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Transcript

Good morning, brethren. I almost feel like apologizing to the people standing in front of me. That’s one of my favorite hymns, so I was belting it out. So if I am done, through my sermon in half an hour, it’s because I’m all wired up now.

But brethren, it’s day one, day one of the Feast. How many, raise your hand, if you would agree that you’re well, maybe day one, but you’re well into your rejoicing at the Feast? Okay, good, good. See, we got a great, good start. Another question. How many would say that you’re well into learning more about how to fear God? Okay. That’s just one day. So there’s a lot more in store. But here’s a third one. For this one, I have to set it up. So let’s go to Leviticus twenty-three.

Leviticus twenty-three. We’ll read verse forty-two, starting there. Leviticus twenty-three and verse forty-two says, “You shall dwell in booths seven days. All that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths.” Those are, of course, temporary dwellings, tabernacles, another term for tabernacles today, hotels. Temporary dwelling. Why? It says, verse forty-three, “That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths. When I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I am the Lord your God.” So this is hearkening back to when ancient Israel left Egypt. They dwell in temporary dwellings because they were sojourning. They were traveling. They were moving.

Now I’m going to set this up a little bit more. And let’s turn to First Chronicles chapter twenty-nine. First Chronicles twenty-nine. We’ll see something David said. King David.

I’m still hearing the hymn in my head. That’s a good one. I just won’t sing it. Not up here.

First Chronicles twenty-nine. So the context here is, David, praying after an offering that had been given for the tabernacle. And he said in the middle of this prayer, David said in verse fifteen, “For we are strangers before you and sojourners as were all our fathers. Our days on the earth are as a shadow and there’s none abiding.” So here David is saying we are sojourners and strangers. Now those words are interesting. Strangers, it says a temporary inhabitant, I looked up the meaning, a temporary inhabitant, a newcomer lacking inherited rights. And sojourners, the meaning of that word is a dweller, especially as distinguished from a native citizen and a temporary inmate, a resident alien, a foreigner, inhabitant, sojourner.

And even in, you can write down Psalm thirty-nine, David also wrote in Psalm thirty-nine and verse twelve, we’re not going there, but he made it more personal. In that he said, “For I am a stranger with you and a sojourner,” same two words, “...as all my fathers were.” So he made it personal and we should make it personal too. Every one of us is a sojourner. We live in temporary dwellings at the Feast because we’re sojourning. And we picture that here at the Feast in a condensed way for seven days, plus the last great day, of course.

So now you’re ready for the question. The question is, I already asked you about, are you well into your rejoicing? Are you well into fearing God, learning to fear God? So how many of you are feeling a little bit more like spiritual sojourners through this life? Any hands? Yes. My hand included in all of those three.

Now this topic of being a sojourner has been on my mind for a few weeks. I wasn’t even planning on giving this message and then something happened in my life that led me to, I feel, that inspired this message, and it was, I made a life change that kind of forced me to think about being a sojourner and that is, I started riding a bike to work. That’s right. And then, let me tell you a little bit of how that happened. So I work at a high school, I’m a high school teacher. And the school is a small, small school and we rent a floor in a building in the city I live. So for many years I’ve been there.

When I was hired earlier this year and we, people will use the parking. Well suddenly they changed new management, the parking people, the new parking people came in and they decided, well, these people are not paying rent, let’s charge them. So they started charging us parking and I paid it for a few months and at a point I started going up and it’s not cheap. I mean, it made sense from a business perspective, it didn’t agree with their budget plans to have a whole floor of a building not paying parking. The problem was that their charging us parking didn’t agree with my budget, right?

So I decided I got to find an alternative here. So you have to pay your parking at the beginning of the month, otherwise you don’t have a parking spot for the whole month. And I thought about it and thought about it and I thought maybe I should start taking the bus and I would take the bus a few days, which I enjoy, but still, if you pay the bus every day, you end up paying about the same amount of money in parking. The difference is you save some money if you don’t go, if you have days off, you don’t pay for those days, granted. But I still thought, no, I can save more, there has to be a way.

And suddenly this moment came, this inspiration came. I was sitting there when the students were gone and, ah, you know, I can ride a bike, I can buy a bike, it probably would be cheaper than paying for parking, and then I’m done, I have my bike. So I remember texting my wife, what about riding to work? And she said, oh, I like that, because in the city that we live, there’s a lot of people riding bikes all the time, even I’ve seen people in suits riding bikes and I’m thinking maybe there’s something to that.

So then this was the moment where I figured, okay, this is, now it’s obvious, this is what I need to do. I found that the city has a program of bikes through the different spots through the city and it’s called Indigo, and you can pay a small monthly fee and you can rent these bikes, you have two rides per day, so you can ride one hour, and then you have to dock it again and then at the end of the day you can ride another hour.

My ride, I did the math, I live about three miles from my job, that takes me less than half an hour. So I have plenty of time, it’s way cheaper than paying parking and I figured, oh, this is it. So I don’t even have to buy a bike, I just go, check it out, and drive off, park it, and do the same thing on the way back. And as I did this for the first few days, I began to learn some lessons. I began to realize, wow, there’s a lot of parallels here, spiritual parallels, when you travel this way. And then eventually, a few days later, I realized, no, this is a sermon. So here we are.

Brethren, turn to First Peter, First Peter chapter one. Because I’m not suggesting that everybody should now, let me make a disclaimer as you turn there, I’m not asking for you all or even suggesting that you should all give up your cars and start beginning bikes and driving everywhere you go with a bike. Please, let it be recorded, I didn’t say that. I had to do this to save some money, that’s it. I wanted to do it. But it doesn’t matter, in fact, when he talks about sojourning in the Bible, it’s mostly walking. It’s mostly, when you look up the meaning of sojourning, it’s mostly referring to walk.

But in general, when you sojourn, we all came here, we drove, most of us, some of us flew. Whatever method of transportation you use, you can think of these parallels we’ll talk about as being spiritual sojourners. So we’re going to First Peter, chapter one, and verse seventeen. I’ll read verse sixteen as well. It says, “Because it is written, be you holy, for I am holy. And if you call on the Father who without respect of persons judges according to every man’s work, pass,” this is key brethren, “...pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.”

We are sojourners, we’re spiritual sojourners, and we are passing our time, our sojourning time, and we’re to do it in fear. We’re here to learn the fear of God, and that could be its own message, but I will focus on lessons of how do you apply that fear? You think about the word fear in the New Testament in that particular case, I think it’s the word phóbos. You think of the word phobia, right? Fear. So when you act and you know you’re concerned, you know it’s a situation where you might be a little bit fearful because there are dangers involved, you act more carefully. You follow certain guidelines to make sure you do it safely, and riding a bike I learned quickly requires some cautions that I needed to take.

So let’s go over some important guidelines on how to pass our time as sojourners in route to the kingdom of God.

So guideline number one, this may sound simple, but brethren, it’s important spiritually. We need to have our destination always in the forefront of our minds. We need to have our destination always in the forefront of our minds. Please turn to Matthew chapter six. Matthew six, sounds simple in a physical sense. I get on my bike, I know I’m going to work. I never start thinking about where am I going and I’m in the middle of the trail. No. I know I got to get to work. However, spiritually brethren, sometimes life has a way to get you to where suddenly you are not always thinking about where we’re going, where are we headed.

So Matthew chapter six, verse thirty-three, “But seek you first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.” So the most important thing is knowing where we’re going. After that, all the other guidelines supplement that of course. But if we don’t know where we’re going, what are we doing going anywhere? Where are we doing? What am I doing on a bike if you don’t know where I’m going, just driving around town and then my students are wondering where is he?

We have to stay focused. When we wake up every morning, let that be our driver. When we wake up, let that be our first thought. It doesn’t have to be the very first one, you might want to brush your teeth or do something like that first. But of course, once you wake up, what am I here for? Why did I wake up? What did God give me another day for? And that is to make it to that kingdom He’s going to bring. That’s where I am headed. We should never let go of our destination.

Proverbs twenty-nine, let’s go to Proverbs twenty-nine. Proverbs twenty-nine, and verse eighteen. Proverbs twenty-nine, eighteen, “Where there is no vision, the people perish, but he that keeps the law, happy is he.” Think of that first half of the verse, where there’s no vision. We have to have a clear vision of where we’re headed. And side point, the word vision also can mean prophecy. And what do we study prophecy for? We study prophecy to learn about the kingdom, to learn about our destination, to learn the details of how it’s going to arrive and so forth.

If we lose sight of what we’re doing, where we’re headed, we’re going to find ourselves lost. So we can’t allow that. But do we ever forget? 8.2 billion as of this morning, when I went online and I typed, how many people are alive in this planet today? 8.2 billion people as of today. They have no clue where they’re going. They don’t know that there is a destination, a spiritual destination. We do. But do we forget, is the question.

We better not, brethren, because please turn to Micah chapter four. Micah chapter four. What is interesting as you go there, since I started riding my bike, I actually get early to work. It’s an interesting thing. I had my car. I could drive. And sometimes I’ll find myself getting there in the nick of time. Or maybe if you run into traffic, sometimes even a few minutes, ooh, I got to do better tomorrow if you’re a few minutes late. And you’ll get there and everybody will be, yeah, traffic was bad today. And now, it doesn’t matter if traffic is bad, I just know I got to get up at a certain time, get on that bike, and I find myself getting there early. That may or may not have anything to do with the message.

So let’s keep reading here, Micah chapter four. “But in the last days, it shall come to pass that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills. And people shall flow unto it.” People are going to be in the move. They’re going to go. They’re going to sojourn to the mountain of the Lord. “And many nations shall come and say, come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in his paths. For the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”

“And he shall judge among many people and rebuke strong nations afar off, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall seat every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and none shall make him afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken it.”

“For all people,” this is what we’re going to see when that time comes, that destination we have. This is where we’re going. “...All people will walk, everyone, in the name of his God, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.” And we have learned so much more in recent messages we’ve heard about that time.

Brethren, we can’t forget that that’s our destination because all those people are depending on us to be there. We are going to be teaching them. We’re going to be there. If we continue with that focus on that destination, what could be more important? It’s important. They need us. When you see people around us that don’t understand what we understand, even those that may even give us a hard time about what we understand, we should be thinking, they don’t know it, but they actually need me to make it. They need people. God wants leaders that are going to be ready to lead the masses.

What are we thinking about if we forget our destination? And at any moment, we should just, if we find ourselves getting caught up with the cares of this life or anything that gets our attention from God’s way of life, we should just take a moment and just get some cold water and splash in our face or something like that. What am I thinking? Come on. Get back into your destination. Again, that’s just a figure of speech. You don’t have to go and throw water on your face. I’ve never done that, but I just thought it would bring some drama to what I’m trying to bring here.

But let’s keep that destination, the kingdom of God in the forefront of our minds as we go, as we even go through these points, these guidelines that I’ll continue to discuss here.

All right, guideline number two. When it’s time to go, we must go. When it’s time to go, we must go. That’s the guideline. Why do I put it that way? Well, there’s a point where you have to get on the bike and start pedaling. Otherwise, you’re not going to your destination, right? So think about it.

Let’s go to Deuteronomy chapter fourteen.

Deuteronomy fourteen. Deuteronomy chapter fourteen, verse twenty five. Here’s the command that we’re keeping. But sometimes what I find interesting about the Bible is that it’s fascinating. You get a command, and usually there are little commands within the big command. For example, the Sabbath. You know, okay, keep the Sabbath, seventh day, you understand. That’s the big command. But then within that command, if you read carefully, it says, six days shall you labor. Wow, there’s a command within a command. That’s interesting.

So how about this? It says here in Deuteronomy chapter fourteen and verse twenty-five, okay, it’s talking from verse twenty-four, talking about if the way be too long for you, you change it into money. And then in verse twenty-five, “Turn it into money and bind up the money in your hand and shall go.” That’s a command right there, “...go onto the place which the Lord your God shall choose.” We have to go. At some point, you had, I had to go to make it here, to be sitting here. Look back maybe a day or so ago, at a point, you were getting in that vehicle or that plane or wherever, that bus, that train, that bike, if you did it, it would have been more than a day ago. But you have to go.

Now let me just give you a little more background. When I made this decision to start biking to work, there was one kind of nervous thought in the back of my mind. I think the last time I rode a bike was about 20 years ago. I think it’s like 2004. So you bet I was a little nervous, all right? And I took the day before that I was going to start doing this and my family was with me. We were all walking around town and I said, okay, let me try one of these bikes because I’m not sure if I can still do this, you know? And I already am not paying for parking, so I got to get it together.

So I pulled this bike and I started driving and the front wheel was very wobbly. It was just like this. And I’m thinking, oh no, I don’t know if I can do this. My wife saw me and she goes, okay, let me try. She went on it. And we’ve kind of figured out, okay, you have got to be careful with this and, you know, change the seat a little bit and you’ll have more control. But then came that morning, and I knew, all right, if I don’t get on this bike right now, I may be nervous, I’m not sure about using the bike lane amongst all these cars, but I’m going to have to go because otherwise I’m not going to make it. And I just got on that bike, and I started on the sidewalk, which you shouldn’t do, but I just was a little nervous.

And I was trying to go and then eventually I hit enough bumps on that sidewalk that I said, no, I’m going on that bike road, bike lane. I better remember how to do this. And I got through it, but I had to, at a point, go. The same with parking. Parking the car. Okay, the trip for us is about seven hours to get here. Well, parking the car took about three hours. So for me, getting to actually go was, it took about three hours. And that doesn’t even count the hours that were spent parking. I can’t take credit for that. My wife did most of the packing. But it takes a long time sometimes for us to get to the point where we can say, okay, go. Do we ever now, spiritually speaking, do we ever delay? Do we ever know that there’s something we have to hit go? We have to just do it, and we just kind of drag our feet. We must be careful, brethren.

Zechariah chapter fourteen. Let’s go to Zechariah chapter fourteen. Because there’s coming a time where we are going to teach people to not drag their feet. Let’s go to Zechariah chapter 14. And I know after this point, I know you’re hearing the immediate application of this point is that you’re all going to sign for family days and all the activities. You’re going to go, right? You’re welcome. Zechariah chapter fourteen, verse sixteen, “And it shall come to pass that everyone that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And it shall be that whoso will drag their feet and not go…” Wow, that was the Torah translation…“And it shall be that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.

“And if the family of Egypt go not up and come not, that have no rain, there shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the Feast of tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.” You see brethren, but we need to learn that now. For us, we had to go and I’m so glad to see that we did it. Of course, there are extenuating circumstances where somebody cannot come, but they still keep the Feast to the best degree. Those who are, of course, shut-ins, that’s understandable if there’s a health issue. But short of that, we go and take that into a broader sense. Anything that we know should be done, we should do it and find ways to get to where we go, we get it done.

But there’s kind of another side to this point, which I made into its own guideline, but it’s really very much related. In order to go, we must let go. In order to go, we must let go. What do I mean? All right, Philippians chapter three. Philippians chapter three.

Philippians three and verse thirteen. Paul wrote, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended.” In other words, I’m not perfect brethren. “...but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth onto those things which are before.” Once we go, we don’t look back. Hebrews chapter twelve. In order to go, we have to let go. Hebrews chapter twelve.

Hebrews twelve and verse one. “Wherefore, seeing we alone are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” We must let go of that weight of sin.

Makes me think of how World War II, on D-Day, the soldiers that were jumping out of these boats with all this equipment. I don’t know if you ever have seen it. I’ve seen documentaries about this where they’re wearing all this equipment and they were sinking. And many died like that because the equipment was too heavy for them. They went right to the bottom of that beach that they were jumping into. We have to let go. We can’t move forward. Some people run or walk or ride their bikes or whatever you want to say, but they’re moving forward but like this. They’re looking back. You can’t make progress if you’re looking back. You have to let go of whatever the past is.

If I kept holding on to the idea that I didn’t go on a bike for 20 years, I would still be paying for parking. I had to let go of those fears.

Simple verse, Luke seventeen, Luke seventeen.

Luke seventeen.

Very, very short verse but powerful. Luke seventeen verse thirty two, “Remember Lot’s wife.” That’s a chilling verse, brethren. She was turned into a pillar of salt, if I remember correctly. That’s not a good picture. Brethren, we don’t want to be looking back. Now here’s my question. The point is when it’s time to go, we must go. I already said that. But in order to go, we must let go. Have we truly let go?

We’re here at the Feast of Tabernacles. Did we leave the world behind? Now I’m not suggesting that you don’t contact your family if you’re here and you’re alone. I’m not suggesting you don’t check on things from time to time, making sure the house didn’t burn down or anything like that. That’s fine. Of course, you can trust that God is going to protect you and your belongings. There’s a balance, of course. But are we here? When God says you go, means you leave everything behind. Are we here totally, wholeheartedly? Or are we still thinking on things that are back home, issues, trials, worries?

God says, no, I want you here. I want you with your whole heart in this, rejoicing, learning to fear God, sojourning here with our fellow sojourners. We’re here at the Tour de France, so to speak. We’re all together. We sojourn on our own individual lives, and then God says, no, I want all my sojourners together for seven days. Wow. And the cherry on top, you know, the eighth day at the end. Make sure that we truly let go.

Isaiah forty-three. Let’s see how that will look in the kingdom, what that will look like in the kingdom. Isaiah chapter forty-three.

Isaiah forty-three verse eighteen. People are going to have to hear this in the kingdom of God. “Remember you not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold I will do a new thing.” God speaking. “Now it shall spring forth, shall you not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The beast of the field shall honor me. The dragons and the owls, because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert to give drink to my people, my chosen. These people have I formed for myself. They shall show forth my praise.”

What a wonderful, amazing time, phenomenal. We are going to see all of this if we make it to the kingdom of God. That’s why that destination, brethren, we never let go of it and we go and we leave the past behind. People are going to be there seeing all these things and us are going to have the honor of teaching these things and guiding them through these times of change where they’ll have to let go of their past and they’ll hear that we learned to do it now in this life and we’ll be able to encourage them.

Now the next guideline that I’ll give you is, once you’re going, keep going. Just keep going, brethren. Leviticus twenty-three and verse thirty-three. It’s not just enough to get on the bike. It’s not just enough to start pedaling, but keep going. Don’t stop. Leviticus twenty-three.

We can’t stop until we’re there. Leviticus twenty-three and verse thirty-three. “And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of the seventh month shall be the Feast of tabernacles for seven days.” So today is that day, the fifteenth day of the seventh month in God’s calendar. But it says, “It shall be the Feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the Lord. On the first day shall be an holy convocation.” Again, that’s today. “You shall do no servile work therein. Seven days.” It keeps repeating. “Seven days. You shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord on the eighth day. So it keeps extending, “...shall be an holy convocation.” And so forth.

Brethren, this is a unique Feast. All the other Feasts you think of, in a way, mirrors the Days of Unleavened Bread. But on the Days of Unleavened Bread, we don’t continue. We do it in our personal lives. We, of course, don’t consume leaven during the Days of Unleavened Bread, but we’re not together with a Feast where we are fellowshipping day after day after day and participating at services and doing activities. This is God making a point, in a way, for us to know, no, you continue. You endure. You continue on that race. You don’t quit until you’re there.

And God makes a point by bringing us all together and saying, No, you’re my sojourners. You’re going to stay together, stick together for eight days, and I want you to have a blast. We got to keep going. Because the problem that you run into is that anything you start and you stop, then it’s hard to start again. It takes more effort to start and stop, start and stop, than once you get into it. If you just stay with it, it’s a lot easier to make the journey.

I found an article this morning from a website called phys.org, it’s a science website. “Walking in short bursts is found to consume 20% to 60% more energy than walking continuously for the same distance.” Okay, I’ll read a short article. “A team of pathophysiologists at the University of Milan has found that climbing stairs or walking for short bursts allows people to consume 20% to 60% more energy than if they do the same activity nonstop for the same distance. In their study, published by Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the group asked volunteers to walk on a treadmill or climb stairs while also monitoring their oxygen intake.”

“The volunteers walk on a treadmill or climb a short flight of stairs for different lengths of time, ranging from 10 seconds to four minutes. As they did so, they wore a mask to measure their oxygen intake as a means to measuring energy consumption. The researchers found that volunteers used more energy if they started and stopped multiple times compared to engaging in a steady, longer duration activity as they covered the same amount of ground. The researchers explained that the reason for this is that the body uses more energy gearing up for an activity and getting into a good pace than it does once steadiness is achieved.”

Think of the spiritual parallel here, brethren. “They liken it to a car using more gas as it works to get up to speed from an idle position.” Fascinating. “The team suggests that people who wish to get more out of their exercise routine perform multiple short bursts of activity rather than carrying on for long periods of time at a steady pace.” Okay, physically, it makes sense if you want to burn more calories. Start and stop. If you want to get more, bang for your buck. But spiritually, it makes no sense, brethren, to start only to stop and then to start again and to stop. Of course, mistakes happen. Life happens.

Somebody found themselves a little bit out of the path, well, get back on it. Start over. But stay. Go on. Don’t stop. We have a kingdom to get to. Are we guilty of getting distracted or getting sidetracked sometimes and stopping on our Bible study, on fasting, on prayer, meditation, exercising the Holy Spirit, the five tools? Are we finding sometimes that we get into a rhythm, we’re doing it, and then suddenly we kind of go lull for a while and we stop? Well, we can’t afford that, brethren. We can’t afford spiritual parking. It gets expensive.

God called that, in the Bible, backsliding, Jeremiah chapter three, Jeremiah chapter three. Israel will get on a roll, they’ll do things right, and then they’ll fall back and stop, and then God will have to intervene, and often it wouldn’t look good. Jeremiah chapter three. Jeremiah three and verse twelve. “Go and proclaim these words towards the north and say, return, you backsliding Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not cause my anger to fall upon you.” That’s verse twelve of Jeremiah three. “For I am merciful, says the Lord, and will not keep anger forever.”

We serve a God that is so loving, so merciful, brethren, that if we find ourselves stopping, but we’re willing to get back on it, He forgives, and He wants the best for us. He wants us to make it to our destination. And there’s coming a time, brethren, where the physical nations of Israel, and eventually the whole world, will need to learn that, but we need to learn it now so we can be there.

Another guideline now. I learned quickly that you need to wear protective gear. If you’re going to ride a bike, you need to wear a helmet, you need to wear protective gear. So let’s go to Ephesians chapter six, because we have spiritual protective gear as well. Ephesians six. Ephesians chapter six.

And verse eleven, “Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,” verse twelve, “...but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take on to you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand the evil day and having done all to stand. Stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shut with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith we shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

You see, we’re commanded to wear protective gear. I go to work, and I carry my helmet on a backpack on the side, and I try to get in before anybody sees me, any of my co-workers, I don’t want them to know that I’m doing this. And the other day I couldn’t hide, and they saw the helmet, “Are you riding with your bike? Are you riding a bike to work?” And I said, “Well, you do what you got to do what you got to do.”

But you know what, and this could have been a point, this is what happened. Another co-worker heard of it and said, you know what, I should start doing that. So I should have put the let your light shine verse in there, but it’s not in my notes. But yeah, you do this stuff, and it is contagious. But do we ever get into a bad attitude with, not bad attitude, but like a complacent attitude where we think, okay, nothing bad’s going to happen, I don’t need to wear the whole armor of God. I don’t need to focus on that. I’ll be all right. That’s like playing with fire. That’s riding a bike without a helmet, without any protection whatsoever. Maybe wearing a dark suit in the middle of the night and riding a bike, not a good idea.

But we have to think about this. We put the spiritual armor today. We do those things. But we should focus on the spiritual armor we’re going to get. Let’s go to Revelation chapter one. How are we going to look when we are in the kingdom of God? What are we going to be wearing? Well, we take a look. We have a glimpse here in Revelation one at how Christ looks. Look at this.

Revelation one, verse thirteen. “And in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle, his head and his hairs were white like wool and as white as snow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire, and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace, and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance was as the sun shines in his strength.” Wow, brethren. We’re going to be in the God family too. Let that be a motivator to put the whole armor of God now, so we can be there and look like that.

Right, another guideline here. Now, physically, physically, if you’re riding a bike, you should ride with the traffic. That’s what I’ve learned. You ride with the traffic. You go along the same direction that the cars are going. But spiritually, we must ride against the traffic, spiritually, all right? Don’t try to go on a bike and test this. It’s not going to work physically. All analogies break down, but spiritually, it’s absolutely you’re going against the traffic.

Matthew seven. Let’s go to Matthew seven.

I must tell you, as I started riding on that bike line, my faith has grown since I started doing that. I see the cars a few feet away from me, and I go, okay, I can do this. But there’s a lot of biking where I live. So people just know. Everybody knows that there’s a bike line, and you just have to be careful, but it’s kind of fun. Matthew chapter seven, verse fourteen. Matthew seven and verse fourteen. “Because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads unto life, and few there be that find it.”

Narrow, straight. You’re in the bike line, in the spiritual bike line, brethren, and you see all the traffic coming this way, and we have to go against the grain, and we have to be comfortable with that. We need faith to do that. You see why I realized this was a sermon? We’re in the world, but we’re not of it. We share the road, and yes, it’s going to be bumpy at times. Proverbs chapter sixteen. Proverbs sixteen. For us, it’s the straight and narrow, right? But the way God looks at it, ultimately, it’s a highway. Spiritually, it’s a highway.

Look at chapter sixteen verse seventeen. Proverbs sixteen verse seventeen, “The highway of the upright, the highway of the upright is to depart from evil. He that keeps his way preserves his soul, his life.” You have to stay on that path. It may seem physically small, but spiritually, that’s the way to life. And you see that the traffic may be going, and it may be tempting to go the other way. It may be easier, but it doesn’t lead to life. It leads to death.

Do we ever feel or start to feel like it might be nice to take a shortcut from time to time and not take that bike lane and just kind of, “Ah, I want to go against the grain today. I want to hide a little bit.” No, brethren, God has big plans for us if we stay on this path, Isaiah chapter forty, because when He brings His kingdom, we want to be there for this. Isaiah chapter forty.

And if it ever gets where it’s so straight and narrow that it feels like I can’t go through that, well, look what God is able to do. Isaiah chapter forty, we’ll read verse one. “Comfort ye my people, says your God, speak you comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished. And we’re seeing that war raging as we sit here. That her iniquity is pardoned, for she has received of the Lord’s hand double for her sins. The voice of Him that cries in the wilderness, prepare you the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”

The same God we read about that can turn deserts and bring water and make gardens of it. Look what He says, “Make a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.” We want to be there when all the ways are made straight, and God is going to create this way. We just have to endure the straight and narrow now.

Another guideline. We must be circumspect, brethren, we have to look around, we have to be careful. So, First Peter chapter five. So the guideline is, we must be circumspect. As you go there, as I’ve been riding this bike, I’ve learned how much flexibility I have on my neck. I’m able to turn my head in ways that I didn’t think I could. I’m almost wondering if sometimes if people look at me and they think, “Wow, is that a chameleon? What is that?” It’s just looking around. Wow, I didn’t know I could look that far back for a pigeon or something.

So here in First Peter, all kidding aside, because it says, “Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour.” Now it says whom he may devour. It doesn’t say who he will devour. That was First Peter, chapter five, and verse eight. It says he may devour, because only if you allow him. If we’re circumspect, it’s telling you, be sober, be vigilant, so you won’t be devoured. We have to pay attention, brethren. Do we ever get distracted again? Have you ever seen those videos of people walking around the street with cell phones kind of like this, and then suddenly they fall in a hole or hit their head against a post or something? We can’t be like that spiritually, brethren. We have to pay attention.

One more guideline. Some of those days that I started doing this biking about a few weeks ago, and we had some cold days already. But you know what I learned? That you need to pedal to stay hot. Revelation three. You need to pedal to stay hot, brethren. Revelation chapter three. In fact, I will look at the weather and go, “Oh, this is going to be chilly.” So, I put all these layers, and I get on that bike, and I’m freezing. And after about ten minutes in, I go, “Okay, get this thing off me.” And I have to sometimes stop the bike and take a jacket off or something, because you get hot.

So Revelation chapter three. Here’s the warning to Laodicea. We can’t be like this, brethren. Verse fifteen. “I know your works that you are neither cold nor hot. I would you wert cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth.” Scary thought. So, brethren, we need to be hot. We need to pedal and pedal and pedal. Do we ever go, you know, into an attitude of, “Well, I’m just going to cruise”? There’s not such a thing as cruising in Christianity, brethren. We need to pedal. We need to pedal.

Jeremiah thirty-one. Last couple of verses here. Jeremiah thirty-one. As we start to wrap up this point and go to our conclusion. Jeremiah chapter one. Said chapter one. No, thirty-one. Jeremiah thirty-one. And verse thirty-three. Jeremiah thirty-one, thirty-three. And they engulfed the kingdom again. The time of the kingdom. Verse thirty-three. “But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, says the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people.”

At that point, they’ll have it inside of them. They’ll have that fire in the belly that you need to stay hot. And we need to be the same, brethren. We need to pedal into God’s kingdom. Cruising is not going to get us there on time. So I could keep going, but brethren, you get the point. You get the point. We’ve learned some guidelines. And our goal is Revelation twenty-one, final verse. Let’s go there. Revelation twenty-one, verse three.

Revelation twenty-one, verse three says, “And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” Brethren, that’s our destination. That’s where we want to be. We must arrive to our destination because we will not always be sojourners. At a point, we will get there and see that happen. Let’s apply these guidelines for spiritual sojourners. And brethren, enjoy the ride.