Covenantal Worship - Exodus 23:10-19

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July 17, 1011 Morning Service Faith Bible Church - Sacramento, CA Message - Covenantal Worship - Exodus 23:10-19

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Welcome to Faith Bible Church, glad you're here to worship together and we're privileged as a country to continue to be able to assemble as we do and we really can count our blessings.
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We can thank the Lord for that because those rights, those liberties are fading in many parts of some of our country but certainly in other countries around the world.
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So, anyway, we can rejoice. We have every reason to do that today and as far as announcements, prayer meeting this evening at 6, summer
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Bible study continues Fridays at 5 .30 going through the Epistle of Paul to the
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Galatians and that's open to everyone. Men's Bible study is July 23rd, next one
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Saturday at 3 .30 in the Fellowship Hall and also, last but not least, is the baby shower for the
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Cho's. Please join Pastor Ilgen and Lauren in celebrating their upcoming birth of their son and if you have not
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RSVP'd, do so. RSVP please and so I'm sure that's going to be a blessed time.
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It's a great time to rejoice. New birth, new life is sweet, it really is and it's just that's the essence of God and who he is, is in new life.
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So we look forward to that. As a means of encouragement, I wanted to read from 1 Timothy chapter 1.
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Paul was near death in this epistle so he had death in sight.
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It was right around the corner and he wrote this letter to Timothy and to the church and he wrote it to us as well.
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Everything in the scriptures, you can write in the front of your Bible, before Genesis 1, you can say to and put your name in there, a love letter for and then end it from God and after revelation.
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This is a letter from God, a love letter to us as believers. So this passage is to encourage,
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Timothy was trying to encourage the church even in the
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And I'd like it to encourage us that take it in that it's being directed to you.
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This is not the church, this is to you, to me. So I'm going to read 2
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Timothy chapter 1 verses 7 through 10. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
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Therefore, and this is speaking to all of us, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our
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Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel, according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our savior,
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Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
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And with that, it's important for us to keep our eyes on the prize, on the goal.
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We can become discouraged in these times, but don't be discouraged, be encouraged.
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If you join with me in prayer. Lord God, we thank you, Father, that we can hold on to your word, that the gospel is as true yesterday as today, as it will be tomorrow,
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Father, that in that we can hold fast to what you have given us in your son,
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Jesus Christ. God, we ask that you would bless folks here today, Father, as many come with different burdens and different trials and concerns,
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Lord, but you would be a salve to their hearts, to their bodies, that you would care for them,
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Lord, as only the creator of this universe can do that, Father. God, we pray for those that are not here with us today, that you would bless them, that you would be their everything, their all in all, in what the condition and the place that they're in.
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We pray for Jimmy, Lord, as he's now been moved to assisted care and rehab, Lord, may that be a productive time for him.
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May he desire to recover well, that Lord, your hand would be upon him right now,
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Father. And God, we thank you that we can gather together again and worship you as we lift our voices, as we hear the word preached.
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God, may our hearts be pricked with the truth and the love and the grace of your son,
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Jesus Christ, Father. So God, let us remain grounded in your word as we worship together, and we rejoice in the creator, the
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God of this universe, Father, for we are blessed and have a tremendous gift to share with one another. So God, be with us now, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.
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The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice, and let the multitude of isles be glad. And let's stand and sing,
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How Great Thou Art. You've heard of team teaching, this is team leading.
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It's a new song, probably to you and to us both, okay? Play through one time, fine, yeah.
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Okay. Please be seated, it is now time for scripture reading.
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Good morning. Today, we're going to be reading from Luke 22, 7 through 20.
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Again, that's Luke 22, 7 through 20. And I'm reading from the
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ESV. Then came the day of unleavened bread, on which the
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Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying,
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Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it. They said to him,
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Where will you have us prepare it? He said to them, Behold, when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you.
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Follow him into the house that he enters, and tell the master of the house.
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The teacher says to you, Where is the guest room where I may eat the
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Passover with my disciples? And he will show you a large upper room furnished.
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Prepare it there. And they went and found it, just as he had told them, and they prepared the
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Passover. And when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him.
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And he said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.
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For I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
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And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he said, Take this and divide it among yourselves.
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For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.
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And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, This is my body, which is given for you.
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Do this in remembrance of me. And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying,
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This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. This is the word of the
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Lord. Praise the Lord, all nations. Praise him, all ye people, for his merciful kindness is great toward us, and the truth of the
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Lord endures forever. Praise ye the Lord. Let's stand and sing. Thank you all for singing.
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I send it over to Pastor Elgin Cho. And children are now dismissed to Children's Church. And please be seated.
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Turn with me to Exodus 23, verses 10 -19.
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Exodus 23, verses 10 -19.
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Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce. But the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat.
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And what they leave, the beasts of the field may eat. In like manner you shall do with your injured hand your olive groves.
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Six days you shall do your work. And on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may rest.
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And the son of your female serpent and the stranger may be refreshed. And in all that I have said to you, be circumspect.
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And make no mention of the name of other gods, nor let it be heard from your mouth. Three times you shall keep a feast to me in the year.
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You shall keep the feast of our leavened bread. You shall eat our leavened bread for seven days, as I commanded you at the time appointed in the month of Aviv.
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For in it you came out of Egypt. None shall appear before me empty. And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of your labor, which you have sown in the field.
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And the feast of ingathering at the end of the year, which you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field.
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Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord God. You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread.
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Nor shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until morning. The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring into the house of the
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Lord your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk. This is the word of the
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Lord. Let us pray. Father, we are so thankful that you make it clear to us how we ought to live as your covenant people.
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That it is not a mystery that we have to unlock. That it is not revealed to a select few.
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But it is revealed to all of your people what you expect your covenant people to do and how they ought to live.
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Father, we pray that we would experience this joy of the opportunity to live as your people.
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In Jesus' name. Amen. Today's text marks the end of the
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Book of the Covenant. The Book of the Covenant consists of Exodus 21 -23.
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This section is called the Book of the Covenant because the Lord lays it out for Israel.
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What it means for His covenant people to live faithfully.
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So far we have learned that God's covenant people must faithfully take care of the most vulnerable.
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God's people must pursue justice based upon what is true. God's covenant people must be fully responsible for any harm done to other people or other people's goods.
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God's people must regard others higher than themselves. And God's people must regard human life highly.
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And these were some of the main points of the sermons going all the way back to May.
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That's when we started Exodus 21. So when the Lord made a covenant with Israel on Mount Sinai by giving them the
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Ten Commandments, Chapter 21 -23 to this point is what made
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God's covenant people special. How God's covenant people must live when they have a relationship with the
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Covenant Lord. And today we will go over the important question,
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How must God's covenant people faithfully keep their covenant with the
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Lord? How must God's people faithfully keep their covenant with their
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Lord? After all, it's easy to just start on a good footing, but really in ministry and in life, what's important is to end well, to continue in faithfulness.
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It's easy to continue in faithfulness at the beginning when you first hear the gospel, and it clicks, and it's the best news ever, right?
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My sins forgiven, and I belong to God now. But what gets hard is, as you live on, as you continue on your faith journey, trials get thrown at you.
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They're temptations. It seems like non -believers are having more fun. And it seems like being a
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Christian means I'm about to get mocked every day by people who don't believe in Christ.
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And that's an important point for God's people, not just back then in Israel, but for us now, right?
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Just like any relationship, it's not about how passionate the beginning is.
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It's not the honeymoon phase, but how faithful one's relationship is until the very end.
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And for God's people, the track record is not too strong, right? There are pockets of faithful followers here and there, a glimpse of passionate preachers who will preach from Scripture faithfully here and there.
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But as you can see, many who claim to be Christians often fall away.
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It might not be in the matter of months, but in the matter of decades. And the question today is, how must we continue faithfully worshiping the
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Lord, right? How must God's covenant people faithfully worship the
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Lord? Not just in the beginning when it's fun and exciting, but continue.
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How must God's people faithfully continue worshiping the Lord? And today's text is divided into two parts.
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The first portion deals with God's people's proper relation to the rest of creation.
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That's verses 10 through 13a, the first part of verse 13.
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The second portion covers how God's people must properly relate to their creator, the covenant
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Lord. And that's the rest of the text. First, God's covenant people restore
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God's creation from their burdens. God's covenant people restore God's creation from their burdens.
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The first three and a half verses deal with God's covenant people's relationship at the horizontal level among other creation, right?
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Whether it's people or beasts. Verse 10, six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce.
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But the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow. First of all,
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Israel's covenant with the Lord heavily depended on caring well for the land.
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The promised land for Israel was the evidence of their covenant with the
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Lord. This instruction would prepare Israel to not deplete the nutrients of the soil.
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So the fertility of the soil would continue on to the future generations.
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And the command to let the land lay fallow would allow the land to rest. The land got its rest in order that the land would remain fertile, flowing with milk and honey as the metaphor says.
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Continually for the future generations. That means for Israel, covenant faithfulness meant generational awareness.
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Covenant faithfulness meant generational awareness. Making sure that God's blessing is passed on to the next generation.
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Making sure that God's blessing gets passed on to the future generation.
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Although Christians don't have a claim on the land of Israel right now, right?
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We don't have a claim on that and that's not our mission here. But it's important to get the principle out.
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The important principle here is that we also need to make sure we pass on God's blessing to the future generation.
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And this is important because as Christians we often get nearsighted when it comes to discipleship and ministry.
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We care about how well we are personally and spiritually filled every
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Sunday morning, right? We care about that. But we often forget how well the next generation is doing, right?
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Are the kids understanding scripture? Are the kids in love with the
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Lord? Are the kids passionate about obeying the
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Lord? And we often don't think about spiritually preparing the next generation, right?
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And when we look at some youth group programs or summer vacation
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Bible school programs, it's very anemic in terms of how much scripture is actually there.
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It looks like just a fun time with each other, which is great.
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But how well are they getting fed spiritually, right? In fact, this is why many churches may have gaps of generations.
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They don't have millennials. They don't have the Gen Z's, right?
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And they're trying to get them. They're trying to win their hearts over, but through wrong ways.
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Not through feeding them with the spiritual food that's nourishing for their soul, which is scripture.
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But through what's cool, what sounds good for the unrepentant heart.
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And that's quite tragic. The rest of verse 11 shows us that letting the land rest is not just for the land itself, but it's to restore the most vulnerable.
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That the poor of your people may eat. And what they leave, the beasts of the field may eat.
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In like manner you shall do with your vineyard and your olive grove. Six days you shall do work, and on the seventh day you shall rest.
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That your ox and your donkey may rest. And the son of your female servant and the stranger may be refreshed.
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Right? Here we have a chiastic structure. That sandwich structure that we often see in so many of the
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Hebrew texts. In the Old Testament and also some new. And that sandwich structure really shows who is being cared for.
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First it starts with the poor people. Then the beasts of the field. Then the ox and donkey.
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And the son of the servant and strangers. The structure here is people, animal, animal, and people.
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And as the list goes on, it's becoming more specific.
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Right? It's not just the poor. It's actually the stranger. And then the child of a female servant.
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It's not just beasts of the field. It's the ox and the donkey. It specifies.
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And what it shows is the list comprehensively covers restoration for all the restless.
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The list completely covers rest for those who are overworked.
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Those who are often forgotten. And it shows that from broad to specific,
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God's law seeks to restore those who are tired and weary.
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Right? From general to precise, God's law provides rest for those who cannot even think about taking a break.
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Who cannot even afford to take a break. And the first part of verse 13 emphasizes what has been said.
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And in all that I have said to you, be circumspect. Be careful. You'd better be careful what the
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Lord requires of you in taking care of those who are restless.
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You better keep these commands to continue in the covenant faithfulness.
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And this is important because there's a huge economic cost in not working for a year after six years.
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There's a huge economic cost to giving what's left over to the poor. Not being able to sell everything that you have left over.
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That's why God in verse 13 warns Israel, you better be careful in all that I command.
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Not just some, but in all. And this is important because it tells us how
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God views these people and animals even.
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Although Christians are not connected to the promised land, we worship the same
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God who restores His creation from their burdens through His covenant people.
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God restores His creation that's under the burden of toil and labor and thorns and thistles.
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The curse of the ground. And how He restores them is through His covenant people.
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And what's so significant about that? Well, it's an echo of the
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Garden of Eden. First, the phrase, a beast of the field from verse 11.
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Last time it was used is in the context of Genesis 2 and 3. The beast of the field in between Genesis 2 and 3 and to Exodus 23 is not mentioned.
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Of course, animals are mentioned. We had the Noahic flood after all. Probably the most number of animals gathered, right?
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Most diverse animals gathered in one place after the garden. But the beast of the field is used here only right after Genesis 2 and 3.
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And, of course, the concept of rest. What did God do after six days of creation?
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He rested. And we know that God didn't need the rest, but He created rest in order for His creation to rest.
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Right? The Sabbath is for man, not man for the Sabbath. Jesus said that.
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And what's God's solution for all those who are subjected to the harsh reality of the post -rebellion world?
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Right? Rest. Rest is what God created after His creative work.
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And the God of rest will provide the restless with restoration.
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And ultimately, of course, it's not in an agricultural setting. Rest, in the end, does not stop at the promised land.
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Because, remember, in the Old Testament, the physical phenomena pointed to the spiritual reality.
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For the New Testament people, we have the privilege of clearly seeing the spiritual reality that these physical phenomena pointed to.
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And regarding rest, Hebrews 4, 8 -10 tell us that Israel did not reach the true rest when they got to the promised land.
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Right? But, rather, the full, ultimate rest is the full restoration of things that sin has savaged, savagely destroyed.
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The ultimate rest is provided by Jesus Christ, who completely restores
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His creation from the futility of our works, trying to earn our salvation.
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None of that. You have rest in Christ. And ultimately, we will have full rest when
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Christ comes back. There's no more thorns and thistles. This does not mean you won't work.
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You will work, except it's the most enjoyable thing you've ever experienced. This does not mean you're just lazy all day.
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But, rather, there's no handprints, fingerprints of sin anywhere to be found.
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It's restorative. Right? And that's the kind of God Israel served.
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And that's the kind of God that Israel was supposed to show the rest of the world as God's covenant people.
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That's what it meant to remain faithful as God's covenant people.
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And, ultimately, that rest -giving, restorative
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God comes to us as human. That's why
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Jesus can say in Matthew 11, 28, Come to me, all you who labor and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.
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Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart.
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And you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
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It's not come to me those who are theologically sound and have been baptized.
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It's not come to me those who have gone to seminary and have gone through all the
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Bible studies. No, Jesus provides what people truly need.
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It's come to me those who are all you who labor and are heavy laden.
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Those who are restless. Those who are overworked. Those who cannot continue to go on with their lives.
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For those of you, Jesus welcomes you with his open arms.
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Those who are struggling with sin, go to Jesus.
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His gentle and lowly in heart. At the core of his being flows compassion and approachability.
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Humility and mercy. That's who he is. That's at his core.
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And that's why you can come to him. And you can take up on his yoke, which is not a yoke at all.
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It's not a burden at all. You trade. He'll take your burdensome sin and he'll give you rest.
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And for Christians, we get to proclaim this message to the restless world.
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The world that is so anxious about the newest thing on the news.
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The world is so tired about working. I've never met so many people who hate their work until this year.
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They don't even want to get out of their house. The world needs to hear this rest giving
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God. And for Christians, that's what it means. To give restoration.
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Not from ourselves. We're not the source. But Jesus, he's the
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Lord of the Sabbath. Second, God's covenant people wholeheartedly celebrate the
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Lord alone. God's covenant people wholeheartedly celebrate the
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Lord alone. From Israel's restorative requirement with creation, we move to Israel's obligation to the creator.
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And make no mention of the name of other gods, nor let it be heard from your mouth. The second half of verse 13 serves as an introduction to the second portion of the text.
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Israel must not serve any god except the Lord their God. Other gods must not even be mentioned, uttered.
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The Lord is not one of many. The Lord is not even the best of many.
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The Lord is one and only. And God's covenant people were to single -mindedly be loyal to the
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Lord alone. That's the first obligation. From verses 14 through 17,
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God establishes three festivals to help Israel remain covenantally faithful to him.
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As stated in verse 14. It is important to note that these festivals all revolved around the
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Lord. And were established by the Lord. Those two facts are important.
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The focus is on the Lord, and they're actually from the Lord. This means there were not some existing pagan festivals that got
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Judaized. They didn't take an existing harvest festival from a pagan nation and then made it
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Jewish. That's not at all. God established it specifically for his people.
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They're not borrowing from pagan nations. This also means, unlike most of the holidays in America, these days are solely devoted to the
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Lord. They were not an opportunity to skip work and binge watch
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Netflix. Or to go on a vacation. That's how we think of holidays nowadays, right?
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Oh, an extra day, a Monday off. Let me sleep in. Right? However, these festivals were on days when they were not working.
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They were corporately worshipping. In order for Israel to remain faithful in their covenant relationship with the
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Lord. Those festivals were worship festivals.
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Right? They were joyous, of course. But they were joyous because it revolved around the
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Lord. The first festival is the
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Feast of Unleavened Bread. You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. You shall eat
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Unleavened Bread for seven days as I commanded you at the time appointed in the month of Abib.
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For in it you came out of Egypt. None shall appear before me empty. We went over the
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Feast of Unleavened Bread in Exodus 11 -13. This would be the springtime, early spring.
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This is when we actually celebrate the Resurrection Sunday. Right? Because the
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Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, they occur around the same time. And that's because, as Brendan read this morning, the
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Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread gets fulfilled by Jesus.
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Right? It's no wonder when you read the Passover meal, the
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Last Supper, in the Gospel and also in 1 Corinthians, the lamb, the
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Passover lamb is nowhere to be mentioned. This is not to say that Jesus celebrated the
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Passover without the Passover lamb. That would be ridiculous because he's a Jew. But the focus is on the other lamb, the greater lamb, the ultimate
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Passover lamb, who delivers his people from enslavement that's greater than Egypt.
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But from sin itself, sin which enslaved all creation, not just the
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Jews. And that's the significance of the
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Feast of Unleavened Bread for Christians. And for Israel, they were to practice this in order to remember what the
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Lord has done. And in the same way, we practice the Lord's Supper every month to remember precisely what the
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Lord has done in delivering us. The second festival is the
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Feast of Harvest or the Feast of Weeks. It's called the Weeks because it occurs around seven weeks and one day after the
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Passover. And the Feast of Harvest, the first fruits of your labors which you have sown in the field.
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This celebrated the completion of the wheat harvest precisely 50 days after the
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Passover. So sometime in the summer, early summer. The Jewish tradition holds that it commemorates the
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Lord's descent on Mount Sinai to make covenant with his people and to give them the law.
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It's celebrating God's covenant with Israel and his faithfulness to them.
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And for Christians, this day has a newer significance. It's what we call the
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Pentecost. The Pentecost in Greek means 50.
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That's because it happened 50 days after the Passover. While the
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Israelites celebrated the descent of the Lord and making covenant and giving of the law, we celebrate the descent of the
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Holy Spirit to empower the early Christians to testify Jesus who is crucified and risen.
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Again, the focus re -centers to Christ. The festivals all point to who
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Christ is and the magnificence of his glory and his accomplishment on the cross.
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The third festival is the Feast of Ingathering. And the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field.
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This would occur at the end of the year after the harvest. It was a joyous celebration of thanksgiving to the
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Lord for providing for his people. Now, some Jews celebrate this now as they build tents.
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It's also called Sukkoth, which means tents. So, they actually stay in the tent and they eat there.
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So, if you go to a heavily Jewish populated region, you might actually see tents built up.
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And they celebrate God's providence and they commemorate, they remember how faithful God is.
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And for Christians, this is how we pray.
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When we give thanks to God, we don't have to do a festival, but rather we thank
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God in Christ. And that phrase, in Christ, is over and over in Paul's epistles.
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I give thanks to you for blank in Christ. And that's because the reality is after Christ's death and resurrection, how we give thanks is replaced by in Christ.
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Rather than any offerings, rather than any of the festivals, it's in Christ. In Christ is not just a phrase
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Christians say when they pray to make it sound Christianese, right? In Christ is a huge...
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It has huge repercussions. When you're in Christ, you're not...
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You're no longer in the world, right? You're not of the world. You don't belong to the world.
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When you're in Christ, you're bought by His precious blood. That's why you can approach the throne room of God, the
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Holy God. Approach Him to thank Him. If you're not in Christ, you can never approach the throne room of God.
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You're a traitor. How can a traitor approach the king's throne? No angel would allow that.
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But in Christ, even a five -year -old kid who barely can mumble can thank
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God in Christ. Now, verse 17 highlights the importance of keeping these festivals faithfully.
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Three times in the year, all your males shall appear before the Lord God. This is not to say that only males observe these festivals because all these feasts were observed by all.
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But rather, the male leaders who represented each family had to be present before the
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Lord. It was not optional for the men of the family to skip out and have a rest day.
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To skip out to entertain themselves. This is really important in our culture too.
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When we worship the Lord together, just like how Israel did. This is not an individual personalized worship.
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This is a corporate worship to remember the faithful covenant of the Lord. And as Christians, when we worship, gather on Sunday, the
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Lord's day. Unfortunately, the number of men drop around the
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Super Bowl Sunday. Where is your priority?
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And verse 17 is a similar thing to that. You can't just skip out, especially if you're men, the leaders of the family.
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You better be there. Verses 18 to 19 describe the manner in which
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Israel must celebrate these feasts. First, you shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread.
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This is in the context of the feast of unleavened bread where leaven may not be found in all of Israel.
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You must get rid of it because you are... During the
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Passover, the first Passover, Israelites had to make haste in running away from Egypt.
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So they couldn't have leaven. And they had to recreate that to remember this is how
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God delivered us. This is what we did. It was to recreate the moment of the first deliverance in order for the covenant people to remember
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God's continual deliverance. Which means sacrifice had to be done according to God's way, not just any way you want.
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Second, nor shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until morning. This order, this command actually distinguished
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Israel from the other Canaanites. Remember that Canaanites were more technologically advanced and militarily more powerful.
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And that's why we see Israel was often afraid when they saw whom they had to conquer.
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That's because Israel were just slaves. They were just slaves who escaped.
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They had no military weapons. They didn't have military advancement. They don't even have really farming advancement either, right?
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They're just slaves. I'm sure they farmed here and there, but the Canaanites, they were far more advanced.
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Now, the Canaanites, when they sacrificed, they did not burn all the animal fat as a divine offering.
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And there's a temptation. When there's a greater nation, when there's a greater people, more advanced people, there's always a temptation to copy, to imitate.
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Because somewhere in there you think, they must be really fruitful and successful because they do it this way, right?
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They must be really advanced because they worship this way. And the
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Lord knew the temptation would arise for Israel to copy their more advanced neighbors, hoping
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God would bless them also if they did as their neighbor did. However, the
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Lord's purpose for Israel was not to recreate another paganistic Canaanite nation, but a holy people set apart for himself.
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Even how Israel sacrificed to the Lord must differ from how
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Canaanites sacrificed to their false gods. How they relate to the Lord personally and ritualistically must look completely different from how the
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Canaanites related to their false gods. Third, the first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring into the house of the
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Lord your God. Here God's command covers the heart of worship.
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God's people are ordered to bring the choices of the firstfruits. Again, human temptation.
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The temptation is there to bring whatever is left over after consuming what's best. After all, offerings get burned up anyway.
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Will the Lord know any difference? Right? The Lord doesn't actually taste the food.
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Why not I taste the firstfruits? Why not I have the best?
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In fact, with agricultural offering, your neighbors won't know.
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Your neighbors will know when your goats of the firstborn, right? It's loud.
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You can't escape that. And your neighbors might be like, so are you gonna offer the goat up on the eighth day?
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Right? For the fruits, you gather all together, right?
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There's some good ones. There's some delicious ones. And there's some like scratched up ones, right?
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There's some that are kind of smaller. Well, the neighbor is not, you know, watching you with a camera of what you're harvesting.
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You know what you're harvesting. So there's temptations there. Well, maybe if I just bring, you know,
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I'll keep the best for myself, but I'll bring something, you know. At least it's something.
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Well, for God's people, it is not practicality that drives the relationship, but faithfulness.
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God's people offer up what is best because they are loyal to the best
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God. Offering the firstfruits was an outward expression of an inward reality of worshiping the true
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God. It's giving honor to whom it's truly due.
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Lastly, you shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk. This is rather a mysterious command that is repeated two other times in the
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Old Testament. This, commentators think, is related to the fact that there's a pagan ritual for fertility.
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Goats were the main animals that produced milk in the Middle East, right? Cows are more of a
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Western thing. Goats produced the most amount of milk for the ancient
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Near Eastern people. Hence, milk symbolized fertility, right?
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Only goats that are fertile produced milk. So what they would do, the pagan nations, they would boil the young goat as a sacrifice in the milk to add upon the fertility, hoping that their pagan gods would bless them in huge, bountiful fertility for their livestock if they have a ritual like that, right?
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It's sheer idolatry because there's no logical or even natural connection of boiling a young goat in mother's milk and producing fertile goats in the future, right?
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And the reason is, it's just idolatry. It's trying to control the deity.
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And for God's people, he would not allow his people to have an idolatrous relationship with rituals, right?
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Israel would be blessed because of its relationship with a generous deity, not because of a specific ritual that their neighbors were doing.
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And this is kind of important because as humans, we tend to make idolatrous relationships with rituals because rituals can be easily controlled.
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Rituals can be done. Baseball players have rituals. Tap certain times. Basketball players have rituals.
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Bounce certain amount of times, right? Religious people have rituals. Pray certain amount of time.
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Pray certain amount of hours. But, or, God won't bless you. And it's a horrible way of creating a god in your image.
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God does not depend on rituals to be generous and kind to his people.
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His kindness and generosity and mercy are who he is. That cannot be earned or bought.
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That cannot be controlled whatsoever. That's what that law is signifying.
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And for Christians, these festivals do not directly apply to us because Christ fulfilled all of them.
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The Feast of Unleavened Bread, that's fulfilled by Christ's death on the cross.
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It happened during that week. And it shows how
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Jesus delivers us from the ultimate enslavement. It's intensifying.
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It's not just a repeat. It's an intensification. A greater enemy in a greater way with a greater blood.
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The Feast of Weeks is overshadowed by the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Pentecost who gives us the right words to speak and the boldness to proclaim
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Christ who was crucified for our sin so that we may live. Without the
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Holy Spirit, ministry is meaningless. The Holy Spirit is the
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God who gives us the power to go on. And the
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Pentecost overshadows the Feast of Weeks. I mean, nowadays, no one knows what the
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Feast of Weeks are. But when you say the Pentecost, many Christians would recognize that.
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And their context is not agricultural at all, but rather spiritual.
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It's when the Holy Spirit came to the church. And Paul understood this when he was writing to the
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Colossian church when people were so fixated on the rituals and festivals. So let no one judge you in food or in drink or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come.
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But the substance is of Christ. If you're still pursuing festivals and the old covenant rituals, then you're chasing a shadow.
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Under the new covenant, the body has already come. And for Christians, you have
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Christ. You get the body. Don't look back to the shadows.
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And this is really important because certain denominations, certain
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Christians, try to go back to the rituals. With incense, bells and smells, right?
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With garments, flowing garments. And with dietary restrictions.
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Oh, I can't have pork. I know it's not sinning, but I can't have pork. I want to experience what it feels like to live like an old covenant person.
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To which I say, why live under a broken category that has been replaced?
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And that's because in Christ, there's liberty from that. In Christ, those things that once held the old covenant people, and that's what marked them as faithful, were freed from it.
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And our mark of faithfulness is faith in Christ. It's believing and trusting wholeheartedly what
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Christ has done for us. And we corporately worship this
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God alone. Let us pray. Father, we're thankful that we celebrate the
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Lord, and we celebrate Him by worshiping Christ, because Christ is the
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Lord. Thank you that He is the fulfillment of all these physical phenomena in the
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Old Testament that pointed to Him, and that we have liberty from the law because of Him.
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Thank you that He freed us from our own self, our sin, and the world, and Satan.
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And thank you that we get to live faithfully in covenant with Him as a corporate body, not individually, but together as brothers and sisters.
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In Jesus' name, amen. Through God we shall do valiantly, for He shall tread down our enemies.
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And let's stand and sing our closing song. Take My Life and Let It Be. As we eagerly wait on Jesus, who will take us to heaven,
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He looks out for us all the time. And remember to praise Him. And we are now dismissed.