A Pleasing Aromaļ¼š Leviticus 1 & 7 Tribe 2022-09-12 Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record. ---- Remember sometimes when I ask him to pray? Good morning. Good morning, everyone. It feels like family today. I don't know. It has like a Thanksgiving day for you. Maybe it's because it's so chilly out today, but we're so thankful that you're here in this room, and we're thankful that you're joining us on the livestream. And we're gonna get started, and I'm just gonna pray for us as we begin today. The Lord Jesus, we thank you for today. We thank you for this space to gather. We thank you for our family in this room, new and old. We thank you for the change of season and what that means in our lives. The possibility, the newness, that the old things have passed away and there's new life. Lord, we just declare this morning that you are our light. You are our salvation. And that no matter what we look ahead and see down the road in this new season, Lord, you light the path. You light the path. Who shall we fear when you are for us, Lord? If you're joining us on the livestream today, I just pray over you right where you are, Whatever circumstances you find yourself in today, close to the Lord, far from the Lord, I just pray for you today. I pray that you would take one step closer to his presence, one step closer. Let him just meet you and change you radically today. Maybe you're just in your apartment alone, maybe feeling alone. If that's you today, if you're in your house, know today that the Lord is with you. He is with you today. You are not alone. Lord, we just praise you today. We thank you. We worship you. You are worthy, worthy, worthy. In Jesus' Lord. Lord is my light and salvation. Whom shall I fear? Whom I will wait for you. Oh, yes, we will. Will wait for you. Just wait on him this morning. I will wait for you, for you alone, Lord. I will wait for you. And I will He's never changing. We said our hope. We said our hope on you. We said to see your goodness. I will remain confident in this. Will see the goodness of the Lord. I will remain Declare it, I will remain confident in this. I will see the goodness of the Lord. We stand on the We're miracle going working God. Midst are a miracle working God. Just sing that. You are a miracle working God. Are. A miracle working God. Are. A miracle Lord. Lord. When you. I think of that, I think of how he came for me. It's this this song is really the story of Lazarus, and he's singing, you stood outside my grave and you came. Like, when he was dead in the grave, he came for him. I think about when he came for me, when he called me out of my sin and where I was, and then I think about how he shows up here every time we get together. He's just so faithful. Did you have something to do? Oh lord, we thank you that you always show up, that it's not even an issue of you showing up, but it's an issue that you never leave us. You're always with us. Yes, Jesus. But that when we cry out, you make yourself known, you send your peace, You send your hope. Lord, there's so much hope in you that we have not even realized yet. There's so much hope if we could just really grab a hold of who you are because you are hope. Hope has a name and it's Jesus. And we just remember, we stand on these stories of where you did miracles because there are times we need those. We need miracles in our life and as this world gets darker, we need an outpouring of your hope and an outpouring of your power to this world around us. Give us great discernment, Lord. We just thank you and we praise you just like Lazarus. You are always standing outside our grave, wooing and calling us. And then once we respond and you raise us, even death does not have a sting anymore. What is there to be afraid when we're in you? You stood, Jesus. You stood outside my grave Yeah. I knew that you would come. Listen to these words. You said death's only sleeping. Nothing is impossible for him. They said that Lazarus was in the grave so long He said, but lord, he stinketh. But lord, he's too far gone. And Jesus is like, do you know who I am? Like, hope just walked on the scene. Hallelujah. Lord, we praise you for that. You said, you said as only sleeping. Miracle. Anybody need a miracle in here today? You are. A miracle working God. Are. Declare who he is. I'm alive. You came. Oh, yeah. You did. I knew that you would come. Oh, we thank you that you are here right now. Anything that we need is found in your presence right now. Everything for all that you've done, for all that you've done, we will pour out our love. This will be gonna all together lovely, all together worthy, all together wonderful to me. Yes, Lord. We just declare that. Declare who you are. Remind ourselves that we need to be firm, firm in who you are for the days to come. As a part of worship, why don't you take a seat for just a moment? I'm gonna ask Christian to roll a video here. This video hasn't been released to the public yet, but it will be posted on ministry website soon. But I want you to I want you to see this video so that you can get a a fresh reminder from an outside voice of how strategic the days that we are living in. And the video that you're gonna see is gonna come from an unlikely voice. Here in America, it's so easy for us to think of Jesus as, like like like, American. Like, you know, he's, like, white or Caucasian or or or whatever. And I'm sure if you were Peruvian, you grew up in the church, you probably imagine Jesus as being Peruvian. Well, his nationality is Jewish, but to hear the importance of the days that we're living in and the significance of the days that we're living in from somebody that's not American. I wanna show you this video to galvanize your heart to taking advantage of every single opportunity there is to love Jesus and to enter into his kingdom. So with that being said, let's just roll this short video. It's it's slightly political, but it's extremely relevant. Jesus, far be it from us in our hearts, that our hearts would wax not cold, but far more dangerous, that our hearts would wax lukewarm, that we would become accustomed to and comfortable with the flow of culture. You've always stood in the midst of the flow of culture going the opposite way. Jesus, today, again, refresh our hearts, recalibrate our hearts that we would see what you see, that would we would be aware of what you are aware of, that our hearts would be fully devoted to you, that we would be people of prayer, that we would be people of passion, that we would be people of compassion. And Lord that you would use our lives to make your name famous regardless of what's going on in the economic climate, the political climate. We wanna stay in step with you. Open our eyes to see. Open our ears to hear your voice of leadership in these days. We're here to worship you. No matter the cost. No matter the cost. Let's take a few more minutes and let's just really love Jesus. Let the words of our Iranian church leaders, sisters ring in our ears about the sobriety needed for the days that we're living in. Jolt us, shock us awake, disrupt our complicity and our complacency. Oh, God, we ask you, come. We ask you, Jesus, come. We're here to worship you. We pour out the affections of our heart to you, Jesus. We're here to worship you, to be captivated by you, your beauty. We pour out our lives to you, Jesus. Because you are worthy and you are worth it. Come on, tribe fam. Come on, livestream, fam. Come on. Let him hear you. Jesus, we ask you. Remember the Lord is putting something on your heart to share during worship, an encouragement, a picture, a word. We welcome you, Holy Spirit. Speak to us. I just keep hearing, I'll bring you more than a song. Let let these not just be words from my lips, but let them be my actions when I say these words. Listen. Second Corinthians ten three says, for though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to flesh. I think it's time for the church to put away the distractions. We watch TV. We play. I think it's time to get serious and start studying God's word and get focused on the things that are important and realize that although they seem to be coming at us from every direction, what's really happening is the devil is working hard to distract us and keep us away from what we truly need to be focusing on. So I would just encourage everybody. I've I've kind of started going back and, listening to Billy Graham and, people like that. And it's been, it's been refreshing to me to refocus my energies on things of the spirit and realize we don't have a whole lot of time left. One of the one of the sermons that he had was that, I'm 64 years old. The average life of a male is seventy years and four months. Now, obviously, there's people who live to be 100, people who die before, but the average, and although we have all these medical advances, that average has not changed. And we have a lot more people that live to be 70 in four months. But just goes to show you, we we have a limited time. We need to get serious about what we believe and what's really going on, is spiritual warfare. It's good. Lord, show us how to do that. Show us how to get serious about you. What does that look like to each and every one of us uniquely? What is it that we need to put aside? And then what is it that we need to add in our devotion to you? Speak to us. Show us each uniquely what that looks like to get real serious about you. Each of our days are numbered until eternity. Just keep hearing over and over. I'll bring you more than a song. I'll pour out everything. I'll bring you more than just words. Let the meditations of my heart and the thoughts of my mind be pleasing in your sight, oh, Lord. Lord, shake us where we've fallen complacent in our walk with you. Shake us, awaken us where we have just been going through ones are for our family, our friends, our nation, are our community. Anybody else have anything on their heart to share? God just wanted me to say this. My daughter was heading to her grandparents on Thursday, and there were fires South Of Afton, and there were fires in Pocatello, there was a fire outside of Twin. And she asked, how do the fires start? And my wife said, well, some start with lightning, and some start, you know, with electric poles. And she says, well, what about the firefighters and the animals? And my wife said, well, we'll pray for them tonight when we go to bed. She said, no. No, Madre. Turn down the music. Let's play pray for them right now. Let's pray for the firefighters and the animals right now. And that to me shows the urgency that we need to take. We we say, well, we'll pray about it tonight or, you know, we'll put you on my prayer list. And it needs to happen now, like, right in the moment. And it takes a four year old to bring that back and just be like, Absolutely. Heavenly Lord, your hands can be everywhere, all at once, and they're needed everywhere all at once. There are so many fires across our country right now, California, Colorado, Wyoming, my Montana, and Idaho, and they work so hard. And they don't have houses, they sleep in tents. They sleep out in the dirt, and they they work for us to keep us safe. And what they do is is a thankless job. And I just put your hand on them, Lord, and let them know. Let them feel your love today. Let them know that you are with them as they walk through the ashes and the fire. They are worthy of you. Thank you, Leah. Jesus, prepare our hearts today as we transition from one kind of worship to the next kind of worship where we open up your word, dig into your word, looking for an encounter with you. Thank you for being here in the midst of this service. Rush in over the threshold of our hearts, dwell richly among us. So that when we leave here today, we would say to one another, did not our hearts burn when he was here amongst us? We pray these things in Jesus' name and everybody said, Okay. Stand up. Say hi. Give some hugs, some high fives. Fill up your coffee. How about the worship team today? And we'll be back in the livestream with their Bibles open in just one minute. Come on. Come on. Oh, two together. Alright. We'll we can make it happen. We'll yeah. Two together. Scoot over one. We got two together. Perfect. Alright. And oh, I'm live. I've been live for a little while. Alright. Now let's settle down, kids, and that goes for the rest of you under 60. If you have your bible with you this morning, let's turn to the book of Leviticus chapter one. You know it's gonna be a good Sunday when the preacher says turn to Leviticus. Oh, yeah. How many of you besides Amanda are excited about the book of Leviticus? Okay. Alright. Alright. Turn there. We're gonna get there in in just a moment. But let me ask you first really quickly. The number. It's this is not related to Leviticus just yet, but the number, 2799. Does that number have any significance to anybody? Say it again. Do you have the 72799. Rules. Is it rules? Not not related to Leviticus yet. We're not there. Turn to Leviticus, but but your brains are already engaged. This is unrelated to Leviticus. 2,799. It's not bible related. I love I love it, you guys, though. I love it. I love it. They're trying to they're we're trying to think. Wow. The the when you hear the when you hear the answer, it's a little bit more more sobering, but I really appreciate all these answers. 2700And99 is the number of American civilians that lost their lives twenty one years ago on nine eleven. Today. Two thousand seven hundred and ninety nine business people, firefighters, police officers Children. Children that were in day care in the World Trade Centers, people that were commuting on airplane flights, people that were working at the Pentagon Building, an attack on American soil causing the result of the loss of American lives that drug United States into a protracted twenty plus year war on what we call terrorism. An attack on it happened on American soil, but it is related to and connected to an attack on very precious and sacred American values and ideals. Regardless of what you think of past or current presidents, regardless of what you think of our various governmental institutions, whether you're all for it or you're hopping mad about it, The country, this country, is often talked about in terms of an experiment. The political system of our country is often talked about as an experiment, the great American experiment, the great experiment of democracy. The level of intellectual intelligence and education and well read and deeply rooted in this book were the founding men and women of this nation to create what we enjoy today is what was attacked twenty one years ago. And it doesn't matter if you're a libertarian, Aqchak Mubabian, democrat, republican. What makes this nation great is what makes an American an American. What makes an American an American is not your ethnicity, your color of skin, where you live. It's that we hold a common set of ideals and principles and values. And whether you're born in this country or you come to this country and adopt those values of of the dignity of the individual, rights of the individual, responsibilities of the individual, our understanding and role of federal government in the lives of not only an individual but a community and also states, and states that are are banded together, united under one flag. It all comes down to principles and values. And if you hold the same principles and values, that's what has made America incredible for over two hundred years is is hold on to your Brazilian ethnicity. I don't know why I'm looking at you, Lee. Just pick you. Hold on to your cultural distinctiveness. You don't need to forfeit one to adopt the other. That's what's for so long made America what's known as the great melting pot of the world, is that while holding your cultural and ideological distinctives, we come together on the same page of principles and values. Other countries around around the world, in fact, just about every other nation around the world, their unifying distinctive characteristic is their ethnicity. Italians, Azerbaijanis, Mongolians, Russians, China. When you go to these other countries, all you're going to see, for the most part, are people of that ethnicity. So they have a an ethnic identity. Most other countries around the world have an ethnic identity. For a long time, what has made our country great is in a really good way, we've said, we don't care about your race. Be Peruvian. Be Czechoslovakian. Great. But are you American? Today, we can see that that that there are forces trying to drive a wedge into into what has made America great, agreeing upon ideals and principles, and trying to make things like economics, race, and your political affiliation dividing points. So my first the conclusion of my first sermon today I didn't remember this in your notes. This is all just come tumbling out. Right? It's the Lord speaking for you. My first the conclusion of my first sermon is let's be united, number one, around Jesus. Right? We there there's a there's a danger and a slippery slope of becoming what I would what I would describe as being like a Christian nationalist Because the values that much of what America was framed upon are taken straight out of the bible, there is a tendency for us to confuse nationalism with our zeal for the Lord, and they and we have to hold those things in tension. Right? Because I'll tell you this. It was the nationalist labor party that an entire country after the defeat of World War one got behind a single solitary figure who was a a an art school dropout, low grade low ranking member of the military named Adolf Hitler, who started talking about the the greatness of the nation and recapturing the greatness of the nation. And he used the bible to frame the greatness of the nation and got into this this zealous, extreme right wing nationalist. We know how that turned out. So we have to hold we have to hold our love for country and our love for Jesus in its proper tension. Does that make sense? And today, as we are about to get into Leviticus and as we remember 09:11 were you in New York City that day? Anybody else in New York City that day? How many of you remember where you were where you when you saw it on the TV? We all do. We all do. Let's not forget that it was not an attack on on the geographical country of America. It was an attack on the ideals and principles and values contained within God's word that a daring group of people for generations have attempted to live out. Please name one other country in the world where there are other citizens of other countries doing anything they can to get into that country like it is here in The United States. Right. Isn't it funny too that oh, sorry. It's not funny. It's a fact that the devil wants to destroy anything that's light. And just like you just said, there's no other country where people are drawn to like America. And there's a light here that they're trying to come to, and that is why the devil is spending so much time trying to destroy us because we're there is goodness here. And no matter how much bad and evil we see, there's still a lot of good here. Yeah. And it's not too late for us to stand up and declare it, you know. Democrats, stand up, defend, and and and be vocal and passionate about your political party's affiliation for this great nation. If you're a libertarian, love and embrace this nation. If you're a republican, if you are undecided, if you are American, love and honor what God has given us with with this country. And here's an amazing thing. And if you don't like it, you live in America. Change it. When I say that, you're all like, well, yeah. And I understand that that you think like, that's a that's a that's a big ask for our political system and running for office and and engaging in the that's a lot. But e but but we all in concept and theory are like, yeah. If we don't like it, we can change it. Look at little kitty cat back there. Look at little cat, Mighty cat. She's the greatest sermon ever. Yeah. I love it. Oh my gosh. She's so ready. Keep going. It's real. Don't tap your wrist. I might go long list. When I say those words, if you don't like it, change it. No no other country no other country in the world can even fathom the the depth of the words that I just said, unlike we can here in The United States. If you have your bibles with you this morning, let's turn to Leviticus chapter one. Chapter what? Chapter one. Thank you, Jesus, for being good to us in this country. It's all throughout the Bible. If a nation will just humble themselves, turn to me. Lord, forgive us for pushing you out, for eliminating, for mocking you, for denying you. Alright. Leviticus chapter one. If you're taking notes this morning in your notebook with your pen, you can write the title of this morning's message, pleasing aroma. I'll separate you two. Very sexy. Leviticus chapter one. What we're gonna talk about this morning is two passages, and I feel like the Holy Spirit wants to stitch these two passages together for us. Two different passages, one outcome. And we're gonna look in the book of Leviticus. And I love it how when we go to worship, some of you close your eyes and you you get contemplative, and your form of worship is is with serenity and the closing of your eyes. And I don't know what's going on in your heart or in your mind, but I love how people like Bob Whitmire are exuberantly and passionately worshiping the lord as he sits there reverently with his eyes closed in the same way that that you're ready to dance and jump and sing and and go for it and cat is fist pumping. And over here in the corner, you know the worship is good the faster that Kathy's thumbs flip and turn. And there have been a few times I've said, oh, Kathy, what do you got? And she's like, no. No. No. I'm just like, you're on your hunt. And and you can tell how I just love to see how different folks worship. And I love how, like like, the the the better the worship gets, the faster your little fingers turn and go to different places. And one of the places that we frequently don't turn to is the book of Leviticus because it's a book full of rules, laws, regulations, things that do not seem relevant to us today as as citizens living in a modernized first world nation or as Christians living under the new covenant. But there's a lot of really good gold that we can dig and mine out of Leviticus. And if you are interested, like, okay, show me, Brian. Like, help me to dig out some other good gold. We're we're gonna dig out a little bit of gold here today. But if any of you have if you're familiar everybody in Tribe Kids is familiar with it, and maybe perhaps some of you are. There is an organization called the bibleproject.org, and they are really awesome. They do those animated videos breaking down complex either themes or books of the bible into easily digestible and understandable ways for simple cavemen like me that can understand and grab a hold of. They also have an app, the bible project app, and you can download the app. And the way they have their content organized is really helpful and useful. But I have, as we've been working on this remodel, I'm like, you know, sweeping or I'm lifting heavy things or moving rocks or hanging drywall or whatever. So my my my body mechanics is doing something, but it frees my mind up to focus on something else. So I've been going through their their study on the book of Leviticus, and, oh my goodness, it's so good. So I would encourage you. If you have some windshield time or if you're doing some other activities where you have the bandwidth to throw in a podcast series, just go through Leviticus on that app. It's so good. How about I forward it to on the On the tribe tribe text, she can send you a link to either that episode or bibleproject.org. Leviticus chapter one. Would somebody please read as it's 11 o eight? Would somebody please read Leviticus chapter one verses one through nine? And this is gonna be the first of two passages that I feel like the Holy Spirit wants to stitch together for us. The Lord called to Moses from the tabernacle and said to him, give the following instructions to the people of Israel. When you present an animal as an offering to the Lord, you may take it from your herd of cattle or your flock of sheep and goats. If the animal you present as a burnt offering is is from the herd, it must be a male with no defects. Bring it to the entrance of the tabernacle so you may be accepted by the Lord. Lay your hand on the animal's head and the Lord will accept its death in your place to purify you, making you right with him. Then slaughter the young bull in the Lord's presence, and Aaron's sons, the priest, will present the animal's blood by splattering it against the sides of the altar and stands at the entrance to the tabernacle. Tabernacle. Quick pause. Lay your hands on the animal. The the animal is then slaughtered. We have a tendency to think of I've mentioned this before. We have a tendency to think that that our sins get transferred on to that animal. Now the animal is is naughty, bad, so you gotta kill it. But we get to live. Okay. That is one way of looking at and understanding, and I would say that that's not wrong. But in this sacrifice, you'll see what happens to the blood. And in other sacrifices, the blood of the animal that was just slaughtered goes all the way in to the holy place where the spirit of god lives. So now if I transfer my sin onto that animal so now that animal's naughty, and then it gets killed. And you take the blood of that animal, that naughty animal, which was me, and you go in there, like, that seems like you would defile the temple, but that's not the idea. I want you to think of God longing for desiring to have close intimate connection with his people by the way that he prescribed. The way that he's prescribed it, as it says in Leviticus chapter 14, the life of any living thing is in the blood. So it's the essence. So symbolically, I'm transferring my essence to that animal. The animal has to release its blood. My essence is now in that blood. And then, in a manner of speaking, my essence gets to go into the holy place where it's where it's sprinkled in the holy place. Not that I I are you picking up what I'm putting down? Okay. Good. Are you familiar and understand conceptually the idea of the transference of sin? When I lay my hands on in the old according to the old covenant, when I lay my hands on the animal, I transfer my sin onto the animal. The animal is naughty, and therefore it has to die. We get that. Right? Okay. That's not a wrong way of thinking, but I want you to think of animal sacrifice and the sprinkling of blood in the holy place as something that's not naughty but really special in a way that God provided in the old covenant for us to come near. Only the high priest could go into the holy of holy place. Only the Levites ministering in the tabernacle could go into god. The closest that a civilian could get would be the outer courts. And even then, at one point, god's like he even says in Leviticus, I don't want y'all just going in and out of the tent. Only Levites can go in. The closest the closest that a civilian could get to the presence of god would be to lay his hands on the animal and see the the inner tent off in the distance, but never have close intimate connection with God. But God provided a beautiful way for the for our essence. Maybe not our consciousness in that moment, but our essence. As we lay our hands on the animal, its blood was shed. Our the essence of our life transferred into the essence of the life of that animal that forfeited its life so that our essence could go into the holy place, and we could have that close intimate fellowship with God. Cool. Alright. Who is reading? Okay, Kimball. Then skin the animal and cut it into pieces. The sons of Aaron, the priest, will build a wood fire on the altar. They will arrange the pieces of the offering, including the head and fat on the wood burning on the altar. But the internal organs and the legs must first be washed with water. Then the priest will burn the entire sacrifice on the altar as a burnt offering. It is a special gift, a pleasing aroma to the Lord. Okay. Now couple of questions. Checking for retention and comprehension. How much of the animal is this sacrifice given on the altar? On the fire of the altar. On the fire of the altar. How much of the animal? And? And legs. And the legs and the blood, which is? All of it. All of it. In this particular, there are about five categories of sacrifices that God prescribes for the nation of Israel. The very first type of sacrifice that God institutes says, hey, we're we're gonna be close. Here's how we do it. The first type of sacrifice is you can write at the top of chapter one, the whole enchilada. Including what what does the text say? Put it all on the fire including the Organs. The organs and the head. That's the whole enchilada. Now let's imagine none of us in here oh, some of us none of us in here get our livelihood from raising and selling livestock. None of us in here. But let's take for a moment let's pretend for a moment that all of us are sheepherders, and we get we feed our family from the sale and purchase of sheep, the breeding of sheep. We we we feed our family from the actual sheep themselves. Let's all be herdsmen. They get our livelihood from sheep industry for just a moment. Ready, go. Okay. What type of animal, what type of sheep, let's say, does God say that is to be sacrificed? There there's there's two. There it is. Those two. A male Unblemished one. Unblemished. The best one. The best one. The very best sheep goes on the altar. The one that brings the most money in the market. Yeah. Yep. Good for you. That's the connection. That's the sacrifice. The one that would bring the most money at the market. Well said, Colleen. I've got cows in my backyard today. I'd like to shoot some. I've got a couple of neighbors cows I'd like to sacrifice. Stir with the man. Imagine being a a sheep herder, being in the sheep industry, and your neighbor who is also in the sheep industry but doesn't know the lord, doesn't follow the commands of the lord, looks at you in your pasture as you're carefully examining each and every one of your sheep. And the guy in the pasture next door is leaning over the fence, and he's like, oh, see that one over there? That one is literally the best sheep of the whole herd. And then you're going through looking, looking, and you find that one, and you're like, that's it. That's the one. The neighbor, he's thinking, oh, we're getting ready to send it to market. We're gonna fluff and buff it. Maybe it's going to four h. Maybe it's gonna show maybe it will go for breeding. Maybe just maybe they're having a big birthday or a family reunion, and they're gonna eat that one. I've seen that he selected the very best one. Then that that sheep herder neighbor watches as you put a little rope around it. You lead it out of the pen, and then just down to the down the road where you can see it being killed and the whole thing tossed on the fire. If you were that neighbor's shepherd, what would you think? What a waste. What a waste. What else might you be thinking? I love how we're using our imaginations. You're crazy. Why? Why in the world would you do that? Like, is that really necessary? The best one? Now can somebody make a Jesus connection here? Well, Jesus was the best one. Yeah. Well, that's I'm saying. He was sacrificed. The best one of all of us, Jesus, as he was a human, was sacrificed for us. Oh, sorry. Jesus was sacrificed for us, the best one of us, and the blood that ran from Jesus when he was on the cross represents the blood that flows into the holy place, and the sinner gives us that close relationship with his father, God. It's good. Somebody please turn to or cast thine gaze upon the screen to John chapter 12. I also think just separate from like Jesus being the sacrifice if we were to put it into the context of our neighbors watching us and us as laying down our lives for the Lord. Like, do our neighbors see us giving our best? Do our neighbors see us giving our fullest? Or do our neighbors or our neighbors see us walking in compromise, one foot in, one foot out or do they see us taking that kind of full obedience before the Lord? Convicting. First Peter, which is taking over. First Peter two twelve says, be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. They even Even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they'll see your honorable behavior and they will give honor to God when he judges the world. Well, look at you two. We're gonna be preaching next week together. Yep. Okay. Brian, can't think I can't think of I can't not think of tithing when I hear you talk about Leviticus because even though you're making a little bit of a different connection but you know we wanna give our best to the Lord and a $20 bill is no different than another $20 bill. However, I I feel a personal conviction whenever I get paid to give first, like to give off the top because to me that's the equivalent of like the best sheep. That's great. So yeah, can't not make the tithing connection as well. As And people asking that why, you know, the same questions you said. Why would you give the best sheep? Why would you tithe? Why would you give money? You need it for rent. Why would you give, you know And oh, God is just so good and so faithful and I can't help but love him more when we talk about Medevich Gittis. God. Giving of the very best, whether of your herd or the eternal son of God or of your finances, seems as we were saying over here, crazy, ridiculous, foolish. John chapter 12, would somebody read verse one through six either from your bible, your phone, or the screen? Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here, a dinner was given in Jesus' honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard and expensive perfume. She poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But one of the disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected. Why wasn't this perfume sold in the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages. He did not say this because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief. As keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. The first sacrifice mentioned in the book of Leviticus is what's commonly known as the whole burnt offering or the whole enchilada. I'm giving the entire animal to the Lord. The Hebrew word for the burnt offering is I'll I'll get to in a moment. It's the most costly. It's the complete surrender of an animal. And by our logical brains, it's considered the most wasteful and the most foolish. You don't need to turn there, but let me read Romans chapter 12 verse one to you. And so dear brothers and sisters, Paul is speaking and he says this, I plead with you to give your bodies, your whole self to God because all that he has done for you, Let them be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind he'll find acceptable. This is the way to truly worship him. Raise your hand if you've come across that verse before. We all have. Now I wanna I wanna brave volunteer, and I'm gonna ask Gretchen to do it. Doesn't really sound like you're You're voluntelling me? Yes. K. Got it. Take another run at this verse, but sometimes it helps to look at the same verse from from different angles, different perspectives, different translations. I would not suggest anybody use this as their base bedrock translation, but would you read this same verse, take a good run at it, read this same verse from the Hawaiian Pigeon English translation, which I will now put up there. Yes, Gratin. You got that zits. This is you. You are the worst. My brothers and sisters, so then what? God he give you guys plenty chance. That's why I like tell you this, let God stay in charge of you. Just like you give God one sacrifice that stay alive. You guys that's my accent. You guys guys know what God like for you guys do. He like you guys go all out for him. All out for him. When you make like that, as good you know because that's how you show God love and respect. May the Lord bless the reading of his word this morning. So this is worth remembering or writing down. In the same way that people would offer the best of the animals, it is a pleasing aroma to God when we hold nothing back and surrender everything to him. It's a pleasing aroma to God when we hold nothing back and surrender everything to him. Brian, my thought is that what it took for the Israelites to do as God called them to do because they were distant from him. Where we today have this personal relationship that is so live and real and we can hear him. Could they? Maybe. We don't know. But they they did a lot on faith. Yeah. Belief and hope. Mhmm. It's true. So that's the first verse. One type of offering, the whole burnt offering or the whole enchilada offering. I wanna show you a a different type of offering also found in Leviticus, Leviticus chapter seven. Look look for the differences in this type of offering and what God commands the nation of Israel to do with this type of offering, and then we'll have the Holy Spirit stitch them together for us. Okay? Leviticus chapter seven. Would somebody please read verse 11 through 16? Whole burnt offering, this is known as the peace offering, one of several different kinds of peace offerings. And this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which one may offer to the Lord. If he offers it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer the thank offering, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, unleavened wafers spread with oil, and cakes of fine flour well mixed with oil. With the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving, he shall bring his offering with cakes of leavened bread, and of such, he shall offer one cake from each offering as an offering to the Lord. Quick pause. In in this particular moment, when it comes to the offering of bread or grain, it's not referenced in this sentence. But to see what is to be done with those offerings, we just need to rewind back a little bit. I don't wanna go there and read that. But in a similar way that the entire sheep was put on the altar, when a person brings a grain offering or a bread offering, a portion was given to the priest, but in the same way that the smoke would rise from the whole burnt offering, when you put the grain or the bread on the altar, it would be burned up as well. So I I I just wanna make that connection for us as we're as we're looking at similarities and differences even though in this particular moment, it wasn't referenced in the text. You may continue. It. It shall belong to the priest who throws the blood of the peace offerings. Oh, that's interesting. Throws it. Where what verse are you? Oh, yeah. The priest who splatters the blood. Alright. Alright. And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten on the day of his offering. He shall not leave any of it until the morning. But if the sacrifice of his offering is a votive offering or a free will offering, it shall be eaten on the day that he offers his sacrifice and on the morrow what remains of it shall be eaten. Okay. Keep going? That's good. Okay. With the whole burnt offering, what was offered up in fire? The whole thing. The whole enchilada. What can you tell from the text is offered up with fire on this particular offering? And half of it, some of it, a portion, we can say a portion. Let's just say a portion. Part of the whole sacrifice included baked goods. The baked goods were put on the fire, But the meat, this is what I want us to focus on. What was done with the meat? What's it say? It's eaten. Gotta Now how many of you, Oliver Lack, not included, could eat an entire sheep? Gotta get those big old football muscles. How many of you could eat a young bull, a heifer, all by yourself? Look at the text. Two different types of sacrifice, one outcome. The first type of offering, the whole enchilada was put on the fire. Very costly, very expensive. This type of offering, the animal was still killed. It was butchered. Blood was sprinkled on the altar. Fixins that were brought were put on the fire to be burned up. But what was what has God intended? What is bestows to happen with the meat? You have a barbecue with all of your friends and family. Everybody. It is a celebration. Everybody in your family, in your extended family, in your friends, in your neighbors were intended to come together and celebrate and help you eat this animal. Quick. Back to the sheepherders example. You see him picking out you see him picking out the the very best sheep or the very best, young bull, and you're like, hey, bud. We going for a whole burnt offering or maybe how about a peace offering? And you're like, oh, what's he gonna say? Whole burnt offering? Well, the Lord bless you. But when he says, well, I've I've fulfilled a vow or or, my daughter has recently gotten married and she's having a baby. I'm going to the temple for a peace offering. That neighbor's like, alright. What time is the barbecue? Right. Yes, ma'am. I think it's interesting that it's referring to a guilt offering and a sin offering. Where are you seeing that? In verse five, the priest shall burn them on the altar as food offering to the Lord. It's a guilt offering. And then verse six, every meal among the priests shall eat it. It shall be eaten in holy places. The guilt offering is just like the sin offering. There's one law for them. Okay. So is the guilt offering just the idea of committing the sin that you're gonna So you have I mean, there's a difference in guilt and sin. So you have asked a question that is really good Thank you. But not germane to what we're trying to cover today. It's in Leviticus. There's a lot in Leviticus. Well, that'll be another Sunday then. Okay? There we go. Guilt and sin. Okay. Guilt and sin offering. Nancy out. Okay. It's a great question. And I do have an answer for you, but We'll give it another day. Yes. Keeping it in the family of causing trouble in the church here. Here we go. Those Irwins. My brothers and my sisters. Yes. What are they doing today? What what is the the nation of Israel I mean, do they still do sacrifices of some sorts? And So You can get back to me on that if you like. Two quick answers. Two quick answers. They have done a lot of intellectual gymnastics to pacify and assuage their religious obligations that dictate and demand things like this, but fulfilling them in a way that does not involve the shedding of blood or making a a thrice annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem. They've done a lot of intellectual gymnastics and manipulation of scripture in order to avoid doing those things. Answer number one. Answer number two, there are certain orthodox flavors of practicing Jews that are fervently trying in the best way that they can to fulfill old covenant law, which includes two things as as far as we'll go for right now. Number one, praying at the Western Wall as close as they can get to the temple where they believe the Temple Mount is in Jerusalem, all those big stone blocks. How how many of you have got to go there and see the Wailing Wall? Yeah. I'd love for all of our tribe family to go. We'll we'll we'll go. We'll go. We'll go soon. Take the tribe bus. That's our that's our answer for everything. Take the tribe bus. What a blessing that's been to us. We got that thing loaded up right now. We need some folks to drive it over to Riverton to drop off some supplies road trip. Queue up your own playlists. Off you go to Riverton. Really cool bus. These two guys yeah. Yeah. Christina's like, alright. Fine. I'm in. We'll pay for gas. But in trying to fulfill that law, they they pray fervently, passionately as close as they can get to the temple for the restoration of the peace of Jerusalem, the rebuilding of the temple, the reinstitution of the temple sacrifice. And as part of that second answer, there are sex, small small slivers that are trying to fulfill these commands of sacrifices with animal sacrifices. And in fact, within the last ten or five years, Jewish priests from the Cohen family have become more visible in their animal sacrifices with the hope and goal of building momentum to reinstitute animal sacrifices in Israel, in Jerusalem, and someday on the Temple Mount. And that, if you can't tell, is a bunch of threads that we could pull related to and connect it to end times, but we're not gonna pull on any of those threads more. Savvy? But it's tough. How'd okay. Okay. You just don't you just don't hear about it. You don't hear about it, but you can read about it. You can read about it. Eat it with friends. Have a feast. In one sacrifice, the whole animal was to be consumed by fire. In this sacrifice, most of the animal is to be consumed by friends. One sacrifice is to be consumed by fire. This sacrifice is to be consumed by friends. So you can write this down. When we gather as a church, it is like us celebrating a peace offering feast together. Like Paul says in the New Testament, one person brings a hymn. One person brings a tongue. Another person brings an interpretation of that tongue. One person brings a word of prophecy. We see that playing out here at church many Sundays. One person has a comment. One person has a question. One person says, oh, I see a picture of oh, I have this Bible verse. We're coming together celebrating a peace offering feast together. So by way of landing the plane, let's stitch these two things together that I believe, like, the Lord wants to to share with us. Before before we stitch them together, there's a a Hebrew word I want you to be familiar with. It's called hola. Everybody say hola. Hola. Light Spanish, but Hebrew and completely different. Hola. This Hebrew word hola, it means to ascend, to rise, going up, like going up in smoke. Imagine the whole enchilada being thrown on there. Hola. Hola. Hola enchilada. Dang it. Why didn't I say that one? The hola enchilada. I begrudgingly give you credit for that. Shouldn't shouldn't you be up here playing me out now? You opened yourself up. I did. I did. Why didn't I see that? So when we, like it says in Romans twelve one, offer our bodies, our whole being as a living sacrifice, it's allah. It ascends to the Lord. It's consumed. It literally is transformed and changed in form so that it's unrecognizable. If you saw smoke rising, could you tell what is being burned by the smoke? Nope. Smoke. Smoke. I can smell it. You could smell it. And if you've ever accidentally caught your hair on fire, you can smell that. But smoke is smoke. Smoke is smoke. It's transformed. It's changed, and it can't go back. That's what God wants from us. That's what God invites us to, to be changed, to be transformed. Lord, take my life and my burn up for thee. As as Eric Little said not Eric Little, the famous missionary to the Indians. Tim l what's his first name? Jim. Jim. Yeah. Tim. I think I was close. Tim Elliott. Lord, take these idol sticks of my life, and may I burn up for thee. He spent his life with his family down in the jungles of South America trying to make contact with an uncontacted indigenous tribe of people that he was a he was a young father. He was a aviator. He was passionate for Jesus. He was articulate. His he had his whole life in front of ahead of him. His life ended with a spear through his heart by these Aka Indians. His whole life up in smoke, what his wife, Elizabeth? Miriam. Miriam. Elizabeth. I'm just guessing. Didn't know at that time in the midst of heartbreak, wow. How foolish, how wasteful, was that there would be a seed planted with his life that would result in revival breaking out among indigenous peoples throughout the Amazon region of South America. What would happen at our work? What would happen at our school? What would happen in our circle of influence if we just laid our whole life as a whole burnt offering to God. Transformed, consumed, I know it's scary. And the other type of sacrifice is if a sacrifice where we come together and share as brothers and sisters in Christ. What God has done in our lives, how good he is despite maybe circumstances that we're in. And here's how the Holy Spirit wants to stitch these two together as we close. These two offerings when stitched together show us that it is a pleasing aroma to God when we lay our lives down and gather to share a feast in his presence together. Whether we get to be here at the TMC or wherever that next place is that we get together, maybe in a barn, maybe huddled in a bomb shelter someday. This is like, oh, there he goes again. It's just in the Bible. Let's never take for granted the ability to to meet like this what we bring. And regardless of where and what it looks like, let's always be mindful of that pleasing aroma that ascends to the Lord. There's a quote, and I'm not sure who said this, but it relates to what you were just talking about. He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. That might have been Nate Saint as well. Just so good. Can Bob say that again for us? One more time. And then let's just soak in that. He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Let's just close our eyes for a second. Lord, what does this mean for us? What are you asking us to offer up to you? Jim Elliot. Let's just with our eyes closed, let's just be still before him and let this let him just speak to us about our own lives. We know that the Lord longs for us to worship him, lift him up. Let him just search your heart if there would be If you sense the spirit of the Lord in here, it's because it's real. If you don't, that's okay. But I just am sitting here thinking of, gosh, here at Tribe, you know, we express our worship to him in so many ways. We're about to bring our tithe and our offering to him. And that's the way that we express express worship. But just like digging in and taking a moment to sing and time out of your day to read his word and just getting quiet before him. I don't know if you've picked up on this or or not, but our team is doing this without we haven't planned to say this, the same Holy Spirit that we all serve. Right? But there's this sense, and I feel the Lord calling us as believers, certainly here at Tribe, to just dig into his word, worship him when we don't feel it, feel like it. You know what Lee was saying today, I think whatever you said so beautifully, Clay, you're so right. There an invitation and a call that we have as believers to dig in like we never have before because times are coming like they never have before. And I I always try to be sensitive, and I think of my kids because they're always like, here we go again. You know, like, eschatological dog all the time. Here we go. Like, they take a drink of water every time I say end times. But it's so I wanna be sensitive and not be like, gloom and doom. But you guys, if we have the right tools, if you have the right tools going into any situation, you will be successful. Will it be easy? Usually not. But will you be successful? Yes. And the tools that we need to walk in this life, whether we see the Lord's return or not. Life is just hard anyway. Bad stuff happens all the time. We need the tools and the equipment to handle it, And that is intimacy with the Lord. That is our hearts being calibrated with him. That is having union with our heavenly father. That means we're equipped and we're ready. And when, not if, hard stuff comes personally, globally, doesn't matter, you feel equipped and oddly will have peace in the midst of turmoil. It's bizarre. And nothing, nothing but intimacy with the Lord will bring that. So I'm urging you not just as Amanda, I just really feel the Lord asking us, and you've heard it from different voices today and in the last few weeks, urging, pleading, pleading with you. Read your Bible. Spend time worshiping. Not one millisecond of things you do to cultivate a relationship with the Lord is a waste, not one. As we bring our tithe and our offering to the Lord, this doesn't really seem like a tithe and offering verse, but it's heavy on my heart to to to read. It's very short. It's talking about suffering for doing good. And in first Peter three thirteen, it says, now who will want to harm you if you're eager to do good? But even if you suffer for what for doing what is right, God will reward you for it. So don't worry or be afraid of their threats. Instead, you must worship Christ as your Lord of your life. And if someone asks about the hope you have as a believer, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way. Keep your conscience clear. Then if people against you and they shame you, they'll be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ. Remember, this is key, it is better to suffer for what is for doing good. Let me read it again. Remember, it is better to suffer for doing good if that is what God wants than to suffer for doing wrong. Guys, we gonna suffer not because, and not as punishment, but John sixteen thirty three and other places make it clear, like, this life is just tough and there's hard stuff. There's highs and there's lows, and that's normal, and emotions are big and then they're little and that's okay and that's normal. But my goodness, we might as well live a life for the Lord and have those tools in our tool belt and be close to him and have union with him. So when hard stuff comes, it doesn't surprise us actually. Actually. I know this sounds very weird to say, but sometimes you'll be in the middle of something and you're like, oh, wait, this is like a real hardship. You know, it doesn't hit you like a ton of bricks. You're just kinda like, oh yeah, I'm in it. Oh yeah, but I'm still like in the word and I still have peace. So as we bring our tithe and our offering to him today, I just wanna encourage you, whatever it takes for you to cultivate a relationship with your heavenly father, do it. Take the time, take the effort, take the money, take the energy, all of it is like a sacrifice that's pleasing to the Lord like we talked about today. I can I just in my spirit, I cannot urge you enough? Please, please take time. I I feel a heavy urgency. As believers, believers, we need to cultivate a relationship with him like we have not had before. And bringing our tithe and offering is no different. It can be a sacrifice to give. Right? We work hard. We put a lot of effort forth to make money. And we give it to him. And like I said earlier, the the before you pay bills or do anything, I encourage you to give up the top. What the amount is between you and the Lord, percentage or whatever you do, but give it off the That's going through and finding the best sheep, the most spotless lamb. Right? It's pleasing to the Lord. So let's pray together as a tribe family over this offering. And like Lee said, through the Lord last week, just releasing hope over us. So heavenly Father, we just come to you with a thankful heart. Thank you for the highs and the lows of life and everywhere in between us just being human. And you've come into this human world and you hold our hands and you walk us through tough stuff, and you give us the tools we need. It's our job to just take time to accept them. I pray for all of the gifts that are being brought here today, financial gifts, bringing our tithe and our offering to you because it says to do that in the Bible. It's just one way that we express worship to you. And, Lord, I just thank you that it will go to do things that further your kingdom so more and more people can know about you and to have hope. And father, in the name of Jesus, I just release hope over everyone here. I release your hope over our lives, Lord. If there are any strong or sin that is holding us back from that intimate relationship with you, I pray that they be broken right now in Jesus' name. Let us see clearly. Bring that sin into the light, not so we can be shamed, so we can be set free. Let nothing hinder our relationship with you. We thank you so much for being a faithful, faithful God and being a provider for our needs no matter how that looks. We love and trust you in all things, and as a Tribe family, we say, amen. So the only announcement today is just Tuesday meals. Tuesdays happen every week, so we say it every It's very strange. It's really funny. If you want to do that, just sign up on the fridge and pick a Tuesday, and then we'll have some more tribe updates for you coming via text this week. Brian, would you like to pray us out? And that was sort of a, like, off the cuff announcement of taking the tribus to Riverton, but we really do need someone. It is getting full, full, full. As people donate food and clothes, we just put it in the tribus because we don't have anywhere else to store it. So the tribus is getting full quickly. Is your hand creeping up, Kat? Were you gonna say something? I was talk to you about. Okay. Okay. A couple things. Last Tuesday, we had was it last Tuesday or Tuesday before last, we had an awesome meal that Leah made. It was so good. Sundays are her usual spot for service, but she brought a meal for Tuesday to feed all those hungry climber, ref guide, young adults that that find their way in on Tuesdays. Wasn't worship awesome today? Whoo. So good. Oh, man. Also, Leah, you took a risk in the story that you shared earlier today about the fires and I just wanna bless you. It took a lot of bravery to share what you shared and how you shared and what the details that you shared. God's standards don't change. He's immutable. He doesn't change. That door is closed, but the arms of Jesus are wide open. And there is room in all there is room in his family for all of us. Praise God that he loves each and every one of us. Now, how he reconciles those two? Whoo. He's Whoo. That's well beyond my pay grade. He's God and we ain't. Stand up. Let me pray for you. Prayer after grace. After service, if there's anything that you need prayer for, we'll turn this back room, the VIP room into a place of prayer, the holy of holies. You don't need to sprinkle blood, but but Kim and whoever else she grabs will be happy to spend a few minutes praying with you, agreeing with you if there's anything that you need. If you're part of our livestream family or part of a discipleship campus and there's something that you need prayer for, you know how to get a hold of us. Now let me bless you. Father, I command a blessing over each and every member of our tribe family, those that are watching the livestream. God, woo us. Help us to receive and embrace your invitation to live our lives as an Olah offering, a whole burnt offering that we surrender everything to you. And as we do, we'll live this life knowing that the fragrance of our offering is a pleasing aroma to you. May our lives be that pleasing aroma to you. We pray these things in Jesus name, the strong son of God. And everybody said, I love you guys so much. Next week, we're gonna start a four week series that's gonna be pretty exciting that culminates the first week of October with a fun week long activity. Yeah. I love you. Have a great week and remember, you got this.