New Year, New You, New Season - Part 2

New Year, New You, New Season – Part 2

Good Morning, and praise the Lord.  We are going to continue with the series which began last week called New Year, New You, New Season.  Please turn with me to Leviticus chapter 23.

Leviticus 23

And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, concerning the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts. Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, a holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. These are the feasts of the Lord, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons. In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Lord's Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread. In the first day ye shall have a holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein. But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord seven days: in the seventh day is a holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.  And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest unto the priest: And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf and he lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the Lord. And the meat offering thereof shall be two tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto the Lord for a sweet savor: and the drink offering thereof shall be of wine, the fourth part of a hin. And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete: Even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord.

¹⁷ Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals; they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the first fruits unto the Lord. And ye shall offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young bullock, and two rams: they shall be for a burnt offering unto the Lord, with their meat offering, and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire, of sweet savor unto the Lord. Then ye shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for a sin offering, and two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace offerings. And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the first fruits for a wave offering before the Lord, with the two lambs: they shall be holy to the Lord for the priest. And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that it may be a holy convocation unto you: ye shall do no servile work therein: it shall be a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations. And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the Lord your God. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, speak unto the children of Israel, saying, in the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation. Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord. And the Lord space unto Moses, saying, also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be a holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord. And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the Lord your God. For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people. And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people. Ye shall do no manner of work: it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.  It shall be unto you a Sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your Sabbath. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, speak unto the children of Israel, saying, the fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the Lord. On the first day shall be a holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.  Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord: on the eighth day shall be a holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord: it is a solemn assembly; and ye shall do no servile work therein. These are the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord, a burnt offering, and a meat offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, everything upon his day:  Beside the Sabbaths of the Lord, and beside your gifts, and beside all your vows, and beside all your freewill offerings, which ye give unto the Lord. Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days: on the first day shall be a Sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a Sabbath. And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. And ye shall keep it a feast unto the Lord seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations: ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month. Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths: That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. And Moses declared unto the children of Israel the feasts of the Lord.

Notice how precise God was with Moses on how He wanted the Israelites to conduct themselves when it came to certain periods of time that He wanted them to assemble and make sacrifices and/or celebrate special dates and times.  The purpose of this was for them to remember that it was the Lord that delivered them out of the hands of the Egyptians, and the bitter bondage they endured.

Even though we are living under grace, we still celebrate Christmas, which by the way commemorates the birth of Jesus and the significance of salvation, Resurrection Sunday, which unlike the pagan celebration of Easter, reminds us of the sacrifice that the Lord made on the cross, and that all was not lost when they buried Him, but that He got up with all power in His hands, and we have hope through accepting Jesus as our personal Savior.

While we don’t celebrate Passover, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur like the Jews do, we do celebrate the Upper Room experience of the Holy Ghost appearing on the scene, like the Lord promised He would, otherwise known as Pentecost.  Bless His holy name, because this is what keeps us in these evil days and times.

This is the time of the year when the body of Christ wants to offer the first fruits of the beginning of a new season.  In the United States, we are in winter, where it’s cold, and it gets dark earlier.  Some states change their clocks back one hour.

I want you to think about this for a moment.  The leaves have fallen, and the trees are bare.  The animals have gone down in hibernation, or a long winter’s nap, as one song puts it.  The sun begins to set a little bit before 4:00 in the East Coast.  If there isn’t snow on the ground, just wait, because it will come.

Now, January is the time when people try to get it together after eating everything they wanted during the holidays, and now it’s time to take care of our temple.  Yes, it’s great to want to lose weight and get into shape, but we also want to take this opportunity to awake from our lackadaisical slumber, and get our house in order.

The Lord uses people to let us know that God is waiting on us to get serious about Him and do whatever it takes to make Jesus our choice.  It’s deeper than just accepting Him as our personal Savior, but it means to soar to the heights in our walk with Him, as well as to go deeper.  This is the time that we need to launch into the deep, and get our assignment.

If you don’t already know, this is the reason why many within the church go on a fast.  If it’s not the Daniel fast, there are plenty of others.  However, I want you to guard against looking in the mirror, because you may get the wrong impression about the purpose for fasting.

My brothers and sisters, it’s not about trying to fit into that favorite suit or dress, or bathing suit for that matter.  It’s about getting serious about our walk with the Lord, and letting go of any and everything that will keep us from God’s highest and best for us and everyone connected to us.

Let’s get ready.  May the Lord bless you, and we’ll see you tomorrow, God willing.