The Ola Offering

In one paragraph

Brian brought the fifth (or seventh, depending on who's counting) message in the long-running Leviticus series, this time focusing on the Olah offering described in Leviticus 1. The congregation worked through the text together, and the discussion kept circling back to what it actually costs a person to give something to God. The message landed on Romans 12:1 and an invitation to lay everything,...

Read together

1. Leviticus 1:1-9 read aloud as the primary text for the Olah offering
2. Luke 17:17-19 the ten lepers, one returns to give thanks as a parallel to the free will offering
3. John 12 woman breaks alabaster jar over Jesus's feet, Judas objects to the waste, Jesus defends her total offering
4. Romans 12:1 Paul urging believers to give their bodies as a living and holy sacrifice

Talk about it

1. Brian talked about how some people picture God as always angry, always disappointed, always ready to punish, and said that mentality misses what the book of Leviticus is actually showing us. Where did that picture of God come from for you, and how has it changed or stayed the same?
2. The text says the animal brought for the Olah offering had to come from your own herd or flock. Brian pointed out that a husband cannot stand before God and say his wife brought them to church. What does it look like in your own life when you let someone else carry the spiritual weight that is yours to carry?
3. Jay noticed that laying your hand on the head of a large animal would be an intimate and maybe even frightening act, and said that whatever we offer the Lord needs to have that same weight to it. Is there an offering you have made to God that cost you something real, and what did that feel like?
4. Brian described the moment he stopped being a Christian and became a disciple, and said the first thing God asked him to surrender was the thing that was hardest to give. The sermon connected this to putting the head of the animal on the altar first. What is the thing in your life right now that feels hardest to lay down, and what is keeping you from doing it?
5. Romans 12:1 describes giving your body to God as a living and holy sacrifice as the truly reasonable way to worship, given everything he has done. Brian closed by saying the hard work of surrender happened for Jesus in the garden, and the walk to the cross was the easy part after that. Where are you in that process right now, still in the garden or already walking it out?