Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:04 Well, my name is Dean Anon and I'm the discipleship pastor here. I'll be down in front. I'd love to, to meet you, uh, if we haven't had a chance yet. Well, today I've titled this sermon, and this can be the big idea. I know some of you're like, what's a big idea? I'm kind of known for the big idea thing. But the sermon title today is Our Gratitude is a Gift God Loves. Our gratitude is a gift God loves. You know, when we feel grateful for something, yes, I'm getting that age. I'll put these on. When we feel grateful for something, um, built inside of us is something that wants to give back. You know, like, like a gift. And I'll admit it, I'm a horrible gift giver. Just ask my family, ask my wife. It's true. Uh, growing up, gift giving, it just didn't really happen much in our family.
Speaker 1 00:00:55 I mean, I was, I was the baby and I was probably clueless about what was going on. My sisters were much better than the brothers at giving gifts, uh, birthday time we didn't. And we just didn't really celebrate birthdays that much or think much of them. Uh, Christmas, we, we, we definitely did presents at Christmas. Our parents gave us presents, but I didn't really return the favor and, and I spent time just kind of on my own things. It was, you know, sports, friends, uh, all those kinds of things in school. I didn't think much about showing gratitude by giving gifts. That's just me. You could say that I am gift giving challenged. I had to think a lot about, uh, this Leviticus too. We'll see here in a little while why that matters. But just this, this lack of gift giving may say something about me personally, maybe about my soul.
Speaker 1 00:01:47 And I think I'm, I'm still growing up in what it means to give to others and, and even give, give gifts. I like to, to serve people. But there's also this idea of giving something, cuz I think it, there's this connection between the physical and the spiritual world. Like, like giving a gift that reflects what's in your soul. Today we are in Leviticus chapter two. It's called the Grain Offering. The Hebrew word for grain offering implies a gift, it implies a tribute or giving. That's what grain offering is. So if you haven't seen last week's sermon, please take a look at that because last week it wasn't just about the burnt offering about, uh, the, the first, uh, blood sacrifice offering and Leviticus, it was also an overview. And so there's a lot there about, frankly, why are we in the book of Leviticus? It matters.
Speaker 1 00:02:36 And so go back, if you haven't watched that yet, we have a slide here for the grain offering and what it demonstrates here at the very beginning and the very top of the sermon, it demonstrates your dedication to God. You'll see this for the Israelites dedication to the God and gratitude for the Lord's provision. It's, it's about gratitude. And in every way what we're gonna see, this is an act of worship. And so it says here in our text today that it's an offering pleasing to the Lord. This is worship, the grain offering. Remember that word? Hang onto that word. I'm coming back to that a lot. It's when believers demonstrate their dedication to the Lord by giving him a portion of what God gave to them. Um, I know that Leviticus was a long time ago, right? Long time ago, but one of the most important things we can do to try to understand the Bible, to try to interpret it rightly, is to go back in time to try to understand what was in their minds at that time, what God was saying to them.
Speaker 1 00:03:29 Because if we don't, we're gonna misinterpret the Bible more times than not. You know, what God intended for the ancient Hebrew people, the lessons he was giving them to transform their lives are the exact same for us. There's, there's no difference. So instead of saying this or asking this question, when we read the Bible, I know this is kind of popular and I'm not against it, but it's not a favorite of mine, of asking what, what does this passage mean to me? I'm more in favor of asking this. What does this passage mean to who it was written to? Or as Fien Stewart says, I have it up here. The true meaning of biblical text for us is what God originally intended it to mean, to who it was spoken to first. That's important. In other words, we don't have the right to do anything we want with it.
Speaker 1 00:04:17 We have to go to their town. We have to go to their time and understand what God is saying and not just go around the ancient people, but dive into their historical and cultural context. So I kind of wish I was thinking this week that I wish we had, uh, uncle Rico's time machine. Is anybody raise your hand if you have any idea what I'm talking about. Uncle Rico's time machine. One. Wow. One, okay, <laugh>, this is from the famous, not so famous mo movie, Napoleon Dynamite. Okay, any more people in Napoleon? Dynamite. You have any idea what I'm talking about? Oh, so you got a lot of Oz, you still have to stay. You're already seat that you can't leave. Uh, we have a picture of Napoleon there with a famous Uncle Rico's time machine. By the way, it didn't work just in case, you know, his brother Kips in the background trying to help him out.
Speaker 1 00:05:02 Uh, that didn't work. The time machine to go back in time. Kind of be nice if we had that right to go back to the engine. He people just to be there, sit on the side and see what they're going through. But we do have the scriptures and so we can go there. And so as we do this and go back and explore in that time, there's a couple questions I wanna put on the screen here for you. And maybe one of these will hit home for you. We can ask this as we're going through Leviticus. Do I live now as if everything I have comes from God or maybe, uh, does my worship cost me anything? And I'm not talking about tithing or giving money to the church. I'm talking about your heart, your life. Uh, soon in the grain offering, we're gonna be looking at the what, why, when, and how in these different pieces and characteristics and ingredients. But what I wanna do is spend a minute and reiterate a little bit of last week, but then also build on top of that to get back to the town and to the time of the Hebrew people.
Speaker 1 00:06:04 We're gonna be doing that from time to time through this series, going back and see what their culture was like. So as we go back, and if we think about the ancient nearest cultures of that time, the Nonis Israelites, what you're gonna see is even before the time of Leviticus, you're gonna see ritual purifications. You're gonna see animal sacrifices. You're gonna see blood sacrifices. Even last week you heard human sacrifices. All of these things were happening and they were to their so-called gods, which are nothing more than than demons. Uh, there's a lot of differences of course between those and what we see in the book of Leviticus. So I wanna show a quick slide of it. Yahweh versus the false gods. What are these differences in the practices and the rituals and the sacrifices? First in Leviticus, what we have is divine revelation. These Levitical offerings were not based on what demons thought up or, or what some people thought up, but directly from God.
Speaker 1 00:07:01 We see these offerings. Second is strict monotheism. So the Hebrew people and us today as Christians, we have one true God. We don't have a plethora or a bunch that we can go to. Also just the understanding of sin. Its impact in life and atonement or how that can be paid for God is the one who lays this out. How actually to take care of those problems. Not man's way, not women's way, boys or girls. But God's way and God's way only remember, it's always God's way. Of course, high ethical, uh, morality of course is should be obvious for most of us, but Yahweh's, holy and righteous character. And what's interesting is how, um, in the ancient world, and even today with pagan demonn religions, you see that, you see this capriciousness of God, the their gods. They're unpredictable and impulsive, but our God, our God never changes.
Speaker 1 00:07:58 Now he never changes in the way that we think of changes, but his character never changes. He's always good, always loving, always pursuing you and will never ever leave you. And of course, the prohibition of human sacrifice, which still happens today, our God said no to that. Our God values human life. So God called these people, these ancient Hebrew people out of that culture to himself. God is holy. He wants us people to be holy before all the nations. His desire is to be with his people. And nothing can be better than to be with God. And chapter two is a lot about that. And this is how awesome Leviticus is. This is one of the reasons I absolutely love Leviticus. I'm gonna put, uh, chapter 26 verses 11 through 13, and we see what all these sacrifices in Leviticus are moving towards and why they even exist.
Speaker 1 00:08:57 It's so we can worship God and be with God and be close to God, but it takes sacrifices. Look, verse 11, this is what God is saying. I will make my dwelling among you and my soul shall not ab hore you and I will walk among you and I will be your God. And you shall be my people. I am the Lord your God who brought you outta the land. He's reminding them of Egypt. He brought them outta slavery so he can be with them, that you should not be their slaves. And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect. You know, this dwelling, this continued presence last week. We saw, we heard a little about the manifestation of God right there at the tent, right there in the tabernacle. They could see him that their God didn't leave. He's right there with them because of the continued covenant blessing.
Speaker 1 00:09:45 God will be with his people. He's a covenant in God. Couple of words come to mind, right at the forefront. I mentioned worship before for Leviticus, but also relationship. God is the God of worship and relationship. And that's what Leviticus screams at us. But this relationship, this is important, is always based on God's ordained sacrifices. God's ordained sacrifices because he's holy. None of us, not me, not some holy person, not you. We don't have a right to approach God in any way we want. We always are able to approach God in one way. And that is through ordained God, ordained sacrifices. It takes that for us. Not man's traditions, not man ways, but God's ways. You know, uh, some years ago, my daughter was in traffic court. I won't tell you her name actually, we only have one daughter. Okay? So it's grace.
Speaker 1 00:10:47 Sorry, grace. Uh, my wife was with her and this woman was in the courtroom and she was yelling and screaming at the judge. Oh my goodness. And I, she told me again yesterday that she just wouldn't give up. She was entitled or belligerent for some reason. And this, initially the judge was patient and kept giving her warnings, but these warnings kept going on and she, this woman kept going on and just wouldn't be quiet. Eventually the judge gave her jail time. Well, of course, why? Cuz this is the judge's courtroom, right? <laugh>, who's in charge? It's the judge. If you ever been in court, you know what I'm talking about, okay? I haven't been in court. Well, maybe I have, but if you've ever been in court, it is the judge's courtroom. It's silly to approach a judge any way you want. This is their domain.
Speaker 1 00:11:33 But how much more silly it is for us to approach God any way we want. No, we, we approach God on his terms. That's how we worship God too on his terms. And Leviticus reminds me of that. Our holy good and loving God has made a way for us to come to him. So thank God, even in the New Testament times, we see through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that we can come to God. Now I'm back to Leviticus. We see, um, the sacrifices pointing to Jesus Christ. Frankly, that's what these do over and over again. So in the moment we're gonna read the 16 verses. I'm actually gonna read all of them from end to end. But I want you to see on this slide, these five different, um, sacrifices. And I'm gonna read the 16 verses and be limited commentary by me as we go through it.
Speaker 1 00:12:23 Um, the sense of this, uh, Hebrew word for grain offering implies an act of worship. And act of sacrifice is what all these things are doing. And I get the one today that is the non-blood sacrifice, the non-animal sacrifice. So I, I won't shy away from that stuff, but I'm saying I'm, I'm the one who gets that. So Leviticus chapter two though, there's a quick outline, and you don't have to write all this down, but I want you to know that the first three verses is a way for the Israelites to give this grain offering to God in an unbaked form, just the flower itself. And in the middle, verse four through 10, God gives the options for people to come to him with a grain offering that is cooked. Different ways you're gonna see is really cool. And then the last part is prohibitions and other instructions in these 16 verses.
Speaker 1 00:13:11 So I'm gonna read and we're in Leviticus chapter two. You can turn on your Bibles, you can turn there if you'd like. The first 16 verses, or actually that's a whole chapter here we go. When anyone brings a grain offering as an offering to the Lord, his offering shall be of fine flour. He shall pour oil on it and put frankincense on it and bring it to Aaron's sons, the priests. And he shall take from it a handful of the fine flour and oil and all of its frankincense. And the priest shall burn it or burn this as its memorial portion on the altar, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. But the rest of the grain offering shall be for Aaron and his sons. It is the most holy part of the Lord's food offering. So the priest get a piece to eat, something to eat also.
Speaker 1 00:13:56 Verse four, here's the baked forms that you can give to the Lord if you so choose. When you bring a grain offering, baked in the oven has an offering, it shall be unlevered loaves of fine flour mixed with oil for unleavened wafers, smeared with oil. Verse five. And if your offering is a grain offering baked on a griddle, that's another choice. It shall be a fine flour unleavened mixed with oil. You shall break it in pieces and pour oil on it. It is a grain offering, verse seven. And if your offering is a grain offering cooked in a pan, it shall be made a fine flour with oil just like the others. And you shall bring the grain offering that is made of these things to the Lord. And when it is presented to the priest, he shall bring it to the altar and the priest shall take from the grain offering its memorial portion.
Speaker 1 00:14:42 So the, the priest is gonna break off some just a little and burn this on the altar, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. But the rest of the grain offering shall be for Aaron and his sons. It is the most holy part of the Lord's food offering. Verse 11. So here's some of these, uh, prohibitions restrictions and some other instructions. No grain offering that you bring to the Lord shall be made with Levin. That's, or yeast for you shall burn no lemon nor any honey as a food offering to the Lord as an offering of first fruits. Just let me go on a tangent here. First fruits is a Jewish festival. It's at a time early in the spring just before the harvest would come in, when the harvest was about ready before they actually harvested the grain, they would take some of that as a first portion and give that to the Lord as an offering, showing that God is the one who provides all that's a first fruits offering.
Speaker 1 00:15:39 So, and first of all, as an offering of first fruits and all of that is in Leviticus 23 as an offering of first fruits. You may bring them to the Lord, but they shall not be offered on the altar for, for a pleasing aroma, you shall season all your grain offering with salt. And you shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering. And in case you missed it, <laugh> with all your offerings, you shall offer salt. Verse 14, if you offered a grain offering of first fruits to the Lord, you shall offer for the grain offering of your first fruits, fresh ears, roasted with fire. That means early green grain, roasted with fire crushed. There's a roasted option, crush new grain. And you shall put oil on it and lay Franken sense on it. Just like before.
Speaker 1 00:16:23 It is a grain offering. Verse 16. And the priest shall burn it as its memorial portion, some of the crushed grain and some of the oil with all its frankincense. It is a food offering to the Lord. Okay, woo <laugh>, that's a lot. But don't worry, they wrote this down, they had it all, no problem. Lots of instructions, lots of ingredients, lot of different things happening here. The good news is in Leviticus chapter six, I won't go there today. Verse 14. There's more on this in Leviticus chapter 23. There's more on this in numbers, there was more on this. And Deuteronomy, there's more on this. I'm not gonna take us there today, but that's where I'm gonna be gathering some of this information for us today to process together. Um, and then we're gonna see, you know, what is God up to in his infinite genius wisdom with the grain offering.
Speaker 1 00:17:17 So let's look at some of the characteristics of the grain offering. Remember earlier this title or big idea, our gratitude is a gift God loves. I look at the grain offering, at least for me, I think it is, it's a very personal offering. You'll see that personal, but it's awful. Also an emotional offering. All right, why, why the grain offering? Let's keep moving. Don't lose track of the word Worship mentioned that before a worshiper or a believer is coming to God of their own free will, the grain offering is voluntary. Okay? You can do it or you cannot do it. Verse one says, when anyone brings a grain offering as an offering to the Lord, so people could give what they wanted, saying thank you to God. That's what this is about. It's a, it's an offering of gratitude to the Lord. They were doing it freely, not under compulsion.
Speaker 1 00:18:10 As a matter of fact, in these 16 verses, you may have picked up a little bit on this, 10 different times it says this or something very similar. This is an offering to the Lord. It also says the burning of it was a pleasing aroma to the Lord. In verse two, in verse nine, have you ever wondered if what you are doing for the Lord? Because you're, if you're following Jesus, you're doing something for the Lord. But is it pleasing to the Lord? Thought about that week, this week we had be a little bit careful. That's why it's important for us to understand, to learn scripture, to walk in obedience and to check our own hearts. Sometimes we're doing things for the Lord, not always sure. We say it's for the Lord. Not always sure it's pleasing the Lord. Anyways, free will voluntary that pleases the Lord.
Speaker 1 00:18:57 Second thing is that this, uh, what this grain offering did and how it pleased the Lord is that it was a real personal sacrifice. They probably had to save up for this because if you think about it, this is grain at this time. They're in the desert. I'm not a farmer. But it's not easy to get grain in the desert. Not until they got to the land of Canaan where they could plant and grow was, would have probably been easier. But at this point, depending on your socioeconomic status, you have money or not. You may have had a save. Maybe you had a save in order to get this grain to buy it. It took savings, sacrifice, time, dedication, and of course your own work to grind the flower. Up On the next slide, here we have the grain offering worship that pleases the Lord.
Speaker 1 00:19:49 And the first few things is, it's voluntary, it's done freely, but it also, there's a sacrifice involved here. I would say that's personal. Second thing, moving forward then is just to continue along this theme of this grain offering, how it's so personal. Imagine for a moment that you are the worshiper. I'm gonna pull a little bit of verse one and verse four through seven up again in a minute. But imagine that you're handing over, if you recall from the earlier verses, some flower as your grain offering to the priest. Or maybe you prepared some of this grain, right and you baked it. Can you imagine that you're doing this in your own, uh, oven or pan or whatever at home oven, baked cakes or wafers, mixed and spread with oil. Like in verse four, verse five and six was this crumbled griddle, baked cakes mixed with spread and, uh, mixed and spread with oil.
Speaker 1 00:20:42 Or in verse seven it talks about like these pan fried cakes that you're making. You're making this for the Lord. Verse uh, 14, even even a roasted version it talked about. So God is permitting all these various kinds of whatever you can do, whatever works for you to voluntarily come to him with this grain offering. Verse one again says this, offering the offering shall be a fine flower. He shall pour oil on it and put frankincense on it and bring it to Aaron's sons, the priest. How cool. But also in verse four and five and seven, it says, when you bring a grain offering baked in the oven or baked on a griddle or cooked in a pan, you get to do it how you like it, how it works for you, or maybe even roasted. As I mentioned before, you're to enjoy this. Can you imagine being thankful for the Lord for this?
Speaker 1 00:21:33 Having sacrificed and, and you have some grain together. Now, can you imagine just being the cook there in your home? Maybe you're with the kids, you're saying, we're gonna give this to the Lord, we're gonna give this to the Lord. How exciting that would be. And at the same time, this is pleasing to the Lord because you are supporting the priest and the priestly duties also because they get a portion of this also. This is what's pleasing to the Lord. And there's options. You know, I talked about the options and these options of these different, not everybody had a nice oven. God sees your social and economic circumstances even in that day. And so not everybody has a nice oven. So some can only do a pan or maybe they can't even cook and they can just give it. But God cares about you. That's what matters.
Speaker 1 00:22:14 God cares and sees your circumstances. So to add more to that, that list we had before about the grain offering worship that pleases the Lord. Yes, it's done freely and sacrificially of course, but it's prepared by you. That's personal, that's wonderful. And you know that God cares about you too. But there's more, there's more. Verse two mentions that the priests take a handful of the fine flower, or in verses nine and 16 it talks about this memorial portion, which is a little break off part of the, the bread or whatever was baked here. And that stuff was burned on the altar. In verse two and nine. It says this, A pleasing aroma to the Lord, both verse two and verse nine that's mentioned this, this burning, you know, so this is the grain offering we're talking about, right? And the, the frankincense that's being burned.
Speaker 1 00:23:05 By the way, when you burn frankincense, if you didn't know this, if you burn it, then it smells really, really good. It's a pleasing aroma. But here's the thing about that, if you go back to chapter one, the burnt offering, the animal sacrifice that was also burned. And that also says in chapter one that that aroma was pleasing to the Lord. <laugh>. Would you have liked that smell of the animal? No, I wouldn't. So something else must be up here. This isn't about how we like it, what it smells like to us. Because both of these things, whether it was a grain offering, whether it was a burnt offering, was a pleasing aroma. It smelled good, it says to the Lord or was an aroma pleasing to the Lord. So again, the Lord is up to something here. I think what he's doing clearly is looking at the heart of the worshiper heart of gratitude coming to the Lord, dedicated, grateful heart willingly.
Speaker 1 00:23:58 It was also important about this memorial portion is that it prompted people to remember that they are covenant people under God and to live accordingly. That's a part of this memorial portion burning that, and this is acceptable to God. So I want to add more to our list before where it says the grain offering worship that pleases the Lord. All of these things for, uh, third one up there, God accepts a dedicated and grateful heart. The apostle Paul picks up on this in Philippians chapter four. Now the apostle Paul received a gift from someone to continue his ministry and he equated it to this, this fragrant offering that's acceptable. Philippians four 18 says, this is Paul receiving a gift from someone to help his many. He says, I have received full payment and more I am well supplied, having received from a nephritis the gifts you sent me a fragrant offering. There it is. He's equating it like to this like what we're talking about today, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.
Speaker 1 00:25:04 So far we've seen the grain offering brought pleasure to the Lord. This was a voluntary offering, a commitment to the Lord, a willingness to follow the covenant. But all of this, and what's most important is driven by grateful heart. That's what the grain offering is about. Grateful heart. Well, I like to cook. I was looking to see if my <laugh>, yeah, I like to cook. Um, the fact is I get lucky sometimes. And other times people pay the price for my untamed undomesticated uneducated, uh, kitchen skills. Um, I like to add salt even when it doesn't eat it. <laugh>, even when there's too much. I've overcooked salmon so many times, it's not funny. One day my son was eating salmon, uh, with a, that I cooked and it was actually good this time. And he looked at me and he said, you cooked this. And I said, yeah, I cooked this.
Speaker 1 00:26:03 He said, it's good <laugh>. I think he was lamenting in that moment, the, the years of having eaten overcooked salmon. You know, there's the, the cooking, uh, ingredients you use like I overuse sometime they matter. They matter to God here in this great offering, they actually matter. They're symbols in every way and symbols matter to God. I hope as Christians we see that and step into that and embrace that it matters to God what's in this grain offering. His ingredients. I wanna talk about that. You've picked up probably on the fact that there were some of these different ingredients here as we we read in those 16 verses in general, uh, scripture seems to suggest and some are very clear actually reasons behind these ingredients. I'm gonna put some up there on the uh, screen there in a moment. Some of the required ingredients and there were some one would be the fine flour.
Speaker 1 00:27:01 Now, by the way, these are the best ingredients cuz God gets first and God gets best. God gets first and God gets best. This is the principle throughout Leviticus. All right, so God gets the best. Here we go. Fine flour. Usually it was wheat. Wheat was more expensive than barley could have been viraly, different people debate that. But but wheat, wheat was the best, most expensive. The fine flower here represents bread represents more importantly life, the staff of life. It's sometimes called life. That's what this fine flower's representing. Bread which supports life. The worshiper is saying this, my very life when they bring the grain offering my very life is from you. God, that's what they're saying. Fine flower. Olive oil is the next one. Olive oil. This was, um, olive oil that was then mixed with the fine flower. This represents God's spirit. The Holy Spirit is enabling spirit mixed with the very life that God gives us.
Speaker 1 00:28:01 Third frankincense, and some of you know what that is, uh, frankincense, uh, was uh, beautiful, expensive and desirable, uh, incense. And it was put on the top of the flower and on top of the oil. And when burned, it was very, uh, very good smell. Nothing but the best for God. Fourth salt. That was in verse 13. I'm gonna put that back up. Back up on the screen. That was a little bit later. And God's really clear about salt and why. Now in the ancient nearest cultures, salt had different things. It was pure to pure. It was a lot of things, uh, per uh, I can't think of the word. <laugh>. Preservative, a lot of things even represented friendship in some cultures. But here in this passage today and for Leviticus, it's very clear why God has it in the grain offering. Verse 13, you shall season all your grain offerings with salt.
Speaker 1 00:28:54 You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering. And in case you didn't hear him, say it again with all your offerings, you shall offer salt. It's very clear that God wants salt. Why does he want salt? They don't have to guess because they are god's forever. Covenant people. It says covenant, right in that verse. He wants to remind them about the covenant relationship he has with Israel. And that covenant relationship with Israel undergirds the entire Levitical sacrificial system. It's built on top of the covenant, all of it. So let me add something else then to that, that list we had before, the grain offering worship that pleases the Lord. It's according to God's design. This offering is according to God, his way, his ingredients, because they do matter to God. It's always God's way. Said that earlier.
Speaker 1 00:29:55 I'm gonna say it again. The symbols matter. It's about giving life the spirit. It's costly and it's on the basis of the covenant that he has with his people are covenanting God. So those are some absolute requirements. God wants people to know that he loves them and that they can come to him in this way. But there's restrictions too. I'm gonna put verse 11 up there because in verse 11 we have some restrictions for the grain offering, no grain offering. It says that you bring to the Lord shall be made with Levin or that's yeast for you shall burn. No Levin nor any honey as a food offering to the Lord. So like I said, Levin is his yeast and that that kind of changes, right? It changes the actual, uh, bread or the process of cooking. And honey could too, by the way, cause fermentation.
Speaker 1 00:30:46 So, so that's possibly why Honey's mentioned here. But it represented something in that time in the Bible times a yeast. And you've seen this possibly in the New Testament too, when Jesus talks about this, it represents corruption, it represents sin. Even Jesus. In Matthew chapter 20, uh, 16, Matthew 16 talks about this and it this way, as he's talking to his disciples, he said this, watch and beware. Now Jesus is talking to his disciples. Watch and beware of the Levin in the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Why? Because the Pharisees and the Sadducees were corrupting the people with their own sinful tendencies. They were leading people away. No, no sin, no corruption in these sacrifices that pleases the Lord. So let me add again to our little uh, list there. Number five, pure uncorrupted, sinless offering. This is the picture, these five things. When we come to the Lord, when we come with a gift of any kind, worship the Lord.
Speaker 1 00:31:57 This picture is a beautiful thing to the Lord. He loves it. It's so pleasing. It's absolutely genius. But here's even more of the genius of God and his love because here's what he did most of the time, not all. He paired the burnt offering from chapter one and the grain offering together because the grain offering typically followed the official daily burnt offering of the animal. Remember the burnt offering from chapter one? Talk about it early. Talk about it again. The animal sacrifice. The blood sacrifice which atoned for or, or paid for or covered their sins. And then with the sins covered from that burnt offering, you come to the Lord, there's this grain offering saying thank you for whatever is on your heart, but certainly for having your sins atone for what? A beautiful pairing in God's genius way of doing things. So, so
Speaker 1 00:33:01 There's a lot I guess in this sermon and in this chapter a lot there. But when we're open to God, we can let him select for us or put in us what it is he wants us to hear what it, he wants us to think about, how he wants us to respond. And so I pray and I have this week that there's something here that God is speaking your heart, something you need gratitude wise, a way to approach God that is pleasing to him, whatever that is. God is in the business of transformation. He's not out to obliterate you. He's in the business of transformation, not oblation. You want more alliteration. I won't do it <laugh>, but he is. You know, I wanna put a slide up about Exodus, Leviticus. And here's why. Because if you think back and if you, if you're kind of a Bible student or if you're moving in that direction, and I hope you are the Book of Exodus, God saved his people out of slavery.
Speaker 1 00:34:00 He redeemed them, he purchased them. That's what he was doing. And he delivered them with a beautiful picture of what God does. But then we get to the book of Leviticus and there's a bit of a change here where he is sanctifying his people. He's giving them a new identity and they're learning now how to be close to a holy God because they're sinners and they know it. This sounds so great to me because God redeems and saves people and then he changes them. By the way, don't ever get that backwards because you'll never get anywhere in life and you'll never know Jesus' savior if you get that backwards. We come to God first. He redeems us, he saves us, he delivers us. And then he changes us. If if, if we try to change ourselves first and get right before God and come, that will never work. God redeems and he saves and then he changes us. We wanna get that in order of friends.
Speaker 1 00:34:56 So I have a few. So what's here? The first is this, let gift offerings to God be from the heart as a thank you to God. And here's a kicker, not as a transaction. So giving a gift to God, whatever it is, and expecting something back, kind of a quid pro quo kind of I do for you. Then you do something for me that feels so much like the prosperity gospel, which is no gospel at all. That's not our God. He loves you unconditionally. And so we're to unconditionally give unconditionally love. Also like Christ who has given everything for us. So then we give to God. Remember our gratitude is a gift that God loves. That's a first, second, give thanks. Watch this in all circumstances, not for all circumstances. Huge difference. Let me read First Thessalonians five, 15th through 18. See that no one repays anyone for evil or evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.
Speaker 1 00:36:08 Rejoice. Always pray without ceasing. Verse 18, give thanks. In all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you in circumstances, whatever they are, even the ugliness, we can thank God for who he is, what he has done, his character. But for the ugly thing that is happening right now in your life, you don't have to thank God for that thing cuz that thing could be ugly and you might hate that thing, but our God doesn't leave us, our God will never let you go. And he's God our God never changes and he loves you. There's so many things we can thank God in that circumstance. You know, our spiritual wellness, our emotions, how we deal with life usually hinges on this. At least that's been my experience. That's what I've seen. If we can thank God in circumstances, not necessarily for them, you're a long way down the road of being well.
Speaker 1 00:37:14 A third thing today is to see not just with your eyes and with your mind and with your heart. All the above. See that Christ is in the burnt and the grain offering. This is a picture for us. The sacrifice of Christ for our sins. The fulfilling of all these elements within the, these, these, uh, ingredients within the grain offering. This is Christ His atoning sacrifice covers all our sins and Christ is in. And we can see He freely gave himself voluntarily on the cross. It was acceptable to God. He was a pure and uncorrupted and sinless sacrifice. And have you trusted in this savior Jesus, have you trusted in him the one who sacrificed one sin for all?
Speaker 1 00:38:08 We're gonna have a time of communion here in a moment. And so if you've never taken time yet before Jesus to say sorry for what you have done, just to admit that you are a sinner before God and you know it because you're feeling it, don't sit in that anymore. Don't try to get better. It just doesn't work. <laugh> scriptures say it doesn't work. I know from experience it doesn't work. You can ask the person next to you, it doesn't work. Come to Jesus today. Ask him to forgive your sins. And the Bible says you will be saved. Admit you're a sinner, believe in his resurrection. Three days later the Bible says you will be saved if, if you do that now, even right now, there's no better time than now. Do that and take communion with us today cuz communion is for all the family of God who have trusted in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 00:38:53 And so if you're not someone who normally calls village church home, but you believe in Jesus Christ as savior and Lord, then take communion with us today. If you're still not sure about that, then instead of taking communion, come down here afterwards. Let's talk more about any questions that you might have. And so as we often do, we take time and reflect in prayer, we'll do that now silently right where you are and, and ask God to reveal maybe more of himself or maybe sin in your life or, or perhaps, uh, with the heart of gratitude. Come to him humbly now. And if you don't have the elements, uh, we, you can get those during a song. We'll have a little bit. Um, this, uh, elements are right there at those double doors of the column to my left and right. You can pick those up. Let's go before the Lord together.
