Offering: Living & Giving for the Glory of God
Study of Leviticus
Overview & The Burnt Offering
Leviticus 1:1-17
First Family Church
317 S.E. Magazine Rd.
Ankeny, IA 50021
www.firstfamilyministries.com
Transcript of Message by Todd Stiles
January 9, 2011
We are beginning a new series entitled “Offering: Living and giving for the glory of God.” It is a chapter by chapter understanding of the book of Leviticus. That is right, I said Leviticus. It is the third book of the Old Testament. Some of you have never proba-bly even read a verse in that book. So if you are wondering where it is, go to the begin-ning of the Bible and then just kind of turn to the right a few pages and you will see Le-viticus. It is a very intriguing book.
But I want you to know that I share in some of your distance from the book because I have discovered the last several days I have never preached a message from Leviticus. I say that probably to my shame. In all my years of youth ministry and these last, I don’t know, seven, eight or nine as a pastor, a lead pastor, at least, teaching weekly, I think I probably avoided it. I think I probably avoided it. I don’t know if I did it consciously, but for whatever reason I have never preached a message from this book. I have referenced it. I have given verses. I have shown principles. But I have kind of viewed Leviticus like you have, like, you know what? It is part of the Bible, yes, but do we have to read it? Because it just seemed hard. It seemed difficult.
We sometimes see Leviticus like a trip to the dentist, don’t we? You know, if you like going to the dentist don’t raise your hand and blow my analogy, ok? But I don’t think I know anyone that likes to go to the dentist. Now all of us go don’t we? Sure we do. You get them cleaned. You get a cavity filled. You get a root canal. And you do whatever you have got to do because you know it is necessary and you need it. But I have never met anyone that says, “Guess what? Today is my dentist’s day. I get to go to the dentist. Let’s have a party.” No one says that. You just don’t look at the dentist that way.
And I think sometimes we see Leviticus like that. It is necessary. We know we should and so we will, but we just don’t like it.
I have a personal goal that by the end of Easter that we will be done with our series in Leviticus. I pray that, you will reread it because you want to and that you won’t see it like a trip to the dentist, but you will see it like a trip to your great grandmothers.
You say, “What do you mean by that?”
Let me explain. Because that is how I see Leviticus. It is like a trip to my great grandmas. We call her Momma Ruth. She lived in Cleveland, Georgia and we would go see my mom’s parents. That really wasn’t that different for our family.
Now she grew up on a farm. We were city kids, so that was different, but the truth was we would go to my grandparents. They had similar things. It wasn’t that different, but when we went up the road to Momma Ruth’s house, for some reason it was like entering into a bubble, a time warp happened. And suddenly it just seemed like, wow. I am step-ping back into something I am very unfamiliar with.
Now watch this. I didn’t mind doing it. The truth is me and my sisters we kind of liked going to Momma Ruth’s because it was really strange and different in some ways. And so we would say, “Hey, can we go down the road to Momma Ruth’s house?”
And Mom and Dad would say, “Sure, let’s go visit.”
Even though we liked it, it was really different. It was different from the minute we drove in the driveway because as a kid I remember pulling into the dirt gravel road and there was this car the size of a boat and it had three letters on the back, L T D. I am thinking, L T D, is that a word? What is that, you know? This is a massive car sitting in the driveway. That was different.
And we would enter into the house and there was an old rickety porch. The carpet, the walls, all the pictures were black and white. Everything just seemed like a different day and time.
But I knew somehow I was connected to that. Somehow the lady in those pictures and her parents, which would have been my great, great grandparents, somehow I have got a connection to them. And so amidst all of the things that were different and made me real-ize why I don’t... I don’t know if I really belong here. I knew somehow... watch this. I did belong.
That is how I see Leviticus after reading it many times in the last several months. It is honestly and straight forwardly different. Most of what is in this book will not apply to our culture today. We don’t offer bulls. We don’t drag goats to the tabernacle. We don’t worship in a structure with tents and cloths. Those are... it is really different.
And yet I find this strange affinity because the God that was worshipped in this book, the God of Leviticus is the God that we worship today.
So I hope that you won’t see it like a trip to the dentist, but I hope that when we are done you will see it like a trip to your great grandma’s house. Yeah, it is like different, but you can’t wait to get there.
So your Bibles are open, right? Leviticus chapter one. I want to give you some infor-mation about the book as a whole. Then we will dive in and understand the first of the five offerings this morning.
Maybe you are asking, “How do we get to Leviticus? What brings us to the point where God is giving all of these different codes and regulations and requirements and specifica-tions? What is the point of all that? How did we get here? Why is it necessary?
Well, go back with me to Abraham, would you? God sovereignly chooses and calls Abraham. And then Abraham has Isaac and Jacob and Jacob has 12 sons. And the 12 sons end up in Egypt. There is a famine and one thing leads to another and here is the children of Israel no doubt more than a million of them living in this land called Egypt and they have become a people of... owned by the Egyptians. They are slaves and hun-dreds of years pass and here is God’s people enslaved by the Egyptians. That is where they are.
God calls a man named Moses and he is the deliverer so to speak and he goes to Egypt after being raised there, committing a crime. He flees. God calls him in a burning bush experience. He goes back to Egypt and he is the deliverer through a series of plagues. He delivers the people of Israel and they leave.
For two months they travel in this desert. They cross the Red Sea. They are so glad they are free. They come to the base of this mountain named Mount Sinai or it could be called Mount Horeb or some scholars even call it Mount Sinai. And so they are at this base of this mountain and finally God is speaking to them and he is saying, “Listen. I want you to worship me now. You are able to. You are free to. It is going to be a new day for you.”
So they are at the base of this mountain waiting for the laws, regulations which will gov-ern their life as a free people of God.
So Moses goes to the mountain and there is... the whole 40 day experience there is quite intriguing. Your lighthouse leader probably has access to a study guide called the Leviti-cal Timeline. And it gives the things that happened between when they arrived at the base of this mountain and how Moses got the laws for the tabernacle, the laws for wor-ship, the laws governing relationships, all those things that happened on the mountain. It is quite interesting how he approached the mountain, went deeper into it. For six whole days no one said a word, just Moses and God were there. It was total silence until the seventh day God spoke. He gave them the laws.
So this is all that is going on. He comes down and you know about the idolatry, the gold-en calf. He gets the second draft on the next trip up. To make a longer story a little short-er he comes down. They follow the laws. They build the tabernacle and Exodus 40 is upon us finally. The tabernacle is constructed which is really the entire structure.
Within the tabernacle there is a tent of meeting where God was going to dwell. And that is where Exodus 40 is. And so the thing is built. Here is the tent of meeting. Here is the holy of holies and in Exodus 40 the glory of God descends. Can you imagine being in that group of people watching? Finally God descending. And now watch this. And living among you.
Prior to this he had spoken in a cloud or by a fire, remember? But now God is descending and he is saying, “I want to live among you.”
My first question would be, “Ok, God is among us. He is right here in this meeting, in this tent, in this dwelling place. How do we approach him? What do we do with this? How do we relate to this God Yahweh?” That is what Leviticus answers.
It tells the nation of Israel, “Now that I am living among you, here is how you can relate to me.”
In fact, look at Leviticus 1:1. The glory of God has descended. They are gathered and the very first three words, “And the Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting.”
Here now he is going to lay out and explain how these people are to approach and relate to this God who is now living among them. In fact, the first three words of verse one, “The Lord called...” that is actually the Hebrew name for the book of Leviticus.
Somewhere along the years they inserted the name Leviticus to actually mean that this is a book about things pertaining to the Levites or those who handled the tabernacle and priestly duties. But technically the name of the book in the Hebrew scrolls is, “And the Lord called...” or the Lord summoned.
And so that is what is happening. God is now dwelling among the people and he is call-ing to them saying, “Here is how you can approach me.”
Knowing that, I think we can get a better understanding of the book as a whole because it is... the book shows us how we are to approach God, how we are to relate to him. But let me give you just real briefly as an overview five things that I think help me understand the book better. It is five ways we ought to recast the Leviticus knowing what we know about it and how we got to it. I think there are five things that will help you see this not as a trip to the dentist, but as a trip to great grandma’s house, so to speak.
It is a bloody book. It is not a boring book. It is bloody book. Read it. There is sacrifices galore. There is all kinds of—and I use the word appropriately here—gore and guts. It is the kind of book a guy can really get into, you know? I mean, just reading it and like, hey, this is my kind of book.
It is a manly book.
Now, you just read Leviticus just even a scant reading you will find something. There were no sissy priests. It took a lot not only to be a priest, to handle the animals, to be in-volved in all the sacrifices, to carry all the tabernacle stuff. Those things were difficult, but it also took a lot o be a man in the society of Jerusalem, in the society of the Israelites.
I don’t think Israelite men who followed Jesus were wimps. Truly, I think they were pretty tough. They had to take their animals, sacrifice them, kill them, lead their family in that. That is a lot to Leviticus that makes me realize it takes a real man to follow Jesus.
Hey, guys, Leviticus will help you a lot. It is also a prophetic book. It really points to Je-sus in lots of ways. All the books of the Bible do, but Leviticus especially because of its bloodiness and because of its sacrificial nature. We will see Jesus on every page. It will be awesome.
It is a worshipping book because it lays out for us the structural and regulatory ways they were to bring their sacrifices. We see exactly how the Israelites worshipped God thou-sands of years ago. And it is also a costly book.
Leviticus is quite expensive. They were bringing the best of their herd, the best of their flock. They were bringing the best of their birds. They were bringing the first fruits of their harvest. They were giving the best of their time in different festivals and feasts. If you were an Israelite you didn’t just enter into this worship of Yahweh with some like lackadaisical mentality. It was an expensive environment.
Now you cast Leviticus that way and I think a lot of us would have more interest in it. But that is the book we are going to look at, a bloody, manly, prophetic, worshipping, costly book that explains how the Israelites related in worship to God who was now dwelling among them.
One of the reasons it is so bloody and costly is because it contains five offerings. The first of those was called the whole burnt offering and it is explained in Leviticus one. Your Bibles are opened there. Let’s read about this offering.
Understand some of the parameters about it. And then we will just make a few closing principles that I think will guide us in understanding how it works.
Behind me, first of all, is a picture of an actual replica of the burnt offering. Or it was called the brazen altar. It is where the burnt offerings took place. The larger picture shows the exact size and dimensions and how it was carried and the utensils used and how it was formed. The inset picture shows a little more about the camp as a whole. You will notice that this tabernacle, which was the entire compound, the structure there, the white fence and everything. That is kind of considered the tabernacle. Inside of there were the... where the smaller unit is there and the glory of God is descending. That is kind of the tent of meeting. And then within the tent of meeting there was the holy of holies. That is where the ark of the covenant was. On top of that was the mercy seat. That is where only the high priest went in annually.
So that is kind of what it looked like. You see the tents facing the tabernacle where God’s dwelling was. That is kind of a replica, a picture of what it might have been like to live in that culture in those days.
So you will notice the burnt offering, the brazen altar was actually just outside the tent of meeting. You can hardly see it there, but that is where chapter one would take place on a regular basis, at this brazen altar inside the tabernacle just outside the tent of meeting.
With that picture up there... we will leave it up there for you to kind of reference as we read along, let’s understand what some parameters about the whole burnt offering, ok? Leviticus chapter one verse one it says, “The Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting. And he said, ‘Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, that when any one of you brings an offering...’”
This is a general reference to the offerings that they are going to describe.
“When any one of you brings an offering, you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or the flock.”
And now he is going to specifically talk about the burnt offering. He says, “Here is some general requirements about offerings that you bring from the herd or the livestock, the flock.
Verse three.
“If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd...”
Do you see that? So we see, first of all, that this offering was a burnt offering. It is the name of this first one and apparently it was voluntary with the word “if” there in verse three.
So while the offerings were essential to their worship, only two of them were compulsory, the guilt offering, the sin offering. Here the burnt offering as well as the next two, the peace offering and the grain offering, they were voluntary. But if you were to bring one you were to bring it from your herd. If you had a herd you could bring a male without blemish. So bring a bull. Do you see that in verse three?
Now notice something on a general note here. Verses three though nine talk about bring-ing something from your herd. Verses 10 through 13 talk about bringing something from your flock and 14 through 17 talk about bringing something, I guess, from your cage or the birds. We are going to see how they all relate.
Watch this.
He says, “If you bring some thing from your herd,” if you bring a bull you will bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting “that you may be accepted before the Lord.”
That is why they brought the sacrifice. It was to be accepted by God. The burnt offering was really one of the ways that they could procure divine favor, that God would look up-on them with... and smile upon them because of the offering they were bringing.
So you bring this before the Lord and then the guy who brings it, “He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering,” or the bull if it was from the herd. “And it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.”
Isn’t that intriguing? That when you would bring a bull you would lay your hand on the head of this bull, transferring the guilt of your sin to the animal and then God would see that and would recognize that and make atonement for you.
Now this all happened prior to killing the bull. So your hands on the head of the bull. You are transferring the guilt of your sin. God sees that, accepts that as a substitute. And then, verse five says this person who brought the bull, he shall kill it, where? Before the Lord.
Notice who the offering is to. It is not to the priest. Amen? It is to the Lord. Even in this culture where there were priests and high priests. They weren’t offering and worshipping a person. They were offering and worshipping before the Lord. This person would kill the bull and that was probably a traumatic scene.
And then Aaron’s sons and the priests shall bring the blood and throw the blood against the sides of the altar. The word “throw” there is an intentional word of force. There was nothing like mealy or lazy about this. The animal was killed. The blood was drained. They would take the and they would throw it on the sides of the altar.
Then verse six says he shall flay the burnt offering, cut it into pieces. Notice that this is where the work of the priest kicks in and they take the blood and start flaying the animal. Up to this point it was the offerer that did all of the work. So you brought your animal and you killed your animal. Quite interesting that I suspect that every burnt offering the animal you own and raised and the animal to which you took a knife to its throat.
You probably thought things like this. You know, this animal didn’t do any sin. Come on. It is going to die anyway. Just that whole idea of transferring guilt and the... it had to be an emotional moment. It had to be a time consuming moment. This didn’t happen in the matter of three or four minutes. They weren’t late to the temple, go to quick check and run out to catch the NFL. That didn’t happen at the temple, at the tabernacle. Do you know what I am saying?
This took time. It took intentionality. It took proactivity.
So then the priests step in. They arrange the pieces on the fire, the head, the fat and the wood that is on the fire.
Verse nine says its entrains and its legs, the priest would wash with water. What a gory job, you know? This is all happening there at the brazen altar.
And the priest then shall burn all of it on the altar. Circle the word “all,” would you? Be-cause this shows us something quite significant about the whole burnt offering that was not true about other offerings. In this offering everything was burned up, everything. It was all given to God. And to the Lord it says it was a food offering with a pleasing offering to the Lord.
Watch this, guys. As odd as this may sound, here is what the text tells us, that when a worshipper would bring a bull and kill it and its blood would make atonement and God would accept the person and they would burn it and then it all go to God, that God’s nostrils would do this. And then God would smile and say, “Wow, that is pleasing.”
Crazy, isn’t it? It sounds like... but God loves worship. He loves sacrifice. So what hap-pened here?
In verse 10 similar things happened. But this time it was with something from the flock. As it says in verse 10, sheep or goats. Even then you are to bring a male without blemish, similar to what you bring from the herd. And, of course, similar to verses three through 10, verse nine, I mean. Similar to those verses you should kill it on the north side of the altar.
Now the north side is not mentioned in the first passage, but I think it is safe to say that probably that is where all the killing took place on the north side of the altar.
By the way, the tabernacle faced east. So if I have got my direction straight, north would probably be on the bottom side of that picture, the little insert there. So they would slay the sheep or the goat there that they would bring, the male. They would then throw its blood on the sides of the altar. Again, verse 12, you would cut it to pieces, the head and its fat. You will arrange it.
Here is the same identical procedure pretty much just not as much animal to work with. You clean up the legs and so forth. You offer again on verse 13. All of it. Again, this is burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
In verse 14 he begins to discuss the same kind of procedure with something of birds.
Now let me make a comment here about this because the chapter nicely divides itself into three sections. Something from your herds, something from your flock and something from the birds. Why the difference? Why were you allowed to do different things?
I think it is a clear cut case of what you could do economically, what you had available. What was not allowed was an exemption. You could choose various items, but listen, church, you could not come empty handed.
Does any one else feel a conviction at this point other than me? God didn’t say, “Oh, that’s right. You don’t really have anything.”
No. Everybody had something. And so God in his wisdom and sovereign love made a way for everyone to participate. That shows me something. In real worship involvement is essential.
Somebody may say, “Well, I don’t have much.”
Well, give what you can. Sure you have got what the poor widow had, two little mites which is a nickel. And it is far worse, watch this, to say, “Well, I don’t have much. I won’t give anything.” That is far worse than saying, “God, here is all I have got. I will give you all I have got. It is not much, but I am giving what I can.”
Praise God for that. God here made no allowance for those who didn’t give anything. He just said, “If you are on different levels economically, financially, if you are doing well, give a bull. Not doing quite as well, give a sheep or a goat. If it has been tough times give a bird, but by all means give something.”
And notice something interesting. No one showed up with a watch.
You say, “What do you me, Todd?”
I have heard folks say, “Well, I am going to give my time.”
I am sure these folks gave their time, too. But everyone brought something in their hands.
Ouch.
I want to encourage you like I encourage myself and our family. The Lord, he makes no allowance for us to come empty handed.
Here the part about the bird says that you will bring your offering of turtle doves or pi-geons. By the way, that is what Jesus’ parents brought in Luke chapters, what? Two, three or four in that area. Which says to us that they were probably on the lower end of the economic scale. At this point the priest would wring off the head of the bird.
See, I told you this was a manly book. I have never wringed off a bird’s head in my days of pastoral ministry. I have never had to... You know, I have never done anything like that.
I know that we are not priests today. That is not what I am saying. But it is just interest-ing to read about the manliness and the jobs these priests had to undertake.
He wrings off the bird’s head. Its blood shall be drained. You shall remove its crop which is basically a pouch, a muscular pouch on the side of the bird’s esophagus. Not all birds have them. Owls don’t, but most birds do. And it is a place where they store food.
He says you take that crop and you empty it of its contents. You cast it beside the altar on the east side in the place of ashes. You tear it open by its wings, but you don’t sever it completely.
I think that is simply because if you take a bird that is already small and you sever it, what are you left with? Not much. They did cut the other animals up because they were larger, but I think in this case he is just saying, “Listen. If you make... if you take the bird’s head off and then you chop it up you are going to be left with like maybe like cas-serole pieces or something.” I am not sure how that is going to look. So leave the bird whole. Offer it on the altar, on the wood that is on the fire. This, too, the last verse says, a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
So one chapter about the first and most essential, central sacrifice called the burnt offer-ing. It was to be offered on the brazen altar and all of it was to be consumed.
By the way, the Hebrew words of whole burnt offering which is what this was, it was a whole burnt offering, the Hebrew word of that are comprised of these syllables. Listen very carefully. Holocaust.
What do you think the Jews thought whether it was in Egypt or Germany when they were trying to be wholly exterminated? We hear the word holocaust. We hear it is as a historical term. They looked at it as wow. They are trying to get rid of every one of us. Make sense?
The word holocaust is a word that speaks more than history to the Jew. It speaks of this offering. And when they thought about how they offered something on the brazen altar, every bit of it was consumed. And then that word was also used to describe the tents of wicked people to exterminate God’s people. There is no doubt it had an emotional ring to it.
I am sure moms and dads thought, why are we the burnt offering? Quite intriguing.
So here is this chapter on the whole burnt offering.
Quickly, a couple of things about its parameters. As I mentioned it was voluntary. We see this is in verse three. It was various. We see this in verses three, 10 and 14. You could bring either a bull or a sheep or a goat or a bird. It was also continual. You won’t see this in this chapter, but I would ask you to write this reference down. In Leviticus chapter six there are additional parameters given for the burnt offering just like there are additional parameters given in chapters five, six and seven about other offerings. And one of the parameters in chapter six says that the burnt offering should never go out. The priest’s job was to make sure it is always burning. The wood on the altar is always burning so that folks could come in, bring their offerings, their burnt offerings any time they wanted to. It was a continual never ending 24/7 offering.
Imagine being in this camp facing the tabernacle and seeing the smoke rise 24 hours a day seven days a week. What would you think? Somebody is worshipping God. Somebody is worshipping God. Somebody is worshipping God. That would be an awesome picture, wouldn’t it? The way worship should be.
Which is why in Hebrews 13 the verse that Marty read for us earlier talking about the sacrifice that we make. The key word in that verse is the word “continually.”
He says, “Let us continually offer our praise to God.”
Worship to the believer is a 24/7 lifestyle. Just like the burnt offerings never went out, our worship to God should never go out.
Some of you are wondering when could they come and make this offering. The fire never went out, but when did they come make this offering? They made it every morning and every evening we know. Someone from some tribe, from some clan in some family would make their way with a bull or a goat or a sheep or a bird and make an offering. They also made this offering on special days, especially before battle.
1 Samuel chapter seven talks about the ark of the covenant being dislodged for several years and the people of God wanting it back. But the Philistines stood in the way. So before they went to battle, the prophet of God engaged in a burnt offering to procure God’s favor to be able to get the ark back.
So on special days like that, also after certain purification rituals which is exactly when Jesus was brought to the temple by Mary and Joseph and they offered turtle doves and pigeons.
So there were special days, morning and evening, purification rituals. The burnt offering was the essential, central, sacrifice of their system.
Also notice some other things quickly. It was personal. The offerer brought it, laid its hand on it. You could not just kind of drop off your animal and say, “Hey, could you take care of that? I will come back in three hours.”
There is no drive through sacrificial system. It was very personal.
It is also... I mentioned it is whole. All the offering was burned. And I think one of the neatest parameters is it was the best. You brought the best of your herd. You brought the best of your flock. You brought the best of your birds.
You say, “Todd, that is all interesting. Leviticus chapter one. You got me through it. I am surprised. I like it that much. It wasn’t the dentist after all. I am enjoying this, Todd. You are saying all these things about Leviticus. You are intrigued with the sacrificial sys-tem. You learned a good bit.”
But you are left with this question. So what? It still seems like great grandma’s house a long time ago, kind of disconnected. I mean, what can we really learn from this chapter?
I will offer you three things quickly.
True worship is what God inhabits and do you know what? God inhabits unending praise, the kind that never ceases. The burnt offering shows us something, that God wants a continual life style of worship in his people.
Do you know that worship is far more than music? And Marty will be first to tell you that. But sometimes in the American Church we think that it is only worship when we sing.
Do you know that worship is really your lifestyle? It is giving everything you are and have to God because of everything he is and does. And when that is your lifestyle, then everything you do becomes an act of worship to God just like the burnt offering. We con-tinually live and offer a sacrifice of praise from our lips to God.
Oh, it definitely includes singing. Man, you have guys sounded like a beautiful choir this morning. Filled this place up. It was awesome. But worship doesn’t stop when I get up to preach or we you go out those doors. Worship continues. It is our life before God, just like the burnt offering.
Here is a second principle I learned, that God demands holiness. Thus, true worship is Christ centered. True worship never ceases, yes. But true worship is Christ centered.
In other words it is centered upon a substitute. Now I want you follow me on this. Listen very carefully. Because God is holy and we are not, somebody has to step in. Listen very carefully, church. Did you hear what I just said? Because God is holy and you are not, somebody has got to step in. That is the point of a substitute.
In the Levitical system they brought bulls, sheep, goats, birds. But when Jesus came and stepped in for you, he was the final substitute once and for all. And God looked upon the sacrifice, the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus. And when Jesus said, “It is finished, “God now declares forever righteous all those who believe in him. Hallelujah for Jesus.
Without Jesus we aren’t holy. So without Jesus Christ there is no worship of God. See, true worship is Christ centered. Because God demands holiness and the only way we are ever going to be holy, to be able to approach to God who is living among us is through Jesus. So I encourage you. Man, get to know Jesus. Believe in the gospel and Jesus Christ. Take your stand upon the death, burial and resurrection of the God man Jesus. Believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. Confess with your mouth that he is Lord. And the Bible says God will save you. He will accept you, declare you holy all because of Jesus. That is true worship. Amen? That is the kind of worship that took place in Leviticus. That is the kind of worship that we have today all because of the substitute of Jesus Christ.
A question for you. Have you believed in your substitute Jesus as payment for your sin? Or are you still thinking, “Well, I think my works will substitute.”
Your works aren’t perfect. You may have good works, but they are not perfect works. And without perfection no one can see God. So what are you going to do?
I have a strong suggestion. Get to know Jesus, amen? Believe in Jesus Christ. He is the substitute that makes us acceptable to God.
The last observation is this. True worship is costly. And this is because we know that God desires our all and our best.
As I look at Leviticus one and I watch how they brought the best of their herd and their flock or their birds, I am struck with something quite intriguing that is very convicting as well. There was no garage sale mentality in Israel. But there sure is in the American Church. We gather all of the stuff we have left over. We say, “Hey, God, got a bunch of stuff left over. What do you want out of that?”
We kind of post the garage sale sign in our life. We say, “Hey, God, come on by. I am kind of done now with what I wanted to do and all the things I am interested in. And here is what is left. Take your pick.”
It is like God is a guest at a restaurant, but he is waiting until we are finished and we give him the doggie bag. Here is the left overs, God. What is wrong with that?
And we live a life with a garage sale mentality when God, from the very beginning of his structured worship always asks for our best first.
In light of that understanding, let me ask you a question that I think needs some reflection time. Are you living a life of minimal obedience? I want you to ponder that. It is a question you need to ask yourself. Are you living a life of minimal obedience?
Hey, this is all it is going to take to get by. Ok, so what have I really got to do, Todd? Just tell me the bare minimum.
And in so many ways whether it is our finances, our relationships, our time, we minimally obey. It is a garage sale mentality that God knows nothing of from the very beginning of time. And then we wonder why our lives and churches are powerless and strangely cold at times. It is because outside of the doors of our lives the sign, “Yard sale.”
Come on by, God. Get whatever you want.
I am convicted by that personally. And I don’t think I am the only guy rowing that boat.
Would we be willing to do what Romans 12 calls us to do and give God all of our life and the best of our life? That is what Romans 12 says, you know. Because Romans 12 is the New Testament understanding of the whole burnt offering of Leviticus.
Romans 12 says that... and Paul is saying, “Listen. In light of all of God’s mercies, pre-sent your bodies a...” Now watch this. “Living sacrifice.”
God doesn’t want you to climb up there and kill yourself. He is not looking for your bull or your sheep or your goat or your bird now. He is looking for you and he is not looking for your leftovers. He is looking for the best part of you. He wants all of you on the altar still alive saying, “God, you have got every bit of me, all of me, for whatever you need. I am yours.”
Have you said that to God? Have you said, “God, I am yours”?
Bar none, nothing held back, every bit of me, the very best of me, the very worst of me, all of me I am yours.
When we say that we are mirroring in 2011 what they did in Leviticus one. They offered bulls, sheep, goats and birds. Because of Jesus and his finished work, all God asks for now is a living us.
So would you climb up on the altar today with me and say, “God, you have got all of me, the best and worst of me, very bit of me. I am yours.”
If you will do that, then you are becoming today the whole burnt offering God is looking for.
This resource is provided as a learning tool produced by First Family Church in Ankeny, Iowa. The Church’s mission is to develop devoted followers of Jesus Christ in people groups around the world who celebrate, grow and serve. For more information on First Family, visit our website at www.FirstFamilyMinistries.com.
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