Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Good morning. 945.
[00:00:07] Good morning. My name is Michael Fueling. I'm the lead pastor here at the village church. If I've never met you, open up your Bibles to the book of Leviticus, chapter 22. This is the last time we're going to be in Leviticus for quite some time. I know weeping, gnashing of teeth.
[00:00:25] Would you guys humor me for a moment? How many of you have heard of or are aware of the Five Love Languages, the book by Gary Chapman? Do you guys know that book has sold over 20 million copies worldwide? This book has somehow managed to, I don't know, really resonate with the heart and mind of people from every culture around the world. All right, so if you don't know what the five love languages are, I'll put them on the screen for you. They are very simply, quality time, words of affirmation, physical touch, acts of service, and gifts. And here's a quick primer on the five love languages.
[00:01:09] When somebody loves you according to your love language, gary Chabbin, the author, says you have this thing called a love tank, and when your love tank is full, you feel loved. Now, you may know in your head they love you, but when your love tank is full, you feel loved. And so one of the best ways to fill up someone's love tank is to love them according to their love language. Now, as you guys look at this list, I'd love to kind of just do a little breakdown. How many of you would say that your love language, the thing that makes you feel the most loved, is quality time? Anybody?
[00:01:46] Oh, my favorite people. Let's go have a party. Let's hang out together. You want to get coffee?
[00:01:51] How many of you you would say that your love language is words of affirmation?
[00:01:57] You guys are amazing. I just want to tell you, you are the best.
[00:02:02] You've never looked better than you do today. I'm just telling you.
[00:02:06] All right. How many of you would say your love language is physical touch?
[00:02:12] You're always hugging. You love the handshake. You linger just a little longer. You handshake with your right hand because you're normal. And then you put your hand over their shoulder and the touching just keeps going. And then how many of you would say it's acts of service?
[00:02:28] Oh, man, this is like a pretty equal distribution. I am impressed. All right, so gifts, who's got the gifts?
[00:02:38] They're not raising their hands too loud here, right? It's okay. You're not selfish. If your love language is gifts, it's going to be fine. Okay? So it is not uncommon that you don't just marry somebody who's very different than you. You marry somebody who has a different love love language than you. And so my love language is quality time. So I'm always like, hey, do you want to go out? Hey, do you want to hang out? Hey, do you want to talk. And my wife's top love language is acts of service. And so she is serving constantly, doing things for me and our family all the time. And so this is very normal. You have two different people who have two different love languages. And so one of my goals is to make sure, okay, how do we make sure that we communicate to each other's heart? We fill up each other's love tanks so that they actually know and feel that they're loved. Now, when it comes to the five love languages, this is going to be relevant to our message. It's really hard to put God in a box of love Languages because there is no deficiency with God. God doesn't need to feel loved. God is self sufficient. He is totally secure and he does not rise and fall based on someone's lack of love or affection for Him. Amen. Villa church. Right. And so we serve a secure, secure God. But he does. This is what I appreciate about Scripture. He does communicate really, really clearly what blesses Him, what brings Him the most amount of joy, like what he really, really wants. And I am really grateful for his clarity because I'm like God, what do you want from me? And from beginning to end, from all the way back in creation, all the way to now, to the Book of Revelation, you see this really common pattern. Now, this is going to feel kind of big, but I think at the end of the day, this is what the Lord really wants.
[00:04:22] God wants to be first in every area of your life.
[00:04:28] God wants to be the most important person in every relationship in your life. God wants to make sure that everything you have is under ultimately his authority that you are holding it with. We'll say palms up, hands open, not clenching super tight to it. He wants to know that every aspect, every relationship, everything in your life, that he is first place, that he has ultimate control and sovereignty over that thing. So here's what God's done. Two big things that God has done to kind of, we'll say, facilitate us making sure that he has first place in everything. So, number one, what he did is he created you, me, all of us, psychologically, emotionally, relationally, spiritually, in every single way, so that when he is not in first place, things begin to erode. Now, sometimes we don't notice it because it's like a frog boiling, but the whole world is designed because of sin, to actually begin to break apart, including relationships and different things. And what happens is when God is not a part of those things, they slowly begin to erode. So there is a huge incentive in making sure that Jesus Christ has first place in every aspect of your life. There's a second thing that God did. He created an entire Old Testament system designed to train the people of God to keep him first. So it goes all the way back to creation. What day of the week is set apart for God? The last day of the week. No, the first day of the week. It is Sabbath. It is his. He's like, Listen, I want your first. I want to make sure that before you go into the rest of the week, I want to make sure that the week as a whole, you understand it's mine. This is the day where you have the most amount of strength, the most amount of go get him. And he's like, no, this is for me. In the Book of Exodus, chapter 13, verse two, if you're a parent and you have your first child, that first child is uniquely dedicated to God. He's like, Listen, I want the first. All your children, yes, they're mine. But there's going to be something unique about that first child. You have an animal, and that animal, that mother gives birth. The first born, right? That animal is uniquely dedicated to God, right? I want the first. I want the best is what God says. It doesn't just stop there. He doesn't just want the first. He also wants the best of all of your animals, called the first fruits, your produce, actually. So I want you to remember, in ancient Israel, currency took the form primarily of animals and food. Currency was animals and food. So he's like, Listen, I don't just want the first and best of your animals, all of your produce. I want the first, and I want the best of that. I want you to know this, that even in your work, even in your currency, I want your first, and I want your best. You go to income, you go to your heart. You guys remember the Book of Deuteronomy? Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and soul and mind and strength. And it's like, Listen, I want to be first place in your heart. I want to be first place with your money. I want to be first place with your job. I want to be first place with your parenting. I want to be first place with your marriage. I want to be first place with your entire week in your schedule. There's not one part of your life I do not want to be first place. In the book of Colossians, you can turn in your Bibles. I'll put this on the screen. Colossians, chapter one, verses 16 to 18. Now, what I've done is I've pulled out a few phrases so you can actually see the oomph of the core of this text. And here's what Colossians one says. For by him. Who's him? Jesus. Jesus. Good job. By Jesus, all things were created. So the agent of creation in the Trinity is the Son. Jesus is the one who creates the world in heaven, meaning the sky, the stars, all of that. And on Earth, everything physical that you see jesus created. What about the invisible things? Did he create those? Absolutely. Whether you can see it or it's in the spiritual realm, all of it is created. And listen to this. All things were created for who?
[00:08:36] For Him. Now, it goes on to verse 17 in Him. Who's Him? Jesus. Jesus.
[00:08:43] All things hold together.
[00:08:46] Why don't we just break apart all these molecules in a million different directions? Why is it the entire universe, even that maverick molecule on the way out, middle of nowhere, in the middle of space, how is it all being held together? His name is Jesus, and when he holds something together, it works. But it goes on in verse 18.
[00:09:05] That in. Why all this? Why is he creating everything? Why are angels and everything created? The physical realm, the stars, the sky, you everything in this world that in everything he might have what are the words?
[00:09:18] First place? Some of your versions are going to say that he might be preeminent, that he is, of all the things, the most important thing, period. Every aspect of your life. God wants to be first in every area of your life. But here's the challenge. But sin tempts us to withhold from God that which is rightly. His. That is our first and that is our best of everything.
[00:09:48] And this is a little bit strange because you're like, okay, God, what do you want? And I think here's what he would say. All of you, I want your marriage, want your kids, want your work, want your schedule. I don't want you to keep me out of anything, because when you keep me out of stuff, it stops working. I hold stuff together. That's what I do. And so when I'm not in this thing, I'm not going to be holding this together. You need me actually to flourish and to function. So was God clear with ancient Israel what he wanted? For sure. Has God been clear with the New Testament Church? Exactly what he wants. 100%. All right. Leviticus 22. This is a chapter written for Israelites who want to bless God and who want to love God. And I love this. Like he takes the guessing out of the gift giving. So I don't know if you've ever had this experience where you're like, honey or a friend or mom or dad or Grandma, grandpa, what do you want for Christmas or for your birthday? I'm fine.
[00:10:47] No, you're not. You know exactly what you want, and you want me to guess it, but I'm not going to guess it because I'm not a prophet. And so if you could tell me what that is oh, anything you want to give me is just fine. No, I can't. No, not doing that. Now, if your love language is gift giving, you're really good at that. You don't actually need to be told. You are a special human being and a wonderful, awesome human. The vast majority of the world doesn't have that gift. And so you my experience the gift givers feel regularly let down by the gifts because you're like, well, I kind of wanted this, but God takes all the guessing out. Thank you, Jesus, for telling us exactly what you expect of us to the minuteest detail. I'm very grateful. And so here's what happens. There are two offerings in Leviticus 22 that are rehighlighted. So if you go back to the beginning of Leviticus, we dealt with the five offerings, old Testament offerings. Two of them are going to be rehighlighted here. And here's what these two are very important. They're what's called free will offerings. There are offerings that are required by Old Testament law. If you are a Jew, you have to offer them. These are optional offerings. These are not offerings that anybody's forcing you to make. These come unprompted from the heart for God to bless him. And so it's interesting, this chapter kind of just highlights these free will offerings. And basically, if you find yourself in a position where you want to bless God and you want to love Him and bring Him a gift that is spontaneous and from the heart, here's what would bring delight and joy to God. Leviticus 20 218, the burnt offering.
[00:12:26] When anyone of the house of Israel or of the Sojourners in Israel presents a burnt offering as his offering for any of their vows or free will offerings that they offer to the Lord. If it is to be accepted for you, which is what you want, it shall be a male without blemish of the bulls or the sheep or the goats. Thank you for the clarity that is crystal. That is a gift. Now, the burned offering is what I would call the I'm all in offering. So what happened is you'd bring an animal and what would happen is the animal would be completely consumed by the fire, and it would be consumed by the fire as a metaphor for I'm all yours. My life, my resources, my children, my everything, it is yours. Everything is consumed. You have the whole thing. This offering is a reflection of my heart. You have my whole heart. So here's what might prompt this. Inevitably, a follower of God would get to this point where they would say, you know, I've been thinking Egypt was terrible, and can you believe that God miraculously, after centuries intervened, saved us from Egypt and is now bringing us to a promised land? You'd step back and you'd realize, like, God loves me. It's unconditional.
[00:13:59] He has given me everything. And you kind of just step back and you're like, wow, God, everything that I have is from you. And sometimes you have these realizations and then what you realize is, you know what, God? Even though I have everything, I'm holding something back from you. And when you had that realization, what you would do is you would recommit your life back to yahweh by bringing freely a burnt offering.
[00:14:26] Often this would be triggered by something like a season or extended season of spiritual struggle.
[00:14:34] Or maybe it would be triggered by a season of maybe intentional sin where you were convicted of your sin and you're like, I'm done. God, I've been holding this back from you. This part of my life has not been under the authority of your word. I know what your word says. I haven't been doing it. Sometimes it would be followed by a season of apathy. And by the way, one of the perks of my job is I get to hear so many stories of people saying, I've been holding back and now I'm going to give this thing over to the Lord. And my life has been that way also. There have been seasons of my life where I'm like, God, I've held these things back from you. And the Lord just kind of has a way of reminding us of the things that we're holding back from Him, doesn't he? Even right now, some of you, you're like, holy Spirit, shush. I'm listening to Pastor Michael. Stop talking.
[00:15:20] You told me to be here, so I'm here. Leave me alone. Right? Okay, good. Sometimes these offerings are prompted by watching a friend fall away from the faith. And as you watch them fall away from the faith, you realize what life apart from God looks like. And so you just say, God, I don't want that to be me. I've also been holding parts of my life back. Sometimes when you watch a loved one die, death just has a way of bringing clarity to everything. And you're like, I'm going to die one day, and I'm going to face you. And my life is temporary, and I want you to have every part of me. So let's just take a minute.
[00:15:56] Is there anything right now that maybe the Holy Spirit is nudging you on?
[00:16:03] Here's what I know there are some of you in this room where you're like, listen, I feel like I've gone through a process lately, and, God, my palms are open. I'm trying not to hold anything too tightly. I know there's some things there, but when show them to me. I'm like, I'm ready to let them go. Right. And some of you are there, but I guarantee 100% of us in this room are not in that place right now.
[00:16:22] I guarantee that there are some people in the room that the Holy Spirit's like, there's this thing, this person, you need to let it go.
[00:16:30] It's not good for you. You know it's against my word. You know, it's not bringing flourishing. You know that I want better for you. You know that I've wanted this thing for a while. Now. It's time for you to give it up. And my encouragement to you is the rest of this message.
[00:16:46] Don't just ignore that. Maybe the question for you is, Lord, what is the next right thing for me to do in order to loosen my grip on this thing.
[00:16:57] Verse 20, here's what it says.
[00:17:00] You shall not offer anything that has a Blemish, for it will not be acceptable for you.
[00:17:10] Meaning that when you come with a burnt offering, you don't give him something with mange on it. It's not what we do. We give him something that is perfect because it is a symbol of our heart. I am giving you a blameless animal as a metaphor that I want you in my heart to be blameless before you. And I need you to remember this, the free will offering, the burnt offering, it is a free will offering. This is where the person comes unprompted because they're realizing in their life, like God, you and I are not right. And when the human heart realizes it's not right with God and it's motivated to do something, it comes to God and says, here's the thing that has been standing between me and you. I want to give this thing back to you. Verse 21 takes us to another free will offering. This is the peace offering. Verse 21 says, when anyone offers a sacrifice of peace offering to the Lord to fulfill a vow or as a free will offering from the herd or from the flock. This is my favorite offering because I call this the let's throw a party offering. I'm an extrovert and I love parties. So this is great. The peace offering, also a free will offering. And here's a handful of things that could motivate you to say I'm going to bring all my friends over, we're going to throw a big party and we're going to celebrate God. So number one would be to publicly celebrate God in your relationship with Him. Maybe it's your 10th anniversary of being a Christian and you're like, God's been incredible in my life. We celebrate our marriage anniversaries. So I'm going to throw a party with my friends and I just want to bring glory to God and say I love him. He's amazing. Let's throw a party. Number two, to celebrate a vow initiated or completed. Maybe you're like, listen, I'm going to commit my life to the Lord in a new way. Maybe you just became a Christian or maybe you fulfilled a vow or a promise that you made to God and you're like, listen guys, I want to throw a big party. God has been so good. He's been so faithful. Number three, to publicly celebrate a relationship restored, maybe you were at ODS with someone. God brought reconciliation and healing and so you guys threw a big party. That way everybody knows we're cool now. The awkwardness is over. Number four, to publicly celebrate your personal repentance. Maybe there was like sin in your life and you offered a burnt offering. And then to throw a big public party, you offered the peace offering to say not only did I give a burnt offering to communicate my all in with God. I'm repenting. But now I want everybody to know the old man is done. I'm putting that part of my life in the past. And I want all of you to know we're throwing a party in celebration of God. We're going to eat a lot of good food because I want you to hold me accountable to my personal repentance. Here's a fifth reason. You want to celebrate God's past faithfulness. And so this would happen on designated holidays. Some of these designated holidays would require a peace offering. But you could also do one freely to say god, as we think about your past goodness and faithfulness. I'm just going to throw a personal family party here to make sure that everybody knows you are our God. You are good. We're going to give you credit for everything and you have first place in our lives. There's a 6th reason that this happens. One time in the Old Testament where a peace offering is a party is thrown and the party itself actually functions almost like a prayer that a broken relationship could be restored. Okay, lot of reasons to throw a party. Amenville, church. So what? Throw more parties and bring God a lot of glory in that. But last week we saw that the priest who was making the offering needs to be blameless because who does he point to? Jesus. Jesus. Good job.
[00:20:57] And now what we're seeing again and again is that the offering itself also needs to be blameless because who does the offering point to? Jesus. Verse 21 goes on and says, to be accepted it must be perfect, the sacrifice. There shall be no blemish in it. Okay, so I have a question.
[00:21:21] Multiple times in the book of Leviticus, we are told over and over again, no blemish. No blemish. No blemish. No blemish as a mom or dad or grandma, grandpa, or as somebody who has a job where people report to you. If you have to repeat yourself over and over again, why?
[00:21:40] Think of a lot of reasons. They're not listening. They're not paying attention. They're a little bit belligerent, are going to do whatever they want to do. They easily forget or they're easily distracted. And so when you have to repeat yourself, typically you feel like there's a problem in the person listening. So why throughout the book of Leviticus are these requirements for a perfect offering being reiterated over and over and over again? And here's the simple answer.
[00:22:10] Because the human heart is greedy and inclined to keep for ourselves that which is God's.
[00:22:20] The most obvious is money. That's easy. We're greedy.
[00:22:25] What about our time, our bodies, our dreams, our heart? God, these are mine. If I give them to you, you might change them or you might do something that isn't in my script or my plan.
[00:22:44] Verse 22 gives more clarity. Here's what it says. Animals blind or disabled or mutilated or having a discharge or an itch or scabs. I love that he needs to tell them this. You shall not offer to the Lord or give them to the Lord as a food offering on the altar.
[00:23:06] Would you give your kids this kind of gift? Would you make a meal with rotten meat? No. Would you make a meal for your family or friends with a diseased animal?
[00:23:18] No. And he's like, so FYI when you're getting greedy and you want to keep for yourself that which is God's, watch out, because that's not the way we do things. And so we come to God and we're like, God, you can have three quarters of me. You're not allowed to touch this part of my life. You can't have this relationship and my money is off limits.
[00:23:44] And God's like, that's not how I do things.
[00:23:49] I think God will be like, no, I want all of you. And I understand it's going to be a struggle. Some of these, we're going to wrestle through them. Some of them, it's going to take a long time to work through it, but when you come to God, if you want to bless God, then you don't go, here's 90% of me, and then I'm going to keep the other 10% I'm going to put in my pocket and just hold it because it's mine. You can't touch that. He will get it at the end of the day anyways. Amen. He's going to go after it. Because if you are really, truly a Christian, if you have personally trusted in Christ, that's a real thing for the rest of your life. He is on a pursuit to finding all the places where you're closing your fist and opening them one finger at a time. I would just say, stop making it so hard for Him. That's just my two cent. Verse 31. It's a great summary of the book of Leviticus so far. So you should keep my commandments and do them. I am the Lord and you shall not profane. You guys remember this from last week. Profane my holy name. To profane means to make corrupt that I might be sanctified among the people of Israel. I am the Lord who sanctifies you, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. And over and over and over and over and over again in Leviticus, he says this, I am the Lord. Let's refresh on some Old Testament terminology. So to be profane is to corrupt something. And typically when you're profaneing something, you're taking something holy or sanctified and you are making it corrupted, well, then you have one step that's not quite as bad. You can be unclean. Sometimes unclean is sinful, sometimes it's not. But like, unclean means you can't really approach the presence of God while you're unclean. Common things are just good. They're not clean or unclean, they're just kind of neutral good things. Like a rock outside. It's not good or bad, it's just a thing. When something's clean, this means it's great. It means clean things are able to approach the presence, the physical presence of God in the Old Testament, that's what that means. But holy and sanctified, this is different.
[00:25:51] The only things that can come near the presence and proximity of God are things that are holy or set apart, because God himself is holy. That's why the high priest, only the high priest goes into the holy of holies, the most holy place, once a year, and all the ritual cleansing and purification he has to do, because he needs to be holy before he goes into the very presence of God. And here's what God is teaching. When you take your offerings or you hold something back from God, it profanes his name. This is big language, and I want to show you this in action.
[00:26:29] Open up your Bibles. The reference will be on the screen, but not the text. Malachi, chapter one. I'm going to read verses six to 14, then a couple of verses in chapter three. And this text, I mean, this whole book is intense. It is four chapters of a fight. God is fighting with the priest and with Israel, and there is an argument back and forth, and we're going to get into it. And the core of the argument starts off with, you are doing terrible things with your offerings. You are not bringing offerings that reflect a whole heart committed to God. So here's what happens in verse six.
[00:27:04] A son honors his father and a servant his master. If, then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I'm a master, where is my fear? Says the Lord of hosts to you, o priests? Now you see the people he's talking to, o priests, who despise my name.
[00:27:26] But you say, how have we despised your name? God's answer by offering polluted food upon my altar. But you say, how have we polluted you? The Lord's response by saying that the Lord's table may be despised when you offer blind animals in sacrifice. Now that you know Levitical law and requirements for these offerings, are you a little bit shocked that they're like, well, I have a blind animal. I mean, that'll do.
[00:28:00] Is that not evil?
[00:28:03] And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor. Will he accept you or show you favor? Says the Lord of Hosts. What's interesting is that the Lord of hosts most literally means the Lord of angel armies. And so he's like, listen, you're approaching the God with angel armies in masses and multitudes you can't even fathom. You wouldn't even do this to a governor with a couple of soldiers next to him. And you come to the Lord of angel armies and you offer a sick, polluted, lame, disease animal. What is wrong with you? It's. Not even logical. Just use your brain. You wouldn't do that there.
[00:28:47] Why would you do that with me?
[00:28:49] Verse nine. I appreciate verse nine says, and now entreat the favor of God that he may be gracious with us. This is striking that even in the midst of such disgusting gifts, god's like, I want to be gracious to you. My hand is outstretched. We can turn this thing around right now. Like we can make this right with such a gift from your hand. Will he show favor to any of you, says the Lord of hosts. Verse ten.
[00:29:16] Oh, that there were one among you that would shut the doors. Like somebody would stand up and say, this is disgusting, we're shutting the doors. Nobody has given this to the Lord that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain. I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand. Verse eleven. From the rising of the sun to its setting, my name will be great among the nations and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering for my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. But you look at this word, you profane it when you say that the Lord's table is polluted and its fruit, that is, that its food may be despised, but you say, oh, what a weariness this is, and you snort at it, says the Lord of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence. You didn't even bring your own animal. You broke into someone else's yard, stole theirs and brought it as if it was yours.
[00:30:21] You bring what has been taken by violence in verse 13 or is lame or sick, and you bring this as your offering. Shall I accept this from your hand? Says the Lord. Cursed be the cheat who has a male flock, vows it and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished? For I'm a great king, says the Lord of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations. Like, literally, these people are like, well, I have I mean, I could bring the offering, I could, but I got this lame one. Better yet, my neighbor has one. I'll go steal his and offer it as mine. I got one. That's diseased. But like, I mean, it's just the priest. Who cares? Go to chapter three. It gets even more intense.
[00:31:01] Will man rob God yet you're robbing me, but you say, how have we robbed you? And his answer in your tithes and contributions you're cursed with a curse. For you're robbing me, the whole nation of you bring the full tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts. If I will not open up the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. Like, Leviticus is clear and this is their posture. Do you see the problem? And God's, like, you wouldn't even do this to people you hate and you do this to the Lord of angel armies. All right, so let's just have a moment of self reflection.
[00:31:44] Why do I, withhold my first and my best from God? Three primary reasons. And maybe one of these might resonate with you in your weaker moments.
[00:31:53] Number one is to selfishly indulge myself. I deserve it. You take something that you know or maybe even promise to give to the Lord and you spend it or use it for yourself.
[00:32:07] Number two is to fearfully protect myself just in case. Just in case, God, I can't give you this thing or this relationship or this currency or whatever, because what if I need it later? What if I need it later? Like, I need to make sure that I'm okay later. So I need to withhold what I promised or what you want from me just so that I can be okay later. Okay? And number three is out of ignorance. Like, nobody ever told me. I cannot tell you how many Christians have never understood that God does not just want one piece of the pie of your life. He wants every part of it. And that is a new teaching for so many believers. And I'm like, yeah, there's no part of your life. The book of Leviticus teaches this. He will invade with his word and with his spirit every single aspect of your life, even the most private aspects.
[00:32:50] Let's reflect maybe a little more deeply. So as a Christian, why might I give God my first and my best? Like, what could possibly motivate me? I have two big reasons, and number one is because I trust Him.
[00:33:09] I don't always understand why.
[00:33:12] God often doesn't tell me why. Actually, rarely does.
[00:33:16] He does tell me what.
[00:33:18] And what I've learned is that when I obey God's word, when I obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit that are consistent with his Word, I am at peace. My soul can rest, and it is good for me. And so I have learned over time, god is trustworthy. Now, I know God's trustworthy, but my heart has learned as I have submitted more and more aspects of my life under his leadership, I'm like, you are good.
[00:33:48] There's a second reason somebody might do this, and it's because you're choosing to trust Him.
[00:33:55] And there are going to be seasons where you know God is trustworthy in your head and your heart isn't quite there yet, but you're like, you know what? I know you're good. You've never let me down yet. So I'm going to choose in this moment to trust you. And I want to just be clear. I think God loves it when you don't feel like doing it and you do it anyways.
[00:34:15] It's easy to do the things that feel good or that you know or believe. But it is admirable when you're like, listen, I don't get it. I have not seen you come through a whole lot. Maybe I'm a new Christian, maybe my life's been really hard. I had expectations of you, but you're telling me you want this part of my life. I'm going to make a decision. My head knows you're trustworthy. My heart has not felt that yet. I'm to make this decision to trust you with this part of my life once. So what?
[00:34:44] In all free will offerings, we bring to God our first, our best, and our most valuable.
[00:34:52] And this principle of the free will offering, you're going to see this. This is the basis for which we come to Christ. We do this freely. It's the basis for the New Testament understanding of tithes and offerings. It is the basis for we think about with ministry. We come to God and we offer our lives as an offering to Him, as a sacrifice to Him, as a burnt offering to Him. Consume us. All of it is yours. And because all of my life is yours, I am going to give you my first and my best of every part of my life. I don't want you to have some of it. I want you to have all of it. Now, in case you're wondering, this idea of an offering, it is not new to the Old Testament, to the Old Covenant. From the very beginning, people who loved God brought offerings to God. So go all the way back to the very first people. You have Cain and you have Abel. Do you guys remember them? It's interesting because they both brought an offering to God. And a little interpretive like hint for you. Old Testament narrative does not tell you what is right and wrong. It shows you what is right and wrong. And so in the story, something really interesting happens.
[00:36:01] Abel, the good guy, he brings an offering. And you know what he does? He brings the first fruits, the firstborn I'm sorry. And of the offering that he gives, he gives the Lord all the fat. Because all fat is who's the Lord's. It's the best part. You should know that now, you know. And so Abel does something really admirable, and the adjectives tell you everything you need to know. He brought his first and his best, and he gave it to the Lord. And by the time he gets to Cain's offering, all it says is that he brought an offering of food. No adjectives, nothing.
[00:36:40] And then Cain's like, why don't you like my offering? This is my interpretive version of it. And God's like, literally, you gave me leftovers. Your brother gave me his first and his best. And that was a reflection of who he believes that I am. You come to me and you give me your leftovers. And you're like, why don't you want my offering? What does God want? The very thing he's wanted from the beginning. All of you. All of you. And here's the deal.
[00:37:07] There's this commitment that we make. We're like, God, you can have all of me, but the reality is the rest of our lives he's going to spend helping us realize the parts of ourselves that we've actually been holding back. But here's the deal. When your posture to God is palms open, I'm not going to hold on to anything so tightly. God, you're going to find yourself holding on to things. Amen.
[00:37:29] But, but even just the agreement, I don't want to do it. I can't see the things that I'm clenching onto. I can't see it. Lord, I know they're there and you're going to show them to me. But when you do show them, I'm going to release my grip. What I'm committing to you is, God, I want to be all in. I don't want to hold a part of my life back from you because I want every part of me to flourish so that your name looks great.
[00:37:49] I don't want people to look at me and then have your name profaned because they know what your word says and like, yeah, I'm going to hold this back from the Lord. I don't want people to see that. I don't want people to look at my worship and think that you're not worthy of everything that I have. And so we make this commitment to say, god, I'm all in. Everything that I have is yours. Understanding that the Lord is going to reveal progressively every year of our life the things that we're kind of holding back. But here's our commitment. When I realize them, I'm going to loosen the grip and I'm going to give this thing to you. So if you're a believer, here, my question for you is just simple. Like, what is it? Maybe that the Holy Spirit is prompting you, that you're holding back? And I want to just challenge you, offer it to the Lord. Now, some of you, let's process this through maybe a Five Love Languages grid. Just for fun. Some of you, you think this is a sermon about money because maybe that's what the Holy Spirit is prompting you on. For some of you, it might be a sermon about money. And here's the deal. This is the great thing about money. Guess who controls your money?
[00:38:53] You do.
[00:38:55] You can change.
[00:38:58] For some of you, let's look at this to the grid of the love language, of acts of service. Some of you think this is a sermon about your lack of personal ministry. Like you're not building the kingdom of God in your local church, in your community, really anywhere. And honestly, if you're being really honest, you're like, I'm probably not building in my home either. And so for some of you, you're like, I think this is a sermon about personal ministry. And for some of you, it might be. And here's what I love. You can change that. Like, you have self control and you can make decisions. You can actually do something different. You're not a slave to that. You can change quality time. Some of you, you think this is a sermon about how much time you spend with God and the Word and prayer and talking with Him and just generally being with Him. And for some of you, this is a sermon about that. And again, I just want to highlight this. You can change that. You're not a slave to ignoring God. You can actually choose to spend time with Him anytime you want. It's a great thing about God being anywhere all the time, being present inside of you, is it doesn't matter where you're at. You can talk with Him and engage Him. Words of affirmation. Some of you might think this is a sermon about your lack of presence or engagement in church or worship. And you're like, I'm here, but I don't really want to be here, and I'm not really all in and I hate when we sing and I'm bored in the sermons and Leviticus is dumb and whatever else. And here's the deal. You might not actually be excited today to sing, but here's the deal. I really believe that when you do the things that bless God even when you don't want to, that is just so admirable.
[00:40:28] All right, love language of physical touch. I've got nothing on this one, by the way. So I was like thinking, I'm like, but God wants every area of your life. There's nothing he doesn't want, which is amazing because he loves you and he loves every area of your life and he wants it to flourish. And we live in a sinful world and there is no part of your life that he does not want to get a hold of and begin to change the trajectory of it. Now, maybe you are here and you've never trusted in Christ, and great news for you, you have something, and I want to phrase this specifically, and you've heard this come up in Leviticus. It's not that you have something that God wants.
[00:41:10] You actually have something that is his and he wants it back.
[00:41:15] You, all of you, your body, your soul, your eternity, all of it. This is the nature of a free will offering, is that you get to freely come. And so, like, here you are. God is offering you mercy and grace and forgiveness. And he's doing this with an arm outstretched, despite the fact that you have taken from Him what is his. And maybe you've never thought about it like that. Just because you haven't thought about it like that doesn't mean it's not real. And what he is offering is that anybody who says, God, I am sorry for that, and believes in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, forgiveness and reconciliation is yours. And I just great news. Give back to him, because when he gets a hold of it for the first time, you're going to have a fighting chance. That thing that is crumbling, that is falling apart, you're not going to have a fighting chance until he gets a hold of it. So everything you want, all the things that you actually really want in your heart of hearts, not the things that are evil and sinful, whatever, but all the things that are going to bring flourishing to your body, to your relationships, to your soul, you need him.
[00:42:26] But the first decision is to say, god, I have to give first. I have to give myself back to you. Here's all of me. I don't know what that means. I don't know all the places in my life that you're going to have to undo and unravel. I'm sure there's going to be a lot welcome to everyone's story in this entire room.
[00:42:41] But god, whatever that is, I want you to have all of it. If that is a decision that you have never made and you want to make today, I love this. You can tell god you're sorry anytime, and you can say, I believe jesus died for my sins and was raised from the dead. Forgive me and save me. You can do that now. You can do that tonight. You can do that a year from now, anytime. God is available and listening and is ready to welcome you home. Give back to him what is his. If that is a decision you want to make today, I want to encourage you. Tell somebody you came with. Find one of us up front. Tell somebody we would just love to come alongside of you and encourage you and help you take a next step as you learn what it means to follow jesus. I want to take a moment. I want to pray for us. Leviticus out for 2023. We're going to jump back in later in 2024 and let's pray as we get ready for communion. Father, we love you. Thank you for every good gift. Thank you for mercy and for grace. And I want to thank you that every part of our life that you touch, it now has the possibility for healing and for flourishing. Lord, we also admit that your pace is not always our pace, but, lord, we want to have a fighting chance. And, lord, if there's anybody in this room who has never, ever given back to you what is rightfully yours, god, I pray today that you would show them your goodness, your kindness, and the truth of who jesus really is. Lord, as we turn our hearts towards communion, we remember we remember what you have done for us. We love you and we thank you and we do all of this in jesus name. Amenville. Church amen.
