Worship
Message
See video here.
Transcript
Good morning, everybody. Glad to see you here this morning. Are you all thawed out? Oh my goodness. Well, we are in Leviticus still almost done. Then we’re going to get to numbers. When we go to numbers. Pastor you sure we’re supposed to go through the Bible verse by verse? You know what the Lord’s got some blessings in numbers, man. I mean, not in some parts of it, but you know, I love the Bible, and parts of the Bible. I love it. Maybe this is just me because I’m disturbed a little bit but parts of the Bible to me reflects life. You know, I once heard a pastor say that Jesus Christ was super being natural. And a lot of times you know, I think the word reflects that we are a people who are always looking for an experience. are always looking for some sort of fulfillment. And a lot of times it’s coming from a place within our flesh. And I think that God goes out of his way sometimes to put us into the humdrum, the humdrum of life or the humdrum of it to give us an opportunity to practice being faithful, to practice being faithful, you know, what makes what makes a successful marriage, being faithful, every single day, day after day for 1000 years. That’s it. That’s it, you know, it’s not like, Listen, if you start doing these things, you start doing these these things and you start treating each other right in marriage tomorrow, your relationships going to be perfect. That is not the way that it works. It’s a body of work. It is a body of work. And it is over an expanse of time of putting in the work and doing the things that God has told us to do that then 10 years later, 15 years later, we stand back ago. Wow, amazing. God is so faithful. And you realize that it’s I think of Noah building the ark for 100 years. Hello. You read through that and you just go yeah and no of it. Wait a minute, wait a minute 100 years. I don’t even like boats that much. You know what I’m saying? Like, it is like, it wasn’t like a like a like a ski boat. There was nothing fun happening as a result of him building that boat. God’s promise was going to be fulfilled, but it’s going to be judgment, devastation. 100 years, the Bible says no was a preacher of righteousness. People say why are you building that boat you insane person? Well, God’s gonna send judgment. You see what I told her Margaret. He’s an insane person. And year after year, day after day, and it took all that time. But then when God’s word was fulfilled, and they were on the boat, right, as much as that couldn’t have been fun. But the alternative, right? To go, Wow, God is faithful. God does honor his word above his name, just like the scripture says. If God says something, he’s going to do it, he’s going to reform it. He’s going to bring it to pass. And oh, let me let me do some announcements. Sorry. I gotta stop the vibe here real quick and do some announcements. There is a sign up sheet out there ladies for the cookie exchange. That’s going to be December 19. At my house. I will be in the basement. lurking in the basement. I say gone. Where’s the cookies? And let’s see this Monday. Tomorrow is our adult dinner night out at vidoes for one of vetoes. I don’t know where that is, is an upper Street. The new the new place, okay. That’s tomorrow night. If you’ve never been to an adult dinner night out, come join us. It’s super fun. We have a blast. It really is. I’m not just saying that. It really is a great time. We have a great time. There’s a sign of out there. And next week is our church. Our church supper. That’s next Sunday is communion Sunday. And we are having a Christmas Eve service for those of you who don’t know, and it says here plan on attending, okay? That’s not an option and says plan on attending. Okay. Let’s pray.
Lord, thank you for your word and thank you for your truth and thank you for your Holy Spirit and your faithfulness. Lord, You are so faithful. You are faithful beyond comprehension, you are faithful beyond anything we could ever imagine. And the problem is, is that we are not. So we pray, Lord God, that you would build up our faith and in there by build up our faithfulness, Lord, that every single day, we would rise in the morning and remember who you are, and remember the promises that you’ve made and remember what our part is to play in that Lord, and that you would teach us over these years Lord and over a span of time to be faithful Lord, to be faithful to what you called us to do, Lord God so that we can look back at the body of work and see the You’ve done and you’ve accomplished exactly what you said you would to those who would honor you and honor your word father, so help us to be those people help us to be students of the word, Lord. And to be to not just be heroes of the word Lord, but also doers of the word, Father, and that means it can’t just be educational. It can’t be j be just a practice and learning father, your word, but it has to be it being tattooed on our hearts. It has to be at being embedded inside of us, Lord God so that it’s written there. And so it’s with us everywhere that we go in every circumstance and situation, Lord, help that to be the case. In Jesus name we pray, Amen. Leviticus, chapter 25. is where we are and of course we have been talking about the Sabbath rest. We started last week talking about the Sabbath rest that God ordained for the children of Israel. Now remember, again, we talked about what I was just talking about the body of work and over a span of time and being faithful to the things God has called us to do. Even though we are not able to see it just like the profits of the The Old Testaments that God was telling right this and say this and do this, they didn’t understand so much of what they were saying they didn’t understand completely, all the things concerning the Messiah. Those things were revealed later to us. After Jesus came, they were simply called to be faithful to do what God had called him to do. So what I picture in my mind is Moses and David, and Elijah, and some of these other standing in heaven after Jesus came and going, Oh, wow. And thanking God that they were faithful, to say the things to write down the things to do the things that God had called them to do, because they were part of a plan. They were part of something that God had set in motion and that God was doing and they couldn’t see it. All they could see was God and that He’s faithful to me, and I want to be faithful back to him. I don’t need to see the results of it. I don’t need to reap all the rewards of it. Certainly not today or Tomorrow, I need to be faithful because he’s working. He’s working. He’s holy, and he’s righteous. And he’s just and he’s true. And I believe him. And God was telling the children of Israel long before they went into the promised land, he was telling the children of Israel through Moses still at Mount Sinai, that when you go into the land, the land of promise that I’m going to give you and you think of that and then you think of that in terms of when they went into spy out the land and out of the 12 spies spies 10 come back and go we can’t do it was me it’s never gonna where everybody like that at work. It’ll never work. Right? everything all the time negative Nancy, right? Ever see Debbie Downer on Saturday Night Live. It was one event. Oh my goodness. YouTube. YouTube is sometimes a wonderful thing. YouTube debbie downer. Don’t be a Christian Debbie Downer, right. You know, you know God’s been so faithful this past year. I have an ingrown toenail. You know, like, God is faithful, God is good God is just and he tells them these things and he promises them things not if you get into the land, when you get into the land, when I bring you into the land, and all of these promises, and they go into the land, and they see an all they can see is the giants. That’s the New York Giants. Nobody can see them anymore. All they can see are the giants, all they can see are the obstacles, all they can see are the things that are in their way and the things that humanly from a human standpoint, and mindset is impossible. And these kids things can’t be true. And instead of remembering the one who made the promise, they look at the situation, you’re always going to stumble if you do that. We have to remember the one who makes the promises. Pastor Chuck used to always say the lack of faith that we have is manifested in the way that we pray, and the way that we pray for people. He said somebody comes to you and says, No pastor man, I’ve got a headache. Would you please pray for me all? Absolutely, Lord, touching, touching heal the headache Heal the headache. If somebody comes to you though, and says, Hey, I went to the doctor and they think that they might have cancer.
Oh Lord, Jehovah, we start using all the biblical names. You know what I mean? Oh, we really got to get heavy for this so that God will hear us. Because this is a real hard one for God. But if someone comes to them as with one arm and says, you know, Lord, could you praise the Lord to grow my arm back? You don’t I’m saying like it’s really hard just having one arm you go, you know, brother. God doesn’t do that. Except for like some lizards and octopuses and stuff like that. God doesn’t do that kind of thing. But and Pastor Chuck said to us, is it any harder though, for God to grow back and arm is it is for him to heal a headache. See, it’s a reflection of our lack of faith because we look at the circumstances and the situations and we’re focused on that, rather than on the one who’s making the promise or the one who were calling us to do the work and with God, how many things are impossible. None. Zero. There are no things that are impossible with God when I talk to my AC Friends, I say to them all the time you got to remember I believe in the Invisible Man in the sky. And I’m not afraid of it because I don’t believe anyways, you know what I mean? So I’ll quote some George Carlin to you know, I believe in the Invisible Man in the sky, I really do. I believe in God with all my heart, my soul, my strength, and everything I try to make everything in my life reflect a part of that belief. And so if I believe in such a one is him, the very talk or or consideration that something is impossible or ridiculous, is in itself ridiculous. I believe in God. I don’t stumble over creation or any other promise in God’s word, because of the one who said it because of the one in whom I believe it always is about him. It’s always about him. It’s not about me. It’s not about the circumstances. It’s not about the impossibility of things. Man, if we could live in that mindset, you imagine, wow, that’d be a victorious life, living in that mindset every single day. So God’s makes all these promises. And yet when they go to see the land, or were and hear God in chapter 25, Leviticus is talking to Moses and instructing him specifically about the Sabbath of rest, that the very land was supposed to have every seven years, there was to be a Sabbath of rest. And then every 50 years was a jubilee year, there was a double Sabbath rest for the land. And also we’re going to get into all the slaves, any debts, all of it was forgiven on the Jubilee Year. And the idea of what God was doing here and we’re going to get into this as well is that he was preserving the land for the people, no one was going to ever lose, lose their inheritance. This is another great promise that you and I can claim to. No one was ever going to lose an inheritance that God had given them because of worldly problems. Never. God says, This is my land and I’m giving it to you is an inheritance. So no matter how bad bad you blow it, or no matter how much you get in debt, or you even have to sell yourself off as a slave to pay off your debts, in that Jubilee Year, all of your land and all of your possession is going to be restored to you by me, because it ain’t yours to begin with. It’s mine. And I’ve already stated to be yours, or rather for you to be a steward of it. It’s all about him. It’s all about the Father, and what he says and what he promises. Now, we’re going to skip down. Let’s well let’s get down to land to verse 20.
Because it kind of ties into what we’re saying. And if you say, What shall we eat in the seventh year since we shall not so nor gather in our produce? Then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and I’ll bring forth produce enough for three years and you shout so in the Year and eat old produce until the ninth year, until it produces until it is produce comes in you shall eat of the old harvest, the land shall not be sold permanently for the land is mine, for your strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the land of your possession, you shall grant redemption of the land. So it’s interesting to me how God has made this promise to the children of Israel, but also along with that promise a command. Correct. The command is honor the Sabbath year of rest for the land, not a suggestion, not it, I wish you’d do this, you know, it’d be really, really be nice for me if you would do this for me, you shall you will. You will give the land its rest. And I’m going to give you an opportunity to exercise your faith and to believe in me and along with that a promise that if you say in your heart, I’m going to honor the Lord. I’m going to do what the Lord’s called me to do. I’m going to give the land is Sabbath rest. my end of the bargain is I’m going to make sure that you bring enough to On the sixth year, to cover your needs for the six year, the seventh year, and for the eighth year till the harvest comes in, I’m going to take care of you, God is never going to ask you to do something or put you in a position to destroy you. God doesn’t do that. So that’s your indoor persecution, so that you’ll go through? Yes, he will do that. But always God is looking for us to reap a harvest from something he’s asking us to do. So often as a spiritual harvest, we always want to talk about reaping some sort of a harvest that we can touch that we can spend, you know what I mean? Or that we can see. But so often what God wants to do is reap a harvest in our hearts a faith, of belief of trust, more and more abundantly. And a lot of times the situations that he puts us in is a reflection of that. That’s what he’s interested in. Now the children of Israel had a choice. We can honor God and we can enjoy his blessing. See him do work and be living in the miraculous every year, every seventh year in our lives actually live a year of miracles of just basking in it. Look what God has done. Wow, God’s been faithful again. They never did it. The children of Israel never gave the land it Sabbath rest. We talked about this a little bit last week.
And so 490 years after the children of Israel come into the land, they’ve never given the land. It’s Sabbath rest that God had commanded them to do. And so when he sends them into Babylon, when he has them taken captive and taken to the land of Babylon, he decrees that they’ll be there for 70 years. 490 years divided by 770. they owed the land 70 years of rest. And so God sent them into Babylon for 70 years. Now, this is the this is what I The reason I’m repeating This is because I wanted to say this to you today. You ever have God says, See, I said before you this day, life and death, blessings and curses. We haven’t gotten to this part yet. Everybody says, choose life. Choose life. You ever have someone talking about all the things that are going on in their lives and all the things that have gone horribly in their life and you’re looking at them and you’re and you’re thinking you are a sum total of all the decisions that you’ve made? Stop it, would you please choose life? Will you please stop chasing after the things that are going to that you’re going to think you’re going to they’re going to reap a harvest of destruction and instead, so to the things that God has sold you to so too, so you can reap a harvest of blessings. So you can reap a harvest of spiritual growth and health and vitality in your life and in your family. And in your home. And in everything that you do and and every place that you go, would you stop it Stop sewing to death and so to life. And that’s the promise that God gives everybody nobody’s immune he calls causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. There are certain immutable things in the Word of God and promises that he’s given that are for everybody. If we do the things that God has called us to do for the best of our ability, right? Cuz they pretty every day, is it. Goodness gracious. You ever have like a two week slide? is walking around. Oh, yeah. Yeah, just two weeks. And then all of a sudden, it’s like you wake up. Maybe this is just me again. Okay. Confession time, okay. And all of a sudden, you’re like, what are you doing? Would you stop it? Oh, yeah. I should walk in and light in the Spirit because then I will feel like this. What do we have for him, Johnny? Golly, why can’t I do that all the time. Why can’t I never fall off that wagon? Because I’m a human being and so were you. And as long as we live in the bags of skin, right, the bags of skin, they shed, there’s there’s there’s bed bird, there’s mites and dust mites in your bed and dead skin cells, if you could do it a blacklight it’s just really disturbing, right? What’s there and you have to you have to wash this the bag of skin and you have to put deodorant on the bag of skin. It stinks. It just stinks right? Really. And the older we get the more we realize you get out of bed in the morning and now you get out of bed and it’s not like Let’s go now now it’s like me getting into a lot of that like this. He needs some support like this across to get to the to the bathroom. Then finally you get off right you know, it’s just like the bag of skin is wearing out. The bag of skin is wearing out I love when the Word of God says that but the inward man is being renewed day by day. God willing. God willing, very simple though. So Spirit. So, to the spirit, they had a choice set before them. And they decided to so to the flesh, and so to the flesh and so to the flesh and skip the Sabbath and skip the Sabbath and skip the Sabbath rest of the land, and they reiterate they reaped, wrapped, wrapped, wrapped around raped, destruction. 70 years of bondage. 70 years of bondage. Jerusalem sacked, the temple destroyed. The Bible says that when they were sent back to the land and they rebuilt the temple, when they rebuilt the temple, the old ones wept, because they remembered the former glory of Solomon’s temple. And they must have been thinking if we only listened to God. If we’d only done simply what he asked us to do, we no doubt would have written The blessings that he promised us. And instead, we sowed the wind and we sow to the wind and we sow to the wind. And we have indeed, repped, reaped, repped the whirlwind.
I don’t want to do that, guys. I don’t want to do that. And it breaks my heart. If any of you ever ended up that circumstance or that situation, we know enough people. We don’t enough people. It’s like, Listen, here we are. We’re imperfect. We’re screwed up and a whole bunch of different ways. Let’s just keep doing the best that we can, seeking after his face and saying, God, let me do it better. Lord, let me do it more writer than I did last year, yesterday, last week, Lord, help me to do things your way. Help me to do your things so that the body of work in 10 years when I look back, I can see wow, look what God accomplished. Wow. Look what God did. Wow, look what God’s capable of and look what God does for those people who are just simply to want to, and this is the greatest thing. What does it take to be a Christian? What does it take to go to have you have to want to, you have to want to? Well, we have to confess and we know that that’s that goes about what people say, I want to be thin. I want to be thin. I really, I’d like to be thin Hello. Because I didn’t want anyone have any pills that I can take. I’d like to be thin. Well exercise fat, so Well, I don’t want to do that. I’d rather eat I’d rather take an entire Neapolitan pizza and roll it up like this and dunk it in a vat of blue cheese and eat it that way. Right. That’s how that could happen. Right? I’d rather do that. So so so here’s the thing. You don’t really want to be sin. This is me talking to myself in the mirror almost every day. You don’t want to be saying, no you don’t you know, because last night, the blue cheese Oh, if you really What if you really want to be a better spouse if you really want to be anything? If you really wanted it, then you would do the things that go along with achieving it is very simple. We really don’t want it. And the reason we don’t want it, especially in America is we are comfortable. We are so comfortable. We live in lavish, opulent luxury, do we not? Do we not? I mean, listen, this isn’t guilt trip time. This is like Thank You, Jesus. Is there a day that goes by that you don’t thank god you were born in the good old US of A rather than anyplace else? I mean, there might be other places just as nice. I don’t know about them. I’m so grateful. You know what I’m saying? a dummy. Really a dummy mitts into any of the right things screwed up. 23 I wake up and go I better do something. I better do something. kid can’t just deliver pizzas forever with a family. I say I guess I’ll go get a trade and God supplies my family’s needs. That’s the country we live in. Like if we ever wake up a day in this country and aren’t thankful and grateful, but boy are we comfortable. We are so comfortable. And we have it so easy even with the trials and tribulations that we have that are like this. Compared to so many different parts of the world. Even though we have those we’re so comfortable. It makes it so easy to not allow discomfort to not allow an anything that you want to achieve anything that you want to do anything that you want to acquire anything that’s important to you if your goal driven person there’s going to be some discomfort and some hard work in achieving it. Life is pain highness, right? Anyone who says differently as selling something if you want something if you want to achieve Something there’s going to be hard work, there’s going to be pain. It’s going to be suffering to whatever degree to achieve it. That’s just the way life is. But we think spiritually it should just be like, Lord, just follow you ever. Holy Spirit fall on us. I’ll be here. Right I’ll be here waiting.
This is, wait a second. Wait a second. I want you to work. Happy because you have to not because you’re working to earn anything. Do you want it? Oh, I want it so bad. So let me what Then show me. You want it? God says the shoulder visual you will seek after me and you will find me when you seek after me with all your heart. Think of Daniel in Babylon and then Persia. It is prayer closet on his rickety old bony knees. seeking after God thrown into the lions den preserved in discomfort constantly being pursued, and he’s in the prayer closet. And he’s growing and he’s crying out and he’s intersecting on behalf of the people before God. How many times this week did Frank Thomas Jr. do that? groans intercessory prayer and Dear God, Lord, help me and help my brothers and sisters, and God be with our country. Because I’m so comfortable. And a lot of times, that’s why God will then allow discomfort to come into our lives to drive us to our knees. And I’m always like, Lord, help me to learn that lesson. Before you have to put the discomfort there. You know, I want to be faithful every day. But I want to be faithful because not because I don’t want to suffer. I want to be faithful because man is he worth it? Man, is he ever worth it? He is so one Okay, verse 25, if one of your brethren becomes poor and has sold some of his possession, and if his redeeming or late relative comes to redeem it, then he may redeem what his brother sold. Or if the man has no one to redeem it, but he himself becomes able to redeem it, then let him count the years since its sale and restore the remainder to the man to whom he sold it, that he may return to his possession. But let me stop right there and just explain to you guys a little bit every 50 years is a jubilee year, right? debts are cancelled lands and properties are restored to the families that gotta be twisted to. That’s a big word. That’s the word of the day bequeath. Okay? Sorry, every 50 years after your Jubilee, so anyone from my family or myself if I had to, so if I had to sell my land, or even if I had to sell myself, we’re going to get into that into bondage into slavery in the servanthood in order to pay off debts. If at some point in time I be become a To pay that debt or my family wishes to come and redeem me or to redeem the property back to the family, they could do so. And the cost, the cost was determined on how many years were left until the Jubilee Year. Does that make sense? Your what? Jubilee Year Okay, then year one, the land is worth $50,000 I don’t whatever it was drachmas going 50,000. Okay, when you get to your 15, it’s a little less. When you get to your 20 It’s 25. It’s half. When you get to your 40 everything was percentage based on how many years were left until the Jubilee. Okay, so that’s some of the what he’s what he’s talking to about here. Let him count the years since its sale, and restore the remainder to the man to whom he sold it. That’s exactly what he’s talking about there. But if he is not able to have it restored to himself, then what was sold shall remain in the hand of Him who bought it until the year of jubilee. And in the Jubilee, it shall be released and he shall return His possession that’s important for us to remember free of charge. There was nothing that this person could do to earn his land back. It was given to him by God. It was, it was presented to him by God. And so no matter what he did to blow it or to mess it up, it was going to be returned to him by God. Everything is from God, by God and back to God. If a man sells a house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold, within a full year he may redeem it. But if it is not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house in the walled city should belong permanently to him who bought it throughout his generations it shall not be released in the Jubilee. So this is the difference. If you buy a house or if you own a house within the city, within the city, and you sell that house, you have one year to redeem it. Because we’re not talking about land. We’re not talking about God’s land. We’re talking about houses within a city. It’s a different thing. Okay. It’s a different thing altogether, and God was all So making provision for the foreigners that were going to come in amongst the children of Israel and live there that they wouldn’t be taken advantage of. Okay, guy comes from Egypt because he believes in the one living and true God, and He wants to become a part of the nation of Israel. And so he comes and he’s a man of means. And so he buys a house within a walled city, and he’s like, this is great. I worship Yahweh now. And then two years later, so knock at the door, and it’s Jacob, and Jacob like sorry, soccer Jubilee Year and the keys over. God says, Ah, ah, you know, so many of the things as we go through the law is God knowing us, and knowing how people are and going and taking care of things. So within the walled city, you had one year to redeem it in one year to redeem it and then it would go into perpetual ownership of the new of the new owner. Let’s see, it shall not be released, verse 31. However, the houses of villages which have no wall around them shall be counted as the fields of the country, they may be redeemed and they shall be released in the Jubilee, that would be like kirksville. Okay. Nevertheless, the cities of the Levi’s and the houses in the cities of their possessions, the Levi’s may redeem at any time remember, because why the Levi’s were not given an inheritance or a portion of land, remember who what was their inheritance? The Lord was their inheritance. And so houses that they had any place that they live, they were sojourners, they were really just passing through. They were to be seen as pilgrims and they were to understand that they were pilgrims, your hope and your inheritance in your possession. Levi’s priestly tribe is not in the land either. It’s solely in me. Wow, what a privilege What an honor. And so God is protecting them as well. They can redeem a house even within the city anytime. And if a man purchase a house from the Levis, then the house That was sold in the city of his possession shall be released in the Jubilee. So if the leave it is not able to redeem it at any time, then in the year of jubilee, it will be given back to him. For the houses in the cities of the Levi’s are their possession among the children of Israel. But the field of the common land of their cities may not be sold for it is their perpetual possession that would be outside of the cities where the Levi’s lived where they had land cordoned off to farm, to farm and to grow crops for their sustenance that could never be sold at any time that belongs to the Levi’s and that was for their food. It wasn’t a piece of property. You know acreage, it was a plot of land so that the Levis could grow and reap and do harvest for their needs. It was a hand to mouth kind of thing. And those things that belong in those fields outside of the cities that belong to the Levis could not be sold. If one of your brother and becomes poor and falls into poverty among you, then you shall help him like a stranger or a sojourner that he may live with you. Take no usury or interest from him, but fear your God, that your brother may live with you. And you shall not lend him your money for usury that is with interest, nor lend him your food at a profit, mark it up.
I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God. Remember, anytime that you see that, that is God putting an extra stamp on what he just said. He’s saying something in the middle of it and all of a sudden he says, I am the Lord your God who brought it stop, rewind, go back to what he just said. It’s important. Don’t you take advantage of your brothers? Don’t you take advantage of your brethren? Don’t you land him at usury and don’t you sell him food for a profit? And if he’s bereft, you take care of them. You see to his needs, and you don’t treat them poorly. He is your brother. And if one of your brother who dwells by you becomes poor, and sells Himself to you, you shall compel them to serve as a slave, as a hired servant and a sojourner. He may be with you, and shall serve you until the year of jubilee. And then he shall depart from you, he and his children with him, and shall return to his own family, he shall return to the possession of his father’s, for they are food, my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt, they shall not be sold as slaves. It’s not a possibility that a child of the nation of Israel was to be sold into slavery. They could give themselves sell themselves there to you, their services as a servant, for until they can be redeemed or until the year of jubilee, but not as a slave. You are not to treat them or work them with rigor. They’re not immutable, okay? They’re not a slave, a slave slave to you. they retreated, to be treated differently as a servant, for they are my servants who brought I brought out the land of Egypt, and they shall not be sold as slaves. You shall not rule over them with rigor, but you shall fear your God As if you’re a male and female slaves whom you have from the nations that are around you from them, you may buy male and female slaves. Moreover you may buy the children of the strangers who dwell among you and their families who are with you, which they be getting your land and they shall become your property. And you shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you to inherit them as a possession. They shall be your permanent slaves, but regarding your bredrin the children of Israel, you shall not rule over one another with rigor now. What is God saying here?
Now remember, guys, and and we have an American mindset on so many different things, okay? And we feel a certain way in this country, especially about slavery, because it’s such a mark on us historically, and something that we that we look back to and go you know, that that was horrible. That was, that was awful. Gosh, I wish I wish I wish we hadn’t done that, as that hadn’t done that as a nation. However, however, Slavery was a fact of life from the dawn of time almost Okay, up until Well, I would say up until the present except there’s more slaves in the in the world today than there were at the time of Christ you know that you know that digit Western mindset it’s just a horrible different kind of slavery. And you guys have heard about some of it. You we it is what’s happening in our world today. And the wall in the mass has been pulled over eyes to make you feel like things are okay things aren’t that bad. The SEC this the sex slave industry in this world that we live in today is so vile is so awful. It’s so rampant. You know what happens on the Super Bowl Weekend, whatever city is hosting the Superbowl, the amount of the amount of the amount of trafficking that goes on. It’s absolutely horrible. And again, we ought to be on our knees and our prayer clauses between the between the sex slave industry that’s going on in our country and I daresay maybe particularly in Washington, DC and Hollywood, okay, without getting into a whole bunch of conspiracy stuff. Okay, and what’s going on in the abortion industry, we are Babylon. We are Nineveh.
Our nation is dark, and rank with wickedness. And the walls pulled over our eyes so that we won’t see it and fragrant candles are lit, so we won’t smell it. And it is rank and it is filthy. And we need to be in prayer. Okay, now, this even as a different kind of slavery, slavery was a way of the world it was everywhere. And so when God came to the children of Israel, and he’s giving them their laws, the laws that God gave them were for them so that they could navigate the world that they live in. That makes sense. Okay, God is not called you and I to be Amish. Okay? God is not called you and I to be honest, if listen if you want to be honest, to be honest, not All of it, but some of the doctrines weird, but you want to go live and that Dr. Horses God bless you, God bless you. I’ll see on the other side, you know, but God is not called us to be honest when he says come about from among them and be separate and all that stuff. God has given us the Word of God so that we can navigate this dark world and hopefully not be polluted by it, and broken by it, and set aside by it, and made it relevant because of it. God has given us the promises and the commands within his word so that we can navigate this dark world that we live in, because we’re a part of it. And God wants us to navigate it. And God wants us to shine the light. And that’s exactly what the slavery laws are. The other part of that is there was a distinction made between the children of Israel and the Gentiles. There was there was a distinction made, remember, and it talks about Hagar and Sarah and the child of the slave woman will never share in the inheritance of the child of the free woman. Remember that? And he talks about that in Hebrews concerning Ishmael and Isaac, okay, Isaac was the one who the child of promise. And there was promises that were given to the children of Israel that were for the children of Israel. And still to this day, or for the children of Israel, and only for the children of Israel, and they didn’t pertain to anybody else. Now, anybody who came into the land of Israel and became a Jew, which is the only religion that’s also a race. Right? So the religion that’s also a race that you could become if you want to, right, that’s why you go to Israel today. And they it’s like the colors of the rainbow Jews. I love that stuff. That’s cool man, the colors of the rainbow Jews. If we start a new theme of color of the rainbow, do you know I love it, you could become a Jew and then guess what? You’re a part of the inheritance. Then all of the laws concerning the nation of Israel would pertain to you, but a Gentile slave or someone who is from another nation who was not a Jew. It didn’t pertain to them. There was difference and a distinction made between the free and the slave between the children of the promise and the children of this world. That’s one part of it. But I think the biggest part of it, like in everyday life was God gave them the rules to navigate this world. Now if a soldier or stranger close to you becomes rich and one of your brothers who dwells by him becomes poor, and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner close to you, or to a member of the strangers family that would be non Jewish. After he is sold, he may be redeemed again, one of his brothers may redeem him, or his uncle or his uncle son may redeem him or anyone who is near of kin to him and his family may redeem him, or if he is able, he may redeem himself. Thus he shall reckon with him who bought him the price of his release shall be according to the number of years from the year that he was sold to him until the year of jubilee. Again, that’s the way the money would work for possessions that were sold, according to what year you were within jubilees. If there are still many years remaining, according to them, he shouted pay the price of his redemption from the money with Which he was bought. And this is God making provision for the strangers and the soldiers who lived in the nation of Israel who were not Jewish, that they would be treated fairly as well. God wanted to make sure that nobody who was passing through or living in the land of Israel for a time would ever leave saying those dirty, dirty, stinking cheating Jews. Right? That God wanted to make sure of that. God wanted to make sure that when they left the land of the children of God, they were saying I was treated fairly. There’s a point for us there. There’s something for us to take from that. 110%. I think that anybody who ever passes through this church or passes through our home or passes through us at work, whatever the case may be, we’ll leave that place note saying, I was treated fairly by that person. I was treated righteously by that person. I was treated with kindness by that person that’s very important to God was very important to God, how the show how his kids treated soldiers, how his kids treated people who were not One of their own. And if there remain but a few years until a year of jubilee, then he shall reckon with him and according to his years he salary pay him the price of his redemption. He shall be with him as a yearly hired servants, and he shall not rule with vigor over him and your site and also protecting the children of Israel against the sojourner who may come in and say, I really don’t like a lot of your laws. And if I got a Jewish slave and I want to put a weapon to them, that’s what I’m going to do. And I know you think you are, but there’s going to be a knock at the door. And it may not it might be like a whole bunch of rocks coming your way. Okay? And if he is not redeemed in those years, and he shall be released in the year of jubilee, he and his children with him, for the children of Israel are servants. To me. God says, They are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. And just like these guys, today, everybody’s a servant in this world today, everybody As a servant in this world today, we either serve our pleasure, our flesh, this world or something in this world or we serve Almighty God. But we are all servants. People are are making are completely fooling themselves. In this day and age. I do what I want to do what I want to do it. No, you don’t know you don’t know you don’t know you don’t. You see how people are enslaved on social media? How much they care. This week, Chris Pratt. I don’t I don’t know who he is. He may be from a movie called Guardians of the Galaxy where he plays a character called Star Wars. I don’t know anything about it. Maybe you pagans do, but he was at the gym. And he was he was photographed with a water bottle in his hand. Yeah, so it was a disposable water bottle. The kind that goes into landfill. That’s right, you dirtbags. It was one of those and he was photographed with it. How dare you and the woke scold. crowd went after him. And he had to issue an apology. I’m sorry. Actually what happened is someone just threw it to me and I didn’t know what to do with my hands and, and he made this whole lame excuse. You know what I would say? Well, I wouldn’t be in the next Guardians of the Galaxy movie because people are in bondage. He’s supposed to be a believer, by the way that Chris Pratt supposed to be, you know? I hope he is. I really, really hope he is. Maybe he’s just a baby Christian. You know, I’ll take it, you know, take all of them. I don’t think he’s really sadly I hope he is. I hope he has. I’ll take all of them. Kanye, Chris Pratt, given Justin Bieber, you know, unleased, maybe. You know, but there’s bondage. People are so in bondage. I’m free. I do what I want. No, you don’t know you don’t. None of us do. And we’re all in bondage to something rather, I only want to be in bondage to Jesus Christ. Now, I confessed to you. I confessed to you Right, that there’s parts of my life and parts of my flesh that are still in bondage to something other than Jesus Christ. This fact of the matter, because if it wasn’t that way, I’d be walking in the Spirit all day every day.
But I get so caught up in this thing or that thing that is still has a holders, some some bondage over me in my life, I get way out of the Spirit. And I get way out of doing what God’s called me to do. And I get into the Frank Thomas stuff. Anytime there’s just a bunch of Frank Thomas stuff going on junior or senior, it ain’t good. But I got to tell you, there be lots of good food there. But other than that, there’s not that it’s not going to be good, gonna make a mess of things. God says, do things my way. do things the way I’ve called you to do it. And I’m going to make provision for you to live as children. You’re my servants, you’re my servants. And you’re going to be treated by me accordingly. honor my word to what I’ve called you to do. I know the thoughts that I have towards you. Right thoughts. prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and hope, in the body of work in the body of work, amen.
Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word, Lord. And we pray, Lord God that these, these truths father would be written again on the tablets of our heart. And we would take them with us wherever we go, father. And it would as your Word says that it would be on our mouths, when we lay down and when we rise up and where we sit at the table and go along the way, Father, and it would be on our lips as we talked to one another father, and as we talked to our friends and family, that the things if you father would often be the center of our discussion, Lord, we pray that you’d help us to do better by your grace and your mercy and because of the fact that we are free in Jesus Christ to be your servants, Lord, and not in bondage to this world. Lord, we pray that you would you would just help us, Father, to show that we want it, Lord, to make it evident and make it clear in things that we do and the things that we don’t do. And the things that we say The things that we don’t say Lord, and in the way that we pray for certain Lord and study your word help us to be Lord children of the promise or to act like children of the promise every single day. In Jesus name we pray, Amen. Amen. Love you guys.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai