The Feast of Trumpets: A Rehearsal for What’s Coming (transcript)

com. Great to see y’all this morning. In your seat, there’s a little connect card. You know what to do with it. We’d love to have a record of your visit.

If you’re a young adult would like to get connected with all the young adult happenings, you can fill that out, check the box young adult, either leave it in your seat or there’s a little wooden box by the doors as you leave our cozy little living room so you can put that there. And I am so glad that you are here with us this morning. Hope you’re enjoying this change of seasons and if you have your Bible with you this morning, would you turn to the riveting book of Leviticus? Leviticus. Yes.

Let’s turn to Leviticus chapter three, and I should turn there as well. That’s what I meant. Did I say what did I say? Leviticus what? Three.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, every now and then my dyslexia shows rears its head. Leviticus chapter 23 and we’re going to read verses 23 through 44. And what I’d like to do is instead of just me reading it, I’d like for us to take turns reading it.

And so if you would read a few verses and then hand it off to somebody else to continue reading, that way we can get from verse 23 all the way through verse 44. And if you are brand new to tribe, that probably means that you’re gonna be brand new to the verses that we are reading. And I wanna give a quick disclaimer as we get into these verses. As we read these, I know that you’re thinking, okay, how does this relate to what we’re going to talk about today? Because it’s going to sound very ritualistic or rote or stuffy or churchy or completely unrelated to you and to your life.

And as we read these verses, if you are thinking these thoughts, give yourself permission to think those thoughts. It’s okay. It’s okay. We are going to connect dots so that by the end of our short time together this morning, my prayer is that you will be able to see yourself and many great things that God has for you within this within these few verses that we’re going to read. So, if somebody would begin to read and then we will hand the mic off and somebody else can continue reading.

Leviticus 23 starting in verse 23. Alright. The Lord said to Moses, give the following instructions to the people of Israel. On the first day of the appointed month in early autumn, you are to observe a day of complete rest. It will be an official day for holy assembly, a day commemorated with loud blast of a trumpet.

You must do no order in ordinary work on this on that day. Instead, you are to present special gifts to the Lord. Then the Lord said to Moses, be careful to celebrate the day of atonement on the tenth day of that same month, nine days after the festival of trumpets. You must observe observe it as an official day for holy assembly, a day to deny yourselves and present special gifts to the Lord. Do no work during that entire day because it is the day of atonement, when offerings of purification are made for you, making you right with with the Lord your God.

For any person who is not afflicted in the soul on that same day, it shall be cut off from his people. And any person who does any work on that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no manner of work. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations and all your dwellings. It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls on the ninth day of the month at evening.

From evening to evening, you shall celebrate your Sabbath. Wait. Wait. Where did you shall afflict your what? Verse 29.

Okay. Verse 29. For any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people. Oh. Yeah.

In the NLT it says all who do not deny themselves that day will be cut off from God’s people. Behave with humility. So we’ll talk more about this, but I want to call a pause and just say the idea behind that is to either afflict yourself or be humble or deny themselves. It is a day of fasting and reflection as you consider your moral report card from the last year. That’s the idea behind that.

Okay. 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, grain offerings, sacrifices, and liquid offerings, each on its proper day.

These festivals must be observed in addition to the Lord’s regular Sabbath days and the offerings are in addition to your personal gifts, the offerings you give to fulfill your vows and the voluntary offerings you present to the Lord. Shay, the mic was handed to her and she’s like, oh, here you go, it’s for you, you go ahead and read it. We’re getting close. What verse did you end on? Oh, look, Shay’s getting oh, no, it’s going past you.

Right on by. Verse 39. All right. This is from the complete Jewish Bible. But on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered the produce of the land, you are to observe the festival of Adonai seven days.

The first day is to be complete rest and the eighth day is to be complete rest. On the first day you are to take choice fruit, palm fronds, thick branches and river willows and celebrate in the presence of Adonai your God for seven days. Wow. Did I to 44. So Shay has one more chance.

Okay, got you. 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.

This will remind each new generation of Israelites that I made their ancestors live in shelters when I rescued them from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. So Moses gave the Israelites these instructions regarding the annual festivals of the Lord. The Lord bless the reading of his word this morning. So it was, sometime as the world was emerging from COVID to a whole new landscape, maybe not physically or geographically, but certainly socially, economically, politically, like it was a new world and for the time that we spent essentially on pause, whether that was at least weeks, likely months and for some of us we spent more than a year kind of on pause like let’s put off that vacation, let’s put off that next big endeavor, but as we were emerging from COVID, I don’t know if you felt it but there was this huge rush around the world in The United States and certainly within the church in America to make up for lost ground or lost time.

Like, okay, let’s get back to normal. Okay, that’s over. Here we go. Like, go, go, go. We got to get to the next series.

We got to get people back in the doors. Go, go, go. And there was this rushing and rushing and we all kind of got caught up in that rush to get back to normal and we forgot a really key important step. And that was to grieve and to process spiritually and emotionally what we had just gone through as a global community. We just jumped right back into the mix.

And as a result, people kind of went and I don’t know how well you can relate to this. Maybe you can relate to this better than you realize on some level, but we all got back into the speed of things without really ever like taking time to like what all just happened? Am I different as a result of it? I’m sure that many of you, if not had a family member affected, knew of somebody that was, like, greatly affected by this, but we just, like, get back to normal. And after about a year or so, at least our leadership team were, like, wait a minute.

Wait a minute. Like, we never really, like, like, stop to, like, like, process this and, like, what what rhythm are we getting back onto? And then we began to seek the Lord, like, okay, Lord, like, do we grieve or how do we process this? What do we do with this? The world is inviting us to just jump back onto its rhythm.

Do we really want to do that? And the Lord said, hey, why don’t you get on my rhythm? Join my family rhythm. And we’re like, sounds good to us. Sign us up.

How do we do that? What does he look what does it look like? And he directed us to the Old Testament. We’re like, yeah, but we’re children of the new covenant. Like, why are we going back to the Old Testament?

And then he began to show us his rhythm that he has invited the world to get in sync with that we know of as the Jewish feasts. Now, I mean maybe ethnically like by by relation you may be you may be Jewish. You might be a Jew. But none of us are observant Jews. If you are, you found yourself in the wrong service, welcome.

Hold on to your hats because the Messiah that you’ve been waiting for already has one stamp on his passport and I cannot wait to introduce you to him. But we know what we thought of them as like Jewish feasts and you can read about them in the Old Testament and for all of us Christians we have no context or history. We’re like, yeah, that was stuff that they did back then and it was historical or maybe if you, if the Venn diagram of your life overlaps with any observant Jews you may hear them talk about it or them observing those feasts but you’re like meh, it’s irrelevant to me. Mostly because of what they what you’ve been told they are, that they are Jewish feasts. Here at tribe, I want to, suggest suggest that we, that you think about the Jewish feasts differently instead of Jewish feasts.

Instead of thinking of them as Jewish feasts, I like to think of them as God’s family traditions. Every family has traditions. Maybe you came from like a terrible family and you’re like, oh, yeah, every year, you know, dad would I don’t know what. Maybe you have bad family traditions, maybe you hopefully you have some really at least one or two really sweet fond memories of family traditions that you would have. We’re not ready for that yet.

Perfect. We’re he’s quick. He’s quick. He’s quick on the finger. But, I remember, I don’t know maybe it was last year we had Connor and Ella over to our house to play some board games and, we like to put That’s what we do.

Well, I you guys got tired of me saying, well, when I was on the skin track with so and so, you’re like do all you do is ski? Now maybe you think do all you do is have people over and play board games? Think what you will? I answer to none of you all. I play a lot of board games, I do a lot of skiing.

So, Connor and Ella came over and we like to play, you know, like cool board games, you know, like not like your American board games that you grew up on. And Ella is like, I’m bringing a board game over. We’re like, oh, is it going to be Caverna? Is it going to be like Ticket to Ride? Is it going to be something?

And she pulls out this ancient decrepit board game called Sorry. Now don’t laugh, now don’t Ella, I got you, I got you. I’m a good storyteller. I’m like allowing the story to develop. And we’re like, sorry.

We sit down and, you know, the pieces are worn and then she begins to tell us the story behind this board game. She has had this board game since she was in fourth grade and it is very special to her and it was special for her to bring that board game to share with us and I tell you what it was the best game, I’m sorry, that we’ve ever played. In a similar way, God has family traditions. He himself is a complete and total complete family in himself within the Trinity, within the unity of the Godhead, he is a perfectly content, happy, functioning family. And within that family, he brings children, he’s created a variety of his created beings into that family and we are one of his created orders.

He invites us to join his family and adopt a family identity through family traditions that he has established. Are you with me so far? Okay. Those family traditions are what we know of as the Jewish feast. They’re only Jewish feast because God shared those traditions with the Jews first.

But the invitation is for all of us to participate in his family traditions. And this is not up on the screen but I’ll just say this, well let’s, team effort. When we honor and celebrate, get into these seven major family traditions throughout the year, three important things happen in our hearts and they all start with our would somebody tell me one of them? They help us to rehearse and I always say that one last. Remember.

Because I’ll tell you about it in a moment. I know I did let you say there’s an order in my mind. There’s an order in my mind but rehearses one of them, yes, to remember in my mind that’s the first one and then what’s the to recalibrate. So these family traditions in a similar way that every time Ella gets to pull out her very special board game of sorry, it helps her to remember fun family, fond memories that she has growing up and it’s beautiful. In a similar way, when we celebrate or honor or recognize the seven family, God’s seven family yearly tradition, it helps us to remember all of these feasts and we’re going to look at these in general, all of them, and then we’re going to zoom in on three of them.

But it helps us to remember what God has done for the nation of Israel and for the church and for our lives. Each of these feasts is designed to help us to remember what God has done. The second thing was, I think maybe you said it, recalibrate. To recalibrate our lives. We get so caught up in the rhythm of the world and the rhythm of work or the rhythm of school or the rhythm of the seasons where sub sixty days to the lift starts spinning, y’all, we get caught up we get caught up in that and that rhythm although it has its place does not give eternal nourishment to us.

So, the family traditions are an opportunity to like, okay, hold on, hold on. Remember what it says, do no work doing those feasts, disrupt your normal life pattern. To help you recalibrate to get back onto God’s rhythm. And then the final thing, which was the first thing that Joy said, which is my favorite thing is what? Rehearse.

Rehearse. When you hear the word rehearsal, what comes to your mind? A band or a wedding or like a play. The reason why the band rehearses is so they don’t look like idiots for the show. The reason why we rehearse the wedding is so that the groomsmen who are all goofing around have some idea of what they’re supposed to do on the actual wedding.

And the reason why you rehearse a play is so that you get your lines right and your movement and everything goes forward when it finally comes time. And so what are we rehearsing with these God’s family traditions? Well, I’ll show you if you would kindly put up that chart, sir. You know I love a good chart. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, especially with emojis.

This one has colors. And some alright, there’s some emoji check marks, alright. It’s your eyes. It’s your Oh. Wow.

Well, for those of you in the VIP section, come join the rest of us some Sunday. So this is a chart that I created and I call it God’s Family Traditions. And over here this helps to orient you with the feast. And then up top we have feast divided into spring feasts and then fall feasts. And here’s what’s really cool about the idea of fulfillment is that the spring feasts have been fulfilled by Jesus.

The fall feasts, if you keep laughing, I don’t keep doing it. This is like disciplining this is discipline giving the mom eyes to every single one of you. Stop that. Don’t encourage him. Notice no check marks at the fall feasts.

Look at the governmental road role. Jesus came as prophet and priest and he will come again as the king. Right now, where are we? The church age. The church age.

We are in the age of the church. That was pointing towards the crucifixion of the Messiah that he fulfilled. The Feast of Unleavened Bread represents the was a prophetic foreshadowing of the burial of the Messiah which he fulfilled. The Feast of First Fruits which is a prophetic, pronouncement or rehearsal of the resurrection of the Messiah, which he fulfilled. And then fifty days later, the feast of Shavuot or as Christians, we know it as Pentecost was where the Holy Spirit was given to the church, which he fulfilled.

And now we are in the church age, the age of the church. So several so four of these feasts have been literally fulfilled through the birth, the life, the death, the resurrection of the Messiah, and the release of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said it’s better for you that I go because when I go then I can send him, the advocate, the counselor, the Holy Spirit, and he will guide you into all truth. I have another graphic that we can look at just these three. And many times at tribe, we take time to recognize the feast of Sukkot, but then the others perhaps don’t get mentioned at all or just get a a nod.

And so today, if you’re taking notes, at the top of your notes, you can write the title of the conversation that we’re gonna have very simply called the fall feasts twenty twenty five. The fall feasts. Normally, we focus on just Succoth but what I thought I would do is in symphony and in harmony with one another, we would look at all three of these feasts and Jesus’ future prophetic fulfillment of each of these. Does this sound good? And if you notice, I said the word conversation.

I would like this to be a conversation. In the same way that there was an opportunity for you to share during worship, I would love to hear from you during our conversation today. So if you have questions or comments or connections, all you have to do is raise your hand. We’ll get the mic to you. Of course, we could hear your voice here in the room without the mic, but for all of our families that are traveling or have their Starlink set up at their hunting camp and want to like watch the service.

I mean, they’re I don’t know if they’re out hunting today. Lord bless them. But what we’re gonna do is have a conversation at at looking at each of these feasts. So the first one that we’re gonna start with is the feast of Rosh Hashanah or the feast of Trumpet, God’s family tradition. He has a fam I don’t know if you have weird family traditions in your family, but one of God’s family tradition is get the whole family together and blow a bunch of horns.

Sounds fun. That’s weird. I’m in. What time do we meet? So, you can see that the the feast of trumpets is celebrated with the shofar blast and it begins the new year.

And these verses are Old Testament references that speak of this God of this family tradition, Leviticus 23. We actually read that this morning, and it’s also mentioned in Numbers chapter 29. But we can see here that there is a future literal fulfillment of this verse that has yet to unfold. Well, how do I know yep. Yep.

We’ll we’ll address that in a moment. Get him the Kleenexes. So you can see here that there is not a box that is checked. The Messiah has not returned and the saints have not been raptured. If that has happened and all of us are still here, nanny, shame, shame.

No. Don’t shame me. Oh. Bummer. Bummer for all of us.

I guess we just didn’t count. But there is a future prophetic fulfillment of this feast that has yet to happen. I see a hand and then we’re going to read some verses together. While that yes, yes, read it and then I’ll then we’re going to go to a verse. Just a quick question.

A lot of wow, I’m having a stroke when I say this. Theologians thank you, I did it believe that Jesus was born at Rosh Hashanah. How about that? So like couldn’t that be a both and like it was kind of fulfilled or anything? Well, that’s pretty cool.

That arrivalreturn. Correct the chart. You mean he didn’t come on December 24? No. I agree with you.

Okay. Turn to one Corinthians. The feast of trumpets is a rehearsal. Now let me just address this. If you’re like, Brian, you kinda made a big jump there from the verses that we read in Leviticus to using that word rehearsal.

Well, if you look back in Leviticus 23 you will be able to see a holy convocation or a holy assembly. You can look for that word in the verses that we read and that word convocation means gathering, assembly, and rehearsal. Well, what are we supposed to be rehearsing? Rehearsing for a future event. This is it.

Let’s talk about when Jesus returns. First Corinthians fitting two verses, it’s up here on the screen, verse fifty one and fifty two. But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. The apostle Paul is talking. We will not all die but we will all be transformed.

We, he is speaking to the church, anyone who has made Jesus the leader of their life, who has been born again, We will not all die but we will all be transformed. It will happen in a moment in the blink of an eye when the last, emphasis Brian, last trumpet is blown. How many trumpets are we blowing here? Well, you this is Paul is intending for us to create a hyperlink in our brain between the last trumpet being blown and the seven trumpets that are blown in the book of Revelation. You can scurry around and research that on your own.

When the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. This is the resurrection and all who are living will also be transformed. This is this is the rapture. So I don’t know if you know this about your faith, but as Christians we believe that our, when our earth suit gives out and we die that our spirit will live on.

And when Jesus returns, we will return with him with a new suit for a new mission. What will that mission be? I don’t exactly know but it involves renewing of the earth. We will not all die. What that means is Paul was writing with a hopeful expectation that perhaps within the reader’s lifetime that Jesus would return.

If Jesus returns while a Christian is still alive, they get they get raptured and they get a new earth suit for a new assignment that they’ll be given. Now all of the generation that read Paul’s words while the ink was still fresh, if you will, they died. But I love that Paul was like he had this strong hope and for two thousand years Christians have carried that same hope that Jesus would return in their lifetime. So I want you to connect the return of Jesus with the rapture of the saints to be caught up. Bethany, here comes the mic.

I just had a question. So you said that that the Christians would be raptured, given a new earth suit, and then returned to the earth? I said a new suit. Oh, okay, okay, gotcha. For a new assignment?

For a new assignment, not on earth. Good question. Great, great, great, great, great. So, as as frail as our earth suits are, they are ideally and optimally suited for life on this planet. The way that we exchange oxygen, the way that we metabolize food, the way that our bodies respond to gravity, all of those things.

Take this earth suit and put it on another planet, it would not do so good. Okay? So the earth suit that we have is optimally suited for life on this planet. When Jesus returns, the rapture will happen. We will be caught up in the air to meet with him, we’re going to look at another verse, and then we will receive what the Bible describes as a resurrected or glorified body.

And it’s because our assignment, not geographically on this earth, but our assignment for this time has come to an end and a new age begins and Christians will be given a new assignment and for that new assignment we need a different suit that is optimally tailored for the new assignment and I’ll say this, on planet Earth. So when we die, you know, they say to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Boom. Like that, right? Yes, that’s what Paul says.

So, but up here in the scripture it’s like those who have died will be raised to live forever. You can see where that’s a little confusing, right? Who’s in the ground and who’s already gone? Yes, okay, also Here’s what guys, Lissa just reminded me of the time. We have to we have to do this because, okay.

So here’s what here’s what maybe no, no, no. No, this is a really good question. Here’s what could be helpful or at least may it may not answer, but it could perhaps provide some solace to the mystery and the difficulty of wrapping our minds around what you just said. We in this moment are confined to live in a linear progression of time. Much of what all of what transpires outside of this realm is outside of space and time.

And so what is challenging for our brains to comprehend of when in linear sequence and is of no matter issue or concern outside of this realm. So it is quite possible for our grandma who loved and followed Jesus to die, be buried and at the same time to be absent from the body to be present with the Lord and for her to be resurrected when Jesus returns that no time has gone by for her but twenty five years has gone by for us. Oh. Welcome to tribe. We are we are we are trans dimensional beings.

Eternity starts. Right now. Yeah. Here we are. Welcome to eternity.

I I was just going to say isn’t that where she’ll Adam Sorry. I would have expected a question like that from Bethany. When the tone of my voice changes. They are because we must this is good, this is good. Nobody feels like this is dragging.

So SHIELD is an earthly attempt, a a not inaccurate earthly attempt to try to either categorize or time period or place things that our terrestrially confined earthly mind are desperately trying to make sense out of. And SHIELD is very challenging to our protest binary understanding that afterlife only consists of heaven and hell, but the Catholic church has more room for. That’s the perfect face to make. How about another verse? First Thessalonians four sixteen.

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout. Three things that happen. With a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet, there’s another trumpet, call of God. First, the Christians who have died will raise from their graves. I would suggest to you that that is written from our earthbound terrestrial perspective.

We thought, you know, grandma who played the organ faithfully and loved Jesus in the church every week, you know, she’d been gone from us for fifteen years. Well, she’s she’s raising from the grave. But for her, it’s different. Yeah. For her, she’s been with him to be present with the Lord and she’s coming back now.

Pinch our cheeks. Or not. Listen, you cannot, I’ll just say this and then we’ll continue on, you cannot separate the return of Jesus from the rapture. Those two concepts, ideas are welded tightly together in scripture. And these two verses and many others including the words of Jesus himself in Matthew chapter 24 say that he will return at the last trumpet, he will return at the end of the tribulation.

The Feast of Trumpets celebrates the return of Jesus. How about the second feast? The Day of Atonement. Would you go back to that small chart, Hux? Yes.

I love that you have questions. So the seven year tribulation is part of Rosh Hashanah? Go back to the big chart, Hugs. So now you just said you just said a phrase, the seven year tribulation Great tribulation. Or great tribulation.

You just there’s a lot even within that that perhaps all of our tribe fam may not be up to speed on, but you should be. Ask your question again. The seven year tribulation is part of Rosh Hashanah? Because we’ve always coupled it around the great tribulation, whether you’re pre trib, mid trib, post trib, right? So that’s all in that somehow?

Well, think about this, if there are seven, Gregorian calendar years, seven year tribulation between the beginning of the tribulation and the end of the tribulation there are going to be seven Rosh Hashanah’s celebrated. I don’t think that answer sounded much better in my mind than what it came out of my life. That was good. No, I just keep going I think. Like you started, but like how does that That’s as far as my answer could take you.

Okay. Let me drink more coffee and I may have a better answer. You can come back later. Yeah, that’s fine. Yeah, so it’s not like, because because look at the date that these things happen.

The reason why we usually only do Sukkot is because according to the Jewish calendar that was laid out in scripture, like our Jewish friends, our Jewish community, they celebrate these three things, boom, boom, boom, boom, like within a period of a couple of weeks. So these things play out according to God’s family tradition within a couple of weeks. However, the prophetic fulfillment of these things will according to Daniel, Daniel nine, ten, and 11, Jeremiah 30, Ezekiel that, that they will play out over a period of about seven years. So you get seven of these during the tribulation before the final one that Jesus will check the box. Is that your question?

Does that help answer it? I think so. Did you say seven Rosh Hashanah’s or seven of all three? Seven fall feasts. Seven fall feasts?

Seven falls. Good. Day of Atonement. We go back to that, oh, this is so good. The day of atonement, Zechariah chapter 12.

Are you okay if we’d like? Y’all come on? Get a fizzy water if you need to. Let’s go. Zechariah chapter 12.

Yes? Yes. Hanukkah also of East? I looked it up on Google and it says yes, Hanukkah is also known as the feast of dedication. Okay.

So, that’s why I’m very specific, about the seven major feasts. You got Purim, Hanukkah, a bunch. There’s a bunch. So so in Jesus’ day, he celebrated the Feast of Lights, but it was not in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. So this is intentional, I say seven because it’s a great like Jesus number and it’s biblical.

And our our I like to say we. Our our team were like, what do we? And we’re like, let’s do these first prescribed in the law of Moses. So that’s why we do seven and I say seven major family traditions. Zechariah chapter 12, if the Feast of Trumpets is a rehearsal for the return of Jesus, The day of atonement is a rehearsal for Jesus leading the Israeli army to retake the city of Jerusalem.

Let’s read about it. Let’s read God’s word first. Zechariah chapter 12. On that day. Okay.

That phrase right there should be a trigger that there could be some partial fulfillment that we look backwards towards, that the author was looking forwards towards. But when you see that phrase on that day, it needs to be associated with the the day of the Lord, the great day of the Lord, the great and terrible day of the Lord. All of that those phrases are intended by the the authors of the old testament to point us towards some future day event season time period. On that day, says the Lord, I will cause every horse to panic and every rider to lose his nerve. I will watch over the people of Judah, but I will bind all of the horses of their enemies.

And the clans of Judah will say to themselves, the people of Jerusalem have found strength in the Lord of heaven’s armies their God. On that day, I will make the clans of Judah like a flame that sets the wood pile ablaze or like a burning torch among sheaves of grain. They will burn up all the neighboring nations left and right while the people living in Jerusalem remain secure. Never do I nor is it appropriate for me in this setting, in this seat, from this pulpit if you will, for me to say what I think. You’re not here to hear what Brian thinks because mostly what I have to think is like useless rap lyrics from the nineties and Star Wars movie quotes.

That’s that I’m a simple guy. You sit here to hear the word of the Lord and win, if I’ve built enough trust with you to hear my interpretation that I clearly say, hey, here’s what I think God is saying. Right? And I always try to be very careful when I say that in clear and delineate that. So here’s what I think from scripture is that we go back to the small chart.

Is that the feast of trumpets or how about the big the big chart, please? The feast of trumpets. Jesus returns. The Day of Atonement, national mourning, and repentance and considering what you’ve been through. Jesus who returns in physical form in His resurrected body will come back to planet Earth.

The world will be in chaos, we will be towards the end of that seven years where we see the antichrist who has made a seven year peace treaty with the nation of Israel and halfway through broken that peace treaty. And there is intense persecution on the nation of Israel and anyone who would identify and stand with and support Israel, I. E. Christians, by the antichrist that will make the holocaust look like a walk in the park. 6,000,000 Jews were killed during the holocaust and they were spread out all across Europe.

What happens when one man wielding power can instigate another worldwide holocaust targeted in the nation of Israel where they’re just gathered and concentrated. I’ll tell you this, how you stand and support Israel today is exactly how you would have stood with and supported Israel in World War II. And your stance today is the least expensive that it will be in your life. If you’ve read stories about how Europe responded to Israel and you, in your sanctimonious, self righteous, delusion, think. I would, look what they did.

I would never do that. You’re actually doing exactly what you would have done back then. Text me. We’ll get coffee. Jesus returns at the Feast of Trumpets and in the, Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, you can see here the liberation of Jerusalem and the salvation of Israel.

How does that relate to what I just read? Would you put that verse back up, please, Zechariah 12? On that day when Jesus returns, he will rally the bedraggled remaining remnant of the IDF that is hanging on by a thread. He will become the ground force commander of the Israeli army and he will say guys, come on, let’s retake the city of Jerusalem. And on that day, the men of Judah when the armies the armies of the Antichrist are thrown into turmoil, the clans of Judah will say to themselves the people of Jerusalem have found strength in the Lord of the heavens armies.

He’s going to rally them. Come on guys. We’re outnumbered. We’re outmanned. We’re outgunned.

Our supplies are dwindling, but I’m here. They find strength in their Messiah Through a procession, they march back to Jerusalem. They retake the city of Jerusalem. And when the dust settles, after the shouting and the cheering have stopped, the adrenaline wears off, if you will, they will be like what just happened? Who is this guy?

We think of the return of Jesus with like robes and a sandal and a red sash. Where do we where do we where do we get that? We see a prophetic picture of him in in Revelation, but what if he has boots and a tack vest and a radio? I don’t know. But he will, the Messiah, will retake the city of Jerusalem.

When the dust settles and the adrenaline wears off then Zechariah 12 verse 10 will take place. Then I will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer on the family of David and on the people of Jerusalem. They will look upon the one whom they have pierced and mourn for him as an only son. When they will grieve bitterly for him as for a firstborn son who has died. What I see, this is Pastor Brian speaking, what I see in my holy sanctified prophetic imagination is this figure who they know, like, they don’t really know who he is.

Joshua, Commander Joshua has come back and they’re like, Joshua, I don’t did you know John? I don’t know John, but look what he’s doing. Let’s go. Let’s follow him. The city of Jerusalem is retaken.

The rebellion of the Antichrist is quelled and put down. They hold their guns up in the air and they pump their fist. We did it. We did it. We did it.

And then the question starts circulating among like, who is commander Joshua? Who is commander Joshua? And then it says they will look upon the one whom they’ve pierced and they’ll be like, oh my God. And word will travel like wildfire throughout the ranks of the army. It’s the Messiah.

It’s the Messiah. He’s here. Not only is it the Messiah, it’s Jesus of Nazareth. What is His identifying mark that they’ll know that it was Jesus of Nazareth? They will look upon the one whom they’ve whom they have pierced and they’ll be like, and then it hits them.

Now Brian, this is a big stretch using your prophetic imagination. Is it though? Think about the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Unless it’s super Okay. I know it would be good but unless it’s super, it dovetails.

And then as they are like, it was you. It was you and they’re broken and they’re shattered. Jesus, commander of idea forces doesn’t stand there and say, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

You should be crying. Look what he does. Zephaniah three seventeen. For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty Savior.

He will take delight in you with gladness. With His love He will calm all of your fears and He will rejoice over you with joyful songs. In the same way that the prodigal father welcomed the son back into his arms and back into and ran to meet him. Jesus already forgave Israel and the world. Father forgive them for they know not what they do.

He has no anger, bitterness, resentment, any feelings of, recourse or retaliation or revenge in him. The issue of his betrayal and hurt and abandonment has already been dealt with. So that he can be like, come here. Come here. Come here.

And then we get to the Feast of Sukkot. Back to the chart. With the millennial reign of the Messiah that finally Jesus among us He is our shelter. Ruling and reigning from the capital city of Jerusalem. Micah chapter four verse one through three, and this is the last verse.

In the last days, there’s that phrase again, The mountains of the Lord’s house will be the highest of all, the most important place on earth. It will be raised above the other hills and the people from all over the world will stream there to worship. People from many nations will come and say come on let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of Jacob’s God. There he will teach us his ways and we will walk in his paths. For the Lord’s teaching will go out from Zion.

His word will go out from Jerusalem and the Lord will mediate between the people and he will and he will settle disputes among strong nations far away. He has a solution. Remember what we were talking about? The the brokenness on the reservation that that we have seen and how do we fix it and how do we solve it and we saw the best efforts of the federal government and what that’s done? But he has a solution.

The Lord will mediate between peoples and will settle disputes between strong nations far away and they will hammer their swords into plow shares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer fight against nation nor train for war anymore. This is the feast of Sukkot which according to the earthly Jewish calendar it begins this week. And that feast is celebrated with a sukkah which is a tent according to what we read in Leviticus. He says, erect for yourself a temporary structure or shelter, step outside of your comfortable house, apartment, or car that you’re living in.

Comfortable house, apartment, or car that you’re living in, construct a shelter, decorate it with palm fronds so you can see the night sky underneath it. It’s temporary, it’s frail, it’s to remind you of the time that you spent being led through the wilderness where I took care of you. It is a prophetic foreshadowing, a rehearsal of someday when God himself is our shelter like a sukkah. That we would dwell with him. So if you drive past rabbi’s house this week, you’ll see something like this.

If you were to go to Israel or any part of the world where there are observing Jews in their backyard, you’ll see something like this. It’s a rehearsal for when Jesus comes returns to earth and he himself is our shelter. Take heart and take courage as we celebrate the feasts of the Lord considering to remember all that He’s done to recalibrate our lives of our rhythms, our attitudes, and our mindsets, and as a rehearsal for days ahead. If we actually grab a hold of this, we position ourselves as leaders a tribe in Jackson Hole surrounding region into the uttermost bounds of the earth. When the world is raging against Jews.

When the church has abandoned Israel and turned their back on them, well, man, hey, they shouldn’t have started all this. What an what an I’m not gonna go easy. What a disproportional response Israel has had. If you have not remembered, if you’ve not been recalibrated, then how will you be in a position to rehearse? If you allow the Lord to develop your worldview, You then position yourself to be in a place of leadership and influence, calmness.

Hey, here’s what’s going on. You will be a foundation and anchor in a world that is being turned upside down and that’s my prayer for each and every one of you I’m going to be still for just a moment, take care of some business with the Lord, get my phone number from Lissa, and prepare your text messages to me. Okay. Let’s worship the Lord one other way. I have, and then I have two announcements.

Every week at Tribe, we provide opportunities for us to worship the Lord in song, in honoring the word that was preached by considering it and flipping through the pages, taking notes and wrestling with it, making appointments to talk with me. And we worship the Lord through our tithes and offerings, and you can give, check or cash in that little wooden box right there or outside the building through our website, outside the building through our website, tribejh.com. But most people are generous with their smartphones by, text to give with their tithes or their offering. We’ll leave this up for just a moment. Let me pray for us and then we’ll skedaddle out of here very shortly.

Lord Jesus, there’s so much to giving of our finances. One of the things it does is it stretches our faith and trust muscle. That muscle needs to be strong and robust for the days that we are living in and for the days ahead. So Lord, we surrender a portion of our finances to exercise that trust muscle and as a practical demonstration to tell you that we trust you and we love you. Thank you for your family traditions even if some of them are a little quirky like blowing trumpets.

Thank you for inviting us into your family. God I ask that you would receive these finances, You would use them to make your name famous here at tribe in Jackson Hole, the surrounding region into the uttermost bounds of the earth. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. The Lord bless your giving today.

Many of you give throughout the year and or, occasionally from time to time towards a designated fund called the Wind River Outreach. And just these last few days, we’ve returned from bringing a team to Riverton, Wyoming, where we took a team. This time, it happened to be all young adults besides mom and dad and Laura to the to Riverton where we partnered with some friends of ours that have planted a church called foundations for nations. They are a missional church whose sole purpose is to love and share the love of Jesus with the Wind River Indian Reservation. There are two major tribes there, 15 to 20,000 native Americans live on that reservation.

And for how many of you you’ve been before and or this was your first trip? So, so many of our tribe fam have been before. There’s going to be another opportunity, but, one of the things that we did was we took your tithes and offerings and we went to the Walmart there in Riverton, and we filled their pantry. And so this is our team with shopping cart after shopping cart after shopping cart to go through the aisles, of being able to fill up their food pantry. They have a food bank, so people come in that have needs and they just get to, not like willy nilly shopping, but like they get, like, they get bags of groceries, for their family and that’s one of the things that they do.

And then so we buy it and then we go and we stock the food pantry. This is the, she runs the food pantry. She’s a marine. Her name is Sonia and, this marine breaks down in tears at the arrival of granola bars because she said for weeks the children specifically that we feed have not had any snacks. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

She’s hopping up and down and crying as the granola bars keep rolling in to the food bank. So thank you, thank you tribe for for giving and for sending this team to Wind River. You can see the stocks in the food supply there. And I think there may be one other picture, Friday evening, we all gathered, for our team and then there was another church that was partnering with us, their team, and, some of the staff from the Church of Foundations for Nations and a puppy dog, were were at a bonfire. And then I don’t have a picture of this, but the next day they did a big fall festival outreach, candy and games, for children to bring in their families, to love on their families.

And so, thank you to the team that served and thank you tribe for sending that team. If you stand up, I’ll pray for you and we can get out of here. We have thank you, Gretchen. We have, another unfortunately, another opportunity to stand with and to support Israel with every month Jews from this community have gathered the first Sunday at the town square as they stand in solidarity with the families that have lost loved ones and families that were ripped from their homes and ripped from their families from the horrific attack by Hamas on October 7 two years ago now. We’re almost at the two year anniversary if you can believe it.

And for two years, the first Sunday of every month, Jews gather on the town square. The Christian community is invited to stand with them and support them. And Lissa and I have been with them almost without fail for two months, for two years now. And you have yet another opportunity to stand with them in this very well could be hopefully the very last gathering which would mean we will do one more to celebrate the return of the hostages. You’re coming to support does not mean that you condone each and every single action conducted by the military.

Your standing to support does not mean that you support and condone all of the actions of the Israeli government. Did you know that you can stand with your the Jews here in this community and your heart can still break and grieve for those Palestinians that are innocent? You can. So if you’re curious or if you never have been, I would really strongly invite you and encourage you, please come talk to some of the Jews that are gathered on the town square. You can ask them, hey, I’m a Christian.

PB invited me. I’m here. Why should I be here? You can talk to them. Cornerstone is also kind of co leading this month’s gathering.

So we’ll have some folks from Cornerstone there. And I really would love you know how competitive I am. I would really love a strong showing of our tribe fam, to be there and to get to meet and to get to know, Eric and the Cornerstone Church. Okay? So now I’ll pray for you.

Thank you. It’s on the Town Square at 5PM. On the Town Square today, 5PM, rain or shine. And, again, you can have my number and we’ll get coffee. Lord Jesus, thank you so much.

Thank you so much for inviting us into your family. If we come from a great family, we’re invited into a better family. If we had a terrible family like I did, we get invited into a better family, your family. If we had no family what to speak of, the invitation is for us to join your family. Thank you.

Thank you for inviting us into your family. Jesus, we eagerly anticipate the day of your fulfillment when that little green check emoji gets to go ping ping ping on these last few feasts. Maranatha, come Lord Jesus. Come Lord Jesus. I command a blessing over each and every person here today.

Thank you for their great patient endurance for today. Give them a great week. And Lord, it’s hunting season so help us to get the brown down. We pray these things in Jesus’ name. And everybody said, amen.

I love you. Have a great week. Quick it out. Quick it out because the next service is starting. You got this.