In this special sermon from one of our kingdom workers, Dan Sered overviews his work and then examines the list of Israel’s feasts in Leviticus 23. Dan Sered explains how the spring feasts connect with the events of Jesus’ first coming (crucifixion, resurrection, coming of the Holy Spirit) and how the fall feasts connect with the events of Jesus’ second coming (rapture, judgment, kingdom establishment). Dan Sered also exhorts believers that, just as the summer was the time for work in ancient Israel and not feasting, so our current “summer” is for us to be laboring diligently in the gospel while we await the return of our Lord.
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well Shalom everybody Shalom thank you we can do better than that right let’s say shalom everybody Shalom it is such a great honor and a privilege H for me to be here with you all to be here at Calvary and absolutely our partnership and have been for a long time and it’s really because of you because of your prayers because of your support because of Us coming together and partnering that we’re able to do um what it is that we do bringing the gospel to Jewish people Jewish people in Israel Jewish people all over the world so um thank you so much thank you so much for um Coming alongside us and for partnering with us in bringing the gospel to our Jewish people like Pastor mentioned I serve with a Ministry called Jews for Jesus and Jews for Jesus we relentlessly pursue God’s plan for salvation of the Jewish people now the Plan of Salvation that God has for Jewish people is exactly the same Plan of Salvation that he has for all people that Plan of Salvation is also is only through the gospel only through faith in the Messiah of Israel Messiah Jesus who came died for our sins and Rose on the third day so it’s only through Jesus and in Jews for Jesus we like to say that we have three pillars of ministry that we use to share the gospel with Jewish people first pillar of ministry is go and tell where we go and share the gospel it may be on the streets it may be online but that’s our Proclamation Ministry of sharing the good news of Messiah Jesus second pillar of ministry is come and see where we we we host different events where we open the doors and we invite Seekers to come and see what it means to be Jewish and believe in Jesus and whatever event we’re doing it’s always so that we can engage them with the message of the gospel and third and finally our pillar of Ministry of love and serve where we want to not just communicate the gospel in words but also in Deeds by loving our neighbors by loving and serving them now 2020 has been an amazing year hasn’t it it’s been a year like no other and you know despite all the problems and issues that we’re facing here in this country really all over the world and not just with covid but also all the political unrest and so on I want to show you what God has been doing in the land of Israel and because of your prayers because of your support as we’ve partnered together so let’s Play that video right now shalom from Israel at Jews for Jesus we have three distinct ways that we reach people with the love of the Messiah Jesus by proclaiming the gospel to communities that may otherwise never hear it by inviting people to come and see what it looks like to be Jewish and believe in Jesus and by following the messiah’s example by loving and serving isolated and impoverished Jewish communities in Israel less than half a percent of Jewish people know Jesus as their Messiah together we’re working to change that reality one person at a time this year we knew we couldn’t allow the challenges of the pandemic to prevent us from reaching those in need of the life-changing message of the Gospel so we adapted our methods and what we saw God do was incredible since we couldn’t proclaim the gospel message on college campuses at public events or on the streets we took it online in Israel for every 100 people there are 122 computers the highest personto computer ratio in the the world Israelis also spend more time on Facebook and YouTube than any other country does in lockdown this trend has only increased in just a few months the videos our new media team created were viewed by Israelis over a half a million times thousands of gospel seeds have been planted pray with us that God will cause them to grow and that they bear fruit with social distancing restrictions limiting attendance at our Evangelistic events we went out doors we sent a team to the local Israel Nation Trail to share the gospel in just a few short weeks our team was able to share from the gospel with 645 Israelis and give out 19 Hebrew New Testaments praise God pray with us for these Israelis many of whom are young and disillusioned with traditional Judaism that they might come to see that Yeshua is the truth they’re searching for the last way that we reach the people of Israel with the gospel is by loving and serving those in need God used the pandemic restrictions to provide new opportunities to serve it is estimated that there are 25,000 people who are homeless in Israel and social services are equipped to serve under 10% of them Tel Aviv hosts the largest concentration of homeless people in the country with soup kitchens shut down and many shelters at full capacity the threat of Corona virus is compounded by the threat of people on the street dying of malnutrition and weakened immune systems when shelter in place started it felt like we were out of options but God gave us a new idea if people couldn’t come to the soup kitchen we could bring the soup kitchen to them a food truck would allow us to serve more people in need our ministry Partners jumped in to help and in just a few months we got the truck fully operational we now serve 180 people every week providing them meals and fresh water and sharing with them the message of Living Water that can be found in knowing the Lord stand with us in prayer for those in Israel who are in desperate need of help and of Hope the salvation of this entire world is connected to the Salvation of Israel the story of redemption that God has been staging since the beginning of human history will not be complete until his plans for the Jewish people are fulfilled We Can’t Stop proclaiming The Gospel in the land of Israel until we see God’s promises fulfilled these efforts these stories of Hope would not be possible without you you can make an eternal impact today with your continued generosity and prayers let’s continue to lift up the name of Yeshua our messiah in his holy land of Israel together go to www.j for j.co partner to learn how you can partner with us further in pursuing God’s Plan of Salvation for the Jewish people amen our heart in Jews for Jesus is so tied to your hearts here at Calvary as well because at the end of it we’re all about the same thing we’re all about the Great Commission making disciples of all Nations and you know that’s what it’s really all about for us in Jews for Jesus making disciples Ari was born and raised in Jerusalem he was an orthodox Jew raised in a closed community but as he was growing older in his teenager years he really and felt the deadness and that is among and Orthodox Jews it didn’t make sense to him all the rules and regulations and he left that Community became a secular Jew and at that point in his life he met Christina Christina is not Jewish she moved to Israel for work she’s a Christian but she wasn’t really following the Lord either but when she met M when she met m ari she sensed that she needed to bring him to a church service so she invited him even though it wasn’t her home Church she wasn’t really attending church but they went and Ari really didn’t like what was happening in that church but he really liked Christina so the two of them started a relationship and later on they got married and after they got married they left Jerusalem and moved to Tel Aviv and after they moved to Tel Aviv early on in their marriage Christina really felt God’s prompting and she decided to rededicate her life to the Lord and she started attending our home congregation in in in PVA just outside of Tel Aviv the congregation that I was pastoring and that’s where I met for the first time Ari and Christina and we started to build a relationship with them and I started to meet with AI regularly he had a lot of question questions and we started studying the Bible together week after week and what a joy what a privilege it was when Ari um was ready to pray with me to receive the Lord and a few um months later after further discipleship Ari was ready to take the step of faith and to be baptized that’s right him right there in the picture so it’s so exciting and even Orthodox Jews are coming to Faith in Messiah Jesus and like I said this is all due to our partnership together as we bring the gospel to people and it’s my privilege to be here this morning and to share with you let’s continue to partner together right there on your Pew where you’re sitting down you should have one of these cards if you can take it out I would appreciate it please fill out your name and address your email address as well and this is your way of signing up to receive our newsletter I want you to get our newsletter either via email or via post so that you would know how to pray for our ministry prayer is the secret weapon of evangelism and we need God’s people to be praying for us so please fill this out and then drop it in the black box and when you leave church this morning now um if you wouldd like to give financially and we would appreciate that as well all the gifts the offering in its entirey is going to go to bring the gospel goel to our people in Israel today and please use this card to give indicate the amount and of your gift on disc card so that we could properly receit you and thank you for your gifts for those of you online you can just go to j4 j.co DSA and to give and to sign up for our prayer um updates for our prayer newsletter again we need you to be praying for us would you please pray for the ministry of Jews for Jesus as we bring the gospel to our Jewish people and around the world would you please pray for our family as we transition we continue to transition to New Jersey and you know changing schools for my boys from Israel and to here has been quite difficult so we would appreciate your prayers and especially would you please remember to pray for our daughter Yael she’s the one with the green army uniform and she hasn’t moved to to the states with us because she’s still serving in the Israeli defense Force so would you please pray for her as she is serving the lord in the Israeli Defense Force thank you so much it is such a privilege to be partnering together in bringing the gospel now I don’t know about you but I have really enjoyed this holiday season I hope that you have as well let me say happy new year and as we look to this year to 2021 and of course there is a lot of uncertainty we really don’t know much but God is Sovereign but what I thought that would be helpful today is if maybe we would look at God’s plan for the year you know God gave Israel and a calendar he gave them some feasts and today I want you to see the gospel in those feasts that God gave Israel with the feasts that God and was giving to Israel he was painting a picture I think that Michelangelo’s Mist Chapel ceiling is one of the most beautiful complicated works of art ever created by man well God was giving Israel and through the feast I think an even more beautiful picture and an even more beautiful picture than in this great ceiling I think that God was giving Israel a picture of the Gospel so and if you got your Bibles and open with me to the Book of Leviticus and open your Bibles or turn on your Bibles whatever it is we we’re go whatever it is we do today um and we’re going to study the Book of Leviticus chapter 23 now when was the last time that you heard a sermon from The Book of Leviticus huh and let me give you a little bit of background Leviticus of course is in the Torah it’s the third book in the Bible and of course it was written by Moses and then you may know that the Book of Leviticus contains in it a lot of descriptions of the different sacrifices that that God called Israel to give now towards the end of this book and we find chapter 23 and in this chapter God gives Israel some feasts now unless your name is Scrooge you love feasts right you love holidays well in verse 4 we read Leviticus 23:4 these are the appointed feasts of the Lord the holy convocations which you shall Proclaim at the time appointed for them so here we’re going to find God giving us the feast in a full calendar year this is um God’s calendar this is God’s year and I think that we need to think of it as as as a play okay now what happens in a play well in a play you have an act one and then you’ve got intermission and then you’ve got act two well that’s what we’ll see in Leviticus chapter 23 we’re going to find act one which has in it the spring feasts now we’ll go through them together and we’ll learn together and see that act one spring feasts point to past events what comes after act one well we’ve got intermission now intermission that’s the summer and there are no feasts in the summer and then we’ve got act two act two is the fall Feast the fall feasts we’ll see point to future events okay now before we begin I got to say that you know each one of these feasts are extremely rich you can actually write an entire book you can give an entire sermon series on each one of these feasts but we don’t have such time today so today we’re just going to take a a high look a 30,000 ft View and we’ll go quickly through all of these feasts okay so Calvary are you ready are you ready to begin okay well here we go we start with the first a spring Feast we begin with Passover the Feast of unleavened bread look in your Bibles verse five in the first month on the 14th day of the month at Twilight is the Lord’s Passover Passover is the Feast of Redemption where we tell the story of Exodus how God brought us out of Egypt and during this Feast traditionally we share a Passover meal we call it a seder meal seder means order now during the time of Passover we eat no we eat only unleavened food we don’t eat any leaven it’s also called The Feast of unleavened bread look at verse six and on the 15th day of the same month is the Feast of unleavened bread to the Lord for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread now you need to know that Jesus’s last supper was a Passover Sader meal Jesus in the last supper was celebrating Passover now today during this meal during this Passover meal we’ve got a lot of different traditions for example we have a tradition of drinking from four cups we begin with the first cup which is the cup of sanctification consecrating and the night the Passover meal to the Lord then we have the second cup the second cup is called the cup of plagues where we recite the 10 plagues that were poured out upon the Egyptians the final plague was the firstborn slain how were we saved from this final plague well we were saved because of the blood of the Lamb right the we we were instructed to take a lamb to sacrifice it not to break any of its bones but to kill it and then to take the blood of the lamb and to place it on the doorpost of our homes now during Passover meal we take what is called an afikomen aomen means that which comes later and that is a piece of unleavened bread of matah that we take it together with the third cup now the third cup is called the cup of redemption so we take this piece of matah we break it into small pieces we give it to each person around the Passover table and before we eat it we say wow this signifies for us the lamb the body of the lamb and we take it together with the third cup the cup of redemption the cup of redemption represents the blood of the Lamb that was sacrificed so we’ve got the body of the lamb and the blood of the Lamb the lamb that saved us from the 10th plague and why did God save us cuz he saw the blood on our doors and he forced death to pass over so both the Peace of matah and the third cup they’re taken together after dinner now in Luke chap 22 we find Jesus celebrating Passover verses 19 and 20 and he Jesus Took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them saying this is my body which is given for you do this in remembrance of me and likewise the cup after they had eaten saying this cup that is poured out for you is the New Covenant in my blood so Jesus took this Feast of Passover and he said hey this Feast of Passover is all about me it all points to me as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world Passover points to Jesus’s death for our sins and that brings us to the next Feast the next Feast look at Leviticus 23: 10 and 11 bring the sheath of the first fruits of your Harvest to the priest and he shall wave the sheath before the Lord so that you may be accepted on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it this Feast is called the Feast of first fruits and this Feast was instituted when the nation of Israel was still wandering in the desert the Passover Lambs was sacrificed on the 14th day of the first month which began at Sandown on the 13th day of the month and the Feast of first fruits was on the 16th day 3 days later now we find Jesus celebrating the Passover he goes to the cross and on the 16th day of the first month 3 days after his death Jesus raises from the dead on this Feast the Feast of first fruits the Feast of first fruits symbolize realizes Jesus’s resurrection and you know the Apostle Paul he knew this he understood this perfectly look at what he says 1 Corinthians 15: 20- 23 but in fact Christ has been raised from the dead the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep for as by a Man Came Death by a man has come also the resurrection of the Dead for as in Adam all die so also in Christ shall all be made alive but each in his own order Christ the first fruits then it is coming those who belong to Christ first fruits from the dead that’s Jesus that’s the Resurrection The Feast of first fruits gives us a picture of the Resurrection that leads us to the next Feast look at verses 15 and 16 you shall count seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath from the day that you brought the sheath of the wave offering you shall count 50 days to the day after the seventh Sabbath this is called the Feast of Weeks or shavu in Hebrew another name for it is Pentecost and it occurs 50 days or 7 weeks after Passover now Pentecost is a hard Harvest celebration it commemorates God’s provision and sustenance for his people and this Feast involved a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and it involved the first fruits offerings at the temple now the Feast of Weeks in Jewish tradition it’s the time when Moses received the law from God at Mount Si therefore the Ten Commandments are read in synagogues today also traditionally on the day of this Feast King David was born and also the day of this Feast is the day that he died therefore in synagogues today we read the book of Ruth Ruth being David’s great grandmother and Ruth The Book of Ruth also has in it this theme of harvest which is Central to this Feast now in this Feast traditionally we eat milk products because the rabbis say that when our people received the law they were as newborn babies just receiving and learning the law now the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost is actually mentioned for us in the New Testament acts 2: 1-4 when the day of Pentecost arrived they were all together in one place and suddenly there came from Heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind and it filled the entire house where they were sitting and divided tongues as a fire fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance so the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of Pentecost in the New Testament this is the giving of the Gospel God’s grace revealed through the Living Word when the Holy Spirit came unto the disciples in tongues of flames they began speaking other languages they were preaching the gospel to the Jews who had come to Jerusalem from every nation to observe this feast and it’s very interesting to realize that Peter seemed to know this tradition that King David was born and that he died on this Feast because when we read Peter’s sermons in in Acts chapter 2 we find that Peter is using the Prophecies of David in the Psalms to speak of the resurrection of Jesus so what happens as the gospel goes forwards in Acts chapter 2 well a mighty Revelation a Revival occurs during this day and about 3,000 Jewish people understand the truth of Peter’s words and they become followers of Jesus so this Feast of Pentecost is considered the birthday of the church it begins this age the age of the church CH and for us right now it also ends the spring Feast so what did we see in the spring Feast where do they point to they point to past events really all the events all around the first coming of Messiah and the giving of the holy spirit so what do we have after the spring well we’ve got the summer act one is complete we have intermission this is the time of this is the age of the church the time that we’re currently living CU right now we live in between right we live in between the two comings of Jesus the kingdom of God is here but not yet we’re living in the summer now the summer is a time for labor and we’ll talk more about this shortly but let’s move on to the rest of the feasts okay the fall feasts the next one is found in Leviticus 23:24 four in the seven month on the first day of the month you shall observe a day of solemn rest a memorial proclaimed with blasts of trumpets now today this Feast is actually known as the Jewish New Year it’s known as Ros as head of the Year where does the Jewish New Year comes from well it actually comes because the current Jewish calendar and was actually brought by the Jewish people who left Exile from Babylon it’s the Babylonian calendar which is a lunar calendar which Begins the year begins in the fall and hence today still the Jewish New year begins in the fall now for us we just started the year 2021 but for Jewish people who follow the Jewish calendar the Jewish New Year actually happened on September 18th at sundown and that’s when the year 5,781 began now what do we do traditionally well we eat apples dipped in honey so that we would have a sweet new year but the main part is what we read in scripture we blow the trumpets we blow those trumpets that are called chaar biblically that is what this Feast is all about it’s called The Feast of trumpets God said that we are to blow the trumpets now why why did God tell us to blow the trumpet well he told us to blow the trumpet because back then we didn’t have alarm clocks and we didn’t have iPhones with calendars we didn’t even have calendars themselves and God told us to blow the trumpets to call the nation of Israel to come and prepare for the holiest day of the year the most important important the most significant day of the year the day of atonement which occurs 10 days later so God say blow the trumpets to call the nation of Israel to come to Jerusalem to take part in Repentance for their sins to restore their souls church it’s all about souls now at the sound of trumpet all of Israel had to drop everything and begin the long journey to Jerusalem to participate in the holiest day of the year the day of atonement so imagine with me for a second imagine that you live in Israel during the second temple and imagine that you’re working in the fields and you know your wife and is home preparing dinner the kids are running around and you know you’ve kind of noticed that um you know um the weather is changing ing a bit you notice that it’s no longer so hot so you know it’s coming but you don’t have an iPhone to tell you what’s the date on the calendar but you know it’s the fall you know that the weather is a bit cooler but still you’re working you’re doing your thing but then all of a sudden you hear this chofar blast this trumpet blast and when you hear it what do you do well you drop everything you drop everything and if you’re wise and if you’re prepared you you start you grab your stuff you grab your family and You Begin The Journey to Jerusalem now Church what does that remind you what does this scene reminds you well for me it reminds me of the Rapture because you see one day we will be going along our ways when we hear the trumpet sound the trumpet Blast 1 Thessalonians 4: 16 and 17 for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and thus we shall always be with the Lord so what did we just read one day you and I were going to be doing our own thing maybe I’m sitting in traffic maybe at work maybe at home whatever when all of a sudden we will hear the blast of the trumpet and then we will be caught up together with the Lord in the clouds that’s the symbol of the Feast of trumpets the Feast of trumpet symbolizes for us it gives us this amazing clear picture of the Rapture of the church leading us to the next Feast verses 27 and 28 now on the 10th day of the seven month is the day of atonement it shall be for you a time of holy convocation and you shall afflict yourselves and you shall not do any work on that very day for it is a day of atonement to make atonement for you before the Lord your God so the nation of Israel was gathered in Jerusalem for judgment and repentance the high priest served as a mediator and this was the one time during the year when he would enter the holy of holies to put the blood of the sacrificial animal on the altar as a sin offering now and during first temple period we did this and also during second temple period we did this and and and you know there were two goats that were brought one goat would be sacrificed but the other goat would be sent away it was called the scapegoat that goat that was sent away was to symbolize that we’re sending our sins away never to return so before entering the holy of holies the high priest would take this goat and he would lay his hands on this goat and to symbolically put all of his sin and Israel’s sins on this one goat and then they would show it send it away never to return to Jerusalem again now the second temple was destroyed in 70 AD so what do we do now how do we celebrate today and the day of atonement well we don’t give sacrifices anymore we don’t have a scapegoat anymore you see this is when the split happened when Judaism really stopped being biblical this is when the rabbis came up with modern day Judaism and what they say is that while there is no Temple we get atonement for our souls by doing good deeds by praying by fasting but we know that that’s natural we know that that hope that they have is a false Hope they’ve got this hope that fasting praying on that one day will be enough to atone for our souls but we know that that’s natur true church we know that we still need sacrifices we need the sacrifice we need the blood of the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world once and for all we need to have faith in that Lamb of God in the Messiah of Israel in Jesus Christ now with that in mind for us for the church this day of atonement symbolizes for us what will be the most important day what for us will be the holiest day the most significant day our future hope the day that we are all looking forward to the day of the return of Jesus what a glorious day that would be and I got to ask church are you ready for that day are you ready for the second coming of Jesus are you ready for that day of atonement are you ready that day would be a day of judgment and of Supplication in a day where all of Israel will be saved what a glorious day that would be leading us of course to the next Feast verse 34 on the 15th day of the seven month and for seven days is the Feast of Tabernacles to the Lord so the Feast of Tabernacles begins after the Harvest after a lot of hard work you get to rest this Feast is a time to Rejoice to rejoice in what God has provided for you during this Feast we give sacrifices to the Lord every day of the feast we live in booths why why do we live in booths for seven days well verse 43 so that your Generations may know that I brought them out of the land of Egypt now we actually find Jesus celebrating this Feast of Tabernacles and you can read all about it in John chapter 7 and8 and we find that Jesus says some amazing things about himself during this feast and John 7: 37 and 38 now on the last day the great day of the feast Jesus stood and cried out saying if anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink he who believes in me as the scripture said from his innermost being will flow rivers of Living Water Jesus is saying Here I Am The Living Water and if you believe in me you’ll never thirst again listen I am the living water come to me you won’t thirst again I would supply all I I I will take care of your thirst forever and ever John 8:12 Jesus says I am the light of the world he who follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of Life Jesus is saying hey you need light well come to me come and believe in me you won’t know Darkness you will have the light of life these famous statements were made during the Feast of Tabernacles and church if you recognize it or not one day we’re all going to be celebrating this Feast together listen to Zechariah 14:1 16 and it shall come to pass that everyone that is left of all the nations which came up against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the king the Lord of hosts and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles one day we’re all going to be celebrating this great feast together it will be a festival for all nations all people gathered worshiping the King of Kings and the Lord of lords wow I don’t know about you but I can’t wait so that’s the end of God’s calendar that’s the end of our Feast so let’s summarize real quickly and we’ve got the spring feasts the Feast of Passover and unleavened bread picture of the crucifixion Messiah Jesus is our redem Redemption Feast of first fruit symbolizing the resurrection of Jesus the Feast of Pentecost symbolizes the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church Spring Feast past events right spring Feast past events then we’ve got the fall Feast Feast of trumpets symbolizing the Rapture the day of atonement symbolizing the second coming and the Judgment that will come with it the Feast of Tabernacle symbolizing the Millennium reign of Messiah fall Feast future events fall Feast future events so what does all of this mean to you and I I mean who cares right what difference does this make to my life today well let me say that right now during our age during during our time I think that we’re living in the most crucial time ever you say well of course I get it I mean you know and what happened last week in the capital with all the political unrest with the inauguration coming up with covid still around look at the Middle East have you heard of the Abraham’s Accords you know and there is peace now in the Middle East between Israel and the UAE in Bahar and Sudan and now Morocco has has added themselves as well to the mix here so of course we live in crucial times and I got to say that these are all true but that’s not what I’m referring to church we’re living in a crucial time not because of all these events we live in a crucial time because we are in the summer now you say well I don’t really feel like it’s the summer it’s really hot out but I’m not talking about the weather we live in the summer because we are in between the two comings we’re after Jesus’s first coming but before his second coming so the kingdom of God is here but not yet we live in the summer we live in between we’re in the summer and what do you do in the summer well in the summer you work in the fields I’m not talking about agriculture I’m talking about people here is the point point the lesson is that above everything else God cares about people it’s no coincidence that we are now in the summer season what do we do in the summer we labor labor for what labor for Souls Every Soul matters to God above everything else God values people all people’s lives matter I really believe today as the body of Messiah this is a message that we desperately need to hear and to be reminded of I mean think about it Leviticus 23 way before Jesus came God was communicating to Israel and through Israel to the world what he was giving them a full picture of Redemptive history a full picture of the Gospel past present and future God was God was giving a future hope to the nation of Israel and to the world it was all about communicating the gospel it’s all about the amazing love and grace of God for people people matter to God and therefore they should matter to us as well so as the Evangelical Church we desperately need to be reminded that Jesus came and died on the cross as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world for us for people Jesus died for people Jesus gave his life on the cross for souls and Jesus is coming back for people he’s coming back for Souls the big so what for us today the difference that this makes and what this means for us here at Calvary what it means for us both as individuals followers of Christ and as the church is that we have a decision to make and the decision we have to make is simply this are we going to exhibit the value system of the Lord of Jesus are we going to open our arms to people of every race of every Creed from every economic situation from every background committing every sin known to men even though it gets a little messy are we going to be like the apostles like the disciples or are we going to insulate ourselves from all of this that’s not just not that’s not just a question for us as a church it’s a question for us as individuals as well if we’re followers of Christ I mean the bottom line is are we going to fulfill the Great Commission are we going to make disciples my question to you and my question to myself is do we have the courage to preach the gospel in this day in this age in this culture right now I don’t know about you but I say yes yes yes a thousand times yes do you agree with me now do we have open arms for people so we can encourage their sinful Behavior no absolutely not but we do have open arms for them so that we can tell them about Jesus so that we can show them the grace of God the love of God so we can love them and serve them and see them give their lives to Christ see Christ make them into a new creation in him and see them get eternal life yes we have room for people for that purpose therefore one of our values must be people matter to God so they matter to us we’ve got to project this value we got to project the True Heart Of God we’ve got to project to the people the true value system of God we’ve got to project to people that God’s value system is not about money it’s not about power it’s not about politics and it’s not about vaccination or pandemics no it’s about people it’s all about helping people it’s about redeeming people that’s the message of the Feast of the Lord that is the message of the Gospel that’s our job to make disciples of every nation and you know what if we can communicate at this value to the people around us that that is what we care about that we care about people then we will get the opportunity to share Christ with a whole bunch of them and I believe that we will see people come to faith in Christ let me say in closing that an important factor in this is perseverance let me explain does everybody here in New Jersey wants to hear what we’re telling them no of course not not everybody even in the United States is interested in the gospel and in what we’re trying to share with them but you know our job is not their response our job is to keep on reaching out and keep on loving them and keep on serving them and bathing all of this in prayer and keep on reaching out and loving them and serving them in the hope that eventually some of these people will really believe that we are here for them when they do we will get a chance to share Christ with them so this is our calling this is our mission this is our mandate God is calling us to evangelism to making disciples to sharing the gospel to going around and telling people what God has done and who he is we’re doing it all for the glory of God until Jesus comes back amen so Church let’s go out there and tell people who Jesus really is and what he’s really and what he really cares about which is really them so let’s pray together ah Lord Jesus thank you so much for the reminder today that we as Christians that we as your body as the Evangelical Church and desperately need to be reminded Lord that you didn’t leave us here to pursue money power or INF fluence in this world system but you left us here to pursue people to love on people to help people to care for people with the value system in the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ Lord keep us as a church focused on what you really left us here to do Lord Jesus help us keep the main thing main thing and not be drawn away by the siren calls of this world but Lord Jesus Keep Us focused on people and on reaching ing out to them with your love with your grace may that be true in our individual lives as well make us to understand that our goal is to go around and tell people what the Lord Jesus has done for us and how he has Mercy on us sharing with people the gospel Lord so I pray that you would change our lives because we are here today Lord keep the life of this church so focused where it needs to be Lord thanks for SK for for speaking speaking to us today from your word we pray these things in Jesus name and God’s people said