June 25, 2008

• Pentecost by Pastor Don

  This is a closed captioned text of a sermon preached by Pastor Don. Remember, what is in brackets [ ] is what the congregation said, and three dots … means a pause. I hope you enjoy:

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  Amongst us we have Christians that that want to honor the Sabbath, not realizing that Hebrews points us to the completion of the work of Christ, and therefore every day is a Sabbath now. What day is a good day to sin? [laughter] What day is a good day to forget about the Lord? [none] None. So every day now is holy. Every day is counted as blessed and holy. But we can look back in the scriptures and get significance of it. It is true that the Gentile Church worships on Sunday. But the reality is that the Sabbath begins when?  Actually, Friday night. And so Friday night was the time that the Jewish Church worshipped…the day begins at night, and so they did that. We end up with a Sunday Morning worship time because, over the years, with the Gentile Church recognizing that Christ rose on a Sunday morning, then the Gentile church began to worship on Sunday morning.  

  Now what is the reality? The reality is you could start the Church of Monday if you choose. God will receive your praise on a Monday. You could have the Church of the Holy Tuesday. And you could start it at three in the afternoon, or three in the morning and God would still be blessed and praised. But we need to understand that the Sabbath is given to us by God as a historical symbol of what his intention is in the full completion of this reconciliation with man to God. And that reconciliation is that there is nothing that we are going to do in the earth that is not going to require the covering hand of God. And therefore, in all things, we should rest in Him… I hope you’re getting that. We are to rest in God. All our work, our completed work, will be in Him. Not in ourselves. I mean we’re all smart and we know some stuff, but the reality is we must learn daily that every day is a holy day. Every day is a Sabbath day. Every day we should rest and trust in God, to complete everything in our lives…  Everything in our lives. 

  And so, this journey that the Jews went on, with the Sabbath rest, began with God saying to them, that on the Sabbath, after the sixth day, going into the seventh day, you are to make it holy. You’re supposed to right now. He wanted the Jews to begin thinking, ahhh, a day of rest in the Lord. A day of giving thanks to God. So it became a picture of what we’re supposed to do. Now God expanded upon it and so let’s see what He does with it because we want to get to Pentecost here. 

  Leviticus 25, in verse 2 He says, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them:” Now who’s He speaking to? [Moses] No, He’s speaking to the Children of Israel through Moses.  Alright. Now, right there you have an out. How many of you are Gentile descendants?  Alright, He isn’t talking directly to you….because… I’ve got to give people time to think about that. If you as a Gentile are going to take everything in the Old Covenant, in the Tanakah, everything in the Old Testament, and apply it to yourself, in the in the New Testament,  you are in serious trouble. The reason is, the Jews couldn’t keep the Law, so why would you, a Gentile, try and keep it?…Jesus said the Law was fulfilled. Well, if He fulfilled it, then it means it’s completed and therefore under the New Testament, we are under a new covenant. 

  The Blood of Jesus provided for us a new covenant. Therefore, in the commands of the Lord, we understand the Law, we know that the Law is the root upon which we stand, we know it is the tree, it is the trunk, it is the solid foundation, the giving of the Law. But when Christ came, we are now going into the period where the Father said, “I will write my laws upon their hearts and upon their minds.” And He says, “Each man shall know me.”  That’s the period we’re coming into. As we move through that period, who is our teacher? Jesus, the Christ, He is the teacher and He made it very clear, that it’s almost impossible to keep the Law. We don’t have examples of people that kept the Law, and earned righteousness and salvation by the keeping of the Law….We know Jesus did. Hallelujah! And when He completed keeping the Law, He completed and kept it for us. Alright? 

  So all of you that want to keep the old Law, in all of it’s Jewish aspects, you want to have church on Friday night, and you want to keep all of that, wonderful, have at it. Go for it.  But if you, Paul says very clearly in Galatians, if you’re going to try and do that, then you’re going to have to keep all of it….Alright? So what the Gentiles have done is, gone through and set up denominations where we’re going to keep the ones that we know how to keep, that we want to keep. And then the other ones we don’t want to keep, we won’t keep them.  So let’s just be clear about that.  What you want to do is you want to keep the Law as established by Christ for the New Testament for the New Covenant. Which means that we do honor all of the Jewish laws, and we pay homage and respect to them, but at the same time, we are honoring a greater, the fulfillment of it. It’s fulfilled, it’s completed, and therefore we move on and we maintain the keeping of the Law, of the Love of God…You guys ok with that?  Alright. 

  So when you think of this, the Jews couldn’t keep it. How many of you gave a tithe of dill, mint, and cumin?…Not any? You didn’t do that did you? Ok, how many housewives in here, gave a feather to their husband, so that he could get all of the yeast out of the house, all of the leaven out of the house?  …Didn’t do that did you?…Huh?…Okay. So if you are going to keep all of the law, you have to keep all of it. Six hundred and sixty plus laws.  Most of us don’t even know them. [laughter] Let alone going to keep them. [laughter]  Okay, so, when we’re going to be Levitical priests, we have to be careful. You are not Levitical priests, let’s leave that to those who are still trying to gain Heaven by keeping of the Jewish laws. Everybody got that? Do you understand that? 

  Now, we should as Gentiles, keep our eyes upon the Feast Holidays of God.  And we want to keep our eyes on those because Christ is manifested in each of those holidays. And Christ told us that we’re going to celebrate those through out all of the eons. So we need to know those now. We need to know what Tabernacles is, we need to know what Pentecost is, we need to know what Atonement is, the Day of Atonement, we need to know what those are, because those are going to be kept forever. We’re going to always keep those.  And so God has given those to us to point us to Christ. To give us a clear picture of how to get to Christ. And the Sabbath is just like that. The Sabbath was a day to point us back to the fact that God’s working in our lives, He’s working over everything we have. Okay?  Any questions so far?  You guys got that? 

  How many of you know the names of your grandparents? … How many of you know the names of your great grandparents? How many of you know the history of your parents and your great grandparents? Good, what does that help you to do? That helps you to learn how to live your life…It gives you more information on how to live your life. Therefore, as Christians, our roots are all Jewish. We need to understand Jewish things in order that  we can know our future and in order that we can understand our present. When Jesus returns for the rapture, it’s going to be according to Jewish traditions. It’s going to fit right in with Jewish prophesies. It’s going to fulfill all of those, and the second coming of the Lord, is going to be based upon what? What is in the Old Covenant. So we need to understand these things…the culmination of the History of Israel, the prophesies concerning the outcome of the World situation is all coming to us in the Old Covenant. It’s coming to us from Old Testament prophesies. Therefore we have to have an understanding to it.

  But as a Gentile Church we don’t, I mean my great grandfather’s Jewish, but I don’t have to adhere to the Law of Moses… in it’s detail. I have to attain to it the way Jesus said. And Jesus says, what are the greatest of the Laws? He says, love God, love God and love your neighbor, and treat your neighbor as you would treat yourself. So He says, that’s what we have to keep. And so that’s what was given to the new, emerging New Testament Church, that that’s the law that we have to keep. But we should be aware that there was a law concerning the washing of hands. We should be aware that there was a law concerning working on the Sabbath and what not. What was acceptable work and what wasn’t. We should understand why they’re waiting for Elijah in the Passover meal. We should understand what unleavened bread is about and why Matzoh is pierced and burnt. We should understand the breaking of the bread, and the giving of that. We should understand that baptism is the Mikvah, which comes to us from Judaism, and is not some new Christian thing. We need to know all of that stuff. Okay? And so, we don’t want to abandon our Jewish roots, but we need to understand it, and we will see Christ in all of it. 

  Now, look at it in Leviticus 25 verse 2, it says, it says, “I give you, then the land shall keep a sabbath to the LORD.” Number, verse 3, “Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall…” what? “prune your vineyard, and gather it’s fruit; but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the LORD.  You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard.  What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine for it is a year of rest for the land.  And the sabbath produce of the land shall be food for you; for you, your male and female servants, your hired man, and the stranger who dwells with you, for your livestock and the beasts that are in your land–all its produce shall be for food.  And you shall count…” Watch this now, are you ready?  “…seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years…” How many years is that?  [49]  Seven times seven, 49.  “…and the time of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years.  Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee…” Can you say Jubilee? [Jubilee]  “…Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land.  [cheering] “And you shall consecrate…” What year is consecrated?  “…you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim…” what? [liberty] “…liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants.  It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family.  That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee to you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of its own accord, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine.  For it is the Jubilee; it shall be holy to you; you shall eat its produce from the field.  In this year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his possession.  And if  you sell anything to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor’s hand, you shall not...” do what? [oppress one another] “…you shall not oppress one another. According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor, and according to the number of years of crops...” and so forth and so on, it goes on.  Now look what He says the promises in verse 18. Verse 18, “So you shall observe My statutes and keep My judgments, and perform them; and you will dwell in the land in safety.  Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill, and dwell there in safety.  And if you say, “What shall we eat in the seventh year…” You guys ready?  “…since we shall not sow nor gather in our produce?”  Notice what God promises, “Then I will command My blessing.”  Say command the blessing. [command the blessing]  Command the blessing.  [command the blessing]  “Then I will command My blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth produce enough...” for how many years? [three years]  Whoo-hoo-hu.  “And you shall sow in the eighth year, and eat old produce until the ninth year; until its produce comes in, you shall eat of the old harvest.”  My goodness! 

  So here’s what you have. In the seventh year, you don’t plant. You leave your fields alone.  You leave it alone. But in the sixth year God promises you that He’s going to make the sixth year so abundant that you’re going to have a surplus of food so great that it will get you through the seventh year, in which you didn’t produce. The land then will be laid fallow, it won’t be worked or tilled, it will drink in the nutrients that come from the snow, the rain, the years and all like that. And it will give the land rest so that the land can continue to be fruitful. 

  You see, there is sin that you do in private, and then there’s sin that you do publicly. And so they were brazen about the fact that even though they were told in the seventh year to leave it fallow, it becomes public sin because everybody can walk by your field and know you plowed that field this year. So the Jews brazenly refused to keep it, and they piled up for themselves, 490 years of slavery….That’s why they had to sojourn in places like Assyria and Babylon. They had to do seventy years of captivity in Babylon because they didn’t keep the law. And God says, if you don’t keep it, He says I won’t protect you. I won’t keep your enemies, if you won’t honor Me in this way. 

  So God is looking to take… and you’re no different than the Jews…most American’s don’t tithe. Barely 2% of Americans tithe. And then what do we have in America? Financial disaster. We have the body of Christ living from paycheck to paycheck. Complaining that the tithe is only because somebody wants to get your money. God doesn’t want to get your money. God wants to do what? Command a blessing for you. But if you won’t keep His Law, then He’s not bound to protect your income. He’s not bound to protect your excess or your lack. So, we have to understand that when a pastor tries to encourage people to give tithes and offerings, it’s in your best interest to do so because then God supernaturally has to enter into your financial arena and fight for you. 

  His Word says, He has to come if you keep His Sabbath law, He has to come and command a blessing for you. Now, you’re a Gentile, you don’t have to keep the Jewish law if you don’t want to. But if you enter into covenant with God and choose to do so… I mean, you guys don’t have to go and get circumcised, you can just enter into the covenant now, but in the old days, all the guys would have to go and get circumcised, the women would have to change their ways and learn the Law and everything. But it’s the commanded blessing. It’s commanded by God, that if you meet Him, by keeping His law, He will command a blessing for you. But if you don’t want to do it…hey!….it’s okay.  No problem.  You don’t, you don’t have to do it. 

  The Jews did not keep the Jubilee. They were commanded to do so, they were His Servants, they were in a covenant agreement with Him, they signed the package. It wasn’t like God came down from Heaven and said, “You’re going to serve me or die.” He said, “What do you want to do? I can do this for you, and this for you, and this for you if you’ll do this and this for me.” And the Jews signed the deal. They said, yeah, we’re going to do it. We’ll keep the Jubilee, we’ll keep the Pentecost, every 50th year we will honor you. Well how will you honor Me? We will set the captives free. Anyone that is a slave in the 50th year, he will be loosed from slavery.  Anyone that is oppressed and has been forced to be a hired servant, on the fiftieth, he’s going to go free. Everyone’s going to go free. Along with that, his children go free, his wife goes free. It’s done. 

  Anyone that due to banking or a pledge or a sale has lost the property that belonged in the family. Listen to me carefully. You got to get this. When God has them conquer the land of Canaan, they divide it up, and every family got land. Every family had their parcel of land, that came all the way from the Mosaic conquest, Joshua’s conquest. And everybody got a big chunk. So everybody has enough land to live on. If you, due to your foolishness, sell that land or it is taken from you for debt, in the 50th year, your inheritance has to be returned to you. [hallelujah] 

  Jesus is the fulfillment of Pentecost. He sets the captive free, He comes at Pentecost by the Holy Spirit, to do what? To instill to people that those that have been oppressed and in bondage, you are now set free. The power that satan had over your mind and over your body is now broken, and you are loosed to do what? Return to your inheritance. To take back everything the devil has stolen from you. Get it back in the Name of Jesus, he cannot hold it. Jesus is our Jubilee. You don’t have to wait until the 50th year. You can do it now!  At the moment of His revelation of the truth of who He is in your life. He is our Jubilee.  You can go get it back now! [glory] Glory be to God! Don’t mess with me, I’ll start to preach.  [laughter] 

  And all debts are forgiven. The Jew, by law, by Jewish law, if he loaned something to another Jew, he couldn’t charge interest. How dare you loan something to another Christian and charge him interest! You’re considered a heathen by the scriptures here. Because you’re supposed to loan brother to brother, expecting no interest. And Jesus took it one further than that. He said, give it to them not expecting any return. And God says, “I’ll be your debtor.” If you’ll loan to the brethren and keep the brother, He says, I’ll be your debtor. He says this, “You’ll be known, the Church will be known by this, the love for the brethren.”  [amen]…You can’t charge no…you need 50 bucks?  Here’s 50 bucks. Well when you give it back, …you’ll gave me 20 dollars, right. No! Get the 20 dollars from Jesus who gave you the 50 dollars that you had extra to give them. [amen, amen]…Man, look out. What you all come to church here for today? Want you to leave here feeling good. But I want you to have the truth. 

  And so God says, and, and, and if you, if you loan to a stranger, a sojourner in the land, you could charge him 1, 2, 3 percent interest. But anything over that was considered usury.  If you went over 6 percent you were considered a thief. Now think of the American banking system. [laughter] All thieves, illegal thieves. And that’s why the wealth of this country is being taken from it. Because we have held people in bondage, 28% interest on a credit card…you’ve got to be kidding. All of you holding credit cards over 18%, you need to call that company and tell them, either they give you a reduction or you’re taking your business somewhere else. That’s usury, that’s robbery, you know. In America, when they get, when they get you down, they, they grind you. They put their foot on your throat and choke you to death. And we need to realize it’s ungodly. Alright.  [amen] 

  Well, never mind….See what happens when I lose my notes?  [laughter]  Look at verse 25.  It says, “If one of your brethren becomes poor, and has sold some of his possession, and if his redeeming relative comes to redeem it, then he may redeem what his brother sold.”  This is what Jesus is. He is our kinsman redeemer…Jesus is coming to redeem those of us who have sold ourselves into slavery. Sold our children into slavery by our bad behavior.  Sold our marriages into slavery by neglecting our wives or neglecting our husbands, by not giving them their due needs, meeting their needs. Their sexual needs and their social needs and their entertainment needs. That’s the responsibility of the family and therefore we have people that need to be redeemed. We need to remind people, no, you cannot do that. You can’t walk through the house and ignore your family. 

  Husbands, you cannot justify ignoring your wife, saying that you’re earning money. You can’t do that. She needs to, she is, she is entitled to be romanced, made love to, taken on vacations, and go to the Red Lobster. If you can’t afford that, make a picnic lunch and go sit by the river and hold her hand and tell her she’s beautiful. [amen]…Notice, all the ladies saying amen. [laughter] I don’t get one AMEN [said in a masculine deep voice].

  But by that same token, women, you’re supposed to honor this man as a king in his home. [amen]  He’s supposed to have some clean clothes to wear. He’s supposed to look good. He’s not supposed to be doing his own laundry, doing his own dishes, fixing his own food. What do you think this is? What does he have you for? [laughter, whoa] What are you talking about? This is a division of labor. And every woman who said that, wants him to get up under the hood of the car and fix your flat in the driveway. It’s a division of labor.  You want him to put on a tool belt and fix the kitchen sink when you plug it up. What are you talking about? You’re not ready to go out there and shovel the snow. We’re supposed to be kinsmen redeemers to our wives, to our husbands. I’m my wife’s servant, she should, she should need for nothing. If a bear comes up the back porch, I’ll get her the gun so she can shoot him. [laughter] 

  We’re to redeem the time. Jesus Christ is our kinsman redeemer who came and He bought us back. We’re to daily buy each other back. We’re to daily buy each other, die to self. Die to self. Get that concept out of your mind that it’s got to be your way all the time. You are to be a servant to your wife. Servant to your husband. You’re a team player. You’re a team player. No rowboat sitting in the middle of the water can get to the other shore with two people not rowing in unison. [amen]  Have to row in unison to get there. 

  So, when we have Pentecost, when we take this holiday, we need to take it seriously.  It is there to remind us that Christ has redeemed us and bought us back from the world of the devil, and his power and authority. He has bought us back from sickness, death, and disease. And he’s invited us to participate in His marvelous life. Let’s stand to our feet…..

  Praying that this message blessed you. It was powerful and impacting for me.

  Heather

   

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