Latest / Teachings On This Day On FerventWord / On May 02, 2021: Leviticus 22:17-33 Give Your Best Offerings To God
Transcript
- You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2021. Well, this morning as we look at Leviticus chapter 22, I would ask you to consider what kind of offerings are you giving to the Lord? What kind of offerings are you giving to the Lord? And do they meet the standard? Do they measure up to the requirements that God has established and the things that he desires from us? Here in Leviticus chapter 22, we see God give some clear instructions parameters, some clear standards in regards to the animals that would be sacrificed to him, and they must measure up. They must meet the standard that God has established. I've titled the message this morning, Give Your Best Offerings to God. Give your best offerings to God. Really what God desires and what God deserves is the best from us. The best that we can give, the best that we can do, that we need to be coming to the Lord in a way that we are not nonchalant in a sense of casual in our approach to God, but that we need to be refreshed and renewed in the reminder of the importance of how great our God is, how much he deserves, and so therefore how much we should give him ourselves entirely and completely without holding back. It is easy for us to settle into what is common or maybe kind of ritual for us. And so this morning, I pray that you would be reminded to keep a high regard for God. And when you draw near to him and when you approach him, that you would give him your best. Now, Now, here in this portion, God is giving some of the standards for the sacrifices, and he's really focusing on just two of the sacrifices that he has prescribed. A quick reminder here of the offerings to the Lord found in Leviticus chapters 1 through 5. You have the burnt offering, the grain offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering. Now those last two, the sin and trespass offering, we understand those point directly to Jesus, are fulfilled completely by Jesus, so that all of our sins are covered by his sacrifice. All of our sins are included with him at the cross, and those sacrifices are taken care of and needed no longer because Jesus died once for all and for all time. The previous three sacrifices, though, we looked at them a few weeks back and understood that these are sacrifices that we get to offer ongoing, not in the animal form any longer under the new covenant and for us today, but there are opportunities for us to express these same kinds of sentiments, make these same kind of declarations to God that the children of Israel would offer in these animal sacrifices. And so the burnt offering and the peace offering are the two animal sacrifices that were free will offerings. And then there was the grain offering, which was an offering of some type of grain that was also a free will offering. And so without repeating all of the things that we went through in there, these are offerings that we still get to offer today. And now God is going to kind of refine that message a little bit, looking at the burnt offering, looking at the peace offering and saying, okay, you still get to offer these offerings today. Now you also need to know then what the standards are. You need to understand what is required when you desire to bring this offering to the Lord. And this concept that God is bringing forth here is rooted back in verses 1 and 2 here of Leviticus chapter 22. Would you check that out real quick? Leviticus chapter 22 verse 1 and 2 says, "'Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "'Speak to Aaron and his sons, "'that they separate themselves from the holy things "'of the children of Israel, "'and that they do not profane my holy name "'by what they dedicate to me. "'I am the Lord.'" This concept of profaning the Lord's name is the thing that is kind of the root of everything that's included here in chapters 21 and chapters 22. That God is saying, we need to have these standards. We need to set these guidelines so that you do not profane the name of the Lord. And that's something for us to consider as we look at this passage this morning. Now, typically, we think of the word profane perhaps slightly differently than the way that the scriptures are using it here. We have, of course, the word profanity. And so, you know, we might connect profane and profanity. And, of course, they are connected in some ways. But the word profane here, as it's used, is not meant to be, you know, something that is absolutely vile and horrible necessarily. The word profane can simply mean to make common something. It doesn't have to be, you know, to make disgusting or horrible or vile. It can mean to treat something as if it was common or regular, something that is special, but treated as if it wasn't special is being treated profanely. And that is the idea here. When God says to make sure that you don't profane my holy name, he's saying, look, I'm I am a great God. I am deserving of all honor and glory. And when you relate to me in a way that is common, well, that's profanity. That is profaning the name of the Lord. The commentator Adam Clark says it this way, God's name is profaned or rendered common when we treat his commands as we often do those of our fellows. He therefore profanes God's holy name who does not both implicitly believe and conscientiously obey all his words and all his precepts. We profane the name of the Lord when we don't believe what he says. Because we're not giving him the honor that is due. We're not recognizing his word and the authority that is there. When we don't believe and when we don't obey the word of God, then we are profaning the name of the Lord. And so in a way, you could perhaps say it this way, God wants us this morning to make sure that we don't cheapen the name of the Lord. In offering our sacrifices, as we desire to worship the Lord in various ways, we need to make sure that we don't cheapen the name of the Lord, that we don't lessen or relate to him in a way that is not worthy of his glory and honor. And then he circles back and reconfirms that at the end of the chapter in verse 32. He says, you shall not profane my holy name. but I shall be hallowed among the children of Israel. I am the Lord who sanctifies you, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord. God says, look, don't forget who I am and don't forget what I've done for you. And so as we dig into the sacrifices and the standards that God provides here, let's start from this reminder and refresher of who God is. Remember who God is. Remember what God has done for you. For Israel, they would remember that he brought them out of the land of Egypt and all the incredible things that God did along with that deliverance from Egypt. For you and I, of course, we look back to the cross and we need to be refreshed and renewed in our remembrance of the deliverance that God has brought, the forgiveness of our sins and how great his sacrifice was for us. We need to be refreshed and renewed and not approach God as if... He was common. Not that we can't have a familiar or an intimate or, you know, a very close relationship with God. At the same time, we need to be careful not to cheapen the name of God in the way that we approach him, in the way that we relate to him. Notice who this passage is addressed to. Looking at verse 18 again, it says, "'Speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the children of Israel.'" God wanted to make sure all his people, this wasn't just for the priests, this wasn't just for the high priest, but this was for the whole congregation, all the children of Israel. These are the standards that God has set for his sacrifices, for his offerings. And so you need to know these standards. so that you give your best offerings to God. And so we're going to look at these offerings and three different parts that God highlights here as we work our way. Starting in verse 17 through 20, we get the first point to consider this morning, and that is offer God the devotion he deserves. Offer God the devotion that he deserves. Let's read these verses again. Verse 17 through 20, it says, And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the children of Israel and say to them, whatever man of the house of Israel or of the strangers in Israel who offers his sacrifice for any of his vows or for any of his freewill offerings, which they offer to the Lord as a burnt offering, you shall offer of your own freewill a meal without blemish from the cattle, from the sheep, or from the goats. Whatever has a defect, you shall not offer it. for it shall not be acceptable on your behalf. Here the Lord begins talking about the burnt offering. And in this burnt offering, he says, here's the standard. This offering must be without blemish. There must not be defects or issues within this animal that is brought to sacrifice unto the Lord. Then he also makes sure to say it the other way, right? So it needs to meet this standard. It needs to be without blemish. But just to cover the bases, make sure we understand verse 20. If it has a defect, if there is something wrong with it or some kind of problem with it, then you shall not offer it. And notice what God says, it shall not be acceptable on your behalf. God doesn't receive that offering. If you offer a sacrifice to the Lord that has a defect that is blemished, God says, that's not acceptable. You may go through the motions of offering that, but I don't have to receive it. I don't have to honor it. I don't have to accept it. I don't have to bless it. And so when it comes to the burnt offering, there was this standard. It needs to be without blemish. And if there is any issues, then you should refrain yourself and not offer this sacrifice to the Lord. Now, the burnt offering was the offering that we're given the details about it in Leviticus chapter 1. It was the offering that was unique in that it was burned entirely upon the altar. Most of the sacrifices had portions of the animal that were burned on the altar, but not the whole animal. With the burnt offering, though, it was the entire animal that was sacrificed would then be placed on the altar and burned before the Lord. And as we saw the burnt offering there in Leviticus chapter 1, we saw that the animal represents the worshiper. That when someone offered a burnt offering, they were declaring, Lord, this is me. This animal is taking my place, representing me. And in this, I am declaring to you, I am completely on your altar. I am completely at your disposal. I am completely submitted to you. I am completely devoted to you. My whole life, all of my decisions, all of my desires, all of my goals, they're all given over to you entirely. And so the worshiper would kill the animal there next to the altar. The animal would be split apart and the priest would help with that portion. And then it would be placed upon the altar to burn in entirely, consuming the animal entirely. Speaking of that all-consuming surrender of ourselves to the Lord. Now, one of the unique things about this offering and the peace offering that we'll see in a moment is, is it was a free will offering as opposed to the sin and the trespass offering, which were required. They were mandatory. You had to, you know, under these conditions, you must bring these sacrifices with the burnt offering. It's completely voluntary. If you want to, you can't. And so if you want to declare this to the Lord, if you want to, you know, have this kind of devotion to God and express this kind of devotion to God, well, they had this sacrifice to offer. But it was also used as a offering for vows. Now, vows were made in a variety of conditions, and God allowed for them in the sacrifices. And the idea here is it was something that you committed to the Lord, right? And perhaps we kind of speculate, perhaps some of the vows were made as a bargain with God, like, God, if you get me out of this mess, I will surrender myself to you. And so there would be then that sacrifice that represented that after the deliverance had been provided. And perhaps... That is the case with many of the vows, but it didn't require that kind of exchange or, you know, approach to God. It also could have been just, you know, the Lord has put something on my heart, and so I make it a commitment. God, I'm vowing to you my life. And I'm expressing that with this sacrifice that I'm bringing. And so in the fulfillment of a vow and making a vow before the Lord, they would oftentimes connect that to one of these sacrifices. But it was still a free will offering. Really, every vow is a free will offering because... It was not required to begin with, right? They voluntarily vowed. They voluntarily decided to make this commitment. And so I would kind of contrast the two in my head in this way. You could think of the free will offering as a spontaneous offering and then a vow offering, an offering of commitment, right? spontaneous offering. It was, you know, in the midst of a moment, they wanted to offer a sacrifice to the Lord, and they had the animal there. And so they just made the decision right then and there. It wasn't planned out. It wasn't pre-thought out. It wasn't, you know, a prior commitment. It was just, you know, the Lord has this on my heart, and so I'm offering this animal to the Lord. Or it could have been, you know, a long-term, next year when I come back, Lord, I'm going to really, you know, devote myself to you in this special way. And so this sacrifice will go along with that. Either way, it was a free will choice. It was an opportunity for a worshiper to say, I want to devote myself completely to God. In some ways, you could think, well, from God's perspective, if someone wants to offer themselves to the Lord to that degree, well, Maybe there shouldn't be high standards. Like, you know, in a sense, God, you should just be grateful for what you get. Like, that's kind of rare to have someone want to devote themselves to you to that degree. And so maybe you should just allow them to come and worship. And God says, no, that's fake worship. And fake worship will not be accepted. Freewill offerings that are less than ideal are fake offerings. If they don't meet the standard that God has set, then they're fake. They're, hey, I'm pretending I want to give it all to God, but in actuality what I'm doing is I'm offering less than he desires. I'm behaving selfishly. I'm holding back the good stuff for myself while I'm saying I'm giving everything to the Lord. And see, that's a conflict. That doesn't work. So I'm not going to offer my good sheep because, you know, that's for me. I want that sheep. I'm going to make a lot of money off that sheep. I'm going to win the blue ribbon, you know, at the next fair. And so I need that sheep. And so, God, I'm going to offer you this sacrifice. And with it, I'm telling you, I'm giving you everything. I'm wholly devoted to you. I'm completely surrendered to you. But I'm keeping this good thing for myself and offering you the lesser thing. And with that, God is seeing through that and looking at the hypocrisy and saying, God, No, that's fake worship. That's hypocrisy. And that will not be acceptable before the Lord. And so he says in verse 19, you shall offer of your own free will a male without blemish from the cattle, from the sheep, or from the goats. Whatever has a defect, you shall not offer. So God says, no, no, here's the standard. That's great that you want to dedicate yourself to me. That's great that you want to be devoted to me. That's what's best for you. It's what's good for you. And so it's the right thing to do. But God says, I'm not going to let you fake it. I'm not going to let you pretend that that is really your heart if it isn't. And so here's the standard. It must be without blemish. You might imagine for the children of Israel, there was some temptation in regards to this. That temptation. If I can offer something lesser to the Lord, then I can save the better for myself. If I can offer this lesser thing, then I get to keep the good thing. I get to keep the best. I get to, you know, maybe enjoy it, have a feast for myself, or I get to sell it and make some money off of it. That there was conflicting motivations within the heart of the people that required God to say this. I mean, if you think about it, It really shouldn't need to be said that the sacrifices that you offer to God, you know, should be the best that you can provide. This command shouldn't be necessary, but it is necessary because of the condition of our hearts. That if we can fake worship, fake devotion to God, fake worship to God, be less than fully devoted to him, less than fully committed to him, but appear as if or present ourselves as if we are fully committed to him, that we will often take advantage of that opportunity. And God says, that's not acceptable. And that kind of sacrifice is not to be offered to me. That's not the kind of devotion that I deserve, God says. Now, later on in Israel's history, they had an actual problem with this. We see a record of it in Malachi chapter 1. And there the prophet Malachi goes into a little bit of detail about this, and we're not going to hit all of the details that he covers, but here's a couple verses from what the prophet says here in Malachi chapter 1. It says, verse 6 of Malachi 1, "'A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am the father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my reverence?' says the Lord of hosts." to you priests who despise my name. Yet you say, in what way have we despised your name? God says, a father deserves honor. And you call me father, but you're not bringing me honor. You're not honoring my name. You're calling me master, but you're not providing any reverence unto me. Instead, you despise my name. And he anticipates their objection. How have we despised your name? Well, he goes on in verse 8, Malachi chapter 1. When you offer the blind as a sacrifice, is it not evil? When you offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil? Offer it then to your governor. Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you favorably, says the Lord of hosts. He says, think about the sacrifices that you're offering to me and how dishonorable it is. If your governor was coming, someone of a high status, a high position, and they came to your house for dinner, Would you say, I've got the perfect animal to sacrifice or not to sacrifice, but to slaughter for you for our feast tonight. Yeah, it's this broken down, lame, blind animal that I've had and I've saved it just for this special occasion. Now you governor here. And so here is my gift to you, this worthless animal. God says, that would be disrespectful to your governor. And if your governor wouldn't be pleased with it, why are you trying to give that to the Lord? He says, it's evil. When you offer the blind as a sacrifice, when you're offering something that is blemished, you're profaning the name of the Lord. Again, not even providing the honor that you would give to a governor, but you are treating the Lord as if he was just some common thing that he just, you know, you got to throw something his way, so might as well be this lame, broken down animal. God says, this is evil. At the end of the passage, Malachi chapter 1 verse 14, God said, cursed be the deceiver. who has in his flock a male and takes a vow, but sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished. For I am a great king, says the Lord of hosts, and my name is to be feared among the nations. God says, listen, this is the situation. You have a sacrifice, an animal that is worthy of a sacrifice in your pen in your herd or whatever those things are called. You have one available to you, but instead you're taking what is blemished and you're not offering to me your best. God says, I'm a great king. My name is to be feared. It is to be revered. It is to be honored by you among the nations. And instead you're profaning my name and treating it as though it were common. Treating me as if I was just some worthless guy who You can just throw any old animal to you. God says, this is evil. This is profane. For you and I, as we consider these things this morning, of course, we remember, and I've shared many times already as we've worked our way through Leviticus, what Paul says in Romans chapter 12, that you and I are to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. He says, it's our reasonable service. And we're to stop being conformed to the world, to be renewed by the, or transformed by the renewing of our mind, that we may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. You and I still have the opportunity to offer the burnt offering to the Lord, but it no longer takes the form of this animal placed upon a physical altar and burned and consumed entirely. You and I have the opportunity to offer this sacrifice in making ourselves a living sacrifice. And the message of the sacrifice, that is, as this animal is consumed entirely by the fire for you, Lord, Lord, that represents me. I want to be consumed entirely by you, completely given over to your will, to your ways, for your purposes. I want to honor you and be living for your glory. We still have the opportunity to express that and to present this offering to the Lord. And by God's grace, we get to you. approach God in this way. At the same time, we must not forget God sees through hypocrisy. He sees through when we are seeking to express those things that were communicated by the burnt offering, trying to express our devotion to God. But in reality, We are holding back portions of ourselves, portions of our lives, portions of authority in our life for our own selves and not really surrendering to God. We need to come to the point and be reminded and refreshed this morning that we must offer God the devotion that He deserves. Nothing less than our whole hearts, nothing less than our whole minds, nothing less than our whole lives is acceptable. It's a burnt offering, expressing our whole devotion to God. I like what commentator Jay Sklar says about this. He says, "...as a gracious king, the Lord delights to show his people favor, but he is still their king, and they must come to him on his terms, not their own." This means they must bring only the sacrifices that he approves and offer them only in the way that he allows. Those who did so could be assured that he accepted them with favor. We serve a gracious king. And because of his grace, we have all of our sins forgiven, right? We have that sacrifice and the trespass offering, the sin offering taken care of on our behalf. And because of his offering, we are forgiven and we stand right before him in his sight. And all of that is God's mercy and grace expressed to us to a great degree. But the thing we must not forget is that does not mean then that we can now treat God in a way that is less than he deserves. We have the way opened, the veil has been torn, we have access to the Holy of Holies, and God invites us in, and we have this intimacy with the Father that is incredible and previously unknown before the cross of Christ. But we must not forget that that does not mean that we get to treat God as lesser than he actually is. That there is still the need for us to be careful not to profane the name of the Lord and treat him as common. In our free will offerings, spontaneous, as well as our vow offerings, and in a similar way as they had these sacrifices that they would offer under the different circumstances, we we have opportunities to devote ourselves to God. And sometimes there's just that spontaneous moment. Lord, I'm giving myself to you. And sometimes there's the vow, there's the commitment. Lord, I'm going to serve you in this way. I'm giving myself over to you to follow you. And there is this commitment that goes along with it. Perhaps it's a period of time. Perhaps it's a, you know, a path that we're choosing. And Lord, as I walk down this path, I'm, you know, I'm committed to being wholly devoted to you. We have the opportunity to offer this sacrifice still, but we need to remember to do so in a manner which God deserves. To not profane, to not cheapen the name of God, to not cheapen the testimony of God that we deserve. present to the world around us when we relate to him as if he were lesser than the king of kings and lord of lords. Again, going back to verse 2, it's all rooted here. God says, speak to Aaron and his sons that they separate themselves from the holy things of the children of Israel and that they do not profane my holy name by what they dedicate to me. When we dedicate ourselves to the Lord, when we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to When we devote ourselves to the Lord and make commitments to the Lord about our relationship with Him, about our following His ways, we need to make sure that we understand what we're doing and that we're doing so in a way that measures up to the standard that God has required. Now, I would point out that the standard for these sheep was that they would be without blemish, right? We would describe it as perfection. Now, God is not actually requiring absolute perfection from us, sinless perfection from us, because he knows he's not going to get that this side of eternity. That's why Christ died. At the same time, there is the need for us to do the best that we can. And in that Malachi passage, God talks about the guy has a good sheep in his flock that he could offer, but instead he offers this blemished one. And that's the idea here that is being conveyed, that you can offer to God a worthy sacrifice in your devotion to him, but you're offering less. You're offering less than all of you. You're offering less than all of your heart and all of your mind. You're offering less than. You're not surrendering to God completely. Another way to consider this, a way that we cheapen and profane the name of God in our devotion is when we are involved in ongoing sin. One of the major themes of Leviticus is holiness unto the Lord. If I'm the living sacrifice, I'm the offering, And so if I'm offering myself to the Lord, I need to be without blemish. And again, in one sense, I can do that because of the sacrifice of Christ, right? Forgiving all of my sins. At the same time, the full realization of that deliverance from sin isn't fully realized. The pardon from the penalty of sin, that's done. Sanctification, that's still a work in progress. And if I'm not putting any effort in the sanctification, if I'm not drawing near to the Lord and purging sin from my life, then when I offer myself to the Lord, it's a blemished sacrifice. If I'm not dealing with sin that I know about, sin that God has revealed in my life, then I'm profaning the name of the Lord because I know about this sin that he has revealed, the sin that he wants to address, and I'm refusing it. to give that part of my life to the Lord. I'm saying, Lord, I want to be all completely devoted to you, except I'm not going to give up the sin. God says, that's profanity. That's treating me as common. We need to make sure that we offer God the devotion that he deserves. Holiness. That is, to the best of our ability. Addressing those things and confessing our sin and coming clean with God in that way. Obedience. Not just not engaging in the sin, but actively, proactively taking steps of obedience and going forward in things that God desires. We present ourselves as a living sacrifice to the Lord. We must make sure that we measure up to the standard. That we're not trying to fake it. Not pretending our devotion to God. Because God doesn't accept fake worship. Offer God the devotion He deserves. Well, moving on to verses 21 through 25, we get the second point to consider this morning, and that is offer God the fellowship he desires. First, we need to offer God the devotion that he deserves, and now we need to offer God the fellowship that he desires. Check out verse 21 and 22. It says, There shall be no defect in it. Those that are blind or broken or maimed or have an ulcer or eczema or scabs, you shall not offer to the Lord, nor make an offering by fire of them on the altar to the Lord. Here we move on now to talk about the fellowship offering or the peace offering. And this also, like the burnt offering, can take two forms. It can be a free will offering or it can be a vow offering. But again, both of them are really free will offerings. because you choose to make the vow. You're not required to make the vow. And so it's just when you made the choice, right? So a free will offering would be the spontaneous. I choose right now to offer this sacrifice. And a vow offering is I choose right now to offer a sacrifice next year. You know, that it's that commitment for a future time or that spontaneous in the moment offering of a sacrifice right now. This peace offering, we discovered a lot about it in Leviticus chapter 3, where the Lord kind of gives the details of that peace offering. It was a offering not to get peace, not to obtain peace, but to enjoy peace. And you can really think about the peace offering as a feast. When the animal was sacrificed, there was a portion of the animal, the kidneys, the the fat, the liver, that was placed upon the altar. Not the whole animal like the burnt offering, just these portions. These inner parts were placed there upon the altar. And then there was a portion that went to the priest. The priest received a breast and a thigh from the sacrifice. And so this sacrifice was portioned out. The kidneys, the liver goes on the altar. A breast and a thigh goes to the priest. The rest of the animal for the sacrifice then became a feast for the worshiper and probably his family with him. And so there would be this feast that would happen. You can imagine it would be quite a feast to offer a lamb unto the Lord. After the different parts are portioned out, there's estimation, because of course all of these things are variable, but a lamb of perhaps 75 to 100 pounds, about a year old, after the portions are done and the meat is butchered, it's probably about 30 to 50 pounds of meat that would be left for the worshiper to enjoy with his family. Now stop and think about that for a How many times have you gone to the grocery store and purchased 30 pounds of meat? It's pretty rare, right? It's not something that you commonly do. Well, these sacrifices were also kind of rare. They were special occasions. They would come and they would offer these sacrifices. And then it would be a full day of feasting as they enjoyed peace with God and said, God, we're just so thankful for our relationship with you, for the way that you work in our lives, for how you provide for us. And it would be a feast. In Leviticus chapter 7, God gives a little bit more detail about the laws of the peace offering and the sacrifices and how they were to be handled. Leviticus chapter 7 verse 16 says, "...if a sacrifice of his offering is a vow or voluntary offering, it shall be eaten the same day that he offers his sacrifice. But on the next day the remainder of it also may be eaten. The remainder of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day must be burned with fire." So understand what God is saying here. When a peace offering is offered, there's a time limit. You can enjoy it that day that it's offered and the next day. You get leftovers for one day and that's it. Beyond that, the rest of it has to be burned. So essentially, you get all you can eat barbecue for two days when you offer this sacrifice. It's two days of feasting. Two days of enjoying fellowship with God. And the meat would be consumed nearby to the tabernacle. It would be, you know, nearby in the courtyard or just outside the courtyard. There would be this celebration of relationship with God and all that God has done. And so this peace offering was offered voluntarily. It was a free will offering. Again, either spontaneously or committed, you know, for a future time. And so the worshiper would come and say, you know, I just want to celebrate God's goodness and enjoy fellowship with God in line with their understanding of food. When you ate together with someone, there was a peace that you shared, a fellowship and a communion that you shared because... Well, we all are eating of that same portion. We're sharing that same portion, and it's becoming a part of me, and it's becoming a part of you. And so we have this fellowship represented in that meal. In a similar way, God says, come have a meal with me, and let's be united together and enjoy our peace together. Now again, in this sacrifice, as God is giving the instructions here in Leviticus 22, we The standard was that it must be perfect. Verse 21, it must be perfect to be accepted. There shall be no defect in it. The standard was for this sacrifice, the animal must be perfect. Same as the burnt offering. There shall be no defect, no issues with it, no blemishes, no damage done to it. Again, fake worship will not be accepted. When you're saying, hey, I want to have peace with God and celebrate God's goodness and just enjoy all that God has done for me, and you offer something lesser than God deserves, it's fake. You offer something lesser than what you can provide, it's fake. It's not accepted by the Lord. Fake worship will not be accepted. You cannot offer a lesser sacrifice. God doesn't accept that. And you can't have the attitude, well, he should just be grateful he gets anything from me at all. Listen, if that's our hearts, man, we better watch out for the lightning because that totally profanes the name of God. God is a great king. He has done so much for us. We deserve to honor him greatly. And when we desire to have fellowship with him, it must not be fake. It must not be done half-heartedly. It must not be done with just a piece of ourselves or our hearts. It must not be done blemished or with defect. It must be done in a genuine way, surrendering our hearts and our lives to Him, wanting to know Him, wanting to experience His presence. In Zechariah 7-11, It's a situation where it's many years later after Leviticus, where the children of Israel had been in captivity and had come back out of captivity into the land of Israel. And during that time of captivity, they had been practicing every year certain fasts. And when they were back in the land now, they said, you know, we've been doing this kind of fasting while we've been outside of the land and in captivity. And should we continue to do these fasts now that we're back in the land, now that God has essentially answered those prayers is what they're saying. And so they go to the prophet Zechariah to ask, what does the Lord say about this? Should we continue to do these fasts for the Lord? And the Lord gives a response that I'm sure they did not respect. I'm sure that they did not expect is what I meant to say. In verse 5 of Zechariah chapter 7, God says, say to all the people of the land and to the priests, when you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months during those 70 years, did you really fast for me? And then he emphasizes it. For me? Did you really do that for me, God says? You didn't do that for me. That was fake fasting. You were really hungry, but it was fake fasting. You actually abstained from food. You did that, and you pretended to have fellowship with me, but he says you didn't. And he goes on to explain why. In Zechariah 7, verse 7, he says, should you not have obeyed the words which the Lord proclaimed? Look, if you were really fasting for me, If you were really seeking to know me and seeking to have fellowship with me, you would have been obeying the words that I commanded. And so what you wanted was you wanted the benefits of fellowship. And so you would fast religiously, but you would not actually fellowship with me. You didn't actually commune with me. You didn't actually have a desire to hear from me and to follow me and to walk with me. You just wanted to be religious. You just wanted your prayers answered without any real fellowship with God. God does not accept fake worship. Fake fasting doesn't work. I mean, it works in the sense that you're actually hungry, but it doesn't work in the sense that it benefits you in your relationship with God. If you're going to offer a fellowship offering, you need to make sure that your heart is right. You need to make sure that you are doing so in a way that is not fake worship. Not just putting on a show, not just being religious, but that you're offering to the Lord something that is real and genuine. Jesus affirmed the greatest commandment several times. You read it in different of the Gospels. Mark 12, verse 30, it records one account of it. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. He says this is the first commandment. Notice this. The standard there. Love God with all your heart. Not most of your heart. Not half of your heart. Not whatever is left of your heart after you love your husband and your family. Love the Lord with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength. Your entire being must be given over to the things of God. And to try to have fellowship with God without offering to God this kind of relationship, this kind of fellowship. It's a blemished sacrifice. It's not acceptable. Again, we have the grace of Christ and the forgiveness of Christ, and so we have the opportunity and the access to God, but we need to be careful that we don't then allow it to be something where we treat God as common. That when we come to Him, when we desire to fellowship with Him, when we commit to fellowship with Him, when we commit to know Him and walk with Him, that we do so truly and genuinely and say, Lord, I'm holding nothing back. I'm loving you with all my heart and all my soul and all my mind and all my strength. With all of me, I want to know you. With all of me, I want to be with you and hear your voice and walk in your presence. Whether it be a commitment offering, right? Something you plan in advance and you're preparing for and you're looking and saying, Lord, if you get me through this or Lord, when you do these things in my life and then there's going to be this commitment and this fellowship with you. Or whether it be a spontaneous right now in the moment, Lord, I'm just moved and I just want to have fellowship with you. I want to be close to you. The standard is the same. It must be without blemish. Offer God the fellowship that he desires. Now, the fellowship that God desires is really impacting all of our lives and everything about it. We could think about our daily lives. We could think about our time of devotion with God. We could think about our times in the workplace, our times with our family. We could think about times gathering together at church. God wants us to fellowship with him in all of that. And there is the opportunity to do so, but we need to be careful. And kind of the easiest one for us to think about, perhaps, is our gathering together as a church. We gather together to fellowship with God on Sunday mornings. Don't profane the name of the Lord by approaching Sunday morning service as you would any other gathering that you might attend. Don't profane the name of God by approaching Sunday morning service with a heart and a mind that it's just like, hey, when I get there, I get there. It doesn't really matter. I think there's lots of opportunity for us to be challenged in regards to our hearts. I mean, we're a coffee chapel, right? We're casual. It's cool. It used to be expressed, you dress in your Sunday best to come before the Lord. And that can be a formality and a ritual that has no meaning. meaning internally, right? And so that's something to be resisted. At the same time, it expressed something that is needed. And we need to come to church in our Sunday best, not necessarily physically, but spiritually. That we need to hallow the name of God, to honor and revere and say, we're gathering together in the presence of God. I'm not going to disrespect God and show up halfway through his presence. I'm not going to disrespect God and come up and arrive and plan to, you know, secretly watch the game and listen to it with my headphone on. I'm not going to disrespect God and, you know, be here and be distracted and have my mind engaged in something else and involved in something else. I'm going to engage with the Lord and be devoted to Him. This time is His time, and I want to fellowship with God. And I don't want to just fake it and sit through service, but I want to experience God's presence. And that's true, you know, whether we're gathered here physically, for those of you watching at home on the live streams, you know, that this time can be preserved as fellowship unto the Lord. He's promised to meet in special ways as His people gather together. We need to make sure and be careful that we don't profane that. And so as we enter into a time of worship and singing, that it's not just us going through the motions, but we're but that we learn to fellowship and to really connect with God in the time of worship. I would encourage you to make sure that you don't just know emotion in singing. There is an emotional component to worship for sure. And that's not to be disregarded. Again, in the peace offering, there was the free will, the spontaneous, and then there was the commitment part. And both were valid and both were needed. In a similar way, we have that opportunity in our times of singing, just to give a simple application. You know, sometimes in a time of worship, there's a particular song and you're moved. The Holy Spirit moves upon you and you're caught up and the emotion is stirred up. And so emotionally, spontaneously, you engage with God in fellowship and you enjoy that fellowship and that peace that you have with God. And that's great. That's glorious not to be despised. At the same time, the next song comes on that you're not such a fan of. You're not so emotional about. It doesn't stir you in the same way, but you can still make a commitment offering, a vow offering, and say, you know what, God? This isn't my favorite song. Or maybe you're saying, you know, this isn't what I want to sing. This isn't something that I'm desiring to do right now. But Lord, you're worthy, and I'm going to honor you. It's not about how I feel or what I think. It's It's about what honor you deserve. And so, Lord, I'm going to sing this with the same gusto as I sing the other one because you're worthy. Not because I feel it, not because I'm so excited about it, but because you're worthy of it. That's a simple example applied to one specific circumstance, but we can think about this in our time in the Word of God, reading through the Scriptures. We can think about this in our relationship with one another as we're seeking the Lord. We can think about this in our opportunity to serve God in various capacities and use our spiritual gifts. There is opportunity to walk in fellowship with God because of what Christ has done for us. Let's offer God the fellowship that he desires. Let's make sure we consider the standards that he has set, that we don't profane or cheapen the name of God in the way that we approach him and the way that we seek to fellowship with him. One other thing that I think is interesting about this is the peace offering, as I quoted there from Leviticus chapter 7, you could eat it that day and the next day, but the leftovers from the fellowship didn't last very long, right? Just lasted one day. You can have leftovers one day. I think that's interesting to consider in our relationship with the Lord. You really can't go more than two days without a renewal of that fellowship offering. We need to be continuing to come back and spending time with God in His presence, engaging with Him. We need to be refreshed and renewed in that fellowship offering, giving our best to him and to the best of our ability, being genuine and real in our love for God with all of our might and soul and strength. Well, finally, we're going to jump and look at verses 29 and 30. Here's point number three. Offer God thanksgiving for all he does. Verse 29 says, And when you offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Lord, offer it of your own free will. On the same day it shall be eaten. He shall leave none of it until morning. I am the Lord. Now in between the previous verses and these verses, there's a couple other standards that are given, additional standards set for the different types of offering that would prevent the cheapening of offerings. And for lack of time, we're not going to get into those. But here he looks at now the sacrifice of thanksgiving. And the Thanksgiving sacrifice was the peace offering, but with this specific focus on thankfulness. It was a peace offering. And so you can read about that again in Leviticus chapter 3 and Leviticus chapter 7. It gives a little bit more details about this. So as the previous offerings, it's a free will offering. He says you're to offer it of your own free will. What made this one unique and a little bit different than the normal peace offering was... this offering had to be eaten all in one day. So a normal peace offering, whether it was a voluntary or a vow, you could eat it that day and the next day. But this Thanksgiving offering, it was a one day thing. Verse 30, on the same day it shall be eaten. You shall leave none of it until morning. I am the Lord. And so the idea here is you were to consume that sacrifice entirely and completely. Whatever you could not eat was to be burned on the altar. And so the idea was that you were to enjoy to the max. This, again, it was a feast where you would, you know, at the end of this feast, at the end of this meal, be fully full and satisfied. Yeah, thanks, God. You're so good to us. Thank you, God. Oh, yeah. Just satisfied. I'm full. Man, you provide everything. You're so good. God was... seeking from his people this expression of fulfillment and satisfaction in their thankfulness to him. The other peace offerings, hey, you can have that the next day, save a little bit for the next day, enjoy some more the next day. You know, it's still a feast. It's still essentially all you can eat for two days. But this one, it was designed to be that case where you would just be so full, symbolic of your fullness in all that God has provided. Your thankfulness for how he has met your needs and satisfied you. The peace offering was that time of fellowship with God. The sacrifice of thanksgiving was that same fellowship with a focus on, Lord, I just want to say thank you. You're just so good to me. Your grace and your mercy is abundant. Your work in my life, it's so good. So I just want to say thanks. Offer God thanksgiving for all he does. The same standards apply. You want to be thankful to God? Don't cheapen his name. Don't profane him and approach him as if he were common. Remember who he is. Remember what he has done. I think about this in this way. The fact that it's a peace offering with a focus on thanksgiving. I think about it as an idea of like, when you have some time with the Lord, make the most of it. Get the most that you can out of it. It has to all be eaten on that one day. Like just enjoy that experience, that presence of the Lord to the max. Enjoy God's blessing and enjoy God's work to the max. All you can handle. Maybe you've noticed you go to a place that's all you can eat. Probably haven't done that for a year or so, but... Back in the old days when we used to be able to go to all you can eat, right? They don't provide to-go boxes so that you go back through the buffet again and, you know, pile it. No, they don't do that, right? It's all you can eat right then for that meal. In the same way, this was an all-you-can-eat meal, and God says it's all right there, but it's all for this occasion. It's free refills on this visit only, right? Not free refills for life. You get the occasion, the opportunity to offer another sacrifice, to engage in God's presence again in this way. But the point is, each time, experience it to the max. Engage in it fully. Express your thanks to God and enjoy his presence to the best of your ability. Give your best offerings to God. The worship team is going to come up and close us in a time of worship. And they're going to do two worship songs. The first one is just for us to kind of try to put this into practice a little bit. And I would encourage you to offer God the devotion that he deserves. Allow the Lord to examine your heart and let's sing out before the Lord in a way that he deserves, in a manner that he deserves, and devote ourselves to the Lord in this time of worship in a way that reflects who he really is and all that he has done for us. Let's enjoy the time in his presence as we worship and sing together. He indwells the praises of his people. God's here in our midst and we get to enjoy his presence specifically and especially as we worship. Offer God the fellowship that he deserves. And let's also use this time to offer God thanksgiving for all he does. And so they can come on up and lead us in this song. And as they do, let's give our best offerings to God. Offer to him. our whole hearts, our whole lives. Confess sin if we need to. If we need to deal with those things, let's do it. Let's do it. Let's come and spend some time in the presence of God in a way that honors Him. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.