, he who sits at the table or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the one who serves.

But you are those who have continued with me in my trials. And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as my father bestowed one upon me, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on my thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel. This is Jesus Christ telling his disciples he wants them to have a view of their future role.

What are you going to be doing? It says here that they will be sitting on thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. Well, that's obviously after Christ's return when they are spirit beings. So now you see a a direct connection to what I want you to see. If we have the proper vision coming out of the feast, we'll have a vision of where we're going because we've just spent eight days learning about it, being reminded about it, focusing on it so that we can come back home and go to work.

Christ here places service at the forefront of the role that they will have in the kingdom. serving other people. That means looking out for their good, their well-being. This is what he wants them to learn today. That's what we're supposed to be learning today. That means that when we come back from the feast, we can begin looking at life and everything that we have to do in this life.

all of the interactions, all of the people that we're going to deal with, whether that's our direct families, whether that's our neighbors, or whether that's our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, whether that's a fellow employee, a colleague, a professor, or a boss. Every single thing that we're doing in this life provides us an opportunity to learn to be like Jesus Christ, to practice as Christ wants them to do.

practice being like Jesus Christ. Why? There's only one reason. If I want to be standing, well, are we floating? If I want to be in the air when Christ returns, however we get there through the resurrection or whether we're changed in the twinkling of an eye, my only hope for that is that I have changed enough to be like Jesus Christ.

Have I changed enough yet? Have you changed enough yet to be that you can honestly look in the mirror and say, "I'm like Jesus Christ." When God looks at me, he sees his son. I doubt any of us is comfortable saying that. It doesn't mean we're not trying. It means we are trying. And it means when we come back from the feast that we can be focused again on that as our objective.

Our future should drive what we do when we come home from the feast. how we feel coming home from the feast. All of these things gives us an opportunity to practice becoming more like Jesus Christ. That's the work we should look forward to coming home from the feast. Let's look at a couple of examples of people coming home from the feast.

We'll we'll recognize as we turn over to 2 Chronicles, you you'll recognize the statement because I think most of us would say we feel this 2 Chronicles chapter 7, the dedication of the temple. At the beginning of chapter 7, we see the temple being dedicated. And of course there's a lot that happens for a full seven days before the feast of tabernacles that year.

Verse 8 says, "At that time Solomon kept the feast seven days and all Israel with him." Verse eight here, "A very great assembly from the entrance of Hamoth to the brook of Egypt. And on the eighth day they held a sacred assembly. For they observed the dedication of the altar seven days and the feast seven days.

On the 23rd day of the seventh month, what day is the 23rd day of the seventh month? I'll give you a hint. The eth day is the 22nd. The 23rd is the day after the eighth day. This is the very next day. The feast is now over. So on the 23rd day of the seventh month, he sent the people away to their tents, joyful and glad of heart for the good that the Lord had done for David, for Solomon, and for his people Israel.

I think that hopefully that sounds familiar to us. We go away glad of heart from the feast because we've enjoyed the time. We've learned some things. We've reconnected with people. Maybe we've met new people, bonded with other families, which we certainly did this feast, and it was a very delightful experience.

So, did you come home glad of heart? I expect so. I see lots of smiles, people thinking about their experience and probably having had many conversations in their households about things they really liked about the feast this year. I've heard great com comments already today from people who loved the sermons that they heard, who loved the area that they went to.

Uh, generally I would say glad of heart. We all recognize that as our post feast experience. But I want to dig a little deeper into the question, what comes after the feast? Because Nehemiah gives us a vision of what should be after the feast. what should come after the feast. I'm going to turn over to Nehemiah chapter 8. Just by way of some some brief background here, Nehemiah Nehemiah comes to uh Jerusalem as the governor around 4:44 BC. for you notetakers.

Ezra the scribe who writes the books of Chronicles, who writes Ezra and who writes Nehemiah came uh by assignment, his request and then by assignment uh of art of Xerxes around 457. Israel comes out of uh Babylon is sent home from Babylon by Cyrus around 538. Let's say 538, 537. Okay, Zerubbabel is the governor. He's a Jew.

You have Josh Joshua, a Levite who is the high priest. You have 40 or 50,000 people that come home at that time. You know what they did for the next 22 years? They did not rebuild the temple. They did not build the walls of the city. They built their own homes. You have minor prophets which God inspired to chastise these people at this very time because he says, "You build your own homes, but you ignore my home.

What's really more important to you?" Of course, to them, that was what was more important to them. And of course, they spent the next 50 years misbehaving. This is why Ezra wanted to go back. Artis Xerxes says, "All right, you're going to go back and here's what I want you to do. I want you to teach the law of Moses, and I want you to set up magistrates and judges who will enforce the law so that the people have that law as their law.

" This was what was in Ezra's heart to do to establish the Mosaic law, the the book of the Torah for easy understanding, the first five books in particular, as the constitutional law of Judah, that it would govern their daily life. Ezra comes back and he spends the next dozen years trying to get this all set up and working properly. Finally, in 444, Nehemiah gets sent back, but not as a scribe, not as a priest.

He gets sent back as governor. And then he basically gets the paddle out. And between him and Ezra, they start spanking all the misbehavior out. So by the time we get to Nehemiah chapter 8, we have a people who are ready, who are pleased. Remember, they're the only nation on the earth that has God's law as their law, who has God as their God.

This is this is what's behind when we get to chapter 8. The people have now been hearing about the law, have been adopting the law, have been listening very carefully. In fact, they want to hear more. They want to do all that is in the law. This is where we get to verse 13 of chapter 8 of Nehemiah. It says, "Now verse 13 says, "Now on the second day, the heads of the father's houses of all the people with the priests and Levites were gathered to Ezra the scribe in order to understand the words of the law. And they found

written in the law which the Lord had commanded by Moses that the children of Israel should dwell in boos during the feast of the seventh month. And that they should announce and proclaim in all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, "Go out to the mountain and bring olive branches, branches of oil trees, myrtle branches, palm branches, and branches of leafy trees to make boos." as it is written.

Verse 16, then the people went out and brought them and made themselves boos, each one on the roof of his house or in their courtyards or in the courts of the house of God, and in the open square of the Watergate, and in the open square of the gate of Ephraim. So the whole assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made boos and sat under the boos.

For since the days of Joshua the son of Nun, until that day, the children of Israel had not done so. And there was very great gladness. Let's pause for just a second to make sure we understand what's being said here. Do you think that they had not kept the feast of tabernacles since the time of Joshua? Well, we had just read Solomon at the dedication of the temple, they kept the feast.

So, we know that Israel kept the feast. We have other examples in scripture where ancient Israel kept the feast of tabernacles after Joshua. Do we think that they never built boos in all of those years? No evidence of that either. So, what's he talking about? I'll say I'll say it this way. From my perspective, there's really only one good conclusion to that.

What do they have in common? Joshua was leading Israel into the promised land. How did the people feel going into the promised land? You think there was some excitement? You think there was some joy? Do you think there was some enthusiasm that if they could go out and break branches and build themselves booze for the feast of tabernacles that that's what they would have done? I submit yes, they would have.

And I think this is what they have in common. Nehemiah is trying to explain to us just how much excitement there was for the people to hearing the word of God and actually doing it. The people were never more faithful than in this about a hundredyear period from here forward. Very very faithful people to the law of God.

This is when they set up the sovereign, the great assembly which ruled the people, governed their behaviors, judged the people. This is a period of amazing faithfulness from Judah. ultimately it didn't last. But that's not the point for us today. Now, let's notice what happened right after that in the in chapter 9 verse one. Well, hold on.

Let's finish up because you'll see this connection. Let me finish reading here. We read through verse 17. Let's read verse 18 first. It says also day by day from the first day until the last day he that's Ezra read from the book of the law of God and they kept the feast seven days and on the eighth day there was a sacred assembly according to the prescribed manner the people this is all this is helping us to see is just how much they wanted to do these things they were listening to Ezra preach from the word every single day during the feast does that sound

familiar because that's what happened in Montana Pretty sure that's probably what happened wherever you were for the feast. Every day for two hours, we're hearing the word of God being read just as it was here. And it described them as having very great gladness, just as I'm sure we do when we keep the feast.

Very great gladness because we know the truth. And it is only by a miracle of God's calling that we do. That is it. All right, let's read here now Nehemiah chapter 9, the first uh three verses. It says, "Now on the 24th day of this month," what's the 24th day, 2 days after the eighth day of the feast, so this is two days later? The children of Israel were assembled with fasting in sackcloth and with dust on their heads.

Then those of Israelite lineage separated themselves from all foreigners, and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. This is after the feast. It's over. Now, what are they doing? They're addressing their spiritual condition. They're fasting and they're trying to get right with God.

How much more do we have to look forward to? Because God has revealed the spiritual truth that Israel never understood their future as spirit-born sons and daughters of God. And so they're cleaning up their act here. Verse three says, "And they stood up in their place and read from the book of the law of the Lord their God for 1/4th of the day." Sorry.

24 divided by 4 is six hours. I feel a little bit shameful now. We only do two during our feasts and I'm only going to give you an hour today. We should rethink this. You want to start moving to a six-hour service? I don't think I can sock for six hour. Well, they were able to do it. It says that they were able to do that.

And for another fourth, get this, for another six hours, they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God. What an amazing thing to read about what the people were doing after the feast. They're not lamenting. They're not looking back with the wo is me. It's over. Now what? They're looking forward. Time to go to work on me.

That's what they did. They began examining themselves. There's a prayer that follows this. I won't read through the whole prayer for the sake of time, but it's worth reading it. It's a prayer for God's care for Israel and is and Israel's repeated failures to obey him. They recognized, they knew, that's why they went into captivity.

So the people acknowledge his blessings. They acknowledge his patience, his mercy across many generations. And they take responsibility for the conduct that has brought them to where they are. This is a hint for us. Now, notice how much they took this to heart. Turn over to chapter 10. Since the people had returned from Babylon for the last 50 years, foreigners would bring their wares into Jerusalem to sell on the Sabbath day.

Imagine for 50 years you make a pretty good wage, a pretty good days, pretty good week's earnings when you go into Jerusalem and you sell your wares on the Sabbath. there. We get down to verse 31 of chapter 10 and it says, "If the peoples of the land brought wares or any grain to sell on the Sabbath day, we would not buy it from them on the Sabbath or on a holy day, and we would forgo the seventh year's produce and the exacting of every debt.

" It's just a way for us to see the fidelity, the faithfulness that the people adopted. This isn't the priesthood saying, "You can't do this anymore." This is the people saying, "Even if they came, we would not buy it." That's coming from their heart, not from a command. That's where they were. Now, it's a beautiful vision for us to take as well.

How do I feel when I come back from the feast? Am I fired up again? Am I ready to go? Am I looking forward to my future role? And am I going to go go to work on myself right now? I'm going to start right now. See that? How that changes the mindset? Instead of thinking back to the feast and lamenting that it's over, we can be looking forward to what we're going to be doing and go to work.

Get busy. It isn't about the job we come home to. It's about what we're learning in the jobs we come home to. And those jobs can be all kinds of things. Whether you're a mother or a father or a grandparent, an employee or an employer, a colleague or a co-orker, a teacher or even a student. There are every single aspect of our life provides us with an opportunity to be learning to be like Jesus Christ.

So we get the feast as a foretaste and a reminder and a nudge and a vision for the future. And it's that vision that we need to take home from the feast and let that vision drive us to get busy. Now we have help as we know. Paul describes to the church in Philadelphia circumstances we should recognize.

And yet he's very complimentary to them as I would be to to you over in Philippians chapter 2 verse 12. Philippians chapter 2:12, it says, Paul says to the Philippians, "Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

For it is God who works in you, both to will and to do for his good pleasure." God's trying to encourage us with words like that that his good pleasure is that we make it into his kingdom. That we become spirit-born sons and daughters in his kingdom. And he is working in us through his spirit to bring that result about. That is his intent and purpose.

It is not to see us fail. It is to see us succeed. Verse 14, do all things without complaining and disputing. I pause on that only because I'm like, man, we're human. Does anybody else find that one hard to do? Never complain. Like, well, as Paul is saying, this is this is the job. Stop complaining and get busy.

He says verse 15 that you may become blameless and harmless children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. Sounds familiar to me. Like he could be writing that to the church of God any congregation anywhere in the world today and that would be just as true.

You know, we like to think that things are so bad now that they've never been this bad. You think perverse generation means good things? I don't think so. It's a crooked and perverse generation, doubly wicked. It says, "Among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.

" He's just acknowledging that they've been putting in the work and he sees it. This is what I'd like us to also have in our minds that we come home from the feast and we go to work. That's what our job is and that we should be excited about that because that work leads someplace. It isn't in the future to be in whatever job I'm doing today.

He doesn't need me to be an electrician or a plumber. He doesn't need to be to me to be a contractor. He doesn't need me to be a carpenter. He needs me to be like Jesus Christ. That's what he needs and that's what he wants. And so every single day when we look at all the ways in which we interact and deal with other human beings, and this is the generally the hardest part because honestly I'd be doing a lot better if it wasn't for other human beings.

just seems like a reality, doesn't it? But we're forced in this life to work with other human beings and to make life work with other human beings. And it is in these areas where we can practice the things that make us like Christ. Every single one of the areas in which we interact with another human being is going to give us an area where we can practice being like Jesus Christ.

It needs to become so natural that it is who we are. As Paul was describing the Phil the the Philippians and he says you are obeying not because I'm here but you're doing it in my absence. That means that I'm not cajoling you. I'm not forcing you. I'm not following up on you. I know this is what you're doing because it's coming from within you, not me.

That's why he rejoices. Now, let's look at here an example, a concrete example of what when Paul got real grumpy. If I say the word Paul and grumpy in the same sentence, you should be thinking of first Corinthians. Like, he had a lot of bad things to say. He's got a lot of problems with these people.

Over in chapter 6, he gives us a hint about the kinds of interactions we should be capable of practicing right now. He begins here in verse one of chapter 6 of First Corinthians. He says, "Dare any of you having a matter against another go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints?" It might be natural for us to just think, well, if I have a a legal problem, somebody owes me money or whatever.

Maybe the solution is I might just have to take them to what? Small claims court to get my money out of them, exact every dime or something like that. Paul is talking about what's behind that attitude. Why wouldn't you just first go to the church? Is the church not capable? This is what he essentially says. Are is your congregation not capable of this? He says in verse two, "Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?" You have a future.

This is what he's doing right now. He's pointing them to their future. When will the saints judge the world? A spirit born sons and daughters of God. So what's he doing? He's putting the kingdom in front of them, their future role. And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain that pertain to this life? If you then have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by

the church to judge? That's kind of cruel, honestly. But you know who he's talking about? He's talking about lawyers. You got to think about it. That's who he's talking about. And I'm not saying all lawyers are bad. If you're a lawyer out there and you're listening to this, I'm not saying you're all bad.

But you do have a reputation as a group. Just saying. It's true. We all know it. And car salesman, used car salesmen in particular. Bad reputations. Except if you need one, right? Oh boy. Then you're grateful to have one. Anyway, just teasing a little bit here. So he says, he says in verse 5, I say this to your shame.

Is it so that there is not a wise man among you, not even one, who will be able to judge between his brethren? But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers. And so he's chastising them and saying, look, if you have the right vision of your role in the in the future, which is to be a king and priest, a judge, what should you be learning today to make you effective at that job? I guarantee you it's not how to wire a house.

It's not how to lay a plumbing line. It's not how to frame a wall. It is the intangible things we can be learning while we do those things. But I wanted you to see how he points them to their their future role to get them to see what they should be doing today. All right, here's what I think would be a great assignment for us. If I could suggest an assignment, what could I do after the feast? Well, let's go over to Galatians chapter 5.

Galatians chapter 5 and you get down to close to the end here and verse 22. It says, "But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law." Verse 24 says, "And those who are Christs have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. Do you live in the spirit? You do. If you have the Holy Spirit. And he's saying, if you have the Holy Spirit, you need to be walking like you have the Holy Spirit. He gives us these standards we should be looking at in ourselves. How am I doing on longsuffering? Like maybe what we should do after we get back from the feast is sit down with our Bible, go through Galatians, and start asking ourselves honest questions.

How am I doing? Here's my list of qualities God wants to see in me that are Christlike. How am I doing? Well, I got to be honest with you. There are days when I'm driving up here that maybe not as good as I should be. Maybe I'm not suffering long enough as I drive with traffic. Maybe I'm not being as patient in traffic as I could be.

This is an easy one for me to pick on myself with. Okay. So, it's like it is what it is. I'm working on it. I want to have patience right now. Isn't that the prayer? The old prayer. God, please give me patience right now. I need it now. I don't have I don't have time for you today to walk through every single one of these, but I do think it's a great idea for a homework assignment that we can do as we come home from the feast.

And maybe every feast we ought to just do that. Just take the time out and instead of looking back and lamenting, the feast is gone and woe is me, I have to go back to my job or whatever, we go, hang on a second, I know what that feast was teaching me and I'm now looking at my future job.

I have to be getting ready today. So, let's look at these list of qualities. How am I doing? Maybe I'm doing okay on a couple of these and maybe I need to work on a few of the other ones. I think I do great at kindness. Pretty good at goodness. I think I'm faithful. Gentleness, I like to think so. Self-control. Don't meddle. Just stay out of that one.

Like, there's going to be something we can all work on within this list of things. I guarantee it. I was thinking also because there's more than a fair number of retirees here just because I mentioned jobs because most people are going to come home from the feast and they're going to go to work as they have before the feast and as they have every year before and after the feast.

You go to work and you come home from work and it's work work work. Well, what if you're a retiree? Does that mean you're exempted? you don't have to go to work, so you don't have to work on yourself anymore. Of course not. We're all working. What I want us to see is it doesn't matter what the job is or whether we even have a job in this regard.

What matters is what am I actually practicing? Am I really becoming like Christ? That's what really matters. That's the work we all have to do when we come home from the feast. That's what I hope that you see that we're learning. Obviously, you I wonder sometimes, you know, why we were made human. Why physical beings? I think about this from time to time.

Why didn't God make us spirit? I don't know that I have a definitive answer. Only God's going to be able to say, "Well, this is the exact reason why I did it." But I suspect part of it is because the human condition has uncomfortable places in it. We feel pain. We get tired. We get hungry and thirsty.

We have needs. It's like that that describes essentially what it means to be human, right? And yet that is the condition God places us here. And I think it's a short time because being human, being physical, I think teaches us more rapidly to connect the dots of when things are uncomfortable and and definitely painful to maybe focus on our future and not on today.

Focus on where we're going, not on this imperfect walk. We need to get better so that we can one day be those spiritborn sons and daughters of Jesus Christ. James talks about the difficulty of our human endeavors. He he describes them of course in James chapter 1 as trials verses 2-4. James 1:es 2-4 says, "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials.

" I'm sure we all do that, right? Very happy. I've never seen somebody giddy when they call you because they're in a deep in the throws of a deep trial that's very troubling to them. Nobody's happy about it. Verse three says, ' Knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience, but let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

It's just James is just helping us to understand that God wants us to go through trials, to learn, to practice, to get better at being like Jesus Christ, to perfect that character. Ultimately, God has to be able to look at each and every one of us the way he looked at Abraham on the day that Abraham willingly raised that knife to kill his son.

Now, I know how old was he? 114. That's a great reminder to me that it doesn't matter how old we get in this life until God can say about each and every one of us now. I know we're going to be due some trials if Abraham's getting a trial like that at 114, there's going to be more trials in front of me.

I know that our faith is exercised when we obey God through circumstances that test our willingness to trust him, which is true. It is it is that is the way in which we show God that we're trustworthy is that we trust him for the outcome. No matter what, we're going to focus on that. So, this is temporary. That is permanent.

And I need to do whatever is necessary to have that permanent eternal future. Over in 1 Corinthians 13, we see what lasts, what God is looking for that lasts eternally. I like to remind people, you know what? You know what Paul is discussing before he talks about love in chapter 13? He's talking about spiritual gifts and their abuse in the church.

He's talking about the faults of the Corinthians and how they abuse one another over the subject of who has what gift and which ones are most important. And Paul goes into 1 Corinthians 13 and he we obviously break his letter up into chapters here. He goes in and he explains what's really most important. It isn't those gifts.

Verse eight, Paul reminds us love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail. Does that mean that God's prophecies can fail? No. This is talking about when God reveals something to a human being and we're teaching and so forth. We are the fallible failures. I'm going to die at some point.

I won't be up here prophesying to you when that happens. Well, some of you young ones, whether there are tongues, this was the big issue in in Corenth. It says, "Whether there are tongues, they will cease. Whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away." This is talking about the human condition. So, what endures pass all of that? Love, that is the eternal quality.

He says in verse 9, "For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away." Verse 13 finishes with, "Now abides faith, hope, and love." And remember, why is it listed here like this? These three qualities are essential. Without faith, it is impossible to please God.

And you know what? If we don't please God, we won't be in the kingdom. You have to have faith. Hope is the basis by which upon we build faith. Love trumps both. It is the eternal quality of God. So the gifts and the knowledge that we have today, the skills we're learning today, they're temporary. That isn't what's meaningful for us for all eternity as spirit-born sons and daughters.

It's the lessons we're learning that is eternal. That's the work that we go about when we come back from the feast, building Christlike character. James gives us a final passage that speaks directly to what we need to be doing when we hear the word of God. And as we move forward from the feast, let's wrap up with James chapter 1 again, but we'll drop down a bit further.

Verse 22. I was there. Verse 22. It says, "But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man observing his natural face in a mirror. For he observes himself goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.

But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work. This one will be blessed in what he does. This is the work that is set before us. This is what we do after the feast. This is what comes after the feast. This is the real work that we have to get busy about again. redoubling our efforts to become like Jesus Christ so that we can one day be that spiritborn son or daughter and be that king and priest that is the destiny of the first fruits.