Worship the King and Keep the Feast

God clearly calls these days my feasts. He's talking about his feasts. These are God's feasts. And He has revealed the importance of observing these feasts to us. So, in the Old Testament, in Leviticus 23, under the Old Covenant, God tells us to come together to keep the feasts of tabernacles.

But I was also thinking, what about under the New Covenant? What are some other things that God would have us do under the New Covenant in regard to these Holy Days? And Zechariah 14 came to mind. So let's turn to Zechariah 14. I don't think that's been read here. At least I don't remember hearing it in the sermon, the first sermons that I heard. It could have been given in a sermonette. But in Zechariah 14, verse 16, we read, It shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem. So it's talking about a future time when nations will come against Jerusalem.

Christ is returning. People are incensed. They're going to fight against Jesus Christ. And the saints that are changed to spirit who are coming with Him, they meet Him in the air, they come back. All of these nations which came against Jerusalem shall come up from year to year. The ones that survived it, many will die, of course, we understand that. But those who survive shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Eternal of Hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. So that's truly significant in the millennium.

If you don't come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, if you don't come up to worship the King at the Feast of Tabernacles, then God's going to cut off the rain. And they're not going to live very long if there's no rain. So eventually, they are going to be keeping the Feast of Tabernacles. So again, I ask myself, what's the most important thing I can share with God's people, this Feast?

And what I'd like to do today is go through eight ways to worship God here at the Feast, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. It's important that we keep the Feast of Tabernacles in a way in which God would be pleased. It's so very important that we worship Him in a way that's pleasing to Him. So we're gathered together to worship the King, so let's be sure that we worship Him in a way that will please Him.

How might we show proper honor and respect toward our King this Feast? How might we learn to fear Him more appropriately? Learn to respect Him, to honor Him? So I'd like to share with you eight ways to worship the King this year at the Feast of Tabernacles. I know you're halfway through, so in a way this would be good. You can ask yourself, if you've already been doing this adequately, and if you fall short in any way, you can step it up a little bit and do a better job the last half of the Feast.

So first of all, let's consider Exodus 34, verse 14. Exodus 34, verse 14, where it says, For you shall worship no other God. For the Eternal, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. God is a jealous God in a right sense, not in a wrong sense. There obviously is a sin of jealousy. That's not what we're talking about at all, but God is very mindful of our needs as human beings. We have the need to worship Him. God realizes that we're not going to be happy, we're not going to be blessed, we're not going to enjoy our lives nearly as much as we will once we learn to worship Him in a way that's pleasing to Him.

So God is a jealous God, and we know that idolatry was a major sin, probably the major sin, of worshiping other gods. In fact, these words were written in the context of the Golden Calf. You know, Exodus 32, the Golden Calf, Moses had gone up on the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments from God. He'd been gone a long time, and they started worshiping a Golden Calf. They'd come out of Egypt where they had worshipped many foreign gods. And so God was not happy, obviously, He was not pleased with that type of worship.

We are to worship only God, again, because He loves us and He knows what's best for us, and He shows us how to worship Him.

The Scripture in Matthew 6, 33, Jesus Christ says, but seek first the kingdom of God, seek first the kingdom, and seek first His righteousness. So hopefully here at the feast you've been seeking God first. You've been seeking the righteousness of Jesus Christ and the Father. He says all these things will be added to you. And this is a feast of abundance, as Mr. Miller had mentioned. We're here, you know, this isn't supposed to be a puny type feast. This is a feast of abundance, and God has richly blessed us so much in this country, in this land that we live in, and we have so much to be grateful for and so much to be thankful for. We're to give God our very best this feast. No offerings that are blemished in any way. We know under the Old Covenant they were bringing offerings of grain, they were bringing offerings of animals, you know, slaying animals and so forth.

We're not doing that this year at the feast, but we are bringing offerings.

One of those offerings is to worship God and to do it in a way that would be pleasing to Him.

In Deuteronomy chapter 26 verse 10, Deuteronomy chapter 26 verse 10, And now, behold, I have brought the first fruits of the land which you, O Lord, have given me. So this is Moses telling the children of Israel, this is what they are to say when they go into the Promised Land. And we're picturing the Promised Land here during the feast. This is the Promised Land. This is what God has promised for us. This is the Feast of Promise. So this is what they were to say. Then you shall set it before the Lord your God, the first fruits of the land, before the Lord your God, and worship before the Lord your God. So you shall rejoice in every good thing which the Lord your God has given to you in your house. So we are to be grateful for every good thing that God gives us. Everything that we're able to do with the blessings that God gives us, we're to be grateful for that, to be thankful, and we're to rejoice in it and thank God every day of the feast for the wonderful rich blessings that God gives us and rejoice in Him. You and the Levite and the stranger who is among you. And God also shows way back then that He was interested in all people, anyone who would accept His way of life. The strangers were allowed. As Mr. Gunn said, we are to go out to the whole world. God eventually is going to call every single human being.

Everyone is going to come to know the truth. And whatever we can do to help them along today, certainly we should strive our best to do that.

In Deuteronomy chapter 26, just down a few verses in verse 16, this day the Lord your God commands you to observe these statutes and judgments. Therefore you shall be careful. God says we are to be careful to observe these days. We're not to take them lightly. We're to be very careful in how we do this. Be careful to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. Do it with all your heart and all your soul. So what are the eight ways in which to worship the King? Number one, in assembling together. This is the first point. I talked about the importance of worshiping God and pleasing Him in our worship, but now let's go into eight specific points. And these are things that we can all do. One is in assembling together. So it is very important that you are here this morning, that you came down from your room or wherever you were and came here and assembled with all of us today. It is important to try your very best to be at all of the meetings if you're healthy, if you are at all able, assemble together, attend all services, and reflect on every message that you hear. Listen attentively. That's a part of the worship. Getting dialed in to the message that God wants you to hear. So listening carefully and applying the message as you go throughout the feast and also as you leave the feast and throughout the rest of your life. Allow God to work in you.

Allow God to do a good work in you. In Deuteronomy 11, there's a warning that God gives.

Verse 16. Deuteronomy 11 verse 16, take heed to yourselves lest your heart be deceived and you turn aside. It is possible to turn aside. We're fleshly human beings. We're not yet spirit. We're not perfect like Jesus Christ who's perfect and always was perfect even in the flesh, but we're not there. Let not your heart be deceived and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them. When we assemble together, we show who we are worshiping. We're worshiping the true God. That's why we're here today. And when we come into this house, we are to bring offerings of praise, offerings of thanksgiving, of gratitude, and of joy. Yes, we will take up a couple of monetary offerings, but we bring an offering every single day that we come here.

And don't be deceived. Satan is going to attempt to cause you to lose focus this feast. If he hasn't already done it, if he hasn't already accomplished it, he's going to try to get you to lose some focus. But don't turn aside. Stay on the straight and the narrow path that leads to eternal life. There's a wide path, a path that goes to destruction. That's the path that Satan would like to see you on this week. But say no immediately. If ever you're tempted, say no immediately.

Don't start down Satan's path even one inch. Don't start down even a single inch. So the first way in which we need to be worshiping God is by assembling together this feast. Secondly, we should worship God in daily fervent prayer. In daily fervent prayer, Christ taught us how to pray. And he said, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. We certainly want God's will to be done. We want his kingdom to come, and so we should certainly be praying fervently about that every single day of the feast. We long for God's kingdom, and Mr. Miller, I think it was mentioned in his sermon that we do sigh and cry for all the heartache that's present upon the earth today. But that's not our focus during the feast. Yes, we grieve, but we're also rejoicing this feast. There has been a lot of angst lately in the world. Obviously, the pandemic, there's been rioting, racial unrest, there's been raging fires, then there's been hurricanes.

Many have really gone through a whole lot in 2020, but I really believe this can be your very best feast ever. I believe 2020 can go down in history as the best feast ever, at least so far. Hopefully 2021 will be even better. But life is going to get harder as we get nearer to Christ's return.

The devastation will become increasingly more and more widespread.

So we should be sighing and crying over all the abominations that occur on the earth, you know, the death of the innocent children, the babies, the abortion, and that sort of thing. These are things that should really get us to cry out for God's kingdom to be established as soon as possible. Yes, we have it very good. You know, we've had it really nice in this country for many, many years. I'm 65 years old, and I've lived a very blessed life. All of us have, if we've lived here in the U.S., in many ways, we just were spoiled. We're very spoiled. In Ezekiel 9, it talks about the writer's inkhorn and how God is going to put a mark on the forehead of those who do sigh and cry. So let us pray earnestly for God's kingdom, and the sooner the better.

We should properly mourn for this dying world. We should long for God's kingdom, and it's such a blessing to be here to picture that and to worship God the King at this feast. So don't neglect to pray every day this feast. Don't think it's enough to just come and say amen to the prayers that are given here. No, make this a personal thing of your own. Make sure that you're praying personally yourself and that you're taking the time to do that. So, number two, another way to worship God is by daily fervent prayer. A third way, obviously, would be to open up your Bible in some personal study. This feast, don't leave it all up to the ministers to guide you, but allow God to guide you personally in your own personal Bible study. We have 24 hours in each day this feast. So, surely you can find a little time to do some of your own personal Bible study this feast.

Ask yourself, what is going to be like? What will it be like in God's Kingdom? And go to some of those scriptures in Isaiah and Ezekiel and Jeremiah and contemplate on those verses and those scriptures and ask God to help you understand more fully what it is going to be like in His Kingdom.

When we think of the type of respect that is shown to a human king these days and throughout the centuries, what type of respect should we be showing to our king, to God, our Father, and to Jesus Christ? So, it is important that prayer and Bible study are in priorities for all of us, this feast. You know, in the last year, I got a new Bible. In fact, it's this Bible right here.

And I've been marking it with colored pencils. And it's really energized me in regard to my Bible study. I really look forward to getting up every morning and getting my marking pencils out. I've got a whole bunch of them and I've got various colors for various topics. It helps me to read carefully and then to mark as I go what the topic is. And so, it's very enlightening. If you've never done that, this might be a good time to get a new Bible. I'm sure they sell Bibles in Berlin. Get a new Bible and start marking it. So, that's a very important thing that all of us can do. Spend a little bit of time in some personal Bible study. That's the third way that you can worship the king, this feast. Another way is obviously in medical studies, where you can meditate on God's way throughout the day. Whatever you are doing, whatever comes up, whatever it is, meditate on how this might reflect upon God's kingdom. Is this going to be in the kingdom, whatever it is that you're doing, whatever you're seeing? Is it going to happen in the kingdom? Or is it going to be somewhat different? What's going to happen? I know in Cincinnati, I think it was yesterday, the deaf people, I was driving here, but the deaf people went to Noah's Ark. And if you've never been to Noah's Ark, it's about an hour south of Cincinnati.

It's pretty amazing to see how large and to think that no wonder it took him 120 years, without construction equipment and cranes and various things. It's really quite amazing.

But that would be an activity that you could really reflect on God's kingdom. And what all that meant? You know, God saved the world through Noah and his family. And he did it on an Ark. And also, every time you see the rainbow, we remember the promise that God's not going to do that again. There are so many things that we can think about if we just put our minds to it, meditate on it. What about what Christ taught us in Matthew 5-7? The Sermon on the Mount, he taught us to love even our enemies, to pray for those who spitefully use us and persecute us.

I mean, that's real love for Jesus Christ to lay down his life for those who were crucifying him. I mean, that's what he was doing. They, in hatred, were taking his life. He in love was allowing that. He was giving himself up. My kingdom is not of this world, he said.

There's a better kingdom, and it's coming. And Christ is the King. And in Matthew 24 and 25, when we reflect on what Christ teaches us there about the days to come, the Olivet prophecy, also the 10 virgins, the five foolish virgins, and those who were wise, where do you fall in that? How wise are you when it comes to God's truth and his way of life and yielding to it? We ought to be preparing for Christ's return now. We're to be serving one another and dedicating our lives fully. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

So, brethren, let's envision the kingdom throughout the entire feast, wherever we're doing, wherever we're going. Envision the kingdom. Meditate on what it will be like.

Think about each one of the commandments. What's it going to be like in a world where everyone keeps the commandments? If we just think about, Thou shall not steal. You know, in Cincinnati, someone came into the Holiday Inn and stole all the gift baskets that our people had put together. We put together like 25 gift baskets for shut-ins and people that weren't able to come to the feast, elderly people. Someone came in with their two children, and we got them on camera, and they walked off with all of our gift baskets. But we know who they are. And we believe that they should learn a lesson, especially if you're going to teach your children to do that sort of thing. So, we're not just taking it lightly. But that's the world we live in.

You know, at the Feast of Tabernacles, somebody came and stole all of our gift baskets. I don't know if we got them back yet or not. It just happened yesterday. That's why I was a little later to getting on the road, because I had to help deal with that. But what would it be like if we could throw all of our keys away? Wouldn't it be nice not to have to have any kind of a key?

No need for it. Just throw them all away. Throw away the locks. One day, as we get further into the millennium, perhaps that will happen. Maybe not right away. I don't know. It'll be interesting to see how that all comes about. But it's interesting. It's exciting to meditate on that, to think about it. If no one would ever lie to you, how great would that be? That would change the world overnight, wouldn't it? Business dealings? No one ever lies? That would be a real treat.

What would it be like if there was no greed involved in the world and people really weren't out doing things for greed? Like, I've often wondered, do we really need to have a different cord for all of our phones? How many cords do you have that you've had to throw? I mean, I am sick of it. I'm sick of having to buy different cords for each phone that comes along. You know, it seems to me like it would make a lot more sense to have a cord that would fit most everything. Come up with the very best and just use it. But I don't know. I mean, I'm sure that competition helps us improve in various ways. But certainly, it's going to be a different world in God's kingdom. And what about the movies and the TV shows? How different will they be? God's going to be the ultimate producer.

So I can assure you that some of the things that we watch, you know, you ought to stop watching them now because they're not going to be around in the kingdom. And, you know, why pollute your mind with stuff that's not going to be around later on? No fake news, no bias in the news, honest reporting, and no political parties. That's going to be a real treat. I'm looking forward to that. And what about the government? In the government, under God's government, obviously, things...there's not going to be a separation of church and state because there's going to be one world government. It's going to be God's kingdom, God's government, the businesses, the schools, the education, the public works, all of that will come under God's way of life. It will be subject to the way God wants things done. So what a wonderful world it's going to be. What a world a wonderful world tomorrow. All the businesses will be closed on the Sabbath.

That'll be nice, too. All businesses closed on the Sabbath. Neighborhood churches...think about how many neighborhood churches there will be. Everyone's going to be a member of the church.

You know, anybody walking down the road today is typically not a member of the church. Like, you know, we have people that go out and walk a lot more since COVID. They're out, you know, in our neighborhood. We see them every evening, and they're taking walks, and they're all going to be in the church someday. Our neighbor on the right, the one on the left, across the street.

What a wonderful blessing that's going to be to have everyone as a member of God's church.

There'll be no abuse in the Kingdom of God, no poverty once things get straightened out, and I'm sure that that's going to happen quickly. God's going to bring peace and real joy to the world. There'll be peace of all kinds, national peace. There'll be peace in various communities. We're not going to have the same kind of unrest that we have today. The domestic violence is going to go away. Family peace, all kinds of personal, wonderful peace.

There won't be pandemics. It's going to be a wonderful time ahead of us.

So when you go out, whatever activities you do, just think about how would that how would this relate to God's Kingdom? See the humor in God's creation when you get out. We went to the zoo two days ago with a deaf brethren, and it was really fun watching the baby hippo. The baby hippo and no it was yeah it was a hippo. No, it was a rhinoceros. It was a baby rhinoceros and the mother rhinoceros wallowing in the mud and just having a great time. The big mama was dancing around and and the baby was doing the same thing and they were interacting together, and it was really cute to watch them, and God created them. You know, God's the one that formed and shaped them. Not in his image, though. No, we're created in his image, but it was really uh it was really fun to watch that and and consider how wonderful God is. And you know that rhino was pretty nimble nimble, and I was thinking, man, I hope he doesn't step on that baby or the she. I hope she doesn't trample that baby because they were close, but they got along just fine.

Okay, so the fourth the fourth way in which we want to worship God is to meditate on on his ways, no matter what we do, the activities that we go to when we go to a restaurant, consider the diversity of the foods. I love to eat, and it's a real joy to have such wonderful food to eat, and we're to rejoice in all of these things. A fifth way in which we can worship our king, this feast, is in song and praise to God. I know you've been doing that. I've heard you do that already this morning. We are to make a joyful noise to God. That phrase is used seven times in the Bible. I didn't realize it was used that often, but a joyful noise is used seven times in the Bible. And it talks about how we should obviously worship God in song and in praise.

So I know in some feeces they have to wear a mask while they sing, and some of you may wear a mask while you sing, which is fine, whatever you want to do, because God can hear through a mask. He's not limited. It's not a problem. God certainly does hear our prayers, and He hears our songs to Him. So we should sing out when we sing. Think about singing as loudly, within reason. I mean, obviously there should be some balance in that. We don't want to just scream, but we want to praise God in song, but do it with some energy. You might want to read the Psalms as part of your Bible study and think about the songs that David wrote and praise to God. In fact, let's go to a couple of them. Psalm 95. Psalm 95, verse 1. Or Psalm 95, verse 1. O come, let us sing to the eternal, let us sing to the Lord, let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving.

Let us shout joyfully to Him with songs. I think we could, some of us at least, put a little more energy into our singing. Does shouting joyfully describe the way you sing? You might be able to step it up just a little bit. Shout more joyfully as you sing to God. Psalm 98, verse 4. Psalm 98, verse 4 says, Shout joyfully to the Lord all the earth. Again, God wants eventually the entire earth to praise Him. Break forth. Okay, it says break forth. So when you're feeling it, just break forth. Don't hold it back. Again, within reason. If you're alone, you can break forth whenever you want to. If other people around, they might think you're a bit odd. So, shout joyfully to the Lord all the earth. Break forth in song. Rejoice and sing praises. Sing to the Lord with the harp, and the sound of a psalm. With trumpets and the sound of a horn. Shout joyfully before the Lord the King. So perhaps you could put a little more energy into your singing, the rest of this feast.

And maybe they could hear us at the front desk and say, wow, those guys are really singing loud out there in the tent. Joyful noise, again, is used seven times in the Bible. So let's show some passion, some seal, and some enthusiasm in our singing. That was a fifth way to worship God.

A sixth way to worship our King during the Feast of Tabernacles is in our conversation and in our fellowship. So if you have a tendency to kind of stay to yourself, which some of us do have, some of us are more introverted, and we have to kind of prod ourselves to get out, come down a little bit earlier, and do a little more fellowship with our brethren. And think about, again, worshiping God as you fellowship and in your conversation. Because I think one of the most compelling three verses in the Bible is found in Malachi chapter 3. Malachi chapter 3. There's a lot in these three verses. Malachi chapter 3 verse 16. Malachi 3 verse 16. Then those who feared the Lord, and we come up to worship the King and to learn to fear Him properly at the Feast of Tabernacles, then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Eternal listened, and He heard them.

You know, I know God is listening. God has big ears. He can hear all things. I don't mean that disrespectfully, but God can hear all of our conversations. He's not limited. He can hear those in South Dakota, those up in wherever they are. I'm thinking I can't even think of the state. Montana, that's it. Up in Glacier Country. Down in Florida, He can hear us all at the same time. So the Lord listened and He heard them. So a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord. There is a book of remembrance written for all of us who fear God and who meditate on His name. So that goes back to the previous point on meditating on God and His truth and His ways. Meditate on His name. What does His name mean? He is the Eternal, the Lord, Yahweh. And we meditate on His name and think about the power that is in God. And in Malachi 3 verse 17, "'They shall be mine,' says the Lord of Hosts, the Eternal of Hosts. They shall be mine.'" He's talking about all of us, all of us who talk about Him and His way of life and do it in a way that's pleasing to Him. "'They shall be mine on the day that I make my jewels, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.'" Now God does spare all of us who strive to serve Him and humble ourselves before Him and yield to Him, surrender to God. Malachi 3 verse 18, "'Then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked.'" Now God is certainly discerning between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves Him and one who does not serve Him. So notice what it's saying here. It's saying that one who serves God is considered righteous. If you serve God, put Him first in your life, then you are a righteous person. Obviously, you have to keep the commandments. That's a part of it as well, but that's a part of serving God. You can't serve God and break His commandments. Now that's not serving God. So we serve God by observing His commandments, His laws, His statutes, and you are a righteous person when you serve God, but you are wicked if you do not serve Him. See, that's what this verse is saying. If you don't serve Him, you are considered a wicked person. So we all need to serve God. We're here to serve Him at the feast, and we serve Him in many, many ways. He wants us to serve Him. He wants us to be profitable servants. So we are to produce the fruit of His Spirit in abundance. You all know what the fruit of God's Holy Spirit is. What it is is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, gentleness, meekness, self-control, faithfulness. These are the fruits of God's Holy Spirit. We should be producing that fruit in abundance. So, as Mr. Miller had said, our example does make a difference in this community. Berlin knows all. You know, if we get cranky, then that could get passed around. Oh, yeah, they were pretty cranky. On the other hand, if we smile a lot and we show that we're grateful to be here, that we love this little community, then they will appreciate that.

So, produce the fruit of God's Holy Spirit in abundance. We start with our own families, obviously. You know, how we treat our own husband, our wife, our children. That's so important. You know, the example that you said for your children here at the feast, very, very important.

Make sure they have a wonderful feast. This should be a feast that they can also enjoy.

And they're not as spiritually minded, so if you spend all your time here in this tent, talking to adults, and your children have to just kind of hang around, then that's not necessarily the best feast for them. So you have to take them out, show them some things. You know, there's beautiful attractions around here that you can take some time to go show your children a good feast. Encourage one another to talk about these things, and think about these things. And let's again forget the mess that's out in the world right now.

Let's forget all that, and focus on the focus for eight days on the ultimate reality, the beauty of God's kingdom. That's what's coming. That's the ultimate reality. All of this is going to pass away. Eventually there will be a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells, and only righteousness, no wickedness whatsoever, dwell on those things.

What's it going to be like to have God heal the nations? He's going to heal all people, all nations, physically, emotionally, mentally, and especially spiritually. What's it going to be like when that happens? You know, God had a year of jubilee. It began on the day of atonement. Every 50 years they were to celebrate a year of jubilee when the captives would be set free. You know the sobering thing is that children of Israel stopped keeping the year of jubilee.

That was a beautiful thing. I'm sure that was a great disappointment to God, because God really wants us to be free. He wants all people to be free, but it's so easy to get off the right track and start going in a different direction and start worshiping other idols and other gods. That's what happened to the children of Israel.

I'm looking forward to an eternity of jubilee, you know, when we're all going to be free for eternity. Let's go to a seventh way in which we can worship the King.

Well, as we reflect on the King's example, in all that we say and do this week, let's be ambassadors for Christ. Let's look at ourselves as ambassadors for Jesus Christ.

The Bible uses that terminology. I believe that's one way that we can worship the King by taking some ownership that we are all ambassadors for Jesus Christ. We've been called out of the world. We've been chosen. We've been given a special knowledge that we are to share with others. Paul considered himself an ambassador for Jesus Christ, one who had persecuted the Christians and even killed some of the Christians. Let's go to a second Corinthians chapter 5. Second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 18. Second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 18. Well, let's read verse 17 as well. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. If we're in Christ, we are a new creation. Anyone who's accepted Christ, who's been baptized, who has the Spirit of God dwelling in them, they are a new creation. Old things have passed away. They're no longer to be shackled by the ways of this world and the sins of this world. We're to be a new creation. Behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ. But you know, it's easy, isn't it, to forget that. Those of us who have been baptized a long time, it doesn't seem so new in some ways, but really it is new. We have been refreshed. We've been reconciled. We are a new creation in Jesus Christ. All things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. We are also to be reconciling others to God, to ourselves. That is, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. You know, God has forgiven us, and we are to be people of forgiveness and of grace and mercy ourselves as we deal with other people. We should be known as people of faith and other people. We should be known as people who are willing to forgive. Verse 20, Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. And that's what we should want for all people, that all people would come to a knowledge of his truth and be reconciled to God. For he made him who knew no sin, Jesus Christ, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ. No, Christ is to live in us, right?

That's what Paul said. Christ lives in me, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And I do so by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So we are to be ministers of Christ.

And Paul really showed that he was an ambassador for Christ and the way he lived, but because no matter what happened, he always got up and continued to worship God. You know, that man was, he was shipwrecked three times. So I've never been shipwrecked even once. He was shipwrecked three times. Not only that, he was beaten five times, 39 stripes each time.

Beaten 39 stripes, five different times. He was beaten with rods three different times. He was stoned. He even had a group of people that they basically vowed that they wouldn't eat until he was dead. They were going to kill him. I've often wondered if they kept that vow.

Something tells me they did not keep that vow because he lived considerably for a considerable time after that. And I don't think they were faithful to that vow. I doubt whether they all starved to death. But Paul was quite an ambassador, and no matter what happened, he was always faithful.

You know, in 2 Corinthians 9, it gives a principle that we should all be living this feast as well, as we are ambassadors for Christ. In 2 Corinthians 9, verse 6, But this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.

And he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver. Now, God loves someone who will give cheerfully and not do it begrudgingly just because they're supposed to do it. You know, a person should pay his tithes because he really wants to pay his tithes. He wants to give his tithes and not give them begrudgingly. And he should give offerings with a cheerful heart and wish that he could give even more and possibly give more, because God will bless those who do. He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

We know that God and Christ are unified. We know that they are one. And we are to become one as they are one in unity and in complete harmony. This is our goal. It's a worthy one indeed. It's one that we should strive for this feast, becoming more united. The Father and Son are known by their willingness to sacrifice. For God so loved the world that he gave his Son. You know, he sacrificed his own Son. And I think Mr. Miller mentioned that as well. You know, he gave his own Son for us. And that would be hard to do. Hard to give up your son or your daughter. I mean, I don't know that I could do that. But God can. The Father has. And he did it for each and every one of us. And he did it so he could save the world. That's what verse 17 says. For God so loved the world he gave his only Son to save the world. That's why. So we're to be like Christ. We're to be like the Father, pure and true, reliable, trustworthy, faithful. Be all of that this feast. You know, that's the kind of person you are. So reflect that. Let Christ live in you. Be citizens of his kingdom even now as we look forward to the return of Jesus Christ. We are his citizens today, even though his kingdom is not fully established, it's not here, but we're still looking to that time as citizens of his kingdom. So again, worship Jesus Christ and the Father as ambassadors of God, of Christ. Number eight, the last principle here. Number eight, we worship the King by rejoicing this feast. That's been mentioned many times, but it is important.

I wanted to make that a specific point by rejoicing this feast. Again, Christ lives in us.

He's coming back together to himself, his brothers and sisters. That's why he's coming back together, his brothers and sisters together, but also to show a much better way for all of mankind.

It's just fine to have a rewarding, exciting physical feast, but more importantly, we need to have a spiritually rewarding feast, all of us. And the more we rejoice, the more spiritually rewarding this feast will be. I believe this can be our very best feast. You know, the more spiritually oriented we are, the better we worship God, the better we worship his Son. If we really apply these eight principles, these eight ways in which to rejoice or in which to worship the King, this feast, I believe God will be very pleased with what he sees here in Berlin, Ohio. Psalm 5 verse 11 says, but let all those rejoice who put their trust in you. Let everyone rejoice who puts their trust in you. Let them ever shout for joy. We should ever shout for joy, because you defend them. You know, God defends his people. God will never leave us. God will never forsake us. We don't have to be afraid of a pandemic, because God is our refuge. God is our strength. We don't need to be afraid. That doesn't mean we shouldn't be careful in how we conduct ourselves, but at the same time, we should never be afraid, because God will defend his people.

God will take care of us. Let those also who love your name be joyful in you.

I know you love God, and I know you love his way of life, or you wouldn't be here.

The reason you're here is because you love God, you love his truth, you love his way of life, you consider yourself as his son or daughter. He is your heavenly Father. Jesus Christ is your elder brother. We are all brothers and sisters in Christ. Everyone in this room is a brother and sister in Jesus Christ, and it doesn't get any better than that. We're of God's family.

We're called and chosen. This is a high and a holy calling. Out of 7 billion people on earth, how many are actually worshiping the King? How many are keeping his commandments?

Percentages are .0001 or something or other. Someone actually tried to figure that out for me. You could figure it out. You're smart. Just get your calculator out there. 7 billion people.

He said maybe 70,000 are keeping the feast. I don't know if it's that many.

There aren't very many people that are keeping these holy days. There aren't many people that are truly worshiping the King. Does it make any difference? I've thought about this oftentimes. Sometimes we get discouraged because we know we're frail. We know we're weak. We know we let down.

We fall short of God's glory. We've been through, in some ways, a sad history in the Church of God when you look back the last 70 years. But when I look at the Bible, I don't see very many people keeping God's holy days faithfully for 40, 50, 60, 70 years.

Those who are surviving, who are survivors, who are still with us, who've been doing this for such a long time, I believe God's very pleased with those of us who are being faithful.

And look, we're not perfect. We all understand that. We know that. But God does see us. And when we talk about Him and we dedicate ourselves to Him, you know, we're here worshipping Him instead of just traveling all over, spending money, just having fun without giving God a thought or a care. We're primarily here because we want to worship God. We want to be in His kingdom. We want to see a better world. And that's a good thing. That is a wonderful thing. It's such a blessing to be a part of this group. It's such a wonderful blessing to be here amongst all of you here in Berlin today. I go back to Cincinnati tonight, but we have the same group of people there all wanting to do the same thing. So keep up the good work. Keep up the good work. Continue to worship God. Continue to worship the King, this feast. And let's be sure this is our very best feast ever.