["Pomp and Circumstance"]
It's the perfect time to be singing this type of song.
Song number 27, sing it out on the first.
On a hill far away,
stood an old rugged cross,
the emblem of suffering and shame.
And I love that old cross,
where the dearest sang best,
for the Lord of lost sinners was slain.
So I cherish the old rugged cross,
till my trophies at last I lay down.
And I will cling to the old rugged cross,
and exchange it someday for a crown.
Matthew, go ahead.
411.
Song number 411.
Hold the fort.
Song number 411.
So go ahead and sing it out on the first.
Oh, my comrades,
see the signal waving in the sky.
Reinforcements now appearing,
victory is nigh.
Hold the fort,
for I am coming.
Jesus, signal still.
Wave the answer back to heaven,
by thy grace we will.
Charlotte, God.
What was it?
31 on the last.
Another Easter song, I think.
Song number 31.
He lives.
Christ Jesus lives today.
Song number 31.
May I serve a risen Savior,
his in the world today.
Song number 31 on the first.
I serve a risen Savior,
his in the world today.
I know that he is living,
whatever man may say.
I see his hand of mercy,
I hear his voice of cheer.
And just the time I need him,
he's always near.
He lives, he lives.
Christ Jesus lives today.
He walks with me and talks with me,
a long and narrow way.
He lives, he lives.
Salvation to impart.
You ask me how I know.
He lives,
he lives within my heart.
Miss Ava.
190 on the second.
Song number 190.
Wonderful, wonderful Jesus.
Would you say second?
Song number 190, sing it out on the second.
There is never a cross so heavy.
There is never a weight of hope.
But that Jesus will help to carry,
because he loved it so.
Wonderful, wonderful Jesus.
In the heart he implanted a song.
A song of deliverance, of courage and strength.
In the heart he implanted a song.
Madison guide.
415.
Conquering now and still
to conquer.
Song number 415.
Victory through grace.
Sing it out on the first.
Conquering now and still to conquer.
Righted the king in his might.
Leading the host of all the faithful.
Into the midst of the fight.
See the weaker is advancing.
Clad in their billions array.
Shouting the name of their leader.
Hear them exultingly say.
Not to the strong is the battle.
Not to the swift is our race.
Yet to the true and the faithful.
Victory is promised through grace.
Mr. Brandyguard.
138.
Song number 138.
This will be the last song for favorite song number 138.
The haven of rest.
Since this is the last song for favorites let's go ahead and sing it out with some passion.
Song number 138.
Sing it out on the first.
My soul inside exile was out of my sea.
So burdened with sin and distress.
Till I heard a sweet voice saying make me your choice.
And I entered the haven of rest.
I've anchored my soul in the haven of rest.
I'll sail the white seas no more.
The tempest may sweep.
For the wild soar me deep.
In Jesus I'm safe evermore.
Amen.
All right well let's take our bulletins this evening and we'll look at some announcements real quickly.
If you do not have a bulletin just raise your hand and one of our ushers can get one for you.
If you need a bulletin just put your hand up and we will get one for you.
The verse this week Psalm 16 11 that will show me the path of life and my presence is fullness of joy at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.
And that's a good verse there.
We like that if you open up your bulletin you'll see our service times Sunday morning service 10 30 a.m.
And we had a wonderful service this morning.
We're glad of course you're back out tonight for the evening service.
And we of course encourage you to be with us on Wednesday night for the Wednesday night Bible study.
This week the Wednesday night service is going to be special.
We'll talk about that here in a minute.
If you look at our soul winning times again because of Easter there's all sorts of special things going on.
We have Thursday night soul winning this week at 6 p.m.
Friday night soul winning at 6 p.m.
And then Saturday morning soul winning at 10 a.m.
So we're having a special soul winning push.
Be aware of that.
And then of course if you are a first time guest if it's your first time here at Verity Baptist Church we're glad that you are with us tonight.
And we have a gift we'd like to give you as you walk out of the church building tonight.
If you go out the main foyer you'll see a little table set up and on that table you'll see these little gift bags.
Please grab one on your way out as a gift from us to you for being our guest tonight.
There are several resources in this bag that we'd like you to have.
The one I like to highlight is this documentary that our church made.
It's called Being Baptist.
It's very well made, very interesting.
And we want to give this to you as a gift so please make sure you don't leave here tonight without grabbing one of these gift bags on your way out.
And if you are a guest we'd ask that you please take a moment to fill out the communication card which is inserted in your bulletin.
And we would love to have a record of your attendance.
We also would like to send you a little gift but we need your information to do that.
So please take a moment to fill the card out.
When we're done with the announcements we're going to sing a song.
When we're done singing we're going to receive the offering.
And as the offering plate goes by you can drop this card in the offering plate.
If you look at the announcements there we of course are a family integrated church.
What that means is that children and infants are always welcome in the service.
We do not separate children from their parents for any reason.
So make sure you're using the mother-baby rooms and daddy rooms as needed.
If you need to be baptized of course let us know.
You can sign up on your communication card that you'd like information about baptism and we'll follow up with you and talk to you about that.
If you look at the announcements and upcoming events of course with Easter being next Sunday there's all sorts of special things going on.
So we want you to just be aware that this Wednesday March 27th is the Lord's Supper and we'll be taking communion together.
We do it once a year here at Verity Baptist Church.
You don't want to miss it. It's a very beautiful service and we think you'll like it.
So make sure that you are here on Wednesday night for that.
And then of course Sunday is Easter and it's also the grand opening of our new building.
So make sure that you don't miss that.
We've got our big soul wedding push leading up to Easter on Thursday and Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 10 a.m.
So make sure that you are participating in all of those things.
Of course you've got the Easter invitations in your bulletin.
You've got three of them so make sure that sometime this week you hand these out, give them to a neighbor, give them to a friend.
Invite somebody, either someone you know or just a perfect stranger, just invite somebody to Easter this Sunday.
That would be great.
And then if you want to sign up to help us pass out leftover Easter invitations on Saturday, we would appreciate that.
You can do that on your communication card.
There's other things there of course, Next Generation Youth Rally.
If there's anybody that could help with cleaning during the rally on Wednesday morning at 830 a.m.
we would appreciate your help with that.
You can sign up on your communication card.
And there's other things there for you of course to look at.
Please don't forget to turn your cell phones off.
Or place them on silent during the service so that they're not a distraction to anybody.
If you look at the back of the bulletin, birthdays and anniversaries for the month of March.
This week we have Ms. Rachel Wheeler's birthday is on March 26th.
And Pastor Matthew and Ms. Tan Stuckey have an anniversary on March 28th.
Emma Pendleton has a birthday on March 29th.
Matthew Volkowczyk has a birthday on March 29th.
And Brother Keith and Ms. Katie Rosenberg have an anniversary on March 29th.
So happy birthday and happy anniversary to all of those.
And then of course we've got the praise report, money matters.
All of those things are there for you to look at.
And then just a couple of other announcements.
Just real quickly, first of all, I want to remind you that we are doing meals for Ms. Julissa.
She had her baby last week.
And if there are ladies that can help to provide meals for Ms. Julissa and her daughters, it would be really appreciated.
So make sure you see, if you've not yet signed up, you see Ms. Melody after the service.
And she's heading up the sign ups for that.
So make sure you see her to sign up for meals for Ms. Julissa.
And of course we always as a church family want to be there for our fellow church members and help them especially in times of need.
So please make sure that you help with that.
And then another quick announcement is that we have some lamp posts that are going to be delivered tonight.
We've got, I don't know how many it is, I should have asked.
What's the number? Do you know what the number is? 12?
We've got 12 lamp posts that are, I think, 12 feet tall.
And we're going to use these to install in the parking lot.
We're not going to do it probably anytime soon, honestly.
It might be two or three months before we actually install them.
But we found a good deal and we wanted to jump on it, not let it slip by.
So they're being delivered tonight.
So what we'd like is if there's any men out there that can help us unload these after the service tonight, we would really appreciate it.
We need some really big, strong men, all right?
So if you consider yourself in that category, we would really appreciate your help after the service.
Maybe you can just see Brother Oliver in the foyer after the service.
But there's a guy coming with a trailer.
And if we could unload those and put those somewhere safe for now, that would be great.
And, of course, I just want to announce that my wife is here tonight.
And I think this is the longest she's ever missed church.
And she's missed it. She's missed you.
And I'm glad that she is back tonight.
I think that's it for all of the announcements.
So let's go ahead. We're going to sing this chorus of the week.
This is a brand new song.
We learned it this morning.
And I hope you like it.
Let's go ahead and sing it out.
And we'll continue to learn it.
Sing it out on the first.
O Lord, since thou hast died, give myself for me.
No sacrifice could be too great for me to be worthy.
Lord, send me anyway.
Only go with me.
Pray any burden on me.
Only sustain me.
Sever any tie.
Save the tie that binds me to thy heart.
Lord Jesus, my King,
separate my life, Lord, to be good.
Let's sing it out on the second.
I only have one life, and that will soon be class.
I want my life to count for Christ.
What's done for me will not good.
Sing it out.
Lord, send me anywhere.
Only go with me.
Pray any burden on me.
Only sustain me.
Sever any tie.
Save the tie that binds me to thy heart.
Lord Jesus, my King,
separate my life, Lord, to be good.
We'll sing it out on the last.
I follow thee, my Lord,
and glory in thy cross.
I gladly leave the world behind
and count on me as lost.
Lord, send me anywhere.
Only go with me.
Pray any burden on me.
Only sustain me.
Sever any tie.
Save the tie that binds me to thy heart.
Lord Jesus, my King,
I consecrate my life, Lord, to thee.
Amen. Good singing.
We'll have the guys come up and help us
with the offering at this time.
Amen.
Let's go ahead and bow our heads
and have a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, Lord, we do love you.
We thank you for allowing us
to gather together tonight.
Lord, we pray that you'd bless the offering,
the gift, and the giver.
We pray that you would bless the time set aside
for the preaching and teaching of your word.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Numbers 20, verse number 1.
And the other lamb shall though offer it even.
And on the Sabbath day, two lambs of the first year without spot.
And two tenth deals of flour for a meat offering mingled with oil and the drink offering thereof.
This is a burnt offering of every Sabbath beside the continual burnt offering and his drink offering.
And in the beginnings of your months, you shall offer a burnt offering unto the Lord.
Two young bullocks and one ram, seven lambs of the first year without spot.
And three tenth deals of flour for a meat offering mingled with oil for one bullock.
And two tenth deals of flour for a meat offering mingled with oil for one ram.
And a several tenth deal of flour mingled with oil for a meat offering unto one lamb.
For a burnt offering of a sweet saber, a sacrifice made by fire unto the Lord.
And the drink offering shall be half an hen of wine unto a bullock.
And the third part of an hen unto a ram.
And the fourth part of an hen unto a lamb.
This is the burnt offering of every month throughout the months of the year.
And one kid of the goats for a sin offering unto the Lord shall be offered.
Beside the continual burnt offering and his drink offering.
And in the fourteenth day of the first month is the Passover of the Lord.
And in the fifteenth day of this month is the feast.
Seven days shall unleavened bread be eaten.
In the first day shall be an holy convocation.
Ye shall do no matter of servile work therein.
But ye shall offer a sacrifice made by fire for a burnt offering unto the Lord.
Two young bullocks and one ram.
And seven lambs of the first year.
They shall be unto you without blemish.
And their main offering shall be of flour mingled with oil.
Three tenth deals shall ye offer for a bullock and two tenth deals for a ram.
A several tenth deal shall be offered for every lamb throughout the seven lambs.
And one goat for a sin offering to make an atonement for you.
Ye shall offer these beside the burnt offering in the morning which is for a continual burnt offering.
After this manner ye shall offer daily throughout the seven days the meat of the sacrifice made by fire of a sweet savor unto the Lord.
Ye shall be offered beside the continual burnt offering and his drink offering.
And on the seventh day ye shall have an holy convocation.
Ye shall do no servile work.
Also on the day of the first fruits when ye bring a new meat offering unto the Lord.
After your weeks be out ye shall have an holy convocation.
Ye shall do no servile work.
But ye shall offer the burnt offering for a sweet savor unto the Lord.
Two young bullocks, one ram, seven lambs of the first year.
And their main offering of flour mingled with oil.
Three tenth deals unto one bullock, two tenth deals unto one ram.
A several tenth deal unto one lamb throughout the seven lambs.
And one kid of the goats to make an atonement for you.
Ye shall offer them beside the continual burnt offering and his meat offering.
Ye shall be unto you without blemish and their drink offerings.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for this evening.
God, I thank you for your word.
And I ask that you please meet with us tonight, dear God.
I ask that you please be their pastor.
Please strengthen him and fill him with his spirit.
We love you.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
All right.
We're there in the book of Numbers.
Numbers chapter number 28.
And, of course, this morning we finished Numbers chapter 27.
And tonight we're going to get into Numbers 28.
And, of course, we've been working our way through the book of Numbers.
And we're going to continue to do that.
Of course, once we have Easter, we'll have a special Easter sermon on Sunday morning.
And then we'll start a brand new sermon series on Sunday morning.
So Numbers will only be on Sunday nights after that.
But we're making our way through the book of Numbers.
And we find ourselves tonight in chapter number 28.
We're only going to cover half of chapter 28 tonight.
And then we'll cover the other half next week.
But what I want you to notice in this chapter.
And these are, again, we've been kind of talking about this.
But these are the kind of chapters that people, preachers, would normally skip when it comes to preaching through the book of Numbers.
Or what I've seen often is they'll preach through like five chapters.
You know, they'll do like chapter 27, 28, 29, and 30 or something.
Just because a lot of times people feel like there's just not a lot in these chapters.
Not a lot of content to cover.
But what I have always found as I study the Bible.
Especially at the beginning of the week when I look at a chapter.
And I read it maybe for the first time in preparation for preaching through it.
And of course when I say read it for the first time I mean read it for the first time with the idea of preaching through it.
Obviously you read the Bible every day.
But sometimes I look at a passage of scripture and I think to myself, what am I going to say about this?
And what I always find is that once you start digging into the Bible.
There's so much treasure in the word of God.
And there's so much for us to learn from the Bible.
And of course we've been saying it over and over.
But the Bible says that all scripture is given by inspiration of God.
And there's stuff that we can learn in every portion of scripture.
When we see here in Numbers 28.
I'd like you to just notice there in verse number 1 the Bible says this.
And the Lord spoke unto Moses saying command the children of Israel and say unto them.
My offerings and my bread for my sacrifice made by fire for a sweet savor unto me shall ye observe to offer unto me.
And I'd like you to notice just this little phrase at the end of verse number 2.
In their due season.
And what we actually see here in Numbers 28 in verses 1 through 17.
Is we see a sequence or we see a schedule or we see a rhythm of sacrifices that were to be done on a continual basis for the Old Testament believers.
For the nation of Israel under the Old Testament.
And what we see and I want you to notice that phrase there in their due season.
Is a schedule of the offerings.
And God is telling them this is when I want certain things to be done.
But you might just read that and kind of read over that or just miss that.
And you might read that and not really see that.
But what I want you to really see tonight is that what we actually see.
We see a schedule of course.
And what we actually see in this passage is what I call the rhythm of a spiritual life.
And we see it here as God designed it for the Old Testament nation.
I want to show it to you and highlight it for you.
And then I'd like to show you a rhythm for the spiritual life for the New Testament believer.
But let's begin tonight by looking at this.
We'll look at this under two headings.
Heading number 1 if you're taking notes is the rhythm of a spiritual life for an Old Testament believer.
Now I want you to notice what I mean by the schedule here.
In verses 3 through 8 we see God explaining to them and describing to them.
And of course we're talking about Old Testament.
And the Old Testament covenant, the Old Testament people and what they were to bring were sacrifices.
And what we see in verses 3 through 8 is a daily offering or a daily sacrifice.
God is explaining to them that there are some offerings that need to be done under the Old Covenant on a daily basis.
Look at verse 3.
And thou shalt say unto them, this is the offering made by fire which ye shall offer unto the Lord.
Two lambs of the first year without spot. Notice the words here.
Day by day.
The idea is that these offerings were to be done on a daily basis and they were to be done every day.
Day by day.
Look at the last part of verse 3.
For a continual burnt offering.
So they were to bring this offering made by fire to lambs of the first year every day.
And of course this was something that the Levitical priests had did.
This was something that they did in the tabernacle.
But every day they brought these offerings.
Notice verse 4.
Because remember we saw that there were two lambs that they were to bring day by day for a continual burnt offering.
In verse 4 we're giving a little more detail in regards to how this is to be done.
The one lamb shalt thou offer in the morning and the other lamb shalt thou offer at the even.
And of course the word even there is the word that we would say the way we would say evening.
And in the Bible and throughout the Bible you often read about the morning and the evening sacrifice.
And this is what's being described here in Numbers 28 where there was literally a morning sacrifice that was to be done every day.
And then there was an evening sacrifice in the morning at 6am.
And then 12 hours later at 6pm they were to do an evening sacrifice and these sacrifices were done every day.
Two lambs were sacrificed for a continual burnt offering.
One lamb in the morning and the other lamb at even.
Look at verse 5.
And a tenth part of an ephah, a flower for a meat offering.
And of course a meat offering.
And we went through when we did our study in the book of Leviticus.
We went chapter by chapter through Leviticus.
We learned about all the different types of sacrifices.
A meat offering if you remember was a food sacrifice.
It was not a flesh sacrifice.
We use the word meat in our vernacular to mean flesh.
But in the Bible the word meat just means food.
And in fact the meat offering is the only of the sacrifices that was not killing an animal and sacrificing an animal.
It was a grain offering or some sort of a food offering that was brought to the Lord.
And here God is telling them along with these two burnt offerings of one lamb in the morning and the other lamb at even.
At even in verse 5 he says that they were to bring a tenth part of an ephah, a flower for a meat offering mingled with the fourth part of an hen of beaten oil.
It is a continual burnt offering which was ordained in Mount Sinai for a sweet savory sacrifice by fire unto the Lord.
Verse 7, and the drink offering thereof shall be the fourth part of an hen for the one lamb in the holy place shall thou cause the strong wine to be poured unto the Lord for a drink offering.
Look at verse 8, and the other lamb shalt thou offer at even as the meat offering of the morning and as the drink offering thereof.
Thou shalt offer it a sacrifice made by fire of a sweet savory unto the Lord.
So what we see is that God says look you need to sacrifice a lamb in the morning, a lamb in the evening.
There's also a meat sacrifice or a meat offering, there's a drink offering. These things were to be done every day.
You're there in Numbers 28, keep your place there in Numbers 28 but go with me just real quickly to the book of Exodus.
If you go backwards you'll go past the book of Leviticus into the book of Exodus.
Exodus chapter 29 and look at verse number 38. Exodus 29 and verse 38.
The Bible says here in Exodus 29-38, now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar two lambs of the first year.
I just want you to notice the phrase at the end of Exodus 29-38, day by day continually, day by day continually.
So we see that under the old covenant, under the Levitical priesthood, there was sacrifices that were to be done on a daily basis.
In fact two sacrifices that were to be done every day, a morning sacrifice and an evening sacrifice.
The morning and the evening sacrifice. Go back to Numbers 28, look at verse 9.
But then in verse 9 we find another sacrifice. In verses 3-8 we see this daily sacrifice.
And then in verse 9 I want you to notice the Bible says this, Numbers 28-9.
And on the Sabbath day, now the Sabbath day is the seventh day of the week.
And when we see a reference here to the Sabbath day, what we're seeing is a reference to a weekly thing.
Because in verses 3-8 he's explained to them, there are sacrifices you need to do every day, no matter what the day is.
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, morning sacrifice, evening sacrifice, meat offering, drink offering.
But then he says in verse 9, and on the Sabbath day, the Sabbath day happens once a week.
He says, and on the Sabbath day two lambs of the first year without spot and two tenth deals, the word deal here in our Bible means a portion or a part of.
He says two tenth portions of flour for meat offering mingled with oil and the drink offering thereof.
This is the burnt offering, notice the words here, of every Sabbath.
So this, in verses 9 and 10, we are describing or was being described to us is a sacrifice that was done every Sabbath day.
You say, is that along with or is that part of the daily sacrifice?
Well look at verse 10, this is the burnt offering of every Sabbath beside the continual burnt offerings and his drink offerings.
So he says look, there's the offerings of every day, the morning and the evening sacrifice, those happen on a daily basis.
But then on the Sabbath day, which is once a week, he says there's an additional offering, additional sacrifice that is to be done on the Sabbath day.
So on the Sabbath day they would get up and they would do the morning and the evening sacrifice just like they would do every day of the week.
But on the Sabbath day then there was an additional sacrifice, two lambs of the first year without spot, two tenth deals of flour for a meat offering.
And this was a burnt offering of every Sabbath.
So what do we see? We see a daily sacrifice but then we also see a weekly sacrifice.
And then, notice there in verse 11, we see another schedule, another sequence of sacrifices.
Verse 11, and in the beginning of your months.
So what are we seeing here? A monthly sacrifice.
And this was at the beginning of the month and of course we know that in the Old Testament they were on a lunar calendar as opposed to us being on a solar calendar.
But when the moon would transition and allow them to know that a month had been up,
then the Bible says that in the beginning of your months ye shall offer a burnt offering unto the Lord, two young bullocks and one ram,
seven lambs of the first year without spot and three tenth deals of flour for a meat offering mingled with oil for one bullock
and two tenth deals of flour for a meat offering mingled with oil for one ram and a several tenth deal of flour mingled with oil for a meat offering
unto one lamb for a burnt offering of a sweet saver, a sacrifice made by fire unto the Lord.
And the drink offering shall be a half of the hen of wine unto a bullock and the third part of a hen unto a ram and a fourth part of a hen unto a lamb.
This is the burnt offering, notice the words there at the end of verse 14, of every month throughout the months of the year.
So what do we see? A daily sacrifice. What do we see? A weekly sacrifice.
But then we also see a monthly sacrifice. When there was a new month, in the beginning of a new month,
then there was a series of sacrifices that had to be done on a monthly basis.
Last part of verse 14, of every month throughout the months of every year and one kid of the goats for a sin offering unto the Lord
shall be offered beside the continual burnt offerings and his drink offerings.
Go to Numbers chapter 10 just real quickly and look at verse number 10. Let me show you this in another chapter.
Numbers 10 and verse number 10, notice what the Bible says.
Numbers 10, 10, also in the day of your gladness and in your solemn days, notice the words here,
and in the beginnings of your months you shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings
and offer the sacrifices of your peace offering that they may be to you for a memorial before your God, I am the Lord your God.
So notice that at the beginning of your month you shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings.
So again, we're seeing this rhythm. This is what Old Testament believers, what their life kind of consisted of
and the spiritual life of an Old Testament believer looked like this.
We're talking about the nation of Israel. What did the nation of Israel look like spiritually?
Well, there was always a daily sacrifice, a morning sacrifice, an evening sacrifice.
On top of the daily sacrifice there was then a weekly sacrifice and on top of the weekly sacrifice then there was monthly sacrifices
and if you're following along then you would probably guess that there are also yearly sacrifices.
Look at Numbers 28 and verse 16. Numbers 28 and verse 16.
Numbers 28 and 16 says this, and in the fourteenth day of the first month, so what's that?
That's once a year because every Sabbath is once a week, at the beginning of your month is once a month
and the fourteenth day of the first month, this is a specific time in the year, one day in the year,
notice what the Bible says, is the Passover of the Lord.
Is the Passover of the Lord, look at verse 17, and in the fifteenth day of this month is the feast of seven days shall unleavened bread be eaten.
Now let me just say this, from verses 16 through the end of Numbers 28 into Numbers 29
there's a description given of all the different feasts of the Lord
and those days are all types of events that have either happened in the New Testament or are going to happen in end times prophecy.
We're going to give time to that next Sunday night, we'll spend a couple Sundays on the types of those feasts
but what I want you to notice here is that we're seeing this rhythm.
There's a daily sacrifice, there's a weekly sacrifice, there's a monthly sacrifice, there's a yearly sacrifice
and you better think, you know, if the Sabbath or the feast of unleavened bread or the feast of weeks
or the feast of first fruits or any of these yearly feasts, if they happen to fall at the beginning of a month
and also happen to fall on the Sabbath day, which is the seventh day, we know that every holy day was a Sabbath day
but they also happened to fall on the actual seventh day of the week, then that was a busy time.
I mean imagine that, imagine if all these kind of just happened, the Levites would be really busy, the priests would be busy on that day
because they have to do the daily sacrifices everyday and if it's a Sabbath they have to do the weekly sacrifice
if it's the beginning of the month they have to do the monthly sacrifice
and if it happens to fall on a yearly holy day then they have to do the yearly sacrifice
and this is actually talked about in the New Testament, you may have never noticed it before, may have never seen it
but let me show it to you real quickly in the New Testament, go to Colossians chapter number 2
Colossians chapter 2, in the New Testament you have Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians
Colossians chapter 2, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, Colossians
Now in Colossians chapter 2, and you probably are familiar, if you're part of our church and you've been especially going through the book of Hebrews with us
you probably are familiar with Colossians 2, 16 because Colossians chapter 2 and verse 16 is actually a verse in the Bible
that the Apostle Paul is telling New Testament believers to not allow people to bring them under the Old Testament law
and the Old Testament rituals, that's what he's saying, that's the context, but I want you to notice what he says
Colossians 2, 16, let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink, isn't that what we've been learning about?
These sacrifices, what were they? They were meat offerings, they were drink offerings
and here the Apostle Paul is telling the Colossians, let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drinks
or notice the list that he gives here, in respect of an holy day, what is that?
We would call that a holiday, that is a yearly event, he says don't let anybody judge you in respect of a holy day
First of all let me say this, the meat and the drinks, that falls under the daily sacrifices
Remember, they had two lambs, one in the morning, one in the evening, but they also had a meat offering
and they also had a drink offering that they were to give every day
So when it says let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink, that is a reference to the daily sacrifice
He says don't let anybody judge you based on the daily sacrifice
But then he says, or in respect of a holy day, that is a yearly sacrifice
or of the new moon, that is a monthly sacrifice
or of the Sabbath days, that's a weekly sacrifice
So you see how the Apostle Paul is mentioning all these categories that we see in Numbers 28
He says don't let anybody judge you of the daily sacrifice, the meat or the drink
The holy days which are the yearly sacrifice, the new moons which are the monthly sacrifice, or the Sabbath days
So what we see here, keep your place there in, actually don't keep your place in Colossians, go to the book of Acts if you would
Acts chapter number 17, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts
What do we see? We see this rhythm of the spiritual life for an Old Testament believer
If you were an Old Testament, Old Covenant, nation of Israel believer
If you lived in the ancient world and you were either born to the nation of Israel or you had converted into the nation of Israel
What would your spiritual life, what would the rhythm of your spiritual life look like?
Well this is what it would look like, it would look like daily sacrifices, weekly sacrifices, monthly sacrifices, yearly sacrifices
And these sacrifices, I mean we'll see in the book of Luke here in a little bit
These were feast and holy days, these were things that people looked forward to, this is what the rhythm of life
And what God is establishing for the nation of Israel is he's giving them pattern and routine and repetition
And he says look, we want daily sacrifices and we want weekly sacrifices, we want monthly sacrifices, we want yearly sacrifices
Now you might ask well how does that apply to us? Because we're New Testament believers
And we are not under the Old Covenant, we don't sacrifice animals
We've been studying the book of Hebrews now for many many weeks and we're learning that we're not under that Old Testament Covenant
We're not under that ceremonial law, all of those rituals and ceremonies were fulfilled in Christ
So we don't sacrifice a daily sacrifice, a weekly sacrifice, a monthly sacrifice or a yearly sacrifice
And we know that those things are all fulfilled in Christ, those are all pictures of Christ
I could spend the whole sermon talking about that, I don't want to do that in the book of Numbers
Because we've spent so much time in the last several months going verse by verse through the book of Hebrews that I think you got it
I think you understand that all of those were symbolic, they were symbolisms of Christ
But what I want to do for the rest of our time tonight is explain to you that in the same way
Because remember, in the Old Testament, though we aren't under that specific category anymore today
We can learn, and the Bible says that the Old Testament stories and the people of the Old Testament serve as an ensemble
Or as an example for us
And what we can learn from the Old Testament is that in the same way that God wanted a rhythm of spirituality
A rhythm of religious practices, a rhythm of things being done on a regular basis to remind people
Every day, every week, every month, every year of God and of the things of God
In the New Testament, we should also, as New Testament believers, have a rhythm for a spiritual life
There should be a rhythm to our life, and you say, well, what would that be or what would that look like
Well let me give you some thoughts that I have, and these are, I'm going to show you from the Bible
That I think they can apply in the same way, and obviously you can, you're a New Testament believer
You have the Holy Spirit of God, you can make your own decisions on some of these things
But let me give you some thoughts that I think would be equivalent for a New Testament believer
In regards to a spiritual life, the rhythm of a spiritual life of a New Testament believer
Let's begin with daily, right, because that's what they began with
Daily, they had a morning and an evening sacrifice
What would be something that could be done on a daily basis for the New Testament believer
Are you there in Acts 17?
Look at verse number 10, Acts 17 and verse 10
And do me a favor, when you get to the book of Acts, put a ribbon or a bookmark or something there
Because we're going to leave it and we're going to come back, we're going to be coming back to the book of Acts
Throughout the sermon, and for now we're pretty much done with the Old Testament
We're going to focus in on the New Testament for the rest of the sermon
Because now we're going to talk about the rhythm of a spiritual life for a New Testament believer
Notice Acts 17 and verse 10, the Bible says this
And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea
Who coming hither went into the synagogue of the Jews
These were more noble than those in Thessalonica
So what we're talking about is the fact that Paul is having to leave
He's being sent away by night, he's having to leave because of persecution
And he's being sent to this place called Berea
And when he gets to Berea, he's left Thessalonica
And he's gotten to Berea, and in verse 11 the Bible says
These were more noble than those in Thessalonica
We're talking about the church members of Berea were more noble in Thessalonica
Do you know that not all churches are created equal?
You know that there are some churches that are better than others?
You say, I don't think you should say that
Well, God is not the United States government
And God does not have the same thought that the US government has
You know, this idea of no child left behind
Which is really no child left a dime
But this idea that everyone has to get a gold star, everybody has to get a trophy
God doesn't work that way
Here God is telling us, hey there are some Christians that are better than other Christians
There are some churches that are better than other Christians
That doesn't mean that other Christians are bad or we shouldn't love them or accept them
But here he says, these were more noble than those in Thessalonica
Now when I read this I think to myself
Well if God is looking down at a church and saying
The Christians in Berea were better than the Christians in Thessalonica
I want to know why
Notice what he says
Verse 11
These were more noble than those in Thessalonica
Look at it
In that they received the word with all readiness of mind
When Paul showed up and he began to preach the word of God
The Bible says they received the word with all readiness of mind
What does that mean?
It means that when they showed up to church
When they showed up to the congregation
When they showed up to the assembly and the apostle Paul began to preach
They didn't sit there with a bad attitude
They didn't sit there with their arms crossed
Let's see what this guy has to say
Let's see what this guy is going to come up with out of number 28
This chapter seems pretty ridiculous to me
You know they didn't have a bad attitude
The Bible says that they received the word
Look, with all readiness of mind
It means that they were ready to receive the word
It means that they were there, they were in church
They had the right attitude, they had the right spirit
Their hearts were open, they were ready to receive the word
But notice, because remember these are more noble than those in Thessalonica
These are better than those in Thessalonica
What made them better?
What made them better was this
That they received the word with all readiness of mind
But they were also not mindless robots
They weren't cult members
They weren't just there and saying
Well whatever Paul says, that must be it
Whatever Paul says, we're going to follow
Now they didn't have a bad attitude
They received the word with all readiness of mind
And look, do you understand that the Christian life should be a balanced life?
Notice the balance here
They didn't have a bad attitude
They weren't critical and upset
The Bible says they received the word with all readiness of mind
But at the same time
Though they were receiving the word with all readiness of mind
The Bible says, here's the balance
And searched the scriptures daily
They searched the scriptures daily, why?
Whether those things were so
They didn't just take Paul's word at it
No, they didn't have a bad attitude towards Paul
They weren't critical towards Paul
They received the word with all readiness of mind
But after the word of God was preached, you know what they did?
They went home and they read the Bible
They searched the scriptures daily
By the way, it doesn't say they searched YouTube daily
It doesn't say they searched Facebook daily
It says they searched the scriptures daily
Whether those things were so
So what do we see that these Christians in Berea
That God looks down and says
These are the pretty good Christians
In fact, these are better than the ones that doesn't like them
What do we see they're doing on a regular basis
What are they doing on a daily basis?
They're searching the scriptures daily
And I say to you
If you were under the old covenant
You would have this rhythm
Of daily sacrifices
In the new covenant, you should have this rhythm
Of daily Bible reading
We ought to be searching the scriptures daily
Whether those things were so
Now you should be faithful to church
You should show up to church with a good attitude
You should be ready to receive the word with all readiness of mind
But you should also realize that
Like we talked about this morning
A pastor is just a man, a leader is just a man
A leader is going to make mistakes
And your job is to search the scriptures daily
Whether those things were so
By the way, let me say this
No true man of God ought to be afraid
Of his congregation reading the Bible
Some pastors, it's like, they don't want you reading the Bible
They don't want you to learn something
That they're doing wrong
Look, we're not afraid of the word of God
We want you to read it
We want you to study it
We want you to memorize it
We want you to learn it
We want you to search the scriptures daily
Whether those things were so
And you ought to have a daily habit
Of opening up the word of God and reading it
You ought to have this habit of reading the Bible everyday
Not only that, let me give you another example
Go to Matthew chapter 9
Keep your place there in Acts
Continue to keep your place in Acts
Go backwards to the book of Matthew
You're going to go past John, past Luke, past Mark
Into the book of Matthew
Matthew chapter 6, look at verse 9
So, in the Old Testament
What was the rhythm of spirituality?
Daily sacrifices
In the New Testament
What's the rhythm of spirituality?
Daily devotions
Search the scriptures daily
You ought to be reading the Bible everyday
You ought to be in the word of God everyday
And look, we could spend a lot of time on this
We could take a lot of different passages
We could talk about being in the word of God
And manna from heaven
All those things
I'm not going to take the time to do all that
I think it's clear
The Bible says they search the scriptures daily
You ought to be in the word of God everyday
But it's not just that
Notice this, Matthew 6 and verse 9
This is Jesus
Remember the disciples said to Jesus
Teach us to pray
And this is what he said to Jesus
And this is what he said to them
Matthew 6 and verse 9
After this manna therefore pray ye
He said, I want you to pray
If you want to learn to pray
Let me give you a pattern for prayer
He says, after this manna
After this pattern
Therefore pray ye
Our Father which art in heaven
Hallowed be thy name
Thy kingdom come
Thy will be done
In earth as it is in heaven
Here's what Jesus said
When Jesus was taught
Jesus was asked to teach us to pray
He said, this is how you ought to pray
Verse 11
Give us this day our yearly bread
Is that what it says?
Give us this day our monthly bread
Is that what it says?
Jesus said, you know what you ought to pray is this
Give us this day our daily bread
Now I point that out to say this
If Jesus taught his disciples
To pray
And to ask
For their physical needs
There's nothing wrong with that
Nothing wrong with you praying about your physical needs
That's what's being represented here
Give us this day our daily bread
But you know what Jesus said?
He said, you ought to pray
That God meets your physical needs
Every day
He said, don't pray for a year's supply of bread
Don't pray for a month's supply of bread
He says, don't pray for a week's supply
He says, pray for a day
Give us this day our daily bread
You say, why would God want you to pray
For your physical needs on a daily basis
Cause he wants you to pray every day
And you know we don't bring meat sacrifices
And drink sacrifices
And two burnt offerings of lambs
To the tabernacle every day
But a sacrifice you can bring to the Lord
Every day as a New Testament believer
Is taking the time to search the scriptures daily
And taking the time to pray every day
We ought to have a daily Bible reading
And a daily prayer
Habit as a Christian life
That should be part of the rhythm
Of the spiritual life of a New Testament believer
So we see daily
But what about weekly?
Cause remember there was a daily sacrifice
And there was also a weekly sacrifice
What about a weekly rhythm?
Well go back to Acts 17
Acts 17
Look at verse number 1
Acts 17 and verse 1
Notice the Bible says here
Now when they had passed through
Amphipolis and Apollonia
They came to Thessalonica
We just read in Acts 17
Later in the chapter
Him leaving Thessalonica
Now we're gonna see when he gets to Thessalonica
Where was the synagogue of the Jews?
Now I want you to notice here in verse 2
And Paul
Notice these words
As his manner was
We're gonna come back to that at the end of the sermon
As his manner was
What does that mean?
As his custom was
As his habit was
Notice
And Paul
As his manner was
Went in unto them
Notice the words here
And three Sabbath days
Now what's a Sabbath day?
It's the seventh day of the week
For us we would say that's Saturday
This is a day that falls on a weekly basis
Three Sabbath days
Reasoned with them
Out of the scriptures
Opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered
And risen again from the dead
And that this Jesus
Whom I preach unto you
Is Christ
I want you to notice that the apostle Paul here
It seems that he has this regular habit
Of being a weekly soul winner
I mean just every Sabbath day
And I'm sure that he went soul winning
More than just on the Sabbath day
But here the Bible tells us
Paul had a habit
As his manner was
He went in unto them
And three Sabbath days
Reasoned with them
Out of the scriptures
Now the Bible definitely talks about the fact
That soul winning can happen everyday
The Bible says daily in the temple
And in every house
They cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ
The Bible says that the Lord added daily unto the church
Such as should be saved
And I do believe that salvation
And bringing people to Christ
Is something that can be done on a daily basis
But when the Bible uses these verses
Daily in the temple and in every house
The idea there is that an entire church
Was preaching the gospel on a daily basis
The Bible does not necessarily want you to be out soul winning everyday
Now you have to be ready to preach the gospel everyday
And you can definitely try to present the gospel
And talk to people about the Lord Jesus Christ
Everyday on just your regular life
As you go about life
You ought to do that
But what we see here is that
Paul, you better believe that Paul
Was preaching the gospel everywhere he went
People were talking to him
And he was presenting the gospel to him
But on top of that
Paul had a scheduled regular soul winning time
And Paul as his manner was
Went in unto them
And three Sabbath days
Reasoned with them out of the scriptures
He had a habit of doing this on a regular basis
And you know as a New Testament believer
Hey, you ought to get in the rhythm
Of everyday reading the Bible
Everyday praying
But you ought to also get in the rhythm of being a weekly soul winner
You ought to just decide
I'm going to be a soul winner
I'm going to set up a time
I'm going to set up an appointment
And people sometimes ask me
Do you think is that something that I can do on my own
And look, I'm not going to lord over God's heritage
Obviously you can do whatever you want
But here's what I know about soul winning
Is that most people will never do it by themselves
Some of you are like
Just watch me
Just show up with a good attitude, alright
But even when people are like
I can do it
It never lasts
You know what the Bible says?
The Bible says
How shall they preach except they be sent?
And what the Bible teaches
And what I've seen in 13 years of ministry
Is that oftentimes what we need
What we need is a church to send us out
And that's the value of having a weekly soul winning time
And obviously we push people
To come to the Saturday morning soul winning
Why?
Well if it was good enough for Paul
It's good enough for us
But obviously we realize that not everybody can come on Saturday
Maybe you work on Saturday
Maybe you're a commuter
And you live too far away to come on Saturday
Then we have other times for you to go
On Sunday
And we have different opportunities
But the point is this
You say
What should the rhythm of my Christian life look like?
Well here's what it should look like
Every day you should read the Bible
Every day you should be in prayer
But every week
You should be involved
In preaching the gospel to people
Now there are some people that are in different seasons of life
And they can do more soul winning
You know when I was 16 years old
17 years old
18 years old
Pastor Anderson and I
Obviously neither one of us was a pastor at the time
I wasn't even married at the time
But I was just a teenager with a lot of time
Pastor Anderson was just newly married
He didn't have any kids
And he was just a young man
And we used to go soul winning every Saturday
Every Saturday for 8 hours a day
Every Saturday
And we would have these competitions
Of who could bring the most guests to church
And we would do soul winning during the week
And we would do all that
But look
Obviously I don't expect
A grown man or a woman that has 6 children
That's working a full time job
To just be out for 8 hours
Every Saturday
Now some of you could do that
Because maybe you're just in a season of life
Where you have a lot of time
And you're wasting it
Playing stupid video games or whatever
And you could actually be doing something that matters for eternity
You know
But what I'm saying is this
At the very least
No matter what season of life you find yourself in
You ought to be a weekly soul winner
You ought to just pick a time and say
Every Saturday morning
Every Sunday afternoon
Every Thursday
Or whatever it is
I'm going to pick a time
And I'm going to be a weekly soul winner
I'm going to reason out of the synagogues
Three Sabbath days reason with them
Out of the scriptures
So we see that something you should do every week
Is soul winning
But not just that
Let me say this
You're there in the book of Acts
Go to Romans chapter 16
Romans chapter 16
And look at verse 1
Romans 16 and verse 1
I commend unto you Phoebe our sister
Which is a
Notice this phrase
This is Paul talking about a fellow church member
He says
I commend unto you Phoebe our sister
Notice what he says
Which is a servant of the church
Which is at St. Korea
Paul was recommending this lady
The people he's speaking to
They don't know her
And he's recommending her
And he's trying to think
What's the best way to explain to them
That this lady is a good lady
She's legit
She's someone that they should help
And he of course
Under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost
Comes up with this phrase
He says
Which is a servant of the church
I want you to notice that
That is a phrase of deep esteem
For the apostle Paul
That this woman served in church
And you know here's what I believe
I believe that every Christian
And look if you're a brand new believer
You just got saved yesterday
You got baptized today or whatever
You know
You need to take time to grow
And we understand that
But you know
I believe that every Christian
Out to get to the place
Where they have a daily devotional life
Bible reading prayer
And a weekly soul winning in service
Where you're serving the church
In church
You're serving the Lord Jesus Christ
Through your local church
On a weekly basis
You ought to live a life of service
And of course if you are
Soul winning on a weekly basis
And if you're serving on a weekly basis
Then you're gonna be consistent to church
And you ought to be consistent to church
You ought to be consistent to the word of God
To the preaching of the word of God
To being around God's people
Remember they receive the word
With all readiness of mind
This morning I was talking about ordinations
I was preaching on the subject of leadership
And I was talking about ordination
And I ran out of time
And I just kind of
It kind of slipped in my notes too
But I was talking about people
Who don't take ordination seriously
And they want to be ordained
They want you to lay hands on them
They want you to give them their credibility
But they don't want to take it seriously
And I wanted to bring up this example
And it just slipped my mind this morning
But I want to bring it up tonight
Because it kind of goes with the same idea
But I was thinking about this guy
And this was years ago
None of you know this person
So don't try to be like
I think I know you don't know anything
But I remember years ago
This guy came to our church
And he asked
He set up an appointment with me
And he asked if he could meet in my office
And we set up this whole appointment
And of course
I meet with people all the time
And I remember
We met in my office
I sat at my desk
He sat in front of me
He had this very serious conversation
And he's telling me
About how he feels
That the Lord has called him
Into the ministry
And he had all these great aspirations
And dreams about going to the ministry
And being a pastor
And being a great man of God
And reaching all these people
And he had all these things
And then he's coming to ask me
If I would ordain him
And I listened to the whole thing
And honestly I wasn't trying to be rude to him
And I wasn't trying to be a smart alec
But I listened to the whole thing
And when he got done
He gets done with his whole spiel
And his whole presentation
And he's like
What do you think?
And what I said to him was
Sounds great
Just one problem
You don't go to church
This guy literally
Had been to our church
Like five times
And I don't mean five times in a row
I mean like
He came one time
We didn't see him for six weeks
Came another time
Didn't see him for twelve weeks
Came another time
Didn't see him for three weeks
And I'm sitting there
I'm thinking to myself
You don't go to church
How are you going to be a pastor
You don't even go to church
And I remember he just got all offended
And flustered
And he quit the church
And I'm like
How can you quit a church you don't go to?
And he's like
I'm quitting the church
I can't believe you wouldn't ordain me
And I'm like
You'd be the last person I'd ordain
Because if you can't even get in the rhythm
Of just being in church
How are you going to lead?
If you can't get in the rhythm
Of just being with God's people
Serving with God's people
Soul winning with God's people
Reading the Bible
Praying
And I remember years later
He came back
And he's like
I'm ready to try it again
And I just looked at him
I said
You gotta come to church
And then I never saw him again
And I'm just like
What in the world?
So look
The Christian life
The rhythm of a spiritual life
What should it look like?
Daily
Look there's
The Christian life
There's not something you do on Sunday
There's something you should be doing everyday
And you should be reading the Bible everyday
You should be praying everyday
You say
What about weekly?
You should be soul winning
At least on a weekly basis
You should be serving in your church
On a regular basis
On a weekly basis
Find somewhere to serve
Be an usher
Play
You say
Well I don't know
Learn to play an instrument
I don't know
You know
Look here's what I know
Everybody can clean
I mean not everybody can clean
But you know what I mean
We can pretend like you're cleaner
Or try to help you
Learn how to clean
But you ought to serve
On a weekly basis
What about monthly?
Go to 2nd Chronicles
Excuse me
2nd Corinthians chapter 9
New Testament
Romans
You're there in Romans
1st Corinthians
2nd Corinthians
Romans
1st Corinthians
2nd Corinthians
2nd Corinthians chapter 9
Look at verse 7
2nd Corinthians 9 and verse 7
The Bible says this
Every man
According as he purposeeth
In his heart
So let him give
Not grudgingly
Or of necessity
For God loveth
A cheerful giver
Some of you are like
I knew you were gonna do that
Look I haven't brought up giving
Since the vision offering
Alright so
But you know this is something
That God says we ought to do
On a regular basis
And I'm putting it under
The category of monthly
And let me just kind of explain
What I mean
Obviously you know
The best way to tithe
The Bible says
And I'm not preaching on the subject
Of tithing
The Bible is clear about it
I preach to the sermons
But practically speaking
The best way to tithe
Because as believers
We ought to be tithing
We ought to be offering
And if you're like
I'm against tithing
Okay then just
Give an offering
At least 10%
It's funny to me
How people are like
Well you don't have to tithe
You don't have to tithe
And I'm like
You don't have to tithe
You can give 15% if you want
Absolutely
You're free in Christ
You wanna give 20%
We'll cash that check
Every man according
As he purposes in his heart
So let him give
Not grudgingly
Or of necessity
For God loveth and cheerth
Forgiveth
But here's the point
When it comes to giving
Obviously if you get paid
On a weekly basis
Then it's probably best
To tithe every week
If you get paid
On a biweekly basis
I would imagine that most people
Probably get paid
On a biweekly basis
Then it's probably best
To tithe
On a biweekly basis
Whenever you get paid
Here's the point
That I want to make
Don't get to the point
Where you're going past
Cause that's going to get
Really difficult
If you're just like
Owing God
Months of rent
Or something
You know so
Make sure that you're
Tithing at least
On a monthly basis
Here at the church
Obviously I work full time
For the church
We have three full time
Staff guys
We get paid
On a monthly basis
And all the staff guys
And myself
We tithe
On a monthly basis
And yes
I make the staff tithe
And I tithe
I don't make them tithe
Obviously they tithe
Cause they love the Lord
And I hire them
If they didn't tithe
Hint hint
To some of you
But
What I'm saying is this
You know
We get paid
On a monthly basis
Or we tithe
On a monthly basis
I know that
For a lot of business owners
It just kind of makes sense
And it works easiest
To just tithe
On a monthly basis
And again
If you get paid biweekly
Then tithe biweekly
Or tithe however you want
But I would say this
I would advise
Don't let a month go by
Without paying your tithes
This is what the
Rhythm of a Christian life
In the New Testament should look like
Daily Bible reading
Daily prayer
Weekly soul winning
Weekly serving in the church
Weekly church attendances
Monthly tithing
Monthly offerings
Giving to the Lord
What about yearly
They had yearly
Sacrifices
In the Old Testament
We'll go to Luke chapter number 2
Luke chapter number 2
If you're in Acts
If you go backwards from Acts
You'll go past the book of John
Into the book of Luke
Luke chapter 2
Now in Luke chapter 2
We have a story of the Lord Jesus Christ
Which is actually in the New Testament
But they're still under the Old Testament covenant
So we're actually gonna see them
In regards to a yearly sacrifice
Notice what the Bible says here
In Luke chapter 2 and verse 41
Now his parents
His there is referring to Jesus
This is when he was a child
When he was 12 years old
Now his parents
Went to Jerusalem
Look at it
Every year
At the feast of the Passover
And when he was 12 years old
They went up to Jerusalem
After
Notice the words
The custom of the feast
This was something that they had the habit of doing
The custom of doing
They would go to this feast every year
They would go
And of course this is a famous story
Where they lose Jesus
And of course
You know
All of that
But what we see is this
That on a yearly basis
There ought to be special events
And special service
And look
On a regular basis
On a daily basis
You ought to read your Bible everyday
And pray everyday
On a weekly basis
You ought to be a soul winner
You ought to be serving
Get involved in church
If you're not serving in church
You need to get
Find somewhere to serve
And get involved
If you're not a soul winner
You say well I don't know how to do soul winning
We have a soul winning seminar
We'll train you on soul winning
Come soul winning
We'll let you be a silent partner
We'll partner you with somebody
Who knows what they're doing
You don't have to say anything
You can just listen and learn
For a while
But you ought to be doing this
On a weekly basis
When it comes to tithes and offerings
Don't let more than a month go by
That should be something you take care of
Every month
But what about yearly
Well on a yearly basis
On a yearly basis
You ought to look for special events
And special times of service
And get involved
Here's a great example
Wednesday night
We're taking the Lord's Supper
It's literally an event we do
Once a year
And if you say well I don't normally come on Wednesday night
Well you should come this Wednesday night
Now I think you should come every Wednesday night
But if you're not there yet
You're not ready for that
You say I don't know
Every Wednesday night
I tell the Lord much
Okay but how about just
Doing a special thing
Once a year
And coming for the Lord's Supper
This Wednesday night
You know what about just
You say I go soul winning every week
Okay but how about just a special emphasis
The week before Easter
And you go every week
And that's all you can do on a regular basis
And that's okay
I get that
I'm with you
That's all I can do on a regular basis
But every once in a while
We could do an extra soul winning on Friday night
We could do an extra soul winning on Thursday night
We could do an extra
Soul winning push for Easter
An extra soul winning push
For our anniversary Sunday
Every once in a while
If you don't normally come on Wednesday
You should show up for the Lord's Supper
Hey how about when we have
The Red Hot Preaching Conference
You say Red Hot Preaching Conference
That's preaching Thursday night
Friday morning
Friday night
Saturday soul winning
Sunday morning
Sunday night
That's a lot
Well yeah it's a lot
But it's just once a year
And these become rhythms
In the Christian life
You know what I love
Here's the thing about
The Red Hot Preaching Conference
We will probably have 500 people
That come to the Red Hot Preaching Conference
This year in June
From all over the country
And different parts of the world
And what I always think
Is funny about that
Is that we will have people
That come from all over the country
And different continents
And our own church people
Won't come
And which is fine
That's fine
Just don't miss Sunday
But that's fine
And you know
It is how it is
But what I'm saying is this
You ought to be looking
For yearly special things to do
Yearly special things
Say well I can't clean every week
I can't
I can't volunteer to clean every week
Ok but can you do a special cleaning
For the Next Generation Youth Rally
You should just be looking
For things to do
Because this is what
The Christian life should look like
There should be things
You do every day
There should be things
You do every week
There should be things
You do every month
There should be things
You do every year
And it sounds to me
In the book of Luke
That Joseph and Mary
They looked forward
To the Feast of the Past
Where obviously they were
Doing a religious thing
And a religious ceremony
But it was just
A time to be with family
And they were looking
Forward to it
And look the Red Hop
Raging Conference is like that
It's like a family reunion
And we have other events
Easter
Family friendly
Things like that
What I'm saying is this
You ought to be looking
For things throughout the year
To do a little extra
To get involved a little extra
To do maybe a little more
Soul winning
A little more serving
A little more church
Than you would normally do
And that's ok
That's the rhythm
Of a Christian life
You're there in Luke chapter 2
Go to Luke chapter 4
Real quickly
Luke chapter 4
I'm going to show you
Two verses and we'll be done
Luke chapter 4
So we saw the rhythm
Of the spiritual life
For an Old Testament believer
What was it?
Daily sacrifices
Morning and evening sacrifice
A meat offering
And a drink offering
Every day
A weekly sacrifice
On the Sabbath
It was additional burnt offerings
A monthly sacrifice
In the beginning of the month
It was additional offerings
Yearly sacrifice
Yearly sacrifices
They had multiple holy days
And multiple feasts
Throughout the year
That they did once a year
And they had these things
That was the rhythm
Of an Old Testament believer
And the Old Testament
But the rhythm of a
New Testament believer
Could look like this
Bible reading and prayer every day
Soul winning and serving every week
Tithing and offerings every month
And conferences and special events
And special times of soul winning
And special times of serving
Every year
And this creates
A rhythm of spirituality
In the Christian life
Now let me just say this
As we finish up
I think what God is trying to do
I don't think that God was just like
I'm trying to keep these people busy
Although there's value in that
Because idle time is devil time
Some of you get into trouble
When you're trying to be like David
And not going off to war
So there is value in that
But I don't think it's just
That he's trying to keep them busy
I think what God is trying to create
Is this habit, this cycle
This rhythm of life
Because we need to understand this
That there is value
In repetition and consistency
There's value in repetition and consistency
And I think every once in a while
Every once in a while
You ought to get away
You ought to go somewhere
And go on vacation with your family
And change things up a little bit
And go take a break
We're all for that
And that's great
Praise the Lord for that
But by and large
Your life should be a life of consistency
Your life should be a life of routine
Your life should be a life of repetition
By and large
You should be doing the same thing every Sunday
The same thing every Saturday
The same thing every Monday
Because it's good for you
Because it's healthy
Again, every once in a while
Nothing wrong with taking some days off of work
Taking the family wherever
Doing whatever
Changing things up
Doing something different
That's great
But for the majority of life
You ought to just be consistent
That'll keep you safe
It'll keep you right
It'll keep you from messing things up
And having big regrets of life
We talked this morning about
Jesus and Paul being the greatest leaders
In human history
I'd like you to notice a couple of things
The Bible says about these two men
Of course, we know the Lord Jesus Christ is
God in the flesh
Our Lord and Savior
Notice what the Bible says in Luke chapter 4 and verse 16
Luke 4, 16
And he, this is Jesus
Came to Nazareth
Where he had been brought up
And, notice these words
As his custom was
The word custom means habitual practice
A manner of being
As his custom was
He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day
And stood up for it to read
We won't take the time to do it
But if you study the life of Jesus
If you study the life of Jesus, you'll find that he was
His life was a life of routine
The Bible talks about the fact that he had a custom of prayer
The Bible says that he has a custom of going to the synagogue
The Bible says that he had a custom of preaching the gospel
In fact, they knew
They knew that they could arrest him
In the Garden of Gethsemane
Because he was wont to go there
He would often go to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray
And they knew that about him
Because he lived a life of routine
Remember Daniel in the Old Testament?
They tried to find something wrong
To accuse him of
They dug up into his personal life
They tried to find something he was doing wrong
To try to get him in trouble
And they couldn't find anything
He was a righteous man, he was a godly man
But what they knew was this
That he prayed three times a day
And he had a consistent routine of praying everyday
And they said
Well, he prays everyday
Let's make a law against prayer
Look, what I'm saying to you is that
You have to live your life in such a way
That your enemies would know
Where they can find you on a sunny night
If somebody is taking out your house to rob you
First of all, if somebody is taking out your house to rob you
You probably have too many frivolous things
But if somebody is taking
You know, they should know like
They're gone every Sunday night
Every Sunday morning, Sunday night
If we're gonna rob them, we know when to rob them
You should know that
You should live a life of consistency
Go to Acts 17
If you go back to Acts 17, look at verse 2
Acts 17, verse 2
Acts 17, verse 2, the Bible says this
And Paul
Notice what it says
As his manner was
What's a manner? A prevailing custom, a habit
I don't think it's a coincidence that the Bible tells us
The Lord Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul
Probably, I mean for sure the Lord Jesus Christ
And I think the Apostle Paul
I'm sure that you can make the argument
That he was the greatest leader
Other than Lord Jesus Christ
Greatest Christian
Greatest, whatever you want to call him
Evangelist, church planter, soul winner, missionary
Other than Lord Jesus Christ, Apostle Paul
Is probably the greatest in the entire Bible
And if you ask the secular world
If you just do, we talked about it this morning
If you do a Google search of greatest leaders
Even the secular world are going to put
The Lord Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul
On that list of ten most influential, most impactful
I don't think it's a coincidence
That the two men who were the greatest
Influential, impactful individuals
Of human history
Lived a life of routine
Lived a life of repetition
Had a consistent rhythm
Every Sabbath day you knew what Paul was going to be doing
Every Sabbath day you knew what Jesus was going to be doing
And this is how our lives should be
Not a daily morning and evening sacrifice
Not a sacrifice at the beginning of every month
We're not under the old covenant
But we can learn from that rhythm
You gotta have a daily Bible reading, daily prayer time
Weekly soul winning, weekly service
Weekly church attendance
Monthly tithes, monthly offerings
Yearly special events, yearly special
Extra service, extra soul winning
Extra, develop this rhythm in the Christian life
Because there is value
In repetition
And consistency
Heavenly Father, Lord we do love you
And we thank you for these principles
That are found in scripture
And I know that a sermon like tonight
Is not a big rah-rah type sermon
It's just very, very some practical thoughts
And some things to help us in our Christian life
Help us to remember that we should develop a rhythm
Consistency
Routine in the Christian life
It's what we need
It's for those of us that are parents
It's what our children need
We all need routine in our Christian life
Lord I pray you'd help us with that
In Jesus name we pray
Amen
Alright well we're gonna have brother RJ come up and lead us in a final song
Just wanna remind you of a couple of things
First of all don't forget that we'd like to
Set up meals for Miss Julissa
She had her baby
And of course we want our church family
This is something that you can do
This is not something you can do on a regular basis
But something you can do every once in a while
Be a blessing to a fellow church member
Sign up and bring them a meal
And if you can help with that
We would appreciate your help with that
Please see Miss Melody after the service
She has a sign up sheet
And she can get you signed up
For meals for Miss Julissa
We want to begin those meals starting tomorrow
So make sure you see her after the service for that
And then if there are any men that can help us
I don't know if the trailer is already here
But we have a trailer coming
We need to unload some lamppost
So if you could help us with that
If you're willing to serve
Willing to do an extra thing once a year to help
This would be the time, alright
Do it now, we'd appreciate it
After the service, you can see Brother Oliver
And you know, many hands make light work
And if you can just help us
We can, I'm sure, get the trailer unloaded quickly
And of course just want to remind you
That this week is a special week
Wednesday night, we have the Lord's Supper
Don't miss it
Sunday morning, we have Easter
Make sure that you are here for the Easter service
Make sure you take these cards
Invite a coworker
Invite a friend
No one is going to be mad at you
For inviting them to church on Easter
And they might be mad at you
If you invite them to church just randomly
But on Easter, no one is going to be mad at you
In fact, unbelievers and unsafe people
And non-churchgoing people
Are looking for a church to go to
On Easter
And most people will go to the church
That their friend invites them to
So make sure that you
You have a coworker
A neighbor, a friend
Someone you've been thinking about
Use these cards
There's three cards, paperclip there
And invite somebody to Easter service on Sunday
Of course we have our big soul winning push
Thursday, Friday, 6 PM, Saturday, 10 AM
Be a part of all of those things
And get into the rhythm of a spiritual life
The rhythm of a Christian life
If there's anything that we can do for you
Please let us know
And if you could just help us
Looking around your area there
If your kids made a mess or whatever
You can put the hymn books back
Kind of pick things up
It would help the cleaners on Monday morning
If there's anything we can do for you
Please let us know
We'll have Brother RJ come up and lead us
In a final song
Amen, let's grab our songbooks
And turn to page number 121
Song number 121
And we plan to sing this with
Like a river glorious
Song number 121
Sing it out
On the first
Like a river glorious
Is God's perfect peace
Over all victorious
In its bright increase
Perfect yet it all will
Fool her every day
Perfect yet it all will
Keep her all the way
Sing it out
State upon Jehovah
Hearts are fully blessed
Finding as we promised
Perfect peace and rest
Hidden in the hollow
Of whose blessed hand
Never vogue and follow
Never train or stand
Not a surge of glory
Not a shade of care
Not a blast of glory
Touch the spirit there
State upon Jehovah
Hearts are fully blessed
Finding as we promised
We all are singing well
So let's finish the song on the last
Every joy or trial
Falled from above
Traced upon our dying
By the Son of God
We might trust Him fully
All for us to do
Ye who trust Him fully
Find Him fully too
On that side
State upon Jehovah
Hearts are fully blessed
Finding as we promised
Perfect peace and rest
I have Brother Scott dismiss with a word or prayer
But before he does that
I want to remind you that
If you have any questions about salvation, baptism, or church membership
Pastor will be at the door
He would love to talk to you or direct you to someone who is trained to do that as well
Brother Scott
Amen