Leviticus 23:9–14

hey hey good morning good morning welcome to coffee and devotions this where every day you and I we get together we have a little bit of coffee we get into God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together in this year 2023 Lord willing make it from Genesis through Leviticus I'm so glad to be with you today why we have some coffee we'll pray and we'll get into God's word let's pray father we thank you so much for this day and we thank you that you provide everything for us you are the one who supplies our needs you are the one who gives us good gifts everything that we enjoy in this life is a blessing from your hand and so father we pray that as we read your word your spirit would let these words be true in our own lives in Jesus's name amen all right so we are at Leviticus Leviticus chapter 23 Leviticus chapter 23 and we'll just be reading verses 9 through 14 today and the Lord spoke to Moses saying speak to the children of Israel and say to to them when you come into the land which I give to you and reap its Harvest then you shall bring a sheath of the first fruits of your Harvest to the priests he shall wave the sheath before the Lord to be accepted on your behalf on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it and you shall offer on that day when you wave the sheath a male lamb of the first year without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord its grain shall be two tents an epha a fine flour mixed with oil an offering made by fire to the Lord for a sweet Aroma and its drink offering shall be of wine 1/4 of a hin you shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until this day that you have brought an offering to the Lord your God it shall be a statute forever throughout your Generations in all your dwellings well we need to ask ourselves our three normal questions a what's this about B what's the V Versa summarizes and C what are we called to do in response to this so what is this passage about well the Harvest comes this is right after the Passover a barley Harvest is at hand and they need to make a sacrifice right they they need come to the Lord as a Thanksgiving right they're they're they're recognizing that it is the god who created heaven and earth in six days he made the the heavens and the Earth and all that's in them in the seventh day he rested right that was the first ceremony the second ceremony was the Passover right there're to remember that the Lord was the one who redeemed them out of Egypt they were his people he was their Covenant King and he was the one who was going to provide for them and so now we're coming to this point that we realize everything that they had was a blessing from the Lord all the Harvest was from him it wasn't some weird mating ritual between ball and Ash and all this other stuff right the fish Harvest wasn't going to come from deeon right the babies didn't come from Molech none of that crazy Pagan Canaanite stuff was going to happen they were to recognize that it was God Who provided their Harvest for them it was God who cared for them and so there's this procedure right on a Monday the day after the Sabbath there to bring the Lord a sheath and the the priest going wave it and burn it and then to bring a a lamb and it's going to be sacrificed and it's going to be waved and burned and then they're going to bring uh a little bit of of oil and a little bit of of well here no sorry not oil uh flour plus fine oil it's just about oh three lers worth of this stuff right between flour and oil just under a gallon right of the stuff that they're going to offer to the Lord and but they're also going to bring bring wine about two pints worth of wine or one liter worth of wine and they're going to bring that to the Lord also but all of this was meant to bring as a sacrifice to say Lord you are the wonderful God who brings in the Harvest so please give us the Harvest please keep us safe during the Harvest thank you for all you've done for us and so this is really like the Israelite Thanksgiving meal was this meal of the Feast of first fruits right this is the way in which they were able to recognize Lord You're the one who's given to me I'm going to I'm the steward of what you give to me but really it's yours you're the one who cares for us as our covenant King and so that's what this passage is about what's the best verse to summarize this well uh I would have verse 10 underline speak to the children of Israel and say to them when you come into the land which I give you and reap its Harvest then you shall bring a sheath of the first fruits of your Harvest to the priests what should we we do about this so right what are we called to do as Christians with this Old Testament ceremonial right do we then you know I live around a whole bunch of farmers should they start coming to me with their with their barley so I can light on fire when they when their corn is ready should they bring it to me so I can you know cook it in a pot or something no that's not what any of this is getting at right do we honor the Lord by being thankful to him for what he has done now some people are going to use this and even tell evangelists and people who are on TV and radio will try to use this to get your money I don't think that that's what this is getting at I do think it's a good principle that we honor the Lord right but I I said this to our congregation not too long ago the only place we have in the New Testament for something like this is saying that the lord loves a cheerful Giver not out of compulsion or regret right so you give whatever you want to give to the Lord's work but I know what right and I'm not backtracking here I'm just saying Prince in my life if I wait and just give what's left over I got to tell you I'm a greedy person by nature and I won't give much I'm saying this to somebody who was a Christian for a long time before I was a pastor and we recognized early in our marriage early and I recognized early in my Christian Life that if I waited to give of my excess it's really easy for me to be greedy and Covetous and spend all my money and then not have anything but if I was content with what the Lord had given me and I was faithful in providing to him first I might not have everything that I wanted I always had everything I needed so the point of this isn't you know to Guilt Trip people in the New Covenant to giving the first fruits and you have to do this stuff right but if we're under grace now and not under the law how much more thankful should we be he's given us everything and most of all he's given us his son Jesus Christ and he's given us eternal life how amazing is God he's so generous he's so kind and so I hope this morning that you have a heart of generosity and kindness to the Lord that you lavish the Lord with your praise that you remember all of his goodness go ahead and go if you have a Salter go open your Salter if you don't have a Salter go open the book of Psalms just look up Psalms of thanksgivings and you'll find it all over the place the Lord is good and he's kind and he's generous to praise him for it and live your life in the light of knowing he is our covenant King he provides for everything we need and so we can be thankful to him let's pray father we thank you so much for the gift of life you have given us and every good gift that comes down from you especially Jesus Christ and father we pray that we would not be those people who would be slow to Thanksgiving and praise but that we would remember how good you have been to us and that we would love you all of our lives in Jesus's name we pray amen well may the Lord bless you may you walk in the joy and peace that comes from walking in Jesus Christ and I'll see you next time bye thanks for listening to this week's message from God's word for you you a Ministry of Sharon RP Church in rural Southeast Iowa we pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week if you'd like to get more information about us feel free to go to the website Sharon rc.org we'd love to invite you to worship with us our worship time is 10:00 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue Morning Sun Iowa 52640 may God richly bless you this [Music] week