257 ~ FINDING JESUS IN LEVITICUS ~ PART 4

Hello, a big welcome to the Via Zion Sermon podcast.

We are a church based out of Chennai, India.

We are thrilled that you tuned in today and hope that you will

be refreshed, revived and energized by what you hear.

Our desire is that you will live life with a renewed sense of

purpose that stems from a vibrant faith in Jesus.

The year 2025 is 1 where we will be positioned by God to possess

our promise. As we seek to find Jesus in

Leviticus, our hope is that we will fall deeper in love with

him and pursue him more. We look at Leviticus 23 today to

find that each of us can live in a place of continual

celebration. Should we keep Jesus at the

forefront and in the background as well?

Hi, Search. What a joy it is to continue to

share God's word with you through the book of Leviticus.

As you know, we've been doing the series for Lent called

Finding Jesus in Leviticus. And today we're going to be

looking at Leviticus chapter 23, which is all about the feasts

Leviticus 23 · chapter mention

that God instituted through Moses for his people.

And when you look at these feasts, there were seven feasts

or seven festivals that they were instructed to observe.

And when you look at these seven, I'm just going to read

those seven out, OK, because they're very important in a New

Testament context as well. They were the Feast of Booths,

the Feast of First Fruits, Feast of Unleavened Bread, Passover,

Feast of Weeks, Feast of Trumpets, and the Atonement Day.

Each of these days had a very deep significance for the

people, reason being each of them symbolized and a moment

when God had come through or it symbolized something that they

needed to in response to God. For example, when you think of

the Feast of Booths, it was basically for the people who

were heading into the Promised Land to do this in order to

remember how they lived in the desert in tents.

It was to remind themselves of where they had come from.

When you look at the Feast of First Fruit, it was basically

the first. It was like a tithe of what they

had earned, what they had got off the ground that they would

offer before God. When it came to the Feast of

Unleavened Bread, it was basically bread that was baked

without any kind of yeast in it. And they would celebrate around

this meal. And then of course, there was a

Passover, which was so representative of when the Angel

of death passed over Goshen. And because the people of God

had applied the blood of lambs and Rams on their door, they

were safe. And God had literally had a

Passover from death to life. And then of course, there's the

Feast of Weeks, which is basically a harvest.

When when the harvest season was over, when they would have, you

know, reaped all the benefits from their fields, they would

offer something to God from that and celebrate around that.

And then there was a feast of trumpets, which was just a time

of just rejoicing with, with the trumpets being blown through the

day, people just learning to rest and relax.

And then there was the Atonement day.

Atonement day was the once a year moment when they would just

come together and atone for their sins.

The assumption was everyone had sinned.

And So what they would do, they would burn a burnt offering and

then they would confess the sins of the community on this goat.

And that was the scapegoat which was then sent off into the

wilderness. So these 7 festivals had such

deep meanings to the people of Israel.

They, they still mean so much to them because they have so many

memories entrenched within these festivals.

Now, why were these necessary? Why were these even instituted

by God? And I would love to say that our

God loves to celebrate. I love that verse from I think

it's Zechariah, which says he rejoices over me with singing.

This is our God. We sometimes picture this solemn

carry God who's always so serious and intense.

I believe that he's intensely fun, loving, cheerful, joyful,

and he enjoys celebrating us. And so these celebratory moments

that he instituted into their daily lives, into them, you

know, cycles of the year, every season was I think a moment for

them to just regroup, to congregate and to celebrate all

that he has done, all that he has been to them, right?

Because the problem is this all of us, and I'm just going to

first look at the Israelites, they were prone to wander, they

were prone to complain, they were prone to drift.

And so the hope was that these celebrations would actually

anchor them around God. The the Tabernacle was in the

centre of the camp. And so you could imagine that

while God was at the centre of their lives, but many times it

wasn't. Many times they forgot that this

cloud dwelt with them, that He had LED them through these huge

insurmountable obstacles and brought them through safe.

And yet they chose to go their own way with idolatry, yet they

chose to fall into sexual sin yet yet they chose to complain

when things didn't go their way. They chose to remember what they

wanted to from the, the Egyptian season and therefore God, I

believe, has instituted these celebrations in their lives so

that these would be times for them to congregate and

celebrate, right? But I believe there's a deeper

reason for these festivals, these celebrations.

And Leviticus chapter 23 is where we're going to be focusing

Leviticus 23 · chapter mention

on today. Leviticus 23 talks about the

different feasts that were brought about that were

instituted. And I'm, I'm just going to give

you 3 points as to why I believe festivals are important times of

celebrating God are important. The first reason is Forrest.

In Leviticus chapter 23 verse three, it says there are 6 days

Leviticus 23 · chapter mention

when you may work, but the 7th day is a day of Sabbath rest, a

day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work

wherever you live. It is a Sabbath to the Lord God

Himself, after creating the entire universe, worked for six

days. It said he's rested on the 7th

day. He instituted as a Sabbath to

rest from all our labours. And so most of these events in

the Jewish calendar required them to actually stop doing

regular work and to just assemble, to celebrate, to eat,

to thank God, to offer sacrifice.

What what is so important about resting?

It is when we rest that we enjoy God's presence more.

When you're in a rush, when you're running around, you

really don't get to sit and enjoy Him.

Resting is so essential because in the celebrating of God,

sometimes if you're not resting, you really can't celebrate.

We live in such a harried culture.

You know where we're just doing, we have to do lists.

We have schedules, we have plans for our children's week.

We have calendars for ourselves. I'm guilty as charge and I just

realized that we need to come to a place of finding rest in Jesus

constantly. Every week needs to have a

Sabbath, a day. We just switch off mobiles.

We don't do anything that we regularly do.

We do different things. Might you spend time with the

family or just go out for a drive or just sit on the beach

or do nothing and read a book. The things that you don't get to

do the rest of the week. Resting is important.

And for the Israelites, God was instituting this because through

the week they had to work. They they were, they were an

agriculture based society. Economy was based on

agriculture. They had to toil in the fields.

They had to real livestock, right?

They were shepherds. But he's saying one day a week

when you rest is actually demonstrating a trust in me that

I will look after you on the day you're not working.

So that's the first reason God instituted the festivals.

It was to rest. The second thing was for them to

rejoice, right? Leviticus chapter 23 verse 40,

Leviticus 23:40

it says on the first day you are to take branches from luxuriant

trees, from palms, willows and other leafy trees and rejoice

before the Lord your God for seven days.

Imagine 7 days of rejoicing. Some days it's hard to get

through the day, even finding something to rejoice about.

I was so challenged by this. He's asking you to just go

through every day for seven days rejoicing.

What is rejoicing? It is not happiness.

This is a deeply rooted sense of justice, resting in your

Father's love, just rejoicing in the fact that you have God as

your father. Rejoicing.

We live in a culture that has become sullen, so opinionated.

You just have to read the newspaper to spoil your day.

You just have to get online, look at social media first thing

in the morning for your whole day to be wrecked.

But the beautiful thing about God instituting these festivals

was for them to come together and rejoice for no other reason

other than the fact that God has been so faithful.

Resting is the first reason, rejoicing as a second third is

remembering verse 41 of Leviticus chapter 23.

Leviticus 23 · chapter mention

It says celebrate this as a festival to the Lord for seven

days each year. This is to be a lasting

ordinance for the generations to come.

Celebrated in the seventh month live in temporary shelters for

seven days. All native born Israelites are

to live in such shelters. So your descendants will know

that I had the Israelites live in temporary shelters when I

brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

This was to be a lasting ordinance so that generations

would remember what God had done when they were dwelling in these

booths, even in the promised land.

They were actually talking to their children and saying, hey,

you know what? Our ancestors lived like this.

For all we have houses made of of brick, we have we have, you

know, gardens that are already pre built.

But our ancestors didn't have it this easy.

These were moments when you we were actually linking the past

and the present. And so it's so important for

these celebrations because it was moments, it's moments like

this when you remember what God has done.

So these fees, like just to reiterate, the fees that God

instituted, because our God is a joyful God.

Our God is one who loves to celebrate.

These were times of resting, rejoicing, and remembering.

My question is, how much are you celebrating God?

I've been asking myself that so often.

I go to God with this huge list of things that He needs to do

for me. Forgetting that just the fact

that I'm so loved, so forgiven, so restored is just gives me

every reason to live in constant state of rejoicing.

Proverbs 15 verse 15. This is the anchor verse for

Proverbs 15:15

today. All the days of the oppressed

are wretched, but the cheerful heart has a continual feast.

All the days of the oppressed are wretched, but the cheerful

heart has a continual feast. Proverbs 15, verse 15.

Proverbs 15:15

I want this to be the central verse for today.

I know we're looking at Leviticus, but you have to

understand the Israelites didn't have it easy.

They were roaming through a wilderness, a desert, come to

the promised land. They had giants they needed to

fight to occupy territory. And none of us are having easy

lives. None of us are having a straight

Rd. Everything we want just comes.

There are obstacles, there are setbacks, there are all kinds of

situations that arise. But it's interesting, he says

all the days of the oppressed are wretched, but the cheerful

heart has a continual feast. It doesn't say.

But the unoppressed has a continual feast, doesn't say

that it says, but a cheerful heart.

It is a positioning of our heart which gives us a continual

feast. And this is what I want to bring

to you today. The title for today's sermon is

The Continual Feast. God instituted those seven

festivals for His people because He wanted them to rest, rejoice,

and remember. But today He brings us into this

place of a continual feast because of all that Jesus has

already done for us. We can be constantly in a state

of rest, rejoicing, and remembering because of the

finished work on the cross. Isn't that amazing When you look

at those seven festivals? I just mentioned the Feast of

Booths. It's also called the Feast of

Tabernacles. And the interesting thing is

that while the the Jews of ancient times were celebrating

their time in the wilderness, living in little booths, now it

represents Jesus Christ. Tabernacle in US isn't that

cause for celebration? Because of His Holy Spirit, He

lives within us the Feast of Firstfruits.

You and I, when we were saved, when we put our trust in Jesus,

became the firstfruits who now inherit eternal life.

No longer are we destined for death, but we're destined for

eternal life. Isn't that a reason to

celebrate? What about the Feast of

Unleavened Bread? Jesus called himself the bread

of life. In him there is no leaven.

There was nothing evil in him. And when He feeds us every

desire, every hunger, every appetite is met, isn't that a

reason to celebrate the feast of Passover?

We have Jesus, the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the

world. Because of his blood that was

shed for you and me, we are no longer liable to be charged for

the penalty of our sins. We are free from the enemy's

oppression. We are free from His, from the

whole. The legal hold He has on us.

He has to Passover. What a reason to celebrate the

feasts of weeks or the Pentecost was the coming of the Holy

Spirit. You see Jesus said I won't be

here forever, I'm going back to my father, but I'm sending you

the counsellor to be with you. We are never alone.

What an amazing reason to how can we not rejoice when we think

of these things? The atonement day, Jesus was the

perfect atonement for our sins, brought us back by the blood of

the Lamb, made US1 with God, brought reconciliation.

If you are saying I don't have a reason to rejoice, you don't

know what I've gone through. I want to just refocus.

You reframe that to say you have 7 reasons why you need to be

rejoicing. You have 7 reasons why you need

to be resting in the finished work of Jesus.

There's seven reasons why you need to be reminded that he who

said I'll send my son, he will come.

He will save the people on his on his shoulders.

The government will rest. He stayed true to his word.

If he stayed true then, he'll stay true now.

This is the amazing thing. Only in the Christian faith can

we be found celebrating because of what has already been done.

Jesus did it all. Salvation is free.

I get to rejoice. I was redeemed and bought back.

I get to rejoice. I can rest because the cross

handled it all. I can remember all that Christ

has already done because he died and rose again from me.

Resting, rejoicing and remembering comes easier when it

is centred and focused in Jesus himself.

And it's so important for us to understand that yes, life

happens. Break UPS happen.

Financial instability hits US in job loss, health struggles,

rebellious children, friends letting us down, people who are

unkind to us, boundaries that are breached, so many things

that happened to every one of us.

But the thing that is important to remember is it's not

impossible to celebrate even in these moments.

It is not impossible because it is a conscious choice you and I

have to make to experience the continual feast of celebration.

It is a choice. It is a choice you and I must

make and why should you and I have a continual feast of

celebration? I just have two major points

that I want to leave with you. The 1st is you and I need to

have a continual feast of celebration because celebrating

God changes your internal environment.

First thing, celebrating God changes my internal environment.

Do you know that your inner man, your internal environment drives

everything on the outside? So often we think it's vice

versa. We think, Oh well, you know how

I behave. All of that is, is divorced from

who I am inside. No intrinsically who we are.

Our emotional health, our mental health drives our physical

being. Steins has confirmed many times

over that when you actually sit and positively remember the

past, the things that have happened, well, good for you.

It affects your mental health in a positive way.

They actually said those who are nostalgic, who remember the good

times, who remember all that has happened, that was good for

them, it drastically changes their mental health.

So why is our inner environment so important?

It's true, it does drive our lives, but The thing is, it

dictates everything. You know, our inner environment

dictates everything about our lives.

It dictates our mood, it dictates our emotions, it

dictates our attitudes, our behaviours, everything.

And so it's so important that we make it a habit to live in a

place of continual feasting on God so that this internal

environment changes. I want to read from Psalm 77

Psalms 77:11–15

verses 11 to 15 to just break it down a bit more.

You might ask how can I? What is wrong?

Who wrong with my internal environment that I need help?

Let me explain that to you. Psalm 77 verses 11 to 15 it says

Psalms 77:11–15

I will remember the deeds of the Lord.

Yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.

I will consider all your works and meditate on all of your

mighty deeds. Your ways God, are holy.

What God is as great as our God. You are the God who performs

miracles. You display a power among the

peoples. With your mighty arm you

redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.

If you look at this passage, the psalmist is actually saying, I

will remember. He's making a conscious choice

to remember. What is he remembering?

The deeds of the Lord, what God has done.

And then he further comes down. He says your ways, O God holy, I

meditate on your mighty deeds. And then he said, what God is as

great as our God. You perform miracles, you

display your power, you have a mighty arm, You redeemed your

people. There are two prongs to this.

Our internal environment is so dictated by these two spaces,

especially as those of us who follow Jesus.

There are two areas that need to be strengthened.

One is the area of faith, and the other is the area of our

hope. You know what happens when we

get buffeted by life? We'll get punched by people,

situations, health, All kinds of things come out against us.

Suddenly faith starts to dwindle.

Remember, we're supposed to have faith as small as a mustard

seed, so it's quantifiable. And yet sometimes even that

feels like it's it's lessening by the minute.

Sometimes hope can die. How does this happen?

Well, when you've been praying for something and you don't seem

to see things shift. You don't have answered prayers

to to vouch, saying, oh, you know what, God's hearing me.

You feel like God is so silent. You feel like I feel like I'm

hitting a wall or no one's helping me.

I feel like there's no light at the end of the tunnel.

If you have been feeling that, I want to encourage you because

it's just your inner man which needs a revamp, right?

The inner man needs to meditate. It needs to remember, it needs

to recall, it needs to recount, first of all, who God is.

Forget what God did for a minute.

Let's look at who God is. If you were to remember the

things that you walked through, if you were to remember the

spaces in which you found yourself into such a tight

space, you didn't know what to do.

You were confused. When you look back on that, you

will find that you experienced the faithfulness of God.

You will find that you experienced His power.

You will find that you experienced His sustenance.

And when you begin to remember who God was, it enables you to

believe that He is still the same because God has not

changed. It's amazing because the Bible

says Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

He has not changed. He will not change.

So if God was supernaturally powerful then in your past, He

continues to be that now, and He will continue to be that in our

future. If God had a mighty arm, He

redeemed me, then He can redeem even this terrible situation

right now. All things work together for

good for them that love the Lord, for I believe that I know

this God is capable of turning this bad to good.

You probably said my faith is fine.

I don't think I stopped believing.

I want you to look closer at yourself.

Do you need a regeneration of faith?

Regeneration happens when you remember who God was.

So faith is the ability to lean on God without a doubt.

It is basically knowing without wavering that he is who he says

he is. Now, on the other hand, there's

a possibility that your hope could die.

Can hope die? It can.

It can when you don't see things change, when you feel like, you

know what? I have been doing this for so

long, God has been telling me it's a new season, but nothing

seems to be shifting. Or maybe you've been having

severe setbacks with with your finances again and again and

again and you come to a place of hopelessness.

That's when hope has died. But the interesting thing is

when you begin to change your inner atmosphere, hope can live

again. Hope is reborn.

I really believe all all of us have been in a season. 2024 was

a was a crushing season, but 2025 is a releasing season.

It's a season when many will step over the threshold into

their purposes for life. It is so pivotal this year.

And so we cannot afford to be with, you know, dead hope and

and, you know, dwindle faith. We need to be in a place of

justice going, God, fill me up again.

Fresh fire, come upon me. We need to come to that place.

Hope is a stubborn expectation that God will do something.

I don't know what he's going to do, but he's going to do

something. He said he'll do it.

He'll do it. He did it for them.

He'll do it for me. He's done it before.

He'll do it again. That is the anticipation that

hope is. Hope is not, I hope you'll do

well in your exam. That's not what it is.

That's how we use it. Hope is a certainty that God

will do what only God can. That is what hope is.

I love in Psalm 77, verse 11, it says I will remember the deeds

Psalms 77:11

of the Lord. Yes, I will remember your

miracles of long ago. Maybe the people at this moment

when they were reading it, if someone was actually facing a

Jordan moment or a Red Sea moment, they would remember.

My my ancestors stood on the shores of the Jordan and it's

split. My ancestors stood before the

Red Sea with the Egyptians pursuing them.

And yet God moved the Red Sea apart.

Can you imagine what it would do for us if we begin to remember

the deeds of long ago? What if you were to sit down,

rest and remember? And it'll bring you joy when you

begin to think of the things that God has done before.

And the interesting thing is, you know, I remember one of our

pastors, our senior pastors telling us this.

He said he was going through a season of ailment and illness.

And he, we were like, so, you know, tense for him.

And we were praying a lot for him.

And he told us this thing, which blew my mind.

He said, even if God doesn't heal me of this now, it's OK

because he's done everything for me on the cross.

Salvation was worth everything. And I thought, wow, what faith?

What hope? Because you know what?

The God of the heavens and the earth tabernacled with us in

Christ. He came to be with us.

He's left us the Holy Spirit. He's not left us alone.

He is with us constantly. And because of that, our hope

needs to be reignited. So for the unanswered prayers,

when you look back, you will see that God gave you things you

never asked for. You never prayed for bonus

blessings, some of the promises that have not yet come to pass.

God sent his Son. He saved every soul He kept,

kept to His word. If he did it, then he'll do it

again. For the static situations that

seem unmoving. The Spirit of God is likened to

a wind. It moves here and there, no one

knows what it's doing. He is on the move.

You may not feel it, you may not see it, but soon you will start

to see the demonstration. So when we start to celebrate

God, faith is regenerated, hope is reborn, and we can look at

ourselves confidently and say, why are you so downcast?

My soul Hope in God, because sometimes we need to speak to

our soul. Why am I so?

Sad today, God. Is it because that person

received what I have been praying for?

Is it because that person got the promotion I desperately

needed? Is it because their kids are

happy and at home and I don't have mind?

Where is this desperation from when I start to ask those

questions to my soul? When I start to open.

Myself up and remember how God has come through.

It's amazing how he will give me a fresh faith, a fresh hope.

So it changes my internal environment.

Celebration changes your internal environment.

How many of you need an overhaul internally?

It might be the day for. You to say I'm going to start

celebrating, I'm going to start believing that he has done great

things before, He will do them again.

He has been mighty all of this time.

He continues to be mighty. He is not diminished in his

strength. He is not diminished in His

capacity. He has not lessened in his

potential. He is still as magnificent and

sovereign and majestic as always.

I love reading the scriptures which talk about the might of

God in the book of Job. So many lines about God's

majesty. And then there are other

passages which talk about his voice that breaks the Cedars,

his voice that thunders through the earth.

The God who who births the mountain goats and is so

available for humans. What an amazing God we serve.

Read it so that it reignites your faith.

Read it so that it enlivens your hope again.

The second thing I. Believe celebration.

Does Celebrating God changes our external perspective?

It's so important to understand this.

You know, when we celebrate God, yes, internally my environment

begins to change, but then something has to change also in

the way I view things. And you might say, well, you

know what? As soon as the internal

environment changes, automatically things change on

the outside. I have found that many times, as

much as the inner man is changing my perspective and you

is still so distorted, it's still so messed up.

And I'm finding. That celebrating God in every

season changes my external perspective.

It changes how I view my situation.

It changes even how I look at the hard things of my past.

It changes how I view why certain things happened at that

point of my life. It changes how I view my

purpose, God's plan for me. It's amazing.

I was reading this week about microscopes.

You know, when we think about external perspective, we usually

look at in our labs, we used to have, you know, our regular

microscopes which we just use, which are 10X or 100X

magnification. But then of course, when we got

got into our master's courses, we had electron microscopes

which would show us things on great detail.

And as I was studying those and then there was a link which took

me to the James Webb telescope. And this telescope blew my mind.

I'm just going to play a quick video, a quick shot to help you

understand what this James Webb telescope is.

Let's just watch it and then I'll explain to you what is the

furthest. Galaxy we have seen with the

James Webb Space Telescope. The James Webb is an incredible

piece of engineering, bringing us marvels such as this image of

the Tarantula Nebula or this incredible picture of the cosmic

lifts of the Karina Nebula. However, the intention of James

Webb was to peer into the furthest reaches of the known

universe to try to pick up radiation from galaxies just

formed after The Big Bang. How is that going?

Such a Galaxy would give us key insights into the formation of

the early universe. Well, there is one such Galaxy

in this image. By evaluating markers within its

light emissions, scientists found out that this tiny Galaxy

here is around 13.1 billion years old, which means it

represents the oldest Galaxy we have discovered to date.

But as the universe is thought to be 13.7 billion years old,

there might still be all the galaxies out there.

Look at this video. You notice that?

This telescope is not based on Earth.

It's actually been shot into the into the into space.

It's kept in orbit and this it's constructed so beautifully that

it gives you views into the farthest ends of the Galaxy.

It's amazing. Like, I was watching so many of

these videos, it blew my mind. And how beautiful the galaxies

are. We think the Milky Way is the

biggest one. There are huger galaxies out

there and they think the universe is expanding.

And we know whose hands the universes are in.

We know who has breathed these into existence.

And the interesting thing about this James Webb telescope is

that it actually captures light. From galaxies.

That are millions of light years away, which actually gives us

allowance to look a bit into the past.

So these galaxies have obviously you know what a light year is,

the time taken for light to travel in a year.

So if this is coming. From so many million light years

away, basically these were the earliest galaxies formed and

they're still emitting light which is being captured on Earth

by this right. And as I was reading it, I just

realised that, you know, sometimes we need to have a

James Webb telescope kind of look.

We need a perspective like that wherein I'm able to look into

the future with clarity, but I'm also able to look at the past

and deduce things the way God wants me to deduce it.

Because so often I have this magnifying glass mentality.

I only look at the things that concern me, my family, my

children, my, my work. I look at that to the extent of

excursion of everything else. But God is calling me to this

larger view. When you look at the James Webb

images, it blows your mind because they're showing us clear

images of different planets. They have discovered new planets

which don't have names like what we know.

It's amazing. And so I want to encourage you

with this. You need to.

Celebrate God so that your external perspective shifts.

Because when I choose to celebrate God, the way I view my

work, the way I associate, look at my work challenges, the way I

look at the people in my life, the way I look at the obstacles

that keep coming up, my health struggles.

When I look at all of this, I start to have a different

perspective, a wider perspective, a more holistic

perspective. And the important thing to

remember is celebration does two things, and I'm going to base

that off Hebrews chapter 2, verse one.

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

If we can open Hebrews chapter 2 verse one, it says we must pay

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

the most careful attention therefore, to what we have heard

so that we do not drift away. Remember what I said at the

beginning, Human beings, not just the Israelites of that

time, human beings, every single one of us are prone to wonder,

prone to drift. And so it is so important that

we pay the most careful attention, attention to what we

have heard. And I believe when we celebrate,

the fog lifts and clears the view.

I want us to watch this quick image from the James Webb

telescope, which gives you a clearer view of something that

had already been, you know, photographed many years back.

We had a view, we had an understanding of this planet.

But the James Webb telescope, which is so much more accurate,

went past all the fog and the clouds that surround this planet

and gave us a clearer view. Let's have a look at it.

Isn't that amazing? We have studied in our geography

textbooks, we've studied all about these planets.

We we knew certain things and now we have greater clarity.

Celebration. Lifts the fog, clears the view.

Have you ever tried driving in fog?

Forget driving and fog. Have you tried walking in it?

Couple of months back, we had terrible fog in in Chennai.

There was just, we would wake up at 7:00 in the morning when the

kids would walk to to the bus, we couldn't see past five feet.

It was the the fog was so dense. And I remember the kids tell me

when the bus would drive. The bus driver didn't know where

the road ended and when the lake ended because the fog had just

descended everywhere. It's quite scary.

It's disorienting. You feel like you're driving in

the blind. When we celebrate God, something

changes. Our perspective shifts.

You know, up until then, it's blurry, it's heavy.

We're blindsided with all kinds of things.

We're heavy hearted. God, things are not moving.

God, things are not happening the way you said you would.

I thought you would. We start to get so.

Confused, we start imagining things and I found that one of

the greatest tricks of the enemy that I've been discovering of

latest illusion. He loves to create smoke and

mirrors. So there's always an illusion of

drama, of problem of this, of that, when in reality there may

be nothing. It feels like a mirage.

And I believe celebrating God, when we choose to celebrate him,

when we choose to rest in Him, rejoicing and remembering who He

is, something changes. The fog lifts and the view

clears. What you knew about a particular

situation will change overnight when God comes through and lifts

the fog. What you knew about your spouse,

what you assume to be true about yourself, could shift in a

second when God comes in and clears the view.

But it requires that you have a heart and a posture of

celebration. God, I will celebrate.

You now I won't. Many of us are waiting to

celebrate after the fact. God, when you give me my

miracle, I'll celebrate. Lord, when you when you do this

for me, I'll celebrate. I can tell you now itself, if

you don't do it now before the miracle, you won't do it after.

God is calling for a people who will say, I will celebrate you

while I'm waiting out here, God, I will wait as I'm waiting on

the threshold of this wilderness and the promised land.

I won't wait for the promised land to rejoice.

I will rejoice right now because you are worth it.

It's not about me, it's not about my situation, it's about

you. And it's amazing how God gives

us clarity. He will lift the fog and clear

the view. It's amazing.

Hebrews chapter 2, verses 5 to 9.

Hebrews 2:5–9

It is not to. Angels that He has subjected the

world to come about which we are speaking.

But there is a place where someone has testified what is

mankind, that you are mindful of them.

A Son of man, that you care for Him.

You made them a little lower than the angels.

You crowned them with glory and honour and put everything under

their feet. I'm putting everything under

them. God left nothing that is not

subject to them. Yet at present we do not see

everything subject to them, but we do see Jesus, who has made

lower than the angels for a little while now, crowned with

glory and honor because he suffered death so that by the

grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

It's so interesting that in the midst of hardship, in the midst

of an unchanging, seemingly unmoved, unchanging season, the

things we see magnified are actually the things concerning

us, our problem, our people, our struggle, our obstacles.

We're not looking at the bigger picture, but the beautiful thing

happens when we start to celebrate God is we begin to

really see him. And I love this because it says.

We you have. Made all man little lower than

the angels. You crown them with glory and

honour and put everything under their feet.

And and he also says we see right now it's not been

happening because there are a lot of things that are not under

our feet yet, because we are living in subjection to those

right. We have not yet, but in Christ

everything is under our feet yet.

So many of us are not yet fully put all those things under our

feet. But he says, but we do see

Jesus. Under Jesus.

'S feet is every principality and power.

Under Jesus's feet is everything that could completely decimate

you and wipe you out. He is King of kings, Lord of

Lords, worthy of glory and honour, faithful and true, the

rider of the White Horse. He is victorious in battle.

He is mighty. Problem is, most often our eyes

are not on Jesus. I know for a fact when I get

stressed, Jesus is the last person on my mind.

My immediate thing goes to how can I rectify this, What can I

do, What should I say? And then eventually, after

coming up with a whole bunch of dead ends, I come to this place

of, oh, I should probably ask God what to do, but that's

probably wasted about 8:00 to 9:00 hours already.

God is calling. Me into a place of celebration,

a continual feast, so that the focus shifts and changes the

view. It's so important, these

telescopes which are up there. The old.

Telescopes, right? I think there was a Hubble

telescope which was sent many years up into space.

It captured, you know, planets in a certain way.

Then there was another set of telescopes which were sent up to

get better images. Today, when the James Webb

Telescope comes up, look at what it does.

You see what I'm saying? It gets clearer and clearer.

The view gets clearer because the focus is narrowing on what

it is meant to be narrowed on. Too many times our focus is

narrowed on my ambition. My focus is, you know,

completely tailor made to my preference.

But God is saying, what about me?

Keep your eyes on my son. Keep your eyes on the finished

work of the cross. Keep your eyes on the fact that

all things are beneath your feet.

You have dominion over everything.

Who's? Your focus.

Celebration. Shifts the focus and changes the

view when the focus shifts. If you noticed what looked

relatively clear, same seemed OK.

When this extra good telescope showed the image, it looked

radically different. And God wants to bring you into

a place of greater clarity as you enter this new season.

God is wanting to bring you into a place of saying this is what I

want you to be listening to. This is what I want you to be

doing. These are the things I need you

to invest in. These are the relationships I

don't want you in. God is speaking, but too often

our focus is so diverted. So often the.

View is so blurry. God is calling us.

Back It's time to shift focus. Have you been having a continual

feast or have you been living the life of the oppressed?

If you know. Jesus, you know that he came to

set the oppressed free. And it didn't end there.

He wanted us in a deep relationship with Him, and this

relationship warrants constant rejoicing, a continual feast.

It's so sad because. So many Christians today are so

unhappy, so complaining, so bitter.

But a rejoicing. Christian, one whose heart is a

continual feast is an attractive Christian, a Christian that

others want to know what's going on with you.

I love who you are. I want to do things for you.

I want to help you. On a journey with you because we

then emit the aroma of Christ because of who we are within us.

So remember this, God instituted the festivals so that people

would rest, rejoice, and remember today we're called into

a place of continual feasting because we have the finished

work of Jesus. We have salvation, we have the

the the hope of eternal life. We are redeemed.

No situation is as bad as it seems because all of it is

redeemable. And the beauty is this, that

when I start to celebrate, my internal environment changes.

Faith is regrown, Hope is reborn.

When I begin to celebrate, my external perspective shifts.

He lifts the fog. He clears the view.

He shifts the focus and changes the view.

It's so important. Sometimes the view we have for

our lives, you know, it's just so one-dimensional.

It's like standing on this rooftop and justice looking in

One Direction and saying, well, this is what I want.

This is I want these, these these, you know, promotions.

And then when I get married, I want to have a house.

I want to have a car lot. Let your will be done according

to mine and many times in celebration, in resting in God,

in rejoicing in his finished work and remembering all that he

has done. God might just pivot us.

He might just pivot. Us and say that's not your view,

this is your view and I hope that as you were listening in

that the Spirit of God was stirring up things within areas

in which you have been so stubborn, maybe areas in which

you have been grieving so much you've missed celebrating.

None of us. This is going to sound harsh.

None of us have a reason to not rejoice.

None of us have a reason to not celebrate.

Has life been hard for everyone Yes, absolutely.

Your sorrow is real. Your grief is real, your burdens

are real. But.

Thanks be to. God for His indescribable gift.

We have every reason to have a continual feast.

Can I pray for you? Father in Heaven, I just thank

you so much. Thank you Lord for sending your

Son Jesus. Thank you Lord for the gift of

salvation so free to each of us. Thank you Father, for your grace

which has been poured into our lives.

Thank you for your mercy that are new every morning.

Thank you for you have been Jehovah, our almighty God.

Thank you that you are the God of Angel armies.

Thank you that you are almighty, all powerful, all knowing and

Father, I pray that today you would regenerate faith in all of

us, that God you will rebirth hope in our lives.

God, I pray for those who need a repositioning so that the view

changes. You would do that?

Lord, I pray for. Those whose lives are looking so

foggy because of their situations, I pray they will

learn to celebrate you right now and that you would clear the

fog. Lord, You would give them

clarity. I pray God that.

You would go before us. Thank you Father, for you

rejoice over us with singing. You delight in US.

I pray through this week we will enjoy you God, as you enjoy us.

We love you. And we thank you in Jesus name,

Amen. Amen.

God bless you. Have an amazing week.

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