Christ in the Feast of Tabernacles

Shalom aw come on guys we can do better than that let's try that again Shalom I was telling my wife I'm convinced one of the lost ten tribes of Israel is hiding out here in Mississippi so don't let me down okay um I kind of feel bad for you guys you I know you're the levites kind of serving you know during Sunday but you want to see my back a lot but I'm going to talk talk to you a little bit okay so you'll see my back because you know these guys are serving us we want to minister to them as well okay so if you don't see anything just kind of you know say hey I don't see that on this kind of looks strange doesn't it well it's the traditional setup for the Feast of Tabernacles and we're going to look at that this morning and we're going to look at the Feast of Tabernacles and what I want to do this morning is I want to look at the Feast of Tabernacles at was as it was celebrated during the time of the Bible I want to look at the Feast of Tabernacles as it's celebrated today by my Jewish people but most important I want to look at it as the Feast of Tabernacles that was celebrated during the time of Jesus now let me ask you all a question how many of you have calendars how many of you have like you know PDAs how many of you have iPhones that want to pray about giving their way no just kidding okay um now you know appointments are kind of interesting some appointments you really don't need to get a lot of preparation for so if you're going to go to say the barber shop or something like that you might need an appointment because it's kind of busy but you don't have to do a lot of preparation I know when I go to the barber shop I like to put on an old shirt because I know you know it's going to get full of hair or whatever but not a lot of proper preparation but then you know um if your mother-in-law is coming to the house that's going to take some prep you know a week of cleaning or whatever you know I'm just depending on how you know persnickety that person is now what if the President of the United States were going to come to visit you now that would take a lot of preparation the Secret Service would have to come they'd have to see you know which of your house look like they'd have to make sure that the routes a lot of preparation you'd have to spend a lot of time you probably get your house painted you might even go and buy a new suit and whatever what if God wanted to make an appointment with you what if God took you out into the middle of the wilderness and said take out your calendars I want an appointment open your Bibles to Leviticus chapter 23 you don't have a Bible oh just look on with a Christian oh that was nasty I'm sorry Leviticus chapter 23 and the Lord spoke to Moses saying speak to the children of Israel saying consecrate themselves for the feasts of Israel which I shall proclaim as a holy convocation even for these my holy feasts this is strange I'm a person who believes in the rapture are you you believe in the rapture okay I never know exactly what sound it will be some say it's a trumpet now that was my phone going off in the middle of a service and I always figured if my phone goes off in the middle of service that might be God saying you've got five minutes get a basketball because when I get I believe I'm going to get raptured I still believe that part this has nothing to do with my sermon but I believe that I'm going to when I get raptured I'm going to play basketball and as I go up I'm going to stuff the ball because I can't do that now and I'm kind of counting on it so I figured God was going to say okay Jan five minutes get a basketball that was a joke guys it was just trying to show you I'm embarrassed about the fact that my phone rang forgive me but we were looking at Leviticus chapter 23 these are the feasts of the Lord even holy convocations which you shall proclaim in their seasons God called the children of Israel out of the will out of Egypt into the wilderness and he gave them feasts appointed times in which he was going to meet with them now we don't have time to go through all the feasts but I want to go through the last three feasts as we go to the Feast of Tabernacles and those feasts start at Leviticus chapter 23 verse 23 if you'll read along with me and the Lord spoke to Moses saying speak to the children of Israel saying in the seventh month in the first day of the seventh month you shall have a Sabbath a memorial of blowing of trumpets a holy convocation you shall do no servile therein you shall offer an offering made by fire and then down to verse 32 verse 26 and the Lord spoke to Moses saying also on the tenth day of the seventh month there shall be a day of atonement it shall be a holy convocation unto you you shall afflict your souls and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord and then go to 33 and the Lord spoke unto Moses saying speak unto the children of Israel saying in the fifteenth day of the seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the Lord now the reason I don't want to start with just the Feast of Tabernacles is because the Feast of Tabernacles completes these three holidays and to truly understand the Feast of Tabernacles you have to understand what just came before it if you notice in the text it says all three of these holidays occur in the seventh month Israel's calendar is like our calendar it has 12 months however the seventh month is a very special month now where did we hear the number seven the very first time in the Bible this is a rhetorical question don't answer it I'll answer it somebody might blurt it out and will be embarrassed but in Genesis in creation the Lord worked on six days on the seventh day he rested he sanctified he completed the number seven carries with it the meaning of completion sanctification and rest you with me and so what we have here is this feast day is going to land in the month of the seventh the seventh month Smith is a Sabbath month for the children of Israel and notice that it starts with the first day of the seventh month is called a holy convocation it's the day of the blowing of trumpets now I love Vivaldi I love Telamon I would love to go to a concert and listen to trumpets blow all day but the the Bible wasn't talking about those kind of trumpets he was talking about a ram's horn and a ram's horn makes a very very odd and screeching sound the ram's horn in ancient Israel was kind of like what the equivalent of a siren is in our modern days and you know what a siren is you know what it means whatever you're doing is not nearly as important as what I'm doing pull over all right it means stop doing give me your attention God wanted the children of Israel to stop on the very first day of the seventh month and to stop what they're doing no longer business as usual and give their attention because the seventh month was the sabbatical month it was the month in which Israel was going to complete its understanding of what Redemption was through the feasts and so the Feast of Trumpets was a day to get your attention to stop what you're doing and prepare because on the tenth day of the seventh month would be the Day of Atonement that was the day in which a holy God would meet inerrant people and and some of you may be familiar with the the architecture of the tabernacle in the temple you remember there's the Holy of Holies which is a cube and in the Holy of Holies is the Ark of the Covenant in spite of what Spielberg says you know and in the Ark of the Covenant there is the Decalogue the Ten Commandments and above the Decalogue is the mercy seat mercy above law don't miss that and above that the Shekinah the very presence of God no one's allowed into the Holy of Holies then you have the holy place where you've got the candelabra and you've got the altar of incense and then outside you've got the the the area where the priests offer sacrifices and then outside of that you have where all Israel is here with me and on the Day of Atonement the high priest put on white robes bathes himself and then takes the blood of bulls and goats and goes into the Holy of Holies to make atonement that's the only time anyone is ever allowed into the Holy of Holies and he can only go in with the blood of bulls and goats and the rabbi's tell us that they used to put a a rope around his waist and the reason they put a rope around his waist is because if he went into the Holy of oles ill prepared with unrepentant sin or sin in the camp God might strike them dead and the rope is no one who's going to go in and get him I mean no one goes into the Holy of Holies so you need to understand that when he went into the Holy of Holies the children of Israel would wait with bated breath they'd say now if he doesn't come out that means the sin has not been atoned for and that they're going to die in their sins but if he does come out of the holy of holies that means God has accepted the sacrifice and they can rejoice and the Bible tells us at least the rabbi's tell us that they used to rejoice so much and so well that sometimes they had to repent all over again but I want to give you a New Testament understanding of this Old Testament story there is a story it's it's apocryphal part of it is we don't know if it's true about a prostitute her name was Miriam she was from a small town in the north of Israel called the Gallio and the name of the town was called McDowell McDonald means tower and the story goes that she was a prostitute and because she was a prostitute she didn't hang out with the good folk of Israel she had she hung out with the sinners and the publicans and the story goes that this woman Miriam of Migdal ran across an itinerant preacher from a nearby community in Nazareth called Yeshua Jesus now you need to know something Miriam had known a lot of men and a lot of men had claimed to love her but she'd never met a man like him and no man loved her like he did and in that encounter Jesus said to Miriam of Migdal child your sins are forgiven and in that moment transformed her from a lady of the night into a daughter of the dawn she gave up her life of ill repute and join that ragtag group of of disciples and followed him to the streets of Jerusalem here's where the gospel picks up the story it was mirroring of Meg doll who watched as they put him on the cross it was Miriam of Migdal who helped take him down off the cross and prepare his body for burial it was Miriam amygdale who watched as they put the body in the grave and watched the stone roll it was Miriam big doll who joined the others in those long nights of doubt wondering whether he really was the son of God or just some itinerant preacher who could preach a good message did he really have the power to forgive sin or was I going to be confronted by my sin with a holy God the Scriptures tell us it was mironov big doll on that Resurrection Sunday morning who first saw Jesus and when she saw him he said Mary Mary of Magdalene I really am the Messiah I really am the son of God and your sins are truly forgiven because just as the high priests coming out of the Holy of Holies demonstrated that God accepted the sacrifice of the children of Israel that day on the Day of Atonement so Jesus coming out of deaths jaws demonstrated to the world that anyone Jew or Gentile who could believe that God would offer his own son as a sacrifice coming out of deaths jaws demonstrated that God accepted the sacrifice and as a consequence of that we rejoice we celebrate the resurrection just as the children of Israel celebrated the day of atonement because once they knew they were forgiven then joy filled the community and the feast we're going to look at today the Feast of Tabernacles is that celebration and that joy open your Bibles to Leviticus chapter 32 23 again as we read the rest of this text and the Lord spoke unto Moses saying verse 33 speak unto the children of Israel saying the fifteenth day of this month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days unto the Lord on the first day there shall be a holy convocation you shall do no servile work therein then down to 39 also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month when you've gathered in the fruit of the land you shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days on the first day shall be a Sabbath and the eighth day shall be a Sabbath and you shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees branches of palm trees and the boughs of trees of fig trees and willows of the brook and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days you shall keep it as a feast unto the Lord seven days in the in the year it shall be a statue for you forever in your generations you shall celebrate it in the seventh month you shall dwell in booths seven days that all the Israelites that were born shall dwell in booths that your generation may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt I am the Lord your God and Moses declared unto the children of Israel the feasts of Israel let's hold on to this what's the one word I mean I I taught the Sunday School this morning and I asked what was the one thing all these people had in common and one of you cleverly said well they're all in the in the same chapter and I went you know that's not what I meant though what is the one thing what's one word that keeps repeating itself over and over again in chapter 23 33 to the end the word is rejoice the word is rejoice God wants us to rejoice in this holiday in other words God wants us to party hearty why does one why does God want to do that but let me help you understand this before the children of Israel entered the land of Canaan there were Canaanites living in the land and the Canaanites had their own parties if you will during the annual feast days or annual harvest days the Canaanites would get together and they would party during the the annual harvest now does anybody know what the expression the ego flies on Friday means any of the old-timers know what it means means he got paid on Friday I like to see a contemporary yes I know what that means what that meant was you got paid on Friday which meant you partied on Friday because you wanted to celebrate your wealth it's the natural thing to do human beings when they have a harvest want to celebrate the bounty of their harvest all of the major feast days of Israel fall out on harvest holidays there are three growing seasons in Israel the first one is the barley season which Passover falls out on then we have the wheat season which Pentecost falls out on and now we have this one at the end of the summer this long growing season we have the pomegranates and the grapes and the olives and this is the last harvest before the rains wash day Capisce on the same page we okay okay follow me but before the children of Israel got to the land of Canaan the Canaanites used to have these holidays and so what Israel was going to do is it was going to displace the Canaanites now it was going to have the harvest it was going to have the time of celebration the problem is the Canaanites were still in the land and so with what God was saying to the children of Israel's when you get into the land I want you to party I want you to celebrate the goodness of the land but I don't want you partying with them I don't want you to go up into the Canaanite places and go to their parties because their parties celebrate fertility their parties celebrate just the fact that God created I want you to celebrate the fact that I'm a redeemer notice the end it says that you might remember that I brought you out of the land of Egypt what God does is he redeems mankind fallen nature and restores it to a correct relationship with him what he says is yes the intent the intent of partying because of the harvest is good but don't thank me because I gave you crops thank you because thank me but because I brought you out of Egypt I'm more than creator it's more than just fertility it's a personal relationship I brought you into this good land and so when you party remember me does everybody get that everybody understand that that's what this is about this is God saying to the children of Israel during the harvest remember the Exodus and what God is basically doing is he is showing us how to do that I have to tell you a quick story I used to live in in Chicago I'm supposed to get you out at 2:00 so we've got plenty of timer just kidding okay I was living in Chicago a number of years and I was driving back from Iowa I was going through the Illinois cornfields there's about 11:30 at night and I'm driving through the through the cornfields and I see a UFO in the middle of cornfield now ya understand something I'm really freaking out my theology doesn't allow for UFOs okay and there's this UFO in the middle of a cornfield now I pray but I got really good at praying right then okay and I was kind of really freaked out it's 11:30 at night and he's too kind of like floppy you know lights are kind of coming closer to me and I'm thinking mm and then all of a sudden I saw it it was a combine there's that old farmer out there it's 11:30 at night 11th pitch black and he's out there bringing in the corn and I'll tell you why he's bringing in the corn he's bringing in the corn because when it's ready you got to do it that hasn't changed in 3,000 years and what we have here is when the children of it were going out to the fields to bring in the harvest during the Feast of Tabernacles they lived in lean twos just like this they lived in little huts because when they lived out there that's where they were when it was ready to go you couldn't go back and forth you have to live in the fields and just bring in as much as you could as long as you could and so what God does is he sees the lean-to and he says ah you're living in lean-to is you remember the last time you lived in a lean-to that was when I took you out of Egypt that's when I became a husband to you that's when you had nothing and I was everything I want you to live in these lean twos but I want you to remember the time when I brought you out of Egypt I want you to remember the time when I was your tabernacle when I covered you I want you to remember that just like this Tabernacle which is so weak and so frail so is life I want you to remember that even though you're in the land even though you're enjoying the blessings of the land this isn't quite yet it I want you to celebrate but I want you to celebrate with the anticipation that there's a greater Tabernacle waiting and that's what the biblical holiday is about now let me tell you what the holiday today is about because the children of Israel when they were thrown out of the land of Israel during the Roman occupation in 147 after the second Jewish wars they were scattered to the earth but they still celebrated the feast of tabernacle and it moved away from basically a harvest holiday to the remembrance of God's deliverance but it said because I don't think there's that many Jewish community the larger Jewish community here in Greenville Mississippi I'm sure there must be some but if you lived where I did during the Feast of Tabernacles you would see these all over the place every Jewish person constructs something like this either on their porch their fire escape you know those are don't you you guys have fireplaces we have fire escapes all right and and what it is is it's a temporary shelter and they'll cover it with leaves it has to be open so you can see and then they'll put the fruit whatever the fruit of the of the season is or wherever you're living by the way America has a Feast of Tabernacles you know what it is Thanksgiving remember those wonderful pilgrims great theology a little weird they thought they were Jews you know leaving Pharaoh and coming to Israel and you know New Canaan or whatever but the feast of Thanksgiving is really kind of a correlation to the Feast of Tabernacles and so you have all of the fruit and then remember what it says it says you shall take leaves of goodly trees and a willow and you shall wave it before the Lord well this is called a lulav and this is a net rock looks like a lemon but it's not it's a citron it's a little bigger than a lemon and this is what the rabbi's have us do we take this palm myrtle willow and we take the citron in the air Trog and then we stand inside the booth but I'm not going to be able to stand said with this little tooth too small for me and what we do is we say blessed art Thou O Lord our God King of the universe who has created us and commanded us to wave the lulav and the Etra and what we do is we go like this like this like this like this and up and then down and up down up down up and down and this way we fulfill the commandment to wave the lulav in the edgehog now we also eat every night in the tabernacle probably a coffee depending on how the weather is it could be a little brisk in all in October when this happens but we come and we sit and we celebrate we live in booths now why do we do that remember what it said you're to wave a leafy bow and goodly fruit I want to go now to talk about the time in Jesus's day how we celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles because I think you'll find that it's very relevant to who we are and what we believe now you know you've heard the expression a way of offering remember when the children of Israel met Jesus during the feast of Passover as he was coming through the gidran valley and they waved palm branches remember that and they wrote and they waved and they said hoshii a new Hosanna save us that's very much what this feast is about we wave it like this because the rabbi's have instructed us to but I suspect that during the time of Jesus this is what a wave offering would have looked like and children of Israel would have taken palm branches from the Gideon Valley and they would have waved it during the feast of tabernacles now during the time the temple stood the Feast of Tabernacles was one of the most remarkable and most joyous holidays ever celebrated the the Temple Square which would be I don't know about a quarter of a mile by a quarter of a mile a pretty large space would be filled with these large 15-foot columns with big bowls of oil and what they would do is they would light the bowls of oil and as a result of that by lighting the bowls of oil now of course I'm just doing candles here because I just want you to see get the idea of what it would imagine 15 foot high all over the the downtown area of green Greensville okay just eliminate it all the shops down there let's say from here to the levy on Main Street big humongous 15-foot columns with bowls of oil of flame the rabbi said that if you haven't experienced the party of what goes on in the Feast of Tabernacles at the temple you've never experienced joy you could see it looked like the whole temple was on fire from the from the Mount of Olives on the other side of the valley the place was blazed and the reason was because people would sing and rejoice and worship God all night long it was such a celebration it was a celebration because the harvest was in it was a celebration because if your sins were forgiven it was a celebration because God was with you and he had redeemed you now what's interesting is the remember I told you there were three growing seasons in Israel well the last growing season is this one after this growing season is the rainy season you with me and as a consequence of that the children of Israel would have a special prayer during the Feast of Tabernacles for rain to come you with me and so there was a very special celebration on the last day of the feast in which the high priest would have what we call the water pouring ceremony and that's this I want you to picture from here to the levy a place filled with people you with me everybody in this town is now standing between here and the levy they all have taken their palms okay and they're all praying and praising God and thanking God and up on the levy is the high priest and he's with his priests and they're at the Temple Mount and they're singing psalm 118 would you open your bibles psalm 118 is part of what we call the Halal Psalms 113 to 118 and in psalm 118 let's read verse 19 open to me the gates of righteousness and I will go into them and I will praise the Lord this is the gate the Lord in which the righteous shall enter I will praise them for that has heard me and that want to become my salvation the stone which the builders refused has become the headstone of the corner this is the Lord's doing it is marvelous in our eyes this is the day which the Lord has made we will rejoice and be glad in it save now I beseech thee O Lord I beseech thee send prosperity blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord we have blessed you out of the house of the Lord listen carefully to this Psalm you hear it because there's so many references to Jesus and there's a reason for that it was during the Feast of Tabernacles during the pouring of the water ceremony that the children of Israel believed that water would represent the holy spirit if you've ever lived in the Middle East if you've ever lived in the southwest you know it's dry it's brown and it's gray and the only place where there's life is where there's water so in the Bible water is a metaphor for life it's a metaphor for everything that's going to give life and so for the praying of the extending of the rain was also the praying that God would send the Messiah and send the whole spirit and so righteous Jews during the time of the Feast of Tabernacles as they were singing this they were going send the rain send the rain send the Messiah send the Holy Spirit please we bless you in the name of the Lord that's why Jesus says when he leaves Jerusalem and they've rejected and what does he say you will not see me again until you say blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord because that is the cry that is the the entrance that is the welcoming you know Paul - Messiah the children of Israel were going to say that we bless you out of the house of the Lord blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord that's what was going on during the Feast of Tabernacles and the fact that it happened during the peace - Passover is because he was the Messiah because he was the Messiah the children of Israel did the very thing they did during the Feast of Tabernacles during the feast of Passover what they did is they took those palm branches which they've normally used during the Feast of Tabernacles but it's the feast of Passover and they're waving it and what are they saying hoshii a new hoshi a new which is save us now psalm 118 blessed you who come in the name of the Lord and so here is this feast the children of Israel are standing this whole this whole square is filled with people waving palm branches and while this is going on picture this the high priest takes a picture he leaves the southern end of the the Temple Mount he goes down the steps with his priests and he goes to the pool of siloam he gathers the water from the pool of siloam and then he ascends the steps going back to the tattoo to the temple and as he goes up the steps the children of Israel are crying out hoshi anhu save us now blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord we bless you from the house of the Lord who may enter the gates only the righteous and he comes up and the children of Israel praying and he comes and he pours the water out on the side of the tabernacle on the side of the altar and in pouring out the water it's ceremonial that God will pour the rain but more and that God will send the Holy Spirit picture that scene places a mass with people and then in the corner way over there one voice stands out and commands everybody to be quiet open your Bibles to the Gospel of John John chapter 37 in the last day the great day of the feast Jesus stood and cried saying if any man thirst let him come unto me and drink he that believeth on me as the scripture has said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water but this he spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him would receive for the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus had not yet been glorified do you see what just happened what just happened was this the children of Israel had gathered together it was the Feast of Tabernacles they were celebrating and rejoicing at the fact that they were redeemed they were celebrating and rejoicing the fact that God had provided this bounty before them they were praying that God would send the latter rain so that the rains would come so they'd have another great crop but they were looking for spiritual nourishment as well and out of the midst of that Jesus stands up somewhere around Main Street in regards to perhaps that lovey as being where the altar is and he stands and shouts to everyone there I'm everything you're looking for I am greater than the Feast of Tabernacles if you're thirsty come to me if you believe in me rivers of living water will flow and less you don't get it John tells us just what he means he's talking about the giving of a holy spirit friends what I want you to see is this that all of the feasts of Israel in some way are are related to one in one way the harvest yes immediately the context of the harvest but God takes that old understanding and says the harvest just represents the goodness of my Redemption and my redemption is a foreshadowing of the ultimate redemption that Jesus will purchase for you now it's kind of interesting because the Feast of Tabernacles isn't only past and present it's also future in the Gospel of John excuse me in the apocalypse of John the end of the book John writes and says I saw a New Jerusalem coming down and God tabernacling with man now it's interesting that the word he uses there is the word Skeena it's a Greek word I'm not a Greek scholar I don't plan to be one but I read the commentaries and the word Skeena means to tabernacle but you know the the Bible commentaries that and and the bright people who write them believe that the Greeks borrowed that word you know sometimes we borrow word sometimes you'll say what a faux pas you know we've used a French term to describe something well ancient languages did that also and they say that the Greeks borrowed that word but they got it wrong it wasn't Skeena that they borrowed from the Jews it was Shekinah that I saw and God Shekinah dwith man that the idea here is that the Feast of Tabernacles anticipates the time when God's glory and presence will dwell with us that's what this feasts points to God dwelling with man because in the end that's what the whole story is about isn't it it's about the restoration of what we lost in the garden that fellowship between God and man and we end we start in a garden we end in a city the New Jerusalem and God tabernacling with us you know it saddens me most of all what saddens me most of all is this that my people will celebrate this holiday every year they will wave the lulav in the air Trog they will sing the halal Psalms they will say blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord and never realize that he already came one of the reasons I've come to Greenville Mississippi is to ask you to help me reach my people with the gospel when you came in this morning each of you should have gotten one of these ivory-colored cards could you take it out right now I'd like to take you through an ancient Jews for Jesus ritual which I'm about to make up okay if you didn't get a card raise your hand I promise you everybody get a card great could you fold the card back on the perforated line like this now towards you and back again you'll notice the card is bending more easily now on the count of three I'd like to rip the card together okay if we concentrate we're going to make one of the most interesting sounds the sanctuary has ever heard one two three four five six did you guys need cards because I'd like you to have car C did anybody can we get some cards for these kids sorry would you take a moment right now where you want just kind of fill in your name your address today's date and the name of your home congregation some of you are wondering why we write the word congregation x christians invite their jewish friends to our meetings or Gentiles from other churches if you're visiting from another church please write down the name of the church you're visiting from I know this is Mississippi so let me say I won't think it rude if you write while I speak so while you fill out the front of the card I'm going to take just a second and talk a little bit about the Ministry of Jews for Jesus how many of you have heard of Jesus for Jesus before great for those who don't know I'm a missionary I spend most of my time on college campuses city streets convalescent homes people's living rooms telling Jews and Gentiles Jesus is still king of the Jews one of the ways in which we communicate the gospel is through our literature we wrote write our own gospel tracts they have quick snappy titles insults puns anything you'll get people to read them titles like everything you ever wanted to know about Jesus but we're afraid to ask your rabbi I like that one or if being born hasn't given you much satisfaction try being born again by the way I brought some free literature with me and there on a table in the foyer please help yourself to all the free literature you can take there's some really excellent tracts that are designed for not just jews but anybody like the universe is broken that's all free literature please help yourself also out there are some not so free literature I don't have time to talk about all of them but I want to mention two books very quickly invariably after a program like this people come up to me and go is there a book that you that goes into more of what you taught on it's called the four feasts of Israel and it goes into a lot more than the twenty minutes that I've given you about the fall feasts the other book I want to mention is called the Jews for Jesus family cookbook now you may be saying to yourself why is a missionary telling me about a cookbook two reasons one my wife wrote it so I'm kind of partial to it it's a nice picture of her in the back but more importantly it's not just a cookbook it's a collection of recipes from all of our missionaries around the world and stories about those missionaries and the best part of this cookbook is it has a recipe on how to find Jesus so on your way out please take the tracts you may want to purchase the books I've had some fun with you this morning and I admit that but I take the ministry quite seriously that's what the small card is about no work of God can go anywhere without God's people praying I would really appreciate if you would keep the small card would you stick it in your Bible uses a bookmark and when you see this card would you just stop and say a prayer for the Jews for Jesus return to the large card just one more time on the bottom you'll notice a space says I'm a believer in Jesus and I'm contributing it has a blank spot little later on an offering is going to be taken for the Ministry of Jews for Jesus if you'd like to get a receipt for the gift you may be giving right the amount so I can send you a receipt and a personal thank you somebody asked earlier if they could give by cheque sure just make it to Jews for Jesus commercial over pray that God would move upon your heart to participate in our ministry but that's only one reason why I came here the real reason I came here was to win your hearts to the cause of winning Jews and Gentiles to Jesus and to teach you about your heritage and to teach you about the Feast of Tabernacles friends God wants you to rejoice he wants you to rejoice not only in his creation but more importantly in his Redemption he wants you to remember that the one who created the universe didn't just walk away but that he rolled up his sleeves and got involved that all of the Old Testament teaches us that the God who created is the God that redeemed everything in the Old Testament points to that ultimate redemption that Jesus would purchase for us every holiday he should be the center of every moment of rejoicing he should be first and foremost in now if you're here this morning I want to challenge you if you're here this morning and you don't know that Jesus is that Messiah that Savior I hope and pray you won't leave this sanctuary without giving us a chance to explain to you and show you the God of creation is the God of redemption let's pray

Channel: Jews for Jesus

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Keywords: Jews for Jesus, Messianic Jews, Messiah, Christian, Jesus, Yeshua, Ministry, God, Spiritual, Jew, Jewish, Judaism, Jews for Judaism, Aish, JCC, jdate, heeb, hebrew, Israel, Isaiah 53, Israeli, Jerusalem

Id: 6a_wyoc9GXQ

Length: 41min 4sec (2464 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 14 2010