What Are You Afraid Of?

Introduction
Halloween is just around the corner. It's a day we make fun of our fears. Many dress up as monsters--not to celebrate monsters, but to make light of them. There's no such thing as actual vampires, werewolves, or zombies. These are figment of our imagination that serve to personify our fears.

Our fear is real. But until we understand our fear, fear morphs into the monsters of our imagination that paralyze us. We cannot move forward in God's mission for us because we fear the imaginary monsters that lurk around the next corner.

This is the first in a series about Conquering Your Fears. Today, I want you to consider: what are you afraid of?

God’s people have always had to face their fears.  God gives us the ability to overcome when we trust God more than our fears.  The Hebrew slaves who left Egypt had to conquer their fears before they could conquer the Promised Land.  Moses sent twelve scouts to check on the Promised Land and report bac their findings.  Listen to part of their story. 

Numbers 13:17-33
¹⁷ Moses gave the men these instructions as he sent them out to explore the land: “Go north through the Negev into the hill country. ¹⁸ See what the land is like, and find out whether the people living there are strong or weak, few or many. ¹⁹ See what kind of land they live in. Is it good or bad? Do their towns have walls, or are they unprotected like open camps? ²⁰ Is the soil fertile or poor? Are there many trees? Do your best to bring back samples of the crops you see.” (It happened to be the season for harvesting the first ripe grapes.)

²¹ So they went up and explored the land from the wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, near Lebo-hamath. ²² Going north, they passed through the Negev and arrived at Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai—all descendants of Anak—lived. (The ancient town of Hebron was founded seven years before the Egyptian city of Zoan.) ²³ When they came to the valley of Eshcol, they cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes so large that it took two of them to carry it on a pole between them! They also brought back samples of the pomegranates and figs. ²⁴ That place was called the valley of Eshcol (which means “cluster”), because of the cluster of grapes the Israelite men cut there.

²⁵ After exploring the land for forty days, the men returned ²⁶ to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of Israel at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran. They reported to the whole community what they had seen and showed them the fruit they had taken from the land. ²⁷ This was their report to Moses: “We entered the land you sent us to explore, and it is indeed a bountiful country—a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is the kind of fruit it produces. ²⁸ But the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak! ²⁹ The Amalekites live in the Negev, and the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan Valley.”

³⁰ But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!”

³¹ But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” ³² So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: “The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge. ³³ We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!”

Naming Our Fears
The Israelite scouts reported the bounty of the land.  It was a good land, a great land!  However, the land was also full of strong people living in fortified cities and there were even giants living in the land!

Ten out of twelve of Hebrew scouts were too afraid to enter the Promised Land.  Their fear was greater than their faith in God.  Two of the scouts—Joshua and Caleb—new the Lord God who brought them out of slavery in Egypt was more than capable of conquering the land.  They trusted God.  But the other 10 scouts were afraid and they convinced the rest of the people to listen to their fear instead of trusting in God.  Their lack of faith caused them to wander in the wilderness for 40 years.  Their fear paralyzed them.

Our fear can paralyze us too.  We can’t move forward until we overcome our fears. 

What Do You Fear?
What do you fear?  The first step to conquering our fear is to identify exactly what we are afraid of. 
Once we can see the “monsters” we face, we can compare them to the greatness of God.  Make a list of your fears.  When did you first notice that fear? 
Was it triggered by something? What does that fear keep you from accomplishing?  Name your fear so you can start to face it.

Our fears are always scarier when they’re hiding in the dark.  In the shadows, our imaginations run wild and blow our fears up to supernatural proportions.
Once you shine some light on a fear, you may see isn’t as scary as you first thought.  It might still be scary, and still dangerous, but at least you can see it for what it really is.

Now that you can see your fear, you can compare it to God.  Is your fear bigger than God?  We don’t have to face our fears alone.  God promises to be with us.  God doesn’t want your fear to keep you from His promises, but you have to trust Him.

David Conquers Goliath
The Hebrews were afraid to enter the Promised Land because it was inhabit by Giants.  Do you remember another story about a young boy who had to face a giant?

David was just a young boy when a giant named Goliath challenged the Israelite army, spouting blasphemies against the God of Israel.  David was so small, he couldn’t even wear armor or swing a proper sword.  However, David had something special.  He trust God.  David knew God was with him and so David fought Goliath with only a sling and some stones and God defeated Goliath through David’s faith.

God can defeat all the giants and monsters in your life too, but you’ve got to trust Him.

Isaiah 41:10 says, "Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.  Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand."

Don't you know that if you are a Christian, God is with you?  He will never leave you.  And if you are actively following Jesus and and doing His work, He will strengthen and help you.  He will hold you up with His victorious right hand!

I challenge you this week to to make a list of your fears and also write down when you first notice that fear?  Was it triggered by something?  What does that fear keep you from accomplishing?

Whenever Christians celebrate the sacrament of Holy Communion, we remember the last meal Jesus shares with His disciples.  I'm sure the Disciples were afraid as they sat around the table.  They could sense that Jesus was in danger and they were in danger because they were His disciples.  Maybe they were afraid they'd put their trust in the wrong person—that despite his many miracles, Jesus was not as powerful as the Roman government or their religious leaders in Israel.  Maybe they were afraid of the trials, persecution, and death they faced because they’d chosen Jesus as Lord.  Maybe they were afraid of what might happen to Jesus, who they loved, simply because He spoke the truth in a time when truth was not appreciate and was dangerous.   

Jesus knew their fear.  He knew the reality of the danger they faced.  Jesus knew the "cup of suffering" He was about to drink, but Jesus also knew the power of God that wins the ultimate victory and so Jesus shared one last meal with His disciples before He was crucified.  It was a meal that revealed the real suffering and death He was about to endure for our sake, but also a meal to give His followers strength, and help us to remember what He did for us.  I invite you to find a church where you can share Holy Communion regularly with other Christians, because it is a special way Jesus has given you to remember who He is and what He did for you and to find God's grace to strengthen and encourage you to face your fears, knowing that God is even more powerful than death.  He raised Jesus back to life on the third day and God will resurrect all Christians to eternal life after death.

The Year of Jubilee - Freedom in Christ

Introduction
This is our last message in a series about the ancient Israelite Year of Jubilee.  Every 50th year on the Day of Atonement the ancient Israelites would blow a ram’s horn.  We get the name "Jubilee" from the Hebrew word for ram's horn, which is jubel or yobel.  Different kinds if horns can be used for the sacred Jewish trumpet (AKA shofar).  The prefered horn is a curved ram.  Next in line would be a curved from a sheep, followed by a curved horn from any other animal--like a

kudu, which have visually striking spiral horns.  The least preferred horns for a shofar would be a straight horn or a horn from a non-kosher animal.  Cow horns were not supposed to be used.

On the Year of Jubilee, slaves were freed, all debts were forgiven, land that had been sold was restored to the original owner.  There was also no agricultural work during the Year of Jubilee.

The Jubilee was every 50th year, but Israelites also got a year off every seventh year.  

Leviticus 25:18-22
¹⁸ “If you want to live securely in the land, follow my decrees and obey my regulations. ¹⁹ Then the land will yield large crops, and you will eat your fill and live securely in it. ²⁰ But you might ask, ‘What will we eat during the seventh year, since we are not allowed to plant or harvest crops that year?’ ²¹ Be assured that I will send my blessing for you in the sixth year, so the land will produce a crop large enough for three years. ²² When you plant your fields in the eighth year, you will still be eating from the large crop of the sixth year. In fact, you will still be eating from that large crop when the new crop is harvested in the ninth year. 

Israel was God’s Kingdom on Earth
Most people don’t understand how special was ancient Israel.  They were a very, very special people.  They had the opportunity to be God’s chosen nation on earth.  They were to be God’s royal priesthood who represent God to the whole world.  As such, they would enjoy many special benefits that other nations didn’t have that allowed the Israelites the freedom to concentrate on showing God to the whole world. 

One special blessing was a year off of work every seventh year.  This was huge—especially living in and agricultural economy.  Lev. 25:18-22 answers the obvious question: how can people who live by subsistence farming survive without farming for a year?

Verses 18-22 explain the Israelites would have normal harvests for five years. Then they would God would send a super abundant harvest in the sixth year.  They would eat what they wanted in the sixth year and store away all the surplus.  When the farmers took the seventh year off, they would eat some of their stores from the sixth year.  In the eighth year, they would plant they next crop, but they would have to wait until that crop matured and was harvested.  So they would still be eating the food they stored away on the sixth year and those stores would last all the way to the beginning of year ninth year when were back on track with the regular planting and harvesting cycle.  This was the blessing God promised the Israelites if they would be faithful.

God’s People Live By Faith
How could the Israelites live this way? They could only do it by trusting in their Lord.  The whole concept of Israel was based on faith in Yahweh, their God.  

Yahweh is the God who called Abraham to leave his homeland in Ur and go to a “Promised Land”.

Yahweh is the God who delivered the Hebrew slaves from Egypt—the most powerful empire in the world at the time.  Only God could defeat Egypt and win the Hebrew's freedom.

Yahweh is the God who provided mana from Heaven and water of life as the Hebrews wandered in the dessert for forty years.  There was no farming going on for those forty, but could provided.  If God can provide for forty year of wandering in the dessert, He can provide one or two years of food for the Israelite's sabbatical years.

Yahweh is the God who conquered the Canaanites for the Israelites. God did the fighting.  Take the battle of Jericho for instance.  Tha battle plan was ludicrous and designed to show everyone that it was only God who won the battle.  The Israelites marched around the city for seven days and then on the seventh day they blew trumpets.  They didn't use catapults of siege works. They blew ram's and the walls cam crumbling down!

What was required of the Israelites for all this to happen? Faith.  They had to trust God and obey.  Faith and obedience was what God required as they took possession and lived in the Promised Land.  They had to trust God to provide enough food for living—even if they took one day off per week, one year off every seven, and celebrated a Jubilee every 50th year.  This was the requirement and the blessing reserved specifically for God's people, Israel.

Unfortunately, Biblical scholars and historians say most evidence shows the ancient Israelites never fully followed the Sabbath cycle.  One of the main sins of which Biblical prophets accused Israelites is not observing the Sabbath.  They only occasionally took the seventh year off and there is little evidence that they every really fulfilled the stipulations of the Jubilee year.  They always found loopholes so they didn’t take the Jubilee year off from work.  They found ways to work around the law so they didn’t have to set all their slaves free, they didn't forgive debts, and they didn’t give land back to the original owners.  

Some religious scholars point out the seventy years the Jewish captives spent in Babylon after the fall of Jerusalem were to make up for all the Sabbath years the Israelites skipped. According to 2 Chronicles 36:20-21, “The land finally enjoyed its Sabbath rest, lying desolate until the seventy years were fulfilled, just as the prophet had said.”  Even though the Israelites disobeyed, God made sue the land had its rest.  God cares about the land, even if people don't.

That’s what people do. We don’t fully trust God.  We're disobedient.  When we don’t fully trust God, we try to work things out ourselves. We do it our own way.  We try to justify our disobedience and do what seems right in our own eyes.  

At first glance, this seems like normal behavior. It seems like we’re being prudent, like we’re only doing what makes sense.  Sin often seems to make sense when we look at it from a merely human perspective.  It’s what happened at the fall of humanity in the Garden of Eden.

God made the Garden and told Adam and Eve they could eat any fruit in the whole Garden, only don't eat the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  If they ate it, God said they would die.  Satan told Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:4-5, 4 “You won’t die! …God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”

And it says in verses 6-7, “6 The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too.”

Thus, sin entered the world and we’ve been trying to do it all our own way ever since.  Look where it’s gotten us: a broken creation, a broken humanity, and we are stressed and a mess and slaves to our own sin.

You would think God had given up on us, but he hasn’t. God still loves us. John 3:16 says – “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

And so Christ came to save us.  He left the glory of Heaven to come to our broken world.  He didn’t come in glory as he deserved. Instead, he was born as a humble child to poor parents.  He lived as one of us—ordinary people. He was like us in every way—accept without sin, for He trust God and obeyed perfectly. Jesus fulfilled God’s law perfectly.  Jesus calls us to repent of our sin, to turn to God, to trust Him and obey.  

Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty of our sin. If we trust Him, we are no longer guilty.
We have eternal life in Him and we are called to be His people.

1 Peter 2:9 says, “…for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.”

Christians who trust in Jesus as Lord are now Israel.  We are God’s chosen people.  We are the captive Hebrew slaves who have been set free, but our freedom isn't just from Egyptian slave masters (or some other earthly power).  Our freedom is a freedom from the dark power of sin enforced by Satan.

Galatians 5:1 says,  “So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.”

You have to choose freedom over slavery every day.  You see, whenever you choose to trust your own way more than God’s way, you are choosing slavery to sin.  

Think over your life. Think about how it was when you’re rejected God’s way and chosen your own path.  It may have felt good initially, but then it led to trouble, to stress and weariness and pain.  Soon you were enslaved, and it felt awful.   And the only way out is to repent and seek forgiveness.

Confession of Sin (adapted from UMH 893)
So now, let us repent and confess our sins to the Lord and receive His forgiveness.  Here is a prayer you can use.  Read this prayer of confession as your words to God today.  Adapted it and add to it according to your need.

Lord, I confess my day to day failure to be truly human.  I confess I often fail to love with all I have and am, often because I do not fully understand what loving means, often because I am afraid of the risk.  Lord, we confess to You.  I have cut myself off from others and erected barriers of division.  I confess that by silence and ill-considered word I have built up walls of prejudice.  Lord, I confess that by selfishness and lack of sympathy I have stifled generosity and left little time for others.  

Holy Spirit speak to me. Help me listen to Your word of forgiveness, for I am very deaf. Come, fill this moment and free me from my sin. Amen.

Forgiveness
My friend, with the authority God gives me, I say to you:  In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.  Amen.

The Year of Jubilee - Nothing to Hide

Introduction
When I was a kid, we would sometimes have company over to the house.  Usually, it was relatives who were visiting from out of town.  (We had a lot of relatives who lived far away that would come visit once or twice a year.)  Now, there were four kids in my family and my mom was a single mom who worked full-time, so our home was usually quite “lived in”.  When we knew company was coming over, my mom made sure we all pitched in to clean the place up.  Sometimes our relatives would arrive and say something polite like “Oh, your house looks so nice!  I can never keep my place clean like this!”  (I often thought to myself, you should have been here and saw how it looked yesterday!  Oh, and don't open that closet door where we stuffed all our junk!)

We do that sometimes don’t we?  We try to clean ourselves up to look good for people and keep up appearances.  We don’t want people to see our problems, our faults, our mess.  And if we have any secrets, we want to keep them secret.  We might not want people to see who we really are on the inside.

Jesus came to set us free from all that and that’s what this blog is about .  In Jesus, we have nothing to hide.

Leviticus 25:14-17
14 “When you make an agreement with your neighbor to buy or sell property, you must not take advantage of each other. 15 When you buy land from your neighbor, the price you pay must be based on the number of years since the last jubilee. The seller must set the price by taking into account the number of years remaining until the next Year of Jubilee. 16 The more years until the next jubilee, the higher the price; the fewer years, the lower the price. After all, the person selling the land is actually selling you a certain number of harvests. 17 Show your fear of God by not taking advantage of each other. I am the Lord your God.

Real Estate in Ancient Israel
This is my third installment in a study of ancient Israelite laws for the Year of Jubilee.  Every 50 years on the Day of Atonement, the priest would blow a sacrificial ram's horn, in Hebrew a jubil (or yobel; AKA a shofar).  Everyone had a whole year off from agricultural work so they could celebrate, worship the Lord, and just enjoy life.  Furthermore, all slaves were set free, all debts were forgiven, and any family land that had been sold was returned to the original family.  It was a tremendously joyful occasion when everything and everyone  in society was renewed. People were made right with God and with each other.

The year of Jubilee is something that sounds both amazing, but also strange to people today.  It’s hard for us to understand some aspects of the Year of Jubilee, because Americans have different concepts of property ownership than the ancient Israelites in the Bible.  

For one, America is the Land of the Free.  We were founded on the principle that we are not bound to a king.  Most people throughout history, including the early settlers who came to America from Europe, understood that they were vassals of their homeland’s king.  They only came to America because their king granted them the right and granted them land in the New World to farm on behalf of their King.

The American Revolution was truly a revolution.  Our forefathers revolutionized the way people in our country think about freedom, individualism, and property ownership.  They declared that all men are created equal.  IE. the common man and woman is equal to the king and queen.  Furthermore, our founders declared people are free and not vassals who must serve a monarch as lord.  In this new world order, people may purchase and own their own property as individuals (and not merely hold property in trust on behalf of their king).  We take this idea for granted today.  If you purchase a home, you understand that the property belongs to you. It doesn’t belong to the king (or to the president or the government) who generously allows you to use it.  It’s truly yours to keep or to sell.  We don’t even think about this.  We just accept it.  However, this is truly something new that started with the American Revolution when our nation broke free from the king of England.  This was not the way most cultures thought of property for the vast majority of the world throughout history. 

In ancient Israel, they had a totally different concept of property ownership.  Ancient Israelites started as slaves in Egypt.  Then God delivered them from slavery and brought them to the land in Canaan.  God fought on behalf of the Israelites to conquer the Canaanites and gave the land to the Israelites.  The Israelites understood that they didn’t really own their land.  God owned it and granted it to the people of Israel.  God gave each tribe, clan, and family a certain piece of land to maintain.  Every Israelite family understood that their land did not really belong to them.  They were merely stewards of land that belonged to the Lord God of Israel.  They were to tend the land and live off the land and use it for the glory of God as they served as God’s representatives to the world. 

If the circumstances of life required an Israelite to sell part of his family’s land, there was a problem.  How can you sell land that doesn't really belong to you?  So, in the way ancient Israelites thought of their land, they were really only leasing the land for a set number of years–the number of years until the next Year of Jubilee when the land would revert to the original land holder.   

So, suppose there were still 40 years left until the next year of Jubilee, then the land might be worth $40,000.  But if there were only 10 year left until Jubilee, the land was only worth $10K.  Or if the Year of Jubilee was only 1 year away, the land might only be worth $1,000, because once the ram’s sounded on the Year of Jubilee, the land would have to return to the original owner.

People are people; they always have been–even thousands of years ago.  People will always try to take advantage of each other when it comes to business deals.  If you work in business or sales you probably experience this–whether you sell cars, sell houses, or other things.  You know how it works.  You see some really nice people, but  they will try to take advantage of you to work out a deal that’s better for them but not necessarily fair for you.  That’s the old sinful selfish nature inside us.  It’s been their since the fall of humanity way back in the Garden of Eden. 

God wants His people to be different.  He wants us to be holy as He is holy.  And so Leviticus 25:17 reminds us, “Show your fear of God by not taking advantage of each other. I am the Lord your God.”

For the ancient Israelites, this meant making sure their real estate deals were fair and honest.  Buyers shouldn’t take advantage of sellers.  And sellers should not take advantage of buyers.  Everything needs to be open and transparent.  This meant they must always consider the number of years remaining until the Year of Jubilee, because this affects the value of the property. 

John 8:31-32
31 Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. 32 And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Being a Christian
Christians follow Jesus' teachings.  We aren’t saved by being good people.  We are saved by God’s grace when we have faith in Jesus and choose to follow Him.  Following Jesus means being faithful to His teachings and Jesus taught us to be people who repent of sin and live lives of moral integrity.

Ironically, the people who opposed Jesus the most in the New Testament were the Pharisees–people who were seen as the most righteous people around.  Jesus said the Pharisees were like whitewashed tombs.  They were all bright and pretty on the outside, but inside they were like rotting corpses–full of filthy evil deceit.  The Pharisees claimed they were completely devoted to the God of Israel, but when God sent His Son, Jesus the Messiah, to save them, the Pharisees rejected Jesus.  They were even willing to kill the Son of God in order to protect their position and power.

Jesus and His followers shouldn't be like the Pharisees.  We should be people of integrity.  We don’t need to pretend we’re perfect.  Jesus didn’t come to save perfect people.  Jesus came to seek and save the lost.  So if you lost, He came to save you.  If you’ve got some flaws, it’s ok.  If you can admit your sins, you’re good; repent and believe in Jesus and He’ll forgive you and save you.

But if you’re sweeping your sins under the rug, pretending to be something you’re not, there’s a problem.  How can Jesus save someone who pretend they're already perfect and don't need forgiveness, healing, and salvation?  This is true spiritual blindness and hypocrisy.

It’s a heavy burden to live a lie.  You’ve got to keep up appearances.  You’ve got to guard your secrets.  You’ve got to always worry when someone might see you for who you really are.  It’s so much better to just come clean.  Then you have nothing to hide!  Sure, you lose the lie and maybe some people won’t think you're the hero they once thought you were, but there will be many more who respect and admire your honesty.  Most important of all, your heart will be right with God.  Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  You are truly free when you have nothing left to hide.

Jesus should know.  He is the trumpet that calls people to repentance and announces God’s Great Jubilee when all slaves to sin who answer the call to repentances are set free and every person is restored to a right relationship with God and their neighbors.

Invitation
Won’t you hear Jesus calling you to repent today?  Won’t you accept His invitation? 

 I invite you to use Psalm 51:1-10 as your prayer to God today.  This famous Psalm was a prayer written by David recalling his on repentance aft a serious sin.  David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then murdered her husband to cover up his sin.  God accepted David's repentance.  There were consequences for David's sin, but their was also healing and restoration.  Whatever sin you've committed, what ever mess you've made of your life, God can forgive you and restore you, but you've got to repent and believe.

Psalm 51:1-10
“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment. Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me. You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me."

Amen.

 

The Year of Jubilee - Nothing to Lose

Introduction
Today, I’m excited to start a new series of sermons about the Year of Jubilee in the Bible.  This series grew out of questions that came up in our Thursday morning Bible study as well as some of my own questions from my person study time in God’s Word.

What is the year of Jubilee?  I’m glad you asked!  In ancient Israel in the Bible, you probably know they had a Sabbath Day. Every seventh day, the people were supposed to rest and worship the Lord—no work.  Most people don’t realize, that is where we get our modern idea of the weekend—thank God! 

Most people know about the Sabbath Day.  Not a as many of people know in ancient Israel they also took a Sabbath Year.  Every seventh year, they were suppose to take a year off—no farming.  Even the livestock and wild animals in Israel got a year off.  It was a year of rest! (Wouldn't that be awesome!)

God took care of His people.  He provided enough harvest in the sixth year to feed them all the way through the seventh year and even until the harvest on the eighth year.  Pretty amazing!  You might say, “That’s impossible!”   But remember, the Bible also says, God fed the Israelites with manna for forty years while they wandered in the desert after they left Egypt. So, providing enough food to get the people through one year was no problem for the God of Israel. 

You might think having a whole year off every 7 years was crazy or impossible (or awesome).  But it gets even better.  And that’s what brings us to the Year of Jubilee we read about in Leviticus 25.

Leviticus 25:8-13
⁸ “In addition, you must count off seven Sabbath years, seven sets of seven years, adding up to forty-nine years in all. ⁹ Then on the Day of Atonement in the fiftieth year, blow the ram’s horn loud and long throughout the land. ¹⁰ Set this year apart as holy, a time to proclaim freedom throughout the land for all who live there. It will be a jubilee year for you, when each of you may return to the land that belonged to your ancestors and return to your own clan. ¹¹ This fiftieth year will be a jubilee for you. During that year you must not plant your fields or store away any of the crops that grow on their own, and don’t gather the grapes from your unpruned vines. ¹² It will be a jubilee year for you, and you must keep it holy. But you may eat whatever the land produces on its own. ¹³ In the Year of Jubilee each of you may return to the land that belonged to your ancestors.

The Year of Jubilee
The Year of Jubilee happened every 50 years in ancient Israel.  The name “Jubilee” comes from the Hebrew word for “ram’s horn” because the 50^th year was announced by the blowing of a shofar—a ram’s horn trumpet.  Why a ram’s horn?  The Jubilee begins on the Day of Atonement with a call to repentance.  Rams were sacrificial animals in the Old Testament.  Perhaps you remember the story of when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac.  Abraham obeyed and took Isaac up on Mount Moriah.  Just as he was poised to take his son's life, the Angel of the Lord stopped him and showed him ram with its horns caught in a thicket.  The ram became a substitutionary sacrifice for Isaac.  Rams were sacrificial animals to cover the people's sins.

So at the Jubilee, the ram's horn was blows to call people to repent and receive rest, release, and restoration.  The took a year off from work to rest and worship and celebrate the goodness of God with their friends and family.  They were released from all their debts and anyone who was a slave was released from slavery.  Everyone was restored to their original state of fortune.  Slaves were restored to freedom.  Anyone who had sole their family land had it returned to them.  It was as if "control, alt, delete" was performed on the Israelite society and everything was reset to normal again.

Well, what’s this got to do with us today?  I’m glad you asked!  According to the Gospel of Luke,
when Jesus started his ministry, he preached in his hometown synagogue in Nazareth and Jesus announced the greatest Jubilee of all times! 

Luke 4:17-19

¹⁷ The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:  ¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, ¹⁹ and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”

Jesus is the Great Jubilee
Do you hear the Good News words of Jubilee? Rest! Release! Restoration!  Jesus is called the “Lamb of God”.  A male lamb is a ram.  So Jesus is the sacrificial ram.  He is the ram’s horn, the shofar, announcing the greatest year of Jubilee—the year of the Lord—when there will be rest. release, and restoration.

There will be rest.  Remember, Jesus said in Matthew 11:28, "COme to me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest..." 

And Jesus came to release all who trust in Him from bondage to sin and to anything else that coptivates us, for no one can serve two masters.  Therefore, all who follow Jesus as Lord must be set free!  If Jesus sets you free, you are free indeed!

And Jesus came to restore us to a right relationship with God and our neighbors.  Those who follo Christ learn to love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength; and love their neighbor as themselves.  Our sins are washed away and we are made right with God and nothing stand in the way of our at-one-ment with God.

If you’ve not already done so, I beg you to repent of your sins and turn to Jesus today!  For then you will begin to experience the greatest Jubilee of all time where there is rest, release, and restoration.

Christians Have: Nothing to Lose
To become a Christian, you surrender to Jesus and die to your own selfish desires.  You proclaim:  “I am no longer my own, but yours, Jesus!”  And so, the Christian embodies Galatians 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”

If you’ve already died, what do you have left to lose?   What’s the worst that can happen?  If your life on earth ends, you go to be with Jesus in Heaven where there is no more sin or sickness or suffering or death!  We will gather around the throne of God and worship and experience the eternal harmony He promises the faithful who trust Christ as Lord.  

To live on earth is better for the Lord’s Kingdom because you can keep learning the lessons God wants you to learn as you glorify His name and serve Him here on earth.  To die is even better for you, because you go home to the eternal reward that awaits all His faithful.

What a freeing reality—if you think about it.  What have you got to lose?  Nothing! You’ve already won!  Jesus won the victory!  And we are set free!  Hallelujah!

Christians experience so much worry and anxiety in this life when we forget that we've already won.  There's nothing to worry about.  Jesus has already won the victory.  We are on HIs side, so we've won too!  It is only our worldly ways of thinking that make us feel we've something left to worry about.

My Freedom as a Pastor
I’ve served as pastor of Pleasant Grove Methodist in Dalton, GA for 12 years!  That’s amazing!  It's been a great 12 years.  The longer I serve, the more I realize I won’t be at my church forever.  I don't know how long I have left at Pleasant Grove.  I would like to stay on until my daughter graduates high school in 2025, but only if my church feels like I’m the right guy for the job.  

I believe I am the right guy for the job.  We have some important things to do over the next few years.  We are working through disaffiliation for the United Methodist denomination, which will take a year. Then, we will be working through either joining a new affiliation or getting setup as an independent congregation.  Either way, there will be a lot of work to do.  I believe my experience at Pleasant Grove gives me a unique ability to lead the congregation through these important years. 

In whatever time I have left at Pleasant Grove, I feel more and more like I have nothing to lose.  I'm not concerned with making everyone like me.  My number one commitment at Pleasant Grove always has been and always will be the Kingdom of God. Whatever I do, I do it for the Lord.  Why not go for broke?

It's not about me.  It never has been.  It never will be.  Ultimately, it's all about what's best for the Kingdom of God.   So that's always what I'm working for.  Everything else is expendable. Chief among the expendable things is me.  I take the Bible serious when it says in Galatians 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”

My faith says, even if I lose my very life for the sake of Christ, Jesus will raise me to new life.  Even if I wear myself out trying to lead my church, God can restore and revive me.  So, I have nothing to lose.

My role here at Pleasant Grove is to be a shepherd.  I try to lead my church in the right direction.  If I think there’s danger around the corner—some cliff they might fall off—I do my best to guide them along a safe path.  If wolves come in to attack , I’m not gonna run away.  I’ll do my best to protect.  All along the way, I’ll be my church's biggest cheerleader because I believe Pleasant Grove is the best church in this whole community and I want everyone to come join us.

So my thinking is, let’s go for broke together.  Let’s give it all we’ve got for the Kingdom of God!

What Do You Have To Lose?
It’s amazingly freeing when you feel like you have anything to lose!  The most powerful people in the world are those who know they have nothing to lose.  That's how Christians were able to transform their world against all odds.

What about you?  What do you have to lose?  Are you still trying to cling to your life?  Jesus said, “If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.”  (Luke 9:24)  

If you keep clinging to your life and the things in your life because you think they are yours and you’ve got to protect them, you’re gonna lose them.  If you cling to your relationships, to your children, to your possessions, your dreams, or anything else, you will lose them.  You will stress yourself out with worry and anxiety, you will sacrifice things you shouldn’t sacrifice, you will cause heartache and disappointment in yourself and others, and at the end of it all, you will lose them anyway.

The alternative is to give all to God through Christ--to die to yourself and trust in Jesus to raise you to a new kind of living.  It is to live in the Year of the Jubilee, where there is rest, release, and restoration.

Don’t you want that peace and freedom in your life where you don’ have anything to lose?  What's stopping you from turning to Jesus and accept His call to repent and believe and experience the rest, release, and restoration He wants to give you today?  Why don't you turn to him right now?

The Division Between David and Saul

Introduction
It grieves God’s heart when there is disunity among His people.  His desire is that we would all be united in love and obedience to His Word.  But we also see in Scripture that God never sacrifices Truth for the sake of a false unity.  If there is to be unity, it must be a unity where people agree to worship and obey the Lord in Spirit and in Truth.  When obedience and Truth are at stake, God may be the very One who divides people.

Last week we saw how Abram and Lot went their separate ways.  Today, I want to study another division among God’s people in the Holy Bible—the division of David and Saul.

A little background.  Saul was the very first king anointed to rule God’s people in Israel.  The people wanted Saul to be their king because he looked like a king—he was tall, head and shoulders above everyone else.  Saul physic inspired people to follow him into battle to fight Israel’s enemies, but Saul’s heart was not right.  He was more concerned with what the people thought than what God really wanted.  He was always getting caught up in trying to please his constituents, even if it meant disobeying God.

And so, God rejected Saul and chose David to replace him.  David was an unlikely King.  He was the youngest of all his brothers who was always overlooked by his family.  David wasn’t as tall or physically imposing as Saul, but David was “a man after God’s own heart”.  David trusted God with his whole heart and always cared what God wanted more than what anyone else wanted.  David was the kind of man who would obey God even if no one else wanted to, even if it cost him.

So one day, God sent the prophet Samuel to call Saul out for his disobedience, and to tear the kingdom of Israel out of Saul’s hand in a dramatic display.  Saul had just won a battle against the Amalekites.  Saul won the battle but disobeyed a direct order from God afterwards.  Saul kept the spoils of the battle even though God had told him to destroy everything.  Saul’s army was greedy and thought it would be a shame to destroy all the loot they’d just plundered from their enemies.  Saul listened to his army instead of God.  God sent the prophet Samuel who called out Saul’s disobedience.

1 Samuel 15:24-25
²⁴ Then Saul admitted to Samuel, “Yes, I have sinned. I have disobeyed your instructions and the Lord’s command, for I was afraid of the people and did what they demanded. ²⁵ But now, please forgive my sin and come back with me so that I may worship the Lord.”

King Saul
God is patient and merciful—even in the Old Testament.  Unfortunately, this wasn’t the first time Saul disobeyed God.  Saul had already disobeyed God repeatedly.  This time was the last straw.  To make matters even worse, Saul is not really sorry for what he’s done.  He is still more concerned with what his people will think that what God thinks.  God is in the midst of calling Saul out for disobeying battle orders, and the most important concern in Saul’s mind is saving face in front of his army.  He want’s Sameul to join him in a public worship ceremony—probably something to honor Saul and his army for their victory over the Amalekites.  Saul is not taking his sin seriously and doesn’t even really care that he has already dishonored God by his disobedience.  To Saul, worshipping God is just a show.  He doesn’t even really care about God.  He only cares about public relations and his own position as king.

1 Samuel 15:26-29
²⁶ But Samuel replied, “I will not go back with you! Since you have rejected the Lord’s command, he has rejected you as king of Israel.”

²⁷ As Samuel turned to go, Saul tried to hold him back and tore the hem of his robe. ²⁸ And Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to someone else—one who is better than you. ²⁹ And he who is the Glory of Israel will not lie, nor will he change his mind, for he is not human that he should change his mind!”

1 Samuel 16:7
God tore the kingdom of Israel away from Saul, not just because Saul was disobedient, but because Saul’s heart was not right.  He cared more about pleasing people than pleasing God. 

And so in the next chapter, 1 Samuel 16, we find God sending the prophet to anoint David to be the new king of Israel.  David will be faithful to God.  He won’t always do the right thing.  He made some big mistakes of his own.  But the thing that was different about David is his number one concern was his relationship with God. 

God told the prophet Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)

Align Your Heart with God’s
In this world, we will always be tempted to go along with the world’s values. 
We want to belong.  We want to fit in.  But the world is not right.  The world is corrupted by sin.
Part of the healing process for our soul is learning to trust in God more than our own selfish desires to fit in with a fallen world. 

Sometimes our call to keep our hearts aligned with God’s heart means turning away from a from people or groups in this world.  Even Jesus said in Luke 12:51-52, “Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I have come to divide people against each other! From now on families will be split apart, three in favor of me, and two against—or two in favor and three against.  Father will be divided against son and son against father; mother against daughter and daughter against mother; and mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’”  Jesus' claim as absolute Lord of all forces people to choose sides.  Jesus doesn't want people to be divided, but inevitably some will receive Jesus as Lord and some will reject Him.  Their rejection divides them from those who accept Him. 

Has your heart been torn in two because someone you care about deeply has turned away from you because you disagree about one of your deeply held core values?  I know that hurts and breaks your heart.  But if your heart is right with God, you’ve done the right thing.

There are many hearts that are breaking in our current divides between the life of faith and the corrupt values of society.  Many of you may be facing these.  I know it’s hard.  I know it’s hard when a family member or a close friend says your religious beliefs are ignorant or outdated or hateful because you believe what the Bible teaches.

I think about so many churches in the United Methodist tradition right now.  Many churches across the state of Georgia are divided—some 70/30, some 60/40, some even 50/50—divided about whether the congregation should disaffiliate from the UMC.  In those churches, no one is going to be totally happy.  Many of those churches will end up being torn apart—whether they stay in the UMC or if they leave.

I don’t want that sort of thing to happen at Pleasant Grove.  And I don’t think it needs to because I think we are more united in our core values than most churches.  We have hearts that want more than anything to be aligned with God and His Word.  But even if we lose one family or one person through this transition, it will hurt.  Yet, we must be faithful to God.  And it is also very important that we strengthen the ties that bind us to other believers who share our values.  What are you doing  to help with that?

Let us be willing to give up any thing, but never let go of God!
Let us walk away from any relationship, but never walk out on God!
Let us be torn apart from any group, political party, denomination, faction,
      but never be torn apart from God!
Let us rend our hearts in sorrow at the loss of friends or family or church members,
      but let us always rejoice that we remain faithful and true to God and His Word.

For in the end, our relationship with God is the only thing that matters. 
It is the only thing that is eternal.  All these other things will soon melt away.

God Shelters Us In Difficult Times
But we can learn yet one more thing from the story of David and Saul.
As you can imagine, it wasn’t an easy life for David to be chosen as Saul’s replacement while Saul was still the King of Israel.  It was a dangerous life for David.
Saul grew more and more jealous of David and paranoid for his own position.
Saul went mad trying to hold onto power and a kingdom God had already torn away from him.
And Saul chased David around the countryside trying to kill him.
David had at least two chances to exact revenge and kill Saul,
but David refused to take matters into his own hands. 
David would let God work out how to finally take the kingdom from Saul and give it to David.
Through all David’s difficult years as a fugitive running for his life from Saul,
God took care of David. 
And so David could write God's sheltering protection in one of his most beautiful psalms:

Psalm 64:10 - The godly will rejoice in the Lord and find shelter in him.  And those who do what is right will praise him.

Close your eyes and consider:
In what ways has your faithfulness to God caused divisions in your life and relationships?
How can you seek shelter to protect you from pain and sorrow and even real harm?
Now imagine that God, our Heavenly Father, is with you right now, sheltering you in His loving arms.  He is pleased with Your faithfulness, despite your suffering.  And He will honor your loyalty.