Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:04 Happy Father's Day. You can say it back. I'm a dad. If you don't know me, I have three kids. And so happy Father's Day to you. And, uh, before we jump into Leviticus, whenever our culture takes a moment and celebrates something that God celebrates, we want to highlight that and just join in. Um, dads, I don't think I could repeat this enough. You've heard me say this a hundred times. Aside from God, there is no more influential person in the life of your family. What an honor and privilege that we have to be Dads who raise our kids in the Lord. It's so wonderful. Now, dads, I think the best decision you could ever make to have the greatest amount of influence on your children and the generations after you is to personally trust in Jesus Christ. Now, I know on Father's Day there are all different kinds of people and different stories and different things going on, but but truly to have peace with God when you trust in Christ, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, because I don't care what you're doing, momming, daddying, or singling, life is hard.
Speaker 1 00:01:11 And we need supernatural wisdom from God to really steward the responsibilities that he's given us. Well, and you need the Holy Spirit. You need help. More importantly, if you've never trusted in Christ, you need to be reconciled to your Heavenly Father. Your soul was designed to be in relationship with your Heavenly Father. Now, some of us, we are here, and you have the joy to have your dad with you this morning. Some of you even have your grandpa and your dad this morning. And my encouragement to you is use your words, use your time with intentionality to honor and to celebrate what God has done in their life and how he has used them to bless you. Now, some of you are here and your relationship with your dad is broken. And and I understand this because I'm a human and I hope we all do.
Speaker 1 00:01:59 Dads, every single dad is a sinner who falls short of the glory of God. And, and we need the grace of God. And so maybe here, you're here today and you and your dad are not okay. And my prayer for you is that God would begin to build a, a tenderness in your heart, not to overlook sin, but there'd be a genuine tenderness. And I I wanna read to you passage of scripture on Father's Day. It's in the book of Malachi. It's all the way at the end of the Old Testament. It's about 400 years before Jesus is gonna come. And this verse speaks to the kind of ministry that Jesus is going to do in the hearts of Fathers who trust in him and in the hearts of children who trust in Him. Here's what He says, says that, that he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers.
Speaker 1 00:02:50 Um, some, some are here and your father has passed away and some died intention and some he was your hero. Um, I I I pray that whatever's happening in your life this morning, that you would be able to have a tenderness. Bitterness destroys us all, doesn't it? God doesn't want that for any of his people. But, but, but many of you, the vast majority of us in this room, we have had great dads who loved us profoundly, profoundly well. And so my prayer for you is for healing, but also for intentionality, uh, that we would encourage and call out the very things, the good things that God has put into our dads in the way that they have blessed us. So what I wanna do is, uh, I wanna take a moment and I wanna pray for our dads. I want to do something that we don't do on Mother's Day.
Speaker 1 00:03:34 I want to ask you, if you're sitting in proximity to somebody that you know that is a dad, would you just put your hand on their shoulder on Mother's Day? We don't want much of strange men <laugh> touching women, so don't do that. But today, on Father's Day, if you know them and you know they're a dad, would you just, would you lay your hand on them? And I'm gonna pray for the Dads a Village, church, father, we love you. You are the perfect dad. You never fail, flawless. Every intention is good. Every interaction that you have toward us is just the right one. And, and I speak on behalf of every dad in this room. We want to be more like you. We want to bless our children and our grandchildren for generations. And so, Lord, first and foremost is Dad's thank you for the blood of Christ that covers us.
Speaker 1 00:04:22 Thank you for the Holy Spirit that redeems us and transforms us. And, and Lord, I I pray that today would be a day where, um, you would allow us to even experience and feel honor, because it is a weight, a good glorious way, but it is a weight to lead a family and to lead children. And so, God, may you bless the Dads, the fathers of Village Church. May you continually help us become more and more like Christ. May you encourage us and equip us to love well, and where we fail, may we highlight the shed blood of Jesus Christ in our behalf. God, I pray for the hearts of, of children, all of us, our kids. But God, I pray that there would be, um, you'd bring to mind just the, the ways that Dads have blessed us. For those who need healing, you'd provide it.
Speaker 1 00:05:09 And for all of us dads to kids, kids to dads brothers to sisters, may there be an unbelievable tenderness towards one another that is a reflection of the tenderness that you have to every one of us. We love you and we pray all of this in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right, open your bibles up to Leviticus chapter three. And if you are new with us, we're in a series on Leviticus. And if you're new, you might be like, oh, I wonder how this is gonna go. There's gonna be a lot of blood and it's gonna be great <laugh>. So if you, as you're turning there, have you ever had a, a true friend, a significant other, maybe it's a spouse, fiance. And, and over a period of time you guys grew relationally distant. And if you're being honest and you kind of step back and you look at the relationship, probably the majority of it was your your fault.
Speaker 1 00:06:03 So how, how do you make that relationship right again? And, and of course, everybody's a little bit different now, have you ever had that happen with you and God? And if you're being honest, every single person who's walked with God for any amount of time has seasons where we're just distracted. Where, where he doesn't have our whole heart for that season where we're just onto different things and we're, we're struggling with different sins in our life, and we're kind of just put him aside temporarily. Some of us do it and we don't even know it, and then we realize it. Well, well, in the Old Testament, I, if you found yourself distant from God, w what could you do to move back toward him in a way that you would be welcomed? And so the, the Old Testament, the first offering, Leviticus one we talked about this two weeks ago, was called the Burnt Offering.
Speaker 1 00:06:44 And, and if you were looking to rededicate or redevote your life to God, uh, if there was sin in your life, a struggle or distance, you would offer a burnt offering, and it would be a pleasing aroma to God. All right? Have you ever had somebody just profoundly bless you, l like in a really, really big way to the point where you were kinda racking your brain? I have to figure out a way to express my sincere gratitude to this person. Maybe you, you're like, I wanna write them a letter. I wanna get them a gift. Maybe you want to take them out to dinner and just say, I wanna look you in the face and say, you blessed me. Thank you for that. Well, what do you do when it's with God? What what do you do in those moments where you step back and you say, I don't deserve a single thing that I have?
Speaker 1 00:07:30 You, you know those moments in life where you realize everything is of grace, and every breath you take is under the permissive and gracious hand of God, and you're like, God, I I am filled with so much gratitude right now. Well, under Old Testament law, Leviticus chapter two taught us about the grain offering. And this was actually a way that when you were just overwhelmed with gratitude to God, you could come to him and say, I love you, thank you. And you could express that to, to God. And, and what you're beginning to see is that each of the five Old Testament offerings, um, what they do is they reflect one of God's core values. So for the Burnt offering taught us that God values expressing devotion to him above, above all else, that's really important to God. God wants to know that you are wholly devoted to him.
Speaker 1 00:08:18 And he doesn't want to just hear it once. He wants to hear it multiple times. Just like maybe your loved ones don't want to hear you just say, I love you once. But it's really good to have that reaffirmed over and over and over again. The the grain offering taught us that God values expressing gratitude to him. It is of the utmost importance that his people are a grateful people because literally everything we have is from him. And so this morning we get to jump into to the peace offering. And the, the peace offering really expresses the value that God wants peace, celebrated peace with him, and peace with others. And, and this is hands down, I think my favorite offering is you kinda get toward the, the middle end. You're gonna see why I love this one so much. But if you're newer to maybe Old Testament law, uh, I think there's gonna be a couple surprises here that's gonna endear you to this offering despite the blood.
Speaker 1 00:09:11 Okay? So last month we finished a series on healthy souls, and here's what we identified. The quality of our lives is largely determined by the quality of our core relationships. Amen. The quality of our lives is largely determined by the quality of our core relationships. And there are no relationships more core than the relationship with your God, your family, your friends, and your church. And, and when all of these relationships are in order, the, the Bible has a word to describe our experience with this. And the word is shalom translated into English, it's peace. And so we're gonna be talking about the peace offering. You can also call this the Shalom offering. And here, here's what shalom means. It means to be complete, uh, lacking nothing and at rest. And when it's used for people, it describes a state of relational wholeness and connection. And so the more you experience shalom, the greater the emotional rest with God, with ourselves, the world and one another.
Speaker 1 00:10:22 And, and these two words they get me every time, know tension. When you love, if every room you walked in was tension, free work, home, church, small group, and, and you see somebody and there's this, you, you feel it in your gut. You're like, oh, like something's not right. And maybe you know what it is, and maybe you don't know what it is, but it's terrible. And, and this makes me just long for the new Earth where tension is removed from everything. Everything's above board, nothing is hidden, sin is eradicated. I cannot wait for the day where perfect shalom comes into this world. And, and, and this is one of my prayers for my family and for each one of us, that, that you would experience sincere shalom with God, and, and, and it would then penetrate your family and your friends. And this church, my, my prayer for each one of us is that this experience of emotional rest, attention free relationships would grow more and more as time goes on.
Speaker 1 00:11:32 Now, Leviticus three, we're gonna see that this pol this, uh, uh, peace offering, a shalom offering. It is a genius offering. And the way that it's structured, and it is mandated by God to create shalom and to reinforce shalom amongst the people of God, you're gonna see that peace is a really high value for God. So both the, there, there's a process and a purpose for offering a peace offering. We're gonna start with the process. And then one of the questions that should linger in your brain is this, why on earth would I go through the trouble and the expense of offering a peace offering? What are the things that might motivate me to do this? Before we get to that, let's actually just look at the process. How did a peace offering work? So Leviticus chapter one, uh, chapter three, verse one. It says this, if his offering is a sacrifice of peace offering, if he offers an animal from the herd, male or female.
Speaker 1 00:12:25 And if you were with us two weeks ago, you remember that the burnt offering, the offering to rededicate my life back to God that had to be a male. So we have a bit more diversity with, with this offering, the male or the female, he shall offer it without blemish before the Lord. So the peace offering minimally requires an animal and, and, and, and just like the burnt offering. But you're gonna see this in every single offering that God commands. And here's the principle. In all offerings, we bring to God our first, our best and our most valuable. This is a principle by the way, that predates law. You go all the way back to the very first offerings we see in scripture, which is Cain and able. And the requirement was your first, your best and your most valuable. Now, I want you to, I want you to look at which part of the animal God considers most valuable in verse three and, and, and kind as we go through this section. Uh, I just wanna ask if there's a little bit of disagreement in the room, just, just maybe be nice. Okay, here we go. Ready?
Speaker 1 00:13:31 From the sacrifice of the peace offering as a food offering to the Lord, he shall offer what? The fat, you can say those words here, that's fine. Covering the end trails and all the fat that is on the end trails in the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins and the long lobe of the liver that he shall remove with the kidneys. I mean, how many times is the fat mentioned in this short little period? Three times? Look at verse 16. And the priest shall burn them on the altar as a food offering with a pleasing aroma. This is one of my favorites. All fat is the Lord's. All right? Uh, dads, when you, by the end of, uh, the end of the morning, you, if you have kids here, uh, you'll get this key chain and it says, uh, equipped for every good work. And the women's ministry was pretty tempted to actually put a different verse on here and just have it say, all fat is the Lord's. And it would not have made any sense unless you were actually here this morning. And, uh, some of you're like, I must be the Lord's <laugh>. I was, this is inappropriate. But I was in the bathroom. And, uh, a good friend between the services says, I forget exactly. He's like, he's like, I think I would make a good offering to the Lord. <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:14:47 So good. All right, so why this, why this obsession with fat? Because it's delicious. Fat was considered the best part of the animal. Okay, so what makes bacon so good? The fat, right? What is, okay, this is not objective. This is completely subjective. What is hands down my favorite cut of meat in the world? A rib eye. And, and it's so interesting, like I'll go like, I'll eat with somebody and they'll have like, you know, they cut off the fat like they're too cool for it. I'm like, put it all on my plate. I will eat all of it. Hands down, it is my favorite part of the meal. God. And I have a lot in common. And that way, uh, theologian, uh, Jim Gaffigan, he has a, a master masterful theological discourse on bacon. Uh, when he says, the only problem with bacon is that it makes you thirsty. Anybody know the rest for more bacon?
Speaker 1 00:15:47 In another moment of revelatory genius, he says, even the frying of bacon sounds like applause. He's not wrong. By the way, that sketch goes on for eight whole minutes, all about bacon. Happy Father's Day. You are welcome. I want you to imagine with me, um, you are going to somebody's house to eat and you say, what can I bring? And your job is to bring kinda the main course. They'll do drinks and dessert and all the appetizers. And, and so you, you make two steaks and you're pretty excited about these steaks. And so you, you come and, and as is with most steaks. Are they ever exactly the same size? No. And you look, you look at one, and if you're, if you're being honest, one looks a little better, it's a bit more fat on it, that's what I would've wanted. Uh, it's just, it's a little bit juicier, it's a little bit larger.
Speaker 1 00:16:35 And, and, and deep down you're like, man, I wish I could eat that steak. But you bring the steaks over. And what do decent human beings do? When you give a meal to somebody? Do you take the good portion or the less good portion? Everybody the less good portion, unless you're a selfish jerk, right? Don't do that. Now here's a little, here's a little tip for you. Always give them the best so that in heaven you get the best. So that'll be, you can take that to the bank. Is that a bad joke? I've, that's my motto. I'm gonna be last in line here so I can be first in heaven. So you give this to them and this is what you do. It's what decent people do. And so here's what happens with the peace offering. You're going to God's house and you are bringing a meal and God is inviting you in.
Speaker 1 00:17:26 And, and, and here's the deal. Why would we ever have a guest into our home or go into someone else's home and bring the meal and take the best for ourselves? So in the ancient Near East, it, this is a, a culture deeply rooted in hospitality, very unlike anything we experience here. So like if a stranger showed up at your house, you would be socially obligated to give them a place to stay, to feed them, to give them that your best as long as they stayed. Like this is a very different culture. So hospitality is so unbelievably important, and God is inviting you into his house. He is telling you, you bring the meal and, and we're gonna eat together. And so he's saying, if you wouldn't even treat a stranger like this, why would you treat your God any, any less? And one of the things I so appreciate about God in this situation is that he communicates expectations on the front end.
Speaker 1 00:18:20 Have you ever been in a relationship where somebody doesn't actually tell you their expectations, then you don't meet them and then they're upset with you? Well, God doesn't even play this game. He's like, before we even have like a relational issue here, I'm gonna tell you exactly what I expect. I'm gonna tell you what is appropriate for my position as the king of the universe and your God. And when you come, bring the first your best, the most valuable part of your offering, and you bring that to the Lord. And, and the next thing they're gonna do with this is they're gonna give a portion of it to the priests. And the priest would actually eat off of this. They would bring it to their families. And this would be a way that the priests were, would be able to provide for their family. And we're gonna see in a minute what happens with the rest.
Speaker 1 00:18:59 Look at, look at verse five, and you're gonna see God's response to the fat. Then Aaron's son shall burn it on the altar on top of the burnt offering, which is on the wood of the fire. It is a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. When you give God your first and your best and your most valuable, God loves it because it is communicating that he has not just the leftovers of your heart, but he has your whole heart. Your offering is a mirror of the state of your heart. Let's look back at verse two. It says this, and he, this is the one offering, not the priest. And he shall lay his hand on the head of the offering and to kill it at the entrance of the tent of meetings. So if you are offering a peace offering, it is your personal responsibility to kill the animal yourself. And then it says, Aaron's sons, the priest shall throw the blood against the sides of the altar pop quiz. How many gallons of blood does the average bowl have?
Speaker 1 00:20:19 10. Let's just think about a milk jug, fill it up 10 times, go to your tub, fill it up with some red dye in it. It'll be a great illustration for all of your children. Don't do that. God, God designed this experience so that everybody involved would know the true cost of shalom. Our sin broke peace with God. And sin must be paid for by blood, no exceptions and God's economy. That is how it works. And, and, and whenever we come to offer this peace offering, we are reminded our peace with God was broken. And it is a severe infraction and it is only ever made right by blood. The book Hebrew says it this way, without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness of sins. Um, I've often wondered if you were to interview an Old Testament, um, Jew, if, if you ask them this question, do you really believe the blood of bulls and goats takes away sin?
Speaker 1 00:21:24 I I hope they would answer. No, it's a a metaphor, it's a shadow. It's pointing to something bigger and better. And everybody we know that it points to his name is Jesus the sacrifice that would end all sacrifices. Because here's what we know, the, the blood of a billion bowls, it's not more valuable than the blood of a human because people are made in the image of God. But here's the deal. My shed, blood doesn't even have the power to atone for my own sins to make right. What was made wrong in my own sins. And what and what we see with Jesus is that he is the God man. And the blood of the God man is more potent than the blood of every human who has ever existed. Somehow the shed blood of Jesus Christ is potent enough that all of the humans who have ever existed, if they ever all came to faith in Christ, it is potent enough to cover their sins once and for all and forever.
Speaker 1 00:22:22 Shalom with God. It required personal ownership of your sin. And so even just the laying on of your hand on this animal, what you're saying is this, I did this. It's me. I'm the problem. I did this. I take responsibility. No buts here. And, and, and one of the things that God is also teaching them is nobody else can make restitution between you and God. Restitution requires a blood sacrifice. But but you actually have to be the one to say, I'm sorry I did this. Jesus can pay the price for your sins in your place, but he can never say, I'm sorry for you. And, and we see this, this principle here, that extreme ownership and the peace offering, you're reminded the weight, the weight of my sin is blood. The cost of peace with God is blood. I i did this, God forgive me or why?
Speaker 1 00:23:20 No. Look at verse 17. Actually, uh, it should be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwelling places that you eat, neither, neither fat, cuz it's the lords nor blood. And and this isn't the first time by the way, the blood, um, regulation occurred all the way back in Genesis chapter nine, verse four, before there was ever any law. Here's what God said, you shall not eat flesh with its life that is its blood. So why no blood? Because blood consumption and demonic activity were and are intrinsically tied to one another. And the Israelites had this ridiculous proclivity to run back to blood cult religions. Now that may sound weird to you because majority of you in this room, that's not your proclivity. But in America it's like this. The vast majority of Americans, we are tempted not to run after blood cults.
Speaker 1 00:24:21 We are tempted to run after the Good Works gospel, which basically says good people go to heaven. And if you were to ask 80% of Americans, uh, who goes to heaven, they're all gonna say the same thing. Good people go to heaven. And we are just drawn to this gospel even though it's nonsense and it's not in scripture. And so in the same way that Americans are drawn to that, um, these Jewish people thousands of years ago had this strong proclivity to these blood cult religions. Satan knows that blood is sacred to God and he knows that the unauthorized shedding of blood is deeply and profoundly offensive to God. He knows that the life of all things is god's and only God can give permission to take life. And God has given permission under certain circumstances for animal life to be taken and even sometimes for human life to be taken under the old covenant law.
Speaker 1 00:25:13 So Satan has set out to confuse humanity on the right use of blood, which is why he loves murder. Child sacrifice, ongoing animal sacrifices, blood blooding, cutting, drinking blood. I could go on, but we'll stop. And anytime a person sheds their own blood or the blood of another for destruction, Satan rejoices, God has intended that blood be used for atonement, not demonic ritual nor consumption. Now here's a fun fact. Did you know that the meat, the red stuff in the meat, the raw meat that you we get from the store, it's not blood. So here, here's a question I'm anticipating. Uh, well how do the Jews eat the meat if there is blood in the meat, right? Let me just, the actual meat juice, it's not blood. Trust me, there are gonna be some of you who can't hear the rest of what I say until I tell you this cuz you're gonna be confused.
Speaker 1 00:26:07 Let me just read to you. This is science, not Michael the red. He comes from a protein called myoglobin, which helps muscle tissue store oxygen like hemoglobin does in your blood. And like hemoglobin, the iron in myoglobin turns red when it binds with oxygen, giving raw meat that red hue, you are released and relieved from the fear that you today will be eating blood or drinking blood when you consume unusual amounts of meat on Father's Day. Again, happy Father's Day. All right, verses six to 11, they give the exact same procedure if the animal is a sheep versus 12 through 15, they give the same procedure if the animal is a goat. And the entire process is designed so that you and I know the weight and the cost of real peace. It brings us to the big question. So why, what, why would I ever bring a peace offering?
Speaker 1 00:26:59 What circumstances would motivate me to do something this costly and this inconvenient? And there are a handful of reasons. There are six particularly. But, but again I wanna come back to each of these um, offerings. What they do is they instill and they reinforce one of God's core values and the peace offering. What God wanted to instill and reinforce is that we celebrate peace on a regular basis with God and with one another. Now here's why this is my favorite offering because when you brought that animal and you gave the fat to the Lord and then you gave a portion to the priest and their family, you took the rest home and by law you were mandated to throw a party. I love a good party. The introverts are like, uh, not sure, whatever, like you could legitimately be invited to multiple parties a year, all peace offerings, celebrations, all designed to celebrate what God has done in your life and what God is doing in the life of your family and your friends.
Speaker 1 00:28:04 Six reasons to offer a peace offering. Number one, to publicly celebrate God and the shalom we have with him. There might be just a time in your life if you're a a if you're a, a old covenant Jew and and you are just blown away. God, everything I have is from you and you just get to this point where you're like, I need to express my gratitude. And so you would bring a peace offering and you would throw a party. King Solomon, I want you to just quantify what I'm about to tell you. He offered 142,000 peace offerings and the people ate for two weeks. Think about the blood. 142,000. Why to celebrate the goodness and the faithfulness of God. The second reason for offering a peace offering to publicly celebrate a vow initiated or completed. So like if a priest was gonna dedicate his life to service, you would inaugurate this with a peace offering in a party to celebrate what God was doing in this priest's life.
Speaker 1 00:29:10 I if you were finishing a vow that you had made before God, uh, the vows were typically not private, they were public cuz you had to do certain things and people could see that you were under a vow. You would get done and you would bring a peace offering and then you would throw a party and celebrate what God has done in your life. The third reason for a peace offering would be to publicly celebrate a relationship restored. And, and so maybe like most of us in this life, you're gonna have temporary seasons where there's some kind of tension between relationships and, and when there's tension in a relationship, most people know, especially your family and your close friends. And so when God brings restoration, here's what happens. One of the parties brings a peace offering and then they throw a public celebration and says saying There was tension between us and you all knew it and now it is over.
Speaker 1 00:30:01 It has been covered, we are restored again. And the people would celebrate. Isn't that so cool? Here's the fourth reason to publicly celebrate your personal repentance. In situations like this, what you would do is you would offer a burnt offering as a rededicating your life back to God. And then you would offer a, a peace offering to say, God has given back shalom to me, he's done this and I want to celebrate. Now this also makes you think twice about doing something really big and dumb, doesn't it? Because when you come back to God, what's it gonna require? A public party where you confess everything you've done. And, and this is hard for Americans because we're like, it's my life. It's my like really secretive. Nobody gets to tell me what to do. I'm not gonna publicize all my stuff. Well what about when everybody knows it?
Speaker 1 00:30:47 And so when you come back to God, because most people know when you and I are in sin, and when we come back to God and we repent, we make it a public thing because sin is a we thing. It's not just a me thing. The fifth reason to offer a peace offering is just to celebrate God's past faithfulness on designated holidays. So there would be a holiday where you would be obligated to offer a peace offering and you knew it was coming. And so you know, you have to invite your family or your close friends over and you're gonna be celebrating peace. And so this was a motivation before you come to God and, and, and offer this peace offering, you wanna make sure that that you and the people you're about to celebrate with at this festival that you guys are truly at peace.
Speaker 1 00:31:36 It was a motivation to get in front of this and not let a lack of shalom affect your relationships with them, especially with God, right? So far the peace offerings were, were given kind of every time a person had a hinge moment in their life, a big deal, something big would happen, a transition or a conviction of sin or a huge moment of like overwhelming gratitude. There's a sixth reason that one would give a peace offering and and it's a little bit heavier. Uh, you give a peace offering as a prayer to God that he would restore shalom in judges chapter 21 and 22, it's the very last chapters of the book of Judges. There is a civil war in the nation of Israel and it is 11 tribes verse one. And they go out to battle the 11 against Benjamin because a great evil happened in the nation of Israel such that they hadn't seen before.
Speaker 1 00:32:32 It enraged them to the point where the 11 turned on the one. And when they went into battle, they didn't quite realize the mites were really, really good at fighting. And so in the first day of the battle, 22,000 Israelites of the 11 tribes were killed. And so we picked this up in judges chapter 20, verse 21. It says this, uh, the people of Benjamin, they came out of Gibon. That was the place where the great evil happened and destroyed on that day, 22,000 men of the Israelites. But the people, the men of Israel, they took courage and it, and again formed the battle line in the same place where they'd formed it on the first day and the people of Israel went up and they wept before the Lord until evening. And they inquired of the Lord, shall we again draw near to fight against our brothers, the people of Benjamin?
Speaker 1 00:33:24 And do you know what the Lord said? He said this, go up against them. So the people of Israel came near against the people of Benjamin the second day, and Benjamin went against them out of Gya, the place where the evil happened the second day and destroyed 18,000 more men of the people of Israel. Two days in a row, the Lord said, go fight against 11 tribes against the one and now 40,000 of their people are dead. All these were men who drew the sword. Then all the people of Israel, the whole army, they went up and they came to Bethal. That's the place where the where where they would worship before Jerusalem. They came up to Bethal and they wept and they sat there before the Lord and they fasted that day until evening. And they offered burnt offerings as a way of saying whatever we have done, we are sorry and peace offerings before the Lord and, and the people of Israel inquired of the Lord, shall we go out once more to battle against our brothers, the people of Benjamin?
Speaker 1 00:34:32 Or shall we cease? And the Lord said, go up for tomorrow. I will give them into your hand. They brought this before the Lord as a prayer. And it was interesting. The Lord didn't give them victory until they offered both the burnt offering and the peace offering. And there's some moments where if you're an Old Testament Israelite and you're not at peace, you would go to God and you would offer this and say, would you please, would you please do what I'm unable to do? So as we pull back, we consider the peace offering. God was intent on building a culture that permeated all of Israel of the celebration of shalom when we are reminded of the shalom we have with God and of the shalom that we have with others. And he wanted this people to be a place of no tension as far as possible where they celebrated shalom to.
Speaker 1 00:35:25 So whats number one? Throw parties. Amen. And intentionally celebrate what God has done. It has historically been the practice of the people of God to find the milestone moments, the hinge point moments of our life and to celebrate them. And so here's the challenge. Will you find these milestone moments? And will you not just say, look how great they did or look at this awesome thing that happened. But what they did is they made it about God. This good thing that happened is rooted in the goodness and the kindness of God and is evidence of our peace with God. And we want everyone around to know this good thing that happened. It is from God, for God through God and to God. Whether it is a wedding, whether it is an anniversary, whether it is a graduation, whether it is a baptism, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 00:36:24 And we're people that we love to celebrate these things. And so what what, what the people of God have done for thousands of years is we celebrate with food. Amen. We give the fact to the Lord. But now because of the new covenant, we get to eat the fat praise God. And we put Christ at the center of these celebrations and we make sure that we intentionally bring our family and friends around and point all things to God and highlight shalom with God. Number two, be a peacemaker, a shalom maker, biblically and and the people of God. We collectively have a commission and a practice of pursuing shalom with our God and with each other. And as far as it depends on us, with the world, in a world of sinners and demons, Shalom is a battle. I am a sinner. You are a sinner.
Speaker 1 00:37:21 Everyone in the world is a sinner. And when you walk into a culture of shalom or one that is trending towards shalom, you better know if it's a family. You have a mom and or a dad who are fighting for that culture. If it is a church, a small group, a workspace, if there is shalom in an environment, you know that there are leaders somewhere who are fighting for that context and culture. Shalom does not happen on purpose. It only ever happens or it does not happen on accident. It only ever happens on purpose, which is why God instituted you will intentionally and purposely celebrate. Shalom Romans 1218 says this, if it is possible as far as it depends on you, meaning sometimes it's not possible and sometimes you can't control this, live at peace or live and in shalom with everyone. Uh, and there are three kinds of people in this room.
Speaker 1 00:38:26 And and when I identify this, please don't kick your spouse or your kids and tell them you're that person. Number one are what we call drama makers. These are people who take shalom and they turn it into chaos. And already probably names might be going through your brain. <laugh> don't kick 'em. I see you. Number two is spectators. And this is the vast majority of people. The vast majority of time we watch the chaos, but we do very little to address it there. There's a third category and and this is what Jesus and the authors of the gospel call us to. And they're shalom makers or peacemakers. Blessed are the peacemakers and these are people who walk into chaos and they seek to bring shalom as far as it depends on you. If it is possible, live at peace with all men. And God wants the lives of his people, our families, and the church to be marked by increasing shalom.
Speaker 1 00:39:30 Now, will shalom be threatened regularly and everywhere we go, yes, because we're sinners, but then we reconcile, we throw a party and we let everybody know peace has been reestablished and we celebrate shalom. Now before we close, I have a, a question, are you and God at peace? So the first group I wanna just address are those of you who have already trusted in Christ. You have made the decision to believe in Jesus. You know you're a sinner. You know Jesus is God. You know that he died in the cross of your sins, was raised from the dead. And these aren't just statements, we say these are realities that you believe. There, there is a a day where you came to him and said, forgive me of my sins. And you were saved. And nothing can take that away because you weren't saved by being good.
Speaker 1 00:40:17 And you can't get unsaved by being bad, but you were saved. But if you're being honest right now, you're in a place where God has kind of been your last priority or your fifth priority, and even right now you're like, man, if I had a burnt offering, I need to go rededicate my life back to God. And God wants my whole heart. And honestly he's getting the leftovers and he's an afterthought. And so if you're here, I wanna ask you, are you at peace with God? Legally you might be be at peace with God, but relationally there might be an unbelievable amount of tension. And if you're being honest, it's your fault. And so maybe the Holy Spirit is gonna just prompt you like it's, it is time to rededicate your life. It's time to get some help and to think through what are the patterns and practices that put me in this place.
Speaker 1 00:40:58 And the Holy Spirit will want nothing more than for you to bring the burnt offering of rededication and the peace offering of shalom, your first and your best, your heart back to the Lord. Nothing would make him more happy. There are gonna be some of you here and you're, you're, you're pretty aware that you have never had a moment in your life where you have personally trusted in Jesus with the, with the scriptures teach explicitly is that if you have never come to God and asked him for forgiveness and believed in the name of Jesus, that you and God are not at peace, there is not legal relational shalom between the two of you. In fact, what the Bible says, it's hostility. But God has extended his hand and is offering shalom, forgiveness, salvation, eternal life. Not by being good enough, but by trusting in Christ.
Speaker 1 00:41:51 And, and if you are here and you have never personally trusted in Christ, I think Father's Day is the greatest day to do it. Why? Today is the greatest day, whatever today. Today is <laugh>. And if you are ready to trust in Jesus Christ, here's what I'm gonna encourage you. You can talk to him at any time. There is no formula. You can tell God you're sorry. And the Bible says that you need to believe that Jesus is God. Your God died in the cross of your sins and was raised again from the dead. And if you're here and you're like, I believe all that, and I am sorry and I have never told God ever once in my life, you can just pray there is no mantra or formula. Pray to God, tell him you believe and ask him to save you. Now here's where it gets really wonderful, with the peace offering.
Speaker 1 00:42:31 The body and the blood of Jesus Christ is the cost of your sin. And he wants you to tell people. And so if you're here and you, you're deciding, I need to trust in Christ, the person you came with, tell them, find one of us upfront. We would love to celebrate what God is doing in your life and help you just figure out what does it even mean to be a Christian and to follow Jesus. I know that I believe, I know that I'm sorry, I know that I wanna be made right with him, but now I need help figuring out what does the rest of this look like? And it would be our joy and our privilege to help you learn how to follow Jesus. Maybe even for the first time Phil Church, God has called us to be a people of Shalom with him and to be a people of Shalom with one another and to throw parties so that we can celebrate God's shalom with one another and spread that to whoever needs it.
Speaker 1 00:43:22 Let's pray together. Father, I am again so grateful that you've given us Jesus who is our peace offering. It is by the shed blood of Jesus that we have forgiveness and eternal life. And I am so thankful that the blood of Christ is so potent that it ended the sacrificial system once and for all and forever. That anybody, no matter how sinful that we have been, we can, we can throw ourselves on you and we can believe in the blood of Christ covers us. And so God, thank you for that and I, I pray that you would be even instilling in our hearts and minds ways that we can give you more glory, ways that we can celebrate the shalom that you've created in our life and what you were doing in other people's lives. And that we might be a people who don't just appreciate you but brag about you. We love you and we pray this all in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen.
