Why do we go to the Feast, and why do you go to the Feast?

Tabernacles. So let's address the first question first, and that is, why do we collectively as a body go to the feast? And we go to the feast because God has commanded us to. Some of these reasons will be... we've heard them before, but we'll go into... explore maybe a little bit more detail into some of that. So, first reason we go to the feast is because God commands us to go to the feast. And this is the first and foremost reason that we are here. God commands us to go to the feast in a number of different passages. And we'll look at just a few of these. A very familiar one is Leviticus 23. And I will be projecting all of the scriptures here on screen so you can see these.

A familiar passage, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, The feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are my feasts. And then he goes on to list the feast, starting with the weekly Sabbath day, which is the first of God's holy days. And then skipping down to verse 34, we come to the Feast of Tabernacles.

And God says, Speak to the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days to the Lord. So again, this is God's feast. It's not the feast of the Israelites, not the feast of the Jews. It is God's feast. And he says, On the first day shall be a holy convocation, you shall do no customary work on it. For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. It is a sacred assembly, and you shall do no customary work on it. These are the feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocation. So the first reason we see, spelled out very plainly here in God's word, we come to the feast because God has commanded us to. We recognize that this is God's command, and as a people who have surrendered our lives to Him, we are here in obedience to that command to celebrate the feast of tabernacles. Obviously, there are at times extenuating circumstances that might prevent that, but this is a very important command, as we'll see.

So a second reason that we go to the feast then is we go to the feast because this is one of God's sacred appointments with us. This is one of God's sacred appointments with us.

Let's look a little bit closer at some of the verses we just talked about here, and dig a little bit deeper into their meaning. When we do, we find some important lessons there for us. So go back to Leviticus 23, which we just read, and verses 1 and 2. Let's look a little bit deeper at what God says here. So Leviticus 23 and verse 1, And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them the feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are my feasts. And I want to draw our attention to the three highlighted words here. The word translated feasts, moed, the word translated holy, kodesh, and the word translated convocation, mikra, in Hebrew. And part of the problem with our understanding today is our culture has drifted so far from the Bible that these just aren't words that we hear used that often in English anymore. Apart from God's feast days and leading up to his feasts, when is the last time you heard the word feast mentioned outside of a church context? We just don't. It's not a word that we use that much anymore. When is the last time you heard the word convocation used in everyday language? Again, we just don't hear that word anymore. Or the last time you heard the word holy outside of profanity, maybe here. When is the last time you heard that in a conversation outside of church services? It's frankly probably been years because society has changed so much and drifted so far from these concepts and what they mean. So what do they mean and what does God want us to learn from these particular words? So let's take a look at the first one, the word boed, translated feast or feasts, in the scriptures. And it means an appointed time or meeting, an appointed time or meeting or together together at an appointed time. It comes from a Hebrew word that means to meet together by an appointment. To meet together by an appointment. So the feast days that God lists here in Leviticus 23 are God's appointments with us. That's what it means. It's God's appointments with us. Now we all know what an appointment means, don't we? You set an appointment with your doctor, your dentist, your car mechanic, whatever.

And what that means is an understanding that he will be there at that time and you will be there at that time to meet at this agreed upon time. And if you don't show up and the other person was there, you blew off the appointment. Now most of us would never think of blowing off an appointment with our doctor, or dentist, or car mechanic. Do we view these holy days, first of which is God's Sabbath day in the same way as God's appointments with us? He has made the appointments and he says he will be there. He sets the time, he sets the place and expects us to be there. And if we aren't there for his holy days, his sacred appointments, we blew them off. We blew off his appointment with us. So it's a serious matter. It's a serious matter to God there. So we need to think about that. Whatever we think about, Sabbath services and God's holy days and so on. We would never think of blowing off those appointments again with our doctor, dentist, mechanic, whatever. But are we willing to blow off our weekly appointment with God? Or his holy days here? That's something we need to seriously consider. So these are some of the important implications of the meaning of the word moei, translated feast or feast. The next word we'll look at is the word translated holy, which in Hebrew is kodesh. Kodesh. And it means set apart or separated by God for as sacred for his use or purpose. So God says you shall proclaim these feasts to be holy kodesh convocation. So these feast days, again including the weekly Sabbath, the first of God's feasts, are set apart by God for his purpose.

And only God can make things holy. Man can't make anything holy. Only God can. And God has set apart these as his holy times, his holy appointments with us. And he set these apart for a specific purpose. And again, we'll go through these purposes in the sermon time today. But the point of this is that these times are special to God. They are not ordinary days because God has set them apart. He has dedicated them for his specific purpose and use. And it's easy for us to fall into the mindset that the feast is a big vacation. And I know I've had that mindset at times before in my younger days. And it is, obviously, at times the only vacation that some of us are able to take during the year. But my point here is that we should not view this as only a vacation, because God has set them apart for something far more important than that. He has very important things to teach us and for us to learn about during this time.

So the next word that we'll look at here is the word translated convocations. In Hebrew, it is mikrah. It means an assembly, a calling together, or a gathering together of people. It comes from a root word that means to call, or to call out, or to proclaim.

And I've really been enjoying the trumpet blast here, because the trumpet we've heard in ancient times, ancient Israel, was used to call for several purposes, but one was to call a sacred assembly of God's people. And that trumpet blast was to let people know, hey, it's time together to assemble before our Creator. So God says that we are to proclaim His feasts, His mo'ed, His appointments, to be a kodesh mikrah, to be holy and sacred gatherings together of His people. And He tells us that He will be at these appointments.

So I made the comment about Emmanuel, God with us. God is with us at His feasts, at His holy days, at His sacred appointments. He and Jesus Christ are here with us in spirit, and He expects us to come and join them together. And He sets the time, He sets the place, like right here, right now, here in Estes Park, and at many other places around the world.

Let's notice some of these meetings that I've talked about here. Let's notice how these are captured in several other Bible translations that catch these connotations a little bit better than the New King James. The New International Version says, Leviticus 23, verse 2, "'Speak to the Israelites and say to them, These are my appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of the Lord, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.'" And the New Living Translation, "'Give the Israelites instructions regarding the Lord's appointed festivals, the days when all of you will be summoned to worship Me.'" And the Holman Christian Standard Bible, "'Speak to the Israelites and tell them, These are my appointed times, the times of the Lord, that you will proclaim as sacred assemblies.'" So when we put these different meanings together, we get a much more complete picture that these are, again, God's sacred holy appointments with us, specific times that He has set apart as holy times for His people together and to worship with Him. And what this means, again, is that God the Father and Jesus Christ are here in spirit with us.

And do we recognize that and the importance of that? So, again, God has invited us and given us this appointment to meet with Him. So this reason we go to the feast is because it is one of God's sacred appointments with us. A third reason that we go to the feast is to rejoice. We heard about this in Mr. Jones' message on the Sabbath and opening night here. But we come together to rejoice, to enjoy the feast. Let's notice another verse where we left off reading back in Leviticus 23 and verse 40. God continues with His instructions, "'You shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days.'" You shall rejoice for seven days. So part of this command to keep the feast is to rejoice. It is to be a time of rejoicing here. Now, the common thinking of the world is that these Old Testament days are slavery and bondage. You know, if this is slavery and bondage, give me more. I'll take all you can dish out. And it just shows how warped and twisted people's perspective is. Let's notice another command. And this, again, is part of God's instruction to save up tithe, to come to this feast. In Deuteronomy 14 and verse 26, God says, "'And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires, for oxen or sheep or wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires. You shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household.'" So God wants us to enjoy things that we wouldn't be able to or have the ability to enjoy on a regular basis. So, for instance, my wife loves lamb. So that's something she looks forward to every feast. If you'd like a nice, juicy, tender steak, or better steak than you could normally eat, go for it. He tells us to spend that money for whatever your heart desires. You know, I've never tried eating an entire ox during the feast, but I've known some teenage boys and young men who made a really good start on that, really put a dent in that. So if you want to eat steak every day during the feast, go ahead. You have God's blessing for that. And he also says you can spend your second time on something good to drink. Maybe you like a good wine that you can rarely afford. So instead of your usual Boons Farm or Thunderbird or Mad Dog 2020 or Trader Joe's Two Buck Chuck, go for it. Go for something you have, God's blessing, to do that, as long as we enjoy it in moderation.

And also notice that God says here that this is a time to rejoice and enjoy yourself, you and your household. So the entire household is to rejoice, to celebrate before God, to celebrate and enjoy learning God's truth. And if you are the head of the household, it's not just what you want to do, or what you want to see, or what you want to eat. It's a time to consider all the members of the family. And it's wonderful that during the feast we have the activities like the family day and senior luncheon. So everybody is included in being able to enjoy God's blessings here during the feast.

And it is a time to rejoice because, after all, what does the Feast of Tabernacles picture?

It pictures the return of Jesus Christ in the coming reign of Him on earth in the kingdom of God. And we gather here at the feast as kind of a dress rehearsal of that wonderful time in a millennial setting of peace and plenty when Satan, the author of chaos and suffering and sorrow and blindness and death is removed. And humankind will at last begin to experience the blessings of all of mankind, learning and being able to live according to God's truths. So another reason we go to the feast here is we go to the feast to rejoice, to enjoy the feast. A fourth reason that we go to the feast is to learn to fear God. To learn to fear God.

Let's notice another command about the feast in Deuteronomy 14 and verses 22 and 23.

And God says here, "...you shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year." So he's talking about saving up our second tithe in this case that we gather up and use to enjoy God's feast of tabernacles and other feasts as well.

Verse 23, "...and you shall eat before the Lord your God in the place where he chooses to make his name abide the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil of the firstborn of your herds and your flocks that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always." So what does this mean to learn to fear God?

And this is a word or phrase that trips up a lot of people. I know I came into the church as a 15-year-old and it took me a while to get past that. To understand what it really means to fear God in the Hebrew sense of the meaning of that word.

Because after all in the English, what does fear mean? It means to be afraid, to be terrified. Does God want us to be afraid and terrified of Him? Fear, after all, is pretty much the opposite of loving and trusting God and having a closer relationship. How can we love and trust a being that we're terrified of? To begin to understand this, we need to understand that Hebrew words, Hebrew has a very limited vocabulary. It's about 120th, 130th, a number of words in biblical Hebrews we have in the English language.

We're familiar with that concept. We've heard over the years the word Ruach, which can mean spirit or breath or wind. It's one word, but it has very distinct but related meanings. The same thing is true of the word that is translated fear here, the Hebrew word Yahreh, showing it here on screen here. It's the word that is most often translated fear in the Hebrew when talking about fearing God.

But let's notice another place this same exact word is used, Leviticus 19 and verse 3. Every one of you shall revere Yahreh, same exact word, his mother and father. Does this mean that every one of us, our children, our teenagers should be afraid of or terrified of their mother and father? Is a little child afraid of his mother? Is a little boy terrified of his father? No, that goes entirely against the way God wired us and designed us. A child naturally looks up to his mother and father and parents and wants to be like them.

We trust our parents. A child looks to our parents to provide for us, to protect us, to watch over us. And this is part of what is captured in the Hebrew meaning of this word Yahreh, as revere, as it's translated here in Leviticus 19 and verse 3, rather than fear. It's the exact same word. It's just that Hebrew has a broad range of meanings there. God is not telling us we ought to be terrified of our mother and our father, but to revere them, to honor them, to respect them.

And it's a shame that the King James translators used, translated this word as fear here when it comes to God because it puts an entirely wrong connotation on our relationship with Him. It is true that we should fear the consequences of disobeying God or rebelling against Him, but it doesn't mean that we should be continually afraid of or terrified of God. Because again, how can we have a loving and trusting relationship with a being that we're terrified of? We should be afraid of our mother and father, that's not what is being talked about here.

Let's notice an important passage of understanding this in 1 John 4, verse 18 and 19, where John writes, there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us. So this tells us very clearly that fear involves torment, and there's no fear in love, which casts out fear because when we love God, we don't need to be terrified of Him.

Because we know that He loves us, that He only wants the best for us, and that everything that He does is for our good, our blessing, our benefit. So we need to understand that when the Bible talks about fearing God, or tells us that one of the reasons we go to the feast is to learn to fear God, what it's saying is that we're to come to the feast to learn to revere Him, to honor Him, to stand in awe of Him and His greatness and His loving everything that He does in love toward us here, to reflect and to understand what kind of God He is, that He is a God of such immense love, and He wants all of mankind to come to this kind of relationship with Him, and to come to receive His gift of salvation, and to live eternally as part of His family and His Kingdom.

And God's Feast of Tabernacles and the other holy days teach us about what God is doing, and what's the whole lesson of all of them? All of them are about God's love for His creation, for all of His sons and daughters who have ever lived. And they teach us about that love for mankind. And when we do that, when we learn those lessons, we learn to better appreciate and love our God, our Creator, and to hold Him in awe and reverence.

So again, this fourth reason we go to the Feast is to learn to fear God, to love Him, to honor Him, to revere Him, and to stand in awe of Him. Now let's shift gears a little bit from the latter part of this sermon, and talk about why you individually go to the Feast.

We've talked about why we collectively, as a Church, as a body, come to the Feast. But what about you individually? Why do you go to the Feast while some of the other people do not? And the short answer is that you go to the Feast because God has chosen you.

Because God has chosen you, you have been invited to this appointment that we talked about earlier. You have received the greatest invitation of all time. Let's notice the words of Jesus Christ in John 6 and verse 44, where Christ says, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws Him or invites Him, and I will raise Him up at the last day. So God called us, He drew us, He invited us to have a relationship with Jesus Christ so that we could be raised up at the last day at Jesus Christ returned at the seventh trumpet, and to be there when He starts His millennial reign here on earth. So we did not choose God, God chose us. And He did something to spark that interest in our mind. Or maybe our younger people, young adults, many of whom are second or third generation, something that sparked the interest in their parents or even their grandparents or whatever, to draw us to God and to Jesus Christ to learn about His wings and to have a relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son. So since we were called or drawn, what were we called or drawn or chosen to do? What's the point of it? What's the end goal of it? And what does that have to do with us being here at God's Feast of Tabernacles? So yes, we were called to be raised up at the last day, as we just read from Christ's words, but raised up and given glory and immortality and the resurrection to do what? To do what? What's the point? Well, in the remainder of the sermon time, we'll talk about three different things that God has called and chosen you, every one of us here today, to do. So let's talk about these. And the first of these, very familiar with this, but we go to the Feast because God chose you to be a ruler and a king. God chose you to be a ruler and a king. Let's notice this incredible prophecy, Revelation 19, verses 11 and 16.

And John writes in this astounding series of visions that he has, he says, Now I saw heaven open, and behold a white horse, and he who sat on him was called faithful and true.

And skipping down to verse 16, And he has on his robe and on his thigh a name, written King of kings and Lord of lords. So the name, the title that Jesus Christ bears in his return, isn't just King and Lord, but King of kings and Lord of lords. He is King over many kings and Lord over many lords. And what are or who are those other kings and lords? Who will be the rulers and kings? Will it be the government leaders of today? Today's world? No, not a chance to find the answer. Let's turn back to Revelation 20, a few verses further over. And verse 4, and John here describes another vision, I saw thrones, thrones connote rulership and authority. And they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them.

Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus, and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Jesus Christ for a thousand years for the millennium. And this, of course, is talking about God's faithful saints.

Some have been sleeping in their graves for thousands of years, awaiting this time. Some will yet die and be raised to eternal life at Jesus Christ's return, to live and to reign with Him as kings and lords during the millennium. But the point is, they live and reign with Jesus Christ.

And that is why you go to the feast every year, to be one of those kings, one of those lords, serving under Jesus Christ in this incredible future responsibility.

Let's notice also another familiar passage, Matthew 19, verses 27 and 28.

Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, See, we have lived all and followed you, therefore, what shall we have? What's in it for me? I've devoted my life to you as my rabbi, my master. What's in it for us? What will be our reward for giving up everything for following you?

And Jesus said to them, Assuredly I say to you that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. So here Jesus tells us very plainly that the twelve apostles will rule and reign over the twelve tribes of Israel. We don't have time to go into many other scriptures, but David, for instance, will be king over all of Israel. The parables of the pounds and the talents teach us that those who are God's servants, God's followers, will reign over cities, some over ten cities, some over five, some over one, and so on. And this is our future. This is part of why we come to God's Feast of Tabernacles. But to do that, we have to learn a different kind of leadership.

And Christ had a few harsh words teaching opportunities for His disciples at times. We find one of those in Matthew 20, verses 25 through 28, where Jesus called the disciples to Himself and said, You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them, and those who were great exercised authority over them. They knew the way the Roman governors and administrators ruled and reigned. And it was abusive, horribly abusive. And Jesus says, Yet it shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave. Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. And one theme that you'll hear every year at the Feast of Tabernacles is that of serving and of giving. It's part of the reason we're here, to learn to serve, to learn to give. And thanks to whoever the generous kind person was who made such a generous donation that we heard about here, this is part of our training.

It's part of our calling. We go to the feast because God chose us to be rulers and to be kings. And if we are going to be a ruler and a king, then we have to learn to rule and to serve as Jesus Christ serves now in this life. And how does he serve? How does he rule? With love, with mercy, with compassion, without going care and sacrificial love for the well-being of others. So again, this fifth reason we go to the feast is because God chose you to be a ruler and a king.

The sixth reason we'll talk about here, if you haven't figured it out, will be covering sevens, or getting fairly far along in the sermon. You go to the feast because God chose you to be a priest.

For many sermons over the years about what it means to be a ruler and a king in the millennium, but what does it mean to be a priest? And again, as I talked about earlier, this is one of those words that Satan is so deceived and blinded the world about that we really don't have a good concept of what it means to be a priest. What did a priest do back in ancient Israel? What will a priest do in the millennial reign of Jesus Christ?

We first need to understand that kings and priests aren't two separate positions. It's like heads and tails on a coin. It's two aspects of the same job, the same responsibility.

And, you know, we hear the word priest. What comes in your mind when you hear the word priest? You may think of some old gray-haired, gray-bearded guy in a black robe and maybe waving a sensor or something like that. It's just something we can't relate to at all. And again, because of Satan's deception, of the meaning of this word. But is this what God has in mind for us in being his priest? Let's notice something over in Isaiah. Excuse me. Actually, I skipped over a verse here.

Revelation 5 and verse 9, which tells us that we will be priests.

And they sang a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God, and we shall reign on the earth. So we will be not just kings, but priests. That's why I say it's two sides of the same coin, two aspects of the same responsibility. So what does it mean to be a priest? Let's go back and look at Isaiah 61 verses 6 through 9. This is from the New International Version.

And God is here speaking to his people, his saints. And he says, And you will be called priests of the Lord. You will be named ministers. What's a minister? A minister is a servant. You will be named servants of God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast. Instead of their shame, my people will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace, they will rejoice in their inheritance. And so they will inherit a double portion in their land, and everlasting joy will be theirs. Verse 8, In my faithfulness I will reward them, and make an everlasting covenant with them. Their descendants shall be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the Lord has blessed. Does that sound like a boring future to you? Let's go back and notice some of these phrases here that are used that God uses. You will be called priests of the Lord. You will feed on the wealth of nations. My people will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace, they will rejoice in their inheritance. And everlasting joy will be theirs.

In my faithfulness I will reward them, and make an everlasting covenant with them. Their descendants will be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the Lord has blessed. Again, does that sound boring? Quite an exciting future there. Quite an incredible picture, far different than our common understanding of what a priest is. In the world tomorrow, a priest isn't going to be somebody that people are going to want to avoid.

No, people will be the ones that people will flock to. They will come to the priest to learn from them, to learn about God's ways from them. And part of our job, then, will be teaching and training people in that way. Let's look at another passage that tells us a lot about a priest's role and what the job description, you might say, is of a priest over in Malachi 2, verses 1-7. And this is a very interesting passage here. God corrects the priesthood of Malachi's day because he had drifted so far from God's original intention of a priest, and he has to remind him, hey, here's your job. This is what you were supposed to have been doing. And he does it in a rather unusual way. He addresses the priesthood as though he were talking to Levi, the original priest there. So he addresses Levi, but he's talking about the entire priesthood here. And notice what he says. He goes on to talk about the purpose of the priesthood. So he says, now, O priest, this commandment is for you.

Skipping down to verse 5, he says, My covenant was with him, with Levi, one of life and peace.

And I gave them to him that he might fear me. There's that fear and reverence aspect we talked about earlier. So he feared me and was reverent before my name. Again, those words we talked about.

Notice the law of truth was in his mouth, and injustice was not found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and equity, and turned many away from iniquity.

Continuing, verse 7, and then he gives, again, continues with the job description of a priest. For the lips of a priest should keep knowledge, and people should seek the law from his mouth. For he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. Gives a little bit of a different picture of the gray-haired old guy with a black robe and the sensor and so on, doesn't it, here?

This describes the role of a priest. And keep in mind, who is our high priest?

It's Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the ultimate picture of what a priest should be.

And what should a priest do? As we read in these job descriptions here, a priest fears God, and is reverent before God's name. The law of truth is in a priest's mouth. Injustice is not found on his lips. A priest walks with God. A priest turns people from iniquity.

The lips of a priest keep knowledge, and people come to seek to learn about God's law from a priest. So to sum it up, as we see in this last phrase here, a priest is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts, a messenger of God himself, the great God whom we worship.

Again, he gives quite a different picture of a priest, doesn't it, here?

In the world, a priest isn't going to be somebody people are going to want to avoid, but it's going to be someone that people are going to seek out to learn the ways of God from. So part of our job then, as we see here in the job description of a priest, is to turn people from iniquity and to seek the law of God and to learn about God. Let's notice, I mentioned Christ as our high priest, let's notice something about that in Hebrews 7, verses 24 through 26.

But because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him because he always lives to enter seed for them.

So how would you sum up Jesus Christ's role as high priest based on what we read here in these two verses? What is his purpose? What is his goal? What is his job description as high priest?

Notice that his purpose is to bring people to salvation, to bring people to salvation. That's the bottom line. That's the bottom line of Christ as our high priest. It's the bottom line of our role and responsibility as priests in the world tomorrow to bring people to salvation and a relationship with God, a relationship of obedience that will make their salvation possible.

As we saw back in Malachi, the job description we read back there, that has always been the job of a priest to bring people into a loving relationship with our great God. So again, the sixth reason we go to the feast is because God chose you to be a priest. Now we come to the seventh and final reason we, you, individually go to the feast. It's because God chose you to be a teacher. And this ties very much in with what we just read there, of priests teaching people about God's laws and God's ways. Because what will be the biggest responsibility that we will have at the beginning of the millennium there? It'll be rebuilding a world on right values and God's truth, God's eternal truth here. Let's notice a prophecy of that time, a familiar prophecy from Isaiah 30 verses 20 and 21. And here God is addressing the remnants of humanity who survive and live over into the beginning of the millennium. And he says, And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, but your eyes will see your teachers. Your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, This is the way. Walk in it, whenever you turn to the right hand and whenever you turn to the left.

So who is going to be doing this? Your teachers. Your teachers. It's talking about us. Kings, rulers, priests, and teachers.

It's going to be our job, our role, our responsibility. We'll be teaching people the right way, the only way, God's way. People will have gone through horrendous suffering and trials and tribulation, and they will have learned what living, doing things our own way, brings. It will have brought mankind to the break of extinction, but at last mankind will be receptive to learning and being taught God's truth, and that will be our job to teach people God's truth.

And this shouldn't be a big surprise to us because what is the job of the church?

What was the mission Jesus Christ gave the church in Matthew 28, verses 19 and 20? Go therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. So Christ's great commission to the church is what? Teaching people whatever He has commanded us. Teaching is a big part of the job of the church. Is this commission only for this age? Well, let's think about that for a moment. You know, the history of the church is in this age of man's rule. How many disciples have we made? Not a whole lot. A couple hundred thousand at most.

Relatively small number. When is our work as teachers really going to bear fruit?

It's going to happen in the millennium. What we're here in a dress rehearsal for. Then and only then will vast multitudes of people come to understand God's truth.

And that's when our job as kings and priests and teachers will really begin to bear fruit.

One final scripture I want to leave you with, Daniel 12 and verse 3, from the New International Version. And I like this because it kind of sums up what we've been talking about today. Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the heavens, the stars. When you go out tonight, you know, look up at the incredible night sky here in the Rocky Mountains. It's just astounding. I'm just dumbstruck. I'm awestruck every time I do this. We're blessed with beautiful night skies here in Estes Park. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever. And this is our calling. We'll turn many to righteousness in the Millennium through teaching them God's ways. That will be our job as kings, as priests, as teachers, and our future as a result of that will be to shine like the stars of the heavens forever.

As members of the family of God. So why do you go to the feast?

You go to the feast because God chose you. Because God believes in you.

God believes in you. And we are in training now for that future. And what can we do to get the most out of this feast? Pray about the messages, as we've heard previously. Ask God to inspire the speakers to give us what we need. Ask God to give you what you need from the messages here, from the fellowship here. Ask Him to help you to learn things that you haven't learned before, things you haven't seen before. Maybe things that you knew but have forgotten over the years here.

Ask Him to give you a deeper understanding of things you've heard or learned before, to remind you of things. And take these messages to heart. Review them, discuss them with family, with friends here during this feast. Take them home with you. Most importantly, live them so that you can be everything that God has called and chosen you to be. And come back from this feast and help build your local congregations. We are the Kingdom of God in training. And how can you help your congregation? Ask yourself that. How can your help help your congregation to be a little bit more like the Kingdom of God every Sabbath and every day? Edify the Church with the abilities and the gifts that God has given you. And put into practice the reasons that we go to the feast, and the reasons that you go to the feast.