Jubilee

Good morning, and happy Sabbath. Today's scripture reading is Leviticus, 25 18 through 21 and verses 35 through 38. That's Leviticus 25 18 through 20 and 35 through 38. Where for you shall do my statutes and keep my judgments and do them and you shall dwell in the land and safety and the land shall yield her fruit and you shall eat your fill and welder in in safety. And if you shall say what shall we eat in the seventh year behold We Shall Not So nor gather our increase then I will come and my blessing upon you in the six year and it will bring forth fruit for 3 years and If thy brother be waxin poor and falling into a Westie then Thou shalt relieve him. Yay, though. He be a stranger or a Sojourner that he may live with me of him nor increase but fear that God.

Statler brother may live with the Val shalt not give him the money upon Usery now Norland him die victuals for increase. I am the Lord thy God which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.

Thank you Kendra, and now we'll get the rest of time to Pastor.

Sorry about the mix-up on the screen. That was my fault. Just so you know, they were making an attempt to change the translation cuz you can do that live right now, and they could just click a button. It turns to King James version. So I texted DJ and told him to do that and end and then I got a messed up. So my bad guys me. Happy Sabbath. This is a a good week that were approaching Thanksgiving week is is happy times for a lot of people. It's it's not always happy times. Sometimes getting family together can be volatile. I understand that sometimes family isn't around and for various reasons and it can be sad and lonely times to I want to recognize that but but it is generally a season of gratitude and Thanksgiving enjoying and in family and and it's appropriate that we kind of talked about that that subject to that context as we meet together the Sabbath before Thanksgiving. So I'd like to pray with you and then we're going to look at Leviticus chapter 25, which might not be a natural place that you'd think of turning to on the Sabbath before Thanksgiving. But hopefully at the end you'll recognize the connection. We just want to thank you for your watch care over us that you are providing for us and taking care of us in this season is a season of Thanksgiving and so we want to recognize how much you've done for us, but Lord that that message I think can sometimes be a surface message in our hearts aren't really fully grasping how much you take care of us and I pray that that would sink deep in that we would begin to trust you with all our hearts in Jesus name. Amen. in Did the author F Scott Fitzgerald the guy who wrote The Great Gatsby he said this the rich get richer and the poor get children.

I think most of us would say that children are the greatest wealth, right? But but it's probably true this statement the rich get richer. It seems like it's true in our society today. According to Wikipedia the net worth of us households and non and nonprofit organizations together combined about almost 95 trillion dollars in the first quarter of 2017. And by that time it was a record today. It's even greater. I don't know what the statistics are for net worth of all the people in the United States to nonprofits, but it's it's a lot of money and it if you were to take all of that and divided equally among the 124 millionaire so households in United States guess how many how much money you have in your household is that $760,000 would like a $760,000 net worth have a nice I'd like that but but actually the bottom 50% of the households United States have a total net worth of $11,000. That's a huge difference in income gap. You can see the the slide on the screen. If you're looking at the far left side, that's 71% of the people in the world own 3% of the wealth. .7% of the people in the world own 45% of the well, that's a huge difference in wealth distribution. It seems like F Scott Fitzgerald was pretty accurate when he said that the rich keep getting richer and these numbers only tend to increase the difference tends to grow right now the difference between a the middle-income American and the top 10% of earners in America is 1000% the difference between that top 10% in the top 1% the median of the top 10% in the top 1% It's another thousand percent. The Gap is huge inequality what I should say, there's also a gender gap in the United States ladies are earning somewhere in the range of 20% Less in the same jobs that men are working in. Inequality is something that it kind of works Society. There's a lot of people that talk about any quality and I think it's something that Christians should be concerned with two.

And then when I think of it, I'm not thinking about any quality where you know, the guy is diligence is prioritizing being a good worker and and earning money and things like that versus the guy who's just prioritizing is social and entertainment life. That's not the inequality that I'm talking about intergenerational inequality stuff that we're if you passed down a quality education and an options for employment sand and good choices to your kids and then hopefully some generational wealth that you can give them as well. Then they're going to be wealthier then you were and their kids will be wealthier than they are because you're passing down those that. Upward Mobility potential but the opposite is also true if you pass down poor education opportunities and poor employment opportunities than your children will probably stagnate or even decline in their wealth mobility. And that's just a reality and it's one Starkly seen in the United States between white and black Americans. And if you if you study at all this idea of inequality will find that that black Americans tend to have less potential for growth then white Americans and that's the case in in every economic status of black Americans their ease of passing on their wealth is much less than with white Americans inequality is a big deal and this this idea of any quality. I think God has something to say about it. And it's not that God wants to distribute wealth among everybody equally he never intended that he didn't intend for everybody to have the same experience of the same opportunities that that wasn't his plan but he does say and in fact adjust to support that idea Isaiah 65:21. He says that in heaven, we will each build houses and live in them and we will plant Vineyards and we will eat the fruit of them. We're not just going to be Labor's we're going to be owners and we're going to we're going to enjoy the fruit of our Labour that that's God's intention that that we can enjoy the work that we did but the world it gets it wrong and what we might call unregulated free capital of free market capitalism. They don't quite get it right because if there's there's fewer and fewer opportunities for the poor to get wealthy and more and more opportunities for the wealthy to get wealthier. In in free markets unregulated capitalism, but God he gets it right. He has a system a plan for handling this and unfortunately he gave the plan to the Israelites and they really flubbed it up. So we don't get to experience it. Sorry. I'm not going to I'm not going to tell you how to have in equality biblical equality. That's not going to work in our society today because you kind of have to have the entire civil government involved or it's just not going to work out. But I think we can learn from the principles of what God show did the Israelites and how he wanted their economy to work and some of those principles are really important for you and me today, especially as we think about this season of gratitude and Thanksgiving. And so let's turn in your Bibles to chapter 3525 of Leviticus. And we're going to be looking at this idea of a a jubilee. It's a Sabbath rest of the land and a an opportunity that culminates every 50th year in a Year of Jubilee and one understand what that means and we'll explore some of the history behind it and how God had it working and stuff. So looking in Leviticus chapter 25, but before we do any reading I just want to give you some context Jubilee is a it's really from the Bible but we use it today to indicate a celebration that usually the celebration of some anniversary of a big event. For example, Queen Elizabeth in 1977. She celebrated her I think it was her Silver Jubilee 25 years from the time that she was coronated as Queen of England and then in 2002, she celebrated her 50th Jubilee 50th anniversary and she called it the golden jubilee and these are big deal celebrations in England. How many view watch this the Diamond Jubilee in in 2012? Nobody nobody cares about England. Okay, that's alright. I watched it. I was just curious I lots and lots of money was spent. In fact, I was looking on the internet about how much money was spent around that time. It was just incredible how much they were investing in a celebration of this anniversary. Thought you might be jew man in and I just want to point out. There's a there's a connection between Jubilee and jubilant. Can you tell the connection there? Just bright built into the words. They have the same root. What is jubilant mean jubilant is that happiness that comes from Victory and triumphant right? It's the kind of thing that you experience the effect that the emotion you have when maybe this isn't the right crowd for this but when you're Super Bowl team, I mean your team football team win the Superbowl and anybody be a lot recently out what we have at least one person. I I want used a football illustration in Evangelistic series afterwards the church kindly gave me a football for dummies book. I'm probably not the best to use football illustration. But it maybe it's the the the Superbowl and you're excited about that and you have a celebration your team's one that's exciting your jubilant because of Triumph, maybe your jubilant because your your company reached a milestone or metal sales gold or something like that. That's it. That's the time for Triumph and Jubilation or maybe in your case. It might be that you've paid off your student desk and your juvel it because that's over you're not in bondage anymore. Or maybe maybe you're looking forward to the time sometime soon where you can pay off your mortgage. I know that's something that I'm not I'm not save retirement age or anywhere close yet. But but it's on my radar. I really like to own my home when I retire cuz I'm watching my in-laws hopefully by my father-in-law doesn't listen to the sermon but I'm watching my in-laws in retirement buying a home and they don't have the cash. And so they're they're looking at me know all of their Income streams and all that stuff in the end. I'd rather I'd rather be paid off. You know, I would be jubilant if I own my home outright those are reasons for jubilation. And I think as we explore this idea of Jubilee, you'll start to recognize how Jubilation is built into God's design of the Year of Jubilee. So let's look at Leviticus chapter 25 The Book of Leviticus entry chords, all these laws that God gave to to his people their religious laws and their civic laws. And keep in mind. This is God talking to Israel in a theocracy and it just means that God's the the government. So he's the one in charge. He's the one making the laws there. There's no Congress. There's no Monarch Gods the the one that runs the government. And in some of these things that that's Leviticus brings up. I mean they talks about how flaws it talks about just a variety of things. Any number of laws are included in the mix when it comes to Leviticus for a friend since Leviticus 23 talks about specific times that the Israelites were to get together and they were required several times a year. I think three or two or three times a year. They're required to get together hang out with other people is like a mandated camp meeting and other times they could go if they wanted to to the Tabernacle if they couldn't it was all right, but they had a. Of of a feast and they would get together with maybe people more locally in those times. And so they were required to hang out together socially and and also religiously and it seems like God prioritizes not just the religious ceremony, but the social gathering on equal terms and it would make sense that he does. This is the God who says that that's you should love the Lord your God with all your heart soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself, right? So he's coordinated process laws about about money. He has laws about I mean, even where you should go to the bathroom, I'm all kinds of stuff are here in Leviticus that some of these laws were laws that we're leading up to Jesus and so they don't apply anymore. Because they weren't valid a really important but they were leading to in pointing to Jesus in his first death and and also his work in heaven, but then others of these laws in Leviticus only applied while they were in a theocracy. And then they didn't always work out and So eventually they they didn't want to be in a theocracy and and those laws stopped applying to the same extent in Leviticus 25. We find some laws that are foundational to God's government this idea of loving God with all your heart soul mind and loving your neighbor as yourself, he built into the structure of the Israelites system, and one of them is the sabbatical year or Sabbath year in the first few verses of Leviticus 25 talk about this sabbath year, and it's at a practice where the Israelites would they would kill and they would plant and they would prune and they would Harvest for 6 years, and then the seventh year the seventh year was a Sabbath year and in that year, they weren't supposed to tell they weren't supposed to plant. They weren't supposed to prune. They weren't supposed to harvest. And God promised that in the 60 or he would provide enough for them. So that in the seventh year, they wouldn't go hungry and they were allowed anything that came up from the ground and grew naturally. They said that it was not owned by anybody. If you didn't plant it, then you don't own it. So if it just grows naturally then it belongs to anybody a servant somebody wandering through the the fields. Are you anybody could go and harvest that food and just for themselves to provide food for their family. So this is a way that God provided for them, but it wasn't they couldn't store it out. They couldn't plan to sell. It couldn't sell that food. It was just for anybody now. It's it's obvious from the laws that we find in Leviticus 25 that God intended for Israel to be an agrarian society. Most of the people we're going to own land plant Vineyards or plant Orchards or plant grain or something and they would barter and Sharon and and sell their and their food to each other to survive. And then this isn't a country and a time where there weren't weren't big trains that we're going across the country delivering food here. And there there was no refrigeration systems to transport food. I'm no container ships going across the seas. So no bananas things that we think of in food Transportation. They just didn't have so you really had to sell your grain to the guy who at Apples if you wanted apple cider where you have to grow your own you're not going to go to the store and get apples that just isn't the how the system was working. But there were some labors and some Craftsman and maybe some Civic leaders in town. But even those people in towns would still have maybe a plot of land outside for a family garden baby you a cash crop maybe some livestock. They would still be really closely connected with the land. Many years after the laws in Leviticus are laid out Joshua starts dividing up the land because they're in there in the wilderness when God gives them these laws and it's 40 years later before they ever start to have an opportunity to implement these laws because they didn't have land until Joshua divided up according to God's plans. Every every tribe would have a big tract of land in every family would have a smaller but significant tract of land that they could then give to their children and their grandchildren and great-grandchildren to provide for their for their needs the land. It was so significant and Israel's economy. It's the foundation of wealth. If you can't pass on land to your children, then your children are stuck in in essentially a situation of poverty. Let's just say that you inherited a piece of land from your father. And since we're in the Northwest and and since you probably will enjoy this this idea. I'm just going to say that you decided you've looked at the market you've seen that if you go to the store huckleberries are really expensive and you could make a killing if you could cultivate huckleberries. Does anybody know that the taco berries are easily cultivated? Yeah. Yeah, you know this and there's even some people say that there's some some shortage of huckleberries in the mountains. And so we got to got to be careful with them. So let's just say that you decided that you were going to to plant some huckleberries. And so you decide to go all-in you're going to invest in that you're going to put up a greenhouse you're going to tons and tons of stuff that you need money. And so you've got this inheritance and you go to a nearby farmer and you say to him could I borrow some money? And so sure you give me your land if you don't pay the money and then we have a deal and then you're like, yeah, that's fine. I'm going to make a killing. And so you take the money and you buy a greenhouse and you go to the blacksmith and you buy a plow and you buy an oxen or a pair of oxen in a yoke and stuff you hire a crew and they clear out all the the rocks and you hire another crew and they put in a a canal so that you can water your field and all this kind of stuff. And then if you hire some more people and you go up to the mountains and you collect just the choicest Huckleberry bushes, you do it under cover of Darkness, so nobody knows cuz they be really mad at you but you bring these things down and and you transplant them into your field and for the next few weeks you carefully water these Huckleberry plants and half of them died. But you're not discouraged. Do you plan for this? You knew there was going to be some setbacks and then a few weeks go by and then a huckleberry season starts to come into into that. Time and and you're expecting there's going to be flowers. No flowers You're Expecting. There's going to be various but no berries the workers go into the field and into the woods. They collect there huckleberries, they make their their money and you've got nothing. In fact, your huckleberry is all die at the end of the season and you can't pay back any of your loan and you know what that farmer he does he comes to you and he says, you know, it looks like things aren't working out. I really need to get paid and you say I can't pay you anything and he says that's fine. I'll use your field next year and that will be my field that seems like a good deal except you live by the land and live in a society in agrarian society where you got nothing if you don't have land you're just going to hire yourself out for those odd jobs that other Farmers have for you. And that's not a really great living. In fact, your wife is probably going to be seen gleaning at the edge of the fields like Ruth did and and she might be picking up the the fruits that if falls to the ground after the Gleaner go through it's not going to be a great year for you. But God he saw all of these things and and he recognized there needs to be an opportunity to kind of a relief valve. You might say for the economy could see that in an in an agrarian society for land is everything when you give your land to that guy you all that money to next year. He's gotten more land to leverage than he did the year before and so he when he loans money or buys a field he's taking less and less risk the bigger his operation gets it might be if he's careful and he takes calculated risks. It might be that he becomes the largest farm operator in that area. And it could seem that the rich just keep getting richer and you you've lost your land. You've got nothing to pass on to your kids. You got no wealth. No employment opportunities. You got nothing for them. And so they're stuck in this cycle of the rich getting richer. So God sees this and Designs a couple relief valves in the first one. I just mentioned was in the first few verses of Let It live it as 25. It's the Sabbath year for 6 years you plant a new harvesting you plant a new harvesting plants and you harvest Inn in the seventh year. You're not allowed to do anything and so in the seventh year the wealthy landowner that got your land. He can't make any money that year except for maybe selling some of the stuff he put in store you on the other hand, you're in the same position that he's in now, you can go to the his fields and you can glean from his fields and wouldn't it be fun think of think of this? Wouldn't it be fun? If you're in the society and maybe you have an orchard apples and peaches and plums and whatever else you think are amazing and pears and what not and you invite a whole bunch of people. It's just a everybody from the church here. Like let's have a party and you do a cookout and a bunch of a fruit and everybody is is a canning together and you're not worried about prophets. You not worried about what you you're losing to all these free giveaways or whatever. You not worried about paying for workers. Like you just don't have any stress in this year. You're you're just having an enjoyable time spending the time with other people that are having an enjoyable time and everybody is kind of kind of brought into the same plane of existence during this sabbath year. It's a time for social engagement at the time when you're not worried about getting up early or going to bed late because you got these fields to work until you've got time with your family and your body can heal from it the strenuous working for me. It's an opportunity that you have because you don't you're not tied to your Harvest schedule you can go and hang out at any of the religious feasts and maybe you could go in and spend some time with your your relative. Maybe your sister that move down south sometime ago. This is not just a wonderful opportunity for the society to bond. But after the Sabbath year the man who got your field, he still has her field and so he can continue to grow in wealth and you are still without your property. And so you're still a day laborer and doing the best you can so God designed another relief valve and that's found in starting in verse 10 Leviticus 25, and it's called The Year of Jubilee. He says and you shall consecrate the 50th year and Proclaim Liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you. When each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan. So this was a year when the land is restored to the families that God gave it to at Joshua's time. That's the design of of this Year of Jubilee. And and if you had a debt that you owed you were released from that debt. Let's go back to the Huckleberry gamble. Let's say that you inherited your field 25 years before the Year of Jubilee 25 years before you could get that land back and you went to your neighbor. And you said can I borrow $250,000 and the neighbor thought maybe did a few calculations on his pot shirt or whatever and he says, you know what? Yes, I'd be happy to lend you $250,000 because he knows that if you default on your loan, he has enough time to use that field to earn back what he lent you. Now if you had come to him 12 years before the Year of Jubilee, do you think he'd give you $250,000? He knows that land is going back to you pretty soon. So he's not going to give you that much money. He might give you seventy-five thousand. And in so the the Year of Jubilee kind of it creates an economic system where the well-to-do can never take advantage of the poor with house without messing up their own Financial system. Right and the poor can never go completely bankrupt.

Which is nice because sometimes parents make bad decisions and their kids get the brunt of it. Even if they are hard-working people a child born and poverty has a really hard time of raising themselves out too. Well, but if you have that reset every so often then the children can can try and do something better. Hopefully not Huckleberry farming. Hopefully, they've got a better idea than that. Can you imagine the joy of this Huckleberry farmer when he comes to the 50th year and he gets this land back now, he's he's got something to pass on to his children. That is a reason for Jubilee you see where it where God is coming from here to Jubilation is something that you do when you've you've got a victory when you've had a Triumph when you when your debt has been cancelled when you get back The Inheritance that was originally given to you. I hope you're making a connection between a spiritual reality and the reality of their economic system because God has a plan for a spiritual Jubilee where all of those in bondage are set free. So keep that in the back of your mind as we keep talking a little bit about this Jubilee. Oh Jubilee was just like that Sabbath year the seventh year 6 years of working the fields seventh year of Sabbath while the Jubilee was just that way. But if you can if you're careful, you can count this 7 * 7 is 49 so the 49th year is a sabbatical year to Sabbath year of rest for the land. And then what year is the Jubilee year is the 50th, I think about this. You've got a Sabbath here and then you got a jubilee year where you do the same thing. You don't work the land you trust God to provide. Can you imagine living in an agrarian society? No Refrigeration, like your storage of stuff is Dry Goods at Best You Got 2 years where you can't plant an intentionally grow your food. It's going to it's going to test your faith a little bit. There's something about even though it's Jubilation and it's exciting. There's something about this year that makes it a little bit concerning.

Jesus taught us to pray give us this day our daily bread.

And Israelite the Adelaide economy was designed to keep this mindset of trusting God for providing our daily needs in mind. It's trying to to keep that always before the people God is the one who gives you your food who gave the Israelites their food in the wilderness. God gave the Manna, right?

There's probably something about this Year of Jubilee that's going to remind the children of Israel of their Mana experience or it's going to make them look at the seller and want to go out and plant their field. One of the two is going to happen. They're either going to deepen their trust in God or they're going to take it back and try to do it on their own. That's kind of what's going to happen and it's going to be a pretty big temptation to do it on our own.

What if you are not on good speaking terms with your neighbor? That's got the apple orchard. You might not ever get apples. What if your seller is running dry and in your look in there and you're thinking what will we eat tomorrow? How much are you going to be tempted to stop trusting God and to try to make it work on your own? I can tell you a story about a family who decided to stop trusting in God and to make it work on their own. You can read the whole story in a book called Ruth.

So we thought we'd like to think that the roof is a good story and God makes wonderful things out of mistakes that people make but you see these are a group of people who decided that they didn't trust God to provide for them. And so they left that's it. That's a Temptation that we all have in our daily lives and we have not just the physical needs of our bodies, but we have all kinds of things where we are needing to trust in God and we get to the point of pain and we say no I can't do that. I'm going to figure this out rather than saying. Alright God. What are you going to do? Where's the Mana coming from today?

And the reality of the Year of Jubilee this whole system of this whole economy is that everybody had to be on board or nobody would be on board and that's what I am from reading the Bible in my perspective. I haven't I can't find a place though. It might be that that is there. I can't find a place where Israel actually ever kept a single Year of Jubilee. I can find a place where God kind of force the issue Remember The Time Of Elijah. They had three years were they weren't making anything in that land 3 years of no rain. And God just said, you know what we're just going to pause and see if they will trust in me. And what does the bible record during that time though? The one guy that it's pointing out and then it kind of mentioned these other prophets that this guy Tobias taken care of but the one guy that is focused in on how does God provide for him. But there's a Ravens and then there's the woman that that has this flower that just keeps coming and keeps coming even though there's only a little bit at the bottom God guarantees that he will not starve his children, but do we trust him and that's what the Jubilee is asking do you trust me?

There's a bunch of principles that I think come from this idea of the Year of Jubilee and some of those principles were completely lost because the people stopped trusting in God, but God brings them back and Isaiah Chapter 58, and I'd like you to turn in your Bible verse Isaiah 58 chapter that applies the Year of Jubilee principles to a society that had stopped doing the Year of Jubilee in the left that economy.

And God, he always intended for his family on Earth to live in unity and Harmony to have this this social relationship that was tight. He didn't intend for people to just give away all their wealth to the poor but he did design a system that they would always have a room at their table that people could come in and eat I'm always have a space at the edge of their fields that somebody who was needy could glean from the the crops that were growing their. Nobody should be hungry in God's economy. But that's not how the Israelites were living there. The wealthy were lending to the poor in a way that would bind the entire Generations like multiple generations of their family and indebtedness to them. We're talking about long-term slavery. You're a slave your kids are slave right that was never designed by God and these are a group of people that were they were acting religious. They were going to the feast they were doing their fast days. They were you keeping the Sabbath and going to the synagogue and all this kind of stuff. But when it came down to actual day-to-day living they were not acting nice. They didn't have loving relationships with their neighbors. They were according to the words of Isaiah 58. They were speaking Wicked words and and hitting with a wicked fish. They were fighting amongst each other their relationships are broken down and until we find in Isaiah 58 verses 1 through for a God who is really quite disgusted at the community that Israel had become it says cry aloud don't hold back lift up your voice like a trumpet declare to my people their transgressions to the house of Jacob their sins yet. They seek me daily and Delight to know my ways as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the Judgment of their God. They asked me righteous Judgement. They Delights to draw near to God why we fasted and you see it not why have we humble ourselves and you take no knowledge of it be holding the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure and oppress all your workers behold you fast only to Coral into fight at the hit with a wicked fist fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be Heard on High. And God responds to this fake religiosity. And he says you need to go back to the principles of the Jubilee principles of losing the bonds and letting the oppressed Go free that the principle of living generously by sharing your food and your clothes with those who have a need and even your home with those who have a need opening your home specifically to your family and uniting your family and loving relationship. And also there's a connection with the community of a grace-filled kindness about how you relate to your neighbors. And so those who live nearby you developing loving relationships is kind of all in the mix when you read Isaiah 58 tell about the results of living like this. He says in verse 10, if you pour out yourself, if you wore yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desires of The Afflicted then shall your light rise in the darkness and your Gloom be as the Noonday. And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong and you shall be like a watered Garden like a spring of water whose Waters do not fail you want to have success you want to have well, if you want to have happiness and peace then go back to the economy. I designed the one that prioritizes not Justa spirituality where we try to impress God that we have a loving relationship with God and we love our neighbors as ourselves this economy that God designed is a a a place where Relationships are a priority and then in Isaiah Chapter 58 verse 13. It's a verse that we know really well as Sabbath keeping Christians. He says if you turn back your foot from the Sabbath from doing your pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable. If you honor it not going your own ways or seeking your own pleasure or talking idly. Then you shall take Delight in the Lord and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth. I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Sometimes we focus on the stop stepping on the Sabbath part, but I think we're that that's important. But I think we're Gods wanting to focus our attention in the whole context of Isaiah 58 isn't don't do don't do don't do with a critical judgemental Stern exacting attitude. But God is encouraging us to have this generosity that comes from gratefulness that that overflows and that our Sabbath day is a day where we do God's Will and God's will being that that's Jubilee attitude.

When we recognize that God has given us everything we have. Let me start with that trust in God everything I have belongs to you. Everything I have is from you God then we become well, and then also we need to to have the attitude of contentment. I'm okay right where you got me God right here is okay. Timothy talks about is if you got if you got clothes on your back and food in your belly, then that's a perfect place to be content. I can think of a few more things. I'd like for my contentment, but I think that the basics are really are you close? Do you have food God providing for you be content. So if we if we see all that we have is given from God if we are content with where he's got us right now, then the natural result of that is generosity Jesus describes a generosity and I think it might be the case that the poor are more generous than the wealthy the wealthy might give more but the poor are more generous and this is kind of how I think of it this woman with the two mites that Jesus sees and he points are out and he says that woman she gave more than all the rest of these and the reason was because the woman gave all that she had two mites wasn't much but she gave it all end. And then you look at the Rich Young Ruler the Richmond Young Ruler comes to Jesus and he says, how can I be saved? Jesus kind of talks about a few things and then tells him sell all that you have And give the money to the poor and then come and follow me now. If you told that to the Widow with the two mites, what would she have done? No big deal who's for the meet here. She followed Jesus easily. But the Rich Young Ruler. He looks at all the things that he's worked his life to develop all his possessions and he prioritizes his wealth over Jesus. And so Jesus says it's hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God, but as Christians weather what wherever we are on the well Spectrum, I think we should have an easy come easy go out of to do about our stuff. Maybe that's the wrong thing to say, but but it it's it kind of made sense in my mind. I tell you what, I'm thinking about this easy. Come easy. Go. What if what if we saw our possessions like the woman saw her to my take give it to me if he has a need for it. You can have it back. What if we saw everything that we possessed with that kind of mindset?

Do you have to have that mindset if you're going to be that landowner who gives back the land to the guy who owed him money? You got to have that mindset if you're going to follow through with what God has asked us to do. It's God's Property. God gave it out. I'm just a steward for a short. Of time your God. It's yours again. What if we had an easy come easy go attitude, I believe that generosity flows from a grateful heart a heart that understands. This is not my stuff. This is God stuff. So if God doesn't need I'm okay. If God says that that's that that's going to come for me. I'm okay with that. He's going to provide whatever I need in the future. He provided whatever I needed in the past He'll Do It Again? Faithful trusting gratitude leads to generosity. One of the outcomes in the New Testament Church that it was it was a church that brought this trusting attitude is just raw trust God for everything mindset. And as a result, you see people that are giving sacrificially selling all that they have and giving it to the poor exactly like Jesus told the Rich Young Ruler to do. And I think we should be grateful to God for a physical possessions. But if you are a thoughtful, you'll recognize that you have a lot more needs than your clothing or your food. You have social needs. I remember as a little boy. I didn't have very good friends, and I would plead with God to give me friends. Maybe you experience loneliness. And it's easy to distrust God, especially if you're a young person and you're in that stage of life where you're longing for connection and for intimacy and and for a deep relationship like a marriage relationship offers and if you're in that place and you live in Bonners Ferry in your looking around in your like where am I going to find? Somebody my age that loves Jesus it might be a temptation to just kind of take over yourself and figure it out on your own but God he has everything in his hands and if he can provide Manna in the wilderness, I guarantee he can provide a Godly spouse for you. He's got a plan. He's got a jubilee coming for you a time where you can say Triumph. I have my needs fulfill. But but there's a time of trusting that we need to have it. Maybe that's why I would say that there's all kinds of needs you might have a social need or a physical need but they're there might be a spiritual need that you have maybe it's your spiritual life. That feels dry like you're in the desert. I guarantee you God's Got A Plan. And this time in the wilderness is not is not badly spent. Ask God trust him and ask him is can you give me something more? I need some water from your living water. I need that well in my life, I need some bread today doesn't Jesus tell us to pray that keep that God would give us our daily bread. Maybe your needs are emotional. I don't know what your needs are but it's it's easy to trust God when things are going well and to be grateful and say thank you God for my wonderful family, you know when your spouse is happy and content and your children are happy with each other and playing. Well, it's easy to be like wow. This is an amazing family. Thank you so much God but when your spouse is discontent or when your kids are always fighting trust in God at that moment is more difficult when you have all the things that you need physically, it's it's not hard to trust in God. Thank you God for this 10 acres that I have and for these full Pantry in for the the gas I have in my car, but when you're going month-to-month and you're having to choose between filling up your car and paying your utility bills, there's a point where it's difficult to trust. But God invites us still to trust him. And to be grateful even in that context even in a situation where it doesn't feel like he's providing. He says be grateful for for all that I give you cuz I will provide for your needs and Hebrews Paul put this attitude of trust in God in the context of contentment and he says it this way keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have for he has said I will never leave you nor forsake you and then if you look in Philippians 4:11 to 13 Paul expresses his personal trust in God and he says this not that I'm speaking of being in Need for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low. I know how to abound in any and every circumstance. I have learned the secret of facing plenty in hunger and abundance and need I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me did you know that that verse was about need? I can do this God. I can be here in the wilderness experience in my life. I can trust you because you give me strength because you are always with me. It's not easy to trust in God, but in these times of wilderness experiences God asks us to do exactly what the Israelites were asked to do on their Sabbath year and in the Year of Jubilee. He says just relax. Just like that dog that there are children story talked about just relax. I got this. God says just relax. enjoy