Rejoice In What We’ve Learned

Beth Bucheit

October 10, 2022

Feast of Tabernacles Sermon - 2022

Hello, brethren. I know this is a little bit of a surprise. It is for me as well. I would tell you today I’m going to do the best I can. I may look down a lot more than I would want to, but bear with me, it’s the first time I’ve ever done this. So, be kind in your thoughts.

So, with that, welcome, brethren, to God’s Feast of 2022!

As we reflect on what is happening in the world, we are truly blessed to hear those words. Not just hear those words, but to understand God’s great plan and that we are here to learn about that and God for eight wonderful days. That should put a smile on your face.

To get this Feast started, let’s turn over to Leviticus 23:1-2 and see what God inspired to be written. And the Eternal spoke to Moses saying, speak to the children of Israel and say to them, The appointed times of the Eternal, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations; these are My appointed times.

God is telling us that these are His appointed times. They belong to Him, and He is sharing this with us. The Great God of the universe is letting us know He wants to share His knowledge with us. The Feast and God’s other Holy Days are His plan for mankind. They tell us how the progression of His Family is born. Each Holy Day represents a step in His plan.

Think of how many people you know who do not know that. They cannot share this with God, but you can. He is letting us know He wants us to proclaim or keep a holy convocation. He wants us to be gathered in His sight. And how is it holy? It is holy because God is in it. He is here with us. I will say a word, and I may use it a lot, but there is no other way to say it. That is awesome!

Now, let’s look at verses 33-36—Then the Eternal spoke to Moses, saying, speak to the children of Israel saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Eternal. On the first day, there shall be a holy convocation, you shall do no customary work on it. For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Eternal. On the eighth day, you shall have a holy convocation and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Eternal. It is a sacred assembly, and you shall do no customary work on it.

God is very detailed about His plan. He tells us exactly when to keep what. We are to gather together wherever we are for the first day and the eighth day for a holy convocation. We also gather the other days throughout the Feast although they are not Holy Days. We are taught for eight days.

Some brethren are in different locations where God inspired His Feast to be, and some are in smaller groups, or some of them are individually keeping this. They could not travel for various reasons. It is not a matter of if you are a larger group or individually, we are to be in a holy convocation with God. So, no matter where you are, you’re not alone, you are with God and His Son, Joshua.

Let’s continue in verses 37-41—These are the appointed times of the Eternal, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations to offer an offering made by fire to the Eternal, a burnt offering and a grain offering, a sacrifice and drink offerings. Everything on its day—besides the Sabbaths of the Eternal. Beside your gifts, besides all your vows, and besides all your free will offerings which you give to the Eternal. Also, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the Feast of the Eternal for seven days. On the first day there shall be a Sabbath rest, and on the eighth day a Sabbath rest.

And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Eternal your God for seven days. You shall keep it as a Feast to the Eternal for seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month.

Again, God is telling us that these are His appointed times, and we are to have a holy convocation or gathering together to learn about God’s plan. We are to do this on the first day and the eighth day, which we know is the Last Great Day. Before coming before God these days we should pray and ask God to feed us so that we can get the most of each and every sermon. We should not come before God empty handed. We should bring an offering to God. God reminds us that these days are statute—a law that is forever, meaning it never goes away.

Not only are we to keep a holy convocation, we are to rejoice and be happy and celebrate this knowledge, remembering two things that we learn at the Feast, God will feed us every day and we have the opportunity to embrace the power of fellowship.

Now, let’s continue in verses 42-43—You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in the booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Eternal your God.

One thing that we can rejoice, God brought us out of the land of Egypt, and we have seven days to meditate on this and God and His plan. We can examine ourselves and meditate on how we can change, to become more like God and our elder brother, Joshua. We know that coming out of Egypt to us means coming out of sin. We can rejoice at this Feast, and we have been shown how, the way to leave sin; and God has given us the help and knowledge to do this. He has given us His holy spirit and we have access to God through repentance, and because of this we can continue to have access to God.

Remember, brethren, not everyone has access to God. At one time we were of one in fourteen million. That number may be higher now. Brethren, we need to remember that God loves His people so much He sacrificed peace for us. In Truth 55 it states: “…God’s way is the way of right living that produces the only true peace that exists in right relationships. By revealing ‘this way—the way of peace,’ evil was created. This happened because ‘in’ those created, there existed the choice to live a different way than the way of peace revealed by God.”

God gave us independent free choice that we could choose Him and have potential to become a part of Elohim. He did this for us because His love is not selfish. He created a plan, and we are very important to that plan. He sacrificed His only Son, our Passover. Because God sacrificed His Son we have the awesome blessing of going before His throne, into the Holy of Holies and talking directly to Him.

Think about, brethren, that you can go into the Holy of Holies any time and talk directly to God. God’s love is one of sacrifice, and ours at best is still selfish because of our carnal human nature. Even though we are so selfish God blesses us with His Feast.

Turn over to Deuteronomy 16:14—And you shall rejoice in your Feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, with the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless and the widow, who are within your gates. God is telling us to rejoice while here at the Feast for seven days. We are to rejoice regardless of if we are in our homes or an assigned Feast site. And make no mistake, God is letting us know He wants everyone to rejoice.

So, what does it mean to rejoice? One definition is “to feel or show great joy or delight.” And what does that mean? For starters, enjoy yourself, no drama, and smile. We have worked hard to get to this Feast. We have repented and moved forward from one Feast to the next.

When God calls us we are called to succeed, if we obey and respond. I cannot help but think of King David when he brought the ark of God into the city of David. It states in 2 Samuel 6:14—David danced before the Eternal with all his might. Remember, brethren, King David was a man after God’s own heart, a man that God molded and fashioned to be a man after His own heart.

Let me ask the question, what do we, God’s remnant, have to rejoice at this end-time? Today I would like to take a walk down a sort of memory lane with you, of things that we have experienced, and reflect on some of the reasons we have to rejoice before our Great God at this Feast.

The first thing that we can rejoice in is that if you’re listening to this sermon in God’s end-time Church, the Church of God—PKG, you are here because you’re one of three groups. The first group was part of Worldwide and experienced the Apostasy. This groups knows and understands what it’s like to have someone try to take God’s truth from you. They know what it’s like to disappoint God so much that He vomits you out of His mouth. He told them He could not dwell with them anymore.

Truth 22 states: “The word ‘apostasy’ means ‘to forsake and depart,’ and in this apostasy there was a forsaking and falling away from the truth God had given to His Church.” Mr. Armstrong stated, “God will deprive no man eternal life except that man rejects God’s way.” Too many of us rejected God’s way and He vomited us out of His Body. He removed us from His presence. Then in His mercy He brought back, woke up a remnant. Some went forward embracing God’s way, and some gave up their crown.

Even though we turned our back on God and He vomited us out, God woke us up. He called us back to His end-time Church.

Truth 29 states: “… So only those virgins whom God has awakened can repent and prepare themselves for the wedding.” Not only did God wake us up, we understand exactly what that means, and the scattered Church does not. We understand the full potential of the comments I just read. Do not take that lightly, brethren. God woke us up so we could repent, change our thinking, work on self, and prepare ourselves to be a part of the end-time remnant group, Church of God—PKG, Preparing for the Kingdom of God.

Many, many more did not get this opportunity, and as awful as it is to understand, many who were called back after the Apostasy did exactly what Christ warned the Church not to do. In Revelation 3:11 we read what he warned us, Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no man may take your crown.

The second group are those called after the Apostasy took place. Because some gave up their crown God gave new individuals an opportunity. God said there would be 144,000 born into Elohim. Because individuals gave up the fight God called a group of people in 2007, 2008, etcetera, to have the opportunity for that crown. We know that the scriptures refer to the Kingdom of God as a pearl of great price. Some did not see the value in their calling and awakening and gave it up.

God promises there will be exactly 144,000. As brethren we knew and walked to God’s house side by side decided to leave the fight and give up their crown God called others to take their place. You can rejoice if you were called after the Apostasy into His end-time Church.

There is one more group I want to address – those raised in the Church at the time of the Apostasy. You are here today because at least one parent came back and fought forward. You can rejoice if one or two of your parents were awakened after the Apostasy and stayed faithful in the fight, and moved forward so you, too, could enter the fight.

Some of you sitting here today were very small toddlers and some were up to teenagers when the Apostasy happened. But because God gave your parents the opportunity to be awakened and they responded, you were given an opportunity to be in God’s Church at the end. You were given the opportunity to know all 57 Truths, to know God’s end-time revelations to His Church, to know and understand Joshua is returning on a Pentecost.

Turn over to John 6:44—No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. Regardless of which category you are in God called you. God called you into the Church and then He awakened you after you fell asleep, or He called you into the remnant of the Church for the first time. If you are raised in the Church God called you and you can either choose God and stay or leave. We know several that left from this group as well.

He called us to be a part of His plan. You are so very important to God. We are living in a time when God’s focus is His Church. Everyone listening today is important to God. If you are yielding to a process, if you are repenting and fighting, you have the opportunity to someday be born into Elohim.

Here at the Feast you’ll hear sermons that deal directly with this. You can listen and learn and apply it into your lives directly, and then you can be raised up on that last day.

I have noted in one of God’s apostle’s posts, “We must choose to pray more and build a relationship with God, examine self before God, draw closer to God and Christ.” You are sitting at the Feast because God awakened you after the Apostasy or called after the Apostasy, or you were blessed enough to have one parent stay faithful to their awakening. So, take the time at this Feast to pray more, examine self daily, and draw closer to God and Christ.

Is there anything more valuable, more beautiful than to be close to our Father, our elder brother? No, there is not.

Now, brethren, if you could turn over to Psalm 28:7 with me. The Eternal is my strength and my shield. My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped, therefore, my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song I will praise Him. You can rejoice that God is not leaving you hang out there. He is not letting you hang out there to fail. God is your strength, He is your Petra, He is your place of safety. We can trust that God will help us in this journey. He will not leave us or forsake us if we are repentant and we are transforming ourselves to be like God and our elder brother, Joshua. Your heart should greatly rejoice in that.

The next thing that we can rejoice at the Feast is the 57 Truths and the truths God specifically gave us at a Feast of Tabernacles. God’s 57 Truths are our lifeline. They feed and nourish us.

At the Feast in 2005 God revealed a truth that separated us from the rest of the scattered Churches. In 2005 God revealed a large part of Himself to us. He knew that His Church was ready to understand that He and only He had eternally existed.

42 (21) God the Father is Yahweh Elohim, and He alone has eternally existed. The teaching that Christ has always existed is not from scripture, but became established in the Nicene Creed that emerged out of the work of the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. This creed established the creation of the Trinity doctrine. It is from this time that the true origins of the Catholic Church began. It wasn’t until hundreds of years later that Protestant churches emerged and also adopted this teaching of the Trinity of the Church of Rome.

The truth is, what earlier had been translated into scripture as the “Holy Ghost,” which is supposed to be one of the beings of the Godhead, is misunderstood and is not a being at all. The correct translation should be “holy spirit,” which is simply the spirit that comes from the One Eternal God—Yahweh Elohim. There are not three beings in the Godhead as this doctrine of the Trinity teaches.

Instead, there is only one Almighty God who has eternal existence. Joshua the Christ was conceived in Mary, his earthly mother, but begotten by God—Yahweh Elohim—who therefore became the Father of Christ. Joshua the Christ had no existence until born of Mary. There is a vast amount of proof to these truths in scripture and a vast number of them were covered extensively in Feast of Tabernacles sermons given in 2005.

In truth 42 scriptures from Isaiah are covered, so let’s go over them. Turn over to Isaiah 45:5-6—I am the Eternal, and there is no other; there is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me, that they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides Me. I am the Eternal, and there is no other.

Let’s continue in verse 18—For thus says the Eternal, who created the heavens, who is God, who formed the earth and made it, who has established it, who did not create it in vain, who formed it to be inhabited, I am the Eternal, and there is no other.

These scriptures are so clear. God says what He means, and He means what He says. But until God was ready for us to see this we did not. This is just another example of His love for His people. He doesn’t just push a truth on us and then hope it goes okay. He molds and fashions us so that when the time is right, if we are yielding and obeying, He can reveal the truth and we can see it and digest it. We then move forward from the truth and grow in the confidence of the truth.

I don’t know about those of you who, like me, were taught differently about God eternally existing, but when I think about it now I think how crazy it is. It just doesn’t sound right.

It’s just like understanding Truth 57: “The name of the Messiah—the Christ— God said his name should be Joshua, not Jesus.” To even think of saying “Jesus” makes you sort of cringe. It sounds icky and has no power or authority to it. But when you say “Joshua” you can feel it’s right. You cannot explain it, you just know it’s right. That is how God’s holy spirit works with us.

Another truth we were taught at a Feast is Truth 53. It states: “There is an end to Satan’s existence. His punishment is that of eternal death, never to have life again, once God brings an end to his spirit life. Some have believed that since angelic beings are composed of spirit that they cannot cease to exist and are therefore eternal beings. Angelic beings can cease to exist.” They are created beings that were brought into existence. They can also be removed from having existence by the one who created them.”

“The only angelic being who has been formally judged by God, through scripture, is the one who was created in the beginning as Lucifer, but who now carries the names of Satan, and the Devil. God has clearly revealed that his existence is coming to an end once he has fulfilled his purpose in God having allowed him to continue to exist through to the end of the age of mankind.”[1]

Brethren, we all have moments when we hear something in a sermon that produces a moment in our lives that we will never forget. And I have a few of those. I can remember where I was sitting or who I was sitting next to. It is a moment that is frozen forever in my memory. Well, brethren, I will be honest, when I became aware that Satan had an end I felt a joy I will not try to explain. I have the same joy every time I read this truth and I always have a smile on my face.

I want to briefly mention a few more truths that we can ponder and rejoice in during the Feast.

46 (25) The Church of God- PKG is the only physical organization God is working with in this end-time as a remnant of the vastly larger Church before the Apostasy.

Rejoice in the knowledge you are sitting here right now in a service with God’s Church. You will be fed for the next week by God’s apostle. Do I really need to expound on that? Just relish it, rejoice in it.

49 (28) Joshua the Christ will return to this earth on a Pentecost, along with the 144,000.

We may not know what year, but we know what day. Again, this separates us from the rest of the scattered Churches. And of course, brethren, you know I have to mention Truth 51 and 52.

51 (30) God is restoring knowledge concerning the rightful place of women in the family.

52 (31) The ordination of women in the Church.

I can remember the Sabbath God’s apostle revealed to the Church that women were going to be ordained. I stood up after services, turned around and looked at my daughter and son-in-law and said, “I can die now. To have lived to see God reveal to His Church that women are no longer to be considered less is everything to me at this moment in time.”

In Truth 52 we read: “… God is continuing to reveal the rightful role of women with this truth by showing that God has and will continue to work with and through women to help prepare the path for the return of Joshua the Christ and to fulfill a breaking of bonds (restraints as in bondage) for all humanity.”

If I could explain to you how it feels to stand before God’s people at a Feast and speak today I would. But I cannot. To have been allowed to serve His people up to this point is something I can never thank God enough for. Today is evidence that God continues to break the bonds. In a time when the world still does not acknowledge women equal our Great God moves forward.

To go through life thinking you are a second-rate individual because you were born a woman is a terrible thing. God is allowing women to participate in His government in the end-time, and He is helping us to be used to our fullest potential. When someone is able to be used to their fullest potential they are happy and productive. That is a beautiful thing for the family. To be equal is awesome!

Not just women can rejoice in this, but men as well. The truth reveals how God views His Family. He wants us to be used to our fullest potential. He sets the family free to grow beyond what we can comprehend at this time.

The next thing that we can rejoice in is God always provides spiritual food. An incredible example of how this has been fulfilled in our lives is reflecting on how much food we received while God’s apostle was imprisoned. This could have been a very dark time for God’s people, and one valid lesson we learned is that we need God’s apostle to teach us. Those of us who experienced the Apostasy and those who lived in the era of Laodicea know the damage that can be done without proper nourishment in due season. We know how weak you become.

“A branch cut from the tree becomes dead.” We know that you cannot only fall asleep, but as some described it, go into a coma. You no longer can discern anything you are doing. Those of us who lived through the Apostasy understand God had no choice but to vomit us out.

Brethren, turn over to Psalms 145:15—The eyes of all look expectantly to You, and You will give them their food in due season. This is talking about God feeding us spiritual food. In due season is the weekly Sabbath, the annual Holy Days, and while God’s apostle was in the camp, the post.

We can rejoice God gives to Christ what we need, and then he in turn gives it to his apostle who then gives it to the Church. God used a wonderful modern tool to feed us while His apostle was unjustly imprisoned. We are blessed to receive the post. For about 3½ years God fed us consistently via the post on the internet. There were over 70 posts. God gave us the food He wanted us to have. If you review the posts and note the different series that were covered you can clearly see what God thought was important at that time, areas where we needed to concentrate and refine.

We have a tendency to only think financial wealth when we read Malachi 3:10 where God tells us, Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this, says the Eternal of hosts, If He will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.

We understand that this is not just referring to something physical, but so much more than that. God blesses us with His truth. God’s truth is spiritual. When you review the posts it is very clear God gave us so much that there was not enough room to contain it. Let’s look at a few of the topics themselves that were posted and remember what were some of the things we learned from them.

In August of 2013, a post titled Important Fast discussed the importance of fasting. Under the section “A Final Cleansing of God’s Church” it talked about how we needed to always have on the armor of God. When I read the scripture that discusses the full armor of God I always meditate a little longer on the latter part of Ephesians 6:13. It says, So that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

When looking up information about armor I read this, “The main advantage of the knight’s armor was for protection. The opponent commonly had to aim at specific gaps in the armour in order to injure or kill the knight.” The second I read that I thought of Satan and how he works. Just like we’ve learned about the lion, we cannot turn our back on Satan. We cannot leave gaps in our armor.

We are reminded that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the powers of the dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (verse 12). No wonder why we need the full armor of God for help so we can stand.

Let’s just briefly look at the armor of God. “It is the belt of truth buckled around our waist, it is a breastplate of righteousness, it is feet fitted with readiness from the gospel of peace, it is a shield of faith, it is a helmet of salvation, it is a sword of the spirit.” We need the full armor, not just part of it. The only way we can wear the full armor of God is to stay close to Him.

If you think of what was going on at the time of the post, everything was very timely, and not by accident. When you reflect on what is written under the heading, “A Final Cleansing of God’s Church” and you are sitting here today, you should be ready to say, “Thank you!” and rejoice.

By fasting and drawing closer to God as we were instructed in the post, when the day of evil came we were able to stand our ground. And when the dust settled we were still standing. The scary part is there were others standing with us on that day, but they no longer stand. That should sober you to understand that if we do not keep on the full armor of God we, too, can be overtaken by the day of evil.

There were seven posts that covered Family: Coming Out of Bondage. In the first post we were reminded that with the revelation of the rightful place of women in the family it was the beginning to restoring the true purpose God always intended. We were able to focus on the fact that God was restoring truth to the family, and therefore, setting the family free of the lies and deception spewed by Satan.

In part 2 of the same post we were given understanding that there are two choices to be made, obedience or disobedience to God. We were reminded of how Adam and Eve chose and what happened to the family. We were given the task to strengthen the family and draw closer together.

In the last post in this subject, post 7, God inspired it to be written that His structure of government in the family is spiritual, it is not physical, and therefore, it started the removal of the curse on women and allowing the family to become free, and lead the family back into the relationship that God intends.

Another post I am sure you still remember is Year of Dedication. The post was in October of 2014. We were given a time frame to fast once a month to stay close to God. God knew we needed this to stay focused. We were told that the following year could not be like other years. It had to be one of being zealous toward God and His ways. It was a great opportunity to show God we were behind this thing.

A physical example to fast with a spiritual reward could not be measured. We cannot know at this time how valuable this year was, but someday we will. And if we continue to move forward and include this very valuable tool, fasting regularly in our lives, we will some day be part of Elohim. Remember, some are not here today because they did not take it seriously.

There were fourteen posts on True Fellowship. Think about that. That’s a lot of posts on one subject, and that means it’s an important subject. In the very first post we were reminded the most important relationship or fellowship we have is one with God. If we do not start with God then nothing else really matters.

Putting emphasis on our relationship with God means we are to grow in greater unity and oneness with Him. This has not changed. This message helped us to stay focus and work harder at walking with God daily. While God’s apostle was away this became very important not to forget.

Starting in post 4 we were taught every sin breaks every commandment, and sin cuts us off from a relationship or a fellowship with God. Each commandment was covered, and it was brought out when we break them we cut off our fellowship with God. From there we learned so much that I don’t have time to talk about it now, but if given the opportunity, go back and read it.

In post 14 it’s stated in the beginning, “From the time the writing on this subject first began, I believed that this would be a short series of two or three parts. As I continued writing, I consistently believed we were near the completion, but God kept revealing more and more. This has continued in that same manner until we have finally come to this ending summary of ‘Part 14 in this series.”

A summary followed and this is how it ended, “Relationships reveal what is the heart, desire, and true convictions of one who has entered the Body of Christ. Joshua the Christ plainly stated how important it is that God be FIRST in a person’s life, above all other relationships, if a person desires to remain ‘in’ true fellowship with Him.”

We, of all people, understand this. Every day you should begin with prayer with God, and He should be in our hearts and our minds during the day as we make choices in our lives, striving to never go against God Almighty and His ways.

This series was an incredible, valuable series. It was near the end of God’s apostles’ imprisonment. We should be very thankful that we were able to understand in such depth how important our fellowship with God is. While we did not receive weekly sermons from God’s apostle, God truly fed His people. We had to work a little harder and a lot of the responsibility was put on us. We had to take the time to read and meditate on what we received. God did provide the nourishment that was needed to stay a strong branch.

Another thing that we can rejoice in is once we were baptized and had God’s ministry lay hands on us we received God’s holy spirit. At our baptism we made a promise and a covenant with God. We gave our life to Him. We told God our lives belong to Him, and we want to be in accord with Him. We cannot do this on our own, so God shows us how much He loves us – He gave us help.

It is stated in the most recent writing of God’s apostle, The Fall of the United States[2], “Once begotten of God’s holy spirit, one can begin to grow spiritually, but only ‘in embryo’ within the Church. We live in a physical body that is impregnated with God’s holy spirit. We begin living a life of conquering the flesh—the pulls of human nature—thereby developing holy, righteous character. This process eventually allows us to be ‘born’ into the Kingdom of God—the God Family—as spirit beings, fully ‘born of the spirit.”

Mr. Armstrong once said, “A Church without God’s spirit is foolish.” Could there be a more accurate statement? If we have God’s holy spirit it is our challenge to yield to it and produce fruit. We should be living it every day in our lives, not just the Feast, but everyday. When our human nature, the old man, surfaces, put him back down. Let your fruit shine, and never take it to yourself; it’s not you. The ugly, selfish things you do, that is you. Don’t pat yourself on the back when you do something right. Thank God that He gave you the opportunity to yield to a process and grow.

Let’s turn over to 1 Corinthians 2:10-11—But God has revealed them to us through His spirit. For the spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of man which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God except the spirit of God. There is only one reason you know what you know, why you understand 57 Truths, and why you are here at God’s Feast. It is because God revealed it to you through His holy spirit.

We understand that there is a spirit in man that separates us from the animals. The spirit in man gives us our intellect and why we can reason and animals cannot. They live strictly by instinct. Just as this is true, the only reason why you know what you know is because God’s spirit reveals it to us. You can see things the world cannot because you have help. The part that should be most sobering to you is that if you sin and live contrary to God that can stop and then you are no really any better off than the animals. You will lose the truths you have.

Being cut off from the flow of God’s spirit leaves us very vulnerable. We become the world and live lives filled with drama.

Now, if you could please turn over to John 15:1-2—I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. This is a very easy concept to understand. God as the vinedresser is repositioning the branches so they can produce fruit.

If you have a fruit tree, for example, and you have a branch that is not bearing fruit for some reason, it will be removed. You don’t want to waste nourishment on something that’s not using it. But if you have a branch that is producing fruit you will prune it. To prune something is “to cut out useless or unwanted parts.” The purpose to remove unwanted branches is so that the tree structure could be improved and direct new and healthy growth.

Think of the tree as God’s Church. Isn’t it better to remove what is useless, not living God’s way of life, than to keep it around? If the whole is living a life of exercising God’s way of life, showing good examples of how to live, doesn’t the whole become stronger and healthier?

The old saying, “One bad apple can spoil the bunch,” is another way to look at it. Everyone knows that if you have a basket of ripe, beautiful apples, and in the center of the basket is an apple that is rotting, that will spread to the apples next to it and on and on.

The same is true of a bag of potatoes. If you’ve ever brought home a bag of potatoes from the grocery store and you start to smell something rotten, and you dig deep into that bag, you will find a rotting potato, and the ones next to it have started to rot also.

So, let’s look at that as a physical example of someone sinning in the Body and not repenting. Let’s use the sin of discord with God’s ministry. Someone starts talking and disagreeing with a sermon in a group. If that goes unchecked someone in that group may start to listen and starts to think about it and may start to cause doubt in their own mind. That is why it is important that we as God’s people address it then and there so it cannot spread.

Let’s continue in verses 4-5—Abide in me, and I in you. And as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit; without me you can do nothing. God goes on to let us know that our lifeline is Joshua. We can do nothing separate from him. He is the main source of our nourishment we have. He nourishes us by God’s word. He inspires what is to be given since he is the head of the Church. God has given all things to Christ to take care of.

While God is the vinedresser and positions us for our molding and fashioning He gives to Christ the authority to do what is necessary, to make sure we can bear fruit if we so choose to. Christ will do exactly what God’s will is, and that is something that we can absolutely be sure of.

Now, let’s read verse 6—If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. The minute we have unrepented sin we start to wither and die. We have cut ourselves off from the flow of God’s holy spirit, and without God’s holy spirit guiding us and helping us we are no match for Satan and his ugly influence.

Finishing in verses 7-8 here, If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be my disciples.

So, brethren, what is the fruit? Let’s turn over to Galatians 5:22-23—But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

The very word “fruit” means “something that has been produced.” It is something that we can see. If an apple tree bears fruit we see an apple. If a peach tree bears fruit we see a peach. You get the picture, a very physical picture of something we can pick and eat. But with God’s spirit the fruit is not something physical, it is not something that we can pick and eat, it is something we see in action.

So, what do I mean by that? The fruit of the holy spirit or what we bear or produce if we are using the holy spirit, is nine different types of fruit. We can see the evidence of the nine fruits in our actions, how we talk, how we behave. If we are producing the fruit of love we have outgoing concern for others. We won’t always have to have our way and we are willing to sacrifice what we want for somebody else.

For example, here at the Feast if plans have already been made and we’ve decided what we want and what we want to go do, and someone else expresses something different, if we change our minds and want to see someone else have a different experience and we want to participate we will give up our desire and make sure their desire is fulfilled. We have just shown the fruit of love.

You have the proof that it’s the proof of God’s holy spirit because our carnal selfish human nature apart from God would make sure we got what we wanted.

Let’s look at a couple more examples. How about peace? The opposite of peace is drama. Here at the Feast we can exercise peace by the elimination of drama. And how do we do that? If someone asks you how your day is, and let’s just say it’s not been what we want, again, we are dealing with selfish human nature. So, our coffee was just not the way we wanted it, or someone got in the shower before us and used up all the hot water, or everyone decided to leave for church at a specific time and somebody was not ready for whatever reason, you don’t have to give the person who asked you how your day was with full detailed description, one that most likely will put you in a good light and someone else in a bad light. Just respond, “It’s a great day!” After all, you’re at God’s Feast. How is it supposed to be a bad day?

One last example. Let’s look at self-control. How can we produce self-control at the Feast? We are so excited to see each other at the Feast. Fellowship is the second most important thing at the Feast, but remember, we said second. What’s first? It is listening to every sermon given and gleaning all we can from it. That’s hard to do if you’ve not had a good night’s sleep and you got up late, and you didn’t have time to talk to God before you went to the sermon, to ask to be spiritually fed that day.

At the Feast we have a tendency to want to stay up a little longer than we should, so make a commitment to yourself to make sure you get a good night’s sleep and have time in the morning to put God first and get the most out of every sermon. I can promise you that if you do that your Feast will be blessed and you will learn even more how to be able to put everything you’ve learned into practice about what you’re learning and grow even more in the spirit and produce bigger and better fruit.

I would also like to point out that while you’ve shown the fruit in peace and in self-control you also have shown the fruit of love. You see, all of God’s fruit are not something physical we can see. There is something spiritual that is not seen. All nine fruits ultimately are the one fruit of love. I’m referring to God’s love, agape, and that is spiritual.

We as human beings do not have agape naturally. I will say it again, we are full to the top of stinking human nature. We show the fruit of that every day all day long. We have to be on guard always so as not to let that fruit dominate us. If we are not careful the fruit of the holy spirit will be like a branch cut off from the tree, it will wither and die.

While at the Feast use nine fruits of the holy spirit as a daily measuring tape. Ask yourself, “Where am I?” If you’re falling short pray about it and pick up the pace. This is the time to grow.

Turn over to 1 Corinthians 12:12-13—For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit we were baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—we have all been made to drink into one spirit.

Our physical bodies have several parts. Each part is important to the body. We can each look at a personal example of that. If you have stubbed your little toe on something you know that that one little piece can hurt enough that every part of your body feels it. If you age and your knee starts to give your problems your whole body suffers because you’re not mobile. You get the picture.

So, just as our physical body has many parts, so does the Body of Christ, God’s Church. The Body is made up of men and women, it is made up of young and old, and something in between. Regardless of the differences in God’s eyes we are one Body. We are one Body because all at baptism received the gift of God’s holy spirit. The moment we received the holy spirit we were no longer Jew or Greek, no longer slave or free, no longer man or woman, but we became one Body.

When God looks at us He sees potential sons of God, potential Elohim. When we look at each other that is exactly what we should see, too. We should see exactly what God does.

Brethren, we can rejoice that God understands our human nature, since He did create it. He knows the only way we can even begin to try to overcome is to be reminded weekly on His Sabbath day of what His purpose is for us.

God then gives His annual Sabbaths, His Holy Days, which we know are God’s plan for mankind. We come to learn and appreciate the most important thing about these days is the sermons, the food we are given. And then secondly, the fellowship we have with each other. We cannot take either one of these things lightly. We need to make sure we pray before being fed and ask God to help us to glean everything we can from the sermons and apply it to self, not others. Ask God to correct us, not others.

We cannot take fellowship for granted or not take it seriously. We have been admonished over the past few years how important fellowship is. We learn valuable lessons in regards to the Covid vaccine. Are we willing to take a shot? Are we willing to sacrifice a little drive time to be able to fellowship with others of like mind? The bottom line is we can become lazy about listening to sermons or travelling to fellowship. If this is a problem for us we need to examine it and ask God to help us to do better. Make the Sabbath about God and His Family.

God gave us the seventh day to rest and be rejuvenated, to be corrected and to learn, and to apply His word in our lives. He gave us His Sabbath. And then you have to ask yourself, brethren, how do we observe God’s Sabbath?

Again, I came across the post Important Fast, the one dated August 18, 2013, where we were asked to examine ourselves and how we approach the Sabbath. We were told to look in the mirror. That is very clear. When you look in a mirror you see you, you don’t see someone else. So, look in the mirror. Look at yourselves and not each other. Point the finger at self and just ask the question, “How am I observing God’s Sabbath?”

Do we set the Sabbath aside for holy use and purpose? Do we understand that this is a gift from God? That’s exactly what it is. It is a gift. It is a gift that the world does not have. There is no other day during the week that you can reflect and rest and reflect on God and be fed spiritually like that on the Sabbath day. It should be cherished. It is a time for us to be in fellowship with God and those of like mind.

We can be separated from the world and be charged in God’s way of life. What are we willing to sacrifice for that? Or are we too tired to bother with anything else or anyone else, for that matter. In the same post we were told that fellowship is an added spiritual benefit given to us. Again, a gift.

Brethren, turn over to Leviticus 23:3—Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of the Eternal in all your dwellings.

God gives us the same instructions again in Exodus 20:8-11, if you would turn over there, please. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Eternal your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Eternal made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and He rested the seventh day. Therefore, the Eternal blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

God tells us to remember it. Remember, brethren, it says, “Remember the Sabbath day.” If we are to remember something that should tell you it’s important, especially if God’s telling you to remember it. So, when we call in to remembrance the Sabbath day, it’s not just not working physically. We are to shut off the world and meditate on God’s word and plan. We all know that can be very difficult task because sometimes our minds just won’t shut off. That is a challenge for us, but one we can complete because God is helping us.

Turn over to Proverbs 14:12—There is a way that seems right to a man, but it’s end is the way of death. Man always thinks he’s right. He thinks he knows it all, but the result is death. It is a blessing if we are called into God’s Church and can be fed every week on the Sabbath and learn what is right, what is right in God’s eyes. If we yield to this process this can lead to eternal life, being born into Elohim. What a blessing that is. And I’ll say it, it’s awesome!

Reflecting back over the sermons we have received since the Feast last year shows where God is leading us. At the time of preparing this sermon we were in a series called Humility and Seeing Ourselves, not others, selves. In this series we were told more than once “to those that much is given, much is expected.” That can be kind of scary.

We were told that God was going to have a cleansed Church upon Christ’s return and that God was giving us more understanding of fighting our selfish human nature, and we needed to respond and fight like we never have.

In Part 4 of that series we were told at the end of the sermon we are not to be slumbering or sleeping. We have in the past. It was the result of the Apostasy. When you are slumbering, just getting ready to fall asleep, or when you are sleeping you have nothing to give. You are not sure what is happening. We need to be awake and alert, and that can only happen when you are close to God.

Brethren, we cannot just be passing time, drifting. We need to focus, to be working on putting things out of our life that can distract us from the true purpose of life, Elohim. Think of a piece of driftwood on the waves, it just lays there and does nothing. We cannot be like that. We must be more on guard. Again, we need to put on the full armor of God, protect our minds of the filth of this world, and focus on God and what He is feeding us.

We are reminded after these three things that we are preparing for the Kingdom of God. That is exactly what God feeds us every week, it is how to prepare for the Kingdom of God. Do not take that name lightly. That name is not by accident; God does not work that way. He plans, He molds, and He fashions, He inspires. And if we are listening closely every week and we have prayed and asked to be fed you can bet you will see it.

God not only feeds us weekly, but we have the blessing to be fed annually. He has outlined His plan for mankind, and we are to come together on these annual Sabbaths or High Days to learn about His plan.

Again, if we could turn over to Leviticus 23:1-2—And the Eternal spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: The appointed times of the Eternal, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My appointed times. We are to gather on the Holy Days in a holy convocation. We are to gather again either as a group, or if necessary, in our individual homes. Remember again, even in your individual homes you are not alone, God and Joshua are there with you.

We are to gather together and to be fed and learn about God’s plan. Over the years we have been very blessed to learn more each time we keep a Holy Day. And to remember, the Holy Days sometimes in a physical example would be like an onion. God will peel back a little more and a little more. As you do this an onion will smell, and that smell will get stronger and stronger. So, don’t think of the smell as a bad thing. We’re learning more and more, and by learning more and more we are growing stronger and stronger. We will grow in this truth for eternity.

Let us briefly look at the Holy Days and their meanings and see how much we have to rejoice in them. We understand that everything starts with Passover. If you are not sure how important that is to God, let me remind you that during the past year God inspired a nine-part series called The Fulfilling of Passover, the longest series we had last year to the date of this pre-recorded sermon.

While Passover is not a Holy Day, it has to start here. Joshua, our elder brother, gave his life feely for us. He did not just die, he was beaten beyond recognition, and he became our Passover lamb, a lamb without blemish. He did not deserve death; he never sinned. That is hard for us to understand because of how much we do sin. But he did not. He was hung on a pole and died for us. His side was speared, and his blood fell to the earth.

Because of this we can now go to our Father in the Holy of Holies and speak directly to Him. Do we grasp that? Do we understand that we pray directly to God Almighty because of Christ’s sacrifice? We’re literally in the presence of God Almighty. Can we ever grasp that? Just think about that, brethren. Something to rejoice in.

The first two Holy Days are the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the last day of Unleavened Bread. We are taught that we are to come out of Egypt, out of sin. We learn that we take a physical example of putting leavening out of our homes to represent the putting of sin out of our lives. But it doesn’t stop there. This is to be a daily occurrence for us for the rest of our lives, continually repenting of sin and moving forward. We learn that we have to put sin out of our lives so that we are not cut off from the flow of God’s holy spirit. As we learned earlier in the sermon, without the flow of God’s spirit we will wither and die.

The next Holy Day in God’s plan is Pentecost. This is a good example of God revealing more to us as we move forward. We at one time thought Christ would return on a Feast of Trumpets, but we have come to understand that he will return on Pentecost. Christ will return with the 144,000 to begin his reign as King of kings on this earth. He and the 144,000 will usher in God’s Kingdom. We also understand that God used a Pentecost to give us His law, the 10 Commandments.

After Pentecost we come to the Feast of Trumpets. We understand that the sounding of Trumpets has great meaning to God. God sounded a Trumpet, and we understand that His Son is returning to the earth on Pentecost with the 144,000.

That brings me to my favorite Holy Day. It’s not my favorite Holy Day because I love to fast. I am human. I get hungry, and of course, immediately thirsty. But if you look fast the physical discomfort and you see the meaning of the day, the Day of Atonement, and understand that we can become at one with God. What I love most about the Day of Atonement is I remember all day long Satan has an end. Satan will someday cease to exist. I cannot wait for the fulfillment of that day.

Then that brings us up to exactly what we’re celebrating now, the Feast of Tabernacles that will be followed by the Last Great Day. For the next seven days we’ll be fed about the Feast of Tabernacles that represents God’s Millennium, a thousand years with Satan and the demons bound where they cannot influence or hurt mankind. While we know it will be no picnic, because again, we’re still dealing with our ugly human nature, we understand Satan’s influence will be stopped.

Then we come up to the Last Great Day when all of those whom God resurrects will have a chance to have their minds open and to learn about God and what the potential for man really is.

We are given the opportunity to show God how much we love Him, and that is by learning and applying what we learn in sermons. We need to keep the drama out of our lives, sacrifice self for others, and ask God to help us fight our human nature every day, especially during the Feast.

Turn over to Romans 12:9-10—Let love be without hypocrisy. Don’t be fake. Abhor what is evil. Think about what would hurt someone. Cling to what is good. Our example of what God is, is love. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another. Don’t be selfish.

We learn for our love to be genuine with God and Christ. We need to turn away from what is wrong and make straight paths for our feet. Repeating a kind gesture, a kind word, instead of being demeaning or nasty to one another. Put each other first. Make an effort to let each other know in actions and deeds we are aware of each other’s feelings, and we do care and want everyone to be happy. Put others first and self second.

As we conclude this introduction to God’s Feast of 2022 let us recap what we have to rejoice over. Remember in the beginning of the sermon we said one definition is “to feel great joy or delight.” If you reflect on the things we have just talked about you should feel great joy that you were just reminded how much God loves you.

God has shown us the way out of Egypt, out of sin. We can repent of our sins and restore our lifeline to God. There are so many that went back to Egypt, and that should be sobering to you. There is only one reason why that happened. They lost focus of who they were, and they let down. They did not see the value in their calling. You can rejoice that God has helped you to see the value and that you know it. In that you can rejoice.

We have either gone through the Apostasy and been awakened and brought back to the Body, or we were called by God after the Apostasy, or we were blessed and had a parent after being awakened stay faithful to that awakening. Some were called to be part of the 144,000 or to live into the Millennium. Regardless of what you were called to, in that you can rejoice.

God has given us a total of 57 Truths, and so many of those only His true Church has, the Church of God—PKG. God has given us some specific truths at Feasts, and He’s given us others at other times. He has given us a vine to be fed through, a trunk to hold on to whenever we need it. In that you can rejoice.

God has shown us no matter what circumstance His Church may be in, He will feed us. He will give us nourishment if we want it, and we will not die. We can always be growing, brethren. In that you can rejoice.

At baptism, once forgiven of our sins God allowed His ministry to lay hands on us and we received His holy spirit. With the help of the holy spirit we can transform our thinking to be like God and to someday be born into the Family of God, Elohim. In that we can rejoice.

God gives us weekly sermons to admonish us and help us to see where our weaknesses are so that we can overcome them with His help and move forward a stronger individual. He shares His plan with us annually, reminding us what our future is. In that you can rejoice.

Brethren, turn over to Deuteronomy 30:19—I call heaven and earth as witness today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live. Life and blessings go hand in hand. If we are living a life that honors God and we are obeying Him we are blessed. We are blessed to continue moving forward and to be taught week after week, year after year. We are blessed to be in the presence of Almighty God whenever we want, to go straight to Him.

Death and cursings go hand in hand. If we choose to live another way apart from God we are tossed back to the world, cut off from the only way that will lead to true happiness, and ultimately the death we experience is eternal death, to no longer exist.

There are two scriptures that we have been given in the past, and I read them weekly, and I remind myself I’m not in this fight alone. And I want to share that with you today. The first one is Joshua 1:9, if you could turn over there with me, please. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Eternal your God is with you wherever you go.

That is not a suggestion, but a command. We are to be strong. The only way we can be strong is if God is in us. That means repent of sin quickly.

Be courageous, or do not be afraid of anything. If God forgives us of our sins, which means if we change and think differently, He’s willing to forget them, and He continues to love us.

Why would we fear? We have nothing to fear! If God is for us, who can be against us? He promises He is with us wherever we go. That should give us an extreme confidence to move forward in this fight.

The second one I’d like to share with you today, if you could turn over to Deuteronomy 31:6—Be strong and of good courage, do not fear, do not be afraid of them; for the Eternal your God, He is the one who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.

I can remember a sermon series where this scripture was read recently. The comment was made “Afraid of them, whoever ‘them’ is.” Bottom line is if we are strong and of good courage and being determined and ready and willing to face any obstacle that would try to come between us and God, we have nothing to fear. When you are in the state of being, you are not afraid.

“Them” can be anything to us depending on our circumstances in life. But God reminds us He is with us. If we are cut off from God He is no longer dwelling in us, and that is where the problem is. If God is with us He walks with us throughout the day. We can call upon Him at any moment or time in our minds and He listens. God is the only thing that we can depend upon because He is constant and never changes. He will never leave us or forsake us unless we choose not to follow Him. It is totally up to us.

In the end, brethren, we need to get in back of this thing. I have this bolded in my notes: Get back of this thing! And what does that mean? We give our full support to God’s apostle. If God inspires Him to give us something we do it. Call it blind faith, if you want, but when you follow the instructions given by God’s apostle you are saying with your actions you know where God is, and you know where He is working. And yes, you blindly follow because you really don’t need to know. Because God’s spirit will guide you and God will get you through anything. Either you believe this, brethren, or you don’t.

In the introduction sermon in the Feast of 2016, Welcome to God’s Feast! God inspired His apostle to tell us something, and I want to leave you with that as we go out from this sermon today determined to obey God, to rejoice as He has commanded us. Of all the reasons that we have gone over today that we can rejoice in, this is the most important.

We were told in 2016, speaking of God and Joshua the Christ, “He loves you. He loves you with a great and powerful love! Truly! You’ve gone through a lot of things. You’ve gone through a lot of difficulties. You’ve gone through a lot of hardships. And indeed, that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Because if you don’t you cannot grow. And so, we embrace that, we embrace the hard times we go through, and we learn we have to fight for this way of life.”

Brethren, I’m asking you today to make a commitment, a promise to God Almighty to be here next year. Don’t let this world get to you. Do not become weighted down with what’s not important. This physical life is a time for us to grow and to learn and to yield to God Almighty, to understand He’s molding and fashioning us. It is a means to an end, this world. Embrace what God Almighty is offering us and rejoice.

[1] https://www.cog-pkg.org/publications/the-rest-of-mystery-of-the-ages.pdf

[2] The Fall of the United States, Pg 232 in physical book, Pg 126 in PDF