Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] During our time, looking into things not about politics, but about something along those lines, about how we live in this country and how we own land.
[00:00:12] Land ownership is an interesting concept that we often take for granted. It's not the natural, normal thing across the globe. It's a unique thing to our being in America, are being in a republic where we can own land. And if you think about that idea of owning land, it's a privilege to have that, because think about what you can do when you own land. You can keep the land and work it as you see fit. You can protect your land from invaders. You can exclude others from being on your property, decide who lives on that property, and if you don't want that land anymore, you can sell it to whoever you see. Fitzhe we kind of take it for granted. We don't think about what it means to own land. But when the youth and I and the leaders were down in South Dakota, it became very apparent that something was different down there than we're used to here.
[00:01:13] Now, when we were in South Dakota, I did some research about land ownership. And you may not know this, but the Native Americans here, the indian tribes here, these folks live on these reservations, these plots of land that were given to them or that were divided up for them, basically. And on those plots of land, they get some unique responsibilities and privileges, privileges that we in the rest of America don't get. As I was doing the research, it kind of became apparent, and I started noticing some things that I didn't normally notice. For instance, there's no state police on these reservations. Instead, they have tribal enforcement vehicles.
[00:02:05] These native american tribes are considered to be sovereign nations, so they govern themselves.
[00:02:12] They can make up their own laws. They can establish their own customs within their own borders. And on federal indian reservations, only federal and tribal laws apply to the members of the tribe, unless Congress deems otherwise, and they don't. So these plots of land, you look at these plots of land, and it's a unique section of our country where some of the laws that apply to us do not apply to them.
[00:02:44] If you travel there, therefore, you should know who owns the land. They do.
[00:02:52] In the concluding chapters of Leviticus, as we come to the end of the book, there are two chapters left. And they begin with an idea of reminding us, the reader reminding the jewish people, who owns the land.
[00:03:12] Now the jewish people are going to the promised land. They've been rescued out of Egypt. They wander through the wilderness, and God says, now you are going to the promised land. But he always refers to the promised land as his property. They are being invited to live on God's property, the land that flows with milk and honey. He owns the land. And so, as we come to the end of Leviticus, he takes the time to establish with these jewish people who are now going to live on the land, on God's land, what he determines to be, the rules and their regulations, because this is a brand new nation.
[00:03:55] So join me, if you would, in Leviticus 25. You can turn there in your bibles if you'd like to. I'm going to have it up on the screen as well. Leviticus 25, starting at verse one. Here's what it says. The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, speak to the people of Israel and say to them, when you come to the land, what does it say, church? That what that I give you. This is not their land. He doesn't say, when you come to your land. He doesn't say, when you get to the land that you are going to own, he says, when you come to the land that's mine, that I'm giving to you, he's literally saying, I'm loaning this to you to live on. This is my gift to you. When you come to the land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the lord. And as the landowner, God, declares his realm, this is his realm, his area, his land. And as God owns the land, he determines that the land is going to be a land that observes a sabbath. Now, we've talked about Sabbath before, and if you know what Sabbath is, it's kind of. It's one of my favorite things to talk about. Cause I need to do it more in my life. But it's a period of time, in the run of a week, in the run of seven days, when you take some time off just to enjoy God, to rest. The Sabbath is rest. Now, for the Israelites, for the Hebrews, for the jewish people, they turned it into a crazy, like, regulated thing. When Jesus showed up, he was constantly doing things on the Sabbath that they were going, you're a sinner. But in actuality, they were not understanding what the Sabbath was.
[00:05:28] And so when we read this about the Sabbath, it's usually pertaining to what we do. However, in this passage, it's pertaining to what the land does.
[00:05:39] And God determines that the land is going to have a time of rest.
[00:05:45] Now, as I read that, I think to myself, the land needs a Sabbath. The land needs a time of rest. We're going to understand a little bit more what that means. But for now, all we need to understand is these are the terms of the landowner. God owns the land. God's giving the land to them. They get to live on it. They don't have to pay rent, they don't have to. They don't have to do anything. They get to enjoy the land. But the landowner determines his realm, and he says to them, this is the land that I'm giving to you. You need to give the land.
[00:06:21] We'll talk about that in a minute. Number two, as a landowner, God declares his reign. Look at verse 50.
[00:06:29] I can't read that. Is that 55? Yes. For it is to me that the people of Israel are servants. They are whose servants? Church.
[00:06:39] They are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord, your God. God determines who lives on the land.
[00:06:48] Do you see this land ownership thing here? Think about what we talked about as I entered into this conversation. When you own land, you determine who lives on it, who doesn't live on it. You can sell it, you can keep it, you can decide what grows on it, how it gets used. God is saying, I own this land, and now I'm inviting you to be a part of it. But you must remember, I am the owner.
[00:07:13] He declares his reignite. I think it's really interesting that he determines the people who are allowed to live on the land.
[00:07:21] Why does he declare his ownership over them? Because he rescued them. Remember the ten plagues? He did all of that. He rescued them. He sent Moses to get them out. Moses argued with God a million times, but Moses finally went to do it. God did miraculous things. They were chased down by the Egyptians, and God killed the Egyptians. I mean, God rescued these people. So he's saying, listen, I'm going to take you to a land that you are going to live on. But don't forget, I'm the landowner and I declare who lives on it. I'm letting you live on my land.
[00:07:53] He redeemed them and he declares his rights over them. And if they don't obey these basic facts, they would begin to think that they were autonomous, that they found the land, that the land just happened to pop out of nowhere, that they just got lucky and got out of Egypt. So God is helping them to remember, I own the land. I own you. You can stay on the land as long as you do what I tell you to do. You are my people.
[00:08:24] And because they were redeemed by another, they all were indebted the same. There was none of them that were less indebted to God. They were all equally indebted to God and they couldn't take advantage of each other because all of them were indebted to God for their freedom. None of them has done this on their own. So God says, you're my people, this is my land, you can live on it. Treat it respectfully with a Sabbath. All right. Verse 21, I will command my blessing on you on the 6th year so it will produce a crop sufficient for three years. All right? So we need to slow down here and let me just underlined before we go any further, God determines his rightful ownership over the people, the land and their prosperity. He says to them, this is my land. I'm going to make it function in a way that blesses you. You are my people, you can live on the land. This is my land. This is the boundaries, this is yours. I'm giving it to you to enjoy. And it was a responsibility, all the people to be faithful to the landowner.
[00:09:28] They were on his land.
[00:09:31] All right. And as a landowner, God not only declared his realm, his reign, but also he declares his rules and he declares that the land is going to have a seven day or a seven year rest. In Leviticus 25 three, for six years. This is where it gets kind of interesting. You shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather its fruits. But in the 7th year, there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land. This is a sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard, and you shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. The Sabbath of the land shall provide for you, for yourself, for your male and your female slaves, and for your hired workers and all the sojourners that live with you.
[00:10:35] God declares that these are his rules. Give the land a rest every how many years, church every seven years. This is what we call the Sabbath year.
[00:10:48] Only routine tasks were done, nothing beyond or above. And you could gather what grows only on its own. You couldn't go out as an agricultural society, you couldn't go out and tie up your vines. You couldn't go out and make sure the soil is fertilized. You couldn't do any of that. You have to give the land rest.
[00:11:11] But whatever grows, whatever God allows to grow on that year, you can take and you can eat that, but you can't be a part of making that grow. Inhabitants had to rest from not only their agricultural work on the 7th year, but they also had to rest from their debts. Now, this is where you're going to love this principle.
[00:11:33] All personal debts were extinguished.
[00:11:38] So if you had debt that you've gathered for six years, on the 7th year gone, your debt was erased and your indentured slaves were released. So here's the deal. In this culture, if you were somebody that owed some money to somebody else and you couldn't pay it back, you had to work their land to pay it back, like washing dishes for a meal that you can't pay for in restaurants. Do they do that anymore? I don't think so, because of the legal system. But anyway, you understand the principle. If you can't pay your debt, you owe the person to whom you're indebted. But once it gets to the 7th year, all debts forgiven, wouldn't that be great?
[00:12:24] As the landowner, God declares the rules for the land. Let me just make this clear. Working subjects, throughout the Sabbath year, they could harvest work for the there was no harvest work for the property owners, there was no harvest work for animals, and there was no harvest work for the servants. Everybody, as far as agriculturally goes, they could do normal service, normal thing. They weren't sitting at home in hammocks for a whole year. But they had to, as far as that goes, with the land that God owned, because he's the landowner, they had to give it a rest.
[00:12:56] Routine tasks were taken care of, but no plowing, no sowing, and no harvesting.
[00:13:05] And there were prohibitions for working the land. No one could work the fields. There were no harvests. There was only what gathered in the fields on its own.
[00:13:14] All were welcome to gather from anything that grew on the fields as well. So if you had a field and some migrant came along and wanted to eat off your field, you had to let that happen.
[00:13:25] Here's a passage in Exodus 23 ten for six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield. But the 7th year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat and what they leave, that the beasts of the field may eat. You shall do likewise with your vineyard and with your olive orchard.
[00:13:48] What kind of faith. Hang on a second. What kind of faith would you have to have as an agriculture, as a farmer in this society? It's like what the majority of people were. What kind of faith would you have to have to let your land lie fallow for a whole year?
[00:14:07] You would have to rest on the fact that God would bring up enough food for you and your family to eat for you and your relatives to eat for anyone who lived off your land, you would have to trust him to provide. That had to be a test of faith, wouldn't you think?
[00:14:22] Everything in me, I don't know about you, but everything in me is just like, no, we got to work it more, we got to make it better. Whatever we do, we got to invest in this so that we can get more out of it. And God said, no, that is a normal principle that you have inside of you. But on the 7th year, none of that, you would learn the weight of prayer. And I think this is when Jesus prayed, and we're so used to praying it. But listen to these words with this knowledge now in your brain.
[00:14:50] When Jesus says, give us this day our. What is it?
[00:14:56] He is praying to the landowner. He's saying, listen, the ground may lie fallow, the ground may be in the 7th year, the ground may be, we may be in a famine. So God, we are saying, we need everything from you.
[00:15:10] Nothing. Nothing counts unless it comes from you. Give us this day, please, as the landowner, our daily bread.
[00:15:20] And God promised, if they obeyed him, he would supply. Oh, that must have taken a good amount of faith. Verse 18. Therefore, you shall do my statutes, you shall keep my rules, you shall perform them, and then you will dwell in the land securely. The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and dwell in it securely. God promises that he will take care of them if they obey his rules.
[00:15:49] He's the landowner, this is his realm.
[00:15:52] They must go by what he says.
[00:15:56] The idea is that God is a provider and not ourselves, and we need to prioritize our lives around what God provides, not what more work will get from us and from what God has for us.
[00:16:10] God takes away our money and our goods until we realize that we must trust in him. And if you run forward to the minor prophets, to a prophet called haggai, you will read these verses that say that condemn people for not doing this. Listen to this. Give careful thought to your ways. Haggai one five. You have planted much, but you have harvested what church. You have harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough. You drink, but you never have your fill. You put on clothes, but you're never warm. You earn wages only to put them in a purse with holes in it. Do you ever feel like that's your life? I do too. Where you feel like you work and you work and you work and you try and you try and you get nowhere.
[00:17:01] The idea of the Sabbath year is so that God's people way back here as they establish this nation for the very first time, understand? If they get anything, it's because God, the landowner, has created a means whereby they can get it, a means where they can be supplied. All good things come from God.
[00:17:26] That's God's desire, Old Testament or New Testament or 2024, that we recognize that all good things, any blessings that we have come from him, and without him we can do what church.
[00:17:41] Without him we can do nothing.
[00:17:44] Down to verse ten. You shall consecrate the 50th year.
[00:17:51] Now this is interesting because this is Sabbath on steroids. Listen to this. You shall consecrate the 50th year. What is seven times 749? Is that a Sabbath year? Yes, because it's the 7th year. But on the 50th year, you shall consecrate this year, proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan. Listen, the year of Jubilee is Sabbath on steroids. Because the year of Jubilee is not just when debts are forgiveness, but if you've been in such a situation where your kid or your grandparent or somebody made some bad financial decisions and you had to sell your land on the 50th year, you get it back.
[00:18:44] Whatever you had to do, you get it back. Why? Because God gave the land to the people.
[00:18:50] This is God's land. And God says on the 50th year, you get everything back.
[00:18:57] Personal debts were remitted, indentured servants were set free.
[00:19:04] This would be a douse of freedom, like they how would you. This is like a reset financially. This is like a moment of time when we say, all right, everything is forgiven, everything is gone, everything goes back to zero.
[00:19:19] Freedom was granted out of appreciation for God's blessing, out of appreciation for God's rescue from Egypt the year before the Sabbath. Now get this was a Sabbath year, so how much agricultural work could they do on the 49th year? Zero. Now, on the 50th year, how much agricultural work could you do on the 50th year? Zero. So if you start planting on the 51st year, you got to wait till the end of that year to eat. We're talking three years.
[00:19:48] How much faith would you have to have in an agricultural society to trust God to provide for you for all three years?
[00:19:59] This would take in a good deal of faith. Vineyards, fields, orchards would not be cultivated, everything would lie fallow for two years. You could plant on the third year, but you got to wait till the end of that year to eat.
[00:20:14] The purpose of the year of Jubilee.
[00:20:16] When we read about this in scripture, the year of Jubilee is an interesting idea, because the year of Jubilee is like an idea that freedom arrives for everybody.
[00:20:29] In the year of Jubilee, there was repentance. Here's the whole idea of the year of Jubilee. I think there was four reasons for this repentance would be. Number one, people would be tempted to work their slaves to the bone so that they could, or their servants to the bone, so that they could work and work and work and have and store up in Barnsley. And God said, not in the year of Jubilee. This was a chance for them to repent where they have worked themselves silly. And now they open their hands and they say, whatever I have is because God has given it to me. And now we share it with everybody else.
[00:21:02] It was a chance for reliefs.
[00:21:05] If you got into debt, if you're stuck washing dishes in order to get out of debt on the 50th year, you get everything back. Everything you had to sell, every plot you had to sell that belonged to your family, you get it back. On the year of Jubilee.
[00:21:21] It was a chance for release, by the way. Hebrew servants were released, but foreign servants that were working on your crops and everything, this did not apply to them. You could keep the foreign servants, but all jewish people had to be set free. Number three, it was an idea of rest.
[00:21:41] You had to live on whatever the land produced. They had to completely rely on the provision of God, through his miraculous power, to feed them and keep their families alive. They could not work. And the last one was restoration.
[00:21:56] The Lord desired for the land to remain within the tribes that he declared. And so the 50th year got everything back to where it should be.
[00:22:04] This highlights the fact that only God owned the land, not the people, and it belonged to him.
[00:22:11] There was no chance for ruthless landowners to take advantage of their servants, and there was no chance for the poorest of the Hebrews to be taken advantage of. Everything on the air of Jubilee was set to zero. Restored.
[00:22:28] The rich would be taught to rely on God.
[00:22:31] They could not hang on to the debts that they were owed. And the poor people got everything back that they had lost.
[00:22:38] Through a variety of reasons. They got everything back.
[00:22:44] I want to take you a couple of hundred years forward to the prophet Isaiah.
[00:22:49] Isaiah is a book of the Bible that you get to as you go through the Old Testament. This prophet actually existed right at the time of the babylonian captivity. Isaiah writes in Isaiah 61 one about the year of Jubilee. And here's what he writes. The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted and to proclaim what church to proclaim. He has sent me to broken honor and proclaim what liberty. Liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, the vengeance of our God, and comfort to all who mourn. Listen. This is why the jewish people were so confused when Jesus showed up and claimed to be the messiah, because the messiah was supposed to restore everything back to who it belonged to. Jesus was not about that. Jesus was about restoring our broken hearts and souls back to the real owner, which is goddesse. They didn't understand that. They thought Jesus as a messiah. Anyone who comes as a messiah would initiate the year of Jubilee, and everything would be given back.
[00:24:07] No wonder they were so confused, because the Romans just kept taking and taking and taking Jesus.
[00:24:16] This is the best part of this message.
[00:24:20] Jesus, at one point in his life, was in the synagogue, and he was given a scroll to read, a scroll from Isaiah.
[00:24:30] And filtering through what he wanted to read, Jesus, as his ministry was initiated here on this earth, jesus chose to read from. Guess what passage? Isaiah 61.
[00:24:45] Here's what happened. You can find it in Luke, chapter four.
[00:24:48] When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and it was as his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll, and he found the place where it was written. Listen, church, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And then he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant, and he sat down.
[00:25:30] All the eyes of the people were upon him in the synagogue. They were fixed on him. And he began to say to them as he was sitting down, by the way, today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
[00:25:44] He literally was saying, I am initiating the year of Jubilee. If you feel like you've been a captive, if you feel like you've been oppressed, if you feel like you're walking under the weight of debt, if you feel like sin has destroyed your soul and your family, bad choices are the name of the game. It seems to be in your family DNA. If any of that applies to you, I'm here to tell you. I am here to proclaim the release of captives, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, to proclaim liberty to those who are oppressed, to restore sight to the blind.
[00:26:21] Jesus death, resurrection initiated this day of the Lord.
[00:26:26] This is the year of Jubilee. As he's sitting down, that's what he's saying. And that's why the people are fixed on him, because they have no idea what he's actually saying.
[00:26:37] The day of the Lord, interestingly enough, is spoken of in Isaiah 61. Jesus reads from that scroll and he sits down.
[00:26:47] But I don't know if you caught this. In Isaiah 61, it says, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of judgment. Jesus stops at the comma.
[00:27:01] Jesus stops at the. There's no comma in Hebrew. I know. Don't text me and tell me that. There's no comma. I know that.
[00:27:08] But he doesn't finish the thought.
[00:27:11] He says to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and he sits down. He does not go on and say, and the judgment that will come, which is what Isaiah 61 says, God's wonderful salvation moment began with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ church. And that comma. Is still ongoing. We live in the comma.
[00:27:35] The day of judgment will come. It's a part of the day of the Lord. But we are experiencing still the same point of time that they did when jesus stood up and read the scroll in the synagogue. When he read the scroll, he was saying, this is what I've come to do. I live my life. I'm dying on the cross. I'm going to raise from the dead. And you will live in the comma. But don't forget, the end is coming.
[00:28:00] Judgment for sin will arrive.
[00:28:03] But for now, you live in the comma.
[00:28:09] The gospel is a good news of freedom.
[00:28:12] That's what gospel means. Did you know that? Gospel means good news?
[00:28:17] And when you hear the gospel which is about Jesus Christ, it is the good news that captives have been set free.
[00:28:25] Jesus told the story in Luke 741, a certain money lender had two debtors.
[00:28:33] One owed 500 denarii and the other 50.
[00:28:36] And when they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both.
[00:28:41] Now, which of them, church, answer me this. Which of them will love the moneylender more? Church. Who will love the moneylender more? The one who has forgiven the 50 or the one who has given the 500? Forgiven the 500.
[00:28:55] Simon answered the one, I suppose who? He canceled the larger debt. And Jesus said to him, you have judged rightly.
[00:29:05] Until we realize that this land belongs to God, and this life belongs to God, and my time belongs to God, and everything I own belongs to God, and my children belong to God. Until I realize he is the landowner, I'm going to live my life completely differently.
[00:29:27] When I once and for all realize he's the landowner, I suddenly live my life differently because I'm responsible to him. All good things come from him and all thanks and praise go to him. You wonder why we sing these songs on Sunday? Because we need to remind ourselves where these things come from. It's not because of our own intellectual or our strength. It's because God is a generous landowner.
[00:29:53] So what?
[00:29:55] That's it?
[00:29:56] First one is God is the owner. We have got to get this through our heads. God is the owner. We need to be aware that we are like we were in the land, in the reservation. We were on Sioux tribe territory. We need to realize that we are on God's land.
[00:30:18] This is my father's world.
[00:30:23] It belongs to him.
[00:30:26] It's his. He is the shepherd. We're just the sheep living off the land.
[00:30:32] Question, how would you feel if you were entering into the year of Jubilee? Sabbath year has passed. You're not starving yet, but you know that the next year you can't do anything either. You got to sit back and eat whatever comes up wild. I've got wild raspberries in my backyard. They would not feed me very long, but I've got to live off whatever comes up wild for another year and then I can start planting. But I have to wait till the end of that year. How would you feel if you had to obey the year of Jubilee? I have to tell you, I think it would cause a great deal of consternation for a lot of people.
[00:31:06] Humans are meant to see God as the owner, and it gives us three major boasts in life. Boosts in life. Number one, it increased our trust.
[00:31:15] Matthew 626 says this. Look at the birds of the air. Jesus owned words. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns. And yet your heavenly Father feeds them. The owner, the landowner. Are you not much more valuable than a birdhouse? We were driving home and John was hitting birds left and right with the van because there's so many birds on this highway. It was like. It was spooky, weird. It was like, bing, bing, bing. The kids were all going, oh, we just killed another bird.
[00:31:48] They were bouncing off like ping pong balls off the band.
[00:31:52] Jesus uses this illustration. He says, listen. And I think he was swerving for them. But anyway, so Jesus uses the same illustration. He says, listen, are you not much more valuable than a sparrow?
[00:32:04] Therefore don't be anxious, saying, what shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or what shall we wear? Sound familiar? For the gentiles, seek after all these things. Your heavenly father knows you need them all, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
[00:32:21] The first thing, it increases our trust. We understand where these things come from, not our own intuition, not our own strength. They come from God.
[00:32:31] If he wanted to, he could make your heart stop beating. Now he gives you the strength. He gives you the day he gives. This is all from him.
[00:32:42] So it increases our trust.
[00:32:44] It also increases our enjoyment and our mission. Trip to South Dakota. I got a couple of pictures here. One of the things that blew me away was the topography. You could literally walk for 100 miles on this ground and never see another human being.
[00:33:02] It is a vast territory of rolling, grassy hills, and it blew me away. And the kids, they'll tell you all about it. It was like you drive to the horizon and there's another hundred miles of nothing. And then you drive a little further and you come to the Badlands. These are incredible badlands. These are like the topography changes in a heartbeat. It's like a mini. A mini grand canyon.
[00:33:27] That's Jonathan right there getting ready to do a nosedive. That's incredible. Here's another shot right here. These are the guys. They wanted to climb on all of these cliffs. It was an amazing experience, because when we were in this beauty, we literally were standing in the majesty of God.
[00:33:48] God has given us these things so that we can enjoy them. In fact, back in Genesis, chapter two, do you know why God created the earth? He didn't create the earth because he was bored. He created the earth as a gift. And who's it a gift to? There are only two people, Adam. And he said, and I'll prove it to you. Look. In Genesis 128, God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every living thing that moves on the ground. And God said, behold, I have given to you all these things.
[00:34:26] You have creation around you because it is meant to bring God's glory. It doesn't do it on its own, although it kind of does. But when you experience life in this creation, you go, holy smokes. God is amazing. Yes, he is the amazing landowner.
[00:34:44] When we enjoy his creation, that brings him glory. Sabbath is about us resting in God, realizing all gifts come from him and enjoying his creation.
[00:34:57] Don't let work take over your life. For God's sake, don't let worry take over your life.
[00:35:02] God knows your needs. He's the landowner. Trust him. Don't make bad decisions, but trust him to provide.
[00:35:12] Enjoy the life that God has given to you. And the last one, the third one is purpose.
[00:35:18] Don't let your paycheck rule your life. There's way more in life than just earning a paycheck.
[00:35:24] There's way more in life. Jesus said, listen, reap a harvest that lasts. Go after stuff that remains. You don't get to take your car, your house, you don't get to take your bank account. None of that goes with you. When you die, you only take one thing with you, and that's all the people that you influence. For Jesus Christ, that's the only thing you take with you.
[00:35:48] Jesus said it himself. He said, listen, the fields are white unto harvest. What does that mean? They're ready to harvest. It's not a lack of produce, it's a lack of participants.
[00:36:00] Go into the fields and reap a harvest that lasts. Not a bank account, but people and souls.
[00:36:09] We're only here for a short time to contribute to the owner of this land. And when we're gone, somebody else will take over and eventually we will be forgotten.
[00:36:22] But the things we do for goddess, for the landowner, those things will last.
[00:36:28] The second thing I want to tell you is this. This is the last thing. Commas don't last forever.
[00:36:34] We're in the comma right now.
[00:36:37] But commas don't last forever.
[00:36:39] What comes next is judgment. Judgment for sin, work, serve, love, forgive, be patient, honor, pray, honor, others give.
[00:36:48] But not like the story is going to go on indefinitely. Like the story might end imminently.
[00:36:55] Second Peter, three, nine.
[00:36:58] Jesus gives us this passage in two, Peter, and he says, listen, God is not slow concerning his promise. In other words, he's not slow to read through this passage. He's not slow. He's not like taking a break at the comma. He's just giving us a moment.
[00:37:16] He is patient with us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
[00:37:23] Do you want to hear a sad ending to this whole thing?
[00:37:26] No. Feel good. You don't want me to do the sad. You want me to conclude here.
[00:37:31] Beth hates sad endings.
[00:37:36] There is no record.
[00:37:38] There is no record in jewish history that the Jews ever observed a year of jubilee, but there is plenty of record to show that they didn't.
[00:37:52] Many illustrations of how they never did obey God.
[00:37:57] If you look at the rest of scripture, this opens your eyes to what actually is going on, because when they went into captivity, they were told, why, in second chronicles, this is going to blow you away. Verse 36 or second chronicles 36 20, God says he took into exile those in Babylon who had escaped from the sword. Babylon came in, they crushed the jewish people. They took a bunch of people into exile. This is where Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. This is where they went.
[00:38:28] They took them into captivity. And this is what it says in chronicles about that occasion.
[00:38:33] They took these people to Babylon who had escaped from the sword. They lived through the onslaught, but they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah. This is so sad. This is so sad. Look at this. Until the land had enjoyed its what, church? Its sabbaths. All the days it lay desolate, it kept Sabbath until it fulfilled 70 years. Do you know what thats saying? The jewish people never did what God wanted them to do. They never observed the Sabbath year, and they never observed the year of Jubilee. So God sent them into exile until 70 years went by and the land caught up on all its sabbaths.
[00:39:19] Isn't that crushing? So, church, who owns the land, they went into captivity to make up for the time they had lost. God owns the world. God owns its inhabitants, and we need to respect and honor that quickly and immediately.
[00:39:36] God's patience with us will eventually end, and the time will come.
[00:39:44] But God has sent us his son to remind us to live according to his principles.
[00:39:49] The landowner will return, and we will continue through the passage in Isaiah, where judgment comes next. For now, though, church, let your light shine for the landowner.
[00:40:00] Realize your land, your property, your family, your life is on loan from you, from the one who owns all of this.
[00:40:12] It's meant for you to enjoy, to find purpose, and to honor him through all of it. Second Corinthians six one, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain, for he says, in the favorable time, I have listened to you. In the day of salvation, I have helped you. Behold, church, now is the favorable time. Now is the day of salvation. Let's pray.
[00:40:38] Father, I'm grateful that you own all of this. I'm grateful this is your world.
[00:40:45] I'm grateful that you own us and all people who have ever lived on this planet.
[00:40:51] I'm grateful that we are made in your image. Fallen as we are.
[00:40:55] We get to see glimpses of you in creation. We get to see glimpses of you in each other.
[00:41:03] I'm grateful that the light is still here.
[00:41:08] And as we live in the comma, as we enjoy this jubilee, may we be busy bringing in the harvest because the comma will stop and judgment will come.
[00:41:23] And so, Father, we thank you for your patience that you are not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. There are so many in this congregation who have accepted you as their savior and taken huge steps of faith even in this past year, even in the past few weeks.
[00:41:41] May you continue to help us see a harvest through village church east. And whether we're here at our families, at our homes, at our jobs may we be looking to reap a harvest that lasts for eternity. I pray in Jesus name. Amen.
