WEBVTT 00:00:00.561 --> 00:00:06.155 I look forward to sharing the word with you this morning. 00:00:06.155 --> 00:00:12.747 We as an elder team feel like the Lord's given us three specific words for 2024. 00:00:12.747 --> 00:00:20.425 So last week we talked about encounter, and we believe that God wants to encounter us by the work of his Holy Spirit. 00:00:20.425 --> 00:00:22.486 He wants to encounter us with his presence. 00:00:22.486 --> 00:00:34.188 How many of you have enjoyed his presence this last week in your own life, in the car, at home, wherever it is that you're at, because he's with us, right, and he lives in us by the Holy Spirit. 00:00:34.188 --> 00:00:36.787 This week we're gonna be looking at the word jubilee. 00:00:36.787 --> 00:00:40.109 Another word that we use in the place of that is freedom. 00:00:40.109 --> 00:00:44.649 So jubilee, or freedom, and then next week we'll be looking at prepare. 00:00:44.649 --> 00:00:52.229 So jubilee, specifically, is an expression of living our lives in the freedom that Christ has provided for us. 00:00:52.229 --> 00:00:55.509 Let's look at Luke, chapter four, verses 16 through 21. 00:00:55.509 --> 00:01:06.965 For those who have been following along with our Bible reading plan, you will recognize that this passage was in our reading this week, and so it's kind of cool that the message is going to be coming out of that. 00:01:06.965 --> 00:01:11.406 We have over a hundred people who have joined the Bible reading plan for 2024. 00:01:11.406 --> 00:01:12.564 We're so grateful for that. 00:01:12.564 --> 00:01:18.248 Many of you have been making comments, young and old, and all the comments are really, really good. 00:01:18.248 --> 00:01:24.186 So I encourage you to continue to be a part of that and if you haven't yet it's not too late, you can still do that. 00:01:24.400 --> 00:01:27.308 Let's look at Luke, chapter four, verses 16 through 21. 00:01:27.308 --> 00:01:29.445 And this is the word of God. 00:01:29.445 --> 00:01:34.070 It's talking about Jesus, about his ministry. 00:01:34.070 --> 00:01:49.328 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and, as was 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. 00:01:49.328 --> 00:01:59.688 He enrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. 00:01:59.688 --> 00:02:14.049 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. 00:02:14.049 --> 00:02:29.188 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him and he began to say to them today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. 00:02:30.091 --> 00:02:35.044 Let's pray, father, god, in the name of Jesus, so grateful for your word. 00:02:35.044 --> 00:02:39.122 We are so grateful also that we're able to gather together in freedom. 00:02:39.122 --> 00:02:48.427 And we are thankful, even though things have become darker in America, that we still have the privilege and honor of meeting together in public. 00:02:48.427 --> 00:02:52.225 And so, lord, we ask that you would move, continue to move in this country. 00:02:52.225 --> 00:03:05.729 Lord, we thank you that Jesus Christ is the Lord of the nations and he's the Lord of the United States of America, and we ask, lord God, that you would continue to move in this land and cause your face to shine upon it. 00:03:05.729 --> 00:03:09.008 Lord, in multiple ways, in glorious ways. 00:03:09.008 --> 00:03:27.770 And, father, today, as you cause us to dig into your word, we ask that we would glean riches from it and, most of all, lord God, that the areas that we need to change and be transformed by the Holy Spirit, that we would be open to that and that you would do the work in us that only you can do. 00:03:27.770 --> 00:03:34.387 And we ask that, in all things, that you would be glorified and lifted up in the mighty name of Jesus. 00:03:34.387 --> 00:03:35.469 Amen. 00:03:36.979 --> 00:03:45.209 Trinity Community Church started in a bunch of homes, believers meeting in homes in 1974. 00:03:45.209 --> 00:03:56.501 And what happened was the Holy Spirit was poured out in the United States, as it had been poured out in the book of Acts, and many people received the filling of the. 00:03:56.501 --> 00:04:34.930 They were filled with the Holy Spirit, and because of that, many of the traditional churches that they had been a part of were not ready yet for that particular expression of the gifts of the Spirit to be active in their churches, and so many of them, unfortunately, were actually asked to leave those churches, and so they found themselves gathering in homes and searching and studying the scriptures to discern what it is that God was saying, not just about Jesus, as important as that is, or the heavenly Father, again as primary and important as that is, but who is this person of the Trinity called the Holy Spirit? 00:04:34.930 --> 00:04:52.326 And so, in 1975, that became a formal thing and the church was incorporated as Trinity Chapel and incorporated and Jack Wright was one of our original elders all those years ago, and we wanna give glory to God for him and for all of those who were part of that. 00:04:55.206 --> 00:05:07.389 The church was founded upon a verse of scripture in John, chapter one, verse 13, which says who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 00:05:07.389 --> 00:05:09.144 That's a good word, isn't it? 00:05:09.144 --> 00:05:23.209 And so that's what Trinity was formed on, and I wanted to let you know that part of this word jubilee has to do with the fact that Trinity is turning 50 years old this year, in 2024. 00:05:23.209 --> 00:05:26.047 Yeah, come on now, let's praise God for that. 00:05:26.047 --> 00:05:26.848 That's great. 00:05:26.848 --> 00:05:30.047 We have a celebration in store. 00:05:30.047 --> 00:05:38.504 We're gonna be celebrating throughout the year, but we have a specific weekend June, the 1st and 2nd of 2024 that we would ask you to set aside. 00:05:38.504 --> 00:05:49.846 Save the dates, mark your calendar so that you can be here to be a part of remembering what God has done, talking about what he's doing now and then looking toward the future and what God has in the future. 00:05:49.846 --> 00:05:53.565 So it's gonna be a great time for all of those things to occur. 00:05:54.339 --> 00:05:55.927 Why is that important for our text today? 00:05:55.927 --> 00:06:17.130 Well, it's because this passage and this quotation that Jesus gives from the book of Isaiah alludes to something that is an Old Testament reality, called the year of the Lord's favor or the year of jubilee, and in the nation of Israel, god said it aside that every 50th year, on the eve of the day of atonement. 00:06:17.130 --> 00:06:18.425 And what was the day of atonement? 00:06:18.425 --> 00:06:34.708 It was the day, once a year, that the high priest would kill a goat and he would take the blood from that goat and he would put it upon the Ark of the Covenant and pray to God for the sake of the nation, that he would have mercy on them, that he would cover over their sin. 00:06:34.708 --> 00:06:54.644 Then he would also take another goat and the high priest would lay his hands upon that goat and ask that the iniquity and all of the things that come from the sin of the people that they had committed would be put upon this goat, and then the goat was sent out to outer regions as a scapegoat. 00:06:54.644 --> 00:07:10.267 It was called a scapegoat and so that was the day of atonement, a recognition, a day when the entire nation would recognize their need really for a savior, even though they couldn't experience what we have experienced in Jesus yet, because Jesus had not yet come. 00:07:10.267 --> 00:07:19.288 But they could understand the concept of that because God built that into their system of religious experience and religious practice. 00:07:19.288 --> 00:07:21.908 So that day of atonement was really important. 00:07:21.908 --> 00:07:27.365 And on the 50th year, at the end of the day of atonement, there was something that would happen. 00:07:27.500 --> 00:07:28.845 Do you guys know what a shofar is? 00:07:28.845 --> 00:07:41.245 Now, some of you probably know a shofar by this, and that is somebody attempting to play the shofar that doesn't know how to play it. 00:07:41.245 --> 00:07:45.850 Okay, a shofar is a ram's horn that was used to sound like a trumpet. 00:07:45.850 --> 00:07:46.723 It's supposed to be like. 00:07:46.723 --> 00:07:49.786 I don't know if I can even make the noise. 00:07:49.786 --> 00:07:51.725 Is there anybody out there that can make the noise? 00:07:51.725 --> 00:07:52.781 There it is. 00:07:52.781 --> 00:07:54.387 Yeah, I just heard it. 00:07:54.387 --> 00:07:57.846 I don't know who that was, but there it is. 00:07:57.846 --> 00:07:58.649 There it is, thank you. 00:07:58.649 --> 00:08:00.372 Thank you, we got it. 00:08:00.372 --> 00:08:02.206 So that's kind of what it was supposed to sound like. 00:08:02.660 --> 00:08:15.528 I was pastoring in a church in North Carolina and there was a man in the church that had a shofar and he came to me one week and said the Lord told me that I'm supposed to blow the shofar before every service to kind of start the service. 00:08:15.528 --> 00:08:26.845 And the problem that I had is I had already heard him blow the shofar, or attempt, I should say, to blow the shofar, and about eight out of 10 times it didn't sound like that. 00:08:26.845 --> 00:08:36.562 It sounded more like the whiff, you know, and so I was like, well, god hasn't really spoken that to me yet, but I'll take it into consideration, thank you. 00:08:36.562 --> 00:08:42.741 Unfortunately he didn't make it very long in the church because we weren't gonna be blowing the shofar, but anyway. 00:08:42.741 --> 00:08:47.668 So the trumpet would sound and that would mark a change. 00:08:47.889 --> 00:08:52.504 That was an amazing transformation that would occur within the nation of Israel. 00:08:52.504 --> 00:08:57.568 Here's what would happen it would be a year of release from all indebtedness. 00:08:57.568 --> 00:09:00.885 Whoa can you imagine? 00:09:00.885 --> 00:09:16.129 All debts were wiped out, all types of bondage were taken away, all prisoners and captives were set free, all slaves were released, all debts again were forgiven and all property was returned to its original owners. 00:09:16.129 --> 00:09:23.327 In addition, all labor was deceased for one year and those bound by labor contracts were released from them. 00:09:23.327 --> 00:09:29.749 And another benefit of the Jubilee was that both the land and the people were able to rest. 00:09:29.749 --> 00:09:39.984 What a tremendous concept, what an amazing thing, and why would God put something like that in the practice of those who were under the old covenant, in the Old Testament? 00:09:40.561 --> 00:10:14.668 I believe that you can't look at that concept of the year of the Lord's favor or the Jubilee without thinking about another situation in the New Testament, where Jesus Christ Himself would leave the throne of heaven, humble Himself to come to this earth and live a perfect life, to die the death that we deserve, to be raised from the dead on the third day, to prove that he was King of kings and Lord of lords defeating Satan and death and hell and the grave forever and ever and ever more. 00:10:14.668 --> 00:10:19.283 He has provided for us Jubilee. 00:10:19.283 --> 00:10:22.774 He is our Jubilee. 00:10:22.774 --> 00:10:27.750 So I wanna look at a few concepts from the passage and then we'll get into our main points. 00:10:28.445 --> 00:10:31.049 First thing I want you to recognize is Jesus went to church. 00:10:31.049 --> 00:10:40.389 Jesus went to church, it says, and as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read. 00:10:40.389 --> 00:10:50.708 Now, if there's ever a person who's ever been born to this planet throughout all of history who could honestly say I probably don't need to go to church, it could have been who? 00:10:50.708 --> 00:10:52.386 Jesus. 00:10:52.386 --> 00:10:54.673 He's God in the flesh. 00:10:54.673 --> 00:11:01.830 If anybody could have opted out or said I really don't like hanging out with those people, it could have been Jesus. 00:11:01.830 --> 00:11:17.034 Can you imagine how difficult it must have been at times for Jesus to sit and to listen to other people try to explain himself because he is the word of God, to explain the word of God to other people and to get it sometimes right, sometimes wrong. 00:11:17.034 --> 00:11:20.326 I can imagine how difficult that must have been for him at times. 00:11:20.326 --> 00:11:26.152 And yet he chose, as an activist will, to be a member of a local church. 00:11:26.725 --> 00:11:33.214 I know that it's become a popular trend in the world that we live in to cast off restraint when it comes to church attendance. 00:11:33.214 --> 00:11:44.149 I also know that I'm speaking to people who are at church this morning, so I'm not pretending to, I'm not trying to say to you that you're doing something wrong what I am saying to you. 00:11:44.149 --> 00:11:57.775 Let's not give into the pressure that the world puts on us, and even Christians are attempting to break apart or to say that church life is no longer relevant or important. 00:11:57.775 --> 00:12:13.890 Let me tell you this at some times it feels the same way to me, and here's why there are a lot of churches who are not preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, and so in some cases, you can understand why there are people who no longer want to attend a local church. 00:12:14.404 --> 00:12:33.809 There are also churches, unfortunately, who have had leadership failures, and we see that all over the board, where people have looked up to one person and that one person has fallen away from what they know to be true and has walked in a direction that has caused other people in their congregation to be very deeply hurt. 00:12:33.809 --> 00:12:50.750 And so we understand that there is this reality of hurt that comes church, hurt that comes from leadership that have failed, or even maybe you've seen a lot of hypocrisy in churches, where people say one thing but then they do something else. 00:12:50.750 --> 00:13:17.274 By the way, whenever you see a hypocrite, make sure that you're looking in the mirror too, because how many of you realize that, even though we may be walking in the light and in truth in many areas in our life, there are still areas where we're not fully obeying the commandments of the Lord or walking in truth as we should be, and so we all honestly could say Lord, forgive me, for I am a hypocrite, right? 00:13:17.274 --> 00:13:22.491 So for us to blame other hypocrites is a little hypocritical in itself, isn't it? 00:13:22.491 --> 00:13:42.729 Leadership failures, and then also there are many churches who are embracing cultural norms that are completely in opposition to the scriptures, and so we understand that it has become somewhat popular and again for some good reasons in some senses for people to say I don't need the church anymore, I'm over the church. 00:13:42.729 --> 00:13:44.107 Here's the deal. 00:13:44.107 --> 00:13:53.153 We're still required to obey God's commandments, regardless of how we feel or what the world around us is saying or the philosophy of the crowd. 00:13:53.153 --> 00:13:53.794 Right? 00:13:54.284 --> 00:14:11.994 And Hebrews 10, verse 24 and 25, it says and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another in all the more as you see the day drawing near. 00:14:11.994 --> 00:14:13.009 What day is that? 00:14:13.009 --> 00:14:18.207 The day of the Lord, the day of Christ's return to this planet? 00:14:18.207 --> 00:14:30.033 He will return, and I don't know about you, but if you take 33 AD and you add whatever years you need to add to get to 2024, we should be closer to his appearing, shouldn't we? 00:14:30.033 --> 00:14:33.553 So we are getting closer and closer to his appearing. 00:14:33.553 --> 00:14:49.917 It's more important now than ever to be a part of community within a local church that isn't perfect, but that is following after God and attempting to present truth that comes from him, amen. 00:14:50.950 --> 00:14:55.299 The second thing that I want you to glean from this passage is that Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit. 00:14:55.299 --> 00:14:56.144 What does it say? 00:14:56.144 --> 00:14:59.951 The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me. 00:14:59.951 --> 00:15:03.335 The spirit of God was upon Jesus. 00:15:03.335 --> 00:15:05.597 Isn't it interesting? 00:15:05.597 --> 00:15:07.530 Jesus is standing in front of his home church. 00:15:07.530 --> 00:15:11.155 He opens the scroll of Isaiah, begins to read it. 00:15:11.155 --> 00:15:13.452 At the end of the reading, what does he do? 00:15:13.452 --> 00:15:22.496 He hands back the scroll, he sits down, he waits for a second and then he says today, this is fulfilled in your hearing. 00:15:22.496 --> 00:15:25.913 Wow, talk about a mic drop moment. 00:15:26.014 --> 00:15:36.476 Right, jesus lived, but you gotta recognize that before this time in history, jesus had lived for 30 years in obscurity, in relative obscurity. 00:15:36.476 --> 00:15:39.173 What do we know about Jesus except for his birth? 00:15:39.173 --> 00:15:42.437 We have an indication of something that happened when he was 12 years old. 00:15:42.437 --> 00:15:43.879 Do you guys remember the story? 00:15:43.879 --> 00:15:52.404 Jesus and his family traveled to Jerusalem in order to celebrate the feast and when they got there, jesus found himself in the temple. 00:15:52.404 --> 00:15:53.951 And what did he do in the temple? 00:15:53.951 --> 00:16:02.404 He began to have conversations with those who were the religious leaders and the rulers in the temple, and they began to be amazed and confounded. 00:16:02.404 --> 00:16:06.227 And in fact, this didn't just happen for a few minutes or an hour. 00:16:06.227 --> 00:16:08.294 This went on for days and days. 00:16:08.445 --> 00:16:20.750 And the family of Jesus, having finished their festivities, leaves Jerusalem and, somewhere about a day's journey away, mary and Joseph look at each other and say I think we lost the son of God. 00:16:20.750 --> 00:16:25.197 Can you imagine that feeling? 00:16:25.197 --> 00:16:29.451 I can't even imagine or fathom what that must have been like for them. 00:16:29.451 --> 00:16:31.511 They turn around and they go back to Jerusalem. 00:16:31.511 --> 00:16:39.467 They're searching everywhere, high and low, and they can't find him, and finally they think maybe, maybe, just maybe he's in the temple. 00:16:39.467 --> 00:16:43.292 And they go there and they find him and they begin to reprimand him. 00:16:43.292 --> 00:16:46.494 And Jesus said where did you expect for me to be? 00:16:46.494 --> 00:16:52.495 I must be about my father's business, right? 00:16:52.495 --> 00:17:03.614 Just an example, just a small picture into who Jesus is and who he was and his development, even as a 12 year old young man. 00:17:03.614 --> 00:17:13.090 But then it says Luke 2, 52 says and he grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and with man. 00:17:13.090 --> 00:17:37.753 So from the age of 12 to 30, basically, there's no record, there's no description of anything else outside of those, that thing that happened, his birth and the fact that Joseph took the family, because of the angel, on escape to Egypt, and then they came back to Nazareth, and then the 12 year old temple story and then beyond that, there's nothing heard of him until he's 30 years old. 00:17:38.724 --> 00:17:39.469 Interesting, isn't it? 00:17:39.469 --> 00:17:42.554 He lived for 30 years in relative obscurity. 00:17:42.554 --> 00:17:53.732 He was living a life of humble obedience to his heavenly father, and then one day he's walking out in the wilderness and he hears the voice of a wild man. 00:17:53.732 --> 00:17:55.648 Who was this wild man? 00:17:55.648 --> 00:18:00.435 John the Baptist, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 00:18:00.435 --> 00:18:02.290 I can imagine him dressed in. 00:18:02.290 --> 00:18:07.712 My grandfather was a mountain man in Wyoming, so he wore deer skin leather. 00:18:07.712 --> 00:18:09.108 I mean, he wore leather. 00:18:09.108 --> 00:18:19.914 He had a knife and a gun and a skunk hat and an elk tooth necklace and a bear claw necklace and he would have sworn that he killed him with his bare hands. 00:18:19.914 --> 00:18:37.613 I don't know if any of that was actually true probably not, but anyway, the point being, I understand what it's like to go into a red lobster with a man who was my grandfather dressed like that, because everyone in the restaurant looked at him like who are you and why are you here? 00:18:37.613 --> 00:18:47.451 So I can imagine John the Baptist, this wild man eating locusts and wild honey, crying out at the top of his lungs, baptizing people in the Jordan. 00:18:47.451 --> 00:18:49.932 Everybody's coming out to see this. 00:18:49.932 --> 00:18:52.492 What is this crazy guy doing now? 00:18:52.605 --> 00:19:09.334 And all of a sudden, jesus shows up on the shore of the Jordan and the same spirit that caused John the Baptist in Elizabeth's womb to jump with joy when Mary came to visit Elizabeth and Jesus was in her womb, that same spirit rose up in John in this moment. 00:19:09.334 --> 00:19:16.978 And he looks at Jesus and he says behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 00:19:16.978 --> 00:19:21.673 Wow, what a divine revelation. 00:19:21.673 --> 00:19:26.644 And then Jesus, of course, says to John I need you to baptize me. 00:19:26.644 --> 00:19:30.134 And John says, oh, this would be a great. 00:19:30.134 --> 00:19:32.045 I'll put this on Instagram. 00:19:32.045 --> 00:19:32.615 This will be. 00:19:32.615 --> 00:19:36.944 I mean, can you imagine the type of crowd we're gonna gather after this? 00:19:36.944 --> 00:19:38.584 No, what did he say? 00:19:38.584 --> 00:19:43.644 I'm not worthy to even bow down and untie your sandals. 00:19:43.644 --> 00:19:49.684 I should be baptized by you, and yet you're asking me to baptize you. 00:19:49.684 --> 00:19:54.269 And Jesus said it must be done in order to fulfill the law and prophets. 00:19:54.269 --> 00:19:58.089 And so John stretched out his hand and helped Jesus into the water. 00:19:58.884 --> 00:20:12.426 And Jesus comes into the Jordan, john baptizes him and as he comes up out of the water, the Bible says that heaven opened and the spirit of God descended upon him in the form of a dove and heaven. 00:20:12.426 --> 00:20:22.134 There's a voice from heaven, the heavenly father, that said you are my beloved son and you I am well pleased. 00:20:22.134 --> 00:20:46.269 Before Jesus ever did any miracle, sign or wonder, anything that could be counted as something that he was doing as part of his ministry or a work, heavenly Father said to him good job, my friends, should we accept that same kind of it? 00:20:46.269 --> 00:20:48.476 Should we embrace that same kind of thought? 00:20:48.476 --> 00:20:53.326 Works are important, but they are not the establishment of relationship with God. 00:20:53.326 --> 00:20:56.141 They're an outworking of our relationship with God. 00:20:56.141 --> 00:21:02.027 We know that Jesus, being filled with the Spirit, was then taken by the Spirit into the wilderness. 00:21:02.027 --> 00:21:07.547 Satan came, attempted to tempt Jesus and Jesus slammed the door on that every time. 00:21:07.547 --> 00:21:15.005 And then from there Jesus went about doing his ministry and for a year signs and wonders and miracles were following. 00:21:15.005 --> 00:21:26.339 He was teaching the crowds, he gathered his followers around him and then, a year into his ministry, he comes into his hometown of Nazareth. 00:21:27.634 --> 00:21:31.025 So if Jesus was filled with the Spirit, do we need to be filled with the Spirit? 00:21:31.025 --> 00:21:37.327 Yeah, followers of Jesus Christ are baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ. 00:21:37.327 --> 00:21:38.838 First, corinthians, 12, 13,. 00:21:38.838 --> 00:21:48.666 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and we're all made to drink of one Spirit. 00:21:48.666 --> 00:21:54.426 We cannot become a part of the body of Christ unless the Holy Spirit does His work. 00:21:54.426 --> 00:22:01.326 He's the one who does the work of bringing us into, to be a part of, the body of Christ. 00:22:01.326 --> 00:22:10.644 But followers of Jesus Christ not only need to be baptized into the body of Christ, they also need to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit. 00:22:10.644 --> 00:22:19.698 Continually filled Ephesians 5, 18, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit. 00:22:19.698 --> 00:22:30.086 And if you read this in the context of what it's actually saying in the original Greek, it says but be being filled with the Spirit. 00:22:30.086 --> 00:22:33.542 In other words, this is a continual thing that needs to occur. 00:22:34.194 --> 00:22:45.157 If any of us, if all of us, were to hop in the church fan which would be a miracle in itself then we were going to head out to California and we're going to just believe God to get there right. 00:22:45.157 --> 00:22:48.319 How far would we make it on this first tank of gas? 00:22:48.319 --> 00:22:58.903 We might make it to Nashville or a little bit further beyond that, but eventually we're going to have to refill, aren't we to keep on going? 00:22:58.903 --> 00:23:00.838 It's the same way with us. 00:23:00.838 --> 00:23:05.565 We need more and more of the Spirit of God in our lives. 00:23:05.565 --> 00:23:15.557 It's interesting because in the book of Acts, chapter 2, on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit fell upon those who were waiting for him to come, they were filled with the Holy Spirit there. 00:23:15.557 --> 00:23:25.205 But then, several chapters later and many times in the book of Acts, they cried out for boldness, for courage and to be filled with the Holy Spirit. 00:23:25.205 --> 00:23:31.645 Are you content with the level of fullness that you have right now, or do you want more? 00:23:31.645 --> 00:23:37.766 I want to walk in the fullness of the Spirit, just like Jesus did. 00:23:37.766 --> 00:23:41.020 So let's get into his actual message now. 00:23:42.095 --> 00:23:45.265 Jesus came to deliver a message of good news. 00:23:45.265 --> 00:23:47.942 You've heard the term gospel before, the word gospel. 00:23:47.942 --> 00:23:51.583 That word actually means good news. 00:23:51.583 --> 00:23:53.001 That's what it means. 00:23:53.001 --> 00:23:57.203 How many times in a given day do we receive good news? 00:23:57.203 --> 00:24:02.545 Yeah, not very often, right? 00:24:02.545 --> 00:24:10.935 We're in the Word, and maybe from our spouse, or maybe from, and occasionally you go into work and they say you know what we want? 00:24:10.935 --> 00:24:15.380 You're working too hard for one thing, so we want you to work a little less hard. 00:24:15.380 --> 00:24:22.746 If you could take Fridays off and we want to double your pay because you're just so valuable to the company, right? 00:24:22.746 --> 00:24:26.124 Would you consider that that'd be good news, wouldn't it? 00:24:26.124 --> 00:24:27.739 We don't necessarily hear that. 00:24:27.739 --> 00:24:35.948 We hear you need to do more work and more hours, and we're not able to give you a raise right now. 00:24:35.948 --> 00:24:42.143 We're probably going to have to give you a little bit less than what you were given before, but it's going to be great, it's going to be fine. 00:24:42.143 --> 00:24:43.665 You still have a job. 00:24:43.665 --> 00:24:44.577 Be thankful, right? 00:24:44.577 --> 00:24:53.228 Good news is a rare thing, but Jesus came to deliver a message of good news. 00:24:53.875 --> 00:25:03.862 Now many people, when they hear Jesus quoting this passage in Isaiah, they think that he's talking about social justice and, by the way, social justice is very important. 00:25:03.862 --> 00:25:11.516 We need to stand for those who are marginalized and find themselves in positions where they are being taken advantage of Amen. 00:25:11.516 --> 00:25:16.464 That's something that the church needs to be a part of helping in those areas. 00:25:16.464 --> 00:25:22.165 But Jesus is not limiting this message to those particular categories of people. 00:25:22.165 --> 00:25:28.126 He's speaking to everyone, in every category, across the board, right? 00:25:28.126 --> 00:25:31.564 He's also not giving a political speech. 00:25:31.564 --> 00:25:42.246 He's not attempting to incite a rally and have a bunch of people who would start a grasp for its movement to change the climate of life in the first century in Israel. 00:25:42.246 --> 00:25:45.664 He's not looking to overthrow Rome at this time. 00:25:45.664 --> 00:25:47.982 None of that stuff is trying to be done here. 00:25:47.982 --> 00:25:50.682 That's not an undercurrent, even in his thought. 00:25:50.682 --> 00:25:54.884 He is here and he's got a purpose, a very important purpose. 00:25:54.884 --> 00:25:59.964 Let's not limit him by our own mindset or our own way of thinking of things. 00:26:01.035 --> 00:26:05.486 The message of the gospel is preached by Jesus has to do with man's sinfulness. 00:26:05.486 --> 00:26:16.582 You and I, all of us, have been born dead to God and we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and because of that we deserve God's breath. 00:26:16.582 --> 00:26:25.403 We deserve for God to punish us because of the sins that we've committed, and the Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death. 00:26:25.403 --> 00:26:32.486 We should be eternally separated by death from God because of the sins that we've committed. 00:26:32.486 --> 00:26:34.615 But how many of you know? 00:26:34.615 --> 00:26:54.346 The gospel does not end on that note, because it says that not only did Jesus come, but Jesus came to live the life that we could not live a perfect life and to die the death again that we deserved and to raise again on the third day, proving that he had defeated Satan and hell in the grave. 00:26:55.315 --> 00:27:02.249 The message of the gospel is for those who, by the work of the Holy Spirit, become aware of their need. 00:27:02.249 --> 00:27:05.664 What does it mean that Jesus came to preach the gospel to the poor? 00:27:05.664 --> 00:27:17.241 He came to preach the gospel to those who recognize that they need it, those who acknowledge their need. 00:27:17.241 --> 00:27:19.819 Matthew 5, verse 3,. 00:27:19.819 --> 00:27:34.884 Jesus is giving probably his most famous sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, and he starts his words by saying blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, the poor in spirit, those who recognize I cannot fix myself. 00:27:34.884 --> 00:27:38.342 I've tried and I've failed. 00:27:38.342 --> 00:27:54.259 I've tried to be faithful, I've tried to be good, I've tried to be kind, I've tried not to be angry or earlier in the service I've tried all of these things and I cannot do it, but just for a moment in time. 00:27:54.259 --> 00:27:58.356 And even when I do it for a moment in time, inside of me I want to do it. 00:27:58.356 --> 00:28:07.884 We will not receive the grace of God in our lives until we first acknowledge our need. 00:28:07.884 --> 00:28:14.164 Thank God, part of the work of the Holy Spirit is to help us to understand our need. 00:28:14.164 --> 00:28:18.180 What a great gift it is that he gives us. 00:28:23.234 --> 00:28:28.186 Poverty is something that I wish we could alleviate, but you know, it's interesting. 00:28:28.186 --> 00:28:32.785 When I first went to Haiti, I learned that there were a lot of. 00:28:32.785 --> 00:28:38.625 I saw, I observed that there were a lot of people there that, in my from my observation, were very poor. 00:28:38.625 --> 00:28:41.200 They had absolutely nothing. 00:28:41.200 --> 00:28:45.884 In fact, they had less than nothing, it seemed, because they owed things to people. 00:28:45.884 --> 00:28:50.771 The biggest industry in Haiti at that time was a hut that was in every village. 00:28:50.771 --> 00:29:13.375 That was the lottery hut, and at the end of every grueling day of work, people would bring their hard earned money, as small as it was, and they would put their money in that lottery hut, hoping that maybe their name would be drawn so that they could receive some of the some of the money that had been given to the lottery hut I will take. 00:29:13.375 --> 00:29:30.338 I will say this there was at least one wealthy family in every village, those who owned the lottery hut, but when I what I recognized when I went there is that these people did not recognize how poor they were. 00:29:30.338 --> 00:29:47.898 They had no clue Because to them it was Monday, it was just another day, and unless I would say to them do you not know how much you're missing out on? 00:29:47.898 --> 00:29:53.876 I actually thought that I could fix Haiti by just bringing some money down there. 00:29:54.866 --> 00:29:55.830 It's a spiritual issue. 00:29:55.830 --> 00:30:11.218 Jesus is the only one who can fix anything, including nations like Haiti, and he is always faithful and he has been moving and is moving and will continue to move Amen. 00:30:11.218 --> 00:30:22.644 The second thing, and one of the things that I want us to understand, is that, again, a lot of people think that Jesus is talking about different aspects of his ministry. 00:30:22.644 --> 00:30:26.272 As he's quoting from Isaiah, I think he's talking about the gospel the whole time. 00:30:26.272 --> 00:30:33.077 I think he's saying that the power of the gospel does these types of things in people's lives. 00:30:33.077 --> 00:30:42.919 It's a further explanation of what the good news does in the life of somebody who accepts and acknowledges their need for a Savior. 00:30:42.919 --> 00:30:49.656 So one of the things Jesus says is that we can be free from the power of sin. 00:30:50.424 --> 00:30:53.530 Jesus sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives. 00:30:53.530 --> 00:30:57.798 How many of us understand what it means to be captive to sin? 00:30:57.798 --> 00:31:15.740 All of us were born in a proverbial way with a ball and chain attached to our foot and over time and over life, as we've experienced life and we have sinned and continue to sin, that ball and chain, the ball on the end of it, continues to get larger and larger and heavier and heavier. 00:31:15.740 --> 00:31:26.577 Many people, many of us, are still trying to carry the load and the weight of that sin and the bondage that it causes us to be in. 00:31:26.577 --> 00:31:36.179 The good news is that Jesus came to make us free from the power of sin. 00:31:36.505 --> 00:31:41.777 You can imagine the nation of Israel as they had been in captivity for 400 years in Egypt. 00:31:41.777 --> 00:31:54.392 And all of a sudden, one day, god is so faithfully manifest these signs and wonders and Pharaoh himself says Go and take with you all of the riches of Egypt. 00:31:54.392 --> 00:32:00.808 But for 399 years. 00:32:00.808 --> 00:32:02.271 They had to wait. 00:32:02.271 --> 00:32:10.348 It's hard to wait, am I right? 00:32:10.348 --> 00:32:17.917 Because of Jesus Christ, we can forever be loosed from the bondage of sin, guilt and shame. 00:32:17.917 --> 00:32:21.490 In John 8, verse 34, it says Jesus answered them. 00:32:21.490 --> 00:32:27.338 Truly, truly, I say to you everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 00:32:27.338 --> 00:32:30.832 The slave doesn't remain in the house forever. 00:32:30.832 --> 00:32:32.135 The son remains forever. 00:32:32.135 --> 00:32:36.028 So if the son sets you free, you will be free. 00:32:36.028 --> 00:32:44.797 Indeed, jesus came to chop the chain off of us once and for all. 00:32:49.424 --> 00:33:01.179 I was introduced to sexuality in a very negative way in my life and so, because of that, I became in some ways obsessed with sexual thought and with pornography. 00:33:01.179 --> 00:33:21.814 I was trapped, I was oppressed, I was in bondage to that, and in my early 20s, the faithfulness of God came to me in the form of my wife, who said to me I'm with you, we're going to pray about this and God's going to break it out of your life. 00:33:21.814 --> 00:33:29.231 By the way, that came on the heels of me being honest and real with her, which was the hardest thing, one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. 00:33:29.231 --> 00:33:40.577 But I thank speed of God that I did it and 25 years later I can say God broke the chain off of my life, amen. 00:33:40.577 --> 00:33:45.453 And if he did it for me, he can do it for you. 00:33:45.453 --> 00:33:50.365 I mean you could put any category, name a sin, you can put it in there. 00:33:50.365 --> 00:34:02.076 Whatever it is that holds you in captivity, that you feel like you have no power to overcome, jesus came to set you free from the bondage of sin. 00:34:02.076 --> 00:34:06.394 Be free in Jesus' name. 00:34:09.389 --> 00:34:12.364 He goes on to say that we can be healed of spiritual blindness. 00:34:12.364 --> 00:34:16.364 He said that he came to bring recovery of sight to the blind. 00:34:16.364 --> 00:34:32.510 There are so many in this life who walk around like the walking dead, literally, who they just walk around aimlessly, completely devastated and dead in sin and trespasses, and it's easier for us to point them out. 00:34:32.510 --> 00:34:42.311 But let's not forget that was once you and I blinded by the God of this world, no truth getting through. 00:34:42.311 --> 00:34:52.695 Jesus came to help us and heal us from this helpless state, and his light brings life and rids us and frees us. 00:34:52.695 --> 00:34:54.969 Excuse me from blindness. 00:34:54.969 --> 00:35:00.364 Now, in the natural realm, jesus healed blind people too. 00:35:00.887 --> 00:35:08.797 I'm thinking of the story of Bartimaeus Bartimaeus, this man who had been blind since birth, standing on the side of the road begging for help. 00:35:08.797 --> 00:35:24.237 All of a sudden he begins, with his other senses to pick up the fact that there was a crowd around him, and he had already heard of this man named Jesus of Nazareth, and somehow he must have heard the murmurs or the whispers that Jesus was among them. 00:35:24.237 --> 00:35:30.358 And so Bartimaeus, standing on the side of the road, did not want to miss his opportunity as Jesus was passing by. 00:35:30.358 --> 00:35:35.293 And so he said Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. 00:35:35.293 --> 00:35:50.708 And the disciples being the good disciples that they were trying to protect Jesus, go up to Bartimaeus and say shh, stop, don't bother him. 00:35:50.708 --> 00:36:03.336 I can even see Peter putting his hand up to his mouth, bartimaeus biting at him and saying Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. 00:36:05.447 --> 00:36:10.956 And for one of the few times ever found in the Gospels, it says that Jesus stopped. 00:36:10.956 --> 00:36:19.396 And he walked up to Bartimaeus and he said friend, what do you want me to do for you? 00:36:19.396 --> 00:36:22.449 And what did Bartimaeus say? 00:36:22.449 --> 00:36:25.235 That I might see? 00:36:25.235 --> 00:36:31.364 Jesus prayed for him and immediately his eyes were opened for the first time. 00:36:31.364 --> 00:36:46.364 Can you imagine the rush of colors and motion and all of the things that he experienced through smell and taste and feel and hearing is now rushing at him and he's seeing it for the very first time. 00:36:46.364 --> 00:36:52.291 And Jesus looks at him and says all right, you've received your miracle, now go, go your way. 00:36:52.291 --> 00:36:59.235 But it goes on to say that Bartimaeus followed after him. 00:37:02.744 --> 00:37:16.659 Bartimaeus understood, through the opening of his natural eyes, that here was a man who I needed to follow, because he there was something that I needed to glean that was much more important than just my vision. 00:37:16.659 --> 00:37:22.976 Jesus came to open our eyes to the truth. 00:37:22.976 --> 00:37:26.963 There's a song that some of you may have heard of before. 00:37:26.963 --> 00:37:33.076 It goes like this Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. 00:37:33.076 --> 00:37:40.773 I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see. 00:37:40.773 --> 00:37:50.538 Jesus came to open our blinded eyes so that we could see who he is and be saved. 00:37:52.585 --> 00:37:57.436 The next thing Jesus says is that we can be delivered from Satan's oppressive influence. 00:37:57.436 --> 00:38:01.344 He came to set at liberty those who are oppressed. 00:38:01.344 --> 00:38:03.364 Oppression is the opposite of glory. 00:38:03.364 --> 00:38:09.610 If you think about glory, which is the goodness of God poured out upon humanity, it feels weighty. 00:38:09.610 --> 00:38:13.364 It feels heavy, but not in a way that causes you to have a burden. 00:38:13.364 --> 00:38:15.364 It's something that you recognize. 00:38:15.364 --> 00:38:22.418 There's something greater than me in the universe that is expressing himself to me in this moment and this time. 00:38:24.266 --> 00:38:35.364 But oppression is Satan's attempt to do the same thing, but instead of something that lifts us up and causes us to come closer to God, oppression is something that burdens us down. 00:38:35.364 --> 00:38:39.364 It's like carrying a sack full of cinder blocks that we can't put down. 00:38:39.364 --> 00:38:42.094 It's always with us, it's always upon us. 00:38:42.094 --> 00:38:46.349 Fear and torment and all anxiety. 00:38:46.349 --> 00:38:53.679 Anything that you can think about that causes oppression mostly lies. 00:38:53.679 --> 00:39:02.817 Satan is the father of all lies and he does everything he possibly can to attempt to convince us of lies to be true. 00:39:02.817 --> 00:39:13.773 Excuse me, can we stop listening to his lies, please? 00:39:13.773 --> 00:39:17.550 Can we stop? 00:39:17.550 --> 00:39:23.836 Jesus came to give us freedom. 00:39:23.836 --> 00:39:29.364 We no longer have to be tormented in our minds any longer. 00:39:29.364 --> 00:39:33.115 We no longer have to be continually hearing you're not worthy. 00:39:33.115 --> 00:39:45.400 Of course I'm not worthy, but there's one who is worthy, who gave me a gift, the gift of grace of salvation, so that I could enter into his presence with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. 00:39:45.400 --> 00:39:49.313 What does worthiness have to do with it? 00:39:49.313 --> 00:39:51.730 It's not my worth. 00:39:55.650 --> 00:40:00.318 Acts 10.38, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. 00:40:00.318 --> 00:40:06.637 He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 00:40:06.637 --> 00:40:13.338 My friends, god wants to deliver you from your oppression. 00:40:13.338 --> 00:40:19.697 It is not something that you have to grow comfortable with or become allies with. 00:40:19.697 --> 00:40:32.856 Jesus came to create freedom in our lives and finally we can experience jubilee or freedom in our daily lives. 00:40:32.856 --> 00:40:35.608 He came to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. 00:40:35.608 --> 00:40:51.759 Jesus came to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, the dawning of a new era for this world's sighing, sobbing multitudes. 00:40:51.759 --> 00:41:01.364 He presented himself as the answer to all the ills that torment us, everything that we can think of that is evil and wicked and horrible. 00:41:01.364 --> 00:41:09.789 Jesus came to deliver us from and to give us right relationship with God. 00:41:09.789 --> 00:41:19.583 Christ is the answer to every ill that will ever face any person here in this planet. 00:41:19.583 --> 00:41:23.697 He is the answer to our problems. 00:41:23.697 --> 00:41:28.097 Hebrews 4, 9-11 says so. 00:41:28.137 --> 00:41:36.842 Then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works, as God did from his. 00:41:36.842 --> 00:41:44.153 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 00:41:44.153 --> 00:41:51.802 There is a rest that is promised to us by God as we are in Christ Jesus. 00:41:51.802 --> 00:42:01.851 There is a rest that some of you haven't experienced in a very long time, and I'm here to tell you. 00:42:01.851 --> 00:42:03.315 It's available to you. 00:42:03.315 --> 00:42:06.512 God has paid the price for it. 00:42:06.512 --> 00:42:22.213 See, the jubilee of God looks like rescue, it looks like rest, it looks like remember, it looks like refresh and it looks like restart, but there's a striving. 00:42:22.213 --> 00:42:23.318 What is the striving? 00:42:23.318 --> 00:42:25.257 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest. 00:42:25.257 --> 00:42:26.242 What is the striving? 00:42:26.242 --> 00:42:30.697 It's the striving of coming into a place of agreement with God. 00:42:30.697 --> 00:42:36.898 There's a striving of faith that's required. 00:42:36.898 --> 00:42:54.119 We must believe that what God says is actually absolutely true, and so, in conclusion, I want to make this point Unbelief is the primary way to miss out on freedom and jubilee. 00:42:56.309 --> 00:43:01.760 Unbelief is the primary way to miss out on jubilee and to miss out on freedom. 00:43:01.760 --> 00:43:03.853 Here we have Jesus. 00:43:03.853 --> 00:43:05.920 Like I said, this mic drop moment. 00:43:05.920 --> 00:43:17.679 He hands the scroll back to the person who was in charge of the scrolls, he sits down, he waits, he pauses, he takes a deep breath and then he says today, this is fulfilled in your hearing. 00:43:17.679 --> 00:43:24.161 And for a moment in time, those that were around him were in awe. 00:43:24.161 --> 00:43:27.079 They were all staring at him with mouths wide open. 00:43:27.079 --> 00:43:28.514 What was this that he was saying? 00:43:28.514 --> 00:43:38.815 What he was saying was I'm the Messiah, I'm the one you've been waiting for, I'm the Savior, I'm the healer, I'm the redeemer, I'm the deliverer. 00:43:38.815 --> 00:43:41.414 I'm sitting right here in front of you. 00:43:41.414 --> 00:44:00.414 You would have thought that this would be a moment of a huge eruption of praise and honor and glory and people bowing down on their faces and people recognizing and crying out to God in prayer Lord, thank you. 00:44:00.414 --> 00:44:08.898 But instead one of them says isn't that Joseph's son? 00:44:08.898 --> 00:44:15.516 Didn't he build a table for us a few years ago? 00:44:15.516 --> 00:44:21.342 I mean, he was a good babysitter. 00:44:21.342 --> 00:44:22.333 He babysat our kids. 00:44:22.333 --> 00:44:24.516 He was like he kept them in check. 00:44:24.516 --> 00:44:25.217 It was amazing. 00:44:25.217 --> 00:44:26.952 You know how he did that. 00:44:26.952 --> 00:44:37.760 Familiarity built can build contempt. 00:44:40.153 --> 00:44:45.474 As I was preparing for this message, I felt like the Lord spoke to me two specific things I don't want to bring up at the end. 00:44:45.474 --> 00:44:59.992 The first thing is this it's not enough to have grown up in a Christian home where parents loved you and taught you about the scriptures. 00:44:59.992 --> 00:45:05.378 It's not enough to have been part of a local church. 00:45:05.378 --> 00:45:07.634 Your entire life Never missed a service. 00:45:07.634 --> 00:45:10.014 We're always there early and left late. 00:45:10.014 --> 00:45:18.775 Those things are impactful and important and we obviously encourage those things, but that is not enough. 00:45:18.775 --> 00:45:29.411 You can live your whole life around Jesus and yet when he says to you I'm your Savior, I'm your Lord. 00:45:29.411 --> 00:45:32.898 You can say no, not today. 00:45:32.898 --> 00:45:40.614 I'm going to live my life the way I want to live my life, and when I'm ready I'll let you know. 00:45:40.614 --> 00:45:47.195 I understand what that's like. 00:45:47.449 --> 00:45:57.353 I can't remember a memory of me not being in church, and I thank God again that I grew up in a Christian home, that I went to Christian school, that all of those things. 00:45:57.353 --> 00:45:58.677 I thank God for those things. 00:45:58.677 --> 00:46:18.838 But it wasn't until I recognized for myself that I needed a Savior that things really changed in my life, where my attitude changed, where my behavior changed, where my speech patterns changed, where I had my desires to help other people. 00:46:18.838 --> 00:46:26.032 All of those things began to be changed and transformed when I recognized my own need for Jesus. 00:46:26.032 --> 00:46:37.492 My fear and my concern is that Jesus returns for a church that's relying on God being a generational God. 00:46:37.492 --> 00:46:40.842 But they haven't understood that you can't inherit salvation. 00:46:40.842 --> 00:46:43.936 It's something that each individual must choose. 00:46:43.936 --> 00:46:50.313 You cannot go to heaven because your parents are Christians. 00:46:50.313 --> 00:47:09.496 You must choose this day who we will serve. 00:47:09.496 --> 00:47:17.637 Everywhere else Jesus went, the crowds gathered. 00:47:17.637 --> 00:47:20.778 The crowds would not leave Him alone. 00:47:20.778 --> 00:47:23.094 The crowds wanted more and more and more. 00:47:23.094 --> 00:47:34.255 But in His hometown, among His people, they couldn't get past religion history. 00:47:47.670 --> 00:47:55.175 The other thing I want to say is that there are some in this room who you feel like that you're on your 49th year of waiting. 00:47:55.175 --> 00:48:10.340 I want you to know that the 50th year is coming, the year of Jubilee is coming in your life. 00:48:10.340 --> 00:48:16.061 Some of you are about ready to give up on your kids and your grandkids. 00:48:16.061 --> 00:48:17.614 Do not do it. 00:48:17.614 --> 00:48:22.719 Do not lose heart or lose hope or lose confidence. 00:48:22.719 --> 00:48:27.199