sermonette: An Acceptable Offering (Part Two)

Offertory
John W. Ritenbaugh
Given 30-May-04; Sermon #669As; 19 minutes

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Well, good morning to all of you. Uh, we are going to begin in Leviticus 23, so you can be turning there. Uh, this sermonette has a direct tie to the sermonette that I gave, offering sermonette that I gave during the first day, yeah, it was the first day of unleavened bread. And that one touched on one. Aspect of what makes an acceptable offering to God. In that case, that is for that particular message, it was the attitude that motivates the giving. Now this morning I'm going to touch on another aspect that makes us give an acceptable offering to God. And Leviticus 23 verses 17 through 20. You shall bring out of your habitation two wave loaves of two tense deals, and they shall be a fine flower, and they shall be baked with leaven. They are the first fruits of the Lord, and you shall offer with them the bread with the bread 7 lambs. Without blemish of the first year, one young bullet, two rams, for they shall be for a birth offering unto the Lord with their meat meal offering that should read, and their drink offering, even an offering made by fire of sweet savor unto the Lord. Then you shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for a sin offering and 2 lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace offerings, and the priest shall wave them with the bread. That's the 2 wave loaves. Of the first fruits for a wave offering before the Lord and the two lambs and they shall be holy to the Lord for the For the priest I think we are familiar enough with Leviticus 23 to see that these verses specifically touch on the Pentecost offerings, and all of these activities were part of one complete ceremony, but chronologically, that is in time order. The burnt and the grain offerings which were given in verse 18 preceded the waving of the sin, peace, and wave loaf offerings. Now there are several factors to understand regarding all of the offerings. This is kind of an overview. Now the overall purpose of all the offerings is to produce or to maintain unity with God, in other words, to be acceptable before God, and the offerings themselves then illustrate how to produce and maintain unity with Him. The second thing overall again. The focus of the actual offerings is not on the slaughter. Of an animal But rather on the voluntary and uncomplaining giving. Of a life In total dedication and devotion to God. Now this is the principle on which or from which the term living sacrifice in Romans 12:1 and 2 comes from. The emphasis is on the voluntary giving of a life. OK, number 3, it is not merely the value of the gift offered, but the cost of the gift to the giver. That is the principal importance to God. And thus a widow's might of little value but of great cost to her is a greater gift than some some something of greater material value but less cost. To one of greater wealth. And for the last one. The very existence for the reason for the existence, the very reason for the existence of the temple. Was that there was that there be a place for formal offerings to be made and thus the people would learn the intent and practical applications of the offerings. Now of course under the New Covenant, the church is the temple. OK, the wa waiving of the offering before God was for his acceptance, and you can see that in a number of places if you would read through Leviticus. It's for his acceptance. And in this case, the offerings were carried to the altar in a priest's hands, and then he lifted them above his head as a gesture of supplication. And it pictures an offering given to him. That is to God. He accepts it and then The priest brings down his hands, and it's given back to us. Symbolically, it's given back to us for some use. Either his or ours, not specifically stated in verse 20 it was for the priests in this case. Now the bird and grain offerings symbolize, if you remember our sermons through this, they symbolize total devotion and dedication of a life observing the two great characteristics of the law. They portray love toward God with all of our heart, soul, and mind and love toward neighbor that is equal to our love for ourselves. So that's the burnt offering and the meo offering. But I want you to notice what might not be clear in this context in terms of the offerings under the discussion, the Bert and the grain offering were made previous to the waving and acceptance of the two wave loaves. It's very important. In terms of what makes an acceptable offering to God. And of course those two wave loaves were part of the harvest of the first fruits, and that represents us and we are tying things together here. The burnt and the meal offering had to be made before. The wave loaves were waved before God. Now thus one of the lessons here is that one's offering. Of a dedicated life burnt in meal offerings had to precede the acceptance of the first fruits. OK, now the question, how does one get this way? How does one get the complete dedication and devotion? That this offering focuses on. Well, the answer to this is that God does His part and we do our part. Now God's part is to call us, grant us repentance, give us His Spirit with its gifts, and our part then is to voluntarily offer ourselves in obedience while meeting the demands of daily life. Now we are going to notice something that Jesus Gave in the way of instruction. Back in the sermon on the Mount, so turn with me to Matthew the 6th chapter. Matthew 6 Very familiar scriptures. First of all, verse 21. We're, we are talking about a dedicated life here. How do we get one? How do we achieve it? OK, Jesus says, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also very familiar. Now verse 24. No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon. So in our life, something is always going to take 1st place, 2nd place, 3rd place, and 4th place and right on down the line. Now what he is saying here is that being acceptable to God is largely a matter of getting, giving the are focused to the right things at the right time. OK, now central to this issue in Jesus' teaching here are three things treasure, heart, and mammon. Just very briefly. A treasure does not necessarily mean riches in terms of money, but what each person considers of great value to himself. Or we might say a person's vital interests. And That could be to be well thought of, to be handsome, to be pretty, to be thought of as being smart or clever, or a good athlete or whatever. So where a person's treasure is, That is what his, he feels his vital interest is. That's where his heart's going to be. Now that teaches us something. The heart can be led. By what a person's treasure is, OK. Heart in the Bible. Both figuratively and poetically. Is regarded as the very generating center of our passions, things like love and hate and pleasure. While at the same time it is also the seat of the rational intellectual faculties such as knowledge, understanding, wisdom. Or foolishness And so biblically it is perceived as the unseen fountain or spring of personal life and thus it affects the whole circuit of our attitudes and actions. Now where we see the word heart in the Bible, it's better to understand. Mind Our mind The heart or the mind is the real person. It is the heart that contains. The true character of a person. No, the Bible uses the term perfect heart once in a while. Well, that essentially means one that is filled with candor and sincerity, honesty. And it also shows that it's pliable and ready to receive. On the other hand, a broken and contrite heart is a mind that is filled with remorse and grief because of sin. But never forget that the heart can be led by one's treasure. But the heart Because it is the wellspring wellspring of action. In turn, leads the man. It's like we've got a cycle going here. And whatever a man considers as his vital interests to this he will give. offer And sacrifice himself and his possessions for. And all the while the heart is relentlessly leading him to follow it like a hawk. Therefore, if a person's vital interests are in, let's say stocks and bonds, The man will follow their activity up, down by cell. That will get his time and attention. So if honors for men are the treasure, ambition is very likely to take over. If it is wealth, greed will probably be not far behind. If it is pleasure, self-indulgence will be the fruit. Now on the other hand, if our affections, as it says in Colossians 3 and verse 1. Put your affections or seek those things that are above. Then it will tend to lead to a life and deeds of which Christ would be favorably impressed by. OK, one more word, Mammon. This is generally thought of as being riches, but that's only partly right. It has a very interesting etymology. The root word means in trust. And Mammon Was once that which one entrusted to another's care. Like we put our savings in a bank, we are entrusting its care to the bank. But over the centuries it came to mean that which was put in the bank. And so this can be money. But in other terms it can be success, it can be pride, it can be possessions. Now these are things that everybody is is tempted by. Now the sum of what Jesus is saying here is that virtually all of life's decisions come down to only 2 alternatives, and nobody can go both directions at the same time. Now you want to impress God. You want your offerings to be acceptable to Him. Jesus is saying, one, make sure what your treasure in life is. 2, no, for sure, you can't serve two things at the same time with the same degree of intensity. 3, that the heart can be led by the treasure. That the person holds to be important to him. And then the heart leads the man. Because that's what he thinks with. That's what he feels with. Now to what are you going to entrust what you are? Oh Now Jesus sums it up in Matthew 6 and in verse 33, same chapter. He says, Seek you first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. This is where the treasure has to be and where the heart will follow, and if the heart follows, so will the person. We've got a cycle going here. And all of it has to do. With acceptance before God in terms of the Pentecost offering. The burnt offering and the meal offering. The indicators of a life that is dedicated to God and the love of man too. If that is our, our goal to be acceptable to God, then that has to come first. Now a man by the name of Alexander Brat Black said this quote. If you received a million dollars, what would you do with it? Would Mammon come first? It shouldn't still quoting, it shouldn't because a person ought to be able to discern between the focal, that is what's down the middle and the marginal of his attention. Now some of us unfortunately, Put more attention on things that are marginal to God. Not that they maybe shouldn't be done, but they should be secondary, 3rd, 4th, 5th down the road rather than 1st. Well, just to give you an illustration, you can be reading a book. And it'll be the focus of your attention, but at the same time, there is marginal awareness of things that are going on in the room. For instance, you can focus on a book and hear the ticking of a clock at the same time. One's focus, the other is marginal. So this is where the choices begin to be made about how we use our life. Now if one's treasure is Mammon. One of the fruits is that this is going to be is that that person will live. In unrecognized insecurity. Always kind of on the edge. The ticking clock will bother them. Because it should be marginal, it's necessary for life, but it's marginal. And this is because this is part of Jesus' warning. This is why he says no man can serve two masters. Mammon enslaves and leads men subtly to despise the God that we imagine. That we can give limited allegiance to. Now what is God really after? Very succinct statement. By the apostle Paul, what is he after in terms of an offering? Let's go to 2 Corinthians. And chapter 12. In verse 14, he says, Behold the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be burdensome to you. Notice what Paul says, for I seek not yours but you. That's what God is after. He's after us. The burnt and the meal offering come first. That is what prepares the way and makes whatever it is that we decide that we can give acceptable. And if what we give is preceded by a life that is truly dedicated. To keeping the commandments of God, of loving Him with all of our heart, mind and soul, and loving our neighbor as ourselves, the offering is acceptable. I would have to say in one sense, regardless of the amount. Because he has you already, and that's what he wants.