[Darris McNeely] Okay. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to our Wednesday night Beyond Today Bible study here at the home office of the United Church of God. We are beginning, restarting these Bible studies after a summer break. It's been a busy summer for so many of us, and you included, but this will be the first of two Bible studies that we have before the break for the fall Holy Days. I'll do this one tonight. Steve Myers will do one in two weeks from tonight, and then we'll have a break again and pick up again after the Holy Days and the Feast of Tabernacles.

So again, welcome to all of you and welcome to those of you that are online. See, we're actually using one of our brand new cameras here tonight. So I forgot to put my makeup on so it's going to show even all the other irregularities that I have in ultra high definition 4K. So anyway, I hope they can handle it up on the cyber cast.

I'll ask God's blessing, if you all just remain seated, and bow your heads, please. Our Father, our great God, we bow before You this evening and are grateful for the opportunity that we have here together as friends and family to have a Bible study here tonight. We ask for Your blessing upon it. Help us, Father, to understand, and to hear with open hearts and open minds. Guide us, Father, by Your Spirit to look at Your Word and aspects of the upcoming festivals in a way that we perhaps have not seen before as we begin to prepare ourselves for that period of time. So I thank You for Your Word, for Your calling. I thank You for this opportunity tonight. Be with us and we ask it all and commit it into Your hands. We pray in Christ's name, amen.

It's hard to believe that the Holy Days are almost upon us. If you've been looking out, you have begun to get a bit of a glimpse at the seasons. The season is beginning to change. The days are a bit shorter. And I can tell already that the shadows are a bit different so fall will be here soon. This weekend is Labor Day, September starts on Friday, and school's back in session. So things are changing, and it's time to begin looking toward the Holy Days. This study and the next one are planned to be two particular studies to help us all focus our minds and particularly our hearts upon the Holy Days and to prepare to keep them.

I had the extra opportunity last night and talking online with a group of our new pastors in the Church, new hires, and trainees, about parts of what I'm going to talk about tonight, but more oriented toward them as pastors and helping them to prepare their congregations for the upcoming Holy Days. So this is kind of my second run through on parts of what I'm going to talk about here tonight. So I hope that you will be helped to get your mind ready for the Feast.

Every year when I start thinking about it, and of course, by now most have made their plans as to where they will go, and we know the dates and everything else for the Feast of Tabernacles. But before that, we have the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement. But I was counting up, this year will be the 55th Feast of Tabernacles that I have kept. I think for my wife, then that will be 54 for her. So we've kept a few, all right? And I don't know if anybody in this room has kept any more than that. I knew you would have raised your hand right there.

So there's one person that's got me beat here in the room here tonight, but I know I'm not the longest lived in that regard in the Church. But anything over 50 is pretty good and a long period of time. I was thinking about all the different ways in which I've kept the Feast and how I've kept it. I have kept the Feast as a pre-teen. I've kept the Feast as a teenager. I've kept it as a single young adult. I've kept it as a married individual, with my wife Debbie. I've kept it most of these years as a minister and participating in it as a minister.

I have gone to the Feast of Tabernacles at many different locations. I've camped, I have been rained on and been completely soaked and washed out in a in a tent, keeping the Feast in a camp ground. I've actually stayed in what amounted to not much more than a metal shed that you might have in your backyard to store implements and your lawnmower and your tractors. I've kept the Feast in that type of situation. I've stayed in a dormitory with a lot of other students, shared a communal bathroom down at the end of the hall in what was a former Olympic Village in Squaw Valley, California. I've stayed in a mildewed lower level motel room in Missouri that nobody should have stayed in. So I've kept the Feast in that type of accommodation.

I have been in average hotel rooms with ocean views, river views, parking lot views. I have been in above-average hotel rooms as well. I've been in a few very nice hotel rooms and nice condos. I've killed scorpions in my location at the Feast of Tabernacles. I've actually, one time, captured a bat that came into where we were staying. So I've captured bats, killed scorpions. I have fought cockroaches in Florida and beat them back. I've had the best Feast ever and I've actually had the worst Feast ever a time or two as well. I've had all kinds of experiences and everything in between during this period of time.

And even though the, you know, we've been blessed with health and the ability of 55 straight, and at least in my life, I've always been able to attend the Feast and go to a location that has been designated by the Church. So what I would like to do is I look at that, and look back over my different experiences. Today I would like to pass on a few points to help us to prepare ourselves to go up to keep the Feast. There is a very often a… that phrase that is used in Scripture about going up to keep the Feast that you will find as it talks about going to, usually, Jerusalem to keep the Feast.

And when you read in the Bible geographically about any character— Christ or the apostle Paul going up to Jerusalem, literally, that's what they did because Jerusalem was in the high point of the mountains of Judah. And then you literally ascended on your travels to Jerusalem. Now in the days when there was a temple in Jerusalem, and the pilgrimage Feasts three times, three times or seasons in the year during which the Feasts were kept, people literally went up to Jerusalem and it was a journey.

It was, in those days, in the ancient world, not an air conditioned, nice, comfortable ride in a car. It was either walking or on a mule or in a caravan. And it involved dusty trails. It involved not the nice accommodations with the pull-off rest areas that we have for a hot cup of coffee in Starbucks or a stop at McDonald's or anything like that. It was rather rustic, primitive by our standards perhaps.

People would go in packs. They would go probably in groups from a village, by families, to go up to keep the Feast. And there's a very strong indication from portions even of the Psalms that are called the Psalms of Ascent, meaning to go up, that as they went and went up to Jerusalem, there were certain psalms in the Bible that we can pretty well figure may have been Psalms that accompanied them either as they would sing them on their way to the festivals. And some of those psalms are a part of the Scriptures. And even as you really dig into that as a separate study, you gain a bit of understanding as well about what it means to be a pilgrim, journeying to not only the Feast but a pilgrim on the journey of life toward God's Kingdom.

The added understanding that we have in the Church of God today that the Festivals point to us ultimately to not only Jesus Christ and His work but as we go to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, we know that we are going to picture the Kingdom of God on this earth, that 1,000-year reign of Jesus Christ. And so, some of those Psalms and scriptures help us to understand some of the things that we face along that journey as pilgrims to the Feast. So it's a pilgrimage, and it's a travel and it's a journey to do so.

When we look in the Scriptures, we see that this was not something that was hidden. You look actually in Luke 2, you see that there's just a very brief mention during the boyhood of Jesus Christ. We find that Christ Himself went up to keep the Feast in Luke 2:41, where Luke's account here is the only one of the Gospels that gives us this little window of a look into this part of the life, the early life of Jesus. It says, "His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover." Now again, this refers to this one, the pilgrims and people went up, again, at Pentecost, and they would go up for the fall Feast as well.

So in verse 42, it says that "When He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the Feast." And this is, of course, where He was left behind in the temple for three days before His parents realized that He was missing, which is an interesting story in itself, and they went back and found Him in the temple reasoning with the teachers there in the temple. But Christ went up and He went up to keep the Feast in Jerusalem as well.

So it is something that in other places that we will find this as well. When we turn back to Isaiah 2 are the very well-known millennial Psalm, millennial passages of scripture out of Isaiah 2, we find as it points to the future the same phrasing here that ties us into what people did then, really what we do today, and what nations will do in the future. In Isaiah 2:2 it says, "It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it.” It will go and flow to the place where God has placed His Kingdom or His center of His reign in His rule at that time.

“Many shall come and say," in verse 3. “'Come let us go up to the mountain… to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.’ For out of Zion should go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people; they shall beat their swords in the plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; and a nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore."

Very well-known millennial reference and prophecy of what will take place after Christ's return. But again, nations then will go up to Jerusalem at that time. But that is in the future. It will probably… I'm sure this verse will be read many more times by various men who will be speaking in the future days to prepare and even to explain things about the Feast of Tabernacles. But let's go back to where we are today. And here we are in 2017. You're preparing for the Feast. And you've already probably done some numbers, run some numbers in your head as to how many this might be for you.

This one is in front of us, and by the grace of God, we're able to keep another Feast, another year it has rolled around. And as we prepare to do so, I think that it is important that ample time be taken to make our hearts right and ready before God. As I was explaining to some of our pastors last night in this class, that this is a very, very important responsibility to help prepare our members in so many different ways to keep the Feast and our congregations, not only as we go up, but for those who don't go up, for those that are not able for health, age and other reasons to not attend, but that we prepare ourselves in a sense as a family, to observe the Feast and to do it in a way that God says to do it.

And so, what I have prepared tonight are three, what I call three essential elements to having the best Feast ever, okay? We're going to talk about three elements to keep the best Feast ever. And this is really my distillation and my own thinking of what I see from scriptures, and from my own experience. And I hope that it will mirror what you've learned as you kept the Feast and as you look and think back on where you've been, what you've done, the exotic locales, the not so exotic locales. The good Feasts, the best Feasts, the mediocre Feasts, the troubled Feasts maybe or maybe even some of the broken Feasts where you may have not been able to attend full time or a family emergency took you home. My father died while I was at the Feast one year. I remember that it was on the morning of the Eighth Day when he died. And so, we finished out the day and then went back to the funeral for my father. But things happen. Life goes on even while we're keeping the Feast.

But let's begin. Let's turn, if you all, back to Deuteronomy 12. I want to look at some of these key scriptures back here that give us within the law, the prescription for the Feast of Tabernacles especially, and we will look at this as primarily the Feast, but keep in mind we're talking about Trumpets and Atonement, the Eighth Day as well. But the Feast, this is kind of what is focused on in some of these scriptures. And whether we are keeping those days here locally in our… for the Holy Days, or the regional locations for the Feast, these elements I think will help us.

In Deuteronomy 12:5, in verse 4 it says, "You should not worship the Lord your God with such things," and some of the wooden images and idols that verse 3 talks about. But in verse 5, "But you shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses, out of all tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go." And so, at this point in the retelling of the Law, there's a lot of different things that are woven together in a few middle passages here in Deuteronomy that really speak to coming before God on the occasions that He has outlined as His Holy Festivals, "where He placed His name, there," it says, "you will go."

Verse 6 talks about bringing offerings, bringing your tithes, three valid offerings and the various forms of those that were to be brought, explicitly talking here about an agrarian type society with the herds and flocks. But it says in verse 7, "There you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you have put your hand to, you and your households, in which the Lord your God has blessed you." And then dropping down to verse 12, a bit of a repetition, "You shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, and your male and female servants, and the Levite that is within your gates, since he has no portion nor inheritance with you." And then it continues on to talk about this in the aspects here.

So we gather here that we are to go where God has placed His name and where His place is in the early days of the monarchy and of the Nation of Israel, with the loosely confederated tribes. That place was a place called Shiloh. Later, under King David, he established his capital in Jerusalem. He moved the tabernacle up to Jerusalem and then wanted to build a temple that was not allowed. Solomon then had to build the temple, but that became the center of government, religion, worship for the people of Israel, and in Jerusalem, around that temple, that became, that fulfilled where this was.

Now today in the Church we don't have a temple, we don't have a nation that represents God's people. We are a church, we have a ministry and not a priesthood, and we understand how we apply what we find here in the Law, under a different covenant, how we apply that under what we will call the New Covenant, but a different relationship with God in a spiritual church. We have adapted so many aspects of this in our keeping of the word of God today in the Church. All right, I think we all understand that.

The place where God has placed His name can vary according to demographics in the Church, geographic situations, and just plain what might be available. Okay? If a hurricane comes along and wipes out a Feast site in early September, God's name might get moved someplace else, as it has happened in the past. Or from one year to the next, for various reasons, it will change, but the Church makes the decision. Even how we keep the Feast, with the form of services, and the traditions that represent how we keep the Feast of Tabernacles in the Church of God today, we've adapted from what we see in Scripture. And we have to understand all of that as we seek to obey God's word and apply that to a modern 20th-century setting, all right?

You do know that going to a nice high-rise condo in Panama City Beach with sugar-fine sand out your front door was not how they kept it back here in these days. You do know that, okay? I just want to make sure everybody understands that, all right? And that's fine. I'm glad we do that, but there's a bit of a difference, and that's okay. It is okay. But we had to read the word of God and then adapt it into the 20th century. I think God has blessed that— I know God has blessed that as we go through the years.

So here's a few verses in Deuteronomy. In Leviticus 23, where all of the Holy Days are mentioned, we find the statement that we often focus on, but we should not forget. Leviticus 23, and where it says in verse 2, “God said to Moses, ‘Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: “The Feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My Feasts.”'" And then He begins to talk about the Sabbath and then all of the Holy Days, which are listed here in chapter 23. But a key here at the beginning, He says, "These are the Feasts of the Lord. They are My Feasts."

Again, a reiteration in a different form of what we what we read back there. These are Feasts unto God. In Isaiah 25, let's go back to Isaiah 25 very quickly. Just look again at a passage that points again to a millennial setting for what has to be understood as the fall Feast. Leviticus… or Isaiah 25, one of my favorite passages overall about talking about this time to come, beginning in verse 6, Isaiah writes, "In this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast of choice pieces, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, well-refined wines on the lees. He will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over the nations," that will be actually done with the events of the Day of Atonement. "He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from faces; and the rebuke of His people He will take away from all of the earth; for the Lord has spoken."

And then in verse 9, "It will be said in that day: ‘Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for Him; we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.’" So the focus is put on God. And this, brethren, is my first element to understand how to have the best Feast, all right? That first element is God. God has to be… it's God's Feast. We come before God to rejoice. Nations will come to know God. When that veil of deception is lifted off of them, they will come to know God and declare Him to be their way and their path to salvation. And all of that, we learn as we keep all of the Holy Days. But it is first and foremost God's Feast.

And that is actually the first, and perhaps foremost, but out of, as we look at the scriptures, God's at the center of it. We go to the Feast because God tells us to go. We go to the Feast because they're God's Feasts. We go to worship God. We go to rejoice before God. We go to learn more things about God. We go to reflect more on what God is doing and how He's working in our life at any particular time. If God is not why we go to the Feast, then something is missing, to begin with. No matter where we decide to go, no matter who we may be rooming with, or living with it, if we're single or running around with, or what our traveling group might be, or again where, if it's not because of God, then something is missing.

Now, I say this because obviously, this comes right out of Scripture. God has to be at the very center of the worship. It's His name that is there, not ours. It's not yours. It's His place and it's His Holy Festival. I've had some of my less than best Feasts at very nice exotic places, all right? I've had many of my best Feasts at places that are, in terms of a geographic spot, they weren't the beach, they weren't the mountains, they weren't, you know, some choice spot that would be on the cover of Travel + Leisure magazine or the Condé Nast Traveler necessarily, or touted by a travel agent as, you know, the hot place for this season.

I would… you know, I've had… actually, we've kept some very nice Feasts just across the river here in Northern Kentucky a few years ago, all right? I've even gone to Dayton, Ohio and had a good Feast of Tabernacles. Anybody here ever go to Dayton for the Feast? Some of you did. We used to call Dayton a “Resort Feast,” did you know that? Did you know that? It is the Feast of last resort. We smiled when we said that, too. But we had some very, very enjoyable times and very good memories looking back. And as I, over the years, as I combed through all of these experiences, I've come to realize that if God's not there, we're missing something. We're missing something.

Sometimes I hear comments today as we… you know, the talk might be, well, you know, there's some… the latest and greatest, best exotic new site that we could come up with from year to year, okay? And that becomes a place where we get into a herd mentality and we travel in packs at times, and you can go to some of these spots, and you're going to run into the same people from other parts of the world literally. It's just what it is, and that's good because I mean, if you make friendships and all. But I will say I've heard comments that I've listened to the first things and I thought to myself, "Really? That's, you know, that's why you're going, because of where it is?"

You know, if we ever find our… I mean I'll just put that out, first of all, to think about. If you ever find yourself focusing too much on the physical location, it might be a sign that there's something… maybe something wrong in terms of why we are going. The Feast is about God and we go to learn about God. And we go to learn something new every year about what God may be working, and telling us and wanting us to know in our own life at this particular point in time, wherever we may be. So the first number one spot is God.

Let's go back to some of these scriptures, and to see what we can come up with for the second essential element of the Feast. Let's go back to Deuteronomy 12. In Deuteronomy 12:18. I didn't read this when we were there, but let's read it right now and just see what God's says here in the instruction as you go there and you take your tithes. And verse 17 talks about the tithe of your grain, wine, and oil, and your flock. And there in Deuteronomy 12:18, it says, "You must eat them before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord your God chooses, you, your son, and your daughter, your male servant, and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all to which you put your hands."

And so, here He mentions the various elements of, if you would, those that you're traveling to the Feast with. In the pilgrimage times, these would be people that you would be traveling with and would go with you. If you look at Deuteronomy 14:29, to just to break into the thought of this… as the teaching connects to the tithing principle and how it is to be used, and those that are involved in verse 29, "And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand what you do."

That word "stranger" right there in verse 29 is interesting to focus on for a moment because within ancient Israel, as the law defined a stranger, there were different types of strangers. When you read it, when you read the word "stranger" in the law, in the Old Testament, substitute the word "immigrant" to get an understanding of what we're really talking about, and from our own 21st-century perspective. God is saying that you will take care of the immigrant, okay?

Now, biblically, there were different classifications of immigrants that were to be treated within the nation of Israel. There were some who came and were only there kind of transient. They were, you know, maybe a temporary visa type situation, but they didn't really assimilate and they were okay, allowed, but they were one category. There were others who assimilated.

Ruth was a stranger, the Moabites, all right? She said, "My God will be… your God will be my God, your people will be my people." That's an immigrant who studies to become a citizen. After a number of years stands before a judge and takes the oath of allegiance to the United States of America, as we do it today. That was a stranger as well. Then there were strangers who didn't give up their previous citizenship, but they went along and got along, and they were also a different class within the group. And so, even as it came to keeping the Festivals, God allowed for and said, "You take care of those people. You provide for them."

And this is what He's talking about. Now on Deuteronomy 16:13, He's talking about the Feast of Tabernacles again, and what is to be done. In verse 14, it says, "You will rejoice in your Feast, you and your son and your daughter,” so a family affair, “your male servant, your female servant,” and these were people that were a part of the family as well, even though they were in servitude. Again, you know, I take danger into my hands at this point. But in the Bible, when it talks about servants, you know what the word really was talking about? Slave. All right? I know that because of recent events, that, boy, you don't want to go there with some people for fear of being misunderstood.

But it's a fact of life in the ancient world, and it wasn't just black on white. It was white on white, black on black in the world of that day, and it was much different than our modern perception of slavery. Neither were good nor according to God's perfect purpose and plan, but at least God gave regulations among the Israelites as to how you dealt with that class of people that were a reality. And here, we find them even involved in keeping the Festivals. You will take them. They were a part of your responsibility.

So let's see, where am I here “…the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, the widow, that are within your gates. And then you will go seven days to keep the sacred Feast to the Lord your God…” So here is the second element. What do you think that second element is? Anybody have a guess? What's the second element that is spoken of here that is critically essential to the Holy Days and to the F estival?

Man: Delight for others, not just yourself.

Pastor: I'm looking for one word. What is it?

Man: Charity?

Pastor: No, that's not it.

Woman: Inclusion?

Pastor: Inclusion? Yeah. We've got God.

Pastor: How about people? Now you fellowship with people, you include people. It's God's Feasts, and all these scriptures are talking about that. But people, your family, your servants, the Levite, the ministry, in this case, strangers, the widow, the fatherless, those that are dispossessed among within you. It's all about them as well. Think about this. Think about this. We're going if it's 300 people or 3,000 people. Most of our sites are less than a thousand, except the places probably like Panama City, which usually runs over a thousand in our… the way we are today. Here in Cincinnati, this year we'll have 300 plus. But 500 and 700, in some locations 800 or 900. But we go… And it is about people. What God is telling us in these scriptures is that the Feast is about Him, so it's about God. And we do it with people.

And we have to take care of these people. We have to be aware of one another, not only to the point of getting to know one another, fellowshipping with one another, but also making sure that their experience is good as well. You know, in the United Church of God, out here on our… well, we don't have it out here in the building, but it's on a mission statement, actually it's on that display that we put into the lobby out here, but we do have built into our mission as a church that we are to care for our disciples, not only make disciples but care for our disciples, okay? So we place great emphasis in the United Church of God about caring for our people, in so many different ways: education programs, services, providing ministry.

As we go to the Feast and we focus on this, we see that this is hardwired into how God wants all of us to look at the Festivals, which means that when it comes down to us going to the Feast, let's face the big reality that we have because of our aging demographic within the Church today. And we do make provision that we seek to… for people who cannot go to the Feast. And that's unfortunately, again, because of the times, people are getting older and more and more people every year can look at our attendance figures, and they'll float a little bit on Holy Days and at the Feast of Tabernacles, and we can account that, you know, we could add, you know, several hundred, maybe several thousand people to the attendance figures, that would bring us up closer to our overall church membership role that we would know about because people are not able to go to the Feast and they're at home.

And as we think about that in our congregations, we encourage our pastors and leaders to make sure that people who are not able to go up to the Feast are remembered. Really, that's what is implied when God says, "You take care of these others." Remember them, don't forget them." Take them with you as you can. But if they can't go, then you provide for them. And each year, we tend to add another element of care, in so many ways, to try to make sure everybody is caught in the good safety net of care. We do webcast, services from certain locations at our Feast sites so that people at home can tune in on the internet and keep the Feast. That way, at least be connected to a sermon every day.

In the past, we would provide, and still do, sermon DVDs where people who may not be able to access the internet, can at least listen to a sermon as well via a DVD. Beyond that, we always encourage, and I will put that out here for us to understand tonight, that we make phone calls back to people. We write people who are not able to attend. And when I was pastoring in Indiana, we would always make sure that we have the addresses of everybody not able to attend the Feast, distributed to people so that they could write cards back. And many people would do that so that people were continually getting daily cards from people from various locations, greeting them and just letting them know that they're not forgotten. That's extremely important. Extremely important.

Emails, text messages, phone calls. Communication is… the cost of communication has come down to where so much of that is possible now, but it just needs to be done. And many congregations will make up baskets of food, and fruit, and everything and give to people who are not able to attend as well. And those are very much appreciated. I know because, in recent years, my wife's mother, my mother-in-law, and my step-father-in-law have not been able to attend the Feast for at least three or four years because of age and health.

And those phone calls, those cards from their own friends in the Church where they are, and those baskets of food items that some have, with great care, put together and provided for them, really helped to make their time at home more of a Feast, special. And even in so many… in their area and others as well, these people will get together on a Holy Day and try to have a meal together as well. But to the degree, we who are more fortunate got the health care and the means can help do that. We all have to do it and should do it. It is part of caring for our disciples. Those of us that are able then to go to a site must also extend of ourselves beyond our comfort zone, and perhaps the level of people that we find ourselves maybe always with, whether it's family or a group of friends.

Recently, we had the results of the member survey distributed to the council of elders in the administration. And the survey comments that come back cover a number of aspects of the Church. But one of them is the Feast, the Festivals. And one comment that was brought out was made by someone who left the comment who was speaking about, again, the quality of the Festival experience, and one comment made was that a person at the Feast just did not… felt lonely. He didn't feel included while they were at the Feast.

And there are people that are single, who are introverted, and other matters that are in that, and to the degree we have the sensitivity to reach out, to get acquainted, to include where possible at a table, at a senior's meal, or a singles activity, or some other occasion to dine out so that they don't have to go back day after day by themselves to an empty hotel room. We can then help that person have a better quality of experience at the Feast of Tabernacles, which is what we should be doing because this is what the scriptures are telling us, that we are to care for one another. The Feast is about people.

When I think back over my years, the worst Feast that I ever had was at a Florida site, you know, the much touted Florida… great Florida site. This was back… it wasn’t in Panama City so don't think I'm down on Panama City. But it was 12,000, 13,000 people there, all right? Do you ever feel lonely in a crowd? Because it was in St. Petersburg, everybody was scattered, and there were a lot of other factors in our family going on at that particular year.

But to meet anybody, it was just, you know, in other words, if you didn't come wired into a group or something, it just almost didn't happen, unless you're an exceptional person, and I guess I wasn't exceptional. But it just turned out to be one of those years where I cannot remember a conversation with anybody beyond an immediate peer minister that I may have had to work with to produce something for the Feast that year. And it was, just to say, it wasn't our best Feast ever that year. We kept the Feast, but it wasn't the best Feast ever. But then on other occasions, I still remember conversations with people, faces, situations that you come up with that are so critically important.

So make sure that we go out of our way. And let's all make it a part of our approach to the Feast this year to try to think more about the people because God does. And He's saying that these two elements are really important elements to the Feast. And if we make sure that we understand that, God will put us into people's paths, He will put people into our paths. It may take nothing more than a smile, a good morning, cup of coffee, how you doing, whatever it might be, and something can spark and a relationship can develop, and more good can be done than you can imagine. I've been shocked when people come back to me later, and I think… well, I was just trying to be nice, or I wasn't actually doing anything out of the ordinary, but it made an impact on them, they remembered it. So keep that in mind, God and people.

Now let's go to the third element here. Let's go back to Deuteronomy 12, and we'll read this verse again, verse 7, "There you shall eat before the Lord your God,” what's the third element? Food. Great. You guys are getting sharp here tonight. Food. It's baked in, literally baked into the entire recipe for the Feast of tabernacles.

Look at it here, look at the third, chapter 14 again, beginning of verse 24, "If the journey is too long, so if you're not able to carry the tithe, or at the place where your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, and the Lord has blessed you, you should exchange your tithe for money, take the money in your hand, and go to the place which God chooses. And you shall spend the money for whatever your heart desires: oxen, sheep, wine, or similar drink,” I love the King James Version. The King James says, "strong drink." They watered it down here in the New King James to "similar drink." But, you know, that's what it says, “…for whatever your heart desires; you shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household."

But rejoicing before God with you and the household includes food. Now food is… sometimes it's not always an appreciated aspect from a biblical point of view as we look at the Bible, in terms of our…

defining our worship of God, and understanding food and how God uses it in so many different ways throughout the Bible to talk about our relationship with Him, our relationship with one another. I mean, Abraham, what did Abraham do when God showed up at his tent in the heat of the day?

Man: He killed a calf.

Pastor: Yeah, he went out and killed a calf and they had a roast. They had steak. And they had a meal. Abraham communed with God over food. That's what the whole temple service was really about, you brought an offering and you would stay and you would eat a portion of that offering with a Levite and the priests of the temple as part of the offering, which was a part, which was a form of the worship of God in that way.

Christ broke bread with His disciples. He performed miracles with wine, with bread. So much of the teachings of the Gospels and Christ's life was around a home, communal food setting. Throughout the Bible, food in right proportions, clean food, the right ways is part of the story of God, of God with man and man with God and between ourselves. And here when we come to the Holy Days, He talks about this. And what do we…you know, it's the Feast of Tabernacles, it's the Feast of Trumpets. We call it The Day of Atonement, not so much the Feast of Atonement, it's a Feast of a different form spiritually. But food is so much a part of this.

And what we do at the Feast days with communal meals, group meals, individual meals is meant to be used in a way to rejoice before God. And when we share our means with people, it's remarkable, the memories that are developed, and the spiritual lessons that that are made and given to us about that. It's God, people, and food. And when you get these right, this is my point, I guess, in bringing it out this way here tonight, when we get those things right and prioritized, it doesn't matter where we go for the Feast. It really doesn't. The exotic sites are nice, and I've been to them, I hope to go to a few more before I take up the rocking chair.

This year, our exotic site is Holiday Inn Eastgate, right over here in Cincinnati, Ohio. That's going to be about as exotic as we get this year, for reasons that we chose and we're very happy with that, looking forward to it. It is, for some of you here, in the room here, it will be your site as well. As I've said, we've kept two here, two other Feasts in northern Kentucky, in the Cincinnati area. They were great. We're looking forward to this one, and we hope that our family can come together. Debbie's family can come down and make it. We're keeping our fingers crossed. It's a day by day situation. We probably won't know until the day they're supposed to leave whether they will come or not. But we hope to kind of serve them, give them a Feast that they've not been able to have for a number of years. And regardless, it will be a good Feast. I'm convinced of that.

But when we get these in our priority, then whether we're going off to an international site or to, you know, something smaller and less exotic in the United States, we will be… it will be the best Feast. And God will speak to you through sermons, through messages, through conversations. You will learn. You will grow. You will come away having grown spiritually, which is the most important part. Too much of this, and we'll grow physically.

These verses that I just read to you, when I was a kid coming into the Church and, you know, learning about what is this Feast of Tabernacles thing and, you know, the emphasis that was put on various things… it was always very instructive. But, you know, I got exposed to not only God's Festivals and the plan of God, but locations that I never thought I'd ever go to, and people that I would never have met. And even on, you know, just the plain physical level, I've had all kinds of meals at the Feasts.

One of my most memorable was in East Texas. We were keeping the Feast at Big Sandy and a group of… we were a part of a group invited by this one local Texan to go to some hole in the wall restaurant in Kilgore, Texas for white beans, cornbread and raw onion. And we all got herded into this back room of a… you know, it's not… you know, it wasn't anything fancy and we had a big luncheon there. And of course, I grew up on that food anyway, but that was the Feast luncheon that day. It was great. It was great. I remember it to this day, you know, big thick slices of Texas onion and cornbread and white beans. I learned how to appreciate a good steak. I've had to grow through the years, I like to tell this story. I'll tell it to you here tonight, I won't tell it anywhere else probably this year, but…

It was in those years as well that I… you know, it says, "whatever your heart desires." When I was 16 one year, my heart desired a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken, all for me. And so, my best buddy and I, we holed up in a motel room, watching the World Series baseball game that year, eating ourselves sick on Kentucky Fried Chicken. But I satisfied my heart's desire that day. It wasn't necessarily my stomach's desire when it was all over, but… And again, looking at it, sorting it all through, it's the people and the locations that I associate with whatever the food was that is the most memorable.

Probably the most unique meal I ever had was in Kenya. It was five years ago, we went to Kenya. And we went to three different sites that they were holding the Feast at in Kenya that year. And we wound up on the Eighth Day at this one… the last night we were at, and they had saved their best goats for that day. And that morning, those goats were alive, okay? By the time we got there, they were hanging in the kitchen, and they were being cut up. And I remember being given a little quick tour, and we peeked into the kitchen and there were some people back there, cutting this goat as it was hanging from the kitchen, and throwing the pieces of it into a galvanized wash tub, okay?

And I'm looking at that, and I'm thinking, well, if they were going to cook that, that was… that was a big treat. And so, we had 2 services, baptized 17 people in between services in a big, oversized pond with cattle going all around as we’re out there baptizing people, and we don't know… you know why the cattle were in there, and it wasn't to get baptized. And that was a memorable time. But after… I spoke twice that day after the Last Day, and the sun was getting close to sundown and we wanted to get… the Westerners, we wanted to get back to our hotel room because you don't want to be on a road in Kenya after dark, whether you're Kenyan or American, you just don't want to be there.

And so, the last thing that the elder gave to me was a plastic grocery bag full of goat, goat meat, that they charcoal-roasted, black, the goat meat. And we ate that that night, that was our meal that night, and we sat around in our hotel room, the group I was… that we were all traveling with, eating that. And we look back now and it was unique. That's all I can say. It was unique. And we rejoiced. So you think about your experiences and your years.

Every year, I try to read through the book of Ecclesiastes at this time of year to help frame my mind with the Holy Days. In the Jewish tradition, they would… that was one book read at this time of year. And it fits the theme of the fall Festivals, especially the Feast of Tabernacles. Solomon is a bit melancholy. He is a bit… some say negative. I say I think he's realistic about life, as you weave your way through that narrative of Ecclesiastes. But it helps me to connect to the season, to even the changing of the seasons, and the autumn year, and certainly to the meaning of the Feast days.

The Jews have an interesting tradition as well during this time of year. We don't do this because it's not scriptural, but it's part of Jewish tradition and they have a lot of traditions. But this one I was reading about was quite interesting. They count back from the Day of Atonement, all right? And when we say Atonement is right here. They count back 40 days and they number… and they call those days Elul Tishri in the Jewish tongue and tradition. This 40-day period leading up to an ending, the 40 days end on Atonement, all right? They call Elul Tishri, and it's a day of…or it's a period, 40 days in their tradition, of introspection, examining themselves. We do a lot of that and we tend to focus on that as we prepare for the Passover every year. But this is what they do. They actually, the 10 days between Trumpets and Atonement, that final 10 days of this 40-day period, they call the Days of Awe.

And that to me, that's a very interesting study in itself as to why they do that and how they do that, but it's interesting. I've read about it and studied into it. And I don't personally necessarily do… We are already into this… we are already into this 40 days right now leading up to Atonement. But it's a period of introspection, as they look at it in their tradition. And to the degree that we prepare our hearts to go up to the…to keep the festivals, we too are, in a sense, preparing ourselves, examining our lives, looking at what we have learned during the past year of what has happened.

And for all of us, we could list, in our own personal private lives, events of our past 12 months, and maybe draw some themes, draw some lessons. And again, if we're focusing upon God and what He's doing with us in our lives, we probably will begin to gain some deeper insight into what… how God is working with us at this particular time of life and this year. And it can help us then to prepare for the coming days. So ask yourselves why you go up to keep the Feast, and ask yourself if your heart, your mind, your spirit, is prepared, and being prepared in the right way as you think about this.

There's a lot of physical preparation that we make for all the Holy Days and especially for the fall Holy Days coming, beginning with Trumpets, Atonement, Tabernacles, and then the Eighth Day. But when you look at all these scriptures, keep in mind that it's God, it's people, it's the rejoicing with the food. These are the elements that God gives us out of His word to think about, and to make sure that they are the focus of what we are involved with during this period of time. And they will help us make a Feast that is hopefully a very profitable Feast for us in our lives at this time to draw us closer to God.

So I hope this little study tonight has put some ideas into your mind and into your heart in your preparation. In two weeks, Steve Myers will then be conducting another study along this line of some aspect of preparation for the Holy Days. So enjoy your evening, be safe as you travel home. And I will say good night to all of you at this time.

[Steve Myers] Good evening, ladies and gentleman. Welcome to Wednesday night Bible study. Good to have you all here. Good to have those of you visiting with us on the web. Before we begin our Bible study tonight, we're going to go ahead and ask God's blessing as we look at His Word. So, if you'll bow your heads.

Great loving Heavenly Father. God, thank You so much for Your wonderful ways. We are so thankful, Father, that we have the opportunity to dig into Your Word. Father, to have You open our minds to Your truth. We pray that that would be the case, God, that You would direct us and guide us and lead us, as we seek after You and seek after Your will and strive more earnestly to understand the things that You have in mind for us. So Father, thank You for these things. We pray for Your presence. We pray for Your guidance. We pray for Your blessing. And so Father, we put all of this into Your hands, asking it by the authority of our Savior Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.

Well, this is the last in our series called The Time Is Now. We've been discussing quite a few things when it comes to the fact that when God begins to work with us, we are required to respond. God wants us to respond. He wants us a part of His way. And as He draws us to Him, some of those things become more obvious, and maybe sometimes some of the things aren't quite as obvious all the time.

And what does God have in mind for me? It seems in this world, one of the most difficult things is to get a hold of life. Do you ever notice that? When you want to get something done, it always seems there's something that gets in the way, or "I just can't quite get the amount of time that I need to finish this. Or when I'm about to accomplish this, something else jumps ahead of it and takes my time and I'm just not able to do it."

Well, tonight I thought it might be helpful to talk about that very thing. How do you get on with it? How do you get going? How can we accomplish things? Especially not just so much physical things, but when it comes to doing what God would have us do. How do we get to it? How can we get it off the back burner and make it priority number one?

Well, I think there's a number of ways we can. In fact, there's a section of Scripture that deals with that very thing. And I think it points us in the direction, a place that we can at least begin to consider how do we get to it. In fact, this section of Scripture is found in the book of Ephesians. And so for tonight, we're going to focus in on this particular section, and it's in Ephesians, and it's in chapter 5, verses 17 to 19. We're going to focus there for this evening. Well, we'll go to couple of other places too, but we'll keep coming back to Ephesians chapter 5.

And in this section of Scripture, it gives us three, what would you say, essentials or three necessities when it comes to getting to it. We're going to get on with it. If we're going to use the time that God's given us and recognize, "Yeah, now is that time. Now is the time that God's given me," there are three requirements that Ephesians 5 talks about. Three necessities that we've got to see the value in these things if we are going to get on with it.

And so when you look at Ephesians chapter 5...let's just jump right into it because we see that first essential, first necessity that's mentioned here. Ephesians 5:15, it says, "See that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise." So as God calls us, we understand His truth. He says, "Be careful how you walk." So, if we're to put one necessity up, I'll word it in my own way, He says, "Don't meander. Don't just drift around. Just don't aimlessly walk through life." He says we've got to walk.

And it's kind of an interesting concept when you think of it not in modern day terms, but think of it more in first century terms for just a moment. Think about that. Think about the world we live in; this is a spiritually dark place. This is a dreary place when it comes to any level of spirituality. When you consider the kind of world we live in, it is moral darkness. It is spiritual darkness. Paul is warning us here in this section of Ephesians that we cannot grow dim. We cannot.

If you look back just to verse 8, he says, "Once you were in darkness." It used to be like that, but then as God opens our minds, yeah, the light bulb comes on. That spiritual light bulb comes on. He says, "Now, you are light in the Lord." He says, "Walk as children of light." So we've got to come out of this darkness. He says we cannot have any relationship, no fellowship, no sharing with the ways of this world. In fact, he even calls those things "worthless."

So, in a way, I think he's asking us the question, are we still meandering around? Are we still pretty aimless, that we're getting caught up in those worldly things, those everyday things, those 21st century things that are out here that will detract us, distract us from the things that He would have us do, the things that are worthless, the things that are dark? Or we bring our life into the light. Are we recognizing those things?

Because you know what happens when you walk into a dark room and you go over to that switch and you flip it. What happens? Yeah, the light comes on. The light comes on. What happens to the darkness? It's gone. Right. It's dispelled. It is gone.

So Paul is basically telling us, as God opens our mind, we've got to turn that light on, get rid of the darkness. The darkness is unacceptable to God's way. And so he says, "Don't just walk aimlessly. Have a purpose. Have a purpose. Have a point to your walk." So when he says walk, it's not necessarily about physically walking; it's about our way of life. Isn't it? It's about our way of life.

So it's getting us to the big picture, how we live our life, what we're doing every day. The walking ties in because it ties into step by step by step, every single day, what way am I walking? Am I making that obvious choice that every day I'm going to walk this direction?

Now, as we thought about the first century kind of walking, they didn't have their step machines where they'd walk on for exercise or things like that, did they? They didn't walk for exercise. What did they walk for? They walked for a purpose. They walked for a goal. They walked for a destination. They didn't walk for exercise. In fact, when you read through the Bible, there's some pretty amazing examples of people walking around. If you go to Acts chapter 10...don't go there now. But Acts chapter 10 talks about Peter walking. He walks from Joppa to Caesarea. You know how far that is? It's about 40 miles. Yeah, I think of that. My phone didn't tell me I walked 40 miles today. Do you know how fast he did that? Two days. Walking 20 miles was nothing in the day. That was not all that abnormal to walk 20 miles in the first century in a day. I'm not sure if we can do it in a week. I don't know anymore. But when we look at that, was there a purpose? Was there a goal in mind? I mean, absolutely. Absolutely, there was a goal in mind.

Some people have tried to figure out, "Well, how many miles did Christ walk? He walked from Jerusalem and He walked to Galilee, and He walked all over the place." Some estimates say He probably walked something like 15,000 miles in His life. Do you think that was a walk with purpose? Do you think that was a walk with a point to it?

You see, that's the kind of first century walking that I believe Ephesians 5 is talking about. There's a destination. You walk to get somewhere. And so that spiritual walking that we're called to do is the progression that I'm spiritually walking with purpose, and that walk is getting me closer and closer and closer to the destination that I have in mind. And so, this world we live in is trying to trip us up from reaching that destination, from striving, ultimately, to be a part of the kingdom of God.

And so, if you can imagine what a spiritual landscape might look like, as we're striving to walk through this world, it would be like a battlefield, wouldn't it? You could just imagine this battlefield would probably be littered with mines. It would be like a minefield. And we've got to negotiate this minefield of life with purpose, and yet we've got to know where those mines are. And we've got to avoid those mines, otherwise we're going to be in trouble.

And so, God reminds us, as we're walking and we're doing it with purpose, we're going to a destination, He says we better do it His way. We better walk by His direction. And so, He tells us that. God is great that way. He tells us what's best for us.

In Jeremiah 10:23, He tells us it's not in man to direct his steps. You see, when you talk about navigating the spiritual minefield out here, if we count on our own thinking, our own reasoning, our own logic, we look at things just from the physical perspective, what are we going to step on? We're going to step on that mine. We're going to be in trouble, right? We're going to be in trouble.

Now, it's interesting that God promises to direct that walk. He will direct our steps. But who gets to choose which way to walk? That becomes a little bit of a challenge, and I think that's part of what the apostle Paul was addressing here in Ephesians 5, is, yes, God directs our steps.

He tells us, "Do you want to negotiate this minefield of spiritual disaster out here? You want to get on with it and get to it? Here's the way you need to go." And He maps that out. But then what does He do? He says, "All right. Get on with it." Well, I could choose to go His way or I could choose to go a different way. I could choose to go whatever way I want to go.

And so I've got to make that conscious choice whether I'm going to allow God to direct my steps and whether I'm going to follow His directions. Am I going to follow God's directions or not? In a way, He gives us His spiritual compass. Maybe a GPS would be better. A spiritual GPS. Maybe a spiritual Google Maps, that He tell us, "Here's how you're going to negotiate life and succeed spiritually." I can either follow that. He's a lot better than Google. He's a lot better than Google, isn't He? I can either follow that, or I've got to watch out because I'd probably step on one of those spiritual minefields.

And so that's the challenge. Do I choose to do that? He tells us very specifically, not only do we have a destination, not only do we have a goal, but He says that when we walk, that we've got to do it carefully. We've got to be careful how we walk. He says, "Walk circumspectly. Walk circumspectly." Not a word that we use a lot necessarily these days, but it means to walk carefully. In other words, you better pay careful attention. And it is like negotiating this minefield. If we're going to spiritually grow, we're going to become more Christ-like, there's so many things out there that will take us off our path.

So, God says, "Walk carefully. Consider how carefully you live. Consider your way of life carefully." And so, when you put it all together, walking circumspectly, He's saying you're walking with precision. You're walking with exactness. Or in other words, you're not meandering around. You've got a point to life. You've got a purpose to life.

In fact, this word for circumspectly was actually a word that was used for accounting purposes way back in Greece. This was written in Greek. And it was an accounting term. And so, you've got to account for the way that you walk. And how do accountants work? And I don't know if you know any accountants; I do. Are they precise? Are they accurate? Are they exacting? Well, they better be or they'll lose their job. Right?

It's not like me going down the account in my bankbook and I say, "Is that a 10 or is that an extra zero on there? I'll just say it's a 100. That's a lot better for me. Right? Close enough." Well, it's going to bounce some checks and things like that if you consider it that way. So, you've got to be exact. You've got to be precise.

So, God's reminding us here that's the way we, as those who God is calling, that's got to be our way. We have to choose those steps carefully. And so as we're living this way, we're being careful. It comes back to our choice. Right? We have to choose those steps. They're not just going to happen automatically to be some great spiritual journey, because there's too many things out here that can derail us.

He says we've got to do it this way because of the world we live in. It is darkness out there. It is evil out here. And we can get taken in by that evil. Just a couple of verses later, it reminds us of that. There's a whole section of Scripture, about a chapter later, chapter 6, talks about the spiritual battle we're in. And so it is a war. And there is a minefield. And it is that type of a conflict that we're called to negotiate.

Now, of course, God is going to give us the directions. He's going to give us the help, and we've got to choose to do that. So just stroll along, or meander, or wander? Nobody does that through a minefield, do they? Nobody does that. You've got to be very cautious. You've got to be very careful.

In fact, you've got to be suspicious of every little thing that might be out there. And so, caution is the word that you've got to employ. In fact, there's lots of different guidelines for those who might have to go into areas like Afghanistan or Iraq or North Korea or places like that. And one of the biggest things about it is that they tell you, "Don't assume anything is safe. Don't assume anything is safe."

You don't play around with mines. You have to know about them. You have to learn about them. You have to understand how they work. The moment you think there could even be a possibility of something there, you've got to stop and you've got to carefully consider where you're at. Every movement has to be careful and precise and considered, otherwise it's going to be your life that's threatened by that. So you have to assess the situation.

And I think the apostle Paul is using that here in Ephesians just to remind us of that very fact. If we're going to play with danger, we're going to face some trouble. So we've got to pay attention. So, the careless walking is unacceptable when it comes to spiritually. So, how we spend that time becomes important as we walk in this life. And so, what is our perspective?

There's a Proverb that speaks to this. It's over in Proverbs 14:15. You want to take a look over there for just a moment. Proverbs 14:15 kind of hints at this whole aspect of if we're going to get on with it, we're going to strive to be a new spiritual creation, we begin by making sure we're on that path. We're allowing God to direct it and we're choosing that way.

So, Proverbs 14:15. It says, "The simple believes every word, but the prudent considers well his steps." The prudent considers well his steps. In other words, you're going to consider very carefully where you're going. You see, because most people, they're not concerned with the way they're walking. If you go back to Ephesians, in chapter 4, it talks about the way most people walk in this world. Most people, it says, are walking in futility.

There's a uselessness to the way they walk because it's not a spiritual walk. It talks about the futility of their minds. Chapter 4 verse 17 of Ephesians talks about that. Because if we're not deliberate, if we're not intentional, if we don't have carefulness, what does that imply?

Well, Paul just got done saying if we're not, we're not going to be able to turn on that light switch; we're going to miss it. And that darkness, that evil, is going to have that opportunity to overwhelm us. We're going to accidentally step on one of those mines and our spiritual life will be at risk. So, Paul says, "Don't meander." Don't meander.

Now, in the next verse, Ephesians 5:16, he gives us a second essential, a second requirement when it comes to the fact we're going to get to it. We're going to put God's way into practice. Verse 16 of chapter 5 says, "Redeeming the time because the days are evil." I don't think anybody would argue with the second part of that sentence there, because the days are evil. Do we live in an evil world? All you got to do is turn on the news and see all the difficult things that are going on. He points us to the fact that, for us, there's something that we need to do. We realize now is the time.

You know the old saying, "There's no time like the present." That's right. Everybody likes to get presents, but there's no time like the present. When it comes to recognizing that fact, we've got to realize now, now is the time. We can't put it off. We can't wait. He says, "We're to redeem that time." Redeem the time. That is an interesting word.

In Greek, that word was used when you would buy a slave off of the market. They would put the slaves up on a stage, up on a stand like this, and as they would auction them off, they would be redeemed. They would be bought out of slavery. And so, they'd be no longer in the marketplace.

And so, when you put that word, to redeem, to buy a slave out of the market, with time, we're to redeem the time, what is it that's in bondage? Well, it's not a person that's locked up; it's time. Time is in bondage. Time is locked up. And so, in this way, we're to take that time and make it our own. We're to make it our own. In other words, God gives us opportunities to use those moments, to use those hours, to use those days. They don't have to be locked away where we can't have access to them. And of course, the implication is as well, it's going to cost us something. Right? It's going to cost us something in order to get that time out of bondage.

How many times have you felt like, "My life is in bondage. I have to do this and I have to do that. And I have to work and I have to go there." We have all of these things that have locked up our time. And sometimes it does seem like we're enslaved. And yet, God says we've got to buy our way out of that, in a spiritual sense. You see, because this evil world really wants to lock us up.

So, if we just go to school. We just get a job. We start a family. We raise a family. We retire. We hope our health holds up while we're in retirement. We die. Okay, that's a normal life pattern. Certainly those things happen. But is there a way that that can happen in bondage and a way that is not in bondage? Is there a way that seizes those opportunities, realizing that now's the time to use our life in a way that honors God, so that He can continue to direct us and lead us? I think that's the implication that Paul is getting here. And of course today, have we got more time spent in bondage than maybe any other generation ever?

Maybe you don't think of it this way, but do you know how long the average person watches television in their lifetime? It's not hours, right? It's not days; it's years. How many years do you think the average person watches TV? 11 years. 11 years. Some estimates say 70% of our lifetime is spent in front of the television, computer, phone, digital media. Seventy percent of our life, waking time.

Is that bondage? Yeah, I think so. One of the things that reminded me of bondage. You can look these things up anywhere on Google, on the internet; they're all over in lots and lots of different studies. But one I ran across, it kind of took me back how much time in a life does a man spend staring at a woman. It caught my attention. Not just a particular woman, but women. Right?

How long do men stare at women during their lifetime? Well, you don't stare very long, do you guys? That's pretty weird. You wouldn't think so. It wouldn't seem like much. Over a year. Over year of an average man's life in darkness, in bondage, would spend a year wasted on that. And we don't think we're in bondage.

One of the things that reminded me of this. I've read another study. It's in numerous reports on the internet as well. It talked about just the time we spend laughing. Laughing is a good thing, isn't it? That's not time in bondage. That's great. That is wonderful.

How long do you think you laugh every day? Average. The average person laughs, how long do you think, every day? They say the average is six minutes. Six minutes, we laugh every day. Now, that seems like freedom, doesn't it? How long do you think they laughed in the '50s? Eighteen minutes average a day. That fact kind of jumped out at me, considering that. Are we enslaved? Do we find ourselves wasting opportunities? Do we need to buy some opportunities for eternal significance, rather than just useless pursuits?

See, that's the challenge. God's saying to us, "Here, grab every opportunity." Get to it. Get every opportunity to grow, to understand God's way, to know Him better, to be conformed to the image of His son. Rear our children to know and follow God's way. Invest not so much in the stock market and bonds, but invest in time. Invest the resource that every one of us have. To be good stewards of that time, so there's opportunities to give and to serve and to grow.

In a way, we're told here to purchase those opportunities. Buy those opportunities for the ultimate purpose, for the purpose of the kingdom of God. And of course, that cost, buying, is going to count for something that we've got to say, "Is that worth it? Is that really worth it?" Have you ever been at the store and said that? "What? They want that? How much do they want for that thing? I'm not paying that." Don't we have to do that? We have to come to the point that that activity in my life is not worth it. That is non-essential. That is dispensable. I don't need that. That is a secondary thing.

And there's certain areas of my life that this is so important, that this is non-negotiable. I'm not going to give up on the time that I spend with God. This is an unalterable commitment that I've made to follow God. And I'm not going back on that promise. So that means I've got to say no to some television. I've got to say no to my phone. I'm going to say no to answering every single little thing that comes up.

I've got to do that and make those choices in order to say, "Yes." Don't I? In order to say yes to doing the right things, in order to say, "Yes, I want to read God's Word," I've got to say no to wasting time doing something else, don't I? In order to say, "Yes, I want to spend time praying," then I better put my phone away and get down on my knees. So, I've got to say no to those selfish activities that want to pull me into this evil world and distract me from what's most important. So I can't waste the time. I can't even waste my money on those worthless things because I've got to say yes to the things that help me to walk the way that God wants me to walk.

And so, that becomes critical that now is the time. Now is the time to get to it. Now is the time to buy what's most important, what's essential, what's necessary. And so if you were to look up this “redeem” in a Greek dictionary, a lexicon, for example, Thayer's Greek Lexicon says this. It can mean “to buy up, to make wise and sacred use of every opportunity for doing good.” That's pretty amazing there, "to make wise and sacred use of every opportunity."

It goes on “to have the zeal and well-doing to purchase money by which we make the time our own.” That we have a zealousness to do well and we're going to take responsibility and will be accountable then to use our time well, to redeem that time, to make the best use of that time. We're going to make every hour count. We're going to take advantage of every opportunity. We're going to make the most of what life presents to us. And that's what it talks about when it talks about redeeming the time.

Who wants to be enslaved? Nobody wants to be enslaved. Now, Paul goes to a third essential, a third requirement. If we're going to get to it, if we're going to get into accomplishing what God would have us do in our life, verse 17 takes us to another necessity. It says in Ephesians 5:17, "Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is." Understand what the will of the Lord is. When we consider recognizing God's will, I think that's our third essential.

Recognizing God's will. Understanding what the will of the Lord is, that is an essential thing. It is the map, I think you could say, that's going to show us how to navigate our way through this minefield of life. It tells us where we're going. It tells us how to get there. It's foolish just to walk through without knowing where we're going. It is like that minefield. And to keep us safe, to keep us from the explosions that are going to occur, to keep us on course, without God's will, we're without a map, we're without a guide.

It's not just, "Well, it'll help me to get a good job when I grow up." That's not just what it's talking about. It's not just that, "Well, I need to know God's will so I get a better job or have a great career, or I'll marry a really beautiful person." No, it's something bigger than that. I think it ultimately ties in with the God's purpose itself. Recognize God's will. Understand what the will of the Lord is, so in our daily life that looks different than what daily life looks like for the average person out here in this dark, immoral world that we live in. Because it is a minefield.

I printed off...there's a number sites on the web that talk about negotiating minefields. Some of the instructions are really interesting. Especially when you consider how you can apply these to this life. How do you safely escape a minefield? Number one, it seems pretty obvious, but maybe it's not. The first thing is to scope out the situation, or maybe you think before acting. Think before acting. Look for signs that there are mines that are close by. Don't get caught off guard, right?

Why? Why do I have to look for the signs? Well, here's why. Most mines are hidden. Most mines are hidden. Is it that way in life? Especially those things that would derail us spiritually. It may not be that obvious. It may not be just right there before our eyes. Satan, we're told, is like an angel of light. This looks good. This looks right. But if I'm not careful, if I'm not looking for it, I'm going to find trouble. So, the directions, as we scope out the situation in life, we're told, "Don't let your guard down." Don't let your guard down, and it says, "Not even for a moment." Not even for a moment.

And so, look for the signs. So, you got to pay attention as you look ahead. They also give a lot of directions for, "Okay what do I do? I've scoped out the situation and now I'm right in the middle of it. Now what?" Well, the first thing they tell you is the moment you realize I'm surrounded by mines, what do you do? What would you do? "Well, I just keep walking right down." No, you're not going to do that. You freeze. Those are the instructions they give: "Stop. Don't take another step."

Those are the instructions that they give. They also say, "Reassess the situation." Right now, here's where I am. This is where I am in my life. Now, I better reassess. I better make sure that the next step isn't a wrong one. In fact, they point to the fact that without careful and considered movements, without formulating a plan, our life is at risk. Our life is at risk.

So they say, "Carefully." In fact, they say, "Ever carefully place your feet." In fact, sometimes they'll say, "If you can't find the way forward, place your feet exactly where you came from so you can get out." Which is really interesting. Sometimes that's the way life is. In fact, when you think about negotiating, "What do I know about negotiating a minefield? Well, a little bit I read on the internet."

But they talk about, are you going to be a soldier? You're going to go to one of these areas? Do you know what's required? They study how these mines are set. They study how they might look. They study trip lines. They study the fact to watch for these different things, if there's a dead animal. Would that be a clue? Maybe it stepped on a mine. You don't want to be there. They talk about those very things that you learn. You become educated. You look for the warning signs.

You see, if we don't become educated in God's way, how much more likely are we going to be at risk? You see, I think that's it. When we don't understand God's will, when we don't know His purpose, are we putting our own spiritual lives at risk? And I think that's exactly what we're told here. You can't assume, because I don't see a problem blatantly right there in front of my eyes, that it isn't there.

And so, if I'm unaware of what God's expectations, His goals for my life are, His path that He's shown that I should take, if I don't follow that and I'm oblivious to that, I do put my spiritual life at risk as well. And so, he tells us very clearly, recognize what God's will is. Become knowledgeable in that will. And recognize the ultimate purpose. When we understand the ultimate purpose and that ultimate goal, then that should set the tone for our life.

In fact, if we flip back a couple of pages, he talks about recognizing God's will. He says it a little bit differently, but at Chapter 3, look at verse 11. Ephesians 3:11, because this points ultimately to His purpose for human life. In verse 11, he talks about that eternal purpose, "According to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord." There is an eternal purpose that God has in mind for us.

In fact, skipping down just a little bit, if you look to verse 15, he says, "From whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named." So we have the opportunity to be a part of God's family, named after our great God. Verse 16 says “that He would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith."

So it's helping us to recognize what's God's will, what His purpose is. Because the ultimate purpose is to be a part of His family. He goes on and he says “that we may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width, the depth, or the length, and the depth and the height." Yeah, those are all directions, everything about God and His purpose.

Verse 19, "to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." So, to understand God's will, we recognize what that plan and what that purpose is all about, ultimately to be divine children in His family. And we're to walk in this darkened world understanding that very fact.

And does that change anything in our lives when we know we have the opportunity to be a part of the family of God forever in His family, divine children in His family? I mean, that should change everything. That should change every step that we walk, because of this amazing plan that God has opened our mind that we can begin to grasp that purpose and make that change in our life to live with it, to understand it, to live every day with that very purpose in mind.

And if we go back to chapter 5, he gives us a little insight how that looks then in our daily life, what does that appear like to understand that we're going to be filled with the fullness of God. We will be like God. We will be His children and His family.

Ephesians 5:27, he talks about that purpose. He talks about Christ. He says “that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish." Well, we could say, "Who's the church?" We're the church. We make up the church. We've been called out of this evil world, and not just called out but we've been brought together, that ekklesia means that. Called out, brought together, just like a citizen was called out of the general population, brought into an assembly where they were then the council that decided things for the city.

You see, we are called out of this evil world and brought together as a part of the church of God. And he says, because of that great calling, that should impact how we live, how we walk, realizing now is the time. He's saying that, as a part of this church, we're to be holy. We're to be without blemish. And understanding God's will, we recognize the fact if we're going to be that kind of an individual, does that mean I choose what I want, my way, when I want it, how I want it, where I'm going to walk, what I'm going to do, how I'm going to say it? You see, you can't. If I recognize God's will, it means I'm going to submit my will to His. I have to, if I'm going to follow His direction.

God has to be Lord over my life and not just over one step that way or one step – over all my life. I don't have any reserve areas. I don't have anything that I'm holding back. This verse here is reminding us that, if I'm going to seek to honor God and glorify Him, it needs to be according to God's will. Meaning that it's every thought. Meaning it's every attitude. Meaning it's every word. Meaning it's every action.

He's not using those words here, but how could you not have a spot, how could you not have a wrinkle if those thoughts aren't godly thoughts? Well, you're going to have wrinkles. You're going to have spots. If we're going to be holy and without blemish, then it has to be with our all. We've got to get to it and give it our all, honoring God with everything. And so, that submission of our will to God's will, to His way, it's so vital. It's so vital.

And it leads us to the other aspect of what that particular passage is talking about there as well. It's not just to submit, but we also have to commit ourselves into His hands, into His word. And not only that, do you recognize what else it's saying here in verse 27? It says Christ is presenting himself a glorious Church, and this Church, this group that has been called out and brought together are to be holy and without blemish.

If Christ is marrying the Church, He's working out this eternal purpose. And so, as individuals, don't we have to ask ourselves "How committed am I to the church?" Because it's not just about me; it's about us. It's about the bride. It's about all of us together. Yeah, I've got individual responsibilities, no doubt. But if I'm not committed to His Church, if I'm not committed to His people, if I have a lackadaisical attitude, a careless attitude, a half-hearted connection with the Church, is it fair to say, "I'm really recognizing God's will"? Is it fair to say, "I'm really walking in the way that God is directing me"? Is it really fair to say that I'm utilizing the time in the way that God would most want me to?

You see, I don't think we can claim that. Because in a way, what he's saying by these words, submitting and committing ourselves as a Church, to the Church, to each other, we're showing a unity that only God can have. That only by God's Spirit can we demonstrate the unity that God the Father and Jesus Christ have, and we emulate that in the Church. And so, we are committed to each other. We're committed to the Church. In fact, he talks a lot about this in the whole book of Ephesians.

Just a couple of pages back, if you go over to chapter 2 verse 19, chapter 2 in verse 19, he mentions this in a little bit different way, but you can see how this connects in chapter 2 and recognize what he says here, beginning in verse 19. Ephesians 2:19, he says, "Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God." So we're God's house; we're His children.

Verse 20: "We've been built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit." And so, it becomes pretty clear. You see, God's working an amazing purpose. He's doing amazing things with us.

And He says, "There is a job. There's a mission for us. There's a job for the Church. There's a job for each and every one of us." And that is to accomplish His will in the Church and in our lives. And by doing that very thing, we recognize God's will. We declare His will. We show His will. We live His will. And it is a powerful, powerful thing.

If we go to chapter 3 verse 10, he zeros in on this very thing, recognize the importance of our part in His body, in the Church, in that temple that is growing. He says, Ephesians 3:10, "To the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places."

You see, part of God's intent, as we walk this way of life, as we choose His way, and as we buy that time out of useless wasted time, doing it for God's purposes, for His reasons, making that commitment submitted to His will, as the Church, we recognize His will; we recognize what it says here, "the manifold wisdom of God." And then what does that allow us to do? He says that leads us then to a proclamation. He says that that “manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in heavenly places," which is even more than just the principalities and powers of this world.

He's saying that understanding God's will, submitting to it, being committed to it, he says that wisdom of God becomes evident in heavenly places. He's talking about the spiritual hosts here, right? Read that again. It says, "To the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church." So the Church is making this known, God's wisdom. God's receiving the honor. He is receiving that praise by our actions, by what we do, to the extent that the angelic realm becomes aware of it.

Do you think that's a powerful thing? That's an amazing thing. And I wouldn't be surprised if that's also known on the other end of the spectrum, on the evil side of the principalities. Because a little later in Ephesians, Paul talks about we're battling spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. We're battling demonic powers. Are we making known the wisdom of God as they look upon us, as they look upon the church? Is it evident that we are submitted and committed to God's will? Wow! That's what is expected from us.

And when we submit our lives to God's Holy Spirit, that's the power, I believe, that is unleashed in us. And then collectively within the Church, that is an unstoppable power. And of course, it's not our power; it's by God's Spirit, right? It's by God's Spirit these things can be accomplished. And so, there's this amazing calling that we have, to get out of this dangerous world, this darkened age that we live in, and recognize that now is the time. You see, now is the time to be more fully committed to God and His way.

And as we negotiate through life, I think, with these three essentials, it's going to lead us down that right path and keep us out of spiritual danger. Because we're not going to just aimlessly walk. We're going to have a purpose. We have a direction. We have a goal. We have a destination. We are certainly recognizing the fact that we can't wait. We can't wait. We have to be on the goal. We have to be on that path, and now is that time for God and His way. And so, we got to recognize that will of God. We've got to put it into practice in our life.

And so, as we do these very things, I think it points to the fact that now is the time. Now is the time to take that opportunity that God has called us to. And what a great opportunity that is. It realizes the fact that we can do this. With the help of God and with His Holy Spirit, we recognize it is the time. Now is the time to make the most of every single opportunity. So, let's get to it.

That will do it for our study for this evening. I'm glad you were able to join us tonight. This will conclude our series on The Time is Now.

In January, just a couple weeks from now, it sounds like way next year – that's just in a couple weeks – we're going to start our new series. We're going to begin a series on the 10 Commandments. And so, we hope you'll join us for our next biweekly Bible study in just a couple weeks in January. So, I look forward to seeing you then.