Why Have We Come To God’s Feast of Tabernacles?

Hello, everybody! It is so good to see all of you to be here in Hawaii. We certainly want to, as a congregation, give thanks for the Offertorian special music we just heard. It was so very lovely. I do want to bring greetings from Beloit, Wisconsin, in Chicago, Illinois, our lovely brethren there in the Midwest. Mr. Tuck did forget to make one announcement. If you see some people moving very, very slowly, maybe not hardly moving at all, please don't be alarmed. Those are just our fellow Midwesterners thawing out from last winter.

But, you know, I'm a Midwesterner born and bred, so I'm sure many of you are as well. But my wife and I always enjoy coming here to Maui. We came here a little early. We wanted an opportunity to get a head start on our sunburn. And I think mission accomplished along those lines. If you've been out and about, hopefully you've taken in some, if you came in early or during the course of the feast, there's so many wonderful things to see here in the area. We did come in early. We took a snorkeling trip to Molokini. We were able to do some snorkeling on both sides of that structure and really enjoyed that. We also took a trip up to Haleakala, the crater, the volcano, just shy of two miles high. And it was really something. We decided to go there to do that. It was 92 degrees the day we went and we started our trip up. It takes about an hour and a half or something like that. I would not recommend doing it at night because there's one hairpin turn after another where you're only going about five miles an hour. There are no guardrails. If you miss your turn, you're flying. But we did it and just truly enjoyed it. As we were going up and up and up and up all the switchbacks, we noticed we were getting into some fog. Well, it wasn't fog. It was the lower part of the cloud. Then we drove into the cloud and it got relatively...the light just wasn't as bright as it had been. Then after a while, after several thousand more feet, we broke out of the cloud into the bright, sunny sky and the cloud was below us. And then we finally got to the summit and it was just fantastic. Now, where it had been, 92 degrees on the base, by the time we got to the summit, 10,000 feet, two miles high, the temperature was then 62 degrees, very windy, probably closer to something in the 50s. But just, though, a remarkable opportunity to experience something that was just so wonderful. One last personal comment before I get into the sermon. My wife has always wanted to come here to Maui and have a sporty convertible. And you know how that goes. You make your arrangements and they say, oh, yes, we'll have a convertible for you. We'll have five convertibles for you. And then you get here and then, oh, well, we're sorry, you know, they're all gone. And then they say, here's your car. Last time we were here, we just named it the Green Weenie.

This time, we got here and they had plenty of convertibles. They said, go out to the parking lot and pick yourself one. So my wife goes out there. My wife's a cute redhead. And so she found this red, fire engine red Camaro, black top. And she looks so wonderful in that. But the other part of the story is, it's got a very long front door for the driver to get into. And we went shopping over at the local Safeway here before the fee started. And I pull in and then somebody pulls in right next to me. And I'm trying to get out of that thing. I mean, there's nothing like watching a 68-year-old arthritic man trying to unfold his legs to get out of something. So forget about going to Lou House. Just watch me get into that car. That will be plenty of entertainment for you. Brethren, here we are at the Feast of Tabernacles. And I want to ask a very basic question today. And I'm hoping to give you some answers to that very basic question today. I know many of you like to take notes. And I want to give you a little bit of a heads up as to what we'll be covering today. My theme question is this. Why have we come to God's Feast of Tabernacles? Why have we come to God's Feast of Tabernacles? Let me give you the answers. At least, some of the answers. That way you have a heads up as to what we'll be trying to accomplish today. Answer number one to why have we come to God's Feast of Tabernacles. Number one, we have come to worship our very special God. Number two, we have come to fellowship with God's very special people.

Number three, we have come to be inspired by our very special future.

So we have come, and I really appreciated the music we had, both offertory special music, but also the introductory video. We do worship a very special God. That's point number one. We have come to worship our very special God. Our Heavenly Father, our Elder Brother, Jesus Christ, have a rich and vibrant love for each and every one of you sitting here today. You're very special. Jesus Christ came to die for you. He came to die for all of us, for all of mankind. But we want to put our name in the blank there. He came to die for us, for you, as an individual. And He's preparing a very special future for us, not only collectively, but individually. Individually, God is looking at your life and what He can do for you to make your life in the future for all time, for all eternity, something very, very special. Now, there are a number of ways where we can talk about how our God is very special, but the one way I want to discuss today is what He's doing to help you and I become more like Him. What He's doing in our lives right now to help us become more like Him, to really enjoy that very special future that He has in store for us. A future of the highest level. And, of course, one of the things that our Heavenly Father and Elder Brother are, they are the universe's best servants. Nobody serves you and I better than God the Father or Jesus Christ. Nobody. And that's something that you and I can appreciate. That's something you and I look forward to. And that's one of the reasons why we honor our great Father and Elder Brother so much. We look at Jeremiah chapter 29 as we begin to answer that question, theme question, Why have we come to God's peace to the Tabernacles? Jeremiah chapter 29.

It's not just our thoughts of peace and not of evil. To give you a future and a hope. To give you a future and a hope. Something tremendous. Something you and I can hardly even begin to fathom comprehending because of what our Father wants for you individually. But there's work to be done for you. There's work to be done for me. I've often said that our lives are like work on a roadway. We get so frustrated as we're going to point A and point B in our lives. It's going to work forever because of construction. There's all those orange barrels all around the construction zone. Well, there's the same barrels around us. God is constructing something in us. Very special. Because He wants us to be like Him.

Make that point. I would like you to turn to 1 Kings chapter 17. We're going to be going through the entire chapter, so I don't think we're going to be going through anything else at this part of the sermon. Let's turn over to 1 Kings chapter 17. 1 Kings chapter 17. Let me give you some background here before we get into the chapter itself. In 1 Kings chapter 17, we see a very wicked king, King Ahab. We see his wife, a very wicked woman by the name of Jezebel. The times are very dark spiritually in Israel at this time. Jezebel is doing everything she can do to make Baal worship the national worship. She is hounding. She was hunting down the ministry or the prophets and killing them. She was wanting to eradicate the truth of God in Israel. She was already making Baal worship the state religion in Samaria, the capital. So understand that as background. Also understand, here, exploding onto the scene is a man by the name of Elijah. He just explodes onto the scene. We don't have a written record of his birth or his parents or his calling or anything like that, but he just explodes onto the scene here in chapter 17. Chapter 17, verse 1. And Elijah, at Tishbiteh, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be due or reign these years, except at my word.

Now, what we're going to take a look at—I'm going to break this chapter down into four different parts. And again, for those of you who like to take notes. Verses 1 through 7. Verses 1 through 7. We see God caring for our daily needs. God caring for our daily needs. Now, even though we don't have background on Elijah, we can surmise that he was an individual who was a man of God, who saw the sins, the wickedness of his people, the Israelites. He became convicted of what he saw that it needed to change. The people needed to hear another message as a part from what Jezebel was teaching. He was convicted of the terrible sins. He was moved to want to say something to his fellow countrymen. Just rather—and there's a reason—we're not just going through history today to go through musty old history. There's a reason we go through this, because we should understand that this is something we should be doing as well. As a group, as a work, that God has called us to sigh and to cry over the sins we see in our society. And we see so much that we sigh and cry about. So, here we have Elijah saying there's not going to be any dew or rain these years. Now, he understands that he's only saying these things because God is inspiring him to say those things. Only God can do this. Now, a little bit of background. You know, last evening we had a wonderful sermon by Mr. Tuck, and he was talking about John Wayne.

Well, if we go back a little further, there's Gary Cooper. I don't know how many of us of you would know that name. But there was a movie he was in, and he had an opportunity to have this showdown in the streets—it was Western. And here we see the same kind of a showdown. God is going to be standing toe to toe with Baal.

Why do I say that? Baal was a god, according to the ancients, the pagans, who was the god of dew and rain.

And God says, oh, really? You're the god of dew and rain? I'll meet you on Center Street. And so here we see God saying, okay, we're going to take this god to task. Verse 2, Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, Get away from here, and turn eastward and hide by the brook of Carath, which flows into the Jordan. Now, brethren, we're going to see as we progress through the chapter that this drought is going to last a number of years. People are going to be dying as a result of this drought. But God says to his man here, Elijah, I want you to go, and I will take care of your daily need. I'll make sure you have water to carry on.

Think about your situation right now and the daily needs you have in your life right now. Your God loves you. He wants the best for you, and he will take care of your needs. Maybe not in a way, as we're going to see in a moment, maybe not in a way that you and I would think is the way it would be done, but God will get the job done.

Verse 4, And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there. So God is going to airlift the food into him, the ravens to feed him there.

Now, there are a lot of different ways God could have done this. He could have said, I'm going to dispatch an army of angels, or even just one angel, to make sure you've got your food. But no, we're going to use a ravenous bird, a raven, to bring you food. What's happening in your life right now? As you pray to God for some need you have right now. Sometimes we think, why isn't God answering our prayer? But sometimes, brethren, we don't take a wide enough view as to the way God is working in our lives.

It may not be the way we think he's going to work. Certainly, I'm sure this was not the way Elijah thought things would be taking place. Verse 5, So he went and did according to the word of the Lord. Just as we should be doing.

For he went and stayed by the brook, car He takes care of our daily needs. Maybe not in ways we think he's going to do, but in ways that will get the job done. So here we see in this first six verses here, God providing for a servant. We see Elijah witnessing the power of God as the ravens are bringing the food to him. We see that despite him being all alone and being hunted by the powers that be, God was protecting him.

His needs are being met day by day. We continue on with the chapter here starting in verse 8. Here we see something else. The second point I want to make as you're taking the notes here, verses 8 through 12, I've labeled this in my notes, God serving us in unexpected ways. God serving us in unexpected ways. Let's take a read through this and then we'll come back and analyze. Verse 8, Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon dwell there.

See, you have commanded a widow there to provide for you. So he arose and went to Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called her and said, Please, bring me a little water and a cup that I might drink. As she was going to get it, he called her and said, Please, bring me a morsel of bread in your hand. So she said, As the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour and a bin and a little oil in the jar.

And see, I'm gathering a couple of sticks so I may go in and prepare for myself and my son, that we might eat it and die. That we might eat it and die. Now, back in these days, there weren't a lot of social networks to call upon.

If you were a woman, and especially a widow, you were in a very bad way. The drought has been going on. Crops are not producing what they once did. People are dying. She's about ready to die with her little boy. And think about what we've got here. Verse 9, again, background. Arise and go to Zareph F. Why is that important? Remember, God is standing toe to toe with Baal. He wants everybody to know who the true God is. That he's a very special God.

We've already seen that God is now, there's no dew, there's no rain. Baal was the god of dew and rain. Remember when they mentioned of the leadership of the country, Ahab, King Ahab, and his wife Jezebel. Jezebel's hometown was Zareph F. Her hometown was Zareph F, where that widow lady lived. God is telling his prophet to go into the deepest part of enemy territory, the heart of Baal worship. And I will take care of you there. I will take care of you there. So we see he goes into the city, sees a widow, gathering sticks, calls to her, and says, verse 10, please bring me a little water that I might drink.

Verse 11, now she's about ready to die. But verse 11, as she was going to get it, brethren, as we go through our trials, our trials are often not ours alone, but those around us. What we're going to see as we go through the remainder of this chapter is God was not only doing something in Elijah's life, but also in his widow lady's life and her son's life. A lot of people would say, who are you? I'm about ready to die. Get your own water. Not her. She went to go get the water.

And then he says, Elijah says, please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand. And then she begins to say to him, well, you know, I'm about ready to die here. I mean, brethren, let's put it in our age today. You go back home to your church area. You are in a really bad way. It looks like you're going to die. Pastor knocks on the door. Hey, I need some help. You're thinking, you need help. That bread you got on the table, you're about ready to eat, and the water you're about ready to drink, that very last.

Give some to me first. And you're thinking, I need a new pastor. But see, the whole idea here is that God wanted to see if this woman would put God first. Put God first. And again, a lesson for us too. Are we allowing ourselves to put God first despite the circumstances, despite the way things may look in our life? This brings us now to another section, a third section of the chapter.

And again, as you outline, or as I outline for you, verses 13 through 16 of chapter 17, God's limitless supply of His provision, God's limitless supply. This is one of the great sections of Scripture in my mind. It's a tremendous story. Verse 13. And Elijah said to her, Do not fear, go, and do as I have said, but make me a small cake first from it. Bring it to me, and afterwards make some for yourself and your son.

For thus says the Lord God of Israel, That been a flower shall not be used up, Nor shall the jar of oil run dry, Till the day the Lord sends rain on the earth. So she went away, and did according to the word of Elijah. She was putting God first. And she and he and her household ate for many days. Verse 16, The bin of flower was not used up, Nor was the jar of oil run dry, According to the word of the Lord, which was spoken by Elijah.

There's relevance here for us as New Testament New Covenant Christians. What did she have? She had flour, she had oil. She didn't just grab a handful of flour and stick it in her mouth. What does she do? What does she do with it? She takes the flour, she makes bread. What do we read every year at Passover? Jesus Christ, the bread of life. I am the true bread. You eat this bread, you're not going to go hungry. Talking about spirituality. So here, by type, you've got Jesus Christ, and of course, you've got the oil representing God's Holy Spirit. God the Father, Jesus Christ, God's Spirit, these are going to be with you in limitless supply as you rely upon God.

That makes them so very special. As you go through the various trials, you know, we've all in our lives gone through our various trials. You've gone through yours, I've gone through mine. We'll go through more.

Some very difficult trials that God will be there to provide for us. You know, several years ago, I've been conducting the feast in Wisconsin Dells for a number of years. Took this year off, but back in 2015, I was set to run the Dells again. But as I was exercising one day in early August of 2015, I felt a slight pain in my chest. There was a burning sensation in my chest. And with my family's history, I didn't want to take light of that, because my grandfather had died at 55 of a heart attack, my father at 55, my brother at 36, and so I wanted to get that checked out. Well, sure enough, I went and had it checked out, and I needed to have a quadruple bypass, which took place on August 28, 2015.

And of course, you know how it is—well, maybe you don't know, but some of you know what it's like. You know, I'm there getting ready, getting prepped for the operation. I'm talking to my wife, telling her how much I love her, and we're both crying and saying all the things guys always say. You know, you're such a great wife, and I'm not such a good husband. No, I hope that if I don't make it out of this room—and of course, you know, I'm not trying to be overly dramatic, but who knew? If I don't make it out of here, you know, have a good life, and of course, don't marry anybody else.

But God was there. The bread was there. The oil was there. God brought me through, just as God has brought you through your trials in life. Move on to the last section here, why we worship such a very special God as he's working in our lives, as he's helping us become more like him and think like him. Verses 17 through 24 shows that God's love for us knows no bounds, not even death. God's love for us shows no bounds, not even death.

Verse 17. Now, it happened after these things that the son of the woman who owned the house became sick, and his sickness was so serious that there was no breath left in him. Brethren, what we're reading about here is the first recorded episode in the Scriptures of somebody who died being resurrected back to life again. This is the first time in the Scripture. So she said to Elijah, What am I to do with you, old man of God? Have you come to me to bring my son to remembrance and to kill my son? You know, brethren, people ask honest questions at difficult times in their lives. There's nothing wrong with asking an honest question. There's nothing wrong with sometimes wondering why things are the way they are. God doesn't mind that, but he does want us to seek Him and to find answers. And sometimes even the greatest people of the Scriptures just didn't understand. And not understanding is not a sin. Now, we don't want to stay in a position of not understanding, but we want to make sure we have a heart that is looking to God and asking, Please give me some answers.

Verse 19. And He said to her, Give me your son. So He took him out of her arms and carried him to the upper room where he was staying and laid him on his own bed. And He cried out to the Lord and said, Oh, my Lord God, have you also brought tragedy on this widow with whom I lodged by killing your son? If I were to ask for a showing of hands of people who don't understand why things have happened in their life the way they have, probably everybody in this room would raise your hand.

And He stretched Himself out on the child once. No. Three times. Persistence in prayer. He stretched Himself on the child three times and cried out to the Lord and said, Oh, Lord, my God, I pray, let this child's soul come back to Him. Then the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came back to Him, and He revived. And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room to the house, and gave him to his mother. And Elijah said, See, your son lives because he had died. This is how special our God is. This is the God you and I have come to worship, this Feast of Tabernacles. And I don't know about you, but one of the things I enjoy so much about coming to Maui is, in the morning, my wife and I will, you know, we normally get up fairly early. We'll be up by five o'clock or so. We've got a little balcony here in our room, and we go out to the balcony. We have our little breakfast prepared. We sit there with our two chairs, a little table. We're munching on our breakfast. The sun comes up. We're watching some of you scurrying around on the beach. And then afterwards, after I'm all done, the thing I like to do is, probably about 6.30, 7 o'clock, I hit the beach, and I pray as I walk along the beach. And there's just something about the creation of God, and seeing all that he's done, and looking at that ocean and thinking every drop is teeming with life.

Now, what ability do I have to create anything? I think I can create dirt. I can create sweat. I can create odor. But what does God create? What does God create? You know, as we were snorkeling and we're looking at all these beautiful fish, the coral, his handiwork, you know, a lot of people don't see those things. And, you know, when you go into the deepest parts of the oceans, the people have not seen until just the last few years, God didn't have to make all these fish so colorful and so wonderful and so beautiful, but he did.

He's a very special God.

Very special.

Verse 24, Then the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord is in your mouth and is true.

So here we see four things, brethren, that help us to appreciate why we've come to the Feast of Tabernacles. We've come to worship our very special God, a God who we've seen in verses 1 through 7, cares for our daily needs.

Gives us water in times of drought. Brings us the food when it seems like that's an impossibility. Verses 8 through 12, we saw how God serves us in unexpected ways. He brought a widowed woman to this man in the heart of the enemy. In verses 13 through 16, we saw God's limitless supply of provision through the bread, through the oil. And in the last seven verses, 17 through 24, last eight verses, God's love for us having no balance, not even death. So why have we come to the Feast of Tabernacles? We've come to worship our very special God. This brings us now to point number two. Why have we come to God's Feast of Tabernacles? We have come to fellowship with God's very special people. God's very special people. I'm going to read a section of Scripture that's rather lengthy. Please bear with me. Let's go over to Luke 24.

Luke 24.

We're going to be reading verses 13 through 35. It's a lengthy section of Scripture. Please bear with me. We're going to read this, and then we're going to go through and analyze. We've come to fellowship with God's very special people.

Luke 24, verse 13.

Now, behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. Now, again, background, Jesus Christ has been crucified, has been resurrected. You've got a couple of fellows here who aren't understanding what is going on. The chief priests, the scribes, the religious leaders were seeking to destroy a man they had really come to admire. Judas, one of the inner circle, betrayed this man. Jesus was arrested. He was mocked. He was beaten. He was crucified. He died. He was buried. The women came to the tomb, and the tomb was empty. Now, this is from their perspective. They didn't have the perspective that you and I do of God's Holy Spirit and the Scriptures and what have you, not in the same way you and I do today, not the same kind of understanding or the same ability to look into the Scriptures like we do today. So, in their minds, in their hearts, they were discouraged. They were down.

Okay? Verse 13. Now, behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. And they talked together of all the things which had happened. So it was while they conversed and reasoned that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them.

One of the greatest individuals we have fellowship with is our elder brother, Jesus Christ. And here, He's going to teach you and I some lessons about fellowship. Let's take a look. Verse 16. But their eyes were restrained so they didn't know Him. And He said to them, what kind of conversation is it that you have with one another as you walk in or are sad?

You know, Jesus Christ knew exactly why they were sad. But He asked this question to draw them out. He wanted them to speak from their hearts so we can go point by point and discuss the situation with them. This tells us something about how we can work with other people. As we know our friends or relatives or people we work with that they are down and discouraged, we can ask in a proper time frame, in a proper way, using wisdom, well, what's wrong? And you then listen and let them...they will tell you, hopefully, what's bothering them. Sometimes they won't. Verse 18. Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to him, are you the only stranger in Jerusalem? Basically, what's wrong with you, fella? Don't you know what's been happening around here? Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem? Have you not known the things which have happened here these days? He said to them, what things? I think Jesus Christ knew what things were taking place. Right? So they said to him, the things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty and deed and word before God and all the people. See, this is why they were so down. They thought the kingdom of God had come to the earth. The Jesus, the Messiah was there to set it, to get rid of the Romans and so forth. But that wasn't the case, was it? Verse 20, how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel. And he, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. Yes, and certain women of our company who arrived at the tomb early astonished us when they did not find his body. They became saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. So rumors were flying around so far as they were concerned. And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the woman had said, but him they didn't see. Then he said to them, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken, Ought not the Christ who hath suffered these things and to enter into his glory. And verse 27, and beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures of things concerning himself. You know, brethren, in this last trumpets, I celebrated 40 years in the ministry. Forty years, and I have had so many opportunities to be encouraged by my peers in the ministry. But more often than not, the people who have really encouraged me have been the brethren. You. Because of the knowledge that U.S. people have. Because you know the scriptures. You study the scriptures. You master the scriptures.

So many times when I have been down, when I have felt a need, and my brothers or sisters in the faith have been there for me.

Then they drew near to the village where they were going. And he indicated he would have gone further, but they constrained him, saying, Oh, abide with us, for it is toward evening and a day is far spent, and he went to stay with them. In other words, these fellows enjoyed the fellowship of Jesus.

Much like you, enjoy the fellowship of those around you in your local church area. Or in phone calls of people who may not live near you, who are your brothers and sisters in the faith. Now, it came to pass that he sat at a table with them, that he took bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And then their eyes were open, and they knew him, and he vanished from their sight. And they said to one another, Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us on the road and while he opened the scriptures to us? Brethren, you have the opportunity to do just this. You are God's special people. We are here at this feast to worship our very special God, but to also fellowship with one another. Each one of you is a miracle how you came into the church. Some of you who have been in a church, I was talking to one gentleman last evening, he's, I think he said, third generation. There are probably many of you who are, you know, it's grandparents or parents who have been in the church. Then there are people like me. You know, God called me as a 15-year-old. Didn't call him my parents, didn't call him my family, called me as a 15-year-old.

I remember having to, you know, call the parents, my parents wouldn't let me go to church. You know, there's only so much of a 15-year-old evangelist anybody can take. Wouldn't let me go to church, so I ended up, you know, back in the day, we actually had things called phone booths. I know some of our younger people wonder what those are. Try to find one someplace. But anyway, I would go to the phone booth, I would call up the pastor. Normally I got his wife. How do I keep the Sabbath? How do I keep the Holy Days? You know, I would just simply not go to school on the Holy Days. I had to quit the football team and the basketball team because I wanted to be on God's team.

But all of us have our story to tell. And they're marvelous stories. They're intriguing stories. They're stories about miracles. And you have so much to offer to one another.

Don't refuse to do that.

Did not, verse 32, did not our hearts burn within us while He talked with us on the road, while He opened His Scriptures to us? So they arose that very hour and returned to Jerusalem and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, The Lord has risen indeed and has appeared to Simon. And they told them about the things that had happened on the road and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread. Now, as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them and said to them, Peace be to you.

Brethren, there are things that we should appreciate here. Let's turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter 1.

You know, when these two disciples were down and out and thought that their whole—everything was just in ruins— they made a couple of basic mistakes. The first mistake they made is they were focusing on their own disappointments.

And it's so easy for us to do that, isn't it? For us to focus on us, to focus on what's not happening in our life that we want to happen in our life. So easy to focus on those things. And when we do that, we tend to miss the larger picture, as these folks did. A second issue they had that compounded the problem, in addition to just focusing on their own disappointment, their own depression, is they were walking in the wrong direction. They were walking away from Jerusalem. They were walking away from the disciples. They were disciples. They were setting themselves apart. And how many times in my ministry have I seen people who became down and out, who would stop coming to church, wrong decision? We need to be in church. We need to be there with our very special God. We need to be there with God's very special people, if we are to find encouragement, if we are to find healing.

Second Corinthians chapter 1. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforts us all in our tribulations, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. God is training. What are you going through in your life right now?

Do you think millions of other people, maybe more than a few millions of other people, have not gone through what you're going through?

You know, Mr. Tucker was talking about the end of the age and all the carnage that's going to happen in the last three and a half years before Christ returns, the times of the Gentiles, how many people are going to die. And then you think about these people being resurrected. Well, let's go back a step. Those people who are able to make it from this life, live through the last three and a half years, the times of the Gentiles, and actually live into the millennium. They're going to be dysfunctional people. After all they've seen, after all they've gone through, they are going to need you.

You who know what life is like. Maybe not all that that they've had to go through, but when you talk about your trials and your tribulations, you're not going to talk theory. You're going to talk something you've lived through. You're going to talk about how you relied upon your very special God, how you walked in faith, how He provided for you, how He comforted you when you needed comfort so that you could comfort others. Same thing is true for the last great day. I'll be speaking in the morning on the last great day. We'll be talking about the tremendous love that God has for all the people we love that never knew the truth, never knew the truth, and yet God is going to be working with us to help them.

There's a story. I was thinking about it as Mr. Tuck was going through. He had all these marvelous stories last evening. For those of you who weren't here last evening, please, I'm sure that sermon can be found somewhere to be listened to. I would certainly ask you to listen to that. It was a wonderful message. But he was talking about this one situation. It brought a story up to my mind. There was this horrible storm, thunder, lightning, tremendous rain, a house shaking. There was a family. It was a mother and a father and a little girl. Finally, after so much of the lightning and the thunder and the rain and the house creaking and shaking, the little girl got up from her bed and she ran and jumped in between mom and dad.

The father and his deep voice, Don't worry, baby. God's here for you. She just sunk deeper into putting the blankets over her head. Every once in a while she'd take a peek out. Father would say the same thing, God's going to be there. Christ is going to be there for you.

After a while, as little ones do, she got out of the covers. She put her face right next to her dad's and said, I know that. But right now, I need somebody with skin on.

I need somebody with skin on. We know God, our special God, is going to be there for us, but there are times we need people with skin on.

When our hearts are overwhelmed with grief, when our minds are clouded with doubt, when our outlook is full of sadness and gloom, we need somebody with skin on.

Christ expounded the truth to them. He knew what the Bible said. He knew what the Bible means. He knew how to apply the Bible. And we need to be able to do the same thing. God has called us to come to this feast of tabernacles to fellowship with our very special brethren. Our very special brethren. Now, of course, we want to do that humbly. We don't walk into the doors tomorrow morning and say, Dear, once I have arrived, I am here to help you all with all your trials and troubles because of all I have learned.

No, we want to be humble. We want to be respectful. But we also want to remember that God has called us to be there for our very special brothers and sisters. So point number two is we've come to fellowship with God's very special people. Third point, last point. Why have we come to God's Feast of Tabernacles? To worship our very special God. Number one. Number two. To fellowship with God's very special people.

And number three, we have come to the Feast of Tabernacles to be inspired by our very special future. To be inspired by our very special future. Let's look at Revelation chapter 19. Revelation chapter 19 verse 7. Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His wife has made herself ready. His wife has made herself ready. Through all that we've gone through, through the ages, Old Testament Saints, New Testament Saints, Saints who are living in the current timeframe, we have made ourselves ready.

And there's nobody more excited about that than our father and our elder brother, Jesus Christ. Let's take a look at Matthew chapter 24. Olivet prophecy. Matthew chapter 24. The return of Jesus Christ here, Matthew 24 verse 30. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

He also sent His angels with the great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds and from one end of heaven to the other. Think on this, brother. At the return of Jesus Christ, at this last seventh trump, Jesus Christ is going around the world gathering His saints, gathering His brothers and His sisters, so many of whom have died.

Their voices were still. Their voices were stopped. You think of the Old Testament saints and all those saints that are now awaiting the resurrection. How much God the Father and Jesus Christ enjoyed watching them grow, enjoyed listening to their prayers, and then all that stopped at death. Now, again, we like to think about the resurrection from our perspective, but from Christ's perspective, from God's perspective, now those people are alive. Those voices aren't stilled any longer. And you've got this tremendous family reunion.

Tremendous family reunion. I look forward to that. I'm sure you do as well. Let's go to Isaiah chapter 60 and take a look at a couple more prophecies. Isaiah chapter 60. We're so familiar with 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and 1 Corinthians chapter 15. But let's go to Isaiah chapter 60. Here we have a prophecy about your resurrection. Isaiah chapter 60 verse 1. Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

Let's talk about your resurrection. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth and deep darkness the people. And of course, we realize that the time of the resurrection is a time of the world going through such horrible circumstances. Isaiah writes another part of his book, how the earth is tottering like a drunkard. In the book of Revelation, it talks about, don't hurt any more of the green things, because people won't be able to breathe.

We think about all the carnage that's going to take place, all the people who are going to be dying in war and famines and plagues. So it is a time of darkness, but in that time of darkness, it says, You arise and shine, for your light has come. And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. You are going to be a glorified being in the family of God.

End of verse 2. But the Lord will arise over you, and his glory will be seen upon you. The Gentile shall come to your light, and kings, to the brightness of your arising. To the brightness of your arising. Lift up your eyes all around and see. They are all gathered together. They will come to you. Your son shall come from afar. Your daughter shall be nursed at your side. A time of your resurrection.

Because you came to the Feast of Tabernacles, year after year, and during the course of the year to worship your special God, to fellowship with your special brothers and sisters, and to think on and be inspired by your special future. Colossians chapter 3.

Colossians chapter 3.

I read this every time I do a funeral, because I think it gives such great hope. Colossians chapter 3 and verse 4. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then we also will appear with Him in glory.

Those words are so comforting when you're standing next to a casket of a faithful member of God's church.

When Christ, who is our life, appears.

Brethren, I know that Christ is your life.

Many of us have come to this Feast. I'm sure all of us have come to this Feast, because we want a deeper relationship with our Heavenly Father, with our elder brother. We want even more of our life to be in sync with our Father and our brother. And because we want that, because we're working toward that, then it says, when Christ, who is our life, appears, then we also will appear with Him in glory. Our resurrected bodies will be incorruptible. Never age. And that a nice thing to hear. Never deteriorate, never die, never decay, never decompose.

I don't think I'm going to want a red Camaro in the world tomorrow, but at least I'll be able to get out of the thing.

Our resurrected bodies will be raised in glory. Splendor, brightness, magnificence, dignity, majesty. Everything enhanced. My poor wife. She looks forward to that because back in 2003, I was driving from the Detroit area where I'm originally from, down to Toledo, Ohio, to take in a Toledo, Ohio, Mudhans minor league baseball game. It was 3 o'clock, and on Thursday, I forget the exact date, but I remember 3 o'clock on Thursday, driving down to Toledo. And, like a flip being switched, I basically went deaf in my left ear. They say stress can cause that. I went to several specialists. One specialist told me, he said, hey, Randy, he said, I know a doctor who was going into his home, perfect hearing in both ears. He walks through the door. He's deaf in both ears. They don't know what causes that. About 100,000 people or so a year have this sudden hearing loss syndrome. Now, the point is, as we're talking about this, is my poor wife has to listen. I have to ask her to repeat everything almost twice. And she's such a converted woman. Because she repeats, and she repeats, and she repeats, because I can't hear like I would like to hear. Now it has its strengths.

You know, when there are things she wants me to do, I'm sorry, hon, I didn't hear you. You know, my son wants to borrow some money. He said, oh, you say you're funny. Well, that's great.

But life will be so different.

Brethren, why have we come to God's Feast of Tamarindacles? We have come to worship our very special God. We have come to fellowship with God's very special people. And we've come to be inspired by our very special future.