Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Good morning.
[00:00:06] What time is this? 945.
[00:00:09] I was like 915. No, that was really good morning. Good morning. My name is Michael Fueling. I'm the lead pastor here. And the joy to open up God's word with you. If you have a Bible, open it up to the Book of Leviticus. We're going to be in chapter 19 this morning in so to kind of prep us. When people think about their personal future most, I'm going to go with 99% of you. You dream of a future where you are progressing and not regressing. So in your mind, the future is going to hold, God willing, fingers crossed, increasing money, increasing happiness, better cars, a better house overall. Like when most people dream about the future, we dream about a better standard of living, we dream about better relationships, we dream about more happiness. Unless you don't. And then I think you're just maybe a little bit weird if you want things to get worse, but that's not the majority of you. So we call this as a phrase that we use, it's called getting ahead.
[00:01:13] And most of our desires of getting ahead fall into like three big categories.
[00:01:20] We want to get ahead financially, we want to get ahead socially, and we want to get ahead emotionally. Okay, so what happens when, let's say, your friends, they get ahead of you much faster than you expected and they're able to do things that you're actually not able to do? What happens when you find yourselves in moments when you can to catch up? You can actually break the rules so that you can start to get ahead. For example, it's tax time.
[00:01:56] What are the chances you're actually going to get audited?
[00:02:00] It's tithe time. You know what you committed.
[00:02:04] Who's going to call you? Is an elder going to call you? No. Petty cash from work, cash from your parents wallet or purse.
[00:02:15] You take that thing because you're pretty confident nobody's going to see. And even if it's just in small increments, it's going to get you ahead.
[00:02:25] You lie to get a better paying job.
[00:02:30] Maybe there's somebody competing with you for the same job and so you have to take them out so you can get the job you want. And then for some people, there are even bigger moments, for example, where you put money that you actually don't have onto the roulette table because it's a 50 50 shot and I want to get ahead.
[00:02:49] Or where you do something, it's just once. I mean, the money was really good. It's illegal, I get it, but I didn't get caught. I'm good. I'm safe. Just twice. It's just three times. It's making a huge difference in my life because I need to get ahead. So what happens when that person you can fill in the blank with whoever you want in your brain. What happens when they get ahead socially and they start to get the things you've always dreamed of and the things that your heart really wants? What happens when they get the guy that you wanted? What happens when they get the girl that you wanted, the spot on the team that you wanted, the award that you wanted, the job that you wanted, the car that you wanted, the house that you wanted, the spouse that you wanted, the kids that you wanted, the standard of living that you wanted.
[00:03:41] And the moment is going to come where you have the opportunity to see the person who has the thing that you wanted, and you have this moment where you can socially push them down to elevate yourself.
[00:03:53] Maybe you start a rumor, maybe you start gossiping, maybe you start speaking to kind of lower them so that you can feel more elevated. Maybe what you're doing actually is you're telling stories about yourself that aren't true so that you give the appearance to people that you are farther ahead than you actually are. Maybe you actually start to name drop, quote unquote, important people in your social circle because you feel like it gives you social equity.
[00:04:22] Okay, so what happens when that person gets ahead emotionally?
[00:04:29] They recover from the breakup faster than you.
[00:04:32] They seem to be moving on with their life and you're stuck.
[00:04:37] They don't really fall for the old emotional tricks and manipulation like they used to. Generally speaking, they're progressing towards happiness and peace. And you're regRessing. I mean, I could literally go on and on and on about all the ways, financially, emotionally, socially, that we honestly do things we're not proud of just to get ahead.
[00:05:00] I want to kind of just set the stage for Leviticus 19. I want you to hear this principle. Never underestimate what you are capable of in the pursuit of getting ahead.
[00:05:13] You will look at people do ridiculous things all of the time, and almost everybody is doing ridiculous, evil, sinful things when they get caught in order because they believe that somehow this is going to get them what they think or believe they really, really want in order to get ahead. Here's kind of what the world with the culture says. In order to get ahead, you need to take.
[00:05:36] You need to take from somebody else because you're never going to get it unless you take. And so this is like actually just a very dominant theme that I see everywhere. People feel permission to take from other people in order that they can themselves get ahead. And then here's what you're going to find. So, follower of Christ, can we just agree that that is not the posture toward the world that Jesus has established for us? Take what you can get while you can get it, so you can get ahead. Amen. But if this is your life posture, then everything or everyone that you take from is going to have one of three responses. Number one, it's going to stop working. Number two, it's going to die. Or number three, they're going to push you away. For example, your land, it. If you're a farmer, a few of you are, most aren't. But if you have a land, if you have something that grows, you take and you take and you take and you take everything while you can get it, it's going to be left with nothing. If you are married and you have a spouse and you are taking and taking and taking, inevitably the relationship will wither and die and they will push you away. If you have friends and your friends, you are just a taker, a taker, a taker. And that is your entire posture. The friendships are not going to work, they're going to die, or they're going to push you away. Your employees, if you are just taking and taking and exploiting, inevitably they're going to stop working and they're going to leave. You do this to your own body. It's your own mental health. Take and you have no reserves and it ends up stopping to work. There is a better way. And there's a word that I love. It's a word you probably all know, but I want to just share it with you. And it is the opposite of taking. It is the word tend. Four simple letters to take care of or look after. A synonym would be steward. Tending has a bit more of a personal emotional nuance to it.
[00:07:21] It is better to get ahead by faithfully tending something than taking from someone else and leaving them in your dust.
[00:07:33] It is better to get ahead with your spouse. If you tend to your spouse, your relationship will grow. Usually.
[00:07:42] If you tend to your money, if you invest it, you care for it, you pay attention to it, you're wise with it, it has a higher probability of growing. If you tend to your church, it will become healthier. If you tend to your boss, and that's a crazy thought. You'll have a higher chance of getting a promotion or a raise later. If you tend to your house, it increases in value. If you tend to your yard, it yields fruit. And there is this impulse, though, in every single one of us, to get ahead quick. And the only way to get ahead quick is to take and the Christian followers of Christ. We're doing something fundamentally different than the world. We are not here to take, take, get what we can get ahead. That is not our goal. Our goal is to tend. It is to steward. It is to take care of the people and the things in the relationship in our life.
[00:08:31] God has woven this rhythm into this world that if you will stop taking and start tending, these things will actually begin, have a higher probability of working for you and bearing more fruit and flourishing and thriving in the end. And by the way, isn't this what every follower of Christ, and by the way, human being wants? We want the things AND THE PEOPLE AND THE RELATIONSHIPS IN OUR LIFE TO FLOURISH AND TO GROW. WELL, THAT MEANS THAT OUR POSTURE TOWARDS PEOPLE AND THINGS AND RELATIONSHIPS IS PROBABLY GOING TO HAVE TO SHIFT VERY DISTINCTLY FROM THE WAY THE WORLD GOES ABOUT THIS. ALL RIGHT. LEVITICUS, CHAPTER 19. WHEN THIS CHAPTER IS WRITTEN, THERE IS A GROUP OF PEOPLE CALLED THE CANAANITES. AND THEY ARE CALLED THE CANAANITES BECAUSE THEY LIVE IN THE LAND OF WHAT? CANAAN. WONDERFUL. NOW, THE CANAANITES, IT'S NOT ONE TECHNICAL GROUP OF PEOPLE. THE CANAANITES ARE A WHOLE BUNCH OF DIFFERENT TRIBES THAT ARE SEPARATE. They have different rulers, different cultures, et cetera. BUT THEY SOMETIMES WILL WORK TOGETHER, BUT REALLY ONLY TO CRUSH SOMEBODY ELSE IF YOU WANT. KIND OF LIKE A SNEAK PEEK INTO THE TAKING CULTURE OF THE CANAANITE TRIBES. IF YOU GET BORED IN THIS SERMON, GO OPEN GENESIS, CHAPTER 19 AND LOOK AT THE TAKING DYNAMICS OF THE SODOMITE CULTURE WHERE THE MEN AND THE BOYS ARE TAKING. READ IT. IT IS A VILE, DISGUSTING CHAPTER. IT IS A PERFECT INSIGHT INTO THE KIND OF EVIL AND DEBAUCHERY THAT HAPPEN IN THESE CANAANITE TRIBES. MOST AMERICANS, WHAT WE DO IS WE TRANSFER, LIKE, OUR KIND OF NOTIONS OF TRIBES, AND WE TRANSFER IT OVER TO THESE BIBLICAL TRIBES OR THESE CANAANITE TRIBES. AND THAT IS NOT WHAT THEY ARE LIKE. THEY ARE MORE EVIL THAN YOU CAN POSSIBLY IMAGINE. AND IT IS WHY GOD COULD JUSTIFY ERADICATING THEM FROM THE LAND. THEIR LEVEL OF EVIL IS GREATER THAN ANY ONE OF YOU COULD IMAGINE OR HAVE SEEN WHILE YOU'VE BEEN ALIVE. THEY WOULD TAKE FROM CHILDREN, WOMEN, THE ELDERLY, THE DISABLED, THE LAND, THEIR SPOUSES, AND THEY WOULD LITERALLY EXPLOIT AND EXTORT EVERYTHING THEY COULD, EXTRACTING EVERY SINGLE BIT OF VALUE AND LEAVING THINGS DEAD AND IN THEIR WAKE. AND SO GOD'S ESTABLISHING THIS SET OF LAWS. AND WHAT HE'S SAYING IS LIKE, THIS IS THE LAND YOU'RE GOING. EVERYTHING YOU READ IN LEVITICUS 19 IS A DESCRIPTION OF WHAT IS AT THE TIME OF WRITING, WHAT IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING IN THESE CANAANITE TRIBES. AND SO HE MAKES THIS LIST. He's like, here are all the things that they do, and they are takers. And you will not be these people. You will be tenders. You will tend to this land. You will steward it. You will have a relationship with the land, with the people, with your things, with your family, with one another. And you're going to treat all of this very different. Everywhere you go in the world at this time are takers. And God is going to pluck out these people, this nation, and he is going to do something very unique and very distinct, different from anything the world has ever, ever seen. And so what we're going to find in Leviticus 19 is twelve prohibitions. These are twelve behaviors that Yahweh says, Israel, you are not going to do these things just to get ahead because the cost is far too great. Now here's what I want to ask you to do. So you're going to hear these twelve prohibitions. We're going to take them one at a time. We're going to go through them. This is a little bit different format of preaching. This is going to be more of an opportunity for you to take a personal inventory. So here's what I want you to ask. I want you to ask, as we go through these things, is this spirit of taking in me? Now can we just agree? The vast majority of you are not going to be as bad as the Canaanites, praise God.
[00:12:05] But it doesn't mean that the spirit of taking contrast, of attending isn't in us. And so every one of us are prone to do these kinds of things. Just because we're not as bad as some people does not mean that we are not prone to the same kinds of sins. And here's what Israel is going to find. Every one of the things that God here condemns and says, you don't do these things. They inevitably did. Every single one of them. Everyone. All right, twelve prohibitions. Here's the first.
[00:12:40] Number one, don't steal from ministry to get ahead.
[00:12:47] Verse nine says, when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge. Neither shall you gather the gleanings after you harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare. Neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner. And what you're going to find after every one of these prohibitions is this awesome one liner. And it's the why I am the Lord, your God. I'm the Lord. Why? Because I am God. And I am telling you, don't do these things. And I designed you so that if you actually do the things I'm telling you to do and avoid the prohibitions that I'm putting in front of you, you will have the greatest chance of flourishing and thriving emotionally and socially, financially and spiritually and more. All right, so the Jewish people had two primary ministries that they funded. Ministry number one was to the temple. And I want you to remember, in an agricultural setting, their currency is food and animals.
[00:13:53] And so ministry number one that you fund is the temple. There are things you bring to the temple so that the priests can eat, so the ministry is done. Everybody understands that in Israel. But there is a second ministry that the Israelites were called to fund, and it was you leave the corners of your fields unharvested so that the poor and the Sojourner, those coming from different countries and traveling through the nations, will always have something to eat.
[00:14:21] And what this would do is it would be almost like a metaphor for the sojourners. If you come through the nation of Israel, our God is a God who loves and cares for you, and you can be provided for if you come through here. And these are two fundamental ministries. But the taking heart says, but if I didn't do that, I could have even more.
[00:14:46] And you're right, you could.
[00:14:49] And yet God is telling them, listen, yes, there is an immediate perk to extracting all the value, but there are bigger, more beautiful, better things than you and me just having more. Unfortunately, we have to walk with the Lord long enough and practice these things before they move from theory in our head to an actual conviction of the heart.
[00:15:16] Prohibition number two, don't steal from anyone ever to get aheaD. Amen. It's like so logical. But one of the things I love about the law is it shows you all the different ways you can sin. Okay, so this is going to show us a whole bunch of different ways that we can steal. Verse eleven, you shall not steal good. You shall not deal falsely. You shall not lie to one another. You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God. I am the Lord. Verse 13 goes on, you shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning. So four common ways of stealing, implied or directly talked about in this text. Number one, obviously taking what is not yours. Number two, withholding what you owe someone.
[00:16:11] Number three, lying about something's value.
[00:16:17] Number four, making a promise of salary and benefits and then coming in under after they've already begun working.
[00:16:26] This is the tip of the iceberg. There are so many ways to steal, and what I want to do is I want to share with you an implied principle in old covenant law. And I think this applies wonderfully today, and it may upset two or three of you.
[00:16:41] You are not entitled to nor do you deserve your neighbor's standard of living.
[00:16:51] Say this again. You are not entitled to, nor do you deserve your neighbor's standard of living.
[00:17:00] The stealing, taking heart says you have enough.
[00:17:05] I don't have what I feel I need or want. I can get ahead if I take from you or withhold from you what I owe you.
[00:17:15] Here's the deal.
[00:17:18] There are two factors that are probably going to limit every human being on the earth in terms of getting ahead financially. One, you do have control over, and that is hard work. And number two are the limits that God sets on every household. Have you ever noticed that there are some people who barely do anything and they make gobs and gobs of obscene money? And then there are some people who work, work, work, work, and they can never get past a certain financial limit. You may be hitting the Lord at this point. He may just say, that's not what I want for you.
[00:17:51] And so you do. You tend, you steward, you handle your finances in a way. And sometimes the Lord's like, my lot for you has not been. For you to be obscenely wealthy and coming to grips with that is actually really hard. So here's what we do. We're like, I don't like that. I want what they have. And so we resort to a taking spirit. And there are so many ways that we do this, and typically we're going to do them in ways where we think nobody sees and nobody will find out. And the blood of Christ will cover me. So we're good over there.
[00:18:18] That is not how we live.
[00:18:21] We do not lean on the blood of Christ and do evil things with a taking spirit simply because we know we're going to be forgiven. Extorting grace is not the way we're called to live. All right, prohibition number three, don't dehumanize the weak to get ahead.
[00:18:42] I want you to imagine these scenarios. You shall not. Verse 14, curse the deaf. Like, who goes up to a deaf person and just cusses them out or put a stumbling block before the blind. I mean, imagine somebody's blind. They're walking across town and a bunch of people, they come together and they're like, let's put a stone in front of them. Trips falls, bleeding, and they just sit there pointing, mocking and laughing. Like, who does this? Junior hires. That's who does it.
[00:19:17] Don't dehumanize the weak to get ahead. Why do people do this?
[00:19:23] Power, entertainment. I mean, every little microculture is different. People do this for a reason. Some people are just entertained by other people's suffering.
[00:19:37] In some social circles, you get social clout. When you do this. You get elevated and then you get more power, more entertainment and more clout.
[00:19:49] This is an impulse in all of us. And if we're not careful, we can actually find ourselves in situations where this is not normal. You're probably not going to find this level, but you're going to find this principle of ridicule around us. All right, prohibition number four, don't exploit the justice system to get ahead. Verse 15 says, you shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor. You don't get to say, like, well, we can just give them more because they're poor. They need more. Like, the principle of equity is not a biblical principle, period.
[00:20:23] You should not be partial to the poor or defer to the great. Just because somebody has power and money and can buy themselves out of something, it doesn't mean you're partial to them either. No, we do something very different amongst the People of God, says, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people. And you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor. I am the Lord. We don't lie. We don't cheat. We don't show partiality. We don't go to court because we're mad at somebody, lie about what they did just so we can get back at them. We don't do these kinds of things. This is what they do in Canaan. This is not what the people of God do. Prohibition number five, don't take vengeance to get ahead. Has anybody in the last, I don't know, your entire life ever desired to take vengeance on somebody?
[00:21:14] Not the rest of you. Okay, good. There's a few wicked, evil people in this room. And the rest of you, you're just amazing. Okay, good.
[00:21:23] Where does the desire for vengeance start?
[00:21:27] With hatred or bitterness in the heart. Look at verse 17.
[00:21:31] You shall not hate your brother in your heart.
[00:21:37] If I were to ask you, who do you hate right now? And there's a name that goes. There's a face that comes through your brain. I need you to understand that. You need to take that face and name before the Lord, and you need to pray, pray, pray for them. That is one of the Most beautiful antidotes to hatred in your heart. Hatred in your heart will do nothing but corrupt you. And them says this, it goes on. But you shall, if you have this hatred. And there's right. I love this reason, frankly, meaning honestly, truthfully. Let's just sit down and have a Conversation about this with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. Verse 18 tells us what kind of sin we can incur. SAys this, you shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge.
[00:22:19] Both are sin, both harm. Vengeance is external. Bearing a grudge is internal. It's more passive. Vengeance is more active. And there are many, many ways to get back at somebody. Sometimes it's going at them, and sometimes it's withholding. Either way, we somehow believe in this moment. If I can act in vengeance, if I can do that actively or passively, I can get ahead of them.
[00:22:46] And there's just a principle I want to highlight here. The taking heart must take out the people who get in their way.
[00:22:55] When you are a taking heart, when there is a thing or a person in your way, you will begin to justify behaviors to get them out of your way.
[00:23:04] If we just go back to verse 18, I want to finish this. It says, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And then here's the line. I am the Lord. All right, the 6th prohibition, it's going to feel actually pretty much out of place and out of context. But I think once you understand its place, you'll go, oh, I think that's genius. God, don't compromise the small things to get ahead. All right, here's what he says. You shall keep my statutes.
[00:23:36] You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind. And at this point, I'm thinking, who cares? You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed. But what if it works, okay? Nor shall you wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material.
[00:23:54] Thank God for the New Covenant, guys, because none of us in this room would endure this law. Okay, so here we meet. It's a principle. It's the principle of separation over syncretism. Syncretism is this idea that you take two things that probably shouldn't be mixed and you bring them together to make something new. But there's a bigger principle that God is instilling amongst the nation of Israel, and it's this principle of.
[00:24:19] So I'm going to tell you what God's doing, and then I'm going to explain it. What he's doing is he's building muscles in the people of God in small ways, so that when it comes to the big things, they already have the muscles ready to not actually bring two things, like marrying somebody who doesn't love the Lord from a different religion or taking the worship of Yahweh and mixing it with the worship of demons, bringing them together, syncretizing them into one kind of new thing. When it comes to these big things, what God is doing is he's building in them in the small ways, the discipline of keeping things separate. So here's a little trick for you. Some of you are not disciplined whatsoever, and there are big areas of your life that are not under control. And so there is actually a psychological secret to discipline on the big things. You start with really small things, and you discipline yourself in those small things, and you do a bunch of them. You start with one or two, and then you increase. And the person who is disciplined in a bunch of small things, they build the muscles so that when the big life decisions come, you're already ready. You already know how to do it. Moms and dads, you get this. Clean your room.
[00:25:30] I don't want to clean my room. Who cares if I clean my room? It's just going to get dirty tomorrow anyways. And, okay, I will be honest. There is a feeling emotional peace that I have when rooms are clean and the house is all together. Right. That feels great.
[00:25:44] Bigger than that. Thank you for the Amen. Bigger than that. What are we doing?
[00:25:50] We are forming and building little muscles so that we are teaching them to steward the small things, to tend the small things, to care for the small things. We're also teaching them in these moments that you submit to authority in the small things, so that when the big things come, they built these muscles. You know this in the military, right? Every day you have to make your bed. Who cares? Well, the reason this matters is because you are teaching a bunch of undisciplined people who come into these ranks to begin to discipline themselves in the small ways. You're also learning who can follow orders. Because if I have somebody who can't follow an order in the little things, what makes you think they're going to follow order in the heat of battle? And then people die. And so you work with the little things. And here's the deal. If God says, I want these things to happen, it's my house, it's my people, it's my rules. I don't want you wearing clothing with two different materials mixed. I don't want the seeds mixed, and I don't want you interbreeding your cattle. Can he say that? Yes, he can. If I go to your house, I guarantee you, you have a bunch of rules in your house. And when I'm in your house, do I have to abide by your rules? Absolutely. It's so funny. We're like, well, if it's my home, then you have to do what I say. But, God, the whole world's your home. And I feel like I don't like your rules, and I should be able to do whatever I want in your home. No, that's not the way it works.
[00:27:17] If the only reason that God made these laws because he preferred it, that is fine. And we also know that he's free to do that. But there also seems to be a bigger thing that he is growing amongst the people of God, and it's the principle of separation.
[00:27:32] Prohibition number seven, don't extort the land to get ahead. I just think God is a genius. And when you come into the land and plant any kind of tree for food, then you shall regard its fruit as forbidden. This is money on the ground. I want you to think about that. Three years, it shall be forbidden to you. It must not be eaten. Money on the ground. Okay, if you saw your own money on the ground and God's like, nope, can't do anything about it, let it go. Let somebody else have it. Let the poor have it. Let you not be thrilled. But in the fourth year, finally, this is the time when the fruit is ready to be eaten. It's going to be great. You're so excited. And he says, in the fourth year, all of its fruit shall be holy or set apart. An offering of praise to the Lord. Every single piece of fruit that falls in the fourth year, you don't touch an ounce of it. And if you do, you're stealing from the Lord. But in the fifth year, you may eat of its fruit to increase its yield. For you. I am the Lord your God. And go figure.
[00:28:37] Waiting to harvest establishes a much stronger root system, which in the end actually produces exponentially more fruit in the long term. And this is the trick of all demon religions and ideas. Take now, get what you can. There might not be anything left later. Eat every meal like it's your last meal. This could be it. What? And God's like, rein it in. Be patient. We are not going to have a posture of taking. We're going to have a posture of tending. Look at Guinea. Verse 25. He says. This is why he says, to increase its yield for you. If you care for it, it will care for you.
[00:29:24] Number eight brings us to more explicitly demonic rituals and practices. And I just summarize it this way, don't do demon things to get ahead. Can we agree on this?
[00:29:39] You shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it because it was a demon ritual thing. You shall not interpret omens or tell fortunes because it's talking to demons. You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard. Why? Because the demon priest did this. You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves. Why? Because demon cults promoted this. And then I love this again. I am the Lord. And then one day you will hear some unstudied fool on YouTube pluck out this verse. You shall not round off the hair of your temples or mar the edges of your beard. See, God is just so random and arbitrary and you can't trust him because this is stupid. Well, when you pluck it out of its context and you don't understand the demonic nature of Canaanite religions and that God is creating a people who are not syncretized with these demonic religions but separated from them, be like, yeah, I understand it right in the context, these are actually genius rules. Verse 31. Do not turn to mediums or necromancers. Why? Because you're still just talking to demons. Don't seek them out and so make yourselves unclean by them. I love this. I am the Lord your God. Prohibition number nine. We're getting there. Don't sacrifice your children to get ahead.
[00:31:00] Watch this. Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute.
[00:31:07] Remember, everything I'm reading to you was already being practiced.
[00:31:12] Lest the land fall into prostitution. The land become full of depravity. You shall keep my Sabbath and reverence my sanctuary. I am the Lord. And the implication here is that prostitution was going to be happening in the sanctuary.
[00:31:25] And so you can play this out in a few different ways.
[00:31:30] Imagine a world where a father becomes a pimp. Or imagine a world where a dad says, you know what? It is statistically impossible that my daughters will not have their innocence stolen from them. So we might as well make money in the process.
[00:31:46] Or again, if you don't understand Canaanite culture, that may sound crazy, but that is normal again. Read Genesis 19. You'll get just a glimpse of the debauchery and the evil that happens in this culture. Or imagine a world where someone says, well, you could just take her to the temple and use her there, and we'll pay you for it. And a dad says, well, it's already taken from her anyways. Give me the money. Daughter. Go.
[00:32:14] Prohibition ten.
[00:32:16] Don't walk over the aged to get ahead.
[00:32:20] You shall stand up before the Greyhead. This is where the American west tradition of standing up for people who are of important position comes from. You shall stand up before the Greyhead and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God. I am the Lord. I mean, one of the signs of cultural demise is dishonor of both authority and age. And you begin to see this, and it is exhausting to watch.
[00:32:48] Prohibition number eleven. Don't extort a foreigner to get ahead.
[00:32:52] When a stranger sojourns with you in the land, you shall do him no wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself. For you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. And here's what you know. You know that if you were in their land, they would treat you like dirt. And he'S like, not in my land. Not my land. You guys are going to be fundamentally different. Yes. Nobody will find out. Yes, you can rob them, you can extort them. They have no recourse. They have no rights. You could do all of that. That was what it was like for you. Why would you ever subject somebody else to what Egypt subjected you to?
[00:33:27] We were in a foreign country years ago, and we were in the middle of nowhere with missionaries. And we pulled over the van to get some gas, and some man took out a knife, walks up to the back, right tire, slashes a hole in it right in front of our face and says, looks like you have a flat tire. I can fix it for $300.
[00:33:47] Well, what do you do? Pull out a gun? No, he's a missionary. And so what you do is you say, okay, we call the cops. They're already paid off. There's nowhere to go. And this is the kind of things that you could experience as a foreigner. And he's like, listen, not here. We don't do those kinds of things.
[00:34:06] Final Prohibition number twelve. Don't cheat in business to get ahead. Remember, their primary industry is agriculture. This is their currency. You shall do no wrong in judgment. And measures of length or width or weight or quantity, you shall have just balances, just weights. Adjust Ifa and adjust him. I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. And you shall observe all of my statutes and all my rules and do them. And just for another mic drop, I am the Lord.
[00:34:42] Just remember, not one single law in Leviticus is wasted or useless.
[00:34:48] Every law is a mirror into the culture of the Israelites or the culture they were walking into.
[00:34:56] Two. So what's number one?
[00:35:00] Jesus's way has always been backwards, from Canaan, from demons, and from the cultures they create. I want you to listen to first. Peter 212.
[00:35:11] Peter says, keep your conduct among the Gentiles or the nonchristians honorable so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God. On the day of visitation, keep your conduct honorable so that when they speak evil against you, they might see your good deeds and glorify God.
[00:35:36] This may be a strange thought for most adults.
[00:35:41] The majority of Americans will not have regular proximity to a true Christian.
[00:35:48] They'll have passing, like, highs. Here's hello. What's up? But the majority of Americans will not have relational proximity to a true Christian unless they are at their work or they are neighbors, the vast majority. So these are two of the most sacred places where you take all of these laws by getting ahead, where the follower of Christ, when it comes, I mean, we're going to say every area of our life, but I want you to understand this. When it comes to work and for students, that's like where you go to school.
[00:36:16] And when it comes to your neighborhood, we don't do get ahead kind of things. We do tend kind of things. And when you live a life of tending and stewarding, instead of taking and extracting, people will begin to see it. And it is one of the greatest opportunities to lay out a platter for a gospel conversation.
[00:36:35] And so our posture, this is one of the most effective means of evangelism to open up gospel conversations, is we live life where we are tending and stewarding, not extracting, extorting and taking.
[00:36:50] 16 times in Leviticus 19 says this, I am the Lord. God is really serious. 16 times very serious. We do not extort people. Things, land, animals, relationships, children, sojourners, you name it. We care for these things. All right, so at number two, be honest about what you have done to get ahead and own it. Simple encouragement for you would be, I have a hunch the Holy Spirit might be prompting some things in your heart in this time, there might be stories or people going through your mind. Where you realize you have extracted far more than you gave. Maybe you stole, maybe you lied. There's a taking spirit or maybe there's a relationship that you honestly, you know, you need to apologize. And I just want to encourage you. Take the next step and make right if you have made something wrong. And there's a little secret to real true apologies and repentance when it comes to taking. It's not just that. I'm sorry. There's also restitution.
[00:38:01] I'll leave that there. And if we'll let the Holy Spirit kind of do what he has to do with you there. But there's another group of people I just want to just take a moment and talk to. Maybe you're here. And you have never ever trusted in Christ.
[00:38:12] And I need you to understand something. You have taken from God what is his.
[00:38:19] And what is his is you.
[00:38:22] You are not your own. You are his. He designed you, created you, loves you. Your mind is his. Your thoughts are his. Your body is his. Your soul is his. It is all his. And we have said, no. This is me. I am living for me. I am the master of my life. I am my own God. And you have sinned against God because you have taken from God what is rightfully his. And I have incredible news for you. God is offering forgiveness for thieves everywhere.
[00:38:50] And here's the deal. Everyone in this room is in one of two places. We are either thieves who have taken from God what is rightly his and asked him to forgive us. And have believed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Or we are thieves who have not yet asked him for forgiveness. And I want to tell you right now. If you have never personally trusted in Christ, he has his hand extended to you in forgiveness.
[00:39:12] You do have to own it. Though I am a sinner, I have taken from you what was not mine to take. God, will you forgive me? And if you have never ever made that decision, I just want to say to you today, you can make that decision. You can pray to God at any time and say, forgive me. I believe in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Now I want to take a moment. I want to pray for you. We're going to sing together. But if that is a decision that you want to make today, I want to encourage you. Tell somebody you came with or come talk to one of us up front. We would just love to help you take a next step. Let's pray together. Father, I thank you for village Church. Thank you for the culture and community that I get to watch with people who just tend and steward and give and are so kind and generous. And yet at the same time, God, we give you all credit and glory because that is not the natural disposition of any of our hearts. We confess to you, God, that we are stealers. We are thieves, we are takers, and we don't want to be that. And so, God, we ask, would you continue to make us more like Christ? Would you teach us how to steward, would you teach us how to tend? And would you remind us of the power of the blood of Christ that has covered every one of our sins, every one of our failures, and every one of our frailties? Thank you, Lord, this Thanksgiving, would you fill us with gratitude because of what you have done for us in Christ? Thank you for saving us. Thank you for putting up with us. Thank you for never giving up on us, even when we mess up time and time again. Make us transform us from takers to tenders. Lord, we love you. We pray all of this, and we worship you in Jesus name. Amenville Church. Amen.
