Recap
Tim Rivers | January 7, 2024
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Transcription
Welcome, happy New Year. Happy. If this is your first time here with us at Embassy City, we want to say welcome to Embassy City Church. We're so delighted that you are here and we pray that you feel at home if you're watching online. Thank you so much for joining us. Did everybody have a good Christmas? Did you get everything that you asked for? If not, there's always next year. I guess we'd be this year, right? God really blessed us, our family, for the Christmas and for the new year, and it is so amazing to reflect on all that God has done and realize that God has kept us. Anybody remember that Christmas message, Emmanuel? God is with us. It's still true today. And somebody say, amen. We're going to get into this word, but before we do a couple announcements, number one, we're kicking off prayer and fasting tomorrow. Come on, somebody make some noise
And prayer and fasting is an amazing time where we as a church, as a corporate body, take 21 days of intentional prayer and fasting. And you may be wondering like, why are we fasting and why are y'all excited about that? Well, there's a lot of examples in scripture about fasting, but I think one of the greatest examples is in Luke chapter three, the story of Jesus fasting for 40 days and 40 nights. And this is what the Bible says. The Bible says that Jesus was led into the wilderness to pray and fast for 40 days. And while he was in the wilderness, he was tempted by the devil, and Jesus overcame the devil by the word of God. And then the Bible says that after the period of time of prayer and fasting had come to an end, that Jesus came out of the wilderness, out of prayer and fasting and the power of the spirit. Lemme tell you what's about to happen over the next 21 days, we are being led by the Spirit into 21 days of prayer and fasting. But I promise you we're coming out of it in the power of the spirit.
Somebody's whole life is about to change in the next 21 days. This may be prophetic. I think it is. Somebody's whole life is about to change the next 21 days. So make sure that you are praying about it, that you are making preparations for what you're going to fast and make sure you fast something that means something to you. That's what a fast is. Some people like the fast things that they don't even like the Lord over the next 21 days. I'm not eating avocados
Fast, something that means something to you and take that time and devote it to the Lord. Somebody say amen. Amen. And to kick things off, we are going to have prayer night tonight at 6:00 PM is going to kickstart us into our 21 days of prayer and fasting. If you've never been, I encourage you to come. This is a time where we have corporate prayer. Now you don't have to be an expert in prayer to come. In fact, one of the best ways to learn how to praise is to be around somebody that prays. So this is a great time at 6:00 PM tonight. Be here, join us as we bring in the new year with prayer, and then kick off prayer and fast against somebody. Say amen. Amen. Grab your bibles. We're going to the book of Psalm chapter 1 0 3, the book of Psalms, chapter 1 0 3. If you have your paper Bibles, just wave 'em at me. Love high. Okay, how about electronic bibles? How many got electronic Bibles? How about the screens? We ain't. We going to make sure you don't miss it at all. Alright, Psalm chapter 1 0 3 verse number one, bless the Lord oh my soul and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord oh my soul. And forget not somebody say, don't forget it. Forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the Eagles?
I want to take my subject today from verse number two. Bless the Lord oh my soul. And forget not all his benefits. It is very easy for us to start a new year being future oriented.
But sometimes you got to stop and do a recap of what got you here in the first place. So the next time I'm going to preach on this subject, recap.
Recap. Dear Lord, we thank you so much for your goodness and mercy. Thank you for allowing us to be in your house. I pray that over the next few moments as we get into your word, you would give us ears to hear, a heart to receive and a mind to understand what the spirit would say to us. Help us to walk out of here different than the way we walked in. We give your name, the praise, the glory and the honor because we know that you are worthy of it in Jesus' name. And everybody say amen. Amen. Turn your neighbor and say, neighbor, something good. Something is about to happen. Look at your other neighbor and say, neighbor, neighbor, something good. Something good is about to happen, happen. And if you believe that, give God some praise in advance for what's getting ready to take place. I'm going to preach today if that's all right, I'll teach a nice little sermonette next week, but this week I'm going to preach I just need about two or three people that are going to help me. And if you're not used to a church that is lively,
Welcome. Make yourself at home. People wonder like, should we be this lively? Do you scream at the game even when your team is losing? I don't want to get controversial, but the Cowboys hadn't won in a long time. People still getting star tattoos on their chest and the backwards Dallas hats. You know what I'm saying? God is a good guy. He works miracles, but God has never failed. So I will not make more noise for a team that's losing then I do a God who never loses. That's just going to be my motto for 2024. I refuse to let God get less praise than anything else in my life. So I'm going to preach. We have just come through what is known as the holiday season, Christmas and then the new year And Christmas is a delightful time, especially when you get to spend it with family and friends. And it's also eventful and it is very enjoyable, especially when you have small children. We have small children, seven, four, and two and getting to watch them open their gifts and be excited and then be grumpy because they don't have any more gifts than the 450,000 gifts that we already gave them.
But it's amazing to think through the fact that we have these holidays that happen every year. It's a cycle of holidays and every country has kind of their own set holidays. And here in the US we have certain holidays that are considered federal holidays, meaning that the federal government, our entire country recognizes these certain days as holidays. And a holiday is a day when you stop from working to recognize and commemorate an event that took place in history that was pivotal or was momentous enough to change the course of history. And we have holidays that commemorate individuals such as Martin Luther King Day and George Washington Day and Columbus Day. We have certain holidays that recognize events like Memorial Day or Easter or Independence Day or Labor Day. And then we have holidays that recognize the chains of seasons like Thanksgiving. Now, I know that some of us, there's a lot of controversy around some of the holidays that we recognize, but I guarantee you whether you agree or not you want to take off, you may not agree with the name attached to that holiday, but I guarantee you, I will see you at Kohl's
Getting no sales, right? Each holiday is meant to acknowledge a milestone or some kind of happening or moment that affected history in a particular way. And so when we stop for holidays, what we're doing is we are ceasing from our labors to stop, look back at a moment and say Thank you. That's what a holiday is. And I think it's interesting because in our modern society we are so future oriented and so future focused that oftentimes we have forgotten the art of looking back and being thankful we can be so enamored with the technology and the advancement of the future that we failed to be thankful for what got us here in the first place. And I think a lot of times young people do this right? They can be so enamored with each other and where they're going that they failed to realize that what brought them here were people that sacrificed many things in the past. Here's the thing, if you don't recap your past, your past will recap. You
Have to have moments where you stop and recognize something that has happened. You have to have moments, you have to have holidays to acknowledge what brought you here in the first place. And here's the thing, holidays are not a modern invention. It's very easy for us to think about the United States and look at these different events and different holidays that we have and think that these are all things that these are only holidays that should be celebrated over the last couple of hundred years. But if you really want to know the beginning or the origin of a holiday, you have to go all the way back to Genesis when God created the heavens and the earth and the Bible says that God created the cycles of times and seasons and then after God created them over the space of six days, the Bible says that on the seventh day that God rested from all of his labors, he looked back at what he had created over the last six days and he said, it's good.
Scratch that. It's very good. So God himself is the one who established the very first holiday called the Sabbath. And we know that this was a time where God celebrated because in Job chapter 38, verse number seven, the Bible tells us that the sons of God, which are angels, the sons of God, the angels shouted for joy when God laid the foundations of the earth. In other words, when God created the heavens and the earth, heaven was going nuts. They were celebrating what God was doing. God established from the beginning that there should be moments in the creation process of the future when you stop to look back at the past and be thankful for what just happened.
And although we don't know how the cycles of time happened, we don't know how the cosmos really worked. We don't know if there was a 24 hour period or if there we don't know all of that. But we do know according to Genesis chapter one 14, that God created the lights in the expanse of heaven to separate night and day. And this is why he said he wants it to indicate signs, seasons, days and years. This further provides evidence to us that God is very much interested in us stopping to take historical account of events and celebrate them. Now, God's plan for celebration was very easy. You work six days, you take off the seventh, you celebrate what happened in the first six days and you get prepared for what's about to happen in the next six days. A lot of people take Sabbath and they hadn't worked the first six days, but that's another sermon. I need my fabb what you do in the first six days.
God then places Adam and Eve in the garden to dress it and to keep it. He said, be fruitful, multiplier, replace your earth to do it and have dominion. So God puts Adam and Eve in the garden to work for six days and then they would rest on the seventh. And so Adam and Eve are in this cycle of working and stopping and resting and looking back and seeing what God had done and they're in this cycle. Why? Because God set it up. But at some point we know the story. Eve disobeyed God, she took the fruit she gave to Adam, he ate the fruit sin enter into the world and now the cosmos, the world is in disarray. All of a sudden what was supposed to be a very simple plan of doing the work of God, stopping to celebrate doing the work of God, stopping to celebrate is now all out of whack.
Why? Because now sin is entered into the world and we know that once sin entered into the world, there's a progression that happens within humanity that leads them further and further away from God until God redeems mankind by calling a man by the name of Abraham and saying, Abraham, I'm going to take you. I'm going to give you a promise. I'm going to let there be a lineage that comes out of you and I'm going to create the children of Israel who are going to be my people. And so we know that Abraham ends up having a son and then he has a son, he has a son, and then the children of Israel are born, but they still don't. They have a strained relationship with God. They have no way of celebrating holidays. They have no way of recognizing what God has done. So they end up being under the leadership and under the rule of the Egyptians until God says, now it's time for me to redeem my people out of Egypt and set them on the course of the promised land.
So God then calls a man by the name of Moses and says, Moses, I want you to go into Pharaoh's court and I want you to tell him to let my people go. Moses does this. Pharaoh is like, who is this God that's sending you? Moses says, he just said he is the I am. Pharaoh doesn't understand what that means. Pharaoh says, no, Moses say you shouldn't have done that. So now God begins the deliverance process of bringing the Egyptians, the Israelites out of Egypt. But because God is a show off, God doesn't just bring them out, but God starts doing things to the Egyptians to prove to them that when I deliver my people out of slavery, I'm not just going to do it easily, but I'm going to make sure that you know that I'm more powerful than you are. So God sends the 10 plagues.
He brings them out of Egypt. Now they're at the Red Sea. The Israelites are like, have you brought us out to die in the Red Sea? And God says No. So God splits the Red Sea, they walk through on dry ground. Then the Egyptians are following after Israelites, God says, Hey, I'm about to swoop y'all up. So God releases the Red Sea, it drowns out the Egyptians and now the Israelites are on the other side of the Red Sea. They know they've been delivered out of Egypt, and then God begins to tell 'em what he's going to do in their life. So God begins to tell the Israelites, listen, I brought you out not just to bring you out, but I brought you out to take you in. Lemme just stop and say this. God never delivers you out of something without taking you into something.
Some of y'all are in process right now. You're wondering where God is leading you. Well, can I tell you that the plan of God for your life is not just that he has delivered you out of the world, but that he's leading you into the kingdom? Can I tell you that every time that somebody is brought out of something, they're being taken into something so relax, your promise is on the way and the Israelites are on the other side, and then God begins to tell 'em all the stuff that he's going to do in their life. God says, Hey, I'm leading you to a promised land that's flowing with milk and honey. It's like something you've never seen before. You're used to slavery. You're used to getting your back beat. You're used to making bricks. You're used to mixing mortar, but now I'm about to lead you to a land that's flowing with milk and honey.
God begins to tell 'em, I'm going to let you live in houses that you didn't build. I'm going to let you eat from vineyards that you didn't plant. I'm going to let you drink from wells that you didn't dig. I'm leading you to a land and guess what? All you got to do is follow the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night and on the way, I'm going to make sure that you're taken care of. I'm going to bring quail in the middle of nowhere. I'm going to make manna come out of nowhere. I'm going to make water come from a rock. I'm leading you to the promised land. So the Israelites are on their way to the promised land, but while they're on the way to the promised land, God says, there is something that I want to establish in your life in the process of getting to your future that's going to help you overcome all the obstacles they're about to hit you.
So God in Leviticus chapter 23 gives them what are called the feasts of the Lord. And these feasts were observations that the Israelites were supposed to observe throughout the year to bring them remembrance back to them over all the things that God had done for them in the deliverance process. Can I just teach a little bit? So God gives them seven feasts. The first feast he gives them is the Feast of Passover and the Feast of Passover was when the death angel passed over them that he gives them the feast of unleavened bread, which was a type of deliverance out of Egypt. Then he gives them the feast of first fruits, which was the crossing of the Red Sea. The fourth one is the Feast of Pentecost, which is when God gave the commandments at Mount Sinai. The fifth one is the Feast of Trumpets or this is called Rash Hashanah, which was the Jewish New Year.
The sixth is called the Day of Atonement, which is when God would forgive and he would cleanse the people's sins for one year. Then the seventh was called the Feast of Tabernacles, which was a moment in time when God said, I want you to remember how I kept you in the wilderness and how I brought you into the Promised Land. Now, why would God give them these feasts in the wilderness? It's because God was trying to establish with the children of Israel that while you are on your way to the future that I have for you, and while you're on your way to the promised land, don't get so caught up in moving forward that you don't stop to look back and recognize all the things that I brought you through to get you here. God gave Israel seven feasts called the feasts of the Lord so that they would stir up their minds by way of remembrance to recognize that if it had not been for me being with you through your deliverance process, you never would be here making your way to the promised land. There should be set times in your life when you stop to recognize what God has brought you through to get you here,
And too many of us want to start the new year just thinking about the future when God wants to bring somebody's remembrance back, Hey, listen, remember last year when you lost your job, but I still kept you? Have you stopped to give me praise? Remember when your friends were talking about you, but I still kept you safe. I expect you to give me praise. God tried to set a principle. He did set a principle with his children that we should never walk into the future without stopping to recap the past, and here's what God said. I don't just want you to stop. I want you to celebrate. God said, I want you to throw a party. I don't just want you to walk into the future, but I want you to stop every now and then and celebrate what I have done in your past. Let me ask you this, when was the last time that you stopped just to thank God and celebrate the fact that you made it through? Some of y'all shouldn't even be here today. Some of y'all shouldn't have made it past March, but you made it to April. Have you stopped to give God praise for that?
Some of y'all shouldn't be here, but God catch you. That's why that old song says, when I look back over my life and I think things over, I can truly say that I've been blessed. Why? I've got a testimony. Anybody got a testimony in here? Can anyone just take 10 seconds and give God praise
For keeping you through 2023? You may have gone through some trouble, but you made it through. You may have hit some bumps, but you made it through. You may have gone through a hard time, but you made it through the enemy thought he had you, but you made it through. You may have lost a job, but you made it through. Your kids were acting crazy, but you made it through. You may have gone through a divorce, but you made it through somebody. Give them a made it through praise.
I made it through.
If nothing ever happens in the future, I got enough to give God praise for it in my past Now. Now lemme keep teaching. Is that all right? Yes. Get my handkerchief. I'm getting a little excited. Now, I want to teach this a little bit because when God gives the Israelites the feasts of the Lord, these seven feasts, they are types and foreshadows of fulfillment that is to come. Now, let me explain this. For all you theologians that are wondering, a type in a shadow is an event that has taken place in the past that is a real event, but it also is a foreshadowing or a type of something that is to come. In other words, when you look at the Old Testament, new had testament, and you look at the combination of the two, you will see often that God will do something in the past, in the Old Testament that is a type and foreshadow of what is to come in the New Testament.
In other words, there are prophecies and fulfillments. There are things that God said, Hey, this happens in real time, but it also is a sign of what is to come. So when God gives the seven feasts of the Lord, they are types and shadows of what is to come. For instance, when God gives them the feast of Passover in real time, it was a recognition that when the death angel came into the camp, all those who had applied the blood of the lamb through the doorposts of their house, the death angel had to pass over, pass over, right? But when you come into the New Testament, what you find out is those of us who have applied the blood of the Lamb to the doorpost of our house, the thing that was meant to destroy us has to pass over. That's why some of you, you should have got caught, but you didn't get caught.
Why? Because it had to pass over. When was the last time you gave God praise just for the fact that what should have destroyed you had to pass you over and it caught somebody else? I give God praise for Passover. I should have made it through that car wreck, but death had to pass over. I shouldn't have made it through that bad doctor's report, but death had to pass over. I shouldn't have made it through that hard time, but it had to pass over. God said, give me praise for the fact that it passed over. You can I keep teaching? The second one was the Feast of 11 Bread, and in the Old Testament, the real recognition of it was that God said, I want you to sweep out your entire house of yeast, which was a type of leaven, and we know that leaven is the thing that makes bread rise, and when God says is that at the feast of 11 Bread, I want you to sweep out your house of all the yeast that's in there, but when you come into the New Testament, which you find out in one Corinthians five, seven is that yeast is the type of sin, meaning that when you repent of your sins, God will sweep every sin that you've ever committed out of the house of your life.
Why? Because we have a God who is faithful to forgive us of our sin when we confess. Have you taken time just to thank God for sweeping sin out of your life? And if you still got some in there,
All you got to do is repent and the one who is faithful and just we'll forgive you of your sins. Here's the third feast of feast of first fruits, and in real time, this was when the Israelites were supposed to celebrate the fact that they crossed through the Red Sea, they crossed through an impossibility. Remember, they couldn't make it through the Red Sea. It was too strong, but God in his mercy and love split the Red Sea. They walked through on dry ground and the Bible says that as they walked every H and lame was being healed.
I don't think y'all caught that. That means that while they were on their way through the Red Sea, those people that had issues, all of a sudden my legs doing better. All those people that had stars and stuff from their slavery moments that as they were passing through the Red Sea on their way to the Promised Land, God was fixing all the wounds and he was getting rid of all the mess and junk and my God have mercy. When you come into the New Testament, you realize that the Red Sea was a type of water baptism and water baptism represents what God does in your life when you go through the process of being washed by his blood. Can I tell you, when you go through the waters of baptism, which represents the washing away of your past, God will not only forgive you of your sins, but he will restore all the things that you lost while you were in Egypt. Have you stopped to give God praise for taking care of your enemies? Because when they got through the Red Sea, they looked behind and say, uhoh, my pastor is trying to catch up with me.
Ain't God said, but it ain't going to catch you, so God closed up the Red Sea and destroyed everything that was chasing them. When was the last time you just stopped to give God praise that what was chasing you couldn't catch you? Is this Mike on? Is this Mike on? Can anybody give God praise that what was chasing you couldn't catch you? Your past tried to destroy you, but it couldn't stop you. Why? Because you made it through somebody. Give God some praise.
Then it was the Feast of Pentecost. The Feast of Pentecost in real life was when God gave the 10 commandments to the children of Israel on Mount Sinai. Now, I want you to understand this. I know I'm giving you a Bible study and that's all right. This is what we're here to do when God gives them the 10 Commandments, you have to understand that prior to the 10 Commandments, the children of Israel were literally just called the children of Israel. They were the children, the 12 sons of Jacob who had children, right? When God gave them the 10 Commandments. The 10 Commandments were the articles of incorporation that made the children of Israel, the children of Israel, the actual nation of Israel. When God gave the 10 Commandments, the 10 Commandments were the documents, the 10 things that God said, Hey, if you observe these, you are now qualified to be my people, and we understand that to be the Old Testament.
When you come into the New Testament, what you find out is that what God wrote on tablets of stone, God writes on the tablets of our heart through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is exactly why on the day of Pentecost, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit was poured out and the Holy Spirit began to write on the tables of our heart to incorporate us into the body of Christ called the Church. Is anybody thankful for the church? Come on. Is anybody thankful that you who word out of people are now a people by the power of the Holy Spirit? I still get excited about the Holy Ghost because if it wasn't for the Holy Ghost, I wouldn't be here. If it wasn't for the Holy Spirit, I wouldn't have made it through. If it wasn't for the Holy Ghost, I wouldn't have dodged that temptation.
If it wasn't for the Holy Ghost, I would've cussed my neighbor out. If it wasn't for the Holy Ghost, I would've rammed that person on the highway. If it wasn't for the Holy Ghost, I'd be doing some crazy stuff. Anybody thankful that you got the power of the Holy Ghost? When was the last time you just thank God for his spirit, for leading you when you have no direction for picking you up, when you fell low for making your pass straight, when you were walking crooked, I'll thank God for the Holy Ghost. What's the Holy Ghost? It's the Holy Spirit, the same thing.
Then God gives them two other feasts, feasts number five and feasts. Number six, feasts of trumpets and feasts of atonement, and both of these kinds of worked together and they weren't big celebrations. They were kind of somber feasts, and in these feasts in the Old Testament, this is when the high priests would go into the tabernacle into the Holy of Holies and he'd lift up an offering to God for the atonement of sins for the entire nation of Israel. So it was very somber because when the high priest would go into the holy of Holies, he would have these little bells around his ankles with a rope that when he walked in, if his life wasn't right, he wouldn't have made it out and they'd have to pull 'em out of there. So everybody was on pins and needles hoping that when he gets in there, he's good enough to make the sacrifice to God, to represent the children of Israel, that when he came out, he could be like, we all good. So when he would go in and God would confirm, Hey, yes, I'm going to go ahead and atone your sins, God would atone their sins. He would forgive their sins for a year. So when the high priest would come down and say like, we good for a year, everybody would start throwing a party. Why? Because their sins were forgiving. Why did God do this? Well, because in the New Testament, the Bible says that we have a high priest
Who is touched by the feelings of our infirmities, and he has gone to the holy of Holies and he forever makes intercession for us that you don't have to live in sin anymore. You can be delivered from sin and you can live in atonement every day through the righteousness of a high priest that represents you every single day. When was the last time you just thanked God for forgiving you and representing you and interceding for you and dying for you and taking stripes on his back for you? We ought to give God some praise for what He's done in our lives.
This is the reason that God did this. The reason that God gave them feasts is because God wanted to establish with his children that I'm going to lead you to a future that is bright. I'm going to take you to a land flowing with milk and honey, I'm going to let you live in houses you didn't build. I'm going to let you eat from vineyards you didn't plant. I'm going to let you drink from wells that you didn't dig. I'm going to give you camels that you didn't raise. I'm going to give you cattle that you can't even number. I'm going to bless you beyond your wildest imagination, but while you're on your way to the future, I need you to stop, take a look back and give me a recap, praise yearly so that you don't forget that you wouldn't be here if I wasn't with you back then. I'm going to preach about what God's got for us in 2024, but I need somebody to recognize what God did for you in 2023. As you step into 2024, don't get so fancy about your future that you don't stop to give God praise for your past.
I know you may have gone through some hard times, but you made it through. Have you given God praise for making it through? If you have an dare, you take 10 seconds right now and give God a recap. Praise. Think about what God did for you in 2023, how he kept you, how he made a way where there seems to be no way how he was the beginning Indian, how he was the alpha and Omega, how he was the one who was and is and is to come. I give God praise for what he's done in my life.
We should never get to the point that we forget where God brought us from. We should never get to the point where we look nice in our dressed up suits and our beautiful dresses where we forget that we were grinding and bumping in the clubs just a few years ago and God snatched us out. We should never get so fancy that we forget all the lines of Coke that we were snorting, but God delivered us. We should never forget the moments where we were stumbling home after a Friday night of going crazy and God delivered you. We should never forget it. Don't you forget it. I know you look nice now, but think back of where God brought you from and you ought to give God praise for bringing you through. I'm not preaching to everybody, but I'm preaching to somebody. Somebody needs to give God praise. So what He's done in your life, in your past, when was the last time you just gave God thanks. I know I'm having a hard time still, but I still give God praise for bringing me here. Now, you may be seated. Y'all made me think I'm done.
Now. What is true for you individually, Dr.
Thank you. You don't have to. Now, what's true for us individually is also true for us corporately because God has done some amazing things for our church in the last year, and I want to preach about what God has for us next week. But before we get to next week, I want us to stop and recap what God has done for us last year. Is that all right? So I want you to look at this screen and check this out.
Embassy City Church to say that 2023 was anything but extraordinary would be an understatement. Looking back, we see nothing but God's extraordinary work on display. We see lives transformed. We see families that have been restored, and last but not least, we have seen so many people make a decision to follow Christ and outwardly profess their faith through water baptism. It's time to celebrate, so let's make some noise. Average weekend attendance, 1,102 people, 253 New Embassy members over 2,500 people watching our services online. On a weekly basis, over 30,000 people from around the world subscribe to our YouTube channel, the launch of my embassy and the beginning of online classes, 300 boxes of food donated through members during Thanksgiving. We've given over $230,000 in benevolence missions and outreach, and last but not least, 309 people water baptized. We can't wait to see what's in store for 2024.
Y'all too chill. Y'all too relaxed. Did anybody see what God did in 2023 and if 2023 is the indication of 24, you better give God some praise. Now, y'all still too relaxed. Is anybody thankful what God did in 2023? Now, I'm still not done yet. I don't know if you noticed this, but I left one feast out. I only cover one through six because one through six those feasts were given to the children of Israel and God says, I'm going to give you these feasts because they have historical context.
I'm going to give you six feasts that you can celebrate what I've done in your past. The Passover is easy to celebrate. Why? Because we know that the death angel passed over The Feast of Pentecostal is easy to celebrate. Why? Because I gave you the law at Mount Sinai, but the seven feasts is called the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Feast of Tabernacles was given to them and God said, I want you to celebrate and throw a party and have a feast for how I kept you in the wilderness. The problem was they were still in the wilderness,
And God also said that the Feast of Tabernacles is to represent your entrance into the promised land. The problem was they weren't in the promised land yet, so why would God give them six feasts that had historical context and one feast that had a future context? I'll tell you why, because God was trying to establish with the children of Israel that I'm going to give you reasons to give me praise that's going to blow your mind. I'm going to work miracles in your life that when you look back, you can say, man, when I look back over my life and think things over, I can truly say that I've been blessed. I've got a testimony, but then I'm going to give you one feast where you're supposed to celebrate not what has happened, but what is getting ready to happen. I believe what God was trying to establish with the children of Israel is I want to see if my children get just as excited and throw a party of what's getting ready to happen as they do for what already happened. My question for you is now that you've recapped what has happened in your life, are you prepared to give God praise in advance for what's getting ready to happen?
I know some of y'all are going to try to wait till March when the income tax check hits the mail. Well, I'm going to give God praise on the first Sunday of January, 2024. In preparation for what God's getting ready to do, I'm going to praise him for the job I'm going to get. I'm going to give him praise for the promotion I'm getting ready to get. I'm going to give God praise for the business that's going to grow. Somebody will take 30 seconds and give God an advanced type of praise. I thank God for what he did in 23, but I also thank God for what he's getting ready to do in 24 and to prove the point, God says to Joshua, who is now leading them to the promised land after 40 years of celebrating the feasts of Tabernacles, they finally made it to the promised land, and Jericho was staring right in the face and Joshua says, God, don't spoke to me, and God said, we are going to march around the walls that are holding back our future for seven days. Then on the seventh day, God says, I want you to march around seven times, and Joshua said, what's the strategy to get in there? How do we penetrate these walls? How do we get in the city? How do we make it through the promised land? God says, I'm going to give you one thing to do.
Shout now, if I'm Joshua, I'm Hey, God, there ain't nothing to shout about. We are not in there yet. I'll praise you after I get in. God says, the weapon, the strategy that gets you into the future is learning how to praise in advance because your praise is the weapon that I'm going to use to launch you into the future that I already promised you was yours. So God tried to find out, will you praise me for the word that I've given you about your future? My question for you today is are you willing to give God praise in advance for what gets God's getting ready to do in your life in 2024? Why are you walking different? I'm walking in different in that fast. Some of y'all need to start dressing for the job you'll believing God for. Maybe I'm just preaching to myself. I could just be preaching myself because, hey, I'm looking this year, I'm going, I made a year of pastoring. I guess I got to praise by myself, but as good as God has been over the last year,
It don't even compare to what God's getting ready to do, and for some of y'all, you've been through a hard time in 2023 and you've made it through some bumps in the road and people lied on you, and people talked about you and you lost some stuff and you give God praise for bringing you here, but now it's time to give God praise, but what is getting ready to do? I'm not waiting to March. I'm not waiting till February. I'm not waiting to June. I'm going to give God praise right now. Take 30 seconds and give God praise right now in advance.
