Sunday's Live Service

[Music] is [Music] me [Music] this [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] is there she [Music] um [Music] [Applause] [Music] hey [Music] [Music] hey [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] hey [Applause] is [Music] [Music] good evening we're glad you're with us tonight we're going to celebrate a little bit sing praise the lord together here we go [Music] [Applause] [Music] pretty fast is [Music] [Music] it [Music] is [Music] hallelujah hallelujah [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] she [Music] night [Music] hallelujah we give you praise tonight you are the everlasting god you lift us up [Music] [Music] lord [Music] [Applause] lord our god [Music] oh [Music] i'm so weak [Music] upon the lord we will wait upon the lord our strength will rise as we wait upon the lord we will wait upon the lord we will wait upon the lord our god [Music] [Applause] you are [Music] you do nothing do you lift us up [Music] the lord we will wait upon the lord for us as we wait upon the lord we will wait upon the lord we will wait upon [Applause] is you me is [Music] hallelujah thank you father we do look to you lord we can cry out to you for you are ever faithful ever faithful to hear us [Music] yes [Music] the whole earth [Music] the people say [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] i see a generation rising up to take that place with selflessly [Music] and see [Music] [Music] is [Music] in [Music] [Music] hey [Music] he show me [Music] is [Applause] [Music] eternity [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] yes [Music] [Music] oh is [Music] there's nothing worth more that could ever come close nothing [Music] your praises [Music] my heart becomes free and my shame is your presence [Music] is [Music] [Music] love [Applause] [Music] this is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] holy your glory god is [Music] [Music] [Applause] let us become more aware of your presence let us experience the glory of your goodness let us let us let us let us experience [Music] young lovely god is what our hearts long for to be overcomer by your presence [Music] is overwhelmed by a precious [Music] foreign [Music] father tonight we are overwhelmed by who you are [Music] all your greatness your goodness just like the beings in the heavenly realm of the throne they're just responding to the majesty and the greatness of the king who he is and they're being overwhelmed by his presence they're singing holy holy holy is the lord god almighty [Music] and we are overwhelmed by you tonight spirit of god we welcome you we invite you in to this place we invite you into our homeless tonight would you invade this place would you invade our hearts tonight [Music] do your work changing us for your glory [Music] hallelujah the psalmist said that all that is within me cries out cries out to the living god so god tonight we lift a cry from deep within healing [Music] healing [Music] he let me [Music] me [Music] cold [Music] foreign [Music] he let me [Music] he let me [Music] [Applause] [Music] cool [Music] [Applause] [Music] it's all for you all for you lord [Music] [Applause] my [Music] oh foreign all that is [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] me [Music] me [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] here for you are worthy tonight you are worthy of praise you are worthy of worship if you'll hallelujah with us tonight we're going to sing the smile together here is the lord our god the lord he is [Music] [Music] i [Music] we bless your name tonight lord your kingdom is forever and ever we're going to ask one of our elders tim king to come tonight and to read this week's powershell reading so tim once you come [Music] wow it's special to be standing on this stage thank god for small favors and pretty soon many of us will be not only standing on the stage but sitting here live i have the honor of reading from the word of god and what i'm going to be reading tonight is what jews around the world are reading in preparation for passover very special scriptures before i start and read from the torah and the torah i'll read from the new testament from john the scriptures are on the stage john the baptist testifies about yeshua the next day john saw jesus coming toward him and said look the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world this is the one i meant when i said a man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me i myself did not know him but the reason i came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to israel and later during yeshua's teachings yeshua says i am the good shepherd i know my sheep and my sheep know me just as the father knows me and i know the father and i lay down my life for the sheep i have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen i must bring them in also they too will listen to my voice and there shall be one flock and one shepherd [Music] the reason my father loves me is that i lay down my life only to take it up again no one takes it from me but i lay it down of my own accord i have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again this command i received from my father and now i will read from the torah from exodus about passover then moses summoned all the elders of the israel and said to them go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the passover lamb take a bunch of hyssop dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and both sides of the doorposts none of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning when the lord goes through the land to strike down the egyptians he will see the blood on the top and the sides of your door and he will pass over the doorway and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants when you enter the land that the lord will give you as he promised observe this ceremony and when your children ask you what does the ceremony mean to you then tell them it is the passover sacrifice to the lord who passed over the houses of the israelites in egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the egyptians then the people bowed down and worshiped the israelites did just what the lord commanded moses and aaron now the length of time the israelite people lived in egypt was 430 years at the end of the 430 years to that very day all the lord's divisions left israel because the lord kept vigil that night to bring them out of egypt on this night all the israelites are to keep vigil to honor the lord for the generations to come and now from joshua the first passover in canaan while the people of israel were encamped at gilgal they kept the passover on the 14th day of the month in the evening on the plains of jericho and the day after the passover on that very day they ate of the produce of the land unleavened cakes and parched grain and the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land and there was no longer manna for the people of israel but they ate of the fruit of the land of canaan that year praise be to god so now stay with us and watch the video announcements of what is happening here at king of kings this week and also right after that our own pastor chad will follow with the message thank you [Music] welcome king of kings family we are so excited to have you here with us tonight here's what's happening in our community this week king of kings community jerusalem wants to wish everybody a biblical happy new year the biblical new year begins in the hebrew month of the sun as read in exodus 12. we pray that yeshua shalom and grace carries you into the new season and new year we are reminded in god's word that each time we come before him we want to come with something in our hands to give to him gift sacrifices his tithes and our offerings it's one of the ways we can bring him praise tonight as we continue our worship you can offer up your gifts as we come into his presence go to the kkcj webpage and click on the gift tab for more options the anchor of hope counseling centre where the center for healthy relationships will be continuing their seminar on helping people grow keys to emotional maturity anger management and brief therapy the next session is scheduled for tomorrow evening march 22nd for more information visit the anchor of hope website at anchorofhope.org dot il our online community is gathering tonight directly after the service if you've never visited the group and you are looking for a fun way to connect more deeply with king of kings please join us tonight at 7 pm israel time for an inspirational gathering around god's word for more information and a link to join email us at cg kkcj.org after a year of gathering restrictions and not meeting in person we're excited to have a few different options that will allow us to begin gathering together here are a couple of ways to connect in person number one if you have not received the covert vaccine or aren't comfortable sharing that information we have three different purple badge venues in our jerusalem campus to host small gatherings for up to 20 people each which keeps us within israel's current gathering guidelines number two if you've received the covert vaccine and you are comfortable gathering together in public we will be opening our celebration center where we are able to host up to 120 people in person with proof of their vaccinations via the certificate or green pass phone app due to the regulations you are required to pre-reserve your seating for either the purple or green venues via email in advance of the meeting to reserve your seating for a purple or green venue and join us for worship in person please write to us here at kkcj kkcj.org we're looking forward to seeing you again and worshiping together here in jerusalem for our online international community israel will begin daylight savings time this week starting friday the 26th of march at 2am in the morning as the country moves forward one hour make sure to put this important time change on your calendars thank you for joining us we encourage you to connect with everything that is happening in the week please enjoy the rest of the service as we prepare to receive god's word have a blessed week [Music] welcome back king of kings family we are very excited to have you connecting in worship with us today thank you to the worship team our readers as well you guys enrich our time together thank you so much and as has been said shanatova happy biblical new year to everybody we hope you're off to a great start let me welcome everyone in the pavilion and those of you in the lobby today those of you in the summit those of you in the celebration center those of you watching online today all around israel and our friends watching around the world we welcome you to jerusalem those of you watching on facebook live youtube live kings community live we are so happy that we get to be together as a family today no matter what situation we're in and it's a big week because we're headed into the passover week soon to come and i want you to realize that there's a lot of excitement right now in our community there's some momentum happening we are just concluding our daniel study series together in the community groups so check in with your community group leaders for that we have our discipleship semester coming up in just a few weeks you're going to start hearing announcements about it if you haven't signed up for our newsletter go to kkcj.org make sure you sign up for our local congregational newsletter so you can get all of the information and the links to the discipleship classes that you're all invited to and you might ask pastor chad what are we doing for passover listen check in with your community groups and your community group leaders as we are all connecting in various ways it's hard to be part of our congregation unless you serve and you connect to a community group so do that for me let's stay connected during this holiday season go ahead and get your bibles get your devices let's get started in the word of god together today turn with me to john chapter 19 john chapter 19 is our main text today i'm going to go through a couple of verses there and as i was studying this week in preparation for the passover to come i realized in john 19 that there are several mentions of the preparation week for passover i was reminded that yeshua of course is our passover lamb that he was slain for our sins that his blood purchased our freedom from slavery and from sin and we connect all of the symbolism of the passover with yeshua himself i was reminded of the new testament days of preparation which we are now in right now we are in that period you know we said happy new year to you because the biblical command for god's new year is nissan 1 and we are now past nissan 1. we are into nisan but we are coming up on the 10th of nisan when we would have selected the lamb and the 14th of nisan when we would have sacrificed and used the blood of that lamb for passover so we know we're in that preparation week right now i want to say a few words before we dive into the text and that is in past jewish traditions it was not uncommon for rabbis or teachers to have a seder meal the night before the actual passover why would they do this because the passover is a family-oriented celebration most of the laws have to do with being with your family inside of the house not leaving the house all night long to bring your relatives in to cook the meal together to apply the blood on the door etc and it is a family oriented holiday so if you're a teacher if you're a rabbi and you want to connect with your people you need to do that a day before passover so that on passover you could possibly be with your family and i think we see a little bit of this happening in the text today with yeshua and the the last seder you might say or the last supper this we take the lord's supper together and we focus that model on this last meal together now as we begin to read in john chapter 19 i want to remind you that the seder meal has happened yeshua and the disciples have gone out into the garden to pray yeshua has already been arrested so these things have already happened throughout the night and we pick it up in john chapter 19 verse 12. let's begin there our main text john 19 verse 12. it says from then on pilate tried to set yeshua free but the jewish leaders kept shouting if you let this man go you are no friend of caesar anyone who claims to be a king opposes caesar when pilate heard this he brought yeshua out and sat down on the judge's seat as a place known as the stone pavement which in aramaic is gabatha it was the day of preparation that's what i want you to focus on it was the day of preparation of the passover it was about noon here is your king pilate said to the jews but they shall take him away take him away and crucify him shall i crucify your king pilate asked we have no king but caesar the chief priests answered so we see the the backdrop is they've had the seder meal they've gone to pray in the garden yeshua's been arrested he's standing before pilate and it mentions it's the day of preparation which means we're not quite to the passover launching moment at sabbath sundown just yet later in that same chapter i'm still in john 19. look at verse 31 we see the phrase used again it says now it was the day of preparation and the next day was to be a special sabbath because the jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the sabbath they asked pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down okay so understand the timeline here we've had the seder we've gone to the garden to pray we've been arrested we've sat before pilate yeshua's already been on the cross now for some time and now they're proposing to break the leg so we can end this process before the holiday gets there before the special sabbath arrives friends have you noticed how rushed to judgment this whole scenario is that yeshua supposedly having a seder meal with his disciples a day before passover arrives late in the evening he's having the meal then they go to the garden and pray then he's finally arrested in the garden and from that point he is tried illegally throughout the night he stands before pilate and it said the time stamp was about noon that next day then he's been on the cross he's been crucified and they're trying to get his body down before sundown it the whole process took less than 24 hours that's how rushed the judgment was and can we say this about unrighteousness if someone wanted to be truly righteous and and just in the process they would have allowed the facts and the witnesses to come forward but in this case i believe the religious leaders knew what they were doing was unjust it was unfounded they did not have the facts and the evidence they needed against yeshua so they rushed it through the system and anytime you see something being pushed through the system so quickly beware because this was corrupt being pushed through the system yeshua's own followers didn't even have time to gather they didn't have time to rally the troops they didn't have time to send the word out all over the nation to say come and protest come and stand with yeshua chant set him free they didn't even have time to do it because it was rushed to judgment within 24 hours he was already on the cross and passing away for our sins same chapter look at verse 38 of john 19. it says later joseph of arimathea asked pilate for the body of yeshua so now we've had the seder we've been in the garden to pray we've been arrested we've been before pilate we've been crucified on the cross we've been on the cross and the sabbath is approaching when we pick this part up and now we're we're coming down from the cross it says later joseph of arimathea asked pilate for the body of yeshua now joseph was a disciple of yeshua but secretly because of he feared the jewish leaders with pilate's permission he came and took the body away he was accompanied by nicodemus the man who earlier had visited yeshua at night nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes about 75 pounds taking yeshua's body the two of them wrapped it with the spices in strips of linen this was in accordance with the jewish burial customs at the place where yeshua was crucified there was a garden and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid because it was the jewish day of preparation there it is again and since the tomb was nearby they laid yeshua there so why did they have to do it so quickly why did they have to lay him in a tomb fairly close to where he was he was sacrificed for us well it was because the sabbath holiday was approaching and they needed to do this quickly because sundown was getting upon them and so they found a a good location close by they wouldn't have to travel too far and they wanted to get this done before the sabbath the lord blessed joseph and nicodemus for doing this so what's my point what am i driving at in all of this besides the rush to judgment and its corruption my point is that we don't magically find ourselves inside the holidays we don't want to go from the common place in the common day the common week into the holy week and just magically appear there but there's a time of preparation it said in this passage john 19 three different times it was the week of preparation it was the day of preparation it was the time of preparation the people were preparing for something significant in a moment where they could meet with god let me give you your first key phrase today there is preparation that we are called to do in order to get ready for the major things that god is going to do again there's a preparation that we need to do to get ready for the major things that god is going to do because there are significant moments during the feasts and the festivals where god wants to encounter his people now those of you that are members of king of kings community jerusalem and are part of our our local congregation live in israel you understand that there's a lot of preparation that goes into these holidays here in israel especially for the passover we're headed into that week right now of course there are the joint holidays of pesach or passover and that's the unleavened bread week it's a holiday it's a national holiday the schools are out if people had jobs they would be off work there are special sections in the grocery stores that are set aside they they get rid of all the bread and the leavening or they cover it up and they tape it up and you can't even get to it so the stores look very different than they might normally look there's the cleaning out of the comments from the house there's sweeping and vacuuming and meticulous work that we put into getting the house prepared getting all the leaven out getting all the sin out symbolically me and my kids what we love to do is is go around the house collect the bread collect the leaves sweep and vacuum and then we get all of it into a pile and we burn it in the fire it's one of my children's favorite things to do as we prepare for passover if you're in a religious community and you go the extra mile in preparation you might hire a company to come to your house and to clean it to do a special deep cleaning right here in the springtime many people send their blankets or their carpet or their sheets out to cleaners to get them ready to get rid of the leaven the seder meals are prepared of course the seder plates are prepared the place to eat it with your family is prepared lots of things in this week and day of preparation leading to the passover we certainly understand that here in israel look at matthew chapter 26 verse 17. something was highlighted to me for the very first time i never saw this before and i wanted to share it with you matthew 26 17 now on the first day of unleavened bread the disciples came to yeshua and asked where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the passover now of course this is a little bit different timeline than than we were looking at in the book of john but it was the phrase where do you want us your students to prepare for you our master to eat the passover and i'd never seen that before that they had they had distinguished between they're serving the lord they know that this is significant for him that something significant is about to happen and be unleashed and so they go to the lord and they say where do you want us to prepare it for you they could have easily said where do you want us to prepare the seder for us because after all messiah yeshua rabbi aren't you going to do a seder with us but they didn't where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the meal i thought that was significant as as we serve the lord as as we come into his holidays not so much so that we get all of the benefit but it's that we have a moment of connecting with our god and we say lord how can we prepare ourselves for you because we want to be clean and ready in your presence we're preparing for this encounter with god and don't forget in the original passover of course the lamb was selected several days before the sacrifice was made and the ancient people of israel they had to experience a preparation phase as well and we see this season of preparation all throughout patterns in the bible and i'm just going to take a moment to mention a few where there was something supernatural about to happen and the people of god were called to prepare for it before it arrived they did not magically land in that supernatural moment they prepared themselves for what god was about to do the building of the ark and noah's time there was a long season many many years where he and his family prepared for that supernatural significant moment david wrote the songs of ascent in the book of psalms where we would we would sing them prior to arrival at the temple for worship so we were preparing ourselves along the way and then when you arrived at the temple don't forget there was the mikvah there was the washing the bathing the clothes preparing to go into the temple to worship we didn't just show up we prepared ourselves for our encounter with the lord we had to prepare our own sacrifices to get them ready to select them maybe days or weeks or months in advance what was our first fruit gonna be we had to prepare what was the sacrifice lamb goat or sheep gonna be the bull which one would we choose we had to inspect it there was a preparation phase for our encounter with the lord certainly on the holidays the priests had to prepare themselves i'm i'm reminded of yom kippur the day of atonement when the high priest had to wake up in the morning and begin a long day of preparation way before he made atonement for the people he had his own bathing he had his own garments he had to put on he had his own sacrifices his own sprinkling to do then he could move on to making atonement for the people a great time of preparation i'm reminded also of a crucial chapter in the bible in a crucial chapter in the story in the history of the jewish people exodus chapter 19. this is the covenant offer chapter this is the chapter where god offers the covenant not only to abraham's immediate family abraham isaac jacob but where it fans out to all of the tribes of israel exodus chapter 19. and in verse 14 we have this section it says after moses had gone down the mountain to the people he consecrated them they washed their clothes then he said to the people prepare yourselves for the third day abstain from sexual relations and on the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning and a thick cloud over the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast everyone in the camp trembled moses led the people out of the camp to meet with god and they stood at the foot of the mountain you see they had three days of preparation before they had their encounter with god at the foot of the mountain and that's a pattern we see in scripture that before something significant happens in the kingdom of god before we have an encounter with god there is a time of preparation just like the week of preparation leading to passover now i want to start making this personal to us and yes i made it personal in the sense of you got to go clean your house you got to get ready you got to get the food and the seder meal and the seder plate and all of that certainly that's that's personal that's applicable but i want to take this to an application level on the spiritual plane as well i want to look at this from a larger perspective not just about passover week but really about what is god doing on the earth what is he significantly about to do what does that encounter moment that we are soon to have with god that we might find ourselves needing to prepare for right now and i think as we look at these next few verses i hope you can see yourself prophetically in the scriptures and the assignments that god is giving to us turn in your bibles to isaiah chapter 40. isaiah 40 first three verses it says comfort comfort my people says your god speak tenderly to jerusalem and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed that her sin has been paid for that she has received from the lord's hand double for all of her sins a voice of one calling in the wilderness prepare the way of the lord and make straight in the desert a highway for our god now your translations some of you have made straight a highway some say a path some say a road but prepare the way for the lord friends do you understand that we have an assignment that we are being called to prepare the way for the lord's return it's not just that we just get saved and we live our own life on an island and hope cross our fingers and hope things don't go really bad in our life we're hoping that he'll come back soon no that's not what we're called to do we're called to engage in the marketplace we're called to engage in community life we're called to engage with our friends and family and peers and we're called to do what isaiah said which is to prepare the way of the lord make straight his paths so we have an assignment i was reminded that from that isaiah 40 chapter we see a connection to yeshua's cousin john john the one who immersed people with repentance matthew chapter 3 verse 1 2 and 3 makes it very clear that isaiah and part of isaiah's prophecy referred to john as well as to us it says matthew chapter 3 in those days john the immerser came preaching in the wilderness of judea saying repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near this is he who has spoken of through the prophet isaiah a voice of one calling in the wilderness prepare the way of the lord make straight paths for him you see john was called to prepare the way of the lord yeshua's earthly coming as the messiah john was called to do that and yet we find ourselves in the duality of the prophetic scriptures of isaiah now called to prepare the way of the lord's return to the earth so john gave us the example of how to do it it's the message of repentance it's the message that the kingdom of heaven is near so we have that same message he did it for yeshua's first coming we do it for yeshua's second coming he prepared the way of the lord we're called to prepare the way of the lord but there are other things there are other assignments there are other things we are called to prepare as well check this out in isaiah 62 verse 10 pass through pass through the gates prepare the way for the people notice it wasn't for the lord prepare the way for the people build up build up the highway remove the stones raise the banner for the nations the lord has made proclamation to the ends of the earth say to the daughter of zion see your savior comes see his reward is with him and his recompense accompanies him they will be called the holy people the redeemed of the lord and you shall be called sought after the city no longer deserted i know you you caught that because i highlighted it but i hopefully you you get this deeply that in that selection we weren't only called to prepare the way of the lord we were called to prepare the way of the people as well and this is repeated again in isaiah 57 verse 14 and it will be said build up build up prepare the road remove the obstacles out of the way of my people wow those are some great assignments so what is all of this focus on preparation what what are we called to do well i'm giving us some homework assignments i'm i'm highlighting that we have assignments regarding preparing the way and the return of the lord we have two of them prepare the way of the lord's return and then prepare the way for the people to encounter their god we have two assignments now you might say that sounds a little bit like over here we're making one path clear and over here we're making another path clear it sounds like we're a little bit of a matchmaker that's exactly right and that's what i've entitled today's passover preparation message matchmakers because we are called to be matchmakers between the people that don't know god and god himself we make a path straight for both of them we clear the way we remove obstacles so that these two uh wonderful possibilities can happen between god the creator and his creation bringing his children home so that he can meet with them and they can meet with him and we get to play a crucial role in that at the close of this age we get to play matchmaker it reminded me of the the the term in in hebrew that we use the the shadhan this is the the word shadhan is a matchmaker literally it's a matchmaker some of you might have heard the term yenta that's not actually a matchmaker so be careful how you use that but shadhan is a matchmaker and i have been the eyewitness in israel of watching the matches being made by the matchmaker i was in a hotel lobby not too long ago speaking to a visiting leader and while we were there there was an orthodox community of about 20 young men and about 20 young women and the shadhan was their matchmaking and and what they were doing was they would take a few minutes i think it was three to five minutes and then a bell would ring and it was like jewish speed dating and they would move from chair to chair across the lobby and meet with a different young man and a different young woman and then eventually they would give a report to the to the matchmaker and they would file it and then eventually there could be follow-up calls to see if there was interest interesting even today they're doing something that there was an ancient practice back then now today there's lots of ways to meet people in the modern age of of course some of us still meet traditionally we meet in our community groups we meet at the congregation we meet during an outreach or a night out with a group of friends there's a traditional way to meet there are some modern ways to meet too and i don't want to overlook those modern ways you know i was looking this up how do people meet today and a lot of websites are now how people are meeting match.com e-harmony is one of them and maybe you're a little bit older and silver singles is maybe a place for you or there's a website called date my age you know i thought that was an interesting take on it maybe you're as a believer you're saying i don't want to i don't want to get involved with anybody who's an unbeliever well great there's a there's a matchmaking website for you called christian mingle or maybe as a jewish believer you're saying i don't want to get involved with anybody who's not jewish i want to meet other jewish people well great there's a website for you there's a matchmaking website called j date jewish dating online so there's lots of ways to do this to play matchmaker but we are called to play a matchmaker on the earth right now so how do we do it well let's look at the first assignment how do we prepare the way of the lord we establish the lord's kingdom values on earth because that's what yeshua was doing may your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven we establish the kingdom values on earth and we live them out here that means we relate to people by kingdom dynamics if there's a conflict we resolve them if there's a need for witnesses we bring them if there's a need for repentance we offer repentance and forgiveness we keep short accounts we bring these relational dynamics from the kingdom of heaven down to earth we live according to kingdom values we live according to the patterns the cycles the seasons the calendar that god has established and when we're in that flow with god we are preparing the way for the lord because we're bringing his kingdom down to earth his power is then revealed through us so that others might see his kingdom in its reality those are some examples of how we prepare the way of the lord assignment number one what about assignment number two how do we prepare the way for the people well first of all we're called to be an example to them of who yeshua is how we treat them how we love them how we serve them we are called and i like to use this phrase we're called to show people the love of god but in a practical way that means we meet their needs we serve them if we can meet their physical needs their heart will often open you ever wonder why we have the mana kitchen and and several feeding centers all around israel you ever wonder why we have the distribution center have you ever wondered why we have redeemed in zion where we give appliances and we help new immigrants and new olim to get established in the land because we know that if we touch their physical need like yeshua did their heart will open for the word of god and that's the example we saw in yeshua this is preparing the way for the unbeliever to meet god by being an example of yeshua to them and finally you even find this in our mission statement we get a chance to reveal the true face of yeshua to them because remember guys they've heard about a god about a messiah about a savior with wrong information from the world with the media from the slant and the in the incorrect history and the and and the bad background things taken out of context so we got to show them the true face of yeshua and these are some of the ways that we prepare the way for the people to encounter their god now does this change what we talk about many times does this change our destiny no we as children of god co-heirs with the messiah those that inherit eternal life those that will inherit the keys to the kingdom those that will rule and reign with the messiah that is our destiny but there are other assignments i'll give you our second key phrase today on the path to our destiny we have other assignments we have things like the great commission preach the gospel make disciples teach what yeshua taught and today i've added onto this list two preparation assignments so it's not just the great commission and those three it's the two preparation assignments prepare the way for the lord's return and prepare the way for people to encounter yeshua how do we do that i gave you some examples but i think isaiah said it best chapter 57 verse 14 of isaiah remove the obstacles out of the way of my people you might say well we isn't it isn't it enough to live by kingdom values well that's good is it enough to to try to show them the love of god and to serve them that's good too it's part of it but removing the obstacles means we have to look inward and preparing for passover helps us do that looking at unleavened bread and getting the sin out of our life helps us to do that can we remove the obstacles this year of hypocrisy in our life can we remove the obstacle of a lack of character or flaws that we know the lord is trying to touch and work on self-centered motive selfish gain i could go down a long list of things that certainly could be obstacles for the unbelievers that are watching us in our attempt to reveal the true face of yeshua to israel and the nations to be that person who represents the kingdom of god on earth let's remove the obstacles prepare the way of the lord prepare the way of the people by removing the obstacles from in front of them be a matchmaker that's god's call for us yes we have the the destiny to rule and reign with him and he is preparing a place for us absolutely that doesn't change but along the way along the path to our end destiny there are assignments like the great commission there are assignments like the preparation assignments that we've talked about today so let me summarize with a close before the passover lamb's blood could be applied for salvation from sin and the protection of the death angel in the ancient times there was great preparation taken for the passover in yeshua's day as well as in our day we go to great efforts to prepare for the lord's seder meal prepare our house to prepare our family hopefully to prepare our heart why because we want to receive the fullness of what yeshua wants to reveal to us and when our heart is in a good place to receive we receive more in these critical moments that god has set up and even as we saw john called to prepare the way of yeshua's earthly arrival as messiah so we are called to prepare the way for the lord to return as the conquering king we are also called to prepare the way for people of the earth to encounter god and to experience his kingdom and his power and his presence on earth we do that by living out kingdom principles and by serving and by removing the obstacles from in front of the unbelievers like hypocrisy self-centeredness selfish gain they don't need to see this in the life of believers because these are obstacles that we want to remove so that in the end we can reveal to them the true face of yeshua the way he really is a loving creator who only wants good things for his children who paid the price of death that we might have freedom from sin that gave up his own blood as the passover lamb so that we didn't have to pay that price and who is preparing a place for us now preparing a destiny preparing us to rule and reign with him and for him as co-heirs with yeshua ready and willing to hand over the keys to the kingdom to his faithful servants may that be an encouragement for you this week i'm going to pray over you and just impart this to you father in the name of yeshua we pray for fruitfulness this week we pray for a great week where your holy spirit is working in our heart may you help us to bring the kingdom of god on earth may you help us to live out kingdom principles and values may you help us to remove obstacles in our own life may you help us to remove obstacles that might be a hindrance to the unbelievers around us show us how to do that and fill us with your power we know you love your people your children help us to love them the way you love them and to reveal your true face we pray this today as a community in yeshua's name we pray amen amen guys listen it's an exciting week it's a week of preparation make sure you check in with your community group leaders there's lots of regulations changing so we're so happy you're with us today maybe you're in the sanctuary maybe you're in the building maybe you're watching from home but regulations are changing very rapidly so make sure you're on the newsletter you're checking on our social media you're checking on our website so you know how we can worship together in the weeks to come and we can't wait to see you back in person soon have a fruitful week thank you pastor chad we're going to close tonight we sing the song here let's welcome the king of glory as we prepare for the season of pesach for passover let's welcome him sing jose here we go so [Music] [Applause] [Music] i see the king of glory [Music] chase [Music] [Music] mercy [Music] the people [Music] [Applause] a i see a generation [Music] rising up to take their place with selflessly we'll still play [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] yes [Applause] [Music] [Music] heart hey make it clear [Music] open up my eyes to the things i've seen show me [Music] me [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] amen amen god's match makers that wonderful position of representing god to man and man to god peter describes it this way he says you are a chosen people a royal priesthood a holy nation to declare the praises of him this is our role an esteemed role god def confers on each one of us as we came into relationship with him you are a royal priest to represent god to man and to make those acceptable sacrifices on behalf of mankind to god and and be that matchmaker that pastor chad described bringing those two entities together and as we prepare our hearts for passover we're reminded that this is our calling to walk in integrity and in truth and to represent who god is to mankind and then to make those acceptable sacrifices for mankind to god and so god we ask that you would empower us your people to walk in those calling that calling that you've placed over our lives those truths as that matchmaker as that royal priesthood today more than ever before god you need a kingdom of men and women holy priests to carry out this very honorable decree and to live that truth out in this world we ask that you would empower your people and encourage them and strengthen them as we walk out into the world that we wouldn't shy away that we wouldn't be afraid that we wouldn't fear man but we'd fear you god and offer up those acceptable sacrifices and then display the glory and the love of our god to all of those in our lives god we love you and we ask that you would empower us now prepare our hearts for the passover in yeshua's name we pray amen well we hope you have a great week we just want to remind you that joanna will be joining you online for our online community group in just a few moments about seven o'clock israel time we'll be looking for you there and we'll have a great time together and then as you get ready for passover this week we encourage you to connect with your community groups if you don't have a community group it's never too late write us here at cg kkcj.org we'll sign you up get you pointed in the right direction and then stay tuned so that we can point you in the right direction as things begin to change change uh the regulations over the next couple of weeks and we'll see you again next week right here we love you have a great week [Music] oh you

Channel: King of Kings Community Jerusalem

Views: 1,732

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Yeshua, Jesus, Messiah, Christ, Lion of Judah, Lord, God, Jerusalem, Israel, Gospel, Word, Truth, Faith, Salvation, Holy Spirit, Holy, Prophecy, Preaching, Ministry, Ministries, Grace, Mercy, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control, Believer, Christian, Church, Messianic, Congregation, King of Kings, KKCJ, KOKA, Pavilion, Pastor, Wayne Hilsden, Sermon, Message, Preacher

Id: p7wpIbrEV2U

Length: 86min 23sec (5183 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 21 2021