 Hey man, so keep your place in Leviticus chapter one. That's where we're gonna be for the entire sermon. We're gonna be referencing back and forth. So when you leave Leviticus chapter one, just keep a bookmark there. We're gonna come back and forth to the book of Leviticus. So we're starting a new sermon series tonight. The sermon series is on the offering. So in the first seven chapters of Leviticus, we see five main offerings that are detailed out for the children of Israel to be doing in the book of Leviticus in these first few chapters. We're gonna look at these sacrifices and see how they, what do they picture? How do they apply to us in our lives today? Because remember, all of these sacrifices, everything that they did in the Old Testament, were just pictures or foreshadowings of things that are to come. All right, so tonight in Leviticus chapter one, we're gonna be looking at this burnt offering. The burnt offering is the first offering that we'll look at in our sermon series. And if you're there in Leviticus chapter one, you'll notice as we just read the chapter that I'm gonna give you four points tonight that describe the burnt offering as, it's unique. Each of these offerings, some of them have things that are similar, but all of these offerings have things that are unique. So tonight I'm gonna give you four points on the burnt offering that is unique to the burnt offering, and hopefully I can explain to you why the burnt offering is there. So keep in mind that this is offerings that the children of Israel are doing when they have the tabernacle. There is no, they're doing this in front of the tents. This is the beginning of the Levitical law. There was not, they were not in Solomon's temple at this point. We're hundreds of years from that point in history. They're doing these things in front of the tabernacle, and this is the Levitical priesthood. Moses' brother Aaron was the first high priest there, and he was commanded to be doing these ritual sacrifices in front of the tabernacle, in the tabernacle. Look at Ephesians chapter five, if you would. Ephesians chapter five, and you're gonna keep your place in Leviticus chapter one. So the first unique thing about the burnt sacrifice that we need to see tonight is that it's a complete sacrifice. Not every one of the sacrifices that we're going to talk about is a complete sacrifice. And I'll explain that in a little bit more detail when we look at next week, we look at the next offering and how it's not a complete sacrifice that certain things of the sacrifice go here and other things of the sacrifice go here. But the burnt offering is a complete sacrifice, and this part of the offering shows the foreshadowing of Christ's sacrifice himself, on how Christ's sacrifice was a complete sacrifice. We should all be very happy that Christ's sacrifice was a complete sacrifice. Look at Ephesians chapter five in verse number two. I'm glad, I'm thankful that Christ gave all that he didn't hold anything back, that he sacrificed everything. Look at Ephesians chapter five in verse number two and notice the wording here and how this matches perfectly with what we just read in Leviticus chapter one. It says, and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us. How did Christ love us? By saying, oh, I love you and all the lovey-dovey feelings towards you? No, he had given himself for us an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. That exact same wording that we see in Leviticus chapter one talking about the burnt offering. All right, and I'm gonna get into that sweet smelling savor in a couple of points down the road, but many of the offerings that we're gonna look at in this sermon series, you will see that things are held back for certain reasons and we'll look at that. But the burnt offering is a complete offering. The entire animal was, yes, it was divided up in a certain way but everything was burned on the altar. It was complete, all right? And by the way, the burnt, the fire part of it definitely is part of that complete sacrifice picture of Christ as well as Christ in Acts chapter two and verse 31, he spent his soul literally went to hell. His soul was not left in hell. The Bible clearly says it shows the completeness of Christ's sacrifice and it shows that hell is defined by fire in the Bible. Not only is the lake of fire the final destination of hell, but in Matthew chapter five, we see the words hellfire used. Other places in the Bible talks about the torments of hell and the torments of just eternal destruction, smoke of their torment. I mean, all of this pictures, this burnt sacrifice pictures, the completeness of Christ's sacrifice. And I mean, people that for some reason preach against like Christ going to hell, they say all kinds of silly things like, oh, you're saying that the death on the cross wasn't enough for, I don't even know what that means because they say, oh, when Jesus was on the cross, he said it is finished. That means that, well, obviously Jesus did not mean the entire gospel was finished on the cross because he still hadn't risen from the dead. I mean, what in the world are you talking about? So I mean, Jesus' sacrifice was everything. It was everything. It was the death on the cross. It was the blood. It was all of these things. It was his soul going to hell. And of course it was the resurrection. You know, you cannot be saved if you don't believe Jesus rose from the dead. I mean, that's Matthew or Romans 10, nine right there. So I mean, look, Jesus Christ's sacrifice was complete. Look, I'm glad it was complete. Look at Leviticus chapter one. Go back to Leviticus chapter one. Look at verse number eight. Let's look at this. The Bible says in Leviticus chapter one in verse number eight, it says, and the priests, Aaron's sons shall lay the parts, the head and the fat in order upon the wood that is on the fire, which is upon the altar. Okay, so there we see some parts, but then look at verse number nine, but his inwards, these are like the innards, all right? The inwards parts of the animal. His lay and his leg shall he wash in water and the priests shall burn all on the offer. So yeah, they have to wash certain parts of it, but everything is burnt to be a burnt sacrifice and offering made by fire. Of a sweet savor unto the Lord. So it just pictures the completeness of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And look, I mean, I'm glad that the sacrifice was complete. And it also pictures, by the way, the completeness of your salvation through that complete sacrifice. I mean, the idea that you could lose your salvation doesn't make sense on so many, on any level, actually. I mean, even just using the words, even just using how people can be out there, how the Pentecostal today can believe that you can be saved and then lose your salvation. Like, just stop using the word saved. Just stop using that terminology because it doesn't make any sense. I mean, how are you saved if you die? How are you saved if you end up in hell? It's like, you know, going out and saving somebody from drowning, right? You go out and you save somebody from drowning. You do this heroic act. You're like, I just saved you and then you take them out and you drown them. Did you really save them? I mean, it just, it doesn't even make any sense that the Bible would even use the terminology for by grace are ye saved. Thou shalt be saved. It wouldn't make any sense to even use the word because if somebody gets saved and then they go to hell, like, what in the world? They weren't even saved. I mean, how could you call that saved? I mean, this is just kind of a rabbit trail. But I mean, losing your salvation doesn't make any sense. Okay, and it flies in the face against the completeness of Jesus' sacrifice and it flies in the face against the completeness of your personal salvation. All right, so this is the first point of the burnt offering. Don't miss the fact that it is a complete offering. Everything is offered. And if Jesus held anything back, He would not have been able to save us. So the completeness was necessary for what Jesus did. Go back to Leviticus chapter one and look at verse number two. Let's look at verse number two and verse number three. The second point I want to make about this burnt offering is that it was voluntary. It was voluntary. Look at verse number two, where the Bible says, speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, if any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord, he shall bring an offering of your cattle, even of the herd and of the flock. We're gonna talk about those three categories in a couple of minutes too. But look at verse number three. If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish. He shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord. Of course it's a male without blemish, why? Because it's picturing the sinless Jesus Christ, the sinless Messiah. It is a picture of what is to come. But the second point I want to make is that this offering, this burnt offering, this is not something that every man had to do every month or whatever. This was a voluntary offering that somebody would bring of the herd, of the flock and of the, what do they call it? Of the flock, of the herd and of the cattle. So it's either gonna be a cow, a sheep, or a bird of some kind, all right? And it was a free choice, but it had to be voluntary. God wanted the people, the children of Israel, he wanted them to do this of their own free will. I mean, it's really a case, it's really a great case in the Bible to show us that God wants us to have free will. That God gave us free will. I mean, look, there's points all over the back. I actually turned to Genesis chapter two. God has always wanted man to have free will. God never created man to have a bunch of, just to be a bunch of robots that just follow him and they are just predestined to just get saved and be great Christians. That's a bunch of garbage that's found nowhere in the Bible. God has always created man to have free will. And that's why God is labeling this burnt sacrifice. He's like, you know what, I want you to do this of your own free will. I want you to do this, if you do this of your voluntary self, you come here and give this to me, here's how you do it. But it had to be voluntary. So it would have been wrong for somebody to just drag some goat or sheep or whatever, a male ram and without blamish, like, I can't believe this or kick the thing and be like, I guess I got to give this because my uncle says I should or whatever. I mean, that would have been wrong from the beginning. God wanted it to be of free will. God wants us to have free will. God created man to have free will. From the very beginning, look at Genesis chapter two, verse number 16, look at what the Bible says. From the beginning, God created man to have free will and the Lord commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden may as freely eat, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. So this is super important right here just to prove free will and how God created man, how man literally just has free will. God gave them one rule at the beginning. He said, you can eat anything you want in the garden. Look, there was no poison mushrooms in the garden. There was no poison oak, there was no weed or whatever people are wanting to eat today to get all messed up in their head and turn themselves into fools. But he said, don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He didn't put a force field around it. He didn't make this magical thing that you can't approach or you get shocked or something. He just said, don't do it, don't touch it or what? What does the Bible teach? The Bible teaches free will or consequences. That's what the Bible teaches. And like what we're missing today, you say how is our society such a mess today because we're not teaching the consequences anymore. You know, man still has free will but we're not teaching the consequences which by the way are there whether people like it or not. He says don't touch it or else consequences. See, there's sin all around us. It's the same thing today. There's sin all around us as saved Christians today. There's sin all around us and there's consequences all around us. And the sin, it's there for the taking. It's there for the taking and the consequences are always there. We always must choose the right way. It's the same thing because we have free will. I mean for a lot of people, free will is not a good thing for them. But it's there and the consequences are always there. I mean, turn to Hosea chapter one. We talked about this last, we were chatting about this last Sunday night or something, I can't remember. But think of a husband and wife analogy. Think of a husband and wife analogy. You say why did God give man free will? It's really easy to understand. You go find a guy that's married or not married. I don't care who it is. Or even a gal and ask her the same question. You ask her, hey, would you like to have someone be your husband who is forced to love you? Would you like someone to be married to you? Would you like to meet a young lady, young men? Would you like to meet a young lady who somebody puts a gun to her head and says you must marry brother or so and so? No man would want that. No person would want someone to be forced to love them. To oh, you know, they'll take this pill once a day and then they'll love you or whatever. I mean, it's just like nobody would want that. Everybody wants their spouse to just freely love them. This is a problem with a lot of marriages, by the way. This is a problem with a lot of marriages. Like, you know, inevitably a husband treats a wife like garbage for 10, 15, 20 years. And pretty soon, you know, it works the same way too, by the way. Pretty soon, you know, that love fades. You know, that it just fades, it's just like, what happened? You know, it didn't happen overnight. Pretty soon, you know, you have some wife who's just terrible to her husband for years and years and years and pretty soon he's off in the wilderness somewhere. Pretty soon, he's up in the corner of a house somewhere. He wants nothing to do with his wife. You're like, why? I want him to love me. I want her to love me. All this, but you can drive people away. You can drive people away by how you treat them. But back to the point. God uses this husband and wife analogy all the time in the Bible, especially relating to the children of Israel. And in Hosea chapter one, Hosea was a prophet. He's one of the minor prophets. Right after the book of Daniel, we find the book of Hosea. But he's one of the minor prophets. His contemporaries were Jonah, Amos. There's one more somewhere. I think Micah was also one of his contemporaries. But basically he was mainly a prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel at the end of their reign. And actually he was a prophet during a couple of Jehu sons who we learned about this morning. So Jehu was promised by God because he did such a great job. God told him you're gonna have four generations of sons. So if you ever look at the genealogy of the kings of the children of the northern kingdom of Israel, the longest reigning family is Jehu's family because he had son after son after son after son. And two of those sons were underneath the prophecy of Hosea. So Hosea is kind of ripping face against the northern kingdom of Israel. They're about to be taken over. We're within just a couple of decades at Hosea's time of the Assyrian Empire coming in and wiping out the northern kingdom of Israel. But look at Hosea chapter number one and look at the analogy that God uses. I mean, God gets pretty extreme with this analogy with Hosea, all right? Look what he says. He says, the beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea. And Lord said to Hosea, go, take unto thee a wife of hordoms and the children of hordoms for the land hath committed great hordom departing from the Lord. He tells this prophet, go marry a prostitute. He says, go marry a harlot. And, you know, Hosea is like, oh man, could we use some other, you know, you would think you'd be like, I wish I would have gotten like the dung analogy. That would have been better. But he's literally told by God to go marry a prostitute. You say, why? So he went and he took Gomor, the daughter of Diplom, which conceived and bear him a son. So he goes and he marries. So, I mean, first of all, guys, like, what was your name? Gomor, just run, right? Like, I don't know, like, so you're not probably gonna see a lot of ladies or a lot of kids or young ladies named Gomor. You know what I mean? For many different reasons, especially if they know the Bible. But I mean, I mean, he's like, oh, she's a harlot. What's your name? Gomor. Oh man, that double whammy. I mean, it's a terrible name. As a matter of fact, it was funny because I was on a plane a few months ago and I was sitting on this plane and there was this plane head speaking of terrible names. I mean, this is not a crazy preacher story. This actually happened to me, okay? And there was pre-ordered meals before we got on the plane. So the stewardess was asking everyone what their names were in the seats. So she knew who had what meal. And she goes up to the lady. There was an older lady sitting next to me to my right. And she goes up to the lady and she says, am I pronouncing your name right? And the lady goes, nightmare. Yes, nightmare. That's my name. And I'm just like, what in the world? Her first name was nightmare. Like, talk about a name that you probably should have just changed, right? I mean, parents have issues with this at this time. But anyway, and then she says, but people just call me Alabama. And then for the rest of the flight, it was just like Miss Alabama, Miss Alabama, nightmare was never used. But anyway, that's up there with Gomer, okay? Anyway, so God uses this analogy of a marriage to describe the relationship that he has with his people. And his people were committing hordoms against him. God was using the children of Israel and he was comparing, he used this extreme example with his prophet to show that the children of Israel, they're committing adultery against me. They're going, committing hordom after other gods. They're going off and they're breaking their covenant with me is what God was saying. He uses this extreme example. But back to the point, God does not want some wife, he doesn't want us to be forced to love him. He doesn't want that, but there's going to be consequences. And that's what follows in the book of Hosea. And yet there definitely was consequences for the Northern Kingdom of Israel. And those consequences were coming soon. At least he sent the prophets to warn them. You know, at least he sent the prophets. But the point is, this was to be a free will offering. And that's what God wants from us. He wants free will offerings from us. He wants us to voluntarily love the Lord. I mean, it's not a hard concept. That's what God wants. So if you ever feel like, like, man, I just feel like I'm being forced to do this and forced to read the Bible and forced, look, that is, something is wrong with your heart at that point. Something is, there is a major issue there because God, you should voluntarily want to offer to the Lord. You should voluntarily want to give to the Lord. That's what God did for you, by the way. He voluntarily gave you, without holding anything back through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. So I mean, the argument against free will, like with the Calvinists and all that, it's insanity. It's nowhere in the Bible. I mean, free will is everywhere in the Bible. Even in this sacrifice in Leviticus chapter one. Go back to Leviticus chapter one. Go back to Leviticus chapter one. So first two things that we see are is that it was a complete offering. Picturing the complete sacrifice, the complete salvation that Christ's complete sacrifice provides for us. I'm completely saved. You don't have to say, completely saved. You can just say, I'm saved if you're saved. If you trust it on Jesus, you are saved, which means you're completely saved. Otherwise, the word saved doesn't even make sense. So it was complete. The second point is it was voluntary. Christ wants a voluntary service from us to him. It's a reasonable service, folks. Look at verse number nine of Leviticus chapter one. The third point I wanna make is that this sacrifice being complete and being voluntary was pleasing to the Lord. Look at verse number nine. And I wanna point out that any of these sacrifices was pleasing to the Lord. Remember, you could have offered a cow, you could have offered a sheep, you could have offered a bird, a turtle dove. I mean, which of those is more expensive? There's clearly a higher value on cattle than there is on sheep. The Bible even counts that like six to one or something, I forget. I think it's six to one. But the Bible actually acknowledges that there's a higher worldly value on the top of this list. But notice something here. Any of these sacrifices is pleasing to the Lord. Look at verse number nine. It says, but as inwards in his legs, shall he wash in water. This is the cattle. And the priest shall burn all in the altar to be a burnt sacrifice and offering made by fire of a sweet savor unto the Lord. Meaning it is a pleasing smell. It is a pleasing sight. It is a pleasing thing to the Lord. Look at verse number 13. The flock, again, he shall wash the inwards and legs with water. The priest shall bring it all and burn it on the altar. It is a burnt sacrifice and offering made by fire of a sweet savor unto the Lord. It doesn't say like, oh, it wasn't as good as the first one, but no, it's a sweet savor. The Lord is pleased with this. The Lord is just as pleased in verse number 13 as he was in verse number nine. Now look at the bird. You say just a bird, really? This guy gets away with just giving a bird. Look at verse number 17. He shall cleave it with the wings thereof, but shall not divide it asunder and the priest shall burn it on the altar upon the wood that is upon the fire. It is a burnt sacrifice and offering made by fire of what? Of a sweet savor unto the Lord, but not as good as the sheep. No, it's just a sweet savor unto the Lord. Whatever was given in the burnt sacrifice in these three categories, whether it was a bird, a sheep, or the cattle was pleasing to the Lord. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. So you say, why the different options? Why did God give the different options here? It was voluntary, it was free will, it was complete and either one of these three options was complete or was pleasing to the Lord. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Let me show you a concept in the Bible that Paul lays out for the church at Corinth here. Look at verse number 12 of 1 Corinthians chapter number 12. Now, why different options? The answer is because people have different situations. People have different situations. People have different means. Maybe somebody raised birds. Maybe somebody raised cattle. Maybe somebody didn't have sheep. Maybe some people had more resources than other people had resources. And guess what? A church is going to be filled with people of all different means. All different resources, all different talents, actually. Look at verse number 12. The Bible says this as the body is one. Talking about the body of Christ that is this church and half many members. He's using an analogy of a body. He's using an analogy of a person's body and a church. And all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit, we are all baptized into one body. That's the body of Christ, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, whether we be all made to drink into one spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. The body is not just a finger. The body is not just a hand. The body is made up of many members. If the foot, now he goes into more detail in this analogy, it says if the foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, because I am not the eye, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? Saying, well, what if the eye is more important thinks the ear? That's what this is going at. Or the foot is more important thinks the hand, or whatever. He's talking about, you can't have one member of a body saying, oh, because I'm not the most important part, I'm not part of the body. This is what Paul is getting at. Because if the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? Do you ever play in those games? I mean, do you ever play these games with your friends when you were a kid? Would you rather be blind or deaf? You know all these kinds of games that you guys play? Am I the only one that played those with my friends? The answer is neither. Because if you were all eyes, you couldn't hear anything. If you're all ears, you couldn't see anything. If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? What if you didn't have a nose? But now that God set the members, every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where is the body? If everybody's a hand, there is no body. See what he's getting at here? This is a pretty brilliant little kind of diatribe that he's going off on here. He's like, he's saying if they're all hands, if they're all fingers, you know, it just, all the members is what makes up the actual body, folks. But there are many members, yet but one body. I cannot say end of the hand, I have no need of thee, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Much more, those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary. He's saying even when people look and they say, oh, the cow is better, clearly a cow is better than a dove. What Paul here is saying is that even the most feeble members of a body, which when he says feeble, he's saying feeble to our eyes, to our view. He's saying those members are all necessary. Even the seemingly small things is what he's talking about here. And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable. I mean, isn't that true? Isn't that true that there are positions that you think are more honorable and less honorable? I mean, obviously if you're out in the world and somebody's a, you know, some big shot, you know, manager or director at some company or something, isn't that considered to be a more honorable thing than somebody who's just the guy that, you know, cleans the floors or whatever. Or, you know, is the, you know, orders the materials or something like that. I mean, these, this is man's problem though, is what Paul is explaining. And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable upon these, we bestow more abundant honor. This is the problem Paul is saying. And on our uncommonly parts have more abundant commonness. Look, he's saying that it shouldn't be this way in the church. He's saying that, oh, you know, you got some guy who seems very honorable. You know, you got some guy where he's an usher of the church. That seems to be very honorable. And look, it is honorable and not everybody can be a usher. That's true, but guess what? There also needs to be people that do all the other things that doesn't get, you know, the visibility. I made this comment several times in the satellite ministry but there is no magic button here when we leave here on Sunday night one of the most, you know, seemingly feeble and silent ministries in a church like this is when we leave Sunday night and this place is wrecked especially when we eat or have some kind of food or whatever, this place looks like a bomb went off. Look, it's good. I'm happy about it. But there's no magic button that you go push on the back wall saying reset church. There's people and in our case there's ladies that come in every two days and reset the church. And you know, there's no usher tag for them. There's no, you know, that would be one of those less honorable, but look, it's not a less honorable position. That's what Paul is saying. It's necessary. Look, we couldn't have church Wednesday night. It would be a disaster. Can you imagine if a visitor walked in here and we just never cleaned the church. If my wife and the ladies that help out were just like, you know what, it's too much. It's too much. It's getting the honor that I deserve around here. And I was just like, whatever, let's just roll with it. Just whatever, bro. Let's just be you and us and whatever we feel like and the chairs were just a disaster. There we've got, you know, I mean, everyone's, there's, you know, people are just laying in bean bags. And I mean, there's pizza all over the floor. There's rotting food everywhere. And a visitor comes in, look, we would have no visitors. Look, everything has to be decent and in order. These are honorable positions. This is what Paul is saying. It's like, this is what men, this is what men do though. Men look at things like, oh, that's honorable. And I don't want to do that, but it's all necessary. Every part of it is necessary. Look at verse 25. It says that there should be no schism in the body that the member should have the same care for one another. So the people that are in honorable position should have the same care as people that are in the less honorable positions. The people that run the AV and the people that do the bulletins, the people that do all the maps and the people that make, you know, all the different invites and all the different things that order things for the church. Look, those things, every single person, every single member needs to be appreciated because without it, there would be no body. Everyone can't be a hand. Look, it's much more than just the pastor. You know, if we just had like, everybody was a pastor. Like, it would be a disaster in many different ways. But I mean, it would just be a disaster because we need all the members. We need all the fingers and the ears and the eyes and the hands and the feet and, you know, the nose, right? So we can tell if things aren't clean. But this is what Paul is saying and this is why there's three different sacrifices because people have different means. People have different resources. He said, but now you're the body of Christ and members in particular. Look, look at verse 26, I skipped it. He says, whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it. Or with one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. I mean, that, look, we win, I mean, that's such a beautiful verse. He's saying we win and we lose together in the church is what he is saying. So not every person needs to be a pastor. Not every single person, you know, needs to even go into the ministry. Pastor Jimenez has said this many times and it's such a great blanket statement. I mean, if there's good blanket statements, this is a good one. He says every single person, every single saved Christian should either be a pastor, should either go into the ministry. You're like, oh, I don't know. Or they should be supporting a ministry. That is such a great statement right there. Every single person should be either go into the ministry, which look, very few people are gonna go into the ministry. As far as the percentage of saved Christian men out there, very few of those are gonna go into the ministry. And, but, then you should be supporting a ministry if you're not gonna go into the ministry. You should be one of these members that he's talking about. Even if you're like, oh, all I have is this dove to give. All I have is something from the flocks. Hey, give it voluntarily, give it completely and it's necessary and it's just as pleasing to the Lord. That's what you have to understand. It's just as pleasing to the Lord to give the bird as it is to give the cattle. So what? Even like all the smaller ministries should never be diminished in a church. From the cleaning, I mean, the cleaning ministry. I mean, the cleaning ministry is one of the most difficult ministries at this church. It requires the most labor. You know, the most physical labor at the church for sure. You know, all the different things I was thinking about today. I was thinking about as far as different members of the church, a Spanish speaker in this church, a Spanish speaker in this church is a powerful member of this church, is a great member of this church. Look, all the members are great. But that's just another member of the church. And you can speak Spanish in Fresno and give the gospel in Spanish. That's a member that's needed. That's like an ear. You know, that's like a powerful member of a ministry. But I mean, there's everything. Become a member is what, you know, even all you have is a bird. That's the key to why there are three sacrifices for the burnt offering. Turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 9. 2nd King Corinthians chapter 9. And look at verse number 7. But the trick is this. The trick is this. If you say, I'm going to be a member. I'm going to, you know, give a bird. I'm going to get involved somehow and be a member of this body. 2nd Corinthians chapter 9 is a good key verse for you. It says, every man, according as he purposes in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly, or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver. That's exactly what we see with the burnt offering. Is that God is very happy with this voluntary, complete offering. So if you just say to yourself, and now apply that, now let's get, you know, 400 level class with this. You're like, well, I don't want to give. I don't want to be part of, you know, the ministry. I don't want to, you know, voluntarily sacrifice anything in my life. Well, from the morning sermon, just serve first, and the heart will follow. You know, start serving first and see what happens. You know, see what happens. The thoughts in the heart will follow, as Proverbs 16.3 says. Turn to Numbers chapter 23. There's one last point about the burnt offering that I want to show you this evening. Turn to Numbers chapter 23. So what do we see so far? It's a complete offering. It's a voluntary offering, showing that God has given us free will. He wants us to voluntarily serve him, voluntarily love him, voluntarily, you know, give to him and support. Look, that's the same thing here. I don't want anyone that feels like they're forced to be here. I want people to voluntarily want to serve the Lord in this church. I mean, that's, you know, my goal for this ministry. Look at Numbers chapter 23. Numbers chapter 23. And the third point was that God is pleased with it. If those two things match, God is pleased with it no matter what it is, whether it's a bird, a sheep, or a cow. Look at verse, I think I said Numbers chapter 23. I meant Numbers chapter 28. Look at verse number, let me go there myself and make sure I don't have a mistake here. Go to Numbers chapter 28. Here's the last point about the burnt offering. Okay, yeah, verse number one of Numbers chapter 28. The burnt offering was continual. The burnt offering never stopped. That's the next thing, the last thing I want you to see about the burnt offering. Look at verse number one of Numbers chapter 28. The burnt offering, so you say, what do you mean? Weren't people voluntarily bringing burnt offerings? Yes, people were voluntarily bringing burnt offerings, but there was a continual burnt offering that was always going on. Look at verse number one. It says, and the Lord spake unto Moses saying, command the children of Israel and say unto them, my offering and my bread for my sacrifices made by fire for a sweet savor unto me shall ye observe to offer me in their due season. And thou shalt say unto them, this is the offering made by fire which ye shall offer unto the Lord two lambs of the first year without spot day by day for a continual burnt offering. So these voluntarily burnt, voluntary burnt offerings brought by the people were, they brought them, but there was an example set that there was a burnt offering to be made every single day. This is what Aaron or the Lord commanded Moses to do. Now shalt say unto them, the offering is a continual burnt offering. One lamb shall thou offer in the morning and the other lamb shall thou offer at even. So there was a lamb in the morning that was offered and a lamb in the evening that was offered and then all the voluntary burnt offerings were just coming in there, but there was always a continual offering going on, continual burnt offering that was going on at the Tabernacle. Daily. Now look, that doesn't change for us. That doesn't change for us. I am, I mean, think of this for a minute. Think of this for a minute. I am amazed in 2023 America. In 2023 America, what are we doing here? I am constantly reading the tea leaves, the culture of the day that we are in. We're not in post-Christian America. That's not what people are saying anymore. People are saying we are in post-religious America. People are saying like the numbers of people that just believe nothing. They're just rejecting. Look, they're not going into Islam or whatever. There's just the numbers of people that are just rejecting all religion, all ideas of even any kind of God are through the roof in America today. I mean, and what do we see? No one goes to church anymore. Those numbers have never been higher. It's because look, you had a bunch of people as we went into COVID that didn't really like going to church anyway. And then they got to stay home and they just never went back. So you got this America today where there's never been a time where the smallest percentage of people go to church. I mean, the smallest percentage of people know the Bible. We saw a sign at Bravo Farms, you know, one of these signs with the Bible verse on it. And it said, and we're the only ones that caught it. We're just like, what world? It was like, I am the way, the truth and the life because they never put the whole verse. But it said, I am the way, the truth and the life. They put half of John 14.6, but then it said, I am the way, the truth and the life, John 14.16. They're like selling the sign. Yeah, nobody will catch that. It'll be fine, they'll sell a million of them. Well, the point is there's never been a time in the history of our country where less people know the Bible, care about the Bible, believe the Bible's true, go to church, any of that. It's an all-time low in the history of our country. And yet here we are growing a church. That is a miracle because the way of the Lord is to have a continual burnt offering. Christianity, the gospel, the truth will never die. As a matter of fact, it's designed to where the harder people press on it, the more it grows. That's why it's here today is because people successfully, as we talked about last week, passed it on to the next generation, what we're trying to do, but just think about this today. Think of the miracle of the fact that when all the fires are going out, here we are still having a continual burnt offering. Still having this, and look, it's not us. It's us being obedient and God granting the miracle. That's what's happening. We are just simply doing what the Bible tells us to do, standing out in the sun and going out and preaching the gospel, no matter how we feel, or how much water we brought with us, or whatever it is, we just continually go out and God just gives the increase. God keeps blessing. In 2023 America, I mean, you couldn't even say it would be possible to grow a church if it wasn't a miracle. But here we are growing a biblical church, sorry. We're growing a biblical church in post-religious America. Like, how is that possible? According to the pop culture, it's not. Look, it's still pretty easy to serve the Lord today, folks. I mean, you know, we still have, you know, we still have this remnant of the First Amendment that's still there. We can still use it. You know, let's keep, let's use it. Let's use this remnant of this good idea that we had put in place a few hundred years ago to keep this sweet, smelling, savor to the Lord going. And that's what we're doing here. You know, so that the burnt offering at what? It's a complete offering. Number one, it's a voluntary offering. This all applies to our Christian life. You know, we should be completely offering our lives to the Lord. We should be voluntarily offering our lives to the Lord. And it will be pleasing to the Lord when you do that. And then on top of that, it should be continual. You should not be this person, that's this bottle rocket Christian, that's just like, I'm gonna really hit it hard for two years, and then I'm out. There's a lot of people like that, well, they're gonna die, you know, when they're in their 90s or whatever old they are, and they're gonna look back at those two years and be like, well, I really did it right then. But it's supposed to be continual. It's supposed to continue throughout your entire life. And look, it will be pleasing to the Lord if you do that. And that's why God will say, you know, well done, well good and faithful servant, to, you know, probably a very few amount of people. But this is the burnt offering. This is what it pictures, and it applies all of these things, apply directly to us. And if you say, you know what, I'm not some great speaker. I'm not some great whatever. It just, give a dove then, give a dove. And by the way, the great people are never who God uses in the Bible. It's always the fishermen. It's always the lonely guy. Why? God wants to take somebody who is of low estate in the world's eyes and use that person to do great things. Why? Because it shows the power of the Lord. It shows the power of God. For some great, you know, order and some great powerful person, that's just, you know, he can speak well and he can do all these things. You know, for him to stand up and do something great, you know, I was like, well, yeah, but look at the guy, he's pretty great. Or look at that lady, you know, she's good at everything she does. Whatever, but no, God uses the low people. God uses the small members. God uses the people that only have a bird. Only have a might to do great things because it shows his glory. That's what God wants from us. And that's how the burnt offering applies to our lives. Let's bow our heads and have a word.