WEBVTT NOTE Podcast: Acts 29 Vancouver Episode: Reset - Jubilee Publishing Date: 2024-10-20T06:04:44-07:00 Podcast URL: https://acts29.ca Episode URL: https://acts29.ca/reset-jubilee/ 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:15.000 Yep. All good. Thanks. 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:28.640 Alrighty. So today we start a series called Reset, Reset, Reset. And some of the scriptures 00:00:28.640 --> 00:00:39.000 we read right off the bat. Levitegas 25, your favorite book in the Bible. 8 to 13. 20 to 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:49.000 22. And 23 to 28. So let's start with that, eh? So the new series we are doing is Reset. 00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:55.040 Oh, I forgot to tell you. I won't be here next week. My mom had another mini stroke, 00:00:55.120 --> 00:01:01.760 so she, her left side is really weak now, so I'll be going on Tuesday to spend some time with her, 00:01:01.760 --> 00:01:07.120 so I might not be here next Sunday. She was doing well and then suddenly had a mini stroke, 00:01:07.120 --> 00:01:18.480 so just pray that she has the will to move forward. That's what she needs most so that 00:01:18.720 --> 00:01:23.280 she doesn't regress and decide, eh, it's not worth it. So just pray for that. 00:01:24.800 --> 00:01:36.400 Alrighty. Let's read Levitegas 25 verse 8 to 13 and 20 to 22. Here goes. Count of seven sabbaths 00:01:36.400 --> 00:01:43.600 of years, seven times seven years, so that the seventh sabbath of years amounts to a period of 00:01:43.600 --> 00:01:50.640 49 years. Then have the trumpets sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month, 00:01:50.640 --> 00:01:56.640 on the day of atonement. Sound the trumpet throughout your land. Consecrate the fiftieth 00:01:56.640 --> 00:02:03.840 year and proclaim liberty through the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you. 00:02:04.640 --> 00:02:12.480 Each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan. The fiftieth 00:02:12.480 --> 00:02:18.880 year shall also be a, the fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you. Do not sow and do not reap 00:02:18.880 --> 00:02:26.080 what grows of itself or harvest the untended vine, for it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you. 00:02:26.080 --> 00:02:33.680 Eat only what is directly taken from the fields. In this year of jubilee, everyone is to return to 00:02:33.680 --> 00:02:41.840 his own property. Now go to verse 20. You may ask, what will we eat in the seventh year if we do not 00:02:41.840 --> 00:02:48.320 plant or harvest our crops? I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will 00:02:48.320 --> 00:02:55.120 yield enough for three years. While you plant during the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop 00:02:55.120 --> 00:03:02.880 and will continue to eat from it until the harvest of the ninth year comes in. Go to 23, verse 23. 00:03:02.880 --> 00:03:06.160 It says there, 00:03:08.960 --> 00:03:15.760 the land must not be sold permanently because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants. 00:03:16.560 --> 00:03:22.480 Throughout the country that you hold as a possession, you must provide for redemption 00:03:22.480 --> 00:03:28.240 of the land. If one of your countrymen becomes poor and sells some of his property to his nearest 00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:34.480 relative and his nearest relative is to come and redeem what his countryman has sold, if however 00:03:34.480 --> 00:03:40.480 a man has no one to redeem it for him but he himself prospers and acquires sufficient means 00:03:40.480 --> 00:03:45.840 to redeem it, he is to determine the value for the years since he sold it and refund the balance to 00:03:45.840 --> 00:03:52.080 the man whom he sold it to. He can then go back to his own property but if he does not acquire the 00:03:52.080 --> 00:03:58.160 means to repay him, what he sold will remain in the possession of the buyer until the year of jubilee. 00:03:58.160 --> 00:04:04.480 It will be returned in the jubilee and then he can go back to his own property. As we talk about 00:04:04.480 --> 00:04:12.880 this, you'll see why we read it. Guys, this idea of jubilee was critical for Jesus. One of the first 00:04:12.880 --> 00:04:19.200 things he does is in Luke chapter 4, just before he begins his ministry, he reads out his mission 00:04:19.200 --> 00:04:25.200 statement and his mission statement is from Isaiah 61, verse 1 to 3. And in the mission statement, 00:04:25.200 --> 00:04:33.840 he makes this proclamation. He says, I have come to bring you into the year of favor or into the 00:04:33.840 --> 00:04:39.520 year of release or into the year of jubilee. He actually makes that statement. But before we go 00:04:39.520 --> 00:04:45.120 into the mission statement that Jesus had before he started his ministry, let's look at why it was 00:04:45.120 --> 00:04:50.160 such a big deal for the Israelites to have land back because without understanding the concept of 00:04:50.160 --> 00:04:55.920 land in the Old Testament, it's impossible to understand jubilee. So let's just look at that. 00:04:55.920 --> 00:05:11.600 So guys, the thing is in the Old Testament, land was a measure of God's relationship 00:05:11.600 --> 00:05:17.040 with his people. In the Old Testament, land was a measure of God's relationship with his people. 00:05:17.040 --> 00:05:24.400 So what does he say to Israel before Israel was even a nation? I will bring you to the 00:05:25.200 --> 00:05:31.120 promised land. What kind of land was it? It was the land of milk and honey or in other words, 00:05:31.120 --> 00:05:37.440 abundance. What would happen if they disobeyed God? They would say, I will bring you to the 00:05:37.440 --> 00:05:43.600 abundance. What would happen if they disobeyed God? They would be exiled from the land. 00:05:44.560 --> 00:05:49.280 What would happen when they would obey God? They would be blessed in the land. 00:05:52.400 --> 00:05:57.280 When you read the book of Deuteronomy and go to Deuteronomy 29, where it talks about blessings 00:05:57.280 --> 00:06:03.280 and curses, what were the blessings? Most of them had to do with land and produce, 00:06:03.680 --> 00:06:08.720 land and produce. And the curses had to do with being expelled from the land. 00:06:09.680 --> 00:06:17.840 So land was often a measure in the Old Testament of how God's relationship was with his people. 00:06:17.840 --> 00:06:22.000 In fact, as soon as they entered the promised land, what was one of the first things God does? 00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:28.800 Through Joshua, he begins to allocate land to every tribe, to every clan, to every family. 00:06:29.280 --> 00:06:34.640 That is the first thing he does, because these were a landless people who were slaves in Egypt, 00:06:35.200 --> 00:06:41.120 killing the fields of others. And then along comes God, who brings them into a new place. 00:06:41.120 --> 00:06:46.720 And the first thing he does is, hey, can I give everybody here land? That's the first thing he 00:06:46.720 --> 00:06:55.440 does. So land was a measure of God's relationship with his people. And so without understanding 00:06:55.600 --> 00:07:01.840 that, we can't really grasp the idea of Jubilee. Each family was assigned land, and it was supposed 00:07:01.840 --> 00:07:08.800 to be a perpetual inheritance. It wasn't land that could be bought and sold. It would always return 00:07:08.800 --> 00:07:15.680 to the family that it belonged to, because it was ancestral and it was a gift from God. 00:07:16.480 --> 00:07:22.240 For them, it was precious. This is why Naboth in First Kings, 00:07:22.240 --> 00:07:29.600 21, Naboth is a regular guy who owns land and a vineyard. And along comes Ahab, King Ahab, 00:07:29.600 --> 00:07:34.480 the king of Israel, and he comes to Naboth and says, hey, can I have your land? Can I have your 00:07:34.480 --> 00:07:40.880 vineyard? I'll pay you top dollar. I'll give you top dollar. And what does Naboth say? No, this is 00:07:40.880 --> 00:07:47.360 ancestral property. I will not give it to you. Why? Because for an Israelite, the name was as 00:07:47.440 --> 00:07:54.880 important as the land. To mess with ancestral land was like losing the name of your family. 00:07:55.840 --> 00:08:02.320 That's how important it was. Because to give it away, and that's why God would make these 00:08:02.320 --> 00:08:08.960 strong statements in Numbers and Deuteronomy, do not remove the landmarks. When I have divided 00:08:08.960 --> 00:08:14.000 and given people land, don't shift it. Don't take someone else's, because it's a perpetual inheritance. 00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:20.800 Don't mess with that. And so Naboth says no, and Ahab gets really upset, and Ahab goes and steals 00:08:20.800 --> 00:08:25.920 that land with the help of Jezebel, who tricks people into stoning Naboth so that the land can 00:08:25.920 --> 00:08:32.000 be taken away from his family. What Ahab was doing is taking away someone's ancestral property, 00:08:32.480 --> 00:08:39.360 and with it, the very dignity that they had with regard to what was given to them by God. 00:08:39.520 --> 00:08:42.640 Dignity that they had with regard to what was given to them by God. 00:08:44.480 --> 00:08:48.800 And so given that it was ancestral, and given that it was assigned by God, 00:08:48.800 --> 00:08:55.760 land was treasured almost as one's own name. But every so often, like in every part of the world, 00:08:55.760 --> 00:09:04.960 hard times would force people to sell land. Hard times would force people to sell land. 00:09:05.360 --> 00:09:09.360 And this would happen so often in Israel, and once they sold land, they had nothing, 00:09:09.360 --> 00:09:14.640 because remember, they are an agrarian society that survives using just two methods, either 00:09:14.640 --> 00:09:20.400 agriculture or shepherding. That's all they had. And so once you sold your land, you immediately 00:09:20.400 --> 00:09:29.280 went into bond labor in someone else's fields. That was the only option, if you sold your land. 00:09:29.680 --> 00:09:35.760 If you sold your land. Now you see why God comes up with this brilliant plan, 00:09:35.760 --> 00:09:44.640 where he resets things. This is his nature. It's his nature to reset things. Embedded into every 00:09:44.640 --> 00:09:54.560 life here, embedded into kingdom life for all of us, is God's ability to reset. To reset things. 00:09:55.280 --> 00:10:01.760 And once he resets it, you come as close as possible to mint condition as it was originally 00:10:01.760 --> 00:10:08.480 supposed to be. One has to begin to desire it, trust that this God can do it, even when you 00:10:08.480 --> 00:10:14.640 don't see him working, even when you don't feel him working. Never. He never stops. 00:10:17.600 --> 00:10:22.640 Reset is such a part of God. It's not a new concept. But when Jesus comes, he's saying, 00:10:22.640 --> 00:10:27.520 listen, I'm not going to bring this reset once every 50 years. I am the reset and I'm here 00:10:27.520 --> 00:10:34.240 every day. That's his intent. And so how does that then apply to us? That's what we're trying to 00:10:34.240 --> 00:10:40.800 figure out. But for the Israelites, once every 50 years, meaning once every generation, he would 00:10:40.800 --> 00:10:46.400 press the reset button. And as soon as he presses the reset button, everything goes back to original 00:10:46.400 --> 00:10:57.440 owners. Any questions? It's important to grasp this fact that God loves resetting. And usually 00:10:57.440 --> 00:11:04.880 the reset is sometimes better than the original. In Jeremiah 17 or Jeremiah 15, I'm not too sure, 00:11:04.880 --> 00:11:10.640 there's a passage where it says the potter was making a pot, was making a beautiful vase 00:11:11.600 --> 00:11:17.280 or vase. And so he takes his beautiful vase and he realizes that it's misshapen. 00:11:18.480 --> 00:11:25.520 And what does he do? He doesn't throw it away. He takes it, kneads the clay again, puts it back on 00:11:25.520 --> 00:11:34.640 the potter's wheel and reshapes it into a new vessel. Reset. He takes out the little stones 00:11:34.640 --> 00:11:41.840 that perhaps misshaped the first vase. There's always reset. It is us who think that reset is 00:11:41.840 --> 00:11:47.920 not a good deal for that person, that person, that person. But for me, I'm always open to reset. But 00:11:47.920 --> 00:11:53.120 my God, not Derek, he's done this, this and this. He doesn't deserve a reset. I do. God thinks 00:11:53.120 --> 00:11:58.960 everyone deserves a reset, which is why the words he uses from Luke chapter 4 is, I have come to 00:11:58.960 --> 00:12:08.480 announce to you the year of favor, the year of release, the year of jubilee, the year of reset. 00:12:08.480 --> 00:12:16.320 It's like that staples button. What does that button do? Easy. Oh, okay. Yeah, it's not like 00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:28.720 the staples button. Any questions before we? Yeah, so the seventh year, the land would lie 00:12:28.720 --> 00:12:36.000 fallow. It would not be cultivated. But on the 50th year, land was returned to original owners. 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:41.840 So every seventh year, and that was called the Shemitah, land would be left. The odd thing is, 00:12:41.840 --> 00:12:47.920 in the Old Testament, land is almost personified. God will speak of land as the land is tired. 00:12:50.560 --> 00:12:58.240 We say that about people. The land is tired and needs a break. And so let's give it a year's break. 00:12:59.680 --> 00:13:06.320 But in the 50th year, it would lie fallow, but it would also be returned to original owners. 00:13:07.520 --> 00:13:12.320 I love what he says. If you heard the reading, it says, all the land is mine. You are the tenants. 00:13:13.440 --> 00:13:17.280 I wish that was true for property in Vancouver. That would be nice. 00:13:22.640 --> 00:13:23.600 Any questions? 00:13:23.600 --> 00:13:36.640 Nope? Okay. So Jubilee was, here are a few things Jubilee was. If you can get, if you can somehow 00:13:38.160 --> 00:13:44.000 let it settle deep in, it'll really help. I'm hoping it'll settle deep in my heart. Jubilee, 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:51.120 some of the things Jubilee was. Jubilee was reset. Jubilee was reset. Jubilee was reset. What kind of 00:13:51.120 --> 00:13:57.920 reset? Spiritual reset. Because it would start on which day? Crazy. It would start on the day of 00:13:57.920 --> 00:14:05.520 atonement. And we are very close to when it actually happened this year. This year, Israel doesn't 00:14:06.560 --> 00:14:13.120 hold Jubilees anymore, but Israel does have the seventh Sabbath year and all this stuff. So the 00:14:13.120 --> 00:14:18.400 tenth day of the seventh month was October 11th and 12th. So let's imagine we were in the Old 00:14:18.400 --> 00:14:26.000 Testament times. It would be around this time. And it was a spiritual reset too, because you would 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:32.320 start with having your sins and debts wiped out. The day of atonement. Mike would come play the 00:14:32.320 --> 00:14:37.280 sax because he doesn't have a trumpet. And as soon as he finishes playing the trumpet, the day of 00:14:37.280 --> 00:14:42.800 atonement would begin. The people would begin to realize that their sins are paid for, the debts 00:14:42.800 --> 00:14:47.040 are paid for. So it was spiritual reset. It was 00:14:49.840 --> 00:14:57.600 economic reset. Economic reset. It was cultural reset. 00:15:01.280 --> 00:15:04.240 It was environmental reset, where the land would be given a break. 00:15:07.200 --> 00:15:09.600 And it was communal or community reset. 00:15:13.600 --> 00:15:18.080 And what was God doing? The damage that sin had caused, 00:15:21.040 --> 00:15:28.080 the damage that sin and hard-heartedness had caused was now being 00:15:32.080 --> 00:15:33.360 systematically reworked. 00:15:34.080 --> 00:15:40.880 So that was one of the things that Jubilee would do. What do we need to keep repeating to ourselves as we 00:15:40.880 --> 00:15:47.680 hear this? That God is into resets. God is into resets not once in seven years. God is not into 00:15:47.680 --> 00:15:54.240 resets once every 50 years. God is into resets today. And then next thing you have to shift to is God 00:15:54.240 --> 00:16:01.520 is into resets for the next five years. So that's what we need to keep repeating to ourselves. 00:16:03.360 --> 00:16:06.880 God is into resets for others through me. God is into resets for others through me. 00:16:09.040 --> 00:16:14.080 We can't take everything that we learn for ourselves because then all we'll focus on is 00:16:14.080 --> 00:16:19.040 ourselves. Because there'll always be need for reset. There'll always be need for help. There'll 00:16:19.040 --> 00:16:25.520 always be need for healing. There'll always be need for some kind of assistance in our lives. 00:16:25.520 --> 00:16:31.040 But if that is my only focus, what about the rest? You are here as a result of someone not 00:16:31.040 --> 00:16:39.360 focusing on themselves. That's how you got saved. Someone had the guts to face your obnoxious past 00:16:39.360 --> 00:16:44.480 self and come and tell you about Christ and took the risk of doing that. They didn't think about 00:16:44.480 --> 00:16:52.400 themselves. And so when we talk about reset, we got to remember that God is really into this 00:16:52.400 --> 00:16:57.920 and that he's still into this more so now than before. There he was dealing with one nation. 00:16:57.920 --> 00:17:02.640 Now he has to deal with a whole lot of people that he paid his life for. And so this is real. 00:17:04.480 --> 00:17:10.880 And it's not instant. This is not winning the lottery tomorrow where economic reset happens. 00:17:11.920 --> 00:17:21.680 Not the way it works. It is systematic and he loves doing it as any parent would, as any good 00:17:21.760 --> 00:17:28.640 accountant would, as any counselor would with someone who comes to them. Over a period of time, 00:17:29.680 --> 00:17:36.800 it is reworked. He is into this and he's into this for others through me, through you. 00:17:39.200 --> 00:17:46.960 What else does he reset? So one of the things Jubilee is reset. It's also released. Jubilee was 00:17:47.600 --> 00:17:55.040 release. Jubilee was release. What do you mean? Those in slavery, 00:17:57.760 --> 00:18:11.600 those in slavery were set free to return to their communities or homes. Crazy, eh? People would be 00:18:11.600 --> 00:18:18.320 in slavery for 30 years, 40 years. Remember when this woman who comes to Elisha and says, 00:18:18.320 --> 00:18:25.440 alas, alas, my master, my husband died and he left a huge debt. The guys are coming to take away my 00:18:25.440 --> 00:18:30.560 sons and take them into bondage. It was slavery. The sons would be in slavery for the next 50 years. 00:18:31.360 --> 00:18:37.280 And along comes this amazing window through which people could be set free. You could not keep a 00:18:37.280 --> 00:18:42.640 slave after that. On the 50th year, during the 50th year, there was not a single slave in Israel. 00:18:43.760 --> 00:18:47.040 There were only free men in Israel. It didn't matter what you had done. 00:18:47.680 --> 00:18:52.640 There were no slaves in Israel. Come on, man. That was in the Old Testament. What about now? 00:18:54.160 --> 00:18:59.520 And it is every day for you, yes, but through you, absolutely. 00:19:00.160 --> 00:19:09.920 This is God. He is no man that he should lie. Start there. 00:19:13.360 --> 00:19:16.000 The third thing that Jubilee is, 00:19:19.440 --> 00:19:28.320 Jubilee was rest. Jubilee was rest. Jubilee was rest. The land would rest. 00:19:29.920 --> 00:19:35.920 People would rest. And we'll talk about this separately, what rest looks like and rest does 00:19:35.920 --> 00:19:44.880 not look like Sundays. Sunday is perhaps the busiest day in your life. So rest it isn't. 00:19:46.160 --> 00:19:52.160 So we're not talking about rest as in taking a day off. And no, rest is completely different. 00:19:52.160 --> 00:19:58.800 Just to give you a taste, if you haven't heard this before, rest is when someone is taking a day off. 00:19:58.960 --> 00:20:07.280 It's when someone decides that I will no longer or I will desist from self-effort, striving, 00:20:09.200 --> 00:20:18.960 sweat, machinations, control. I will desist from it. Sabbath means to desist or seize from, 00:20:18.960 --> 00:20:25.040 to seize from exertion or to desist from self-effort. That's the meaning of Sabbath. 00:20:25.680 --> 00:20:30.240 And so what does that look like when a people decide that just like the land would be 00:20:30.240 --> 00:20:37.840 given rest, what when we enter into rest? Hebrews chapter 4, labor to enter into rest. 00:20:38.720 --> 00:20:42.400 What does that look like? And we'll talk about that. It's a marvelous place to live, eh? 00:20:43.520 --> 00:20:48.640 Where God does all the work and you go into rest and you only do what he tells you to do. 00:20:49.440 --> 00:20:54.400 Do you, I always ask this question when I'm talking about this. Do you, do you, when you jump up, 00:20:54.400 --> 00:21:00.960 are you working hard to jump down back? No. Why? Because there's a principle called gravity. 00:21:01.520 --> 00:21:08.000 What goes up must come down. You're not praying, you're not claiming promises from God. 00:21:08.560 --> 00:21:13.600 You just know that if you jump up, you will come down. That's how rest works. Principles of God, 00:21:13.600 --> 00:21:18.400 it works so that you can go into rest. Where does rest create a whole lot of havoc? 00:21:20.160 --> 00:21:25.600 In here. This is where rest is destroyed. Thinking, thinking, thinking, can't go to sleep. 00:21:26.400 --> 00:21:30.880 Paranoia about what if this happens, what if that happens, I better protect this. That's a loophole. 00:21:30.880 --> 00:21:34.880 God may not be able to do it. What if he's late? He's a lawyer. He might have a reason not to do 00:21:34.880 --> 00:21:37.840 this. He may be good yesterday, but he might not be good today. 00:21:37.840 --> 00:21:42.800 What else was Jubilee? Jubilee was recovery. This is so beautiful. I hope some of you will take this 00:21:42.800 --> 00:21:48.800 up for the sake of others. Jubilee was recovery. What was being recovered? People's identity 00:21:49.760 --> 00:21:55.120 and people's history was being recovered. It is one of the greatest gifts that we have ever 00:21:55.120 --> 00:22:01.680 received. It is the greatest gift that we have ever received. It is the 몸, the body, the spirit. 00:22:01.680 --> 00:22:08.240 People's identity and people's history was being recovered. It is one of the greatest gifts you can 00:22:08.240 --> 00:22:14.720 give somebody. Greatest gifts. A person who's broken, who's wasted their life, who's squandered 00:22:14.720 --> 00:22:23.360 everything. A prodigal. And then you have the amazing opportunity now to give them back their 00:22:23.360 --> 00:22:30.000 history, to give them back their identity. Isn't that what Jesus did? He gave me back my history. 00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:37.040 Who am I? I'm a child of God. He gave me back an identity. Who am I? I'm the Father's much-loved son. 00:22:38.160 --> 00:22:45.040 It is the greatest gift you can give someone. When Isaiah 49, 8 says that I will send you 00:22:45.040 --> 00:22:52.480 as a person that can restore desolate heritages, what it really means is yes, I'll help you give 00:22:52.480 --> 00:22:57.120 back people the land they live in. But more than that it is I'll give people back their history 00:22:57.120 --> 00:22:58.960 and I'll give people back their identity. 00:23:02.000 --> 00:23:07.200 I'm not getting political at all for even a second right now so don't mistake what I'm saying. The 00:23:07.200 --> 00:23:13.760 reason Israel fights hard for its land, present-day Israel fights hard for its land, is because this 00:23:13.760 --> 00:23:20.480 is ingrained in their psyche. I'm not here to qualify what they're doing right and what they're 00:23:20.480 --> 00:23:25.840 doing wrong. You can talk to me separately about that. But the reason they fight the way they fight 00:23:25.840 --> 00:23:28.560 is because land has been important to them since the beginning of time. 00:23:36.800 --> 00:23:42.000 Unfortunately the flip side of it is Christian television stations will still ask for your 00:23:42.000 --> 00:23:46.800 donations for a one square foot of land on Mount Olive because Jesus is going to come back for land. 00:23:46.800 --> 00:23:49.360 Jesus ain't coming back for land, he's coming back for people. 00:23:50.000 --> 00:24:00.240 He's not into real estate, he's into real people. In fact he abandoned the temple when the curtain 00:24:00.240 --> 00:24:04.000 tore, what did he do? He moved out of the temple and moved into a people. 00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:08.560 This is a beautiful thing, eh? I pray God that as we go through these series some of you will be 00:24:08.560 --> 00:24:14.480 grabbed in your heart that, oh God could you make me not a history maker but a history restorer. 00:24:19.200 --> 00:24:21.920 It's one of the most beautiful things that I've ever seen. 00:24:21.920 --> 00:24:25.120 I've never seen anything like it. I've never seen anything like it. 00:24:25.200 --> 00:24:27.520 Not a history maker but a history restorer. 00:24:32.400 --> 00:24:34.800 It's one of the most beautiful gifts you can give people. 00:24:36.960 --> 00:24:37.920 Remove the stain. 00:24:42.400 --> 00:24:45.440 Jubilee was restoration, Jubilee was restoration. 00:24:47.840 --> 00:24:49.280 Jubilee was restoration. 00:24:49.280 --> 00:25:03.840 Restoration of what? Restoration of wasted, squandered, broken, ruined inheritances. 00:25:07.600 --> 00:25:12.640 Today how do we look at inheritances? We look at it as a destiny that is appointed to people, 00:25:12.640 --> 00:25:18.000 the destiny that is appointed to people. So what is Joe about? What is his inheritance? 00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:22.560 Is it to come and study at Trinity Western and get a degree and put on a cap and those funny black 00:25:22.560 --> 00:25:30.000 gowns and walk? That's not an inheritance, that's a funny black gown. What is his inheritance? What 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.160 if he squandered it? What if he broke it? What if it's ruined? What if it's wasted? 00:25:35.120 --> 00:25:41.520 Restoration is when God says, but this is what I called you for even before time began. This is 00:25:41.520 --> 00:25:46.960 what he does with Isaiah. Even before you were born, while you were still being formed in your 00:25:46.960 --> 00:25:54.080 womb, I set you apart as a prophet to the nations. The prophetic is basically the restoration of 00:25:54.640 --> 00:26:03.120 inheritances given before the earth existed to people undiscovered, wasted, squandered, broken, restored. 00:26:03.360 --> 00:26:16.880 Man, we've got such a privileged responsibility. Everyone can do this. Jubilee is ours to give away. 00:26:20.880 --> 00:26:24.800 We shouldn't think of Jubilee as our birthright. We should think of it as something that can be 00:26:24.800 --> 00:26:26.000 given away. 00:26:33.120 --> 00:26:41.120 What else was Jubilee? I love this one. Jubilee was radical. Jubilee was radical. How was it radical? 00:26:41.920 --> 00:26:55.280 It was disruptive, man. It was God's way of interrupting status quo. It was God's way of 00:26:56.080 --> 00:27:04.560 It was God's way of interrupting status quo. It was countercultural. It was challenging. 00:27:07.760 --> 00:27:17.280 It was disruptive. Also, imagine this. You're running a great business and now for one year 00:27:17.280 --> 00:27:24.880 you've got to shut down. Is that disruptive or what? You've been employed for the last 20 years. 00:27:24.960 --> 00:27:35.120 It is an amazing company. For one year, you don't work. You have employees that you have gotten 00:27:35.120 --> 00:27:39.040 benefits for. You've given them bonuses. It's the 50th year and they walk away. 00:27:43.040 --> 00:27:49.680 You have land that you sowed, you irrigated, you've had harvested. You're giving everything back and 00:27:49.680 --> 00:27:55.280 you're getting nothing for it. You get your harvest but you give the land back because it belongs 00:27:55.840 --> 00:28:01.520 to someone's inheritance. This was disruptive. It was challenging. We'll talk about that in the 00:28:01.520 --> 00:28:10.480 future. Do you know something that when you read Jeremiah 25, verse 11 and 12, Israel was exiled 00:28:10.480 --> 00:28:19.040 from their land for 70 years. People ask the question, why 70 years? Why was Israel exiled 00:28:19.040 --> 00:28:26.320 from their land for 70 years? The conclusion is that for 490 years from when they came out of 00:28:26.320 --> 00:28:36.880 Egypt to when they returned to Israel, for 490 years Israel refused to live by the Jubilee. 00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:47.920 70 years was God saying the land should have had freedom to lie fallow once every 49 years 00:28:47.920 --> 00:28:53.200 and therefore since you have not done it, 70 years you'll be exiled and the words used in 00:28:53.200 --> 00:28:59.040 Jeremiah 25, verse 11 and 12 is the land will then lie fallow. That's how serious this was to God in 00:28:59.040 --> 00:29:06.880 the Old Testament. That I want to announce favor, please don't hold back from receiving it and then 00:29:06.880 --> 00:29:12.400 distributing it. What are you distributing? You're distributing restoration. What else are we meant for? 00:29:12.400 --> 00:29:19.200 All of us can do this in small little ways because the one person that needs restoration is the one 00:29:19.200 --> 00:29:24.720 person that God will send you away if you get this and you can take any of these things I've mentioned. 00:29:25.680 --> 00:29:31.760 Is it recovery? Is it restoration? Is it radical? Is it release? Is it rest? Take reset. Take any of 00:29:31.760 --> 00:29:37.120 these. That one person who's being sent you away has nowhere else to go to for Jubilee except you. 00:29:37.120 --> 00:29:43.680 And when 50 people or 100 people, that is 100 people more that get free. 00:29:47.840 --> 00:29:55.040 God has embedded reset into our lives for our own sakes and he's embedded reset into our lives for 00:29:55.040 --> 00:30:02.960 others. God has sent you away. He has sent you away. He has sent you away. He has sent you away. 00:30:03.200 --> 00:30:09.600 For our own sakes and he's embedded reset into our lives for others. Come on man, we can do this. 00:30:13.680 --> 00:30:20.800 When we were doing the last worship night here on September 30th, 00:30:21.680 --> 00:30:29.280 I was standing there and Zia was next to me and two or three times I clearly hear God saying, 00:30:29.520 --> 00:30:33.280 because my question to God was, Father, this is amazing. I'm really enjoying it. 00:30:35.280 --> 00:30:39.280 Where do you want to go with this? And he kept, I kept hearing the word Jubilee, Jubilee, Jubilee, 00:30:39.280 --> 00:30:44.560 and I left it. It was much later, a week later that God said, why don't you begin to explore this 00:30:44.560 --> 00:30:54.480 with the church? You know, what's her name sent me a word today from 2 Corinthians 6, 2. 2 Corinthians 00:30:55.440 --> 00:30:59.440 6, 2. And in 2 Corinthians, not what's her name, may send a word today. 00:31:01.360 --> 00:31:09.360 2 Corinthians 6, 2. 2 Corinthians 6, 2 talks about it and I want to read it out almost like a, 00:31:11.200 --> 00:31:16.720 like a statement to the church of God's intent. 2 Corinthians 6, 2. 00:31:16.720 --> 00:31:26.160 2. In the time of favor, I heard you. And in the day of salvation, I helped you. And this is the 00:31:26.160 --> 00:31:32.320 part I want us to just receive with our ears, our hearts, our spirits and our minds. I tell you, 00:31:33.040 --> 00:31:42.400 now is the time of God's favor. Now is the day of salvation. Let him who has ears, 00:31:43.040 --> 00:31:45.600 hear what the spirit is saying. 00:31:53.920 --> 00:31:55.280 Any questions before we go on? 00:31:55.280 --> 00:32:13.200 Yeah, we will be. Today is just what is it? And then we'll have to flesh out. So what does 00:32:13.200 --> 00:32:20.560 this look like when an entire group of people believe this in practical today's world? Yeah, 00:32:20.560 --> 00:32:25.760 besides you giving us your house and land, what else does it look like? Yeah. 00:32:27.440 --> 00:32:29.040 You can give your dog to Derek again. 00:32:34.720 --> 00:32:38.320 Any other questions? No, we must, we must work this out practically. It can't be 00:32:39.360 --> 00:32:42.480 just a theory. It's very nice theory, but it's useless. 00:32:45.680 --> 00:32:49.680 But today we are talking about what is it? What lies at the heart of it? Any other questions? 00:32:51.120 --> 00:33:02.560 Okay, guys, Jubilee required, Jubilee required the relinquishing of control. 00:33:08.560 --> 00:33:14.560 Jubilee required the relinquishing of control. You couldn't control and be part of the Jubilee. I 00:33:14.560 --> 00:33:20.880 mean, think of this, eh? So imagine a family, imagine a family that lost their land 12 years 00:33:20.880 --> 00:33:28.720 ago. Imagine a family that lost their land 12 years ago. And then on the 10th day of the 7th month, 00:33:29.280 --> 00:33:35.040 they hear this trumpet being blown and the Jubilee year is announced. And as soon as it's announced, 00:33:35.040 --> 00:33:41.920 the family that for 12 years was forced to work in someone else's field, the family that was 00:33:41.920 --> 00:33:49.600 working in someone else's household suddenly knows that they are going to regain the possession of 00:33:49.600 --> 00:33:54.400 their land and they are going to be restored to a position of social and economic strength. 00:33:54.400 --> 00:33:58.080 Let me repeat that again. So let's take a family. Let's take Sheldon and Jane. 00:33:58.720 --> 00:34:04.800 So Sheldon and Jane, 12 years ago, had to sell their land and they've been working for Derek 00:34:04.800 --> 00:34:14.320 and Iris for the last 12 years. And they know that the day is coming. It's just two days away. 00:34:15.200 --> 00:34:20.160 They're waiting. They get up early enough because they can hear the priest blowing the trumpet. And 00:34:20.160 --> 00:34:26.400 to blow the trumpet, and Sheldon and Jane are ecstatic. They know that Phoebe, Sheldon and Jane 00:34:26.400 --> 00:34:33.440 no longer have to work in Derek and Iris' fields. And as soon as the trumpet is blown, 00:34:34.080 --> 00:34:41.120 they get back their fields that have been owned by Derek and Iris. And they're ecstatic. Their social 00:34:41.120 --> 00:34:46.800 dignity, their economic strength has been restored. They have their family land back. 00:34:48.480 --> 00:34:53.680 And finally, they are in control of their own destiny. And while they are thinking of this, 00:34:53.680 --> 00:35:00.720 they suddenly realize that the 50th year, you cannot cultivate anything in your land. 00:35:01.280 --> 00:35:05.680 And they're scratching their head now. They just got back their land, but they cannot do anything 00:35:05.680 --> 00:35:11.040 with their land. They cannot sell it. They cannot sow. They cannot reap. They cannot harvest. For 00:35:11.040 --> 00:35:16.320 one year now, these slaves that have been set free have gotten back their land, but they are 00:35:16.320 --> 00:35:20.720 completely dependent on God for sustenance because they cannot do anything with their land. 00:35:22.880 --> 00:35:27.360 Five days later, when they are thinking, ah shucks, how do we eat? How do we survive? 00:35:27.360 --> 00:35:33.520 They sometimes forget the promise that God will supply. Five days later, it's time for the biggest 00:35:33.520 --> 00:35:38.960 feast in the Israeli calendar, which is the Feast of Tabernacles. And what do they have to do in the 00:35:38.960 --> 00:35:45.120 Feast of Tabernacles? They have to reenact what it is to be a landless people living in the wilderness, 00:35:45.120 --> 00:35:53.760 depending on God. It's ironic what God is doing here. On the 50th year, He's releasing to them 00:35:53.760 --> 00:35:58.320 their inheritance. And after releasing them their inheritance, He's saying, do not cultivate it. 00:35:58.320 --> 00:36:03.520 You'll have to live off me. And then five days later, He's saying to them, now come out, build 00:36:03.520 --> 00:36:10.080 booths made of leaves and live in them for the next 14 days or 10 days. What are you trying to 00:36:10.080 --> 00:36:16.720 reenact? That even though you have your inheritance, you will be landless and will depend on me for 00:36:16.960 --> 00:36:24.720 everything from water to birds to meat to cold to sun, everything you will depend on me. What Jubilee 00:36:24.720 --> 00:36:30.800 does is it gives you freedom and then asks you to take your ear and nail it to the doorpost saying, 00:36:30.800 --> 00:36:35.600 oh God, you can give me my freedom, but I will still serve you. I will be dependent on you. 00:36:37.360 --> 00:36:39.200 That is how you enter into Jubilee. 00:36:39.200 --> 00:36:46.800 It's ironic how this works. In the Old Testament, there would be slaves that would be freed on 00:36:46.800 --> 00:36:52.080 Jubilee. And when they were freed, they would go to their masters because their master was benevolent, 00:36:52.080 --> 00:36:58.560 was benign, and they would say, you have freed us and we can walk away. But guess what? We want to 00:36:58.560 --> 00:37:02.880 serve you for the rest of our lives. And when they say that, they're saying our wives will be 00:37:03.120 --> 00:37:08.160 But guess what? We want to serve you for the rest of our lives. And when they say that, they're 00:37:08.160 --> 00:37:12.640 saying our wives will serve you, our children will serve you, we will serve you. And the master would 00:37:12.640 --> 00:37:18.720 take them to the door and he would take the earlobe and they would put a nail and pierce it 00:37:20.240 --> 00:37:26.880 at the door. And that piercing would then mean that for the rest of their lives, 00:37:26.880 --> 00:37:29.760 they had chosen to serve over freedom. 00:37:42.240 --> 00:37:48.400 So even though, and this is why I keep saying, the Jubilee is meant for our freedom, but it is meant 00:37:48.400 --> 00:37:57.360 more for us now, resetting the lives of others, saying, yes, I've gotten what I want. I just don't 00:37:57.360 --> 00:38:02.960 want this for myself. I am so not into being free, into being healed, into being this and into being 00:38:02.960 --> 00:38:07.120 that for the rest of my life. Thank you. You'll take care of that. Now that I know you're going 00:38:07.120 --> 00:38:11.680 to take care of that, can we please go like you did and deal with the rest of the world? 00:38:12.160 --> 00:38:16.960 And even though it promises that in the sixth year, I'll have enough for the seventh, eighth and ninth 00:38:16.960 --> 00:38:24.320 year, oh God, I will still live like I am dependent on you for everything. That's the meaning of rest 00:38:24.320 --> 00:38:30.160 day. Why did they celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles? The Feast of Tabernacles was a very simple 00:38:30.160 --> 00:38:36.400 feast. They would go set up tents in the open, in the wilderness, and they would dwell under that 00:38:36.800 --> 00:38:41.040 to remind themselves that when they went through the wilderness, did they need shoes? 00:38:41.920 --> 00:38:47.840 For 40 years, their shoes did not wear. Did they need food? For 40 years, they did not bake bread. 00:38:47.840 --> 00:38:54.400 Did they need hot, warm clothes? For 40 years, in the dead of winter, they would not need warm 00:38:54.400 --> 00:39:01.040 clothes. Did they need fans? For 40 years, there was a cloud. Did they have to be afraid of scorpions, 00:39:01.040 --> 00:39:06.320 snakes, creepy crawlies in the desert? For 40 years, none of them had to worry about that. 00:39:08.000 --> 00:39:13.040 Was there anybody who was sick? For 40 years, it says in Exodus that none of them were feeble. 00:39:14.320 --> 00:39:21.680 Did they run out of water? For 40 years, rocks gave them water. Did their clothes wear out? For 40 00:39:21.680 --> 00:39:28.400 years, their clothes did not wear out. How? Because the God of Israel, the God of Israel, 00:39:28.880 --> 00:39:37.280 how? Because the God of Israel camped in the middle of their encampment and his presence sustained them. 00:39:42.400 --> 00:39:47.920 And so this process of Jubilee is to say to Chava, Chava, now that you have gotten all that you've 00:39:47.920 --> 00:39:53.200 gotten, you're a Sada graduate, you are amazingly brilliant, you've got an amazing job, and you've 00:39:53.200 --> 00:40:01.440 got everything you need, now that you have, will you still walk like you're helplessly dependent 00:40:01.440 --> 00:40:07.840 on me like a child does? Because I will sustain you. Any questions? 00:40:12.480 --> 00:40:20.240 Jesus lived like this, eh? And if he lived like this, then it's our reality. But that was Jesus, 00:40:20.240 --> 00:40:29.200 yep, and he's in you. Okay, now let's go to Jesus and we'll end with that. 00:40:32.160 --> 00:40:37.200 Jesus started his mission or his ministry with a mission statement, 00:40:39.680 --> 00:40:42.000 and his mission statement was from Isaiah 60 00:40:42.960 --> 00:40:58.480 1, 2, 3, and you read it in Luke chapter 4, verse 17 to 21. Let's have a look at it. 00:41:01.360 --> 00:41:08.240 Luke chapter 4, this is when he goes into the synagogue, he takes a scroll and he begins to 00:41:08.240 --> 00:41:11.440 read from it. This is his mission statement. 00:41:16.000 --> 00:41:22.640 Verse 16, he went to Nazareth where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into 00:41:22.640 --> 00:41:33.360 the synagogue as was his custom, and he stood up to read. It's nice there, eh, that I think they 00:41:33.360 --> 00:41:38.320 either liked the way he read or they always thought that he was the best one to read, 00:41:38.320 --> 00:41:44.080 because it says as was his custom. So it looks like this Jesus of Nazareth who they knew well 00:41:44.080 --> 00:41:50.400 would go into the synagogue often, and that every time he went, the rabbis there or the leaders 00:41:50.400 --> 00:41:55.760 there would hand him the scroll because he seemed to be, he seemed to love reading, or maybe the way 00:41:55.760 --> 00:42:02.480 he read it was amazing, but they would always give it to him. It was customary for Jesus to read, 00:42:02.480 --> 00:42:10.640 and so as was his custom, he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him, 00:42:10.640 --> 00:42:18.080 unrolling it, he found the place where it is written, the Spirit of the Lord is on me, 00:42:18.080 --> 00:42:24.560 because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom to 00:42:24.560 --> 00:42:31.040 the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, and then to proclaim 00:42:31.040 --> 00:42:37.840 the year of release, or proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, or proclaim jubilee. This becomes 00:42:37.840 --> 00:42:43.760 Jesus Christ's mission statement for ministry, and I would suggest that that's a good mission 00:42:43.760 --> 00:42:52.560 statement to copy and paste. Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat 00:42:52.560 --> 00:42:58.240 down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue was fastened on him, and then he makes this ridiculous 00:42:58.240 --> 00:43:06.960 statement, and he began by saying to them, today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. What 00:43:06.960 --> 00:43:16.160 is he saying? He's saying, today jubilee is fulfilled in your midst. The one who was slain 00:43:16.160 --> 00:43:21.920 and will rise again was their present alive. I would die, but he would rise again, and he would 00:43:22.560 --> 00:43:29.440 fill thousands upon thousands of people as the jubilee. Christ is the jubilee. 00:43:30.880 --> 00:43:34.560 Christ is the reset, the release, the recovery. 00:43:36.960 --> 00:43:43.280 He is, and he's saying, today this scripture is fulfilled, and people got pretty upset, eh? 00:43:48.400 --> 00:43:49.440 That's what's happening there. 00:43:52.000 --> 00:43:57.920 Not every 50 years, not every 70 years, but every today, every today, every today, through 00:43:58.720 --> 00:44:08.880 everyone who knows him and in whom he lives. So today can be the day, today can be the day 00:44:09.520 --> 00:44:24.000 the day, today can be the day of release or favor for you and through you. 00:44:28.320 --> 00:44:37.360 I would strongly suggest that if you think through me for others, you will also enjoy the benefits. 00:44:39.840 --> 00:44:47.680 The kingdom is built on that principle. Freely you have received, freely give, and in the process of 00:44:47.680 --> 00:44:52.240 giving, you keep receiving. But if the focus on, I haven't received yet, I haven't received yet, 00:44:52.240 --> 00:44:56.080 why should I give it? It's not true. I don't think this God is real. I haven't received yet. 00:44:56.720 --> 00:45:04.800 Man, you can like be like a dog chasing its tail, eh? It's never ending. At some point snap out of 00:45:04.880 --> 00:45:16.640 that vicious circle. There's nothing practical about Jubilee. It's disruptive, it's challenging, 00:45:17.600 --> 00:45:20.640 it's radical. Nothing practical about it. 00:45:20.640 --> 00:45:38.880 So, here's what Jesus is saying and here's what, just, just, let's try and see if we can work with 00:45:38.880 --> 00:45:47.120 this. He's saying, I am good news for the poor 00:45:51.680 --> 00:46:02.000 because I can meet their needs, because I can meet their needs. 00:46:02.800 --> 00:46:08.160 That's the first statement he's making. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me 00:46:09.840 --> 00:46:14.880 to bring good news to the poor. To the poor, the initial good news is needs, eh? 00:46:17.040 --> 00:46:21.520 This is why James, who's highly practical, says, do not go to a man who's hungry and say the Lord 00:46:21.520 --> 00:46:29.920 bless you and keep you warm. I am good news for the poor because I can meet their needs. 00:46:32.000 --> 00:46:42.400 But better still, I am good news to the poor in spirit. I am good news to the poor in spirit 00:46:45.120 --> 00:46:48.400 for I can break into their lives like I broke into yours. 00:46:53.760 --> 00:46:59.360 I can break into their lives as king. 00:47:02.160 --> 00:47:06.960 That's what he did, eh? That's why it says in Beatitudes, blessed are the poor in spirit for 00:47:06.960 --> 00:47:15.120 theirs is the kingdom of God. Why are we writing this down? How does this help? I have to understand 00:47:15.920 --> 00:47:23.440 what Jesus's mission statement was. And so, can I think like this, that I am good news for the poor? 00:47:23.440 --> 00:47:29.920 Not Jesus, Jesus in you and you with Jesus. We got to think two ways, eh? That one, I am good news 00:47:29.920 --> 00:47:35.520 for the poor. We got to think two ways, eh? That one, I have Jesus in me and I am walking with him. 00:47:36.240 --> 00:47:40.960 Therefore now, can you make the statement, I am good news for the poor? Can Mark make the statement? 00:47:40.960 --> 00:47:47.040 Can Dillan make the statement, I am good news for the poor because I can meet their needs. How? 00:47:47.040 --> 00:47:52.400 Sometimes from your pocket, sometimes through Christ, and sometimes through Christ and your pocket. 00:47:52.400 --> 00:48:00.480 So, what if he doesn't multiply bread and loaves? What if you only have five dollars in your pocket? 00:48:02.320 --> 00:48:06.960 I love telling the story that Dillan told me. Some of you remember Dillan, some of you don't. 00:48:08.960 --> 00:48:16.880 Dillan is sitting outside someone's house to pick up a person for Bible study. He is sitting in his 00:48:16.880 --> 00:48:22.880 car and the Lord says to him, Dillan, when the guy comes down, give him the best you have. 00:48:23.840 --> 00:48:28.720 So Dillan pulls out his wallet and he has got some dollars in it. So he says, sure Lord, I will give it. 00:48:29.360 --> 00:48:36.480 And then the Lord says to Dillan again, Dillan, give him the best you have. And so he realizes, 00:48:36.480 --> 00:48:41.440 oh shucks, he has got an iPhone. And he says, okay Father, I will give the iPhone away. 00:48:42.240 --> 00:48:46.800 A few minutes later, and thank God the guy was late, or maybe not, but he was getting late. 00:48:46.800 --> 00:48:54.720 And so Dillan says, shoot. The Lord says again to him, Dillan, give him the best you have. 00:48:54.720 --> 00:49:02.160 And Dillan realizes he is sitting in a car. And so he calls up his mother. 00:49:03.520 --> 00:49:08.080 That is what all grown up boys do. When they don't want to do something, they call up their mothers. 00:49:08.960 --> 00:49:12.640 And he calls up his mother and says, God told me that I have to give the best I have. 00:49:14.160 --> 00:49:22.080 It's his car. And his mother says, don't think of it too much. Commit to it immediately. 00:49:22.080 --> 00:49:25.520 Do not think of it again. Just go ahead and do it. Because the longer you think of it, 00:49:25.520 --> 00:49:29.200 the more hesitant you will become. Really bad advice, but that's a good mother. 00:49:29.200 --> 00:49:34.560 And so this guy comes down and he apologizes to Dillan, saying, Dillan, I am really sorry I am late. 00:49:35.120 --> 00:49:40.880 I had to catch a couple of buses and this is winter. Never give your car away in winter. 00:49:40.880 --> 00:49:46.240 Try and postpone it to summer. And so he says, don't worry, you'll never have to be late again. 00:49:46.240 --> 00:49:51.040 And he hands him the keys to his car. And he takes the bus to work after that. 00:49:51.920 --> 00:49:59.040 A few days later, he's at someone's home. And he talks to them, finishes. And they throw him a 00:49:59.040 --> 00:50:08.800 set of keys. And it's a key to another car, which was seven years newer than the car he gave away. 00:50:08.800 --> 00:50:13.280 But regardless of, let's assume he didn't get that car, the point of the story that really 00:50:13.280 --> 00:50:18.160 affected me was, how would I have responded? How would I have responded? 00:50:21.680 --> 00:50:25.040 I would have probably given your car away. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. 00:50:25.040 --> 00:50:32.240 But, yeah. 00:50:36.000 --> 00:50:40.240 Good news for the poor in spirit. We'll go over each of this. Say, I'm good news for the captives 00:50:40.240 --> 00:50:46.160 in chains. But better still, I'm good news for those that need spiritual deliverance. And we'll go 00:50:46.160 --> 00:50:54.000 over these different statements that Jesus makes. But each of them, we'll have two things that we'll 00:50:54.000 --> 00:51:00.720 do. One, we'll see the simple practical side. And then we'll see the simple spiritual side. 00:51:00.720 --> 00:51:06.400 And we'll work our way through what Jubilee looks like today. 00:51:11.920 --> 00:51:21.360 You cannot, and this is a problem in this church, you cannot enter, you cannot have 00:51:21.440 --> 00:51:43.120 people enter into the year of favor if you don't announce or proclaim it. 00:51:44.080 --> 00:51:48.880 Why were the trumpets played on the tenth day of the seventh month so that people would know 00:51:49.760 --> 00:51:54.720 that the day has arrived? You cannot do this without announcing it or proclaiming it. 00:51:55.680 --> 00:51:59.680 If you read Isaiah 61, verse 1 and 2, three times the word proclaim is used. 00:52:01.040 --> 00:52:06.800 To announce, prison doors do not open. The year of favor does not descend unless you announce it. 00:52:06.800 --> 00:52:16.000 Because how can they know if you do not tell? Because only when you proclaim 00:52:16.000 --> 00:52:29.120 will someone know. Only when they know can they believe. 00:52:29.120 --> 00:52:37.120 Only when they believe can they walk towards freedom. 00:52:37.200 --> 00:52:48.240 And only then can they count on the power of Christ 00:52:51.360 --> 00:52:58.560 to set them free. All to say, this is critical. 00:52:59.520 --> 00:53:06.480 Let me end with that thought. So what do we mean proclaim? Can you really believe, 00:53:07.520 --> 00:53:12.480 even if you haven't seen results yet, and even if you won't see the result a minute 00:53:12.480 --> 00:53:19.200 after proclaiming it, that Jesus will favor someone with the different things he talks 00:53:19.200 --> 00:53:21.760 about in Isaiah 61? Can you really believe that? 00:53:21.840 --> 00:53:26.800 I can only proclaim what I believe. When I proclaim what I don't believe, it's hypocritical. 00:53:26.800 --> 00:53:30.800 It's not real. It's like trying to sell a product you don't believe in. 00:53:33.280 --> 00:53:40.320 That's a catch, eh? It goes back to 2 Corinthians 6, 2. 00:53:40.320 --> 00:53:48.320 Do you really believe that we can take advantage of the fact that we can take advantage of the fact 00:53:48.720 --> 00:53:54.480 that we can take advantage of this time of favor that God is saying, 00:53:54.480 --> 00:53:58.160 I want to use you in? Across the earth, across the city, across 00:53:58.800 --> 00:54:03.200 different suburbs of Vancouver, do you really believe that? Can you take even one of these 00:54:03.200 --> 00:54:10.400 statements? One of these statements and say, Jesus, I fully believe that you can do 00:54:10.960 --> 00:54:17.680 this one thing in Isaiah 61. And if you fully believe it, can you foolishly begin to proclaim 00:54:17.680 --> 00:54:30.240 it? Foolish proclamation is a result of serious belief. Foolish proclamation is a result of serious 00:54:30.240 --> 00:54:37.280 belief. The difference between a belief and a conviction is very simple. People change 00:54:37.280 --> 00:54:46.400 their beliefs often. Convictions take you to prison. Even legally, a belief is something 00:54:46.400 --> 00:54:52.240 that you can change. A conviction is something that you're so firm on that you will go to prison 00:54:52.240 --> 00:54:58.560 for it. That's why you'll have different religious sects and sometimes different cultural groups 00:54:58.560 --> 00:55:05.760 willing to pay the price of going to prison than removing a certain attire or changing 00:55:06.720 --> 00:55:12.400 something they carry or shaving their heads. Different things, but they will rather go to prison 00:55:12.400 --> 00:55:18.960 than give up what they absolutely have a conviction for. Foolish proclamation is the result of serious 00:55:18.960 --> 00:55:24.560 conviction. So out of all these things said in Isaiah 61, and we'll talk about it tomorrow, 00:55:26.000 --> 00:55:30.240 when we meet next, simply because it's heavy and it'll be too heavy on our heads, 00:55:30.880 --> 00:55:33.760 but this is an example. This is an example. 00:55:33.760 --> 00:55:34.320 So, 00:55:41.680 --> 00:55:46.000 what if two people in the church get convicted that I am good news for the poor 00:55:46.000 --> 00:55:48.320 because I can meet their needs? 00:55:48.400 --> 00:55:48.880 So, 00:55:56.640 --> 00:56:08.560 in the Bible or right now? Yeah, yeah. So for instance, the very idea of talking about 00:56:09.200 --> 00:56:16.160 Jubilee right now, defining it, taking what she sent me in terms of the scripture, 00:56:16.160 --> 00:56:21.440 what am I doing? I'm announcing God's intent for this church and therefore I very deliberately said, 00:56:22.000 --> 00:56:30.000 let he who has ears hear what the Spirit is saying. So that's an announcement, a proclamation. 00:56:30.000 --> 00:56:36.000 Or when you prophesy on someone, what are you doing? I met with Joe a couple of weeks ago and 00:56:36.000 --> 00:56:39.600 I was telling him some of the things about his life and as I'm doing, what am I doing? I'm 00:56:39.600 --> 00:56:46.000 announcing God's intent of proclamation, restoring to him identity that he may or may not know about. 00:56:46.960 --> 00:56:51.920 So, we're constantly supposed to do this. This is something God loves doing. God doesn't do anything 00:56:51.920 --> 00:56:56.320 on earth without first proclaiming it. He actually says that, do I do anything on the earth without 00:56:56.320 --> 00:57:01.920 first speaking it out and letting you know what my mind is thinking? And then he goes on to say, 00:57:01.920 --> 00:57:07.440 in Isaiah 45, I don't whisper sweet nothings. I'm not nebulous about it. I speak very clearly. 00:57:07.440 --> 00:57:08.560 I don't speak in riddles. 00:57:08.560 --> 00:57:14.800 And so, announcing things is always God's way of initiating action. And you cannot 00:57:17.360 --> 00:57:23.280 be foolishly, you cannot be foolish in proclamation until you're serious in conviction. 00:57:23.280 --> 00:57:30.720 What can you be convicted about? And then, even if you fall on your face, even if there's mud on 00:57:30.720 --> 00:57:36.880 your face, even though you look like a fool, even though people are saying, I'm not a fool, 00:57:37.760 --> 00:57:42.240 even though people will laugh at you, you will still stand and say, 00:57:42.240 --> 00:57:44.240 the rain is coming and I have to build an ark. 00:57:49.680 --> 00:57:54.800 And in a time and a culture where reputation matters, 00:57:55.280 --> 00:58:00.960 the reason it is hard to embrace kingdom culture is because there are many other cultures that are 00:58:00.960 --> 00:58:09.600 waiting to scoff, scorn, laugh at what you will do. And so you don't do it. But Jubilee awaits us, 00:58:09.600 --> 00:58:12.080 eh? And then awaits the world. Let's pray. 00:58:25.200 --> 00:58:37.920 Father, next time perhaps you can show us how joyful we can be about this. 00:58:38.960 --> 00:58:43.440 Because right now it seems a little heavy, seems like impossible, seems like, 00:58:43.440 --> 00:58:50.240 oh my God, how are we going to do this? But Jubilee was a time of joy. People were ridiculously happy. 00:58:51.200 --> 00:58:55.920 At least the ones that were finding relief, ones that were finding economic strength, 00:58:55.920 --> 00:59:00.080 ones that were recovering their identity and history, they were super joyful. 00:59:02.480 --> 00:59:06.480 So perhaps you can show us how to go about this joyfully, not as if it's 00:59:06.480 --> 00:59:09.760 like an albatross around our neck or a huge burden on our back. 00:59:12.800 --> 00:59:17.360 That's one request, Abba. Then the other request is, can you be a little bit more 00:59:17.520 --> 00:59:21.920 kinder? Then the other request is, can you help our hard heartedness? 00:59:24.240 --> 00:59:32.320 This requires abandoning independence and our addictive hyper-individualized way of living. 00:59:35.840 --> 00:59:42.240 So I ask Abba, can you begin to melt our hearts and shape it towards the year of favor that you 00:59:42.240 --> 00:59:46.640 want to bring into people's lives through us? Melt our hearts, melt mine. 00:59:50.960 --> 00:59:54.160 Lastly, Abba, for the last six weeks we've been talking about how 00:59:56.240 --> 01:00:02.400 your love is very tangible, that our relationship with you is that of a father with a child 01:00:03.600 --> 01:00:09.040 or between two lovers or between two really good friends. That's how our relationship is 01:00:10.000 --> 01:00:13.520 with you. We've been talking about that for the last six weeks. That's part of this. 01:00:15.440 --> 01:00:20.480 You want to show people what it is to be in relationship with the father, with each other, 01:00:20.480 --> 01:00:27.520 and with the environment. That's your intent. So I ask for all these three things for us. 01:00:27.520 --> 01:00:30.960 You must have your way with us, oh God. We want to be history makers in this land. 01:00:30.960 --> 01:00:32.480 We want to be history makers in this land. 01:00:35.200 --> 01:00:41.280 We want to be history makers in this land. Granted, oh God, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. 01:00:42.240 --> 01:00:46.880 Hey guys, if you need prayer, there'll be people here to pray with you. And trust that it's the 01:00:46.880 --> 01:00:54.000 year of favor for you and through you, yeah? So come up for prayer and receive what only God 01:00:54.000 --> 01:00:59.040 can give you because nobody else can give you that. You know that. He's your father. 01:00:59.040 --> 01:01:15.200 And I'll see you perhaps not next Sunday, but the Sunday after.