 Hey, man, so we're finishing up the offering sermon series this evening. So tonight, we're talking about the trespass offering. So we've gone through four offerings so far. We've gone through the burnt offering, the meat offering, the piece offering. And then last week, we looked at the sin offering, and the trespass offering. And if you read through Leviticus chapter 5, as we just did, looks a lot like the sin offering. A lot of people are kind of confused on what the difference is, but it's not the sin offering. It's kind of a cousin of the sin offering, maybe, if you could look at it that way. But I want to just show you the difference between the trespass offering and the sin offering and why the trespass offering is actually very applicable to us today. Not that they aren't all applicable to us. Well, what are we looking at? We're looking at what these offerings picture for us, how they picture Jesus Christ. But then we're also looking, of course, at how we can apply these offerings to our lives today. And the trespass offering is a very important application for us in our lives as Christians, and the people that we are around, and the relationships that we have. So the main point of the trespass offering is found at the end of Leviticus chapter 5. Excuse me. Found at the end of Leviticus chapter 5 and the beginning of Leviticus chapter number six. So let's look at that and see what we can come up with this evening on the trespass offering. Look at verse number 15 where the Bible says this. It says, if a soul commit a trespass and sin through ignorance. So again, we looked last week at the sin offering and we looked at the importance of the ignorant sins versus willful sin or sins that you're aware of. And we looked at how there is just no sacrifice for sins that you know you're committing that are wrong and you just do them anyway. There is no sacrifice for that. We superimpose that on the New Testament and looked at Hebrews and how perfectly that fits with what God tells us in Hebrews on how there is no more sacrifice for sins. So we're just gonna suffer the punishment from God if we sin willfully as Christians. Here we see this next word brought in of a trespass. But it's still sinning through ignorance to point out here in the holy things of the Lord. So if you commit a trespass in ignorance against these holy things of the Lord and I'll give you what I think is the best example of that in just a few minutes, then he shall bring for his trespass unto the Lord a ram without blemish out of the flocks. You're like, okay, that sounds familiar. But look at this, with thy estimation by shekels of silver after the shekel of the sanctuary for a trespass offering. So here we see something different. Here we see something different. We see that there is money put into this offering it's not talking about giving money here but it's talking about the offering that you give will need to be of a certain value is what it is talking about. Look at verse number 16. So we see that there's a, that's never been brought up before. So it's just saying you're gonna have to bring something of a certain value and that'll make more sense as we look at Leviticus chapter six but just notice that right away. That's a difference right away. Look at verse 16. And he shall make amends for the harm that he had done in the holy thing. So that's another key right there, those two words that you see, the harm. So there is something that has been done wrong, something that has been hurt or harmed here in the holy thing. And he shall add the fifth part there too and give it unto the priest and the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering and it shall be forgiven him. And if a soul sin and doth commit any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the Lord though he whisked it not, yet he is guilty. Meaning he didn't know, again ignorance, yet he is guilty and shall bear his iniquity. And he shall be a ram without blemish out of the flock with thy estimation for a trespass offering. So the trespass offering has to have a certain value that is added, it is the harm plus a fifth part. So it's a harm, the harm plus 20%. So whatever he did wrong or whatever he hurt, he has to add 20% to the value of that thing. And look, this is gonna be determined by the priest or whatever by the thing that he harmed. And I'll give you some examples here in a few minutes. But verse 19, it is a trespass offering. He has certainly trespassed against the Lord. So in verse number or in Leviticus chapter five, at the end we see the trespass against the Lord. But in Leviticus chapter six, we see a trespass against your neighbor or a trespass against a brother. Look at Leviticus chapter six in verse number one. But all that to say this, in Leviticus chapter five for the trespass offering, you need a harm done and there is a certain value that is to be brought as the offering. All right, it's not just go pick out a bullock without blemish or pick out a lamb without blemish. It's like, no, this has to have a certain value. All right, according to the harm that's been done. And plus that fifth part. Look at verse number one of Leviticus six. The Lord's bank unto Moses saying, if a soul sin and commit a trespass against the Lord. Now notice how it's talking about your neighbor but that is still trespassing against the Lord. So you can trespass against the Lord in the holy things which we'll look at this evening. And you can also trespass against your neighbor which is also trespassing against the Lord by default. Okay, if a soul sin and commit a trespass against the Lord and lie unto his neighbor in that which was delivered him to keep or in fellowship or in a thing taken away by violence or at the seed of his neighbor. So here this person has literally just done something wrong to his neighbor. He has defrauded his neighbor in some way or have found, I mean it gets pretty specific here, or have found that which was lost and lieth concerning it. So say somebody lost an animal or something, they lost their sheep and you found it and you took it home and you had some sheep for dinner or whatever, you know? And you didn't say, you're like, ah, I haven't seen it either. You know, that's what he's talking about. You've defrauded your neighbor and lieth concerning it and sweareth falsely in any of these things that a man doeth sinneth therein, then it shall be because he hath sinned and is guilty that he shall, now here's another key to the trespass, this is the key to the trespass offering right here. He that is guilty, he shall restore that which he took violently away or the thing which he hath deceitfully gotten or that which was delivered to him to keep or the lost thing which he found or all that which he hath sworn falsely, he shall even restore it in the principle and again, look at this, shall add the fifth part more thereto and give it unto him to whom it appertaineth in the day of his trespass offering. So here the Bible is saying is that part of this trespass offering, if it's because you've trespassed against your neighbor, you are to restore that sheep to him, that thing that was lost that you lied about, maybe you were keeping it for yourself and you were hoping he would forget about it, you're to restore that plus 20%. Again, a fifth part is 20%. You just like a tenth part is a tithe is 10%, a fifth part is 20%, all right? So this is talking about somebody that cheated, lied, swindled, defrauded their neighbor in some way. Turn to Leviticus chapter 27. Now, as we see in Leviticus chapter five, all Leviticus chapter six is talking about trespassing against God or trespassing against your neighbor which is also trespassing against God. But in Leviticus chapter five is talking about the holy things. So the easiest example since there really is no clean or unclean amongst us talking about at the beginning of Leviticus chapter five, going into the temple or being unclean, there is no clean or unclean animals anymore for us. The holy things, the best application is Leviticus 27 in verse 31 where the Bible says this. It says, if a man, I just want to show you how well the Bible matches itself here. Leviticus 27, 31, said if a man will redeem out of his ties, he shall add there onto the fifth part thereof. So this matches exactly the trespass offering of chapter five. It's talking about tithing, giving that 10% of your increase to God which is God's but it's saying if you keep that back and you keep that, then you owe 20%. That's what the Bible is saying. So that is part of the holy things and that applies to us because tithing, again, is biblical and we've gone through that. And I don't want to preach through that again but it's saying that the fifth part thereof is to be added to whatever a man keeps out of his ties. Now go back to Leviticus chapter six and look at verse number six. So again, we're talking about trespassing against God in the holy things. In Leviticus 27, we see an example of the tithes there. Look at verse number six of Leviticus chapter six. I'm getting tongue tied with Leviticus tonight. It was Leviticus, you know what I mean? At times you can say that fast. Look at verse number six of Leviticus chapter six. And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the Lord a ram without blemish out of the flock with thy estimation. There's that valuation again for a trespass offering unto the priest and the priest shall make an atonement before the Lord and it shall be forgiven him for anything of that, any thing of all that he had done in trespassing therein. All that to say this, the trespass offering is all about restitution. That's what the trespass offering is a bout. Turn to Colossians chapter three. You say, why, how does that apply to us? Well, in order to apply that to us, you have to understand the importance of restitution in the relationship circle. So Leviticus chapter six is talking about, restoring the harm that you've done to your neighbor, for example. So we have relationships in our lives, we have relationships obviously with God, we have relationships with our brothers and sisters and these relationships are important. But if you don't understand what I'm about to tell you, if this is the first time you've heard these things that I'm about to tell you, you're probably, this may explain some problems that you've had in relationships in your life. So there's a relationship, it's not in the Bible called this, but I call it kind of a relationship circle. And I've preached on the first part of this circle, restitution is the last part of the circle. The first part of the circle is this. In a relationship, there is going to be conflict of some kind at some point. If you have a relationship, I don't care if it's with your wife, your children, your friends, your brothers and sisters in Christ, there will be some kind of conflict that arises even in a church where people are like-minded and people love each other, there will be conflict of some kind. The first step to resolving these types of things is forgiveness. And I've preached this, this is the, I'm gonna give you a three step program here, restitution being step three. But let me just go through steps one and step two real quickly as review. Forgiveness, that first step in this relationship, maybe I should call it a relationship triangle, is one way. Forgiveness is a one way street. That is the best way to deal with forgiveness. Did you turn to Colossians chapter three? Look at verse number 13. Forgiveness is supposed to be a one way street in our lives with our brothers and sisters in Christ, especially. Look at Colossians chapter three, look at verse number 13. The Bible says, for bearing one another and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as, here we go, here's one of these similes, right? Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. Turn to Ephesians chapter four. Turn to Ephesians chapter four. So the Bible here is saying that as Christ forgave us, we should forgive others. We should use that as a model. Now let me ask you this. Did we all just get right perfectly? Did mankind and everybody that's ever been saved get right and get all the sin out of their life before they got saved? Or even before God came here and sent Jesus Christ to die for mankind? Absolutely not. As a matter of fact, the Bible says in Romans 5.8 that that's exactly what didn't happen. You know, the Bible says for, you know, God commendeth his love toward us and while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. It doesn't say when we got right, we were yet sinners and Christ came, God sent Jesus Christ to die for us when we weren't right. So that is saying, that is showing us that the Bible is saying forgive. It doesn't matter what the other side did. Somebody does you wrong, forgive. This is why the best way, and I've said this a hundred times, the best way to handle conflict if somebody does you wrong is to just suffer yourself to be defrauded and just let it go. Just forgive. Just forgive. I mean, yeah, you can go to Matthew 18 and we can go through this process, but the best way is to just forgive. For your sake. For your sake. You say, why should I forgive somebody that, you know, they haven't repented and they haven't apologized and they haven't done what's right on their side? You should forgive because of Ephesians chapter four. Look at Ephesians chapter four and look at verse 31. The Bible says this, the forgiveness being a one way street is for you. It is for your benefit. It is for your benefit so you have, remember there's three people in this relationship. You got a buddy that does you wrong and you got yourself, you got God in there too. You wanna be right with God. You wanna be showing God that you're forgiving, you're merciful because God was merciful to you. God literally says that he will measure his mercy upon you on the measurement of how much mercy you give to others. Sounds important. Plus look at verse 31 of Ephesians chapter four. It says, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. It's saying, the Bible here is saying you should not be bitter. You should not be a bitter person. You ever met somebody that's just bitter? That that's just who they are? It's a terrible state to be in. Somebody that's just, how does somebody get bitter? Look at verse number 32. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, doing what? Forgiving one another. The person that can forgive as a one way street in relationships in their life will not be a bitter person and that's good for you. It doesn't matter how many times that person does you wrong by forgiving. It will stop that bitterness from taking root in you and making you a bitter person, plus giving you more mercy from God. Forgiveness as a one way street is just, it's all benefit for yourself. So that's the first thing to realize is that forgiveness is a one way street. Jesus Christ is used as an example and Jesus came while we were yet sinners. So look, forgive, don't be bitter. Don't let bitterness take a root in you. I mean, if you just can't forgive anybody and you just like every single thing that happens to you, you can't let go. And you just, I mean, you are going to be a terribly miserable, malice filled, angry, bitter person. And we've all met people like that. It's because they can't forgive, right? Turn to Luke chapter 17. Here's the second point. Here's the second point. So look, we're getting to the sermon this evening. I'm just showing you this cycle, this relationship, cycle that must be complete to have a healthy relationship, all right? So the first thing, look, I can control personally, I can control whether I forgive you or not. That's completely under my control and it has nothing to do with how you react, with how you act tomorrow, how you acted yesterday. It is completely my decision to forgive you or not. And the Bible says I should forgive you. Look at verse three of Luke chapter 17. The Bible says this. So here's the second part of it though. The second part of it is on the other side and it's that person, and I preached a whole sermon about this at Faithful Word Baptist Church a few months ago. It's the person on the other side that has done wrong saying I'm sorry, admitting that they've done wrong and being just repenting of doing that wrong. They're changing their mind. I'm sorry that I did that. Look at verse number three of Luke chapter 17. It says take heed to yourselves. If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him and if he repent, forgive him. So the Bible here is saying this is the ideal situation. Okay, the ideal situation is two friends, one person would do one wrong and then he would say I'm sorry and then that forgiveness would happen. Look, if he never says he's sorry, you're still supposed to forgive him, okay? But the ideal situation is that there's repentance there. There's a change of mind about what you have done and you realize that you were wrong. Look at verse number four. It says and if he trespass, see that? Against thee seven times in a day and seven times in a day, turn to thee saying I repent. Meaning what does he mean? I'm sorry. I'm sorry I did that. I should not have done that. Thou shalt forgive him. So the second stage in this healthy relationship that we're building this evening is, first of all, you have forgiveness, not being withheld on one side and then you have the other side, the person saying I'm sorry about that. I'm sorry that I trespassed against you in whatever that way is but the third part is this folks. The third part is exactly what Leviticus chapter five and Leviticus chapter six is talking about it's restitution. It's actually making it right. This is what the trespass offering is teaching. If you harm your neighbor or you harm the holy things of God, you steal from God, whatever it is. What we're talking about, you and your friend or you and your brother and sister in Christ, you borrow somebody's car. Let me just give you some examples. You borrow somebody's car and you bring it back with a dent in it or whatever or how about this? You just don't bring it back. You say, can I borrow your car for a week and then you just keep the car? You just never give it back. Here's a common one. You borrow a tool and you either never give it back or you break the tool and you bring it back all broken and you're like, yeah, sorry, broke. I mean, I don't know, it's not a good brand. I mean, it happens all the time. People do this type of thing but here's the thing. The Bible is saying that you should make restitution for that. I mean, let's think a little bit tonight. You sit here and you say, well, can you really be sorry? But could a person, because here's what a lot of people will do. They'll break your tool or they'll do something that costs you money. They'll use something or that costs you money or they'll damage something, whatever. They'll damage your car. Those are the only two things I can think of right now. But I mean, the point is, they'll actually do harm to you in some financial way and then they'll just be like, oh man, I'm sorry about that. I mean, so the question becomes, can you truly be sorry if you don't make restitution? The answer is yes. I'm sorry. I mean, I'm sorry to break that to you but the answer is actually, yes, this is the friend that you've had. I've had this friend, I don't know if you have. This is the friend that you've had. How is that possible? This is the friend that you've had where when you go out to dinner he's happy to let you pay every time. You ever had that friend? I've had that friend. They just, they, is it right? No, it's not right. Is it something that we should do as Christians? Look, there's a lot of people like that. There's a lot of people like that that will just take and take and take from you and if they do damage to you, they'll say they're sorry but they're not gonna make any, oh look, some people will take so much from you they will take unless you draw boundaries with them they will take until you have nothing left to give. There's people like that and then when they cost you something or they break something or they damage something they'll, I believe they'll be sorry but they're not gonna offer anything to restore that thing. You say, but that's wrong. I agree with you, that's wrong. It's a character thing. Some people do not know that that is wrong. They just don't. It's, I'm not saying it's right. It is wrong but some people don't know that it's wrong. Some people, look, we live in a country today where a man will stay home all day, every day and let somebody else pay for his housing, somebody else pay for his food, somebody else pay for his entire living and they think nothing's wrong with it. I think this type of character thing is becoming more common today but look, this is nothing different than somebody who is saved and just, I mean, let me ask you this question. Could somebody be saved? Could somebody get saved and then do nothing for the Lord in their life? Absolutely. Are they not really saved? Are they not really trust on Jesus Christ? No, somebody could actually trust on the Lord Jesus Christ for their salvation and then do nothing in response. Do nothing for the Lord. Have no desire to read the Bible, to go to church, to do anything for the Lord to save them. It's just bad character. That's what it is. I mean, they don't know any better. Look, they should know better. They should learn better, they should change but the point I'm trying to get you to see tonight is that people do it all the time and it's not right. The third step of a true, healthy relationship needs to have that restitution step in there because look, here's the bottom line. If you forgive somebody and you forgive and you forgive and you forgive and they say, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, you're probably not just gonna keep borrowing them things and keep, because you are going to draw those boundaries, you're gonna draw those lines because you just know about those gaps in their character. They're showing that to you. Look, I'm not saying you shouldn't harbor resentment but you'll draw boundaries. I mean, the relationship will not be whole unless that restitution comes in. All right, so look, you should make restitution when you have done wrong. You should replace material or things that get damaged because of you and then some. If you want to have full, strong relationships in your life, friendships, marriages, relationships with your children, all of it, look, even when you borrow something, you should bring it back better than when you took it. I mean, you shouldn't go. I mean, this is why I try to rarely borrow things because what are you doing when you borrow somebody's pickup or whatever you borrow, you're using it up. You're using it up. These things don't last forever. You're literally wearing it out, using it up, putting scratches on it, so you should bring things back better or don't borrow them in the first place and if you damage things, you should restore things to your neighbor and to God. So this circle of forgiveness, of repentance, I'm sorry, and reconciliation, it is all about creating lasting, healthy, profitable relationships. Notice how much that word comes up in the Bible, profit, profit, profit. Look at James chapter two. What's it talking about? Don't turn there, just think about James chapter two. Talking about what? You know, faith without works is dead. No, it's talking about being profitable. Are you profitable or are you not? And if you don't have works, you are not profitable. It's all about being profitable to those around us. So really, the thought experiment for you tonight, as we finish this sermon series, the thought experiment for you tonight is this, is does being your friend have any benefits? I mean, every person should be asking themselves that. Does being in a relationship with you, whatever context that is, whether it be your wife, your husband, your friends, your brothers and sisters in Christ, does being your friend have any benefits or is it just a cost to people? This is what you should think about. You should ask yourself these questions. Turn to first Kings chapter 11. Let me just give you an example of this. People, look folks, people should be better for knowing you. Look at first Kings chapter 11. First Kings chapter 11 is when God approaches, the man of God approaches Jeroboam, this man who he is going to take away 10 tribes out of the kingdom of Israel and give them to this man. 10 out of the 12 tribes are gonna be given to this man, Jeroboam. And look at the direction that he's given. Ask yourself this question. Are people better for knowing me? How about this one? Is the kingdom of heaven better for having me part of it? Look at what Jeroboam did in first Kings chapter 11. Look at verse number 29. It says, And it came to pass at the time when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem that the prophet Ahijah, the Shilunite, found him in the way and he had clad himself with a new garment and they too were alone in the field. And Ahijah caught the new garment that was on him and rented into 12 pieces, symbolizing the 12 tribes of Israel, verse 31. And he said to Jeroboam, Take thee 10 pieces. For thus saith the Lord, The God of Israel, behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and it will give 10 tribes to thee. That's pretty good. He's getting 10 out of the 12. Now skip down to verse number 38. Now he gives them direction because we all know Jeroboam is not being a good king, not doing the right things, but you know what, it didn't have to go that way because he was told exactly what to do. Look at verse 38. And it shall be that if thou will harken unto all that I command thee and will walk in my ways and do what is right in my sight to keep my statutes and build my commandments and keep my statutes and my commandments as David my servant did, that I will be with thee and build thee a sure house as I built for David and I will give Israel unto thee and I will for this afflict the seed of David but not for ever. So he never did have to afflict the seed of David for this because he didn't do any of this stuff. In verse number 38. But he's saying, look, Jeroboam, I'm giving you the 10 tribes, this becomes the northern kingdom of Israel and look, we know it is this wicked northern kingdom but it was not supposed to be that way. God said to Jeroboam, listen to my statutes, rule like David ruled, not like his grandson is ruling, rule like David ruled and I will be with thee. I'll build you a great house, I'll give Israel to thee. Look, you'll have God's people up there is what he's saying. He's saying, just follow what I tell you to do. He did none of it though. Jeroboam, you know what he did? He took the 10 tribes, he took the power, he took the kingdom, he took the money, he took everything, it was just take, take, take, he gave nothing to the Lord. Now go to verse number one of first Kings chapter 14. Now something arises in Jeroboam's life where he needs the Lord. Something comes up, he needs God. Look at verse number one, it said, at that time, Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick. Jeroboam's son is sick and Jeroboam said to his wife, arise, arise I pray thee and disguise thyself that thou be not known to be the wife of Jeroboam. Wonder why he did that? Why wouldn't he have, you know, his wife go and say, I am the wife of the king. It's because he knows that he's been a wicked king and he has done nothing that Ahijah told him to do. Nothing. And get thee to Shiloh, behold there is Ahijah the prophet which told me that I should be king over this people. So now he's looking for the Lord. He's done nothing, he's turned against God but he's looking for the Lord now when his son is sick and we get the answer in verse number nine. Look down to verse number nine through verse number 12. And Ahijah is answering him here and he says, but thou hast done evil above all that were before thee for thou hast gone and made thee other gods and molten images to provoke me to anger and has cast me behind thy back. Therefore I bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall and take him that is shut up and left in Israel and take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam as a man takeeth away dung till it all be gone. Him that dyeth of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat and him that dyeth in the field of the fowls of the air shall eat for the Lord has spoken it. Arise thou therefore and get thee to thine own house and when thy feet enter into the city thou child shall die. That wasn't the answer he was looking for. He said not only your child is gonna die but every male in your family is gonna die. No one's even gonna bury him. The dogs are gonna eat him and the birds are gonna eat him. But this was Jeroboam. This was Jeroboam. The point is don't be that guy. Don't be that guy that just takes and takes and takes from the Lord because one day you're gonna need him. Jeroboam needed him and God's like, you turned on me, you put me behind your back and you led these people into all this sin. He's like, forget it. So look, this is all about relationships. What do people benefit from being your friend, from knowing you, from being married to you, from having you as their dad or their mom? Think about this tonight. It's all about closing the circle on these relationships. In these two upcoming sermon series that we have on Sunday nights, this is a great segue because what we are going to be talking about is very specific things focusing on this life that we are living here and the people that we are living with. And I'm talking the next nine to 10 weeks. We're gonna be focusing in great detail about relationships. See, life, we all have houses and we all have jobs and we all go out in the world from day to day, the ladies go out and do the things that need to be done and the guys go out to work and we're all living this life, we're driving, we all have cars that we drive and we all do these things and we go out to dinner together and we're living this life. But see, the life is not about these things. It's not about the jobs and the cars and the houses and the money and the whatever. It's about the relationships. That's why we're gonna look at this in so much detail and these things, forgiveness, repentance saying I'm sorry and restitution. Look, these are building blocks to the skyscraper. That's what these things are. The life on this earth here in this short time that we're here, it's not about the material things. But you know what, it is about the people from the people that you don't even know yet to the people that are closest to you. That's what this life is all about to the people that you see every single day. Turn to Ecclesiastes chapter number six. So these two series coming up and I haven't even told you what the second one is are all about protecting, strengthening and making sure that we have the proper relationships in our lives on this earth. Our short time that is like water spilt on the ground. Wanna make sure that we get this right. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter six and look at verse number three. We're gonna study this one backwards. We're gonna go to verse number three and we're gonna go up to verse number two. But let's see if we can get the seriousness of this situation from this verse in Ecclesiastes chapter six in verse number three from somebody that didn't get it right. Look what the Bible says here. Written by Solomon, the Bible says if a man begetten hundred children and live many years so that the days of his years be many. I mean, sounds pretty good. This guy's got tons of kids. The Bible says that children are a blessing from the Lord. It says he live many years. He lives a long life and he has many children and his soul be not filled with good. And also that he have no burial. I say that an untimely birth is better than he. You see what he's saying here? He's saying, I mean, that's an extreme statement but we need to listen to this. Solomon is saying that if you live a long life and have dozens and dozens of blessings and children in your life, if you have this but you're not saved and you have failed relationships, it'd be better that you weren't even born. No burial. That means you die and no one cares. No one's there. No one's even there to bury you. That's talking about just that you've just failed in these relationships. You say how could that be where somebody just has no burial? And because guess what? If all you cared about was the material things and not the relationships in this world, look at verse number two. It says, a man to whom God has given riches, wealth and honor. Look, here's a man who's rich. He has material things more than, Solomon had more material things than anybody else. He literally won the game that no one else could win of keeping up with the Joneses. He's like I had more than everybody. He's, I was great. But if a man had given riches, wealth and honor so that he wanted nothing for his soul, meaning for his person, of all that he desired, like he denied himself nothing, he had everything, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it. This is vanity and it's an evil disease. Ooh, that's good. You know what it's saying? Somebody that is just working for the material things that is living their life for the material gain and the material things. First of all, it is a disease, 100%. If you've ever met somebody that has the disease, you'll know it's a disease of the worst kind. Because notice what it says just a few words before that where it says, but a stranger eateth it. So this guy, he's working for all this material stuff and he doesn't even have time to enjoy it or eat his own food. I mean, he's just working to get it all. There is no end for him because he that love a silver is not satisfied by silver. So he just wants all these things. Stranger's gonna end up eating it. You know who that is? People that are gonna just like inherit all the stuff that he has. But there will be no burial. But there will be no burial. You know what? Because a man like that, people are just waiting for him to die. People are just, I can't wait. Cause look, he's failed at every relationship. They're just like, I can't wait till he dies so I can have all this stuff. This is this man in verse number two and verse number three. And the Bible says that if you're not saved and this becomes you, it's better that you weren't born. The relationships are what this life is all about. The people around us, it's about building and protecting these relationships. Which is why this idea of this trespass offering and saying you're sorry and forgiving is so important. Because you're gonna be going through this life and you're gonna have relationships and there's gonna be conflict and you need to know these things to protect and to strengthen these relationships. Because that's what the life is all about. It's not the materials, it's about the people. And it's about your relationships with the people. I've often thought that. I've often thought this about church. I've often thought, I've often thought about church. And maybe I shouldn't share this as openly as I'm about to, but whatever. I've often thought why I have to try to convince people to come to church. It's strange to me. I mean, you say why is it strange? Why, why? I've often thought just because of what church is. Because of what life is about and what church is about. Why do I have to drag people along so you could see people that are like-minded with you? Why would I have to try to convince people to come to a place where everybody loves you? Think about it, isn't that strange? You have to convince people to come to a place where people will just willingly pray for you. You know what, God hears the prayers of God's people louder than he hears any other prayers. Why, I mean, why would you have to try to convince someone to come to a place where people just, they can't wait to see you? I mean, something's wrong there. Something's wrong there. And look, I know what's wrong in most cases. It's, but the irony of it is, is that in most cases where you feel like you have to convince people to come to church and convince people to have relationships, see, we're all fundamental. See, this is the problem with you. This is your problem right here, you're fundamental. And nobody out there that's gonna influence you to try to get away from people that love you, they're not fundamental. As a matter of fact, you know what? They hate fundamentalists, most of them. Especially if they're trying to get you away from it. But the thing is, once you're fundamental, once you know this stuff, you can't unknow it. I've tried. You can't unknow it. I said that to my wife on a walk before we ended up a few weeks before we moved. When I kind of was having this crisis moment, for five minutes, and I was just like, you know, I can't believe that we're doing this. And you know, the problem is though that you can't unknow this stuff. You can't unknow the fundamentals. Once you know the truth, it's always there. So here are the people that believe the fundamentals with you. Here are the people that love the fundamentals with you. Here are the people that want to live a fundamental life. And yet we find ourselves influenced by people that don't believe any of those fundamentals. It just, it doesn't compute for me at all. See, but really the problem is, is that people that you feel like you have to convince on these things, on these, you know, to come to church, live this Christian life. The problem is, those folks are missing the point. And the point is, they're missing the main point of this life, period. Because this life is about the people around us. It's about the people that we've never met before that we're gonna meet Wednesday. It's about the people that we've never met before that we're gonna meet Saturday and next Sunday. It's about the people that you met today that you've never met before. It's about the five people that got saved today. That's what this life is about. And it's about building relationships and even the relationships that we have right now, it's about making them stronger and making them, you know, more robust. You know, I mean, I would like my marriage to be stronger next year than it is right now. You say, what, you've been married for 24 years. Your marriage isn't super strong. Hey, I want it to be stronger next year. I want my wife to love me more next year than she loves me right now. I want to be a better husband next year than I am today standing here. How do you do that? Through these fundamentals. Through, you know, following through all these little tiny details that the Bible tells us. And this trespass offering is about following through with our actions, which is why I like it so much. It's about not just saying words, but actually doing something to show that other side of the relationship that you know what, you are sorry. You know what, I want to have character to where I don't want to just say sorry. I want to actually be sorry and make it right. And then change the way I do things so I don't end up making that trespass twice. It's super important to like seal these relationships. I don't want to have, I mean, can you imagine? I don't want to have a one-sided relationship with my wife. I don't want to like, I mean, this is the most intimate relationship, a marriage. I don't want to have a marriage where I'm like, I really love my wife, but she can't stand me. You don't think that this happens? I don't want to have a relationship where I have this wife that really loves me, but I'm just this jerk and I don't want to do anything for her and I really don't have any. There is marriages everywhere like this. Why? Because they're missing one of these three points. Because they're not following the fundamentals of what the Bible says. Just because you're forgiving, just because you're sorry doesn't mean it's all going to be made on both sides. So look, it's all about the people. It's all about the relationships. And the trespass offering is closing this loop. It's closing the loop. It's closing the loop and making it, it's like really making it right. I'm not just saying I want to make it right, I'm really making it right. So think about that in your lives, especially as we go into the next couple of weeks. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.