Discover The Church

we're going to dive right into our lesson tonight as we've been making our way into the Tabernacle and um we've got a lot of ground to cover and there's a lot going on and this past Sunday just kind of gleaning from from that uh message that past Sunday on par part of that was on the Tabernacle um

talking about in in the Book of Leviticus um and of course our message had to do this past Sunday about the details that God's into amen U and the details that God has has in our life the things that he has placed in our life but we're going to start back in Leviticus tonight and I I want

to just start off and we kind of we're going to kind of push against some uh some uh history here a little bit and some things that I think that you'll you'll glean from tonight but uh The Book of Leviticus and um just is just for knowledge and some of you that are taking notes you want to

write these things down but this was all given to the children of Israel given to Moses to give to the children of Israel at the base of of Mount Si uh this this was something that was instructed of them and as far as we can tell and through all of our history and gathering information this was only

about the Book of Leviticus only was only about a month long it was it was just full of instruction full of things things that God was trying to uh give them and some instructions to give them how many you understand why we are giving instructions what what reason would someone give you an instruction manual how many you

ever tried to put together um uh swing set everybody right and and how many of you have done it without that instructions manual didn't turn out too good did it bro Rob shaking his head usually when you when you put together something like that uh usually if you don't do it with instructions you end up with what

leftover Parts why because there's something you miss along the way and um I I I bring that to your attention because I want you to understand that that God was giving Israel giving them instructions giving them uh an instruction manual so to speak and he's doing this to prepare them for their future because we can become influenced

right there are a lot of things that we become influenced by it may be culture it could be religion but Israel was one of those groups that they had came out of captivity and how many you know uh just for quizzing purposes where were they when they were in captivity Egypt they were in Egypt and what do

you think the religion was there idolatry full of all kinds of uh just things that you would never imagine and and and and so Israel is is having to readjust and and God has brought them out of that land of captivity now he's giving them instructions see we had we we are now entering into a time of

what we call the mosaic laws and and those things that God gave Moses but we had before that there was Abraham and before that Adam and Eve we see sacrifice through all of them and so God is preparing Israel for the next step and so he begins to he begins to give them instruction they they could easily

become influenced by others around them which it has there was things that they were influenced by also uh one of those influences that we see could have been Canaan somebody tell me those people they're pretty they're pretty wild uh they had all kinds of Idols they uh as a matter of fact when we talk about sacrifice and

that's what we've been talking about is sacrifice uh theirs even went to to Human Sacrifice I mean there was things that that and so when when we talk about rules and we talk about uh those guidelines that God begins to pour out and give Israel it is it has to do with with being able to keep you

within confined areas how many you know fences are are are are important guidelines are important things that God puts into place and he puts in order is that's important to him and it's important to us so that we could stay within those guidelines so that the Book of Leviticus is broken down into two parts and uh for

you note takers those those two parts are in chapter 1 through 17 uh he is he is uh emphasized ing on the sacrifice itself but not only that but then who does the sacrifice which being the priest he talks to the priesthood so we could probably label that one in that first part from chapter 1 through chapter

17 as the way to God the way to God in other words he's going to be talking to them about how to get there the second part of that that book Leviticus is 18- 27 he emphasizes on the law the law he uh emphasizes on on the Commandments those things that God puts those instructions um I I

think it's important though that we understand when he begins to talk to them about laws how how many could could just real quick off the top of your head you Scholars uh because I had to look it up somebody could how how many mosaic laws were there 613 crazy I I uh one of the things that just

coming back to memory when when I was in Bible school we were kind of going through now we didn't go through all 613 but but just to to kind of bring you to up to date with some of the things that could possibly have happen is saying on the Sabbath day which we talked about how important the

Sabbath was is you're pulling a chair they couldn't pull a chair across the floor because it would leave it would it would leave a possible uh indention in the ground and a seed could fall into that and what's it called so we we see that that that that just goes they go nuts with that but when you're

talking about the law this is what we were up this is what they're up against when it comes to sacrifice so um there's a lot of things that we have to consider there in that first first section though U it talks about the different types of sacrifice and we're not going to go through all of those we're

just going to I'm just going to highlight them for you because I think it's important that we talk about this one particular one tonight but but number one is is they had burnt s burnt sacrifices burnt sacrifices were for atonement of sin it was or it could have been prayer that was given in worship it was it

was that burnt offering and I I we we won't hit all of the uh all of those guidelines but there there are a lot of unique things and I might bring some out here in just a little bit but then there was the grain offering which was it was one that you brought and you talked about the

goodness of God you talked about his provision you talked about those things and each one of these you can find them in the Book of Leviticus and I I've got scriptures but I don't really want to spend a lot of times get myself bogged down here then you have the peace offering peace offering is that which is

fellowship with God and man that is that's what's going on there and and I found this interesting is when you do the peace offering that that uh you know it broke it down the scriptures even talk about this in chapter 3 and chapter 7 talks about you give the fat to the Lord hello Hallelujah you give the

kidneys you give the liver you give the tail there all of these crazy things and it's in the scripture um but then the priest gets he gets the right thigh crazy again I go back to the message that we had Sunday these things were important when it came to obedience to what God was asking for it was

very important that all of these things happen this way and then we had the sin offering that was to forgive uh for sins that were committed washed clean then there was the guilt offering that guilt offering also was one of those uh that was atonement for violating something that was done against the Holiness of God but each

one of those had its own individual um guidelines the burnt offering was one of those that that was was one that we would constantly look back at when we're talking about the Tabernacle is where that burnt offering was to be given Moses put this system in place because God had given him those instructions the scripture tells us

in this this particular passage in Leviticus first chapter verse one starts out by saying this and the Lord called unto Moses and spake unto him out of the Temple of the congregation saying Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them I am if I'm I'm sorry if a man of you bring an offering unto the

Lord ye shall bring their offering of the cattle even of the herd and of the flock I want you to take note that God begins to speak to Moses in the very first scripture and he says tell the people tell the children of Israel this is what needs to take place he's telling them I want you to

bring out of the out of the livestock the again Sunday we talked about this a little bit these are domesticated animals these are animals that you have taken your best and poured into they're without spot or blemish they can't have anything wrong with them I uh heard someone say this one time he said that their their cow

had two calves and so they said they'd give one to the Lord and one was for the family then one of the calves died and his wife says well whose calf died he said well that was the Lord's that died we you know again God asks for our best if there is something wrong with the cow or

wrong with the the goat or the Sheep whatever it may have been then and it was obvious you could it would not be accepted those are things that would not be accepted somebody turned with us and I'm sorry media I forgot about this um but I want you to turn with us to Leviticus uh let's see here

maybe not I thought I had it but I'll pass that up we'll do that in next week because I got plenty of time but um I'll just move on from here but there there are times when when God ask of you to do something and if it's not done the proper way there are penalties there are consequences

there are things that can happen if you're not doing it the right way we find in the scripture that that uh that the priest if if things wasn't right in his life if the priest would was to bring offering and things was and we we see that in the scripture we see where where Aaron had his two

sons come in and they offered up a Strange Fire what happened to them God kills him why because that is something that God put in place and if you try to there has to be examples sometimes of how God treats when you're doing something wrong he treats it that way and you know I be honest I'm glad

I'm living in Grace we think about it the these guys they uh they they uh they could have easily um you know we we look at our lives today and we think what what's going on you know how how how's this going to how's this going to affect me well let me tell you something if it's against

the if it's against God uh there is consequences what does the scripture say for the wages of sin is what death but the gift of God is eternal life there is a a consequence for sin Moses at SI he has given these instructions and we've already established this that the first one was law Moses was given the

law this is this is the first part of that but then they also establish that there is a requirement for sacrifice that requirement says that if it is broken then there is there is either a there's either a blessing or a curse something that choice is up to us when we bring sacrifice that choice is left up

to us the sacrifice system was put into place this is the Mosaic sacrifice the Mosaic Covenant that was made again we establish this that there was 613 of those mosaic laws that were put in place those things were important that was to be established by God for the people sin has a consequence sacrif sacrifices made around this

th those things that those times that sacrifices were made we see that all the way back in the Book of Genesis we see that Moses or I'm sorry uh God spoke to Adam and Eve and says hey what's wrong with you what did they say they said we're naked how do you know you're naked it's because you've

sinned against God we've done something wrong and they were clothed with what skins that were from what an animal from a sacrifice God established that that that the way for you to to be covered it comes through that sacrifice Cain and abble we find that one of those sacrifices was was blessed and one of them wasn't notice

there is a consequence Noah all about sacrifices when we look at Noah and we look at how that he had uh no wonder he had so many animals there had to be sacrifice I just to to kind of picture uh the Tabernacle itself uh brother salom this is a very it's a very clean clean spot those those

pretty white cattle that's standing there and the sheep and the goats those white I mean they they're they're beautiful that's that's just they're they're but the truth is that was not a very pretty site there was probably a lot of stench there was probably I mean you had blood that was and the scripture tells us in Leviticus

that at that Tabernacle door that when that person brought it they placed their hands upon its head it was accepted that then it was taken and killed I you know there there is a picture and I I I C could not find it I wanted to use it but there there is a picture that I ran across

several years ago and that is uh it was a very you could see in the eyes and in the face of the expression on this guy's face but there was a lamb that was underneath his his hands and there was a knife in one hand of it and you could tell that and the the lamb was very

well kept but he had brought it to sacrifice the blood was running everywhere and you could tell by the expression on his face that this this lamb was precious to him you could tell that this was something that he really didn't want to do I'm sure the humanity side of him says no but he knew that he

had to have a sacrifice and I've often times thought of that and and visual Iz what that looks like in the doorway of a tabernacle of the Tabernacle as they would bring their offerings what was it that they felt when they would present that sacrifice what was it that they uh was was there I mean you're talking

about your sins and of course in that day and time the sins would the sins would be rolled back your sins were taken care of for a year if that was accepted but you ask yourself is there anything wrong with this animal and I'm sure that just thinking about this you're going to the Tabernacle you're making sure

that that that animal is taken care of telling your child that may be walking with you as you stroll toward that that Tabernacle is is is make sure bab make sure you take care of that make sure that there is uh it doesn't have any don't get it dirty don't take care of it and I've often times

thought about that as being in our lives as how is it that when we we approach the throne of God we come into His Sanctuary God I present myself but then I have to make make sure that I'm clean that I am pure that I am Holy that that I am presentable that I I I approach you

the right way because that could be that there is a wrong attitude there's a wrong Spirit there's a wrong uh there's a wrong way that I present myself to him and in that day if something was wrong with it it was not accepted and it was not accepted to give to the Lord because there was something that

was that was wrong it could be a blessing or it could have been a curse Leviticus is one of those books that know it didn't take long for them to for Moses to get all of that information out there but I wonder how many times that as he would continually talk to them I don't know about you

but if it comes to instructions uh those are those are some of those things I have to get every day those are things that I have to present myself with every day and say you know do this do this do this do this but I'm sure Moses didn't just say okayy okay people this is how it's going

to be and he walked away from it no I'm sure that there had to be some teaching going on moms and dads teach your children that this is the way that things has to be this has to be done this way this has to be done this way this has to be done this way and we bring

those things to our families and we have to because the scripture teaches us that that we have a priest in our home right and so in our home we we're saying no don't do that please babe be careful with that try not to do that because it could be the little things and we talk about this Sunday

it could be the little things that actually keep us from actually seeing what God is really going to accept from us it could be little things those kinds of sacrifices that when we bring them to him he looks at them and he easily can say you know I don't think that's your best or could it be that

that when we bring it to him that he looks at it and says that maybe you did your best God help us that we can uh we can approach you with what we have and the offerings we bring to you and say God this is all I've got present it to him as God I am doing everything

I know I can do and I give it to you and then He blesses it Abraham did all of these I I mean Moses did all of this to bring it into order bring everything into order there was there was influences we talked a little bit about that but there are influences outside influences those of other nations

that were around them those that they came out of e Egypt for one was one of those Nations that they actually could see those things that that Egypt was doing and and it's easy for us to get caught up in the world that we have and base it upon something that somebody else does could be that our

sacrifices are copying somebody else's is it something that you've seen somebody else do I think it's important that we make our sacrifices our offerings authentic make them your own it shouldn't be that we hear the word tithe and we immediately think of 10% it shouldn't be that way the scripture tells us what we're to do but it

should be that we do everything in our power and in our best to bring what we have to the house of God God this is what I do and I do this unto you God I give you my best I give you this offering because you have blessed me with it we talked about the different types of

of offerings that one of the grain I just keeps coming back to my mind and it is just simply a an offering of of Fellowship it's just an offering of Fellowship being raised in a pastor's home my dad pastored all my life uh very short time that I remember ever being outside of a pastor's home most of

the time was in a rural commun community where uh we got we got fresh produce and we got all of these but there was also those special people in our lives that that I would remember people and as myself being a pastor later on those those people that were special in our lives that did not have much

but in my wife can tell you the story about this lady a little later if you want it well we had one individual that she lived just a little ways from the church and she would come we'd have people that would lay out a service and would not come because it snowed she didn't have a vehicle but

you know what she'd walk probably at least three miles to church and she'd be at church and then she would call us and she would say hey I've got got a little something that I made and I want to bring it over fixed income didn't have much you bring that sister good cook so that means I I

was fat before I got here but I recall her and I don't remember you you'll have to remember but not it was not much at all her of what she made per month fixed and she would be leaving her mother would be coming by to pick her up and they would be taking a trip and it'd be

a Thursday or Friday and she'd say she'd say could I could I run my tithe by before I leave yes ma'am you bring it by I and I bring those things up because there the spirit in which it was given I I I see that same God trying to work that into Israel trying to cultivate that into

Israel trying to get those people to understand that that this this has nothing to do with what you ow own and your what your possessions is that that's the least of what he's concerned about he's not measuring you concern concerning that he wants to see this spirit and attitude that an individual has and once it's been taught

it's one of those things that gets a hold of you and you say God I I just can't wait to get there I can't wait to bring this Dove or whatever it may have been I can't wait to bring that to your house and when you when you take that that and you bring it to the house

of God you're you've got it in your hands and you're holding it to where may may I pet it no no this is for the Lord th this you cannot be a part of this you cannot be a part of what this life is all about and I I want to try and relay this to you tonight

in a way that you understand what I'm talking about is this this has to be a personal thing it's not about who's standing on the outside seeing what you've got to offer has nothing to do with that has nothing to do with whether or or not you get a check by your name or not it's the fact

that this is this belongs to God and this is something I bring to his house this is something that belongs to him it's not it's not even mine because when it was born I saw the beauty in it and I realize hey that's going to the Lord when I made that first check hey I knew that belonged

to God that first hour that I worked in the day's work all of that belongs to God why why would you even say something like because everything that I have if I do not if I do not show it and I don't bring it to his house to be blessed everything that I've got becomes a curse everything

I've got belongs to it belongs just to me and it does not mean anything God help me to understand that principle that God wants my best he wants my best he wants me to bring it from my house and he wants me to bring it to his house he wants me to bring what belongs to him not

that it belongs to me but it belongs to him you see he has order to everything that he does all of the instructions that he has given us from it being that male the scripture tells us in verse three we read that Sunday that it was to be a male those were those that were strong those were

the ones that usually held more value it was the the most expensive part that I had it was without spot or blemish it had Beauty to it I'll tell you this we'll just keep our crippled lamb give the good one to God you keep what the other why because I want my house to be blessed I want

the blessings of the Lord upon my life life and upon my family's life God wants your best and if you can present your best to him it doesn't matter what that looks like in the eyes of man how does it look to God that is the important part of it is how does it look to God does

it look in his eyes I don't think that we could actually see through the eyes of God when it comes to that I don't think we can all he requires of us is that we do our best God this belongs to you this belongs to you as we study through Leviticus and some of the other things that

we'll we'll mention we'll talk about those others but I I I want you to know from the very beginning that all of these things that we'll be talking about is God wants everything that you've got to be done proper and in order you can't really sacrifice a good sacrifice if if things is not in order in your

home you can't really sacrifice and give unto the Lord as he has blessed you unless you have blessings in your home God bless us so so that we can be a blessing bless me so that I can bless somebody else bless me so that I can be a blessing to the families around me God that I may

show forth those things that you have blessed me with I want you to lift your hands with us right now would you do that and ask the Lord for the next few moments would you ask him to to stir us God help help us Lord Jesus help us God to be that person that you have called us

to be help us God to be the one God that serves with gladness that does the things that you have asked of us God that My Sacrifice is not looked at as far as other men but God I want you to bless it I want it to be a blessing unto you Lord I want it to be

honor unto you Lord Jesus it's not something that I withhold Lord it belongs to you God it's yours and for your kingdom and For Your Glory it's those things that only you Lord Jesus can bring true blessings from God I love you Lord I Thank You for Your goodness thank you for your mercies thank you Lord for

the things that you are doing in our life each and every one of us God speak to us speak to us in our own personal lives Lord of of what is it that we bring to your house Lord Jesus is it worthy Lord Jesus is it something that is worthy of of you Lord Jesus God I bring

you all Lord Jesus I bring it to you Lord in the name of the Lord in the name of the Lord I think it's very very evident that that God has a plan and he has a plan for each and every one of us that what we have what what you possess that's that's nothing to him and

what you have is not really that doesn't matter to him it is what how you present it to him how is it that you present you know the lady that had lost the coins when she lost those coins that was important to her right it was important that she find those and the reason that it was important

that she find those is because she wanted to make sure that that what she had was going to be accepted of the Lord it was going to be something that she could give to him it it it was a part of lost and found it was a part of lost those things that she had lost and she

wanted to find them because she didn't have much but it was important that she found it just as the son that that was lost and then he came back to his father's house it was a part of bringing out the best I I've often times as we talk through sacrifice I've often times thought about how that he

brought out the best he said bring forth the fatted calf he brings that calf out and the son that had not been had not been gone he's staying at the house he got he got jealous of that didn't he and why did he get jealous of it because that was the best calf and this guy here's been

out doing all the stuff he's been doing it had nothing to do with what that calf looked like it had nothing to do with that it had to do with the fact that there was lost now there's found I think it's very important that that we take to heart that that God wants our best he he he

deserves our best and no matter what that story may look like in your life bring the best to God lift your hands again would you do that lift your hands to him thank you Lord for your goodness and your mercy thank you Lord Jesus for all that you've done for us the things that you blessed us with

oh God won't you stand to your feet with us right now let's worship him together in the name of Jesus we thank you Lord for your kindness and your mercy Mercy Lord we thank you for who you are what you're doing in our lives oh God God help us to be to do our best for your kingdom

be the best in what we can do in the name of Jesus Hallelujah we give you praise and glory Lord thank you Jesus thank you Jesus Hallelujah thank you