======================================================================== A CELEBRATION OF HOLINESS by Sandeep Poonen ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon delves into the themes of celebration, holiness, and the invitation to come to Jesus for living water. It explores the significance of the Feast of Booths in Zechariah chapter 14, emphasizing the call to celebrate and make everything in our lives holy to the Lord. The sermon reflects on the promise of rivers of living water flowing from believers' innermost beings and the deep longing for a relationship with Jesus beyond earthly desires. Topics: "Celebration", "Living Water" Scripture References: Zechariah 14:9, Zechariah 14:16, Leviticus 23:34, Zechariah 14:20, John 7:37 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon delves into the themes of celebration, holiness, and the invitation to come to Jesus for living water. It explores the significance of the Feast of Booths in Zechariah chapter 14, emphasizing the call to celebrate and make everything in our lives holy to the Lord. The sermon reflects on the promise of rivers of living water flowing from believers' innermost beings and the deep longing for a relationship with Jesus beyond earthly desires. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I wanted to share from Zachariah chapter 14. So if you want to turn there in your Bibles, Zachariah chapter 14. Zachariah is one of those books that talks about a new covenant, church ministry, and has many different pictures in there. And Zachariah chapter 14 is the very last chapter and talks about almost, you know, when God will be king of all in a way. So it's almost talking about the final resolution of everything. It talks about verse nine, Zachariah chapter 14, verse nine, and the Lord will be king over all the earth. It talks in the beginning of that chapter of Jesus coming down to Mount Olives. I think it's a picture of Jesus' second coming. And then it says in verse nine, and the Lord will be king over all the earth. And in that day, the Lord will be the only one and his name will be the only one. So it's definitely talking about a future date, but I wanted to think about this. I was reminded about this passage as I thought about today, and I'll tell you why. Because I was thinking about us meeting in person outside and the people of Israel, even though they had houses, even though they were living in houses, they came together once a year to meet outside. And it was for a feast called the Feast of Booths, Feast of Tabernacles. And you read about it in the Old Testament and it's talked about here as well. And I was reminded of that as we were thinking about coming together, meeting outside in the elements, and they had to build little booths or tents, and they all met for a week. So we can read that in Zechariah chapter 14, verse 16. We can turn your Bibles there, Zechariah chapter 14, verse 16. Then it'll come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths. These are the people who fought against Jerusalem. These are the enemies of the people of God. These are the enemies to Jesus Christ. You and me. We were the enemies. Come about that those who were against Jerusalem, against the people of God, the city of God, will go up and celebrate the Feast of Booths. Now there were many things they could have done. They could have celebrated the Feast of Passover, the Day of Atonement. There are many things they could have done, especially because they were enemies of the kingdom of God. They could have sacked a lot of the nations for 40 days. This could have been the setting of us coming together is let's mourn. Let's remember all our past sins and all of that. Of course we should never forget our former sins, but what God's telling us to do is to celebrate the Feast of Booths. And not just a celebration. It's a week-long celebration. You can go back to Leviticus 23. I wrote it down. Leviticus 23. Turn there actually. Maybe we can turn there. Leviticus 23. It says in verse 34, 35, 36, that last few verses of Leviticus 23 talks about the Feast of Booths or the Feast of Tabernacles. And one thing that's very clear in verse 35 and 36 is you shall do no laborious work. This is not a time to do work. This is a time to celebrate. And on the first day in verse 40, you shall take foliage of beautiful trees and rejoice before the Lord. This is a time of celebration. And just as we think about meeting together in person again, what God is saying, even though you are against the Kingdom of Jerusalem, even though you're against the people of God, you come together and celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, the Feast of Booths. So it's a wonderful thing and it's a good thing to make it a celebration. My daughter was asking me the other day, what's your favorite verse in the Bible? I don't know if I have a favorite verse in the Bible, but the verse that I told her was Luke 15, 24. Luke 15, 24 is a very small verse or the last part of the verses. And they began to celebrate. Who was they? The father and the prodigal son. And that's, I want that to be the theme of my life. They, the father and the son and the Holy Spirit and me and you were celebrating, not celebrating me, celebrating Christ, celebrating all God's goodness, counting our blessings, knowing that God has done all things well. That's what we're celebrating. As we get together like this week, we could do a day of Passover. We have places for communion. We have those things are very important things that are commanded. But in this particular situation, Feast of Booths is what we celebrate once a year. So it's a wonderful thing to celebrate. Then in Zechariah chapter 14, verse 20, in that passage, it says in that day, they will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, holy to the Lord. And the cooking pots to the Lord's house will be like the bowls before the altar in the tabernacle. Everything, the cars that we drive, the soccer ball that we use, the cooking pots, the utensils that we use, the pizza boxes, the salad utensils, everything is holy to the Lord. And that reminds me that everything that we do, whether we're singing songs to the Lord or whether we're playing games, we should have a spirit of holiness. And that's a convicting word for me. It can be a convicting word for all of us. Everything is holy. That doesn't mean we can't play games. We can play, but we have the spirit of holiness. We watch our tongue as we speak. We watch our spirits as we play. We watch our conversations as we talk to one another. Everything is holy to the Lord. We watch as we drive. The bells on the horses, whenever we use the horn, it's holy to the Lord. Everything is holy. As we're cut off in traffic, as we are cut off in conversations here, we're talking to one another. Everything is holy to the Lord as we celebrate. So as we're going to have time together to talk and to play, children, aces, everybody who's here, everything is holy to the Lord. Think about that. Holy doesn't mean you have to be sober and speak quietly. You can have fun, you can laugh, you can play, but everything is holy to the Lord. Even the cooking pots, the most ordinary thing is as if it was in the tabernacle place. And the bells on the horses, we're going to treat it, inscribe on it, holy to the Lord. So I pray that that'll be written over our lives, holy to the Lord. One last thing, the feast of the booths, the feast of the tabernacle is the feast that Jesus said on the last day of that feast, the eighth day, the great day of the feast. Jesus stood up with a loud voice and said, if anyone is thirsty, we've memorized that verse, let him come to me and drink it. Whoever believes in me from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. So it was on that last day of this feast, when we've done celebrating, when let's say we're going to spend hours here together playing, what's going to be your cry on the way home? Just okay, I can get used to this. That's at that time that Jesus cries out with a loud voice saying, are you still thirsty for me? You sang about, as the deer pants, I want you more than gold and silver. You are better than my best friend. You're the only thing that matters in my life. Well, did you mean it? Or is this good enough? Is a week long celebration good enough? And so, and the wonderful thing is it's not a convicting word alone. It's a word of promise. Out of your innermost being can flow rivers of living water, where there's a desert, there can be rivers. And so in the desert, most places of our lives, we can say that Lord, it's wonderful to celebrate, wonderful to try to make everything totally the Lord, but I want you more than gold or silver. I want you more than anything as the deer pants for water. So my soul longed after the, that's David wrote that, but, or whoever wrote that, I don't even know maybe somebody else wrote it, but that's our cry. That's what we sang today. And so Jesus cries out with a loud voice. It's not something he whispers. He cries out with a lot of us saying, this is a big deal. So let's remember the feast of boots as we stay outside, as we sit under the tabernacles of our own lives, let's remember this and continue to celebrate making everything we do, holy to the Lord, our phones, our cooking utensils. And remember the cry of Jesus on the last day of celebration like this saying, I want to fill you with the Holy spirit so that rivers can come out of your life. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/Zr9MzuhYdeE.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/sandeep-poonen/a-celebration-of-holiness/ ========================================================================