Talk
INTRODUCTION BRO. BO SANCHEZ:
WHEN I go live on Facebook for Prayer Room (podcast) every 7:00 a.m., you know, I invite people to pray with me and some viewers would ask me, “Bro. Bo, will you be at The Feast this Sunday?”
I would laugh. I would say, “Of course! But I don’t know which Feast I would be because I’m traveling.”
The past two Sundays, I was at The Feasts in Australia, specifically in four cities — Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Perth. Beautiful people with amazing hearts. I just love being with them…
‘That’s The Feast!’
May I share a story? It’s the best story that I picked from Australia.
The Feasts in Australia and different parts of the world– there are Feasts in 30 countries now– are different from each other. But there are many similarities like Worship, praying, reading, and listening to God’s Word.
But if there is one thing that brings us together: it’s really our love for one another.
I was in Sydney, and I was being brought to the airport by a couple.
They said, “Bro. Bo, we love The Feast. We love, love, love The Feast.” I said, “Hey, I love The Feast too.”J
And the wife said why she loves The Feast: “The worship, preaching, the Word of God, and the programs– they’re great. But that’s not why I love The Feast.”
Then, she told me her story… “One day, our doctor tells us that my daughter has cancer. It destroyed my world. The first person I called was Heidi, my Light Group Head at The Feast. It was in the evening.”
And Heidi says, “I’ll go to your house tomorrow at 6 a.m. Don’t prepare food.
I just want to pray with you.”
Six o’clock in the morning, Heidi knocks on the door and they embrace each other. They pray and cry together.
For the next few weeks, Heidi and her children would visit this family with food every day because they would go to the hospital, and didn’t have time to cook.
Before I left, she told me: “Bro. Bo, that’s The Feast.”
My Friends, it’s not the Worship– though I love Worship. Not the music– though I love the Music Ministry. Not the preaching– though I love to preach.
The Feast is about loving people. I really want to bring you in, even more at The Feast. Don’t stop with the Sunday experience. Be involved. Serve.
Join Light Groups.
Are you happy to be part of The Feast? It is a beautiful community– imperfect, filled with imperfect people, but I love The Feast. I hope you do too.
Are you ready to receive the Word of God today? Yes! It’s going to be a powerful Word. Remember that and just open your heart.
Bro. Didoy Lubaton!
Talk
BRO. DIDOY LUBATON:
LET us give reverence to the Word of God:
Thy Word is a Lamp unto my feet and a Light unto my path.
Speak to us, Lord. We’re listening.
Welcome to our fourth talk of the series, RESTED. We’re trying to solve the puzzle, the pandemic of Overworking but Underliving. I want to preach the message: Remember Who You Are.
The Sabbath gives us time and energy to stay still and remember our core identity: “We–you and I– are God’s beloved.”
Through the Sabbath time– the pause– we remember that we are the beloved of God. You and the people around you are beautiful, amazing, loving, and phenomenal. We are family in the Light of Jesus in The Feast– that is one of the gifts of the Sabbath.
In this series, we talked about the weekly pause on the seventh day, and we’ve seen the seven major festivals each year with all the rhythms of rest.
Today, I’m going to give two more. In Talk 4, I’m going to give you the Sabbath Year which is in the 7th year; 7 x7= 49, and the Jubilee Year which is in the 50th year.
What Is a Sabbath Year?
If we recall, the word Shabbat means to stop.
Having a day off once a week is reasonable. But how does it feel to have a Sabbath Year– or one year of rest?
This is very interesting… from Leviticus 25:2-4:
After six years of planting and pruning, that land needs a year of rest to recover.
The farmer has a scientific basis for this, and it’s called “fallowing.”
But the Bible is reminding us not just of the scientific but also of the practical and spiritual aspects of resting the land.
Imagine: Picture yourself having a one-year vacation. You’d be anxious: “How will I eat? Who’s going to pay my bills? Who’s going to send my kids to school? Who’s going to pay for my Lazada orders?”
But it can also get you excited especially if you know that God provides.
God will ensure that you will be given what you need.
The Israelites, coming from the ancient law code, were asking what they would eat during that one-year vacation.
Leviticus says: “Whatever the land yields during the Sabbath year.”
This makes us remember the ancient Israelites’ time when they were saved from slavery in Egypt. They were trying to go to the Promised Land and they didn’t have any to farm, or to eat. But what did God do? He sent manna.
Moment with the Lord
What I’m trying to say is that we forget that everything is manna. We forget that the fruits of our labor, even those we did not labor for– everything is manna.
You can take a rest because God ensures that you will have everything that you need. When He commands us to rest, we will be given what we need.
He says, “I will do something. I will take care of you.”
All we need to do is trust that the Lord will provide– whatever the land yields and gives to you and me.
Put your hands on your heart and just have this moment with the Lord– just really have that rest with Him. He’s really our resting place.
Dear God, speak to us throughout this talk. Let our hearts melt through Your Words. Transform us. Renew us. We rest in You.
We trust in You. We thank You for Your Word. We thank You that we can take a pause and trust You. We trust in whatever you would lead, especially when we’re taking a rest. Amen.
Thy Word is a Lamp unto my feet and a Light unto my path
As a doctor, I would say this joke to my patients whom I’m friends with, “If you don’t take a rest, get ready for a cardiac arrest.”
But there is a level of truth in that. If we don’t take regular Sabbaths, we forget three consequences.
First, we forget our position.
God blesses us more than we deserve.
We are already blessed. Why are we so stressed? We are in a set-up that we are the apple of God’s eye.
How many of you have taken a vacation to Coron, Palawan?
Years ago, I went there with my ex-girlfriend and now my wife and a few of our friends. We took a Sabbath vacation there.
Picture this: We were on our way home from a whole day of island-hopping.
The sunset was behind me. On the other side, I could see the moon and stars rising. To my left and right, I could see lagoons. I was in the middle of all that with my beautiful girlfriend, with my beautiful friends, doing nothing.
I felt God spoke to my heart: “My Son, these are all for you.”
Positioned To Be Blessed
In that melodramatic moment, I tried to hide how touched I was. I began to be so grateful. I seemed to forget how we were so positioned to be so blessed.
Imagine, if the Earth’s position is a little farther from the sun. We’re all going to be in a frozen wasteland.
If we’re near the sun, we’ll burn. If gravity was a little stronger, we’re going to be planted and we cannot move. We cannot enjoy the locomotion.
If gravity was a little loose, we would be bouncing around.
We will not be enjoying life as it is. You are in a position to be so blessed.
Can you imagine if Creation has a toll fee? Can you imagine paying P25.00 to inhale oxygen or to hold the hand of your wife? Can you imagine if there is a fee to come to The Feast?
But no. We trust that you will give to your spiritual family.
As you rest, reflect and truly see how blessed you are and how God made our lives beautiful despite our failures and hardships.
Tomorrow, you will go back to work but that’s part of the process.
God is meeting your needs at the right time. It’s so easy to get worried. I’m a husband.
I’m a father of two beautiful kids. I’m leading a company. And I’m leading a Feast as well.
It’s so easy to get worried.
We read how fascinating God provides during the Sabbath Year from Leviticus 25: 20-22:
By practicing the Sabbath, you remind yourself that God is preparing your blessings in advance which is very reassuring.
Every seventh year, God declares it a Sabbath Year which means we don’t have to worry. In the first six years, especially the sixth year, we will have more than enough to last us not just up to the seventh or the eighth, but to the ninth. You stop in the seventh year, you plant in the eighth year, and you will harvest in the ninth.
I’ve been working in my company for five and a half years already.
Next year will be my sixth. I can choose not to believe it. I can choose to still be worried.
But I am confident that no matter how many years we have been building our business or how long we have been working in a company, God is blessing us in advance. He is arranging opportunities and aligning people and opportunities.
Because He is adamant to bless you.
Core Attitude of the Sabbath
During the COVID-19 Pandemic, our clinic had to close. We didn’t have any income. Six weeks later, we tried to re-open our clinic even if we would be at the frontlines, fearing for our lives. But God was preparing us in advance. It was our biggest year ever. We worked with grace. We followed God’s path.
We didn’t plan it– but we believed in our favorite verse– Jeremiah 29:11:
I worked very hard but I surrendered very hard. I trusted very hard. I believed very hard that His promises are true.
When we close our laptops, we say, “Lord, I am resting. You do it.” When I let go of my phone, I say, “Lord, I stop. You start.”
When I close my eyes, I say, “Lord while I’m sleeping, You are working.” That’s the working of the Sabbath.
If you think the Sabbath Year was sooo good– Ah, not yet. There is the Jubilee Year.
From Leviticus 25:8-10 NLT, Moses says:
The 49th year is the Sabbath Year. The 50th year is the Jubilee Year. Two years of Sabbath. It’s not just rest. It’s about a total reboot of society.
Jubilee Is Eden
Jubilee Year is a beautiful part of Israelite culture.
Imagine this: You are an ancient Israelite.
You had some tragic circumstances in your life– such as someone in your family getting sick, you got buried in debt, you got scammed, your business didn’t work, you filed for bankruptcy, you were forced to sell your land to pay all your debts.
The worst part is when you and your children become slaves. It can be hard for you and the generations after.
Imagine: Decades afterward, will your grandchildren inherit your debts, your slavery? No. Because the Jubilee Year says No. On Jubilee Year, all debts are erased. All slaves are set free. And all lands returned to the original owner.
Jubilee gives people a restart. A chance to rebuild. Jubilee provides limits to the uber-wealthy people. They begin to share and pass their wealth to discontinue the monopoly– and wealth is distributed for people to share.
Meditate on this: The Jubilee is a perfect image of our return to the Garden of Eden– where we share the land, where everyone is equal, we have abundance, there are no slaves.
And everybody belongs to God alone.
Question: Is Jubilee just a myth? Did it really happen?
In the Old Testament, we read that the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, they suffered Babylon captivity. And we have stories about forgiving debts and slaves being set free. But we don’t have a historical implementation of the Jubilee.
This is our belief: The Jubilee is a picture of our final destination, a powerful symbol of hope, an aspirational model of the Kingdom of Jesus.
It is where we are aspiring to be, we are aspiring to experience. What a dream! Hard to believe: World poverty ending? World peace?
It’s hard to think about it now when there are wars all over the world. When you hear news that could decimate your hope. And we feel that we’re not progressing as a country or as a family. We still have debts.
We’re dreaming an impossible dream.
There are nights I get worried when there are regional tensions, when it’s so hard to buy properties now and secure the family. And the bills get so piled up. Ahh.
Jubilee. Question mark: Lord, will it really happen?
But I believe that it is part of the process. It’s part of trusting God.
Here’s the truth: On our own, Jubilee will not happen. We cannot do this on our own. We need to trust God. Only He can. And by His power alone, we walk towards Jubilee. Our North Star…Our final destination.
And yes, it could take our entire lifetime and the lifetime of the next generation. Sometimes, we feel that our journey is slow, we feel stuck, and we are not progressing.
But if God is the One creating Jubilee, we know it will happen… which brings me to my third point today: If we don’t take Sabbaths, we forget our purpose.
God is creating the Jubilee through you.
Six months of the year 2024 have passed. We live life so fast that we forget the journey. We don’t appreciate what we’ve been through. We live so fast that at the end of six months, we feel lost. Sabbath is a time when we can go back to God– the Jubilee– and ask for directions. We ask God where, who, and why. Sabbath gives you the time and space to dream again. Reflect and recalibrate.
I am guilty of this. Even on a Sunday when I’m with my family, I still check my phone for work. My children must grab my face to catch my attention. I’m not afraid of my kids. I’m afraid of my wife’s side-eye stare.
Here is a challenge: Start a Jubilee at your own home. Take your pause.
We may be missing who and what matters most.
If we have a regular Sabbath, we receive the blessings:> On a personal note: We started the Feast ASEANA in
December 2023. We had a six-month contract with the venue. But as we were approaching our sixth month, we got canceled. Imagine my shock.
My hope was decimated. We were forced to take a pause– a rest.
We recalibrated. We looked for ways. We looked for a new location within the reclamation area which is called The Bay City. We visited around 10 venues, but none matched what we wanted. But I’m so happy to proclaim God’s goodness to you. We were on the verge of giving up when our Ministry decided to serve at the Serve Conference. There, someone approached us. This person learned that we were looking for a new venue and knew someone who could help us. Long story short, we now have a new home — in Citadines Bay City Manila
Before I came onstage, I received another wonderful news. Somebody came to me and her family promised to take care of our one-year rental. May the Lord bless her so she can help us for not just a yearJ. We’re starting again.
That’s the beauty of Sabbath.
God is speaking to me and I am extending to you His message: Jesus is our Jubilee.
One Sabbath day, Jesus was in His hometown– at the synagogue in Nazareth. He was about to launch his public ministry. He read the Jubilee from the words of Isaiah 4:16-19:
By reading this passage, we remember that Jesus was announcing to everybody: “Jubilee is here. I am the Jubilee.”
For the next three years, it was like the Jubilee. Jesus went around. He healed the sick, multiplied loaves and fish, raised the dead to life, drove out demons, and set people free. We got a taste of Eden.
But He wasn’t not done yet. It was not enough for Him to live with us. He gave Himself up on the Cross. He died for us so we may have the Eternal Jubilee.
Listen to God’s call today. Remember who you are.
You are God’s beloved. You deserve Jubilee. You deserve a year of rest.
You are God’s beloved and that is more than enough.
REST
Today, I invite you to rest. Let me spell REST for you:
Receive Jesus. Embrace Him. Surrender to Him. Trust in Him. REST.
In the Name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Raise your hand, lift your heart to Heaven, and just have this rest.
Jesus, You are my Jubilee. You are my resting place. You are enough. I rest in You. Jesus, I receive You. I embrace You. I surrender to You. I trust in You. Amen.
