Winter Work

Well, good afternoon, everyone. Certainly good to see all of you here today, and welcome to all our visitors. Good to have you with us and those on the web. Let me applaud the Ambassador Choir. That is an excellently done class.

You saw virtually the entire ABC class up there on the stage today, and I can tell they've been working very, very hard, very well done. Two beautiful numbers I hadn't heard before, but very well done. So it's been an interesting week for us here at the home office. You probably know that the Council met over the last week, and I think we had a very good set of meetings and productive set of meetings here over the first four days of this week.

Much got accomplished, I think. This is a time of year when we're working on strategic plans and budgets coming up and things like that, and I always enjoy the strategic planning time of year back in business when I worked because it was an opportunity to assess what had gone on in the year before, see how well we needed to improve, and to work with the various departments and get their analysis on what it was done. So I always found it kind of invigorating.

Same thing with the Church. It is a time for us to look back at the end of the Holy Day calendar with the Feast of Tabernacles ending just about a month and a half ago, and to look back over the year. What worked? What didn't work? Did we please God?

Did we do what His will was? Did we use the money that He has provided for us in ways that make a difference in the way He wants? There's always room for improvement and always time to look at what God wants us to do and let Him lead us in those things, and when we do that, it'll be productive times. You know, as I prepared my presentations and my report for the Council, there's two verses in Psalms that I, or Proverbs, that I've referred to. So if you'll turn with me, verse the Proverbs 27. Proverbs 27 and verse 23. It says, Be diligent to know the state of your flocks, and attend to your herds.

For riches are not forever, and a crown does not, nor does a crown endure to all generations. You know, the Bible often speaks in agrarian terms, and there's principles that we learn from there, and we don't, most of us, don't live in, you know, or work in the agrarian culture. We aren't farmers. We don't do those things, and some of us here do, so they are well aware of what some of these principles mean, but when we look at the Bible and we see these principles, we apply them into our lives.

So when God says, Be diligent to know the state of your flocks, He's saying, Know what the state of your affairs are, whether there's actually flocks in the field, or whatever you do in business, or whatever you do as a church, my church, know what's going on. Pay attention to it. It just doesn't happen. There has to be some planning to know what's going on, some assessment that goes on. That happens in our personal lives as well when we examine ourselves. We do that as a church. We do that in our businesses that we operate, certainly in our personal lives. Know the state of them. Attend to them.

Pay attention to them. Provide. Make sure there's provisions for what they need. Turn back a couple chapters to Proverbs 24. The other one there talks about outside work and the time to build your house.

In Proverbs 24 and verse 27, it says, Prepare your outside work. Make it fit for yourself in the field. Now, those who work in the farming areas would know what that means. You have to have your, that's your livelihood. That's where it comes from. Make sure that's all there. When you get all that done, when you have your business ready, when you have your life ready, then go and build your house.

Get those things done. Make sure that you have the basics of what you're doing down. Have those plans and then go build your house. You know, we're all about building temples, right? Building a temple for God. Building a temple collectively. Building temples individually. So when we read these things, it's not just for the church. It's not just for us individually. We're all part of building a temple. Go get yourself ready. You make sure everything else is there.

Then build the house. I think those who have built houses and do that for a living probably know, well, if you start building the house before everything else is set, if you don't have the land prepared, if you don't have the resources that are all there, it's not going to go very well. Do things in order. Have plans ready. You know, as I thought about those verses and have over the last few weeks as I thought about them in relation to the church, I've also been thinking about the time of the season that we're in and how we do things as a church.

Here we are and, you know, we don't have any snow outside, but it's a bleak winter's day. And for the last several years, as you know, we've lived in Florida, so it's been interesting to be in a little bit cooler temperatures. And, you know, it's not that we're strangers to winter seasons and snow and all that. And it's coming back. It's coming back to memory. But I realize that even since I've been up here, even though we haven't had zero degree temperatures and whatever, I don't go outside as much as I did where we used to live.

I'm inside alive. I get a lot more things done on Sundays inside than I do on Sundays outside. And it's just the time of the year. And it's just the way life is. And you come to embrace the time of the year. And like God said, there is a time and there's a purpose for every season under heaven.

And there's a purpose, you know, for winter. Here we are at the time. The Holy Day season has is done. And we have this five and six month period until Passover that we're looking at. And God begins his year in the springtime, as the first month at the Passover and days of Unleavened Bread are there. But here at the tail end of the year, there's no Holy Days.

We just have this time that we do. What does God want us to do with this time? It's not a really pleasant time of the year. It's cold. It can be bitter cold. It can be snow. It can be icy. It can be all these things. What do we do with it? What do we do with it? Did God have a purpose in mind? Or this is just kind of the state of the world the way it is. You know, we look at nature and nature thrives. It needs winter. You know, you forget some of that when you live in warmer climates. But, you know, apple trees don't really grow in Florida. They need the cold in order to be able to bloom and to produce apples. You don't see tulips unless you buy them at a florist in Florida. They don't grow. They've got to have the cold. Out of that cold, bitter snow comes the tulips and the other flowers that you see up north. And it's a beautiful thing when you emerge from winter to see the beauty of spring and to see those flowers and all those things beginning to bud. And you see the world coming back to life again. There's a message for that in us as well. God did design the wintertime. He did determine that winter would be. So let's take a few verses here and a little few minutes to see what God says about winter. Go back to the book of Job in Job 37. Job 37, and we'll pick it up in verse... Let's pick it up in verse 5. Job 37, verse 5. God. God thunders marvelously with his voice. He does great things which we cannot comprehend. For he says to the snow, Fall on the earth, likewise to the gentle rain and the heavy rain of his strength. He seals the hand of every man that all men may know his work. The beasts go into dens, and remain in their lairs. From the chamber of the south comes the whirlwind and cold from the scattering winds of the north. By the breath of God, ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen. Also with moisture he saturates the thick clouds. He scatters his bright clouds, and they swirl about, being turned by his guidance that they may do whatever he commands them on the face of the whole earth. He designed this time. He commands the snow. He commands the ice. Not just to be problems for us. There's a reason that God may have in mind that the growing season ends, the holy day season ends, and we move into a time of the year when we're more inside and we have time to do things that we may not have so much time to do during the other parts of the year, when life is really busy, and there is the outdoor attention that has to happen, and life just seems to just take over. But in the winter, there's time when some of that everyday work ceases.

If you look just one chapter over in Job 38, God asks a question of Job. He says, Have you entered the treasury of snow? Or have you seen the treasury of hail, which I have reserved for the time of trouble for the day of battle and war?

Do you know about that, Job? Do you know that I control those things? Do you know that I'm going to? That there is this treasury of snow and hail reserved for some time?

Might make you think of Matthew 24, where it talks about pray not for your flight to be in winter.

Pray not for your flight to be in winter. That's an interesting verse. Why would God tell us to pray that our flight not be in winter? Now, it's something we can contemplate. I don't have the answer for that today, but God will let us know what it is.

As we look in the New Testament, turn back to 1 Corinthians 16, we see that the Apostle Paul, he dealt with the winter season, and they had to make plans for it back then. They didn't have cars to traverse the snow. They didn't have snowplows to clear the streets. And when winter came, life changed. They weren't free to just move about as they did the rest of the year in 1 Corinthians 16.

As he's writing to the church in Corinth, verse 5 of 1 Corinthians 16, he says, I will come to you when I pass through Macedonia, for I am passing through Macedonia.

And it may be that I will remain or even spend the winter with you, that you may send me on my journey wherever I go. When I get there, I may just spend the entire winter with you. I can't top a flight and go someplace else. Ships don't run during that time. You don't have to turn back to Acts 27, but you remember the shipwreck that Paul was at when they were on Fair Havens, when he was being taken as a prisoner to Rome. And they left Fair Havens after the Day of Atonement, because they didn't think that was a good port to winter in. But then they left and got caught up in a shipwreck. And there's a lot of lessons, personally, we can learn from that shipwreck if we look at those verses back there. But winter plays a prominent time in our life. It's, you know, here in the north, I remember it's not just a couple months. It's it's three and four months of our year. And we all look forward to March and April, when everything becomes warm again, the trees develop their leaves again.

And life returns to what we might say, you know, normal kind of positive, good productive time of the year. Back in Genesis 8, after the flood, and Noah and his family emerged from the flood, God talked about winter during that time as well. They had fared well through the times that they spent on the yurk ark. And in verse 21 of Genesis 8, when Noah and his family made the offerings to God, it says, The eternal smell, the soothing aroma. And he said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. Nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. While the earth remains, verse 22, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease.

God didn't see the winter as a curse. There is a time, as I mentioned in Ecclesiastes 3, that of time and a purpose for every season under heaven. What might we do with this winter time?

Now, we all go to work every day through winter. No one is staying home. Again, if you happen to work in the agricultural industry, you may have time at home. And the Bible is written from the point of view of an agrarian society. So we can look at that. And we need to look at that from that standpoint to see what does this season mean for us. And we will do that. Now, back several years ago as I was contemplating winter, we had moved to Florida and I would watch the temperatures and watch the weather forecasts and like, I'd be like, wow, it's like so cold up there and so wintry. And I'd be very thankful we were where we were. But I contemplated winter because we had lived, my wife and I, all of our lives in the winter up until the time we moved down there.

And I started thinking about it like, what do we do during the winter? Life is different. What did God have in mind? And so I started researching some blogs online that farmers would post on what did they do during the winter? You know, my family, my grandmother and grandfather on my mother's side had a farm. So I knew that they didn't go anywhere during the growing season. They never left. But during the winter, they would stay in. They had some livestock they had to attend to, and that's a year-round occurrence. But they had all these fields, corn, soybeans, all these things they grew. So winter was a different type of season. So I got online, I looked at the blogs, and I saw that winter is a different type of year for farmers, but there are things that they have to do during that time. And from those blogs, we can learn some things that we can do with this winter season that we are in that can help us develop and be ready for the spring when it comes, just like they have to be ready. When it's time to plant, it's time to plant. They can't be exciting just a week before spring planting time. What am I going to do? They use that time for various things. So let me have got five points I want to talk about today. As we go, as we enter into this winter time, that we might use this time for from a spiritual perspective. First thing I saw in their blogs was they use this time to account for the season that had just been completed.

You know, we all do accounting. We're here in America, and we have the taxes that are due, right? So before the spring comes again, by April 15th, we all file our taxes. So as a farmer, you're, you know, you just don't get the W-2 every week of the year and have your taxes withheld. You go through and you do an accounting of what you had done during the year, just like self-employed people have to do. So there's this time that there were accounting for what was done. But it wasn't just for money, just wasn't for filing taxes. It's like, what worked well? What crops produced this year? What didn't work well? What could we have done differently? Is there something we missed? There was an analysis they would talk about. Now, for the farming industry today, they have all sorts of fertilizers and all these other things that are out there. But there were things that you can analyze. Is there something we could have done better? Did we get the crop out too late? Did we get it in too early? Was there something we could have done during the summer when the rain didn't come as anticipated? What about fertilizers? What about seeds that they would say? What do we do during that time? You know, by comparison, as we've gone through a cycle of the year for of God's holy days, we can take some time to assess what we've done during this past year.

You know, the Bible talks about before Passover to examine yourselves.

And sometimes we don't start talking about that or thinking about it maybe until a month before Passover or whatever. But we could be thinking about that right now, right? We could look at how have we lived our lives? What did we do with the season that we have just come through when we live through God's plan? Do we know more about God's plan today than we did when we observed Passover?

Did we keep it when we analyze it correctly? Did we do things in that holy time that God gave us in the way that he would have it done? Were there things we could have done differently when we were in the midst of keeping a holy day? Did we ever think, oh, you know, I didn't prepare for this the way I should. The sundown came on us too early this time. We weren't ready for that holy day the way we should be. We weren't ready for the Sabbath day. Maybe we didn't keep the Sabbath day holy. Maybe the times of COVID produced some thoughts in our minds that, you know, it's okay to not be at Sabbath services every week. It's okay to take a week off and just, even when we're feeling well, to listen to a webcast. Are there things that have crowded into our lives or come into our lives? Are there compromises we've made justifying it because we've seen other people or heard other people doing things? Where is the assessment that we do of our lives? When we came back from the Feast of Tabernacles, do we think that we kept it the way that God intended the Feast of Tabernacles should be kept? Did we keep it with the clear vision of what it pictured in our lives and God's plan, the time when Jesus Christ would return and his government would be on earth? What was more important to us? Where we went, what we did, or what we were picturing as we were together. There's a time to do all that accounting in our lives. Maybe it's this wintertime when you have some more time to think about that and prepare for when we come before God as the spring begins next year. And we come before God to pass over and recommit our lives to him. You know, we talk about strategic plans and planning at the church level. You do it. You know, your company does it, whether you're involved in it or not, at your level. There's really, there's times and there's principles and planning that should happen in our lives as well. And as we look at those things and as we do that accounting, you know, it's not bad. It's not bad to write it down. If companies didn't have a written strategic plan, if the church didn't have a written strategic plan that we would be accountable for going forward, we might have all these good ideas, but a month from now, forgot half of them. Three months from now, thought, eh, whatever. But there are times that we have to look at the things that we do, maybe write them down and commit to God. Here's my list. Here's my list and help me to do what you want me to do. We want to turn to 2 Corinthians 13.5. You know what it says there. It says, examine yourselves whether you are in the faith. That's a big verse. And it doesn't say just before Passover. That's a verse for every day of the year. Examine yourselves whether you are in the faith. Well, let's look at a few other verses as well. In the book of Lamentations, right after the book of Jeremiah, we don't turn there very often. But in Lamentations 3, you know, the Jews are looking at what has happened to them.

They've lost their kingdom. They didn't pay attention to the things around them, the prophecies and the prophet Jeremiah who kept telling them, turn back to God, and they lost it all. In Lamentations 3, as they go through their self-examination and their mourning of what they've lost in Lamentations 3 and verse 40, it says, let us search out. Let us search out and examine our ways. Let us search it out. Let's examine our ways and let's turn back to God. That's a message for all times. That's a message for all peoples. That's a message for you and me. Not one of us are exactly where God wants us to be.

We have a lot to do. There's a lot we can examine. There's a lot we can think about and a lot we can commit to in our lives and write it down so we don't forget what it is when we do that accounting.

Let's search out and examine our ways and turn back to God. In the book of Haggai, just a few books from the end of the Old Testament right before Zechariah, in Haggai 1, through the prophet then in verse 5, God gives us this admonition. Now therefore, thus says the Eternal of Hosts, consider your ways. Think about it. Take the time to do it. Consider your ways. You've sown much, but you bring in little. Do we feel like we're bringing in little? Do we feel the joy that God would have us feel or that we would feel if we were serving God, if we were in line with Him? Do we feel closer to Him? Do we understand truth more? Are we committed to it more? You've sown much, but you bring in little. You eat, but you don't have enough. You drink, but you're not filled with drink. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages earns wages to put into a bag with holes. Do we ever feel that way sometimes? That we just aren't satisfied?

You know, satisfaction comes only from when we're doing things God's way. When we're close to Him and we are committed to truth and to following Him in every step of our lives and we are growing in loving Him, that is agape Him, with all our hearts, minds, and souls. If you're feeling unsatisfied, if you're feeling a little like I'm looking for more, you know, I think, you know, sometimes I hear people talk and I think I know they're looking for more and I think as we as a church, we need to be making sure what we provide for our people is what they're looking for from the Bible.

Go back to truth. Go back to the Bible and then you will find you will be satisfied when you're reading the Bible and doing and doing what it says.

Let's turn over. Well, you don't have to turn to Psalm 139 verse 23 again. It's a well-known verse. David says, search me. Search me, O Lord. Show me the intents of my heart. You know, those are more than words. God will do that. God will if we are praying those words from our hearts. He'll show us what we need to do. You know, God gives us all the tools that we need in order to serve Him and to be in His kingdom. First point was, do an accounting for the past growing season. What have you done? But the second point is somewhat similar to it. Repair and fix your equipment during the winter season. You know, and when it's time to plow, you got to have the equipment ready.

And so we have these spiritual tools that God has given us. The Holy Spirit being part of His body, the Bible, Bible studies, booklets, a plethora of things that we can do, each other, that can help each other, encourage each other, work with each other. He's given us all the spiritual tools that we need in order to become who He wants us to become, that we would be in His kingdom. That's what He wants. If the farmer waits until two weeks before planting time and thinks, oh, that's right, my plow or my tractor wasn't working, boy, he could find himself. He could miss out. He could miss out on that whole growing season or really cause himself some financial problem if he just doesn't get things in at the right time. Likewise, if we're not working on our spiritual tools, if we're not working with God, if we're not examining ourselves, if we're not seeing what God wants us to do, if we're not using those tools that He gives us, we could find ourselves in a world of hurt. I shudder to think, even when I think back in my past life, how many passovers did I come to where was I really ready? Did I really examine myself? Did I really look at the tools that God has given me before Passover so that I could take that Passover with the intent and say, God, I am completely committed to you? Passover is more than just looking at the physical Ten Commandments and saying, I didn't do that, I didn't do that, I didn't do that. It's a whole examination because it's everything about us, the attitudes that we have, the words that we say, the reactions that we have, the little faults that are there among us, that are in us. All these things that we know that we may make allowances for, and our family may make allowances for us, but really we're supposed to be growing and becoming like Christ. That's what He's called us to be. So we have the measure. We know where our tools should be, where our spiritual tools should be.

Ephesians 4, 15, 16, that whole area that you've heard a lot about, the Scripture. The measure is the fullness and stature of Jesus Christ. That's the goal. Nothing less. Not better than my wife, not better than my brother, not better than the person I saw doing something in church, like Christ. We have to have our tools ready. We have to have our tools ready and use them and make sure we're using them in the right way, and not just patting ourselves on the back and letting life go on and never really improving or becoming what God wants us to be. You know, there's many, many scriptures that we could turn to where God tells us what He wants us to be. There's nothing secret.

You know, it isn't something that we have to, you know, have to imagine. God says it in the Bible. The Bible tells us what the goals are. Let's turn back to Romans. Romans 12, just one such section of chapter here, says a lot about these goals we should have, the things that we could write down. When we look at the verse, a list of verses here in Romans 12, verses 9 through the end of the chapter there, verse 21, let's just think about them, you know, for a moment.

In verse 9 of Romans 12, he says, let love, that's so gapeh, be without hypocrisy.

Do it from the heart. Now, that's something we can think and do in accounting about, right? Is our love without hypocrisy? There's some something that we could analyze. Abhor what is evil?

Well, there's a lot in the world today that's evil. There's a lot in the world today that's evil.

Doesn't mean we abhor the people that do the evil, but we abhor what is evil and cling to what is good. What is good? It's in the Bible. It's in the traits of the Bible. It's becoming a little more difficult. It's becoming a little more black and white, if you will. No more gray areas. I won't say no more gray areas. Fewer and fewer gray areas. The world will say this is good. No. The Bible says no, that's evil, right? That's Isaiah either chapter 5 or 6. They call evil good when it's really they're good. They call it is evil. Cling to what is good. Things are a little more difficult to traverse through these days. Take some thought. Totally different world.

Don't get caught up in what the world's definitions or approaches to it is. Remember what is good. Verse 10, be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love in honor, giving preference to one another. Well, something. Do we do that? Do we all work without partiality? Are we all one? Becoming one? Getting to know each other? Doing the things that God would have us do? We're all here as part of a body. Whether we're here in Cincinnati or if you're listening and part of a congregation someplace else or just learning the truth, there is a body that God puts us in and we learn from one another and we have a responsibility to God and a responsibility to each other.

Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love in honor, giving preference to one another. Not lagging. Verse 11, indiligence. Oh, that's putting your whole heart into something, right? God says over and over in the Old Testament, diligently obey me. Carefully obey me. He uses those adverbs we should never overlook.

Diligently, carefully, perfectly learn to follow Him. Not lagging in diligence, but really working at it fervent in spirit, serving Him.

There's a whole lot of things we could look at there. Rejoicing and hope, patience and tribulation, knowing that God will deliver and whatever He puts in our lives, it is there to make us stronger, better, more like Him, and develop the character that He knows that we need to have. Continuing steadfastly in prayer. More time to pray, right? It's not so pleasant to go outside and spend all the mornings there. More time to prayer as we have the time inside. Distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.

Looking out for each other's well-being, seeing what others need, and making sure they have those things. It's the responsibility we all have. God knows what we need.

Do we know our brethren well enough to know where there are needs that we could meet?

Bless those who persecute you, verse 14. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another.

No partiality. Don't set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble.

No echelons in God's way. In fact, now I'll turn to a verse later. Now, you know, I'm going to turn to it now. Keep your finger there in Romans 12. Let's turn to Luke 14. Luke 14.

In verse 12, you know, Christ, he set the example for us in all these things. Even in the hospitality, who he would sit down with. I mean, we are familiar with the verses where he was willing to sit down with sinners if they asked him to do that. He didn't exalt himself above others. In verse 12 of Luke 14, I'll refer to this again later in a point, says, Christ said to him who invited him, when you give a dinner or supper, don't ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back and you be repaid. Don't do that for a reason. Do it because you want to be with them. Do it from the heart. I want to get to know you better. I want to spend time with you. I love you. You're part of the family. Don't do it with an alternative purpose in mind. That would border on the love with hypocrisy. Well, when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind, and you will be blessed because they can't repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. Do it from the heart.

You know, when you read through what Paul writes in Romans 12, there's so much to study, so much to examine ourselves with, so much to look at and say, am I doing this? Or I just kind of like, am I doing this the way God wants? Or am I doing this and thinking that it's okay because that's just good enough? Okay, let's go back to Romans 12 here. Last sentence in verse 16, don't be wise in your own opinion. How many people have left the church and left the body because they became wise in their own opinion? My idea is this. I've got this little twist of doctrine, and I'm going to run with it until I'm going to run with it just as far and hard as I can.

Clean to the truth. Listen to others. We exhort one another.

Verse 17, repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men.

If it's possible, isn't that interesting? If it's possible, because it takes two people to have peace, right? As much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Reconcile. That's one of those things before Passover. If there's problems that we have with anyone now, now is the time to be looking at that. Come together as brothers. Jesus Christ expects that when he returns, the firstfruits, they're all going to be able to get along with one another. He's not going to spend his time resurrecting us and saying, okay, you and you, you guys are still at odds with each other. He's not going to be a parent who has to always deal with bickering children, right? We are learning that now to work with one another and to resolve those issues that we have. The things that separate us, when Christ said one, he meant be as one as he and the Father are. Takes time, takes diligence, takes effort. There's time we can examine that now and see where we are, really are on things, and then make the time to correct it. Verse 19, don't avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath for its written vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him a drink, for in soot-doing you will he pull coals of fire on his head. And don't be overcome by evil. Watch the attitudes. Watch all those things that can take us apart. Don't be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Well, if any of those things, as we go through the Bible, let me repeat, might be good to keep a notebook and write that down. I need to work on that, I think, and remind yourself every once in a while, I need to work on that. I need to ask God, what is it? And take the steps to work on that and to have it resolved. And some of that is repairing relationships. Repairing our tools, repairing relationships, fixing relationships, so that we're ever taking the step to become more and more as God the Father and Jesus Christ are. One. It takes a lot of humility, takes a lot of work. We've got the time, we've got the time to do it. Okay, third point.

With the farmers, what I saw in the blogs is they would review the research and implement ideas and plans. Okay, what's something new that I don't know? Time to kind of research? What's the newest thing in the field of agriculture that I might do or that might make a difference in my life? How does that apply to us? We have a whole Bible, you know, that we have. None of us know every word and are doing every word in this Bible. We will never run out of an opportunity or the research that we can do. There's parts of the Bible you can open up and you may not have any idea what it means when you read it. Well, you might put some time into it. You know, Bible study isn't just, I'm going to get my three chapters done today, pat myself on the back, and get on with life. Sometimes it's just a couple verses and then taking some time to actually dig into it and ask God, what does that mean? What are you looking for from us or from me? What do you mean? And God hasn't revealed everything in the Bible yet. There will be things, especially in the areas of prophecy, that we'll understand more and more as the time draws nearer for Christ to return.

But a lot of what we do in life, there is the answer, I say, and I will say it until God corrects me. Every answer to every problem we have in life is in that Bible. It's there. But we have to search it. We have to take the time to think about it and the things that occurred in the first century and the BC areas of the Old Testament to apply it into life. It's there if we take the time to think about it and look at it. You know, let's take just... we're here in the Book of Romans. Let's go back to the Book of Acts for a moment. In Acts 17, you know, we have an example of a group of people in Acts 17 and 11 who did just that. I know a few years back when I was in Florida, we did a Bible study on Bible study. What does it mean to Bible study? How can you Bible study? It isn't just reading the Bible. There's a lot that you dig into it. Acts 17 verse 11 talks about the Bereans. We've all heard of the Bereans. It says in verse 11, these were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica in that they received the Word with all readiness. Ah, you said something. We don't understand it, but they didn't immediately reject it. Oh, okay. Is that what the Bible says? Okay. We'll do it, but we're going to take the time to research it. We're going to take the time to search the Scriptures. They search the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. God will reward those who diligently seek Him. If we want to know something in the Bible, He will show it to us, but we have to be diligent and we have to make it happen through our continued prayer, contemplation, and searching the Scriptures to do that. Verse 12 says, therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greek's prominent women as well as men. They searched for the truth. They wanted to know the truth. Do we really want to know the truth? Do we really want to cling to the truth? Now, there's times in life that things can kind of just get out of hand a little bit, and one thing leads to another, and all of a sudden truth is a little different than the truth that we knew or read in the Bible. And we always have to be very cautious and very disciplined with ourselves that what we believe and what we're talking and what we're saying is exactly what the Bible says, not watered down, not compromised, not changed a little bit to fit the times because everyone else is doing it that way, but looking and letting God lead us to the truth. You know, then you go back to Ephesians 4, seek the truth.

I've been Proverbs 23. It says, seek the truth or no, buy the truth. Buy the truth and sell it not. You know, buying something isn't just a matter. You give them your credit card or write a check for it, right? You can buy the truth from the effort and what you expend in it, the time that you put in the Bible, the time and the prayer that you put in and the contemplation that you put into the Bible when you search the Scriptures. Buying it isn't just putting down a credit card and all of a sudden you have it. God is looking for you to buy it with your time, your heart, and your intention. And selling it is the same way. You know, we can sell the truth out for what's easier. We can look around and say, well, that person did that, so you know, that must be okay if I do that. No, I mean, that's not, that's selling out. You don't sell out the truth.

You buy it. You treasure it. In 2 Timothy 2, 2 Timothy 2, in verse 15, a memory verse, not anything new here, but in 2 Timothy 2 verse 15, Paul is admonishing young minister Timothy, he says, be diligent. There's that word again, diligent. Be hardworking, be diligent to present yourself approved to God.

I mean, we would be diligent to present ourselves approved to our bosses, right?

We'll do the job. I mean, we're told whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might. I mean, that should be a principle in our daily lives and with our employers. And where we work, be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, rightly dividing, not using other sources to convince yourself that what the Bible says isn't really what it says, or that it has a different meaning, but using the Bible to interpret itself and sticking true to the word. You know, verses 16 and on, it kind of says what happens when people don't do that. It says in verse 16, shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness.

Satan is very clever. We can get our own little idea that we talked about before, and they will increase to more ungodliness if we don't stop it. And their message will spread cancer, spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus were of this sort who strayed concerning the truth. They left because they had their own little ideas. They departed from that. They weren't diligent, and they weren't studying the Bible, all of it. They weren't picking out a scripture to justify, but they understood the context of the Bible. You know, we have a lot of things that are available today. We have Sabbath services here every week. Sabbath services where you are every week, and you hear sermons, and you can go on our website, and you have a whole library of sermons you can listen to. But sermons aren't enough. They're good. They're helpful. The Bible is enough. But you know there are Bible studies. Bible studies that you can listen to that are different than sermons that help you go through the Bible verse by verse to see what it means.

And I know some churches will say, well, we don't have Bible studies. There's no excuse today.

There are Bible studies available out there that go work, that go verse by verse. If you ever want to know where some are, we can give you a list of those. It is important. Do you have the time, or do you make the time on your own time, not just on the Sabbath day, to say, I'll be online at one of those Bible studies? I will take the time to listen. I will dig into the Bible. I will think about what's being said. The tools are there. The research time is there.

God's made it all available. But would we make it all? Would we make it available? Do we care enough to do that? Can we sacrifice an hour or two hours of TV time or whatever it is that we spend our time with to do things like that? No, you can think about it. There are things. It's part of perhaps the winter work, the winter work that we have to do. The days are shorter, you know, and 5-5.30 comes in most areas of America. It's dark. Can't go outside and mow the lawn. It doesn't even grow to mow it. There are things that we can do. We can use those evening hours far differently than we, you know, maybe do during the summer when we have to go home and trim the bushes and mow the lawn and do these things that take up our time. There's time to do these things if we are diligent and if we are committed and if we want to research, implement, learn, put the practice in our lives, the things that God would have us learn. So number three is review the research and implement ideas and plans. Change your schedule. Make things happen. Make the time to do that when you research. And, you know, you can study parts of the Bible you haven't for a while. I have Mark down here. We've been in Job. We start up, you know, when's the last time some of these Bible chapters you've taken on yourself to go through one by one? But there are other parts of the Bible, you know, that you can look at as well, as I mentioned. Okay, number four. Number four, farmers say, I use that time of the year to go to farm shows and meet with vendors.

They go out and they see what is going on in the world. And I remember when I was a kid, and I was down there with on the farm for not the entire summer, but for a few weeks in the summer, I'd go with my uncle, right? And he would go out and he would know all these people and had seen them, and they would talk about this, and they would talk about that and all these various things. But they knew each other. They knew each other and they helped each other. And so, you know, go out, learn the new things that are there. Let's look at Acts 2. Let's look at Acts 2 here for a moment.

You know, God didn't—I often say, God didn't call us to be in a, you know, just an isolated person.

He works with us as part of a body. He works with us individually, but we need to be part of a body.

We see that, you know, in Acts 2 here as the New Testament Church is beginning, and God has called people out of the world. And we see what they're doing in Acts 2.42.

He shows the four things that that New Testament Church did that should be part of our commitment to His body as well. Acts 2.42 says, they continued—there's an adverb—they continued steadfastly. They were committed to it. They committed—they continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine. They were learning the truth. The Apostles' doctrine, they were teaching exactly what Jesus Christ taught, exactly what the Church of God teaches. And they continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship. Fellowship isn't always a verb. In this case, it's a noun. It was the partnership that they were put into, the community that they were put into. They continued steadfastly with it. They were part of that community. They were there. They became a body. They just didn't walk in and walk out. They were there together. They continued in the breaking of bread all throughout all—in ancient times, and even today when you go over to Europe, maybe more so than in America, people got to know each other over dinner. Dinner wasn't like, okay, sit down, and ten minutes later we're off doing, you know, TV, video games, whatever it is that takes our time. Dinner was a situation where you talked, and people spent some time with each other. That's what they did back then. They were there together in the breaking of bread and in prayer. God—Jesus Christ was the most important part of their fellowship. He was the glue that kept it all together, just as His Holy Spirit is the glue that keeps us all together. We are family, and we are there, and that should be part of our lives.

I've referenced Luke 14 before, but let's go further in the New Testament to Hebrews 13. Hebrews 13. You know, this whole concept of hospitality, and hospitality doesn't mean always just you have to have someone over to your home. I know that here we have potlucks, and we have opportunities to be together beyond just the regular fellowship and time before and after services.

We should participate in those things. We could also, you know, talk with each other during the week.

Go out after Sabbath services. I mean, you know, in another hour, the sun will set. We can do those things and spend some time together, apart from services as well. The hospitality is there. The time to do these things is there. And God highlights part of it here in Hebrews 13. In verse 2, He says, don't forget to entertain strangers. Don't forget to do that, for by so doing, some have unwittingly entertained angels. Isn't that interesting that God would even put a test there? What are you going to do when you have this opportunity? Can I just ignore it? Is that important that He even tests from time to time? What do you do? If someone says something or invites, or you have the opportunity to invite? Is this something we count important? A couple books over in 1 Peter. 1 Peter 4. 1 Peter 4. Number 7. 1 Peter 4. You know, Peter speaks to us who, you know, I think all of us would agree, we're living in end times. Whatever time it is that God determines, you know, Christ will return. But as we look at the world around us, we certainly are growing closer and closer to that time. In 1 Peter 4 verse 7, He says, But the end of all things is at hand. Therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers.

And above all things, notice that above all things, have fervent agape for one another.

Have fervent agape for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins.

Be hospitable to one another without grumbling.

Get to know your family. Get to know your spiritual family. Spend the time with them. The church provides the opportunities. We have the opportunity every Sabbath day. Hebrews 10, 24, I don't have to turn there. Don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together.

And it doesn't say just at Sabbath services the other times, whether it's even some virtual type meetings that you can become part of and learn some things through the process.

You know, one of the keys in life is to looking for the opportunities that God gives us to be together, to develop the trust, the faith, the other things that we must have.

He gives us the opportunities. We just have to have our eyes open and be attentive to what is going on around us so that we take the time to develop what He wants us to be.

And the fifth thing that I noted from those blogs is they take the wintertime to kind of relax, maybe take a vacation. They don't have to worry about being out in the fields or what's going on with it because nothing's going on during that time. Many of the blogs said that this is the time they enjoy their family and friends. Just enjoy them. Let's turn to 3 John 4 and verse 3. 3 John 3 says, For I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you just as you walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. 4 John 4 says, For all of us who have children, is there any greater joy than when we see our children walking in truth?

Parents, I think you would all agree that is an absolute blessing when your children walk in truth.

It doesn't happen by accident. God opens and God does have a calling for our children. As it says in Acts 2.39, they can certainly reject it just like you and I can reject it.

But their hearts are open. We as parents have to be quite attentive to what is going on. And there is really no time as good. The winter is an opportunity if we haven't done things the way the Bible says to get with our children and to spend some time with family. I'll have to say, frankly, even in Florida, the sun sets early. And I always enjoyed the fact when the sun would set early, especially on Friday evening. Because during the summer when the sun sets at 830 and 9 o'clock, it's like, okay, you finish things up, the day is over, the next morning you get up. But when the Sabbath starts early, there's an opportunity on Friday evening to do something that you might not do the other six nights of the week.

And that is to be with your family. There is no excuse for families not to be together and for the Bible to be being discussed on that day. We all have a responsibility to that. Whether we have children at home or not, between husband and wife, or whether we're, you know, by ourselves to use that time to grow closer to God. That's family time with God. We need the family time with each other.

We live in a world, you know, if we have children at home, that's becoming more and more evil. We have no idea what our kids are being told every day, even if they don't go to public school, whether they're other, with friends, and whether they're doing to other things. We have no idea what they're being told. We have no idea what's going into their young minds. There's a perfect opportunity when we are together with them. You know, if we go back to Deuteronomy 6, God is very clear and more important. I say more important, it was always important. It is put an asterisk by that, and you know, in today's world, you know, again, whether it's we have children at home, or whether it's just husband and wife, or whatever it is, if we look over to in Deuteronomy 6, I'll pick it up in verse 6 here. These words which I command you today shall be in your heart, God says, you shall teach them, there's that adverb again, you shall teach them diligently to your children. It's not just a memory, just not a matter of memorization. It's not good enough if your children could just name the Ten Commandments. That's good. They should do it, but they have to see that modeled at home. They have to hear that talked about. They have to hear that taught. God has to become every bit as important in their lives as you are in their lives. They need to see God in every aspect of their lives. There's a great time to do that in the winter because you're not outside playing baseball, you're not outside doing those things. You can put the video games away for a while. You can put the cell phones away for 24 hours on the Sabbath. You can talk as a family. You can teach these things, and through the week you can do those things. God must be part of every family. And the way God does things has to be part. Doing it the way He said. Teach them diligently, or you shall teach them diligently. You shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. Bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Your children know in your home this is the way things are done. The way God says.

Know if, ands, buts, and exceptions, we do it the way God says. And if that hasn't been part of our lives, and I'll include myself in that, boy, Friday nights when the sun is setting at five o'clock, you have time for dinner, and you have ample time to build that and begin building that back in your homes. Use that time, use the winter, to build that back in, build that back into your into your lives. Build the time of the fact there's an early sunset that you sit around the table and talk, and that you don't have dinner, and one's off in, you know, in front of the TV in one room, and another one's off in another room on his video games. Together that you talk and you have time to build those relationships back. Do the things that build family that that will build truth into their lives, and make sure make sure God is part of everything, everything that we do, because He is part and should be part of everything we do.

Well, there's those those four things we talked about, let me or five things, you know, take those and and make them your objectives. Write down the things, examine yourself as we talked about, review and implement ideas, take the time to do more than just Sabbath services.

Do that and review how we're keeping the Sabbath day and the holy ground that God, that we are on when we are keeping this 24-hour period. Seek the truth, build the relationships, repair the relationships, strengthen the tools that you have, and you know how to do that.

And when it comes to time for the spring to come, if we do the things in the winter to prepare for that time, just like just like those buds come out on the tree, and the spring is such a beautiful time of the year, and we are fascinated and absolutely enamored by the beauty that is there. So will God be when He sees that time come and with time we've put into obeying Him and developing the things that we use using this time wisely. Let me conclude in another wisdom book that we don't often turn to in the Song of Solomon. Song of Solomon in verse chapter 2. In verse 10, Song of Solomon right after the book of Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon 2 verse 10, My beloved spoke and said to me, now we know that this love story is between God and His people, My beloved spoke and said to me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grapes give a good smell. Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. Let's use this time wisely. Let's be ready so when we come before God in the spring holy days that we rise before Him as that beautiful, beautiful plant that He wants us to become.