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Well, good morning. I hope you caught the vision of the video. Why am I speaking to you on Leviticus? I asked Matt, you know, have you guys had a speaker come to go lake and speak on Leviticus and actually come back, you know, later? As far as I know, no one has taught through Leviticus, which makes this really unique and special, and I'm glad to share it with you. I'll give you a little backdrop to why Leviticus for me. A couple years ago, I started studying the Old Testament. I was studying the Torah, and I. I've been needing to brush up on my Hebrew skills. I'm not very familiar with Hebrew as I am with the Greek New Testament. And so I was working on that and I said, I'm going to study Leviticus because of some things that were said about the book. There were some Messianic Jews. A lot of Jewish people were asked, what do you teach your kids as they're growing up to understand Judaism? And they said, well, the first book they read, and I thought it was going to be Genesis, because that's also the first book in the Bible. I thought they were going to say Genesis. And they said Leviticus. And they explained why, that the reason why they teach their kids Leviticus is that is the law, the rules. When you have little kids, you don't go through all the meaning and all the reasons behind the rules, do you? No, you have a rule list and you say, listen, we don't talk while the teacher's talking. And you might tell them why, but like, here's the rules. And so they would teach their kids the first book they read was actually Leviticus, because that was the expectation. That's what God wanted out of his people. Another reason for this concept was the number one book for Messianic Jews, Jews who grew up Jewish but became Christians in the sense of they believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Jesus of the New Testament. So they're called Messianic Jews. Well, they said the clearest book of Jesus that drew them to Jesus was Leviticus. I would be thinking It'd be Isaiah 53. Isaiah's been called the fifth gospel by some. It is the gospel in the Old Testament, but it's actually Leviticus. And they say this because in Leviticus, you have a clear picture of why the Messiah had to die. What did Jesus do in bringing this new covenant, this relationship with his people? What did he have to do? The basis for that is in Leviticus. What else? As I studied it, what's interesting about the book of Leviticus, you have the first five books of the Old Testament, which. This is the only true order. Even in the Jewish canon, the Hebrew Bible, these five books are also the first five books. The rest of the order is different, identical books to our common canon, our Old Testament, but just a different sequence. But the first five books in the Old Testament are the same thing as the Gospels are in the New Testament. In the New Testament, the Gospels, these biographies, these eyewitness testimonies, these testimonies of who Jesus was, that's the basis for the New Testament. And the word Testament means covenant. It's from a Latin word, Testamentum. It means covenant, the new covenant. The basis is the Gospels, the good news of Jesus. Who was Jesus? What did he do? And then all four gospels, of course, focus on Jesus, death, burial, and resurrection, because that's essential to what God has done to bring us into a relationship with him. First five books, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. At the center of the Torah, the law. The word Torah is a Hebrew word for law. At the center of the law, you have the book of Leviticus. What else is interesting about Leviticus is it is almost entirely first person God. God speaking, not a prophet speaking for God, but it's actually God speaking to Moses, to Aaron, to the people at different times. And so it's a centerpiece of the Torah, of the law. And so all these truths mingled in. I started studying Leviticus and I went to my staff. I think one of them might be here. I haven't seen him yet, but I think he's here. There he is. I went to my staff, and I'm like, you guys, listen, I think I need to do a series on. Drumroll. Leviticus. There was a little bit, you know, when, like, a record scratches, you know, and one of them was like, oh, yeah, yeah. You know, they try to encourage me. They love me. We're actually friends, too. And they're like, yeah, that sounds. What are you thinking? Two Sundays, three Sundays? Is that what you think? And I was like, I don't know. No, I think it's gonna be more than that. And I share it with the elders. And I mean, no enthusiasm. Everybody's like, yeah, you know, one or two is good for a good series. One or two Sundays. That's great. And, you know, God is holy. You be holy. End of Leviticus. It's like, this is gonna be great. And I was like, I don't think so. I'm telling you, there's a lot in here. There's more in here. Than I think the common Christian understands of how much this is a beautiful picture of who Jesus is and even today, how we're supposed to respond to him. This foundation of Leviticus is essential for even today knowing how do you relate to God? How does Jesus bring you into a fuller relationship with him? What do you have to do in your life to connect with Him? You know, we think of common churchy things like, you know, read your Bible, pray. Yes. Those spiritual disciplines, I like to call them habits of grace. Those spiritual habits, those rhythms in your life are so essential. Do you know where those come from? They come from Leviticus. They're all centered in the center of the law, which is meant to draw. So I do this study. I'm like, yeah, I might need more than just a few Sundays. And so we started in July and we ended in May. And it was great. I know you're chuckling, you know, it got old, but it was great. I loved it though, because I'm. One of my highest values is upholding biblical integrity. The Bible is God's word. It is God's inspired, inerrant word. It is supernatural. There's no other book, there's no other commentary. There's no other preacher. There's no other tradition even like the word of God. His Word is the authority for all, all of us. It is God's word. It is true. It is from him. And so every word in the Bible is important. Every single word is significant. And so I'm studying through Leviticus. I'm like, you guys, we gotta go through this. And we spent a while through it and it was so enriching for our people to see. Don't skip over Leviticus when you're reading through the Bible. I know it's bloody, I know there's a lot of random weird stuff going on, but all of those things, when you take the Bible as a whole or when you take the book as a whole, you see the order of Leviticus, the chapters. Even though there's not chapters written when it was first written, the order of the book is significant to why these things take place. Leviticus 1 through 7, these first seven chapters, and how they focus on the five great sacrifices. The book of Leviticus begins with sacrifice, and there's a reason for it. And then you have Aaron and his sons. There's a little mix up there for God to make his point. And then you have cleanliness of what foods are okay to eat and how to be clean and how to live in this desert. And then after that, you have Leviticus 16, where there's this day of atonement that seems to come out of nowhere. But it's very significant to teach God's people. You're not going to. You're going to miss some sacrifices, you're going to miss some sins. Day of atonement is my way once a year to make up for what you didn't do, for what you couldn't do. And then 17 through 19, you have this almost a sermon from God saying there's. There are certain sins that if you fall into. If you fall into these sins as a people, the land is going to spit you out of its mouth. You will not be prosperous in the land. You will not stay in the promised land. God warned them. There are major sins, there's three big ones, and you're not going to believe what they are and how relevant they are. I'm not going to be able to preach through it this week because we ain't getting to Leviticus 19. But the three sins are idolatry, sexual immorality and child sacrifice. Sacrifice, which, if you looked at America today, idolatry and pride, child sacrifice, abortion, not loving the home, not wanting to get married, not cherishing children, not seeing the need for the family unit. And then sexual immorality, gender confusion, and all these things that are plaguing God's people. God shared with them, I love you. These are the things that are going to creep in and they're going to. They're going to hurt you. They're going to hurt you in such a way that if you're just promiscuous and you're just, you know, flippant about who you are in God, if you don't understand family and how God designed sex for you because he loves you and it's meant for marriage and intimacy and for the family growing. If you don't understand this, it's going to become a detriment to you. Just like any good thing can become a detriment. You know, I love Tillamook ice cream, but if it's in my freezer, I'm going to eat it every day. And that's a detriment to me. It's not a bad thing. It's a good thing, but I'll use it badly. Anything that's good can be used poorly. And God warned them. If you do this idolatry, if you look. If you look for satisfaction and fulfillment, if you seek something in the world that you think is going to give you meaning and fulfillment and identity, if you do that it's going to leave you empty and broken and you're not going to be prosperous. You're going to feel discouraged and depressed and anxious and fearful and down and without hope. Because God designed all of that for us. He knows how it's meant to be. And when we give ourselves to other gods, it's not going to work if we give ourselves to other things, material things, money, wealth. And so you have that, and then you have. I'm trying to go off of memory. You have some other laws in there about the family and about all of that. And then you have a sequence of festivals and feasts, and the end. Actually, chapters 26 and 27 end quite abruptly. They seem weird. But it's all about funding the tabernacle. Because the point of Leviticus is actually the tabernacle. The point of Leviticus and these laws and these sacrifices are. God is saying, I want to be with you. And so God wants to be with us. And that's really the point. Leviticus is significant because it gives us a basis for Jesus death on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins. Jesus sacrificing himself makes zero sense. If you take out Leviticus, it. It makes no sense in the Bible. If you take out Leviticus, it illustrates how we are to live with God and one another in community. How do you treat your neighbor? You know the command, love your neighbor as yourself. You know what the great commandments are. What's the great commandments? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And the second is like it. You know what's interesting about that? When Jesus was asked about what the most important command and directive and instruction from God is, when he was asked that question, he not only answered it, he introduced something new. He introduced something that wasn't in the Old Testament. He introduced something that the other rabbis in all of Israel, they did not debate this. This wasn't a common thing Jesus himself introduced. I want you to know the number one command is to love God. But there is a second, and it's attached to it. It's like it. It's similar in its importance. You can't have one without the other. It's like two sides of the same coin. Love your neighbor as yourself. Do you know where he gets that command the first time it's written Leviticus, Leviticus 19. And there's a context for what does it mean to love your neighbor. And that's a whole sermon itself. But all of this is in the book of Leviticus. The center of the Law that God designed for his people. It illustrates how we are to live with God and one another. It reminds us that we were meant to. We are meant to be a testimony to the nations around us. So in Leviticus you have this law where it's first person God almost entirely. And God is telling the Hebrew people, now, listen, this is how I want you to treat the alien and the foreigner among you. This is how I want you to be a witness and a light to the neighboring nations. All of that is still extremely relevant right now, today, in your life, in your home, with your spouse, with your children, with your neighbors, how you treat other people, how you are a witness, how you're supposed to live. All of that is essential. It's all grounded in Leviticus. And so Leviticus, chapter one begins with the five great sacrifices of the Old Testament. So I want to give you a little recap. You have the book of Genesis. Genesis is the first book. It begins with, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. We have creation. You have chapters 1 through 11. This beautiful creation story of how God began the world, the universe, how he created all things. He made Adam and Eve for himself, mankind, the first man and woman made for himself, to bear his image, to reflect him. And of course, by chapter three, just like us, we don't reflect God perfectly. Do you? Do you? Do we? I don't. I'm not a good mirror. I'm like one of those broken, cracky, fogged, missing glass mirrors. Like I don't reflect him perfectly. That's what Adam and Eve were made. That's why they were made in his image. They were made to reflect him, to obey him, to follow Him. There is creation. They're like his children, but they don't follow Him. They don't reflect Him. They sin. You have the fall in chapter three. Then you have. I mean by page six in most Bibles, you have the first children, sons, murdering each other. By chapter six, he explains all of mankind's thoughts are evil. All entirely evil and continuously evil. And then God floods the earth. He floods the earth because this is not what he designed mankind for. Sin is devastating. Sin will destroy you. The wages of sin is death separates you from him. And then he calls Abraham the great calling of Abraham. Chapter 12, you have God deciding, I'm going to make a covenant with a man and I'm going to make him into a great nation. And he will be a nation that blesses every other nation, reaches out to every nation that all people would come to know. The one True. God blesses Abraham. Abraham has his son Isaac, Isaac and Rebecca. And then you have Jacob and Rachel and Leah. You always have to tag team those two. You have them and then you have the 12 sons, you have the 12 tribes. And at the end of the first book of the Old Testament, 50 something chapters, you have the end of the Old Testament or the end of the book of Genesis. Then you have 400 years of separation, which is not unlike the Old Testament from the New. You've heard of the intertestamental period. You've heard of after Malachi, after 400 BC ish. There is 400 years of what some people call silence. It wasn't obviously silent completely. God was working and doing things. But you have the 400 years, well, that happened between Genesis and Exodus. You open the page, the next page after Genesis, after God makes his 12 tribes, you have the story of Moses and how God's people were living in this land for hundreds of years. They became slaves in Egypt. They were servants and workers. And God raised up a man named Moses to bring them out of Egypt. He wanted to rescue his people out of slavery and into a promised land, which is a reflection of the gospel. God wanting to take his people out of sin and out of death and out of bondage. He doesn't want you to be bonded to sin. That's going to destroy you. He takes them out. Moses gets out with the people. Of course they complain, big complainers. Nothing like you guys. You, you guys are great, your reviews are great. You know, you guys do great. But big complainers because they don't want to be in the desert. They hate it. They've been living in Egypt. They've been living near the Nile river, which was lush. Egypt was considered the breadbasket of the world back then. It's different today, but it was different back then. And so Moses brings these people out. He 10 plagues, he destroys the Egyptian army, destroys Pharaoh. They make it out. They're out in the desert, not for one month. And people are like, I miss Egypt. I just miss Egypt. I miss the melons and the leeks and the onions. And we had all, you can eat fish and everything. And now what do we got out here? And God brings them manna. It's like back in the day. Remember Total Cereal? Did anybody's mom make you eat Total Cereal? It tasted like dirt and grass mixed together. But supposedly it had like every vitamin that's ever existed in the universe, 100%. Anyway, they ate these. This. Sorry. They ate this manna. That. That was Like a little bit of honey, like flattened coriander seed. It was great. You know the Hebrew. The dads got out of their tents in the morning. They're out in the desert. They come out and they look and they go, what is that? The kids are like, what is it? Everyone's like, what is it? Finally, Moses is like, exactly what is it? That's the Hebrew word for manna. It's actually menu in Hebrew, but manna is where it comes from. Manna means, what is it? So God feeds them manna. He gives them this stuff. He's helping them. They complain again. They're just complaining, complaining. They end up being in the desert for 40 years. 40 years wandering around because that complaining, whining bunch of Hebrews, those 2 million people, they're never going to conquer the promised land as complainers. If you got a bunch of complainers with you, you ain't going to make it. But that generation had to die off. So there had to be 40 years. And their kids, who. Who were raised in the rugged, rough desert, who were raised, not in Egypt, that generation rose up. So they're in the desert. They've been, let's say, three months. God gives them the law. You have Exodus, chapter 20 and 20 through 24. He gives them the law. God spoke from Mount Sinai. Exodus 25. And for the rest of Exodus, more chapters, three times as many chapters are given to the tabernacle, the blueprint of the tabernacle, than the law. You know the law, the Ten Commandments. You know no other gods don't make idols. Don't take the Lord's name in vain. Keep the Sabbath day. Honor your father and mother. Do not murder. Do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not covet the ten Commandments. Those ten principles, God gave them. I want you to live this way. He gave in Exodus. Then you have like 15 chapters of the tabernacle. God tells Moses, I've got blueprints. I need you to be a contractor for a moment. I'm going to tell you exactly how to make it. It's an image of heaven. And I want you to make this place. And you're going to call it tabernacle. The word for tabernacle that's used means dwelling. Because why does God take his people out of bondage and slavery? Is it to just set them up in a nice place, a paradise, a promised land? Is it because God just wants to give us nice things and he wants us to have nice stuff? No. What God really desires is You. He wants to be with you. He wants to dwell with you. He wants you to be able to dwell with Him. But how can a sinful people, how can a broken, complaining, sinful people dwell with an infinite holy God? How can sinners have communion and fellowship and oneness, atonement at one men? How can we be at one and at peace with God? We cannot. Not on our own. We have sin, and our sin separates us from Him. We've broken his law. We're not perfect. We are not holy. Well, in order to do this, for God to be with you, because he loves you, he has to make you holy. You can't make yourself holy. So God gives the people a tabernacle. I want to dwell with you. I want to have a relationship with you. In order to do that, you got to build this building. And this building all points to Jesus. If I could do a whole series on the tabernacle on how it all points to Jesus. There's actually a new Bible, bricks, LEGO set. I don't know if anybody's ever heard of it. We got it. Our kids built it. It's super cool. It looks like the tabernacle. Very fun. We could do a whole series on the tabernacle and how every piece of it points to Jesus. So God gives them the tabernacle. He wants them to dwell with them. At the end of the first year of God's people being in the wilderness for one year, they've accomplished 12 months in the desert. They're wandering around in the desert. Twelve months goes by, and then you have Leviticus 1 and Leviticus 1, if you look in your Bible, starts with the sacrifices. The reason why they begin with the sacrifices is because in order to dwell with God, we must first deal with our sins. You cannot have a relationship with God if your sin is between you and Him. Right. Isn't that true in the New Testament today? There's no person in here that's a Christian that hasn't dealt with their sin by repenting and placing their faith in Jesus Christ. No one. All of us. In order for us to dwell with God, we got to deal with our sins. And so he gives them the five great sacrifices. I'm going to list them first because then we're going to go through it. So you have five sacrifices in the Old Testament, I'm putting them in order of Leviticus and I'll explain why it's in this order. But there are five great sacrifices for the Israelite people. These are the only five sacrifices. I bet you a Lot of you were like, dude, I thought they were like 100 different sacrifices, right? In the Old Testament, there's so many different kinds of sacrifices. There's five. These are the five sacrifices that God commanded his people. And here they are, the burnt offering, the grain offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering. These are the order in which they're written, but they're not the order in which they're acted on, in which they're commissioned. This is not the order in which you see them as. You read Leviticus, you actually read the first offering that must be given is the sin offering, then the guilt offering. Then after you have given the sin offering and the guilt offering, then you're able to give the burnt offering. And then the grain offering is actually a free will type offering where you can give anytime, all the time. And then the peace offering, or in your Bibles, it might be called the fellowship offering. The reason why they call it the fellowship offering, even though the word is like shalom, peace. The idea is this is how you have fellowship with one another. So these five sacrifices are the five sacrifices of the Old Testament. This is. This is it. And all five of them point to Jesus number one. And all five of them are practical in your life today. You need to understand these five sacrifices that God gave in order for you to actually live out Romans chapter 12 of present yourselves as living sacrifices. This is how you do this. So if you turn with me to Leviticus chapter one, we'll get started. You turn the page after Exodus, you get to Leviticus. The people have been wandering in the wilderness for 12 months. Leviticus begins at the start of the 13th month in their wandering wilderness. So they've got 39 years left, right in the wilderness. This is the 13th month of their whole 40 years. So this is like the, you know, year two of the 40 years. It begins with this. Then the Lord summoned Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting. Speak to the Israelites and tell them when any of you brings an offering to the Lord from the livestock, you may bring your offering from the herd or the flock. Now, in Hebrew, the book of Leviticus is named for its opening words, which is true in the Hebrew Bible. All of the books are named for their opening of the histories, the law, they're named for the first words. And it's Vayikra, which means and he called. And you have this. And he called throughout Leviticus. It's how Leviticus is divided as a whole book every time. It's. And he called and he summoned that kind of thing. The Torah is the Hebrew scriptures. God delivers his people. The the whole question is, how can they gain access to him is through sacrifice. They have to sacrifice and what God teaches them through the first sacrifice. The first offering, the burnt offering, is about relationship. So all five offerings are holistically meant to bring us into relationship with God, just like it was for them. Except Jesus is our sacrifice. They had these literal sacrifices. They all bring people into relationship with God. And the burnt offering, the first offering, the reason why it's first is because it speaks of God's desire for relationship. So you have in this first offering, the burnt offering, which is also the first point. True sacrifice represents our best. But you have this first offering, which is called the burnt offering. The reason why God begins with the burnt offering is because a burnt offering represents a completely burnt sacrifice. Unlike the other animal sacrifices that you do not get to eat. It is completely burnt up, burnt to a crisp. There is none left over. The priest don't get it. The people don't get it. They this is one of those offerings. No one gets it except for God. And so you completely burn it. And it symbolizes God's desire of. He wants all of us. He wants a relationship with his people, but he wants all of you, not some of you. He doesn't want you on Sunday morning and when you're going to church, he wants you. But then Monday, you just live like the world. You do whatever because it's like, you know what? You live your life, I'll live mine, right, Jesus, God isn't interested in being a roommate with you. He wants to dwell with you permanently have a permanent relationship. So he wants all of you. And the burnt offering is given first. Because if he gave the sin offering first, they would miss it with Jesus. Jesus does this in his teaching also. Jesus is so great. If you study Jesus teaching based on each of the books of the Old Testament, just how does Jesus, how is he reflected in this? It's so fun. It's such a fun study. In Leviticus, you see this through the sacrifices. When Jesus deals with people, he deals with them in such a way that they know, I want to interact with you, I want to have a relationship with you. Then he does get to sin the sin offering. He gets to sin. Jesus doesn't ignore sin. He doesn't placate about sin. He doesn't do any of that. But he begins with relationship. And so the Leviticus begins, begins with the burnt offering, because that's God's ultimate desire. I want all of you. And I want a relationship with you. And it requires sacrifice. And true sacrifice means we've got to have the best of you, we've got to have all of you. God's desire is a full relationship. And so if his offering is a burnt offering, that's the title. It ends up being from the herd. He is to bring an unblemished man. And you guys know what? An unblemished male. No blemish. It's got to be perfect. It's got to look perfect. He will bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting so that he may be accepted by the Lord. You skip to verse 10. But if his offering for a burnt offering is from the flock, because you can give a burnt offering from the flock, you don't have to use a bull. You don't have to use cattle, beast of burden. You can use a sheep if it's from the flock, or from sheep or goats. He is to present an unblemished male. If the offering to the Lord is a burnt offering of birds, he is to present his offering from the turtle doves or young pigeons. And that's really cool. What God does with the best of what we have is he's not wanting you to give up something that you don't have. When the Bible tells you, present yourselves as sacrifices, Lord, give your whole heart, give your whole life to God. He's not asking you to give something that you don't have. So even in the burnt offering, he's like, listen, if you're rich enough to have a bull, I want the bull. If you're rich enough to have a male sheep or goat, you don't have a bull. Bulls were more valuable back then. I want you to give those. But if you're so poor, all you got are birds and anybody can get a bird, right? Right. All you need is like a shoebox and a stick and a string and some manna you throw in there. Birds are going to come. You flip that box, you got yourself a bird. Anybody could catch a bird in the Middle east, you ask. Birds are worth zero. Anybody can catch a bird. So God was saying, I want your best, but I don't expect you to come up with something that you don't have in order to have a relationship with you. I just want whatever your best is. I don't want you to look at your neighbor and be like, well, they give more than I do, or they can give better than I do, they have better gifts or skills than I do, or they whatever Better. You're not supposed to compare yourself to anyone else. God's desire to have a relationship with you, to have the best of what you have, is what you can offer. It's also an unblemished male. And I know we live in a day of gender wars. If feels like, you know, which genders, how many genders are there, which genders, all that stuff, okay? This is very practical, okay? The reason why you have an unblemished male is not because males are better than females. It's because you can have one male bull and it can make a lot of little bulls, right? You just get a bunch of female females and that one male bull can have so many babies. But if you have one female cattle, how many can they give birth to in a year? 2. You cannot have that many. So males were more expensive because they could produce more. One male can produce livestock from 100 females. But one female doesn't matter how many males are around that. One female is only having two babies a year, maybe, unless she has twins. So they're more valuable and they're considered the best. That's why God was asking, I want your unblemished mail. I want the most expensive, the best of what you have. And God offered this to us. Think about Jesus. What was the most valuable thing that God ever gave you in order to have a relationship with you? Was it your birth order allowing you to be born in America and having the gospel, very free and open, you're free to worship, you know, versus some other countries in the world? He allowed you to be born here. Was that the best gift that God gave you so that he could have relationship with you? No. Was it money? Affluence? Was it good health? Was it. No, it's none of those things. The best that God had to offer you was his son, Jesus. His unblemished person, perfect, sinless son who should not have had to die and be sacrificed. He was sacrificed and died in your place. God gave you his best to have a relationship with you. He didn't give you his best because he's like, you know what? That Jack Napier guy that's a total mess and definitely needs all the grace and mercy he can get. He deserves Jesus. I don't deserve Jesus. I didn't earn Jesus. I. And I don't deserve Jesus. There's so many times in my prayer life where I pray God, I'm so glad you have the son, Father. I'm so glad that you have Jesus because that's what you really deserve. You deserve Better than me. I'm so happy and joyful that Jesus lived a certain life and glorified you. I'm so glad that you have a son in whom you are well pleased, who you loved dearly, who lived the right way, who obeyed you, who was sweating drops of blood and praying to you. Let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. I'm so glad that you have Jesus because I could have never measured up to that. And because I love you so much. I'm just overjoyed that you have the Son. That you and the Son and the Holy Spirit have been in relationship forever, eternity past. You've always had each other, and I'm so grateful for that because I am not a substitute for that. I cannot offer you what your Son offers you. And I'm so glad you have Jesus. God gave his Son for me. Blows my mind. I'll never get over salvation. I'll never get over it. I should have never been saved. I did not earn Christianity. I wasn't even looking for Christianity. I should have never become a Christian. And God sought me out and saved me. God gave his best for you. Like a burnt offering. Completely killed his son. Let him be tortured and died so that he could have a relationship with you. He loves you. God wants our best. And the Hebrew people did not always give God their best. Malachi 1 is one of my favorite sections for this in the Book of Malachi. It's the last of the Old Testament. You have Malachi. God has eight issues with his people. And it's interesting that the English common canon, our Bible ends with Malachi. Malachi ends. And God's like, listen, I've got a bone to pick with you. As a matter of fact, I have eight. I have eight things that I have against you. Eight things that you of my people that have lived for a thousand years after I gave the Lord, you still couldn't get this right. And in chapter one, verse six, he gives one of the eight. He says, a son honors his father and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where's my honor? If you pretend that I'm your father, then how come you don't honor me like a father? If I am a master, where is your fear of me? Where is your reverence? Where's your respect? Where is your understanding that, whoa, I'm not. I'm not disobeying. I'm not rebelling against him. That's the master. I'm not going to question him. That's the Master, where's that? Says the Lord of armies, the Lord of hosts, you, priest who despise my name. And he's speaking to the Levites. He's speaking to the Levitical priests, the ones who are meant to memorize the book of Leviticus. They know these laws in and out. Yet you ask, how have we despised your name? I could just imagine these Levites with their Ephod and their dress and their pomp and circumstance stuff their pride and arrogance. Where have we despised your name? I mean, we are the number one witnesses. We are the number one ambassadors and reflection. We are the number one people on the entire planet that represent God. How have we despised your name? And then God answered them by presenting defiled food on my altar. Defiled food? Are you talking like we put shrimp and lobster on the altar? No way. We know kosher food. We've read Leviticus after chapter 11. We know the laws. How have we put defiled food on your altar? How have we defiled your. How have we defiled you? You ask. When you say had nothing to do with the food. By the way, when you say the Lord's table is contemptible, they don't say that. Verse 8. When you present a blind animal for sacrifice, is it not wrong? And when you present a lame or sick animal, is it not wrong? Try bringing that to your governor. Would he be pleased with you or show you favor? Ask the Lord of armies. This is funny because this points to the New Testament with, with Jesus. Remember when Jesus goes to the temple and he gets all, you know, nra, white ring, white ring on the Pharisees. He goes into the temple, he sees it, he gets all. People struggle with this, don't they? You've shared with people Jesus, you know, humble and meek and gentle and you know all this stuff. And then you have Jesus creating a whip and throwing people out of the temple and getting all the animals out and over overthrowing tables, the money changers. When he does that, a lot of people stumble on that because it doesn't seem very Jesus y, you know, it seems like Old Testament. It seems war, it seems anger. It seems I'm not being patient with you. I'm stopping this. Why? Why does Jesus in his ministry, of all the things we hear him say, the times where he gets the most upset, he tells Peter, which I think this is one of the hardest things he's ever said. Get behind me, Satan. If you're a disciple of Jesus, that's the last thing you want to hear. But then the temple, he goes in Makes the whip, kicks out all the people. Why does he do this? He actually tells us it. Tells us in the Gospels. He goes in there and he tells him, you have made my father's house a den of thieves. You know, in the Scripture, my father's house is meant to be a house of prayer. Not, Lord, bless his food before we eat. Amen. You know, not. No, my Father's house, this temple, this tabernacle, this dwelling place is meant to be a place where people, other nations, people from all over the world, people that don't know my Father yet, they come in and they learn how to communicate and fellowship and dwell with God. Prayer to talk to God, to be intimate with God, to open up with God, to hear from God. Hearing is a part of prayer. I want people to know the real me. And you've made it a marketplace, a den of thieves, where you're stealing their money and charging extra. This is what would happen. This is documented outside of the New Testament also. But it's in the New Testament, during the time of the sacrifices, the festivals, a million people would come into Jerusalem, and it would so grow the city. And people would be camped and tented all outside of Jerusalem. It was a big deal. Every year, they would have these festivals. And Jesus was there at nearly all the festivals, it seems. So Jesus goes, they're having this. And people need a sacrifice because they need to make one of these sacrifices, which the festivals are later in the book of Leviticus. We won't get to the festivals. There's three pilgrimage festivals in which they all come. So they come in and they're like, I need a sheep. And so you can't bring a sheep if you live 200 miles away. You can't bring your sheep. By the time you bring them, what's gonna happen to your sheep? Is it gonna be white and unblemished by time you travel, all that? No, dude, Billy is gonna look horrible. He's been through the wringer. So you've gotta come to Jerusalem and you gotta buy a sheep from outside of Bethlehem. Some people know this, where they would. The priest would actually raise up unblemished sheep so that people could buy them and use them for sacrifices. So you had to buy sheep. And you come in, you're like, I need a sheep. And they'd be like, well, it's $1,000. And you're like, $1,000? What are you hiking up the price for? I don't have $1,000 to pay for this sheep. He's like, well, we've got this other one and we've got a connection with the, with the priests, the ones who check the animal. If it's holy enough for God, I promise you this one will be acceptable. It's only $600. Ah, $600, man. I've got New Child. We've got all this stuff. A fire burnt our cross. We can't pay for this. Well, there's another sheep that's guaranteed, but not for long. This is the last year. It's your last and final chance. We have this other sheep in the back. It's. It's only got three legs. Part of the ear is bitten off, and he only has one eye. He goes by the name of Lucky. And if you buy him, you can sacrifice him. But then next year you need to buy one of our good sheep. Well, in this day, they kept a record of your name. And so you were strong. You were like arm twisted by the Pharisees and the religious leaders in the temple. And the Levite, they had this whole den of thieves thing worked out to where people would just be taken advantage of. Not unlike we all experience today. This happened 2000 years ago also. So they'd be like, all right, so they buy it. And this happened constantly. Jesus overturned the entire temple because of this kind of perversion and immorality within God's house. And God tells him, I want your best. But the reason why God wants our best is not because God needs something from us. I do want to go to. Yeah, well, okay, let me finish. Malachi. I wish one of you would shut the temple door so that you would no longer kindle a useless fire on my altar. Do you hear God's anger in Malachi One that's expressed through his son Jesus in the New Testament when he kicks everyone out of the temple and when you present a lame or sick animal, is it not wrong? Bring it to your governor, that kind of stuff. I wish one of you would shut the temple doors. I am not pleased with you, says the Lord of Armies. And I will accept no offering from your hands. My name will be great among the nations. I want people to know the real me, and you're ruining it. You are hindering people from coming to salvation and knowing the one true God. Because you've made it about money. You're like the TV evangelist of today. You've made it all about, if you give me money, if you plant a seed, God's gonna bless you. God wants good for you, and you just deceive widows and vulnerable people and people that don't know. And they think that, oh, what God really wants is for me to pay him. God doesn't need your best because he's hungry. He doesn't need your best because he's got a side business going on that he needs lambs and goats and bulls. God wants our best because he wants our hearts. In Psalm 51, David says this. When the people are dealing with sin, you do not want a sacrifice, or I would give it. You are not pleased with a burnt offering. The burnt offering is mentioned throughout the Old Testament again, by the way, and it's not specifically referenced in the New Testament per se, but it's given that with Paul and talking about us being living sacrifices, that that's the idea. The living sacrifice is completely burnt. You are not pleased with the burnt offering. The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. You will not despise a broken and humbled heart. Let me go to another psalm. It's in the wrong order, but I'm coming up on time. Psalm 50, verse 7. Listen, my people and I will speak. I will testify against you, Israel. I am God, your God. I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices or for your burnt offerings which are continually before me. You're giving these burnt offerings all the time. The tabernacle in the temple, it was a bloody mess. Every day there's. I don't know how many gallons of blood. People have tried to guess and measure, but it's a lot. It was a slaughterhouse. I. I will not take a bull from your household or male goats from your pens. For every animal of the forest is mine. The cattle on a thousand hills I know every bird of the mountains and the creatures of the field are mine. Do you hear God's heart? I'm not asking you to give your best because I'm hungry or poor or I need something from you. I don't want anything from you. It is only when you decide, I'm going to give God my all. I'm going to give God everything. That is when you find real freedom and joy and hope. That's when you come into a deeper relationship with the God who loves you and created you. That is when you enter into what God calls peace, Shalom. That is when you find real life. If you look for life outside of it, you're gonna. If you try to save your life, you're gonna lose it. But if you lose your life, for Christ's sake, you're gonna find it. Don't try to find life and satisfaction in the world. He goes on to say, if I were hungry, I would not tell you. For the world and everything in it is mine. Do I not eat the flesh of bulls or drink the bulls of the blood of goats? Offer a thanksgiving sacrifice to God. By the way, the Thanksgiving sacrifice is the only sacrifice that's not a blood sacrifice. Of all the five sacrifices, four of them are animal blood sacrifices. There's one that's not. It's the third one we'll get to. That is the grain offering or the Thanksgiving offering. God doesn't need blood from you. Offer a thanksgiving sacrifice to God and pay your vows to the Most High. Say it and mean it. Be real with God. Be honest with him. Call on me in the day of trouble. I will rescue you, and you will honor me. How much time do I have, Tech Booth? Do I have negative three minutes? That's what I'm thinking. Is true. I have negative three minutes. That's true. Okay, I have negative three minutes. No, it's over. It's over. We all have a timeline, and I don't want to get in way of Molly, I think is going to share at some point, and I don't want to interrupt that. Romans 12, the living sacrifice that's wholly pleasing to God. This is your true worship. This points back to the burnt offering and man. Let me just ask you, is God worthy of your best? Is God worthy of your time, your effort, your resources? Just recently, and I hate to admit this, but this is true. I just have to be honest. Probably about three weeks ago, I knew that God was actually asking me to give up something in itself. It wasn't a sin, but I knew that the spirit, in my time with him, he's like, I want you to get rid of this. You don't need this in your life. This is going to distract you. I've got things for you to do. But I like this particular thing. It's like a form of entertainment. I just want to keep it. I want to do it. And I wrestled. And I knew that God wanted me to say, I'm going to be done with this. I did not give it up. I did not give it up. I didn't use it. I didn't do it. I didn't play it. I didn't watch it. I didn't do anything with it. I didn't use it. But every day, every time I had a quiet time, in the back of my mind was, here's this thing that God's asking me to give up, that I don't want to give up. It wasn't even food, which is my usual go to thing. I need to give up. It was entertainment. And I was like, I don't want to give it up. Every single time I'm praying about Gold Lake. I love this. I love you. I feel like we could become a church and we'd all be happy together. I just love Gold Lake. I knew I was speaking. I knew I was speaking on this. And I was thinking about the burnt offering and I was thinking about this thing. I did not give it up. I did not give it up. I ended up playing it. I think it was like a week and a half ago now. Maybe a week and a half ago. I'm here. I get here, get to see everybody. I'm praying alone. It's hard to get alone when you have five kids and you're at a family camp. So I finally get alone. I wasn't in the bathroom, but I was alone. I'm finally getting alone. And I'm sitting there and I just feel the Holy Spirit telling me, why do you not want to give this up? And I'm like, other people don't have to give this up. Other people could do this. It's not a sin. Why won't you give this up? Because my life is hard right now. I'm at the busiest year of my life. I'm at the middle of ages. You know, Middle ages, it feels like middle ages. I am the busiest I've ever been in my entire life. This year has been the hardest year of my whole life of busyness. Just constant work and new things and new staff and new initiatives and new. You name it. Just everything's new. And I'm working six days a week, and I feel like I'm letting my family down. And I just feel horrible. And I'm like, why do you want. This is the one thing that I just veg out and relax and just like I could just breathe for a second. And I felt like the Holy Spirit was telling me, why won't you give this up? And I finally had to be honest, because I don't want to. Because this is like one of the only things I can do just to relax. I don't want to. And I'm praying through this particular offering and I get to the bottom of this question, and it's like, is God worthy of your best? And it was like, you know what? I'm just the worst. I would not give something as silly as entertainment up to have peace with me and God, fellowship with him, just openness with him. Them. Because I wanted to be able to play a game. I didn't want to give it up because of a game. And I'm telling you, if I played this game, I won't remember this game in two years. I will not even remember anything about this stupid game. This will make zero benefit to my life. And it took me weeks to give up a game. That is a sin. I sinned. I did not give up something so trivial for God, who I love, for openness. So I prayed. I was like, God, I can't stand in front of these people and say this if I don't give this up. But I didn't want to pretend to give it up. I'm giving it up. There's no way I'm taking this back. I need to give this up. And then I felt like God wanted me to tell you this embarrassing realization to you. I have to embarrass myself in front of you. Is there a chance that God is telling you to give up something that no one else knows? Something so trivial? But you know, in order for you to give God your best, you have to give up something that you like that's fun. It's maybe not even a sin, but God wants you to give it up. I gave that up in prayer. I'm spending time with him the next day. Today, spending time with him this morning. Maybe it was a couple days ago. I'm spending time with him this morning. And I'm thinking, God, you're so much more worth than entertainment. You're so much. You are worth more than this. I understand why idols are hard to give up in the Old Testament. You ever look at the Old Testament people and go, man, they're such idiots. If I were the Israelites, I would have never complained. I would have never, you know, worshiped idols. I would have. I would have and I do today. And the question is, God wants a relationship with you to be saved. You don't have to have a sinless, clean life. You need to repent and turn to faith in Jesus. You're gonna have junk in your life. You're gonna have a thousand suitcases behind you, and you can't open up each one. God's gonna slowly work through that with you. But you have to be willing to say, God, I bow the knee and I turn to you in repentance and faith. Save me. If you are a Christian, maybe you're like me, and God is asking you to give something up right now. What is that? Ask the Holy Spirit. Ask the Holy Spirit, what is it that you're asking me to give up so I can walk closer with you, so that I have less distractions, so I can be with you. Don't let me be like Jack, that guy that won't give up a dumb game to fellowship with you. You know, what is it that God's asking you to give up? Would you take just 30 seconds to ask, and then I've gone over my time and we're done. But could you take 30 seconds to pray and ask the Holy Spirit what that is?