read aloud as the foundational passage establishing the feast of Sukkot
33 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
34 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say, ‘On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the feast of tents for seven days to Yahweh.
35 On the first day shall be a holy convocation: you shall do no regular work.
36 Seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh. On the eighth day shall be a holy convocation to you; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh. It is a solemn assembly; you shall do no regular work.
37 “‘These are the appointed feasts of Yahweh, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh, a burnt offering, and a meal offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, each on its own day—
38 besides the Sabbaths of Yahweh, and besides your gifts, and besides all your vows, and besides all your freewill offerings, which you give to Yahweh.
39 “‘So on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruits of the land, you shall keep the feast of Yahweh seven days: on the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest.
40 You shall take on the first day the fruit of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God seven days.
41 You shall keep it as a feast to Yahweh seven days in the year. It is a statute forever throughout your generations. You shall keep it in the seventh month.
42 You shall dwell in temporary shelters for seven days. All who are native-born in Israel shall dwell in temporary shelters,
read aloud as a second foundational passage on the feast of weeks
9 You shall count for yourselves seven weeks. From the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain you shall begin to count seven weeks.
10 You shall keep the feast of weeks to Yahweh your God with a tribute of a freewill offering of your hand, which you shall give, according as Yahweh your God blesses you.
11 You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God: you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are among you, in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there.
12 You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt. You shall observe and do these statutes.
Brian says Jesus uses the word 'know' seven times and illustrates with a fig tree about knowing the season of his return
1 Jesus went out from the temple, and was going on his way. His disciples came to him to show him the buildings of the temple.
2 But he answered them, “You see all of these things, don’t you? Most certainly I tell you, there will not be left here one stone on another, that will not be thrown down.”
3 As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? What is the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age?”
4 Jesus answered them, “Be careful that no one leads you astray.
5 For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will lead many astray.
6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you aren’t troubled, for all this must happen, but the end is not yet.
7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there will be famines, plagues, and earthquakes in various places.
8 But all these things are the beginning of birth pains.
9 Then they will deliver you up to oppression, and will kill you. You will be hated by all of the nations for my name’s sake.
10 Then many will stumble, and will deliver up one another, and will hate one another.
11 Many false prophets will arise, and will lead many astray.
12 Because iniquity will be multiplied, the love of many will grow cold.
13 But he who endures to the end, the same will be saved.
14 This Good News of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.
15 “When, therefore, you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand),
16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
17 Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take out the things that are in his house.
18 Let him who is in the field not return back to get his clothes.
19 But woe to those who are with child and to nursing mothers in those days!
20 Pray that your flight will not be in the winter, nor on a Sabbath,
21 for then there will be great oppression, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever will be.
22 Unless those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved. But for the sake of the chosen ones, those days will be shortened.
23 “Then if any man tells you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ,’ or, ‘There,’ don’t believe it.
24 For there will arise false christs, and false prophets, and they will show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the chosen ones.
25 “Behold, I have told you beforehand.
26 If therefore they tell you, ‘Behold, he is in the wilderness,’ don’t go out; ‘Behold, he is in the inner rooms,’ don’t believe it.
27 For as the lightning flashes from the east, and is seen even to the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
28 For wherever the carcass is, that is where the vultures gather together.
29 But immediately after the oppression of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken;
30 and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. Then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.
31 He will send out his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together his chosen ones from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.
32 “Now from the fig tree learn this parable. When its branch has now become tender, and produces its leaves, you know that the summer is near.
33 Even so you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
34 Most certainly I tell you, this generation will not pass away, until all these things are accomplished.
35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
36 But no one knows of that day and hour, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
37 “As the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
38 For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ship,
39 and they didn’t know until the flood came, and took them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
40 Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and one will be left.
41 Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and one will be left.
42 Watch therefore, for you don’t know in what hour your Lord comes.
43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what watch of the night the thief was coming, he would have watched, and would not have allowed his house to be broken into.
44 Therefore also be ready, for in an hour that you don’t expect, the Son of Man will come.
45 “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his lord has set over his household, to give them their food in due season?
46 Blessed is that servant whom his lord finds doing so when he comes.
47 Most certainly I tell you that he will set him over all that he has.
48 But if that evil servant should say in his heart, ‘My lord is delaying his coming,’
49 and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eat and drink with the drunkards,
50 the lord of that servant will come in a day when he doesn’t expect it, and in an hour when he doesn’t know it,
51 and will cut him in pieces, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites. That is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be.
Brian reads it as a picture of dwelling in God's shelter: 'those who dwell in the shelter of the most high will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty'
1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
read aloud as the transfiguration account, connecting Peter's offer to build shelters to the feast of Sukkot
1 He said to them, “Most certainly I tell you, there are some standing here who will in no way taste death until they see God’s Kingdom come with power.”
2 After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John, and brought them up onto a high mountain privately by themselves, and he was changed into another form in front of them.
3 His clothing became glistening, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them.
4 Elijah and Moses appeared to them, and they were talking with Jesus.
5 Peter answered Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let’s make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
6 For he didn’t know what to say, for they were very afraid.
7 A cloud came, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”
8 Suddenly looking around, they saw no one with them any more, except Jesus only.
9 As they were coming down from the mountain, he commanded them that they should tell no one what things they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
10 They kept this saying to themselves, questioning what the “rising from the dead” meant.
11 They asked him, saying, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”
12 He said to them, “Elijah indeed comes first, and restores all things. How is it written about the Son of Man, that he should suffer many things and be despised?
13 But I tell you that Elijah has come, and they have also done to him whatever they wanted to, even as it is written about him.”
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Brian wrapped up Tribe's twenty-one day focus on Israel by introducing the feast of Sukkot, one of seven annual feasts God established in scripture. He walked the room through what Sukkot is, why Tribe pays attention to these feasts at all, and what it might look like to actually practice it this week.
What was said
Coming out of COVID, Brian said he felt the Lord pressing him not to chase the world's frantic rhythm of making up for lost time, but to get onto God's rhythm instead. That rhythm, he said, is spelled out in the seven annual feasts the Lord establishes in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. These aren't Jewish religious festivals in the sense of belonging to one group. The text calls them "my feasts," says the Lord, and Brian argued they are an open invitation to anyone who follows him.
He gave three reasons God invites the church into these feasts. The first is to remember. Our brains forget how God has come through before, and that forgetting drains us of confidence when the next hard thing arrives. Honoring these feasts is a structured way to fight that drift.
The second reason is to recalibrate. Several people in the room spoke to this one. Kathy brought up the "tare" function on a kitchen scale, the button that zeroes out the weight of the bowl so you can measure only what matters. Brian connected that image to moments in the gospels where Jesus essentially pressed that button on people following him, stripping away the extra weight not to shame them but because he is, as Brian put it, "relentlessly and ruthlessly and passionately committed to removing anything from the scale that does not belong."
The third reason is to rehearse. Brian turned to Mark 9 and the transfiguration, where Peter sees Jesus in glory alongside Moses and Elijah and blurts out that they should build three shelters. Brian argued Peter was not just rambling. Having rehearsed Sukkot his whole life, Peter's instinct was to ask whether this was the literal fulfillment of the feast, the moment of dwelling with God in his glory. That, Brian said, is exactly what rehearsal is for. The feasts are a practice run for a future day when Jesus returns and his people dwell with him permanently.
Sukkot itself, the feast of shelters or tabernacles, commemorates the period when Israel wandered in the wilderness and God provided everything they needed without a house, a stable income, or any of the structures people normally lean on. The practice is to build a simple outdoor shelter, eat in it, sleep in it if you can, and let the physical discomfort remind you that if you have God you have what you need. Brian closed with Psalm 91 verse one, "those who dwell in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty," and said the feast is meant to make that verse something you have felt in your body, not just read on a page.
The gathering ended with an invitation for the Tribe family to camp together at Granite Creek that Wednesday through Friday, and Brian encouraged everyone to take a daily Sukkot guide on the way out and to build a sukkah at home, even if it is just in the living room while the rain passes.
Touch points
Things you could actually do this week.
Build a simple sukkah this week, even if it is just in your living room, and spend some time sitting in it.
Use the daily guide from Sunday to read the verse, do the activity, and sit with the question for each day of Sukkot.
Come out to the camping trip at Little Granite Creek on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday evening, even if only to bring food and share in the worship.
Pick something you have been holding onto from your past and, as Brian put it, leave it in the rearview mirror rather than dragging it into the week ahead.
Set aside a few minutes each day this week to be still before the Lord and ask him what he wants to recalibrate in your life right now.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
Brian talked about coming out of COVID and how the instinct was to put the pedal to the metal and make up for lost time rather than pause and process. Have you felt that pressure in your own life, and what did it cost you?
Three reasons were given for why God invites us into his feast rhythm: to remember, to recalibrate, and to rehearse. Which of those three do you find hardest to actually do, and why?
Brian comenzó hablando sobre los veintiún días de oración e intercesión por Israel que la congregación acababa de terminar. Varios miembros compartieron lo que vivieron durante ese tiempo: desde dejar el Netflix y descubrir nuevos hábitos espirituales, hasta sentir el peso de los eventos proféticos que están ocurriendo en el mundo hoy. Brian conectó todo esto con la idea de que Dios tiene un ritmo propio, un calendario de fiestas establecidas siete veces al año, y que después del COVID muchos estaban corriendo sin parar intentando recuperar el tiempo perdido en lugar de detenerse a escuchar al Señor.
El tema central del sermón fue la fiesta de Sucot, la fiesta de los tabernáculos o enramadas. Brian explicó que Dios instituyó estas fiestas con tres propósitos: recordar su provisión y fidelidad en el pasado, recalibrarse para volver a alinearse con lo que importa a Dios en el presente, y ensayar un cumplimiento futuro literal, el día en que Jesús regrese y habitemos con él para siempre. Usó el pasaje de la transfiguración en Marcos para mostrar que Pedro, al ver a Jesús en su gloria, reaccionó como alguien que reconoció el momento como el posible cumplimiento de Sucot, porque toda su vida lo había estado ensayando. Como congregación, Tribe planea pasar varios días acampando juntos esa semana para celebrar la fiesta de forma práctica y comunitaria.
Un momento especialmente emotivo fue cuando un joven llamado Caleb compartió su deseo de morir al yo y caminar en el poder del Espíritu Santo, y Brian oró por él, diciéndole que sentía que el Señor lo estaba transformando de conquistador en sanador.
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Pasajes bíblicos utilizados
Levítico 23:33-42
Deuteronomio 16:9-12
Marcos 9:1-13
Salmos 91:1
Read the full transcript11,720 words
Everybody fill up your coffee. Grab a donut. We're gonna get started. Well, welcome if you're joining us of to name We're the in of I know. Is it is it okay?
One, two, three. Eyes on
me. Let
me pray for us. I am. Lord Jesus, we welcome you in this place today. We say come and meet us. Without you, it's just words.
It's just noise. But with you, today to come and speak to us. Come rest on us today. What a bummer it would be to get up on a Sunday when we could sleep in on a great day and just check some weird box that thinks that we're doing something that pleases you without actually meeting with you, Lord. So we come here expected to meet you in this place.
Your word says that wherever two or more are gathered, you are there in the midst, so come, rest on us today. Touch those places that are wounded. Touch those places that are hurting. Touch those deep, places we think are hidden from you. You know, every intricate part of us.
You've known our first day and you know our last here on this earth. You know the day we'll see you face to face. We give it all to you, Jesus. But before we even sing a note, we just say we just lay it all at the foot of your cross again, Jesus. Just take a minute with your eyes closed this morning.
Just tell him you love him this morning. I just think of the lyrics to one of the songs that we're gonna sing in a little bit that just says, I came here with nothing but all you've given me. So we just acknowledge that we come in here today as just vessels to hear you, to be you. Come rest on us today. In Jesus' name.
Let's stand up together. Remind yourself. We thank you for your goodness. All the time, your goodness. Lord, even when it seems like we're in oppressing or crushing, you're doing a new thing.
Yes, lord. You're doing a new thing in us today. We give you permission. You know that you can look at a cup of water. I was just thinking this because my mouth is so dry and my water's sitting right there, but my hands are busy.
And I was just thinking, no, you can know all day long there's a glass of water that will quench your thirst. Right? You can know that. And you can even believe it and have experienced it. But unless you actually drink the water, it does nothing for you.
It's just how it works. So, when the when we sing these words, if we mean it with our hearts, something happens in the supernatural when we worship. It's like drinking a cold glass of water just in faith. We ask right now that even in the pressing or the crushing that some of us in this room might be going through or have experienced. Lord, you're making new wine if we drink the water midst of it.
Because the world can go through pressing and crushing as well. Bitterness of pray that
pray pray
fire with our hair reeking in of smoke. We wanna come out with the fragrance of Jesus. Amen? So let's just sing this today and just offer yourself as a sacrifice today. Offer your worship to him.
Jesus, bring new wine Maybe while we're singing that or while you're worshiping, maybe the lord is speaking to your heart today. Maybe it's just for you and maybe it's something for you to share as we're gathered here. You know that the lord speaks to everyone of us when we gather not just with the microphone, right? Sometimes, he gives us a picture, a word, a scripture, maybe an encouragement. Maybe he's bringing something to mind that's relevant for someone else, that someone in this body that's gathered here today needs to hear today.
The Lord can use you to speak. And
wept. But do you know the second shortest verse? It's in Luke chapter seventeen thirty two. Remember Lot's wife. And if you recall in Genesis, God allowed Lot, his wife, and two daughters to be spared before he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
And he told them one little simple thing, do not look back. But Lot's wife couldn't handle that, look back and turn into a pillar of salt. And because she wasn't with her daughters, her daughters made bad decisions. And I think sometimes we we have the illusion that it's okay to glance in the rearview mirror as we go forward. I would say, rip that rearview mirror off the glass, put the pedal to the metal, and let's let's go forward with God's plan, with God's word, and be vigilant and stop worrying about our past because our past is gone.
Our sins are forgiven as far as the East from the West. Put the pedal to the metal, go forward, let's make a difference. It's good to know.
When he said that, I think of in Lion King where I think it's Rafiki. They're talking about something in the past, and Rafiki takes his stick, and Simba's like, what? But we we gotta go back, and he's he's moving on to his destiny. Rafiki is trying to get him in his head like, we gotta move forward, and he's not getting it. Rafiki takes a stick and just whacks him on the head.
So he says, what was that for? Rafiki says, it does not matter. It's just in
the past. I feel like
sometimes the Lord's, like, trying to whack us with a stick like, stop. I'm trying to do a new thing.
Lord, I thank you that you give us opportunity to replace our old containers of wine with new wineskins. You tell us the way to that is renew your mind day by day. Renewing your mind. Some of us might not know what that means, but, Lord, it's you've given us the recipe for victory that is held within the pages of your word. I pray that your word come alive to every single person in this room today and the people whose families they represent.
I pray for are represented by the people in this room today. I pray that your word come alive. It is living. It is active, Lord. And I pray that we each replace our old wine wineskins, our old ideas of how things are supposed to go with a new wineskin that will hold the new move of your spirit today.
Let us not look back in our rearview mirrors of our lives. Let us not hold on to those failures that we tend to cling to. Lord, we leave those failures behind. They have been thrown into the sea of forgetfulness. Help us never to remind you of those again.
Help us never to remind ourselves of those again. And may we go forward like arrows in your sling. Sling us far, Lord. Sling us far.
We ask that we would experience revelation today, that we would leave here changed because we've been with you. Thank you that your design is to leave the past in the past and old stuff in the in the past and the new stuff you poured into new wineskins. Your word says that if you pour new wine into old wineskins, you lose both. The old wineskin bursts and the new wine is spilled out. So maybe there's people in here today that you're trying, and they're receiving the new wine.
They see moving and working, but they can't figure out why they're not experiencing the change of the new wine. And maybe it's because they've put you in some kind of container or some kind of box that is not meant to hold a new thing. So you're trying to renew our minds, Lord, and how you wanna move in this new situation. And I just wanna pray over anybody in this room. And my heart is so heavy this morning during worship that maybe there's just people in this room I know life is hard, and it's easy to say you are good, you are good.
But then in the back of your mind, you're looking backwards and then yeah, but how? Like, do you know that thing that happened in my life? Like, I I believe that you're good. You're good. But how?
And I just feel like the Lord just wants to reveal himself in a new mighty healing way today for past hurts so that you can once and for all heal and leave it in the past. Not because it's didn't happen and not because it's not important and not because the Lord doesn't care and not because he didn't see it. He was there. And how he feels about it is he took it to the cross, and he nailed it there. So Lord, come and touch our festival that is it's a feast that you designed We want to dwell in you, god.
Show us and teach us what that means to dwell in your presence in all that we do. We tell you we love you in Jesus name, and everybody said, amen. Alright. Fill up your coffee.
Great to see you guys this morning. Fall is ground down for the season. I am envious, but this is the time of year when I always get envious because I'm like, I see pictures, you know, of like like filling their freezers full of meat and there's a part of me that gets jealous and then right on the heels of that every time I always ask myself, well, Brian, how many times have you gone out hunting yet this season? I'll never I'll never fill my freezer if I don't go out. That's what I have to, like, tell myself.
And I have a late season tag, my season starts later. But I'm super excited for those of you who have already gotten the brown down for the season. And for those of you who have yet to fill your freezer, your time has come. Amen? Amen.
Maybe the only thing better than filling your tag is if you've got a friend with a really small freezer. Yeah. It's like a friend with it's like the only thing better than a boat is a friend with a boat. Yeah. Right.
Or anything better than a hot tub is a friend with a new hot tub. Is that an opening invite? No. For for the Summers. Heidi Summers, I'll give you their address.
Okay, guys. If you're brand new to Tribe, this is not an open mic in a bar. This is a church service. And here at Tribe, we we love Jesus. We love pouring out our affections on him.
We love to be loved by him. We love to be corrected and disciplined by him, maybe not in the moment, but on the other side of that. We love to pour out our lives in extravagance at his feet, and we love to love what he loves. And this past Friday, we just ended twenty one days for Israel's, what we called it, and it was a twenty one day journey of making room in our hearts for the Lord to speak to us about his heart for Israel. And I know that that some of you, you may be just now hearing about this journey.
It's okay. Some of you may have been with us on the entire twenty one day journey. Some of you may have dropped in at other times of either denying yourself or fasting from food in order to make room in your heart for Israel. But that journey ended, or hopefully it just began, on Friday. And so I'd love to check-in with you to find out maybe something that you learned or something that was exposed in your heart or something something that you got out of these twenty one days for Israel as we as as a segue to tie a bow on the twenty one days for Israel and about today and this coming week.
So with that in mind, we have a mic, as you saw, get passed around the room. And Lissa said this during worship, we really want this to be more of a dialogue than just a monologue. Even though I have a mic, a mic can be put in front of you as well, and we would love to hear your questions, your comments, and your connections. And by connections, I mean, as we get into today's content, if there's something that's on your mind like, oh my gosh, that reminds me of a bible verse over here. That reminds me of something that I heard over there.
Those are great connections and when you make that connection and share it with us, we get to be in on the fund as well. So with that in mind, I'd love to hear maybe from just a few of you, what is something that you got out of this twenty one day journey for Israel? What do you got? Cats scanning the room.
So I guess at the beginning of past, I was really hesitant. Was like, I really wanna give up Netflix. Was like, ugh. Call grumpy about it. And then as, like, the path progressed and, like, I had taken Netflix out of my life and a couple other things, I realized, like, oh, if I can take this thing out of my life, I can take out going out to bars.
I can take out other things. I can start doing bible study. And it helped me really, like, realize how to, like, grow in that faith and what what the lord wants to take out of it. Take out my life.
That's pretty cool. That's cool. I'm reminded there's during this twenty one days, it wasn't like a part of our, like, collective journey. But listen, I watched that movie Schindler's List. It's an old movie directed by Steven Spielberg.
And at the end of the movie, he is considering all of the material stuff in his life compared to what he had spent the last two years doing of essentially buying Jews out of concentration camps and bringing them to his factory to work in his it's the end of the movie and essentially it's the end of his life because he was a member of the Nazi party and he's about to be arrested and we don't know his fate. But he was like at at the end of his life essentially, he's like, oh my gosh. I could have been more extravagant. This watch, these cufflinks, this suit, this car, like, could have spent my life in such a different way. Would be to God that all of us could have a a consciousness and awareness of how we spend our energies in light of eternity.
Mhmm. I
was just struck at one point, probably about halfway through.
Hi, Carla. And we'll talk with her. Yeah. She didn't talk. Oh, wow.
But just as we as I was, like, denying myself things, like, removing these things to make room for Israel, it was so easy for so, like, kinda fill that time or that space in my life with other things. Like, oh, I took, like, took this out, but it's almost like when you're digging a hole on the beach and you're, like, for a while, you're making progress and chucking sand out. And then slowly, the sand just starts to, like, fill back in and you're trying to Mhmm. But, yeah, learning how to, like, kind of get reinforcements in place so that so that you still have that space and, like, be I think for me, it was learning how to be intentional about still carving that out and not letting the wrong things kind of fill that space.
Yeah. Yep. That's that's so good. Yes, Shuler. You can share.
We want you to.
Fasting this season and really just coming before the Lord and asking him to bring clarity as it relates to Israel, as it relates to Jerusalem. It was an intense time, really, where where it's like this whole biblical narrative is rushing towards the coming day of the Lord. The establishment of the king of Israel, the king everlasting, the king of kings to Jerusalem. And and to what was really, really pressing for me was that to not understand that and to not really be able to appreciate where this whole thing goes and why. Those those those I don't know.
I mean, that type of of naivete Mhmm. Is no longer something just to be comfortable in, but to be absolutely intentional in actually understanding the coming of the returning king to Jerusalem. And just the yeah. I'll stop there. But it was an intense time, a beautiful time.
But a sobering time as well because it's not just cotton candy anymore. Mhmm.
The Bible says that in a lot of different places that you can put together in the generation of the Lord's return, the generation that's alive on planet Earth when Jesus comes back. The Bible says in a lot of different places that there will be an increase of awareness of and and discovery of, like, what is God up to in passages that have, for generations, seemed mystical or cryptic or unsearchable or unfathomable, God said that before that happens, there will be an increase of revelation of what he's up to. And around the world today, we can see an increase of knowledge and understanding of book books like Revelation, Daniel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, these these passages that that twenty five hundred years ago and longer, these prophets saw glimpses way into the future of the coming king and the returning king, and the generation that would be alive at his return would have this stirred up heart. And I believe that's part of what God was doing on taking our tribe fan through this twenty one day journey. And if you remember during if you're if you're savvy to to current events or world news at all, within the last twenty one days, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed The United Nations.
And and if how many of you are familiar with the game of chess? Like, I barely know the moves and, like, my dog could probably beat me. But but interestingly enough, with certain pieces on the chessboard, you wanna move or maneuver them into position. They may make three or four or five different moves before they are ever of any strategic value. But once they are in position, they just hang out there.
Maybe that bishop, he just slides out over there and he's just hanging off in the periphery, but then several moves later because like like a really good chess player, which is everybody that would play me, knows that that that particular piece doesn't really have any impact on the play of the game yet. But as their opponent begins to try to make their moves, all of a sudden that key piece is in position ready to be put into play. And I would say to you, two thousand years ago, Jesus said that he would come back. And for two thousand years, probably many, if not every generation of Jesus loving Christian thought, is this the generation of the Lord's return? But really, it wasn't until 1948 that Israel was even made a nation, and some of these other prophecies that have been spoken about in the bible could even consider to be fulfilled.
But if you just look at even what Benjamin Netanyahu said in his address, the Abraham Peace Accord normalizing relations with countries like Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Oman. It's pieces on the chessboard. There really aren't too many more pieces on the chessboard that need to be pre positioned in order for incredible earth history changing events to unfold. We're on the cusp of that. And if you sit there and say, well, I don't like it.
That that sounds scary. I would encourage you to dip your toes in the water of the return of the Lord because it's the single greatest season of triumph the church has ever known, number one. Number two, in Matthew 24, Jesus says seven different times that word know. You we are commanded to know the season of the Lord's return, and then he goes on and uses an illustration of a fig tree. So things are happening, guys.
I think one of the biggest things of fasting that I've learned about, not necessarily this time going through it, but in the past is that if you dwell on what you're giving up, you'll be you'll fail.
Yeah. I
think that if you focus you're you're you're literally substituting physical food for spiritual food. And if you concentrate on the the the spiritual food, the physical food just fades away. You stop thinking about it, and you're able to focus on what I think God really wants you to focus on in making life changing decisions moving forward. So I think you need to refocus and make sure that you're that that you are focused on the right things, which is spiritual.
I love it. It's a great segue into the conversation that we're going to have today about about focusing on what the Lord wants us to focus on. If you're taking notes this morning, you can write the title of the conversation that we're gonna have at the top of your notes. Okay, Renee. Good job, Renee.
So you just so for the rest of the you take notes and then for the rest of the class look at me. Oh, it's gross. I have to turn my head that far. She's a no. You can write.
No.
Had my glasses in, like, three weeks. So, like, every week, the font on my notes has to get a little bigger and a little bigger. You want a pair Come back soon. What? Do you need a pair of beading glasses?
No.
I I mean, set them up here. You can write the title of this morning's conversation that we're gonna have at the top of your notes, the world's first selfie. That's where we're going in our conversation. The world's first selfie. And last week, we on Friday, we just finished twenty one days for Israel.
We're going to keep a similar theme going by talking about the feast of Sukkot. This is one of the fall feasts that God established a long, long time ago.
We're quite done.
Everybody see it. Not strong enough. Thank you. A feast called Sukkot. So if you have your Bible with you, we're gonna look at two foundational passages.
The first one is in Leviticus chapter 23 verse 33 through 42. And would somebody read that? And then we're gonna go to Deuteronomy. Well, let's read the first one first. Leviticus 23.
Would somebody read that verses 33 through 42? You know it's a good time when we go to the book of Leviticus. Yeah. Preacher joke.
33. Okay.
Verse 33. Next page. The festival of shelters.
Quick question. How many more weeks do we have you guys?
Verse 33. And the Lord said to Moses, give the following instructions to the people of Israel. Begin celebrating the festival of shelters on the fifteenth day of the appointed month, five days after the day of atonement. This festival to the Lord will last for seven days. On the first day of the festival, you must proclaim an official day for holy assembly when you do no ordinary work.
For seven days, you must present special gifts to the Lord. The eighth day is another holy day on which you present your special gifts to the Lord. This will be a solemn occasion, and no ordinary work may be done that day. These are the Lord's appointed festivals. Celebrate them each year as official days for holy assembly by presenting special gifts to the Lord, burnt offerings, offering offerings, sacrifices, and liquid offerings for each on its proper day.
These festivals must be observed in addition to the Lord's regular Sabbath days, and the offerings are in are in addition to your personal gifts, the offerings you give to fulfill your vows and the voluntary offerings you present to the Lord. Remember that this seven day festival to the Lord, the festival of shelters, begins on the fifteenth day of the appointed month after you have harvested all the produce of the land.
Quick pause. So everything that led up to what he just said sounds a little religious, litigious, and and Suspicious. Suspicious. No. A little a little, like, out of context.
Like like, how many of you are, like, you know, like like, harvesting the wheat right now? Like, none none of us are really harvesting wheat or doing green things. We wanna harvest elk and deer, but, like, we're not really, like, plowing fields or things like that. But what he just said about this feast, the idea of bringing gifts to the Lord, okay, that we can relate. And then what he's about to say gets more relatable.
The first day and the eighth day of the festival will
be days of completed rest. On the first day, gather branches from magnificent trees, palm fronds, boughs from leafy trees, and willows that grow by the streams. Then celebrate with joy before the Lord for seven days. You must observe this festival to the Lord for seven days every year. This is a permanent law for you, and it must be observed in the appointed month from generation to generation.
For seven days, you must live outside in little shelters. All native born Israelites must live in shelters.
Okay. Make a shelter decorated with leafy branch. Make it pretty. Have fun with this. But for seven days, you're to live outside in a tent, in a booth to remind you.
He said something specific what it's supposed to remind us of. But before we answer that question, let's go to the next passage. We bring these two passages together. Deuteronomy 16. Would somebody please read verse nine through 12?
And as I'm turning there oh, I got my bookmark right here to pucks. Yes. That is you. Come come this way real quick. I have something for you.
It was my bookmark for Deuteronomy. Turned 12 yesterday. Happy birthday. You can show him.
That's specific for the podcast.
Is it right?
For the podcast, the bookmark said this sticker that says, tell your dog, I said hi. Deuteronomy chapter 16 verse nine through 12. Yeah.
Deuteronomy sixteen nine through 12. You shall count seven weeks for yourself. Begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain. Then you shall keep the feast of weeks to the Lord your God with a tribute of free will offering from your hand, which you shall give give as the Lord your God blesses you. You shall rejoice before the Lord your God, and your son, and your daughter, and your male servant, and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates.
The stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow who are among you at the place where the Lord your God chooses to make his name abide. And you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and that you shall be careful to observe these statutes.
Okay. So these two passages, you can read them over and over. You can chew on them. These there are there are lots of places that the feast of Sukkot is mentioned, but these two give us a a a firm foundation of the the the biblical origins for this feast. Okay.
So I know what you might be thinking. Why are we doing this? Why are we talking about this? To give you a little bit of background, we all here in Jackson, it kind of went through it kind of went there were ripple effects around the world as it were as it was rolling out, but COVID hit us like the spring of twenty twenty. And we had quarantines, our spring break was rotten.
They even closed Moab, which is weird. But at the time, when we were sheltering in place and you were either quarantined alone or some of us were quarantining because, like, we can't stand not to do life together. And so we're like, just don't tell anybody, but, like, y'all come on over to our house or a church on Sunday. But don't let Tim Better stand near the mic where you could sing and everybody heard it. Remember when we were having church at our house and our refrigerator almost caught on fire?
That that was Oh my yeah. That's a different story. But anyways, the whole world went through a very traumatic event, and there were a lot of really unfortunate deaths, and there were a lot of businesses that went under, and we were all glued to the news about seeing, like, soccer stadiums in Italy being filled with, like, body bags. And and it was it was something, like, you were spraying your vegetables down, and, like, you were, like, trying to hold your breath in the grocery store, and, like, none of us really knew what was going on or what to do, what was the extent of this, and there was so much conflicting information. It's a government conspiracy.
No. It's very real. Stay at home. No. Go, like, open mouth kiss everybody you can.
Like like, I mean, there was just so much. Who gave you that? I did.
That was that that
was my advice. Understood that. Yeah. Like like, let's just build immunity. And so there was there was the world went through a very traumatic event.
As we emerged from COVID, the world tried to, and especially the church world, and especially the church here in America, tried to pick up right where we left off. Some churches closed their doors permanently. Other churches had their numbers drastically reduced. Some churches were just trying to get traction, and they never made it through COVID and folded. Other churches that were had been around for a hundred years didn't make it through COVID.
Other churches are scrambling, trying to get their parishioners back to church. And as the world emerged from COVID, it wasn't a collective sigh of relief. It was this collective crack of the whip to try to make up for lost ground. And I don't think it's was common just or or unique to just the church world. I think all of us were trying to make up for lost ground.
We gotta go see family. We gotta make up for lost business. We gotta make up for for lost time. We gotta go go go go go without ever really taking any amount of time to pause and say, well, that was really intense what we went through as a global society and community. And have you even had time to process maybe a a a relative or a close friend that died during COVID.
Like, what about what about all of those people that were personally impacted that that lost their family members that that lost somebody to COVID? But coming out of that, it wasn't a collective sigh of relief. It was a collective, let's hurry up and go. Make up for lost time. Cover lost how many of you felt that either personally or at work or, like, just, like, in the climate and the environment?
It's like like, are are we gonna stay working from home? Are we gonna come back into the office? Work is piling up. And so coming out of COVID, same in the church world and the and the and the pressure on a pastor and the leadership team, like, what are we what are we gonna do? How are we gonna give that?
Like, go go go. We gotta, like, try to get people's attention, like, hello. Hello. Look over here. Look over here.
Back to church. Back to church. And and during that time, I felt like the Lord whispered to my heart, and he said, like, son, now is not the time to, like, put the pedal to the metal. Now is the time what different than what Clay said earlier. Now is the time to put the pedal to the metal.
But the Lord was like, like, hold on a second. You're trying to run on empty. Emotionally, our as a global society, our tank has been empty, and we're still running and running and gunning. And so during that time, as we're coming out of COVID, I feel like the Lord whispered to my heart and he said, son, instead of getting on the world's rhythm, I'm inviting you and our church to get on to my rhythm. And I was like, I like the sound of that.
What does that even mean? And he said, in this book that you've been reading as long as you've been a Christian, there have been my my rhythm has been clearly laid out. And I was like, what do you mean? And then he began to show me and speak to me about seven times a year. There are feasts or festivals that the Lord has established that he clearly talks about to help humans with our yearly rhythm of life.
And when we get in sync with his rhythm of life, things naturally tend to just go better. Case in point, Kathy Truitt in Chick fil A closed on Sunday and, like, that that restaurant just kills it time and time and time again, and they're not even open on Sundays. And so as we respond
to
the Lord's invitation to get synced up with his calendar and his rhythm, it's for our benefit, and it helps position us to be able to see what he's doing in our hearts and in the world around us. And so I said, okay, Lord. Like, I I'm I'm beginning to pick up what you're putting down, but but help me. Tell me why. Why why would I do this?
And he gave me three reasons and seven times a year here at Tribe, we talk about these three reasons, and so I wanna mention them one more time if you're brand new, if you haven't heard it, or maybe you can't remember it. Somebody tell me the first reason why tribe has in God has invited tribe to recognize. We don't go over the top. We don't go crazy, but God has invited us to recognize and to honor these seven feasts of the Lord. What is the first reason?
And we talked about it here in one of these two verses. To remember. Isaac mouthed it to me. You get full credit, Isaac. To remember.
To remember what? Tell me. To remember what? What if he wants us to remember, what does he want us to remember? His provision.
His what? Provision. His provision. And say more about that, and we'll give you the mic. Number one, God wants us to celebrate seven feasts a year to remember.
And what are we remembering?
Well, in scripture, we see he wants us to remember, like, when he brought the Israelites out of Egypt and out of slavery, he's a protector and provider of his people. He's done it time
and time
again. There's another place about remembering how he saved maybe it's just my notes, but Moses, the miraculous way that he saved Moses is tied into that too. Yeah. What else do you want?
That's great. So you you you gave a biblical perspective, but make it personal. Remember.
And then also remember how he's constantly providing for us now. Absolutely. All the time. Same different ways, but same overarching character. His character never changes his ways.
Yeah.
Absolutely. If there was you know how like like when you meet like you are talking about a mutual friend to somebody new and you're like, oh, do you know so and so? And they're like, yeah yeah yeah. And then you say like that one trait about them. Like like Tyson.
Oh, know Tyson. He's a he's a baller. Right? I mean, that's that's not inaccurate. Right?
To say that? So like if there's one if there's one adjective description for tribe besides baller, I think I think, hopefully, one of our attributes is, oh, yeah. That's that church they always remember. They're always remembering. They're always remembering what God did for Israel.
He will do for us, what he has done for us in the past. It may look different this time. Our our brains tend to forget. Mhmm. And we get in I know that he's come through 3,000 times before, but this time, I don't know if he can.
Because we forget to remember what he's done for us in the past. That arms us with confidence and strength and peace for the battles that we face today. So remembering is very important. God said, I want you to honor these seven feasts a year, number one, so that you will remember. Number two, from your memory, why does God invite us as a tribe family to celebrate these seven feasts a year?
To remember? Recalibrate. To what, Liz?
Recalibrate.
Recalibrate. Give her the mic. Tell us a little bit more about that. God invites us to honor these seven feasts a year. Number one, to remember his goodness, his provision, his mercy, how he came through for Israel, how he has come through for us, and number two, to recalibrate.
I just think we have to, every once in a while, just put the brakes on and remember God has a schedule and a timeline for us that we get on our own routine. And sometimes we get into bad habits or we just get into routines. And I think it's just a good reminder to recalibrate our hearts of getting back in alignment with what God cares about. Just getting out of our routine, even just doing this fast these last three weeks. Gosh.
Just, you know, whatever it was that you maybe denied yourself of for fasting. But, like, it just recalibrates your heart and your mind to do something different even if it's just for a short amount of time to remember. You know, it's like that saying, if you do what you've always done, you're gonna get what you've always got. And sometimes you just you just gotta recalibrate to what's important to the Lord, and sometimes it's just doing something physical that's different. Know?
Leaving your phone downstairs and bring up a book. You know, like, something so simple as that, like, recalibrating. That's great.
And and that's part of what Justin was saying earlier about installing, like, some bulwarks or ramparts to to push out the things that tend to creep in, giving us the opportunity to recalibrate. That's really good. One of our livestream families that's watching made a great comment that's worth repeating. To clarify what Clay says, it's okay to remember what God has done. That's the basis of our hope for the future.
It's not helpful to remember our past failures though. Very well said, livestream participant. Anybody else want to say more about this idea of recalibration? Either in relation to either in relation to God's invitation or times in your past where you have either personally re personally experienced maybe unspiritual recalibration? I
I think it's, like, important to, like, like, with, like, your earthly desires versus, like, the godly desires. Like, what god desires for your life, right, and stuff. Yeah.
Absolutely. Alright. Send the mic right back to Kathy. I'm gonna invite you to just share a couple thoughts on recalibration. Like, what comes to your mind?
What do you what do you think of? I know that there's a lot of there's a fountain of wisdom there. We just have to put the tap in there.
So I when I think about recalibration, think of baking and a scale that has the tear option on it. Do you know what that is?
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Continue. You
scale
turn on and then you can put a bowl on the scale and then you have to hit tear which zeroes the weight. It zeroes back down the weight, so it's not counting the
whole weight of the book. So that you
can accurately measure ingredient. Anyway okay. So when I think about recalibration, I kinda think about that. Like, how do I get back down to ground zero, like, the basis of what the Lord has called me to personally and what what are those most important things in my life? Because, like, Justin was saying, that that really resonated with me that you can set aside time, but you'll inevitably fill it with other things.
And so trying to keep sacred what is sacred or what the Lord calls us to set apart for him. So that's what comes to mind when I think about recalibration. Like, what are those most important things? How can I strip away those things that I've let creep in? Maybe even good things over time that that really are distracting me from the most essential things that the Lord's called me to.
Maybe that's even just listening to his voice. I
hate it. Mhmm. But, love it. When Jesus presses that button in my life. And in the gospels, he was a master at pressing the what?
Tear? Tear button. I wanna ask you more about where does that word even come from. But remember that that that person, we don't even get their name. It's like, Jesus, I'll follow you anywhere.
And then Jesus goes, tear. And he's like, but first, I gotta bury my father. Tear, let the dead bury their own dead. Zeroed him out. Yep.
Another time, somebody comes to him and says, good lord, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus says, you know, list off these like kind of easy commandments that are like, hard for us. And the young man says, Lord, I've done all of those since I was a child. And then he goes, tear, you lack but one thing, go sell all you have, give to the poor, then come and follow me. Zeroed him out another time.
Jesus is like like a guy comes up to him and says, I'll I'll follow you anywhere. And Jesus goes, foxes have holes and things, but the son of man has no place to lay his head. Tear, like zeroed him out. How many of you have ever been zeroed out by the Lord? You can't follow him long without being zeroed out.
Does he zero us out in order to shame us, in order to put us in our place, in order to humble us, or to put us down? No. No. No. No.
He is relentlessly and ruthlessly and passionately committed to removing anything from the scale that does not belong. Mhmm. Mhmm. It's good. Thank
you, Kathy. Mhmm. Just out with recalibration. I think of the word, like, realignment. And if these are his feast days that he's putting into place, there's like a it's like, okay.
Well, why
are these so important to
you then, Abba? I mean, seven times what what do these feasts hold in it that are important to you that I can encounter and know?
Okay. Beautiful question because remember, I said the Lord whispered to out my heart, our heart. Three reasons why I want you to recognize and honor the feast. The first one is to remember. The second one is third one plays right into what you're saying.
The third reason is to what? Rehearse. Rehearse. To rehearse. Now what woah.
What is what are we we're rehearsing? When you look in the text, we read it in Leviticus and we read it in Deuteronomy. He says it's a holy convocation. When's the last time you were at a convocation? Right?
I mean, do you ever get that email from work? Please come in for a 8AM convocation. Like, it's a super churchy word. Like, I don't even know what that word means outside of church. Convocation.
It here. We we push back all of the the secular and the non sacred stuff that happened in here just hours ago, and we invite the presence of the Holy Spirit into this place, and we create a sacred space and time for us to gather and lift up the name of the Lord instead of lifting up the name of George Strait or whoever was in here just a few hours ago. And we we we we we consecrate this time and this place for a holy convocation, and it means gathering and assembly. But here's another thing that convocation means that is all throughout scripture, a rehearsal. Yeah.
So here's the question that plays into your question. What are we rehearsing? Somebody raise your hand. We'll give you the mic and share your thoughts on what are we rehearsing. If we are to remember, recalibrate, but we're also to rehearse, what's that about?
So take it from an older man. I like
to call myself old. Okay. Have I have made a
lot of mistakes in my life. One of the biggest things that gets me in trouble is reacting too quick. Mhmm. Have you have you ever cooked something, put it in the refrigerator, pull it out the next day, heat it up, and it's so much better because it's had a it's had time to marinate all the all the juices, all the spices, everything. Okay.
You know, do what they're supposed to do. Yes. So I think a lot of times, for me anyway, I need to step back. I do need to pop the brakes, and I need to it's like it's like writing that mean email that you wanna send off. You need to type it up, step away, and come back and reread it.
Most of the time, you just wipe it out.
You start over again. It's a great exercise.
But but I think pumping the brakes and dwelling and just submerging yourself in God's word a little bit longer can help you be so much more effective moving forward than just jumping in the fire before you actually know how hot it is.
Okay. I like that. I would I would tend to nudge that towards the recalibrate category, but let's let's talk specifically and that is a compliment. How about him on the cajon this morning? Caleb?
Someone else gets so nervous they
can hardly speak when they grab the mic.
Especially when they introduce you as
a caveman, bro. So something that's been coming up in my life lately is the crucifixion and resurrection. And I think when you look at the Bible, everything leads up to the crucifixion. Everything's about Jesus. And I think we're rehearsing or to me, and I'm having to do this daily, and it talks about picking up your cross daily in the New Testament.
But I just had this desire lately to actually kill the flesh and die from that whenever In the past, I had wanted to embrace it and just make it part of my church experience. So it's this really painful experience lately of dying to these old things that have brought me down. And then I also have this thing within me that wants to experience real godly power in my life. I'm a physical therapist, and I'm like, God, what if I could just have your spirit? I could kill folks and stuff.
All this other junk. Like, I don't wanna teach you all these exercises and do this and like massage your butt and stuff. I just wanna have this real power that that acts power, you know, where Peter walked past people and his shadow touched them and they were healed and changed. And I'm finding that in the Bible, it keeps saying, you know, you have to die to the old ways and be crucified. And then you have to be resurrected with Christ, and that part comes in just literally trust and belief.
And I keep finding these scriptures that said, all you gotta do is say, hey, take all this and put it behind you. Stop doing it. And just trust and believe me, and I will put my power inside of you to become new. So I think rehearsing these feasts and things is rehearsing dying to the flesh, dying with Christ on the cross, and then having the the power of the the resurrection that we are raised with Christ to become something totally new and move forward in that power. So that's kinda how I've been seeing it lately.
That's good. Unfortunately,
I didn't hear a word you said because because because because feel like the Holy Spirit was saying, you have lived many years of your life as Caleb the conqueror. New things, various pursuits, Caleb the conqueror, but the Holy Spirit's bringing you into a new season of Caleb the healer. The new name or new identity will be Caleb the healer. Conquerors tend to tear up everything in their path. But healers mend and heal and have a a different nature about it.
That that the Lord is transforming you, Caleb, from Caleb the conqueror into Caleb the human. You just hold your hands like this. Close your eyes. Go ahead. Yeah.
Jesus. Connor, put your hand on his chest. Right there on front of him on his heart. Yeah. Holy Spirit, come.
Thank you for bringing Caleb to tribe. Thank you for wooing him back to you, Lord. Holy Spirit, come and just do a wonderful, beautiful work of healing in his heart. Redefine his name. Reshape his past to see your sovereign hand at work.
Help him to let go of those other things. Help him fully lean into his identities. Lord, I I don't know how this is gonna sound, but I'll just pray it anyways. Holy Spirit, would you allow him to feel heat in his hands right now as you're doing the work in his heart, that when the anointing of your Holy Spirit would come on him, whether it's at a grocery store or or like a like a table where he practices his profession when there's a special anointing on his life. Just let his hands like heat up as his heart heats up for you, Jesus.
And use him to be a a mender and a builder and a healer. Caleb, the healer. And all who would agree with that identity and destiny for his life would say, Amen. Come on, brother. Amen.
Recalibrate, and then rehearse.
Hard to follow that, but I feel like there's kind of an elephant in the room, and I'm hoping that I can describe it a little bit. I think what Kayla was kind of coloring the boundary lines for was that this is a rehearsal for taking up your cross and following him. By honoring and recognizing Sukkot, we are denying ourselves the comforts of home. We are denying ourselves our cozy little blankets with our coffee cups, you know, in the morning. We're we're denying ourselves things that are creature comforts, that are what we're used to, the same old same old.
We're denying ourselves. It's not just Netflix. It's not just alcohol. It's not just sugar. It's, like, our physical security and our surroundings and what we deem as safe and acknowledging the fact that as he did for the Israelites, you know, when he was bringing them through the wilderness is what he he's the same yesterday, today, and forever.
So as our what we consider solid foundations begin to crumble because they will, we are reaffirming that he's gonna take care of us, whether we have our careers, whether we have our, you know, homes, whether we have our cars or whatever. Like, it's it's a rehearsal for the coming of the ages, essentially.
There you go. That's so good. So how many of you had a rehearsal before standard for some of you in this room. I got to be at your rehearsal. Let's be honest.
It's mostly for the groom and for the groomsmen because, like, those guys, it's like herding cats, and they're, like, all over the place. But when we have a rehearsal the day before the wedding, it sets us up for success on the day of the wedding. The Lord has invited us as a global community to participate seven times a year in his feast. The Bible says they're not Jewish feasts. They're not Israeli celebrations.
It's not had it doesn't have anything to do with with Judaism as a religion. The Bible clearly says that these are my feasts, says the Lord. And he invites us to participate seven times a year in these feasts or or set aside times, some of them are one day, some of them are a week long, for the purpose of remembering, recalibrating, remembering things that have happened, recalibrating so we can get back on track today, and then rehearsing because for some of these feasts, there is a future coming literal fulfillment. One of the feasts, by way of great examples, one of the feasts is Passover. Alright?
Has Passover literally been fulfilled in history? Yes. When? When Jesus died on the cross. That was a literal fulfillment.
The feast of Sukkot that we're going in to celebrate is the feast of remembering how God delivered Israel out of captivity and how when we are with God, we don't need anything else. It's a time of great feasting and celebration. Take away our house. Take away the comforts of our living. As hard as that may sound with the rain out there today, Take away all of the comforts.
All I need is you, Jesus, because when I'm with you physically physically in your presence, there's nothing else that I need. The scale has been Tear. Zero. Tear. That's what the feast of Sukkot is.
So Jesus said, I want you to make a shelter. And when we sit under that shelter, when Israel sits under that shelter as as they've done for almost thirty five hundred years and they do today, it reminds us of, if I have Jesus, I've got all that I need when I'm physically in his presence. Now we have Jesus in our heart. Right? He lives there now.
But there's coming a day where Jesus, riding on the clouds, will will split the sky, shatter the coffins of the grave, the dead will rise, and we will live with him forever on planet Earth in his presence, bathing and basking in his glory. And Israel is still practicing and rehearsing that today. Friend of ours, Susan, lives in Israel right now, and she said, happy Sukkot. She sent us some pictures of little sukkahs, if the name of the feast sukkot, which just means tent, tabernacle, or booth. They make a sukkah, which is just a little tent, and she sent us a couple of pictures of people's sukkahs around Israel today, and it's just a simple, modest, little sheltering meal out there.
Some people go all out and they, like like, stay in shelter. For us as a tribe cam, this is maybe the third year or so that we've been on this rhythm. We're gonna talk a little bit more about what we're going to do as a tribe family this week. But I I wanna turn to two more passages, and then we're gonna land the plane. The next place I want you to turn is Mark chapter nine.
Mark chapter nine. And would somebody please read verses one through 13? Correct. Mark chapter nine verse one through 13.
Jesus went on to say, I'll tell you I'll tell you the truth. Some standing here right now will not die before they see the kingdom of God erected in great power. The transfiguration. But six days later, Jesus took Peter, James, and John Then Elijah and Moses appeared and began talking with Jesus. Peter exclaimed, Rabbi, it's wonderful us it's wonderful for us to be here.
Let's take three shelters as memorials, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. He said this because he didn't really he didn't really know what else to say, for they were all terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud say, this is my this is my dearly loved son. Listen to him. Suddenly, when they looked around, Moses and Elijah were gone, and they saw only Jesus with them.
As they went back down the mountain, he told them not to tell anyone what they had seen until the son of man had risen from the dead. So
great. Good job. Thank you. So here we have the story that we've probably read many times, the Mount Of Transfiguration. Jesus goes up with Peter, James, and John.
While he is up there, he is transformed like he gets to, like, peel back his earth suit a little bit, revealing just a small taste of the glory of God. He's met on that mountain with Moses and Elijah. Peter, if you look at this, this is in several of the but in one of the gospel accounts, it says that Peter, like, once again, had, like, fallen asleep. The guy was always taking naps different places. When he wakes up, he sees this this incredible moment unfolding.
He's like, oh, papa. And he blurts out. Lord, this is amazing. Let's wonder. Let's how many of you, when you've read this, have thought like, Peter, bro, like, what are you doing?
How many of have been able to relate to Peter that you just have a tendency to, like, blur it out? You don't actually edit the email. You just, like, type it up and hit send. That's exactly what what we think of Peter doing in this moment. Because when was the last time that any of us ever had just an incredible moment and the idea was let's make a memorial out of this moment by like like like building something like that's just not what we think of.
But when we are in an iconic moment, what is something that all of us have done?
Oh, take a self ie.
Drop the mic. I get it.
Our tendency is to pull out our phones and be like, quick quick quick. And get a picture of that moment. So Peter wasn't too far off. He wasn't as dumb as we think. His idea was, let's capture this moment by taking a selfie, but there's more significance to it than just just for the moment's sake taking a picture.
There's something that Jesus had been pouring into them about Jesus coming once and then his coming again in power and great glory so that when Peter saw Jesus in his glory, he thought, is this the moment of the fulfillment of Sukkot? Are we fulfilling Sukkot right now? Collectively, we've been rehearsing this feast for thousands of I am seeing you, Jesus, Moses, and Elijah in your glory. Is this sukkot? Should I build my sukkot really quick?
So when you read this story, consider and think and think about what was going through Peter's mind. He wasn't just being a dumb dumb head. But there was actually some method to his madness because remember the feast the purpose of the feast are to remember, to recalibrate, but also to rehearse. Peter, collectively as a people, have been practicing that feast for thousands of generations, and he was thinking is is is now the time? Now the time?
In the same way that a good groomsman, if he was paying attention to the during the rehearsal, when he hears the the song being cued, he knows that's his time to line up to get ready to come down the aisle. Peter was just putting into practice what he had been rehearsing collectively for thousands of years. Similarly, there's an invitation for us today. The the the last verse that I'm gonna read, I don't believe it's in your notes, but it's Psalms 91 verse one. Look at this.
It says, those who dwell in the shelter of the most high will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. Those who live continually dwell and stay. And similarly, when you go into a sukkah, you're kind of sit down to put you can look up and see the stars at night. You're in this special enclosed place. Those who live, who make a habit and a pattern of, like Caleb said, dying to their flesh, putting to death their flesh, and picking up their cross, who live in the shadow of the most high will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
It's a beautiful picture to help us remember what God has done for us, to help us recalibrate our life's priorities, to zero out on the scale, and then to rehearse a future coming day when we will dwell with him, and we will feast, and we will celebrate, and it will be a time to try family this week. We're gonna lean into the feast of the Lord at Sukkot. Let's take a moment and just invite the Lord to just minister to our hearts whatever he needs to take from what was discussed here today and just whisper to our heart. We're gonna land the plane what we've done here really quick, but let's just make some room for the Lord to speak to us. Celebrate our lives.
And, Lord, as we spend time with you, whether we only build a Sukkah in our heart, help us to rehearse and to meditate and to feast on your glorious triumphant real quick. Amanda's gonna share a little bit more about this as she comes up in a moment to lead us in worshiping the Lord one one other way, but we have provided some things to help you this week to get into Sukkot. As you leave, look for okay. Sam Sam's got them. Hugs will have some as well.
We're gonna have a guide for you. So every day, whether you're just passing through town and you're from Cape Cod. Cape oh, woah. Way off. Whether you live here in Jackson or you're going back to Cape Cod.
Cape So Cod. There's a guide. So each day this week, there's there is verse that you can read, an activity that you can do, and and a question to ponder or or something to engage your senses, and it's gonna go it's gonna start today, Sunday. The first activity is to go home and build your Sukkah. Might need to be in the living room for right now.
I think the rain will clear out. Mhmm. And then every day, there'll be a different activity or thing that you can, like, like, do or engage with friends or or family. Get into that this week, number one. Number two, let's all go camping together.
I need to extend your stay, but this coming Wednesday evening, Thursday, and Friday evening, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday this week. The hunters are gonna go camping down in Granite Creek. It's just south of town. Most of you up there or if you've ever been to Granite Palm Springs, it's in that area. We're gonna hang a left and go up Little Granite Creek.
Today or tomorrow, we're gonna physically go down there and, like, put, like, our stuff so that we can drop a pin and then we'll share And if you don't know what the text blast is, Amanda will tell you a little bit more about that as she makes her way. Let me hear. But these couple of things that we're providing are in an effort to help you engage with and connect with lot.
For it to have a great body of in fact, a lot oftentimes, when
you don't have a lot, it just really, really grips you. So this is just an invitation from the Lord. Not because the God of the universe who created the Grand teton with his very breath need our American dollars? No. It's not about that.
It's about our heart and us recalibrating like we talked about today to him and to his breath and what he invites us to. It's so that we won't get so caught up in something that the you know, in our earthly ness that require you know, money is how we kind of function. Right? It's an exchange for goods. But, man, don't let it grip your heart and bringing our time and our offer above always just an open invitation for the Lord to keep to say, hey.
Listen. Let me calibrate my heart with yours. Don't let anything take my spot in the driver's seat and become an idol. And so this is just an opportunity to do that. That's how we think of it
here in Tribe. I encourage you to just accept that
and invitation from him. And if Tribe is at your church, don't type here. Tide tithe into your local church. So that's what we think about that. Let's pray over our tithe or offering.
And real quickly, we don't pass buckets here. There's a few ways to give. Our website, tribechange.com. Right over here behind Renee, as you go through the doors, there's a physical box to drop your cash or check. And then as you can see on the screen, the easiest way is to just start a new number to 84321.
So let's pray whether you're giving now or not. Just close your eyes. Heavenly father, we just come to you as a tribe family today. And we say thank you for this opportunity and this invitation and this rhythm that you give us just to this one of so many. We're just bringing our time and our offering to you.
Lord, we say we love and trust you. Everything we're talking about your provision today, you've always been a provider. It doesn't always look like we think it should, but that's okay. You're God. We're not.
We trust you, and we love you. We say thank you for inviting us to stay calibrated with you in this way, bringing something that seems so valuable here on earth. We just give it to you and say it's all yours anyway. Let us be good stewards of what you put in our hands, Christ, and who you put in our hands. Thank you for it in Jesus' name.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
In
Amen. Sukkah. Amen. My son made it made it on
the trampoline. We decorated the trampoline. Went out there every night, and who knows what the neighbors thought because we were like, well, we were kind of antsy. It's like tambourine, like, Yes. So, yeah, I encourage you whether whether it's in opportunity, as Brian said, as a dry family, this Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, come out.
And even if you're not gonna stay the night, just bring some food. We're gonna have worship. We're gonna just it'll be just like a really joyous time of us getting to get together, not just on a Sunday morning as the tri band, but celebrating the Lord's provision and his goodness and protection. So do that. And the last thing, on your way out, right here on this bar, Melissa's lovingly made several things for you.
Just grab one, maybe two items to take. This is decoration for your Sukkah. And, you you know, have you especially if
you have kids, but even if it's you.
And even if it looks like paper, I mean, we still have some decorations from last year, but it's so meaningful.
And so we wanna get
those out again this year.
So start a new family tradition that's also pleasing to do as well. I
like how you said that, a family tradition. All we're doing is participating in the responding to the invitation for from the Lord to join his family tradition. Oh, that was so good. Would you please stand up?
Lord? Everybody take
What a beautiful picture, Amanda. I think you just kind of set those words, but it is a beautiful picture. God is all about family. And and maybe like you had beautiful family tradition. Mhmm.
Thank you, Jesus, for inviting us into your family. The greatest family in the history of families. Yes. You are such a good father and such a good dad to us. We run to embrace you as family, and thank you for allowing us to be a part of your family traditions.
I command a blessing over each and every person here today, Lord. And whether they're traveling up to Moran to go back home or through the canyon to Alpine or all the way back to Cape Cod, I command a blessing over every person here. We pray these things in Jesus' name, the strong son of God. And everybody said Amen. Amen.
I love you so much. Have a great week. Lord, fill our freezers full of meat. And remember, you got this.
