Acknowledging God's Supreme Authority

Deuteronomy. Book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter 15. I want to start reading at verse 19. The Old Testament may seem like a very bizarre book to you for a lot of different reasons, but everything in the story of the Old Testament is a very important ingredient in the story. Because what God is trying to do is build a people who will live out before the rest of the world His nature and what it means to be a follower of His. And the very key ingredient, the most key ingredient that comes to a person who relates to God is acknowledging the supreme authority of God. The Bible starts with a story of creation for a reason. Everything in the world is made by God and everything in the world belongs to God. Now, whenever a Hebrew man would want to enter this religious faith, he had to say publicly by memory, and the Hebrew language is still true today, the Shema. Here, O Lord, the Lord is our one God. And he had to quote that in Hebrew from the Old Testament passage. It was an acknowledgment of the supreme authority of God over the world. The basic sin in the book of Genesis is the failure of human beings to accept and acknowledge the authority of God. Here is the place I have prepared for you. You can do anything you want to do except don't eat of this tree. This is the garden I have made, the garden I have prepared, I have made you. You can do anything you want except this is off limits to you. What happened in the garden was that Adam and Eve looked at that fruit, looked at that tree, weighed what God said, and said, I don't think that's the right thing to do. I think the best thing for us to do would be to try that fruit and see what it's like. This defiance of God was saying to him, you are not in charge of this garden. You are not in charge of my life. I will make my own decisions, and I will use this world and the things in it as I choose. You are not in charge. So when a Hebrew man wants to enter this relationship of covenant with God, he begins by saying, I recognize you, God, as the supreme authority of everything in the world. Whenever a Hebrew person comes into God's kingdom, he affirms the covenant that Israel made. The covenant with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the covenant was made at Sinai. All of those begin with the acknowledgement of God's supreme authority. Abraham, if you will follow me and go to the place where I want you to go, and do what I tell you to do, here are the things I am going to do for you. I will guide you to where you want to go, I will provide a place for you, I will protect you from your enemies, I will bless your enemies who bless you, I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you, and I will make you as numerous as the sands of the sea, a great and powerful influence in this world. Every time the covenant is reaffirmed, it is going back to that story of Genesis and rewriting it. You are the supreme ruler of everything. Now, if you don't get that, reading these stories individually from the Old Testament, they will seem rather foolish and rather silly. What God wanted to do was to say through Abraham, through you all the nations of the earth will be blessed. Now, how were they blessed? Everywhere they went, they were supposed to live in obedience to God and show through their own lifestyle what God is like. And when the Hebrews came to settle in this land of Canaan that God gave them, they had many things about them that were very, very distinctive. Their food was different than anybody else's. Their clothes were different than anybody else's. They couldn't eat any pork, different animals. They couldn't wear clothes that had mixed fabric in it. They lived in a different way on Sunday, the Sabbath day. They were not out in their fields harvesting even though it was time to harvest. All of their neighbors knew because of these rules that these people were different than anybody else in the world. And so God said to them, you are to be holy. The word holy means different, set apart, not like everything else. You are to be holy as I am holy. And so God's instruction to the people all the way through the Old Testament was to define for them how they were to live so that the world around them would see following God means a different kind of lifestyle. Now, he's already talked about in this passage several things that they were supposed to do. One, he said, I want you to remember that everything you get belongs to me. So I want you to set aside 10% of everything you get and you give it back to me. And so they were to give their money, 10%. All the people around them would look at this and say, why are you going down to the temple and burning up 10% of everything that you've received? This is not smart. But they had a reason for it. And they could explain, God owns everything. And this is what he's told us to do. This was their open door for witnessing as to the authority and place that God had in their lives. He told them that they were to be sure if they loaned anybody any money, that every seventh year they were to erase the loan. So he was saying to them, it's my money, and I want you to loan it to people who need it to live. But every seventh year, forgive the debt. Now, you know, if they did that, their neighbors around them hearing that would say, that's the stupidest thing I ever heard of. Why do you do that? Well, our God says that part of the money He gives us is to take care of the people who are poor. And so that's what we do. It's His money. And we spend it the way He tells us to spend it. Now, when he comes to this passage about, well, I didn't mention the servants, releasing the servants. He said, if somebody sells their life into slavery to you, the seventh year, you're supposed to turn them loose. Eliminate their slavery. And that was not true of the other nations around them. And it wasn't even true if they were pagan sold themselves to slavery to them. Now, he comes to another unusual request or requirement. Chapter 15, verse 19. Set apart for the Lord your God every firstborn male of your herds and flocks. Do not put the firstborn of your oxen to work. And do not shear the firstborn of your sheep. Each year, you and your family are to eat them in the presence of the Lord your God at the place He will choose. If an animal has a defect, is lame or blind, or has a serious flaw, you must not sacrifice it to the Lord your God. You are to eat it in your own town. Both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat it as if it were a gazelle or a deer. But you must not eat the blood poured out on the ground like water. Now, he turns to another unusual requirement that he had for them. Usually, the first fruit that you get is the most celebrated, maybe the tastiest. And for us, this is not a big issue. You know, I mean, you go down to the grocery store and they fly this food in from all over the world. So we're not really aware of the very first tomatoes that come fresh in our community. We're not really aware of whether or not the bread we're eating was made from wheat that was raised last year or two years ago or in South America or wherever it was. But these people lived a different life. They would put their wheat up at the end of the year, the barley up the end of the year, and it would stay all winter long in storage conditions that were not the very best in the world. And when they made bread, they made it sometimes with grain that was not, we would say, A-grade quality. And then whenever the first fruits of the new grain came, it was a time for them to eat good grain for the first time. They didn't have any grapes that would last the whole time. They mashed them up and put them into large vats and skins, wine skins of animals, and they would ferment over the year. And they had fresh grape juice, figs, all the things that they missed for the winter time, they suddenly had now fresh. So the very first of these would be something especially meaningful to them. It would be the break from the winter of bad provisions. So the Lord said to them, Now, whenever you have the first of your crop, you're to get that first of the crop and give it to me. Now, you see, the picture here is very clear. Who should get the very best and first of all the crop that comes in, the person that works it or the owner of it? You see the picture? So he said, Now, whenever you have an animal, every animal that is born is to be the first animal that comes from that animal that has a calf or whatever the animal is. That one belongs to me. Now, if you raise an animal and you have, say, a cow and you raise it, you feed it the food, you take care of it. By the time it gets to about the second year, it can have a calf. But you've already invested a lot of your money in that animal. And the very first calf that comes, you know, is an opportunity for you to make some money or to be able to eat that animal as it's born. But it wasn't for you. The very first one belongs to the owner of the animal, not to you who are simply loaned that animal. So God's instruction to his people was the first of every one of your animals belongs to me. Now, here's the way I want you to do it. Whenever that animal comes, I don't want if it's an oxen, I don't want you to let it to make it plow. I don't want you to work it. You're to set that one aside, just feed it and keep it there. And the time will come when you make that sacrifice at the altar and then you can kill it and eat it and you can eat it with me. But whenever it comes, you're not to make it work. If it's a sheep, you're not to shear it or a goat, you're not to shear it. You're not to take any profit from it because it's mine as the owner. Now, everyone around you is going to look at you and say, what kind of farmer is this who takes the very first of his animals and he doesn't even use it? He doesn't sell it. He doesn't make any profit from it. You can never farm doing this. I want them to know that as my people, you're different than them, that you trust me to provide for you and that everything you have belongs to me. So the instructions were given. The first animal that comes is set apart, the male of your herds and flocks. You're not to put the firstborn of your oxen to work nor shear your firstborn of your sheep. Each year, you and your family then can eat in the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose. Now, that first animal is not to be a profit to you. But here's what I'm going to do for you. I'm going to provide a banquet for you as my worker. And you can take that firstborn of the animal and you can take it when you go to worship. And there you can offer that as a sacrifice. You can sit down and eat it in the presence of the temple and of me. Now, what they were doing when they took the animal to eat and to sacrifice, they were sitting in God's presence as if they were having a meal with him. The burnt offering that was offered or sacrifice that was offered that was burned was sort of God's portion of the animal. This wasn't a church setting like we would see for church today. I mean, they took the animal in there, slit its throat, drained the blood out, poured it on the altar, and it was stripped and cleaned and then boiled or cooked or however they did it at that time. And all the family would gather around and for a rare time, they would have meat. No refrigeration, but this was a very, very special occasion. The owner of the farm and of all the animals said, I'm going to take my only animal and I'm going to let you share a meal with me. And you can eat any part of it you want. Just bring it to the place that's recognized as a symbol of where I am and there sacrifice it with all of your family and you gather around and you eat with me. The sacrifice wasn't to appease God as it was for some of the other pagan deities. It wasn't to convince God that he should bless them as it was for some of the other pagan deities. It was for them to come and be in the presence of God and share a meal with them. Now, we don't have the kind of symbolism for eating together or sharing a meal together that was common in the biblical times. If you wanted to have a peace treaty signed or any kind of a meeting, you always ate together. You'll notice if you read the Bible that many times in the Old Testament, whenever there is an event that takes place, people are eating together. It's a way by which you cement the relationship between you and that person as if eating the same food joins you in some way, connects you in some way. Now, we experience this a little bit whenever you have a Christmas or Thanksgiving meal and all your family comes and you eat around the table and you talk. The normal process, if your family works right, is that whenever the meal is over, you have to feel closer to each other than you did when you started. Your family is a little dysfunctional if the police have to be called and there's some kind of disturbance where you're not speaking to each other after that for a length of time. So the idea in the Bible is, in fact, it was so strong that it was considered a very great breach of etiquette. If you came and ate with someone and did something bad to them, to come and sit down and have a meal with another person was a symbol that you were no longer their enemy. A powerful symbol between the people of Israel and their God. They came and sat down with him and the barriers of sin were broken and they were in the presence of their God and he had invited them. He had provided the meal and they were his children. This was a very special, holy, and high time for the people of Israel. And God says, you take the first of these animals, set it aside, make sure it's special. You know, if you work an animal so that they have a lot of muscle, the meat is a little tough. The animals that they were to give were not to be used as work animals. They were to be what we would say, put in a pen and kept by themselves and specially fed and fattened. So like we have the cattle pens out here, so that by the time they were ready to eat, it would be good meat. The best meat that they would have all year long. What God is saying to his people is, I am the owner of everything, but you are my people and I share with you the things that I have. I trust you. I want you and I to become close to each other, a part of each other's life. I am your God and you are my people. Now, the people who are watching all of this who are pagans saw these very strange customs and would ask, I'm sure, why is it that you do these things? They were used to offering sacrifices, but not this way. Why is it that you do these things? And they were to say, Yahweh is our God. He is the ruler and owner of everything. He's given us all that we have and this is all that he's asked of us. Now, he said, if the first born of these animals has a defect, is lame or blind or has a serious flaw, you must not sacrifice it to the Lord your God. In other words, if I'm the owner of all these things that you have, don't give me the leftovers. Don't give me the broken stuff. Don't give me the things that you don't want anyway. You know, if you go to divide something up and you are the one that's in charge, you have an opportunity to take the piece that you want. You don't necessarily pass over that and take the broken piece or the one that fell on the floor. You deserve, as the owner, to take the best choice. Now, he said, I want you, when you take this sacrifice, to make sure that it is really a sacrifice. So if it's defective in some way, don't offer it. If you offer it, you see, your pagan neighbors will look and say, well, I can see why you do that, because you're getting rid of the bad ones and trying to bribe your God into something because he doesn't know what the good one or the bad one is. But when you take the best one and there you offer it, you declare the ownership of God. It's clear then to everyone who the Lord really is. You are to eat it in your own town. Now, this is the flawed piece. You're to eat it in your own towns, both ceremonially unclean. That is, the people who haven't been to the temple to make their lives clean and have done the processes that would be necessary for that. Both the ceremonial unclean and the clean made. And anyone can eat it. And you eat it just like it's a gazelle or a deer. In other words, you can eat this, but it's not to be offered for me, because the sacrifice for me is to be perfect. But this one you can eat in any way you choose. Verse 23, but you must not eat the blood. Pour it out on the ground like water. What God wanted to remind all the people of was that all life belongs to him. And the symbol was that life was in the blood, because when you kill an animal and you drain the blood, it no longer could live. And so the symbol of blood was a symbol of life. And what God was saying to them, even the animal that's defective that I'll let you eat belongs to me, and it's life I gave it. So you're never to eat that as if it was a part of your life. See, many of the pagan religions use the blood of the animals to drink and eat themselves, because they said it gave them life and energy and vitality and vigor. But Israel wasn't to do that, because their life and vigor did not come from the blood of the animals. It came from their God. God gives us life, and we are not to take it from something else as if it were to give us life. Instead, we're to drain it and pour it into the ground, for the life comes from God and we give it back to God. You see, these symbols of rules that God gave them were very purposeful. Whenever they lived this way, they were declaring the absolute authority of God over their lives. Now, that hasn't changed. In the New Testament times, what God says to us is, you enter the kingdom of heaven when you say, I give my life to Jesus Christ. Everything in my life now belongs to him. I will do whatever he asks me to do. I will live however he asks me to live. All the money I have is his, all the time I have is his, my body is his. Whatever he wants me to do with my money, I do it generously. Whatever he wants me to do with my time, I give it generously. Whatever he wants to do with my body, I will give it wherever he wants me to go, whatever he asks me to do. Now, you see, it's one of the reasons that the church has a particular reason, a particular reason, a particular method in how we deal with our finances, for example. I think God's purpose for us is that we practice what he asks us to do in terms of recognizing his ownership. So a tenth of all that we have goes to God, because he told us that that's our way of recognizing all of this belongs to you. I don't encourage, always discourage, our church from having soup suppers or having garage sales or car washes or any of those things, because that's the way the world raises their money. The way we're supposed to do it is to give him one tenth of everything that comes in, and he promises that that will be enough to take care of everything we need to do. And our failure to have those fundraising activities is a way by which we say all of our assets come from God. I think God intends us to be able to give what he tells us to give, and he gives us enough so we can do whatever it is that he wants us to do. It is a way by which we declare to the world the ownership of God and God's control of our financial assets. We trust God to provide every dollar we need to do anything he asks us to do, and how does he do it? The same way he did in the Old Testament. He gives each of us a certain amount of money. We give a tenth of it to him. He takes what it is. He says, now here are the things I want you to do, and these are the resources that allow you to do it. It's not like a business where we're making a profit. We're simply allowing God to control what we do. It's easier sometimes, you know, to ask people to come to church and buy a meal and give us six dollars for a meal instead of asking us to give six dollars for whatever we're trying to do. But that's the way the world really does things. If you want to, you know, have a good band program, you have a meal, and people come buy that, and money goes to support the band. And the kingdom of God is different, because God owns all of our money, and the way he does it, he says, I want you to give ten percent of what I give you back to me, and I will use it to do the work that I want to do. And our giving is a testimony to the fact we believe that everything in the world belongs to God. So what we always ask in here is not we want to raise a thousand dollars or ten thousand dollars, but when we take a mission offering, we simply say to you, would you sit down and say to God, what do you want me to give? And we don't try to raise money for the mission offering. We try to be obedient to God through the mission offering. And God's really blessed us because of that. You know, this time we had over $14,000 given to the foreign mission offering, $14,000. We didn't set a goal except to say, would each person just say to God, what do you want me to give? It's recognizing God is in charge. He gives us the money. We ask him, what of the money you've given us do you want back? And we give it, and we all can live, and yet we can have a good time. And yet we can't have money for the work that he's given us to do. This is the great testimony we have. When a church has financial problems, it says to the world, God has failed us. What a terrible thing to say. The fact is that God has made a promise. He would take care of us. And if we follow his rules, what he's asked us to do, there will always be enough money God asks us to do. We, on our side, just make sure that the things we do are things that God asks us to do. Then there will always be exactly the right amount. This is the way that we, in the New Testament, declare to the world that everything that is here, God owns. And everything that we need comes from God. And every need that we have is adequately met. This is the greatest witness that we can have to a world that is always in financial difficulties. If you know very many families, you can probably name on one hand the number of them that are not strapped for money. It's a big problem. See, in the kingdom of God, that's not supposed to be that way. And our management of money is the way by which we say, God owns everything. And if we follow his plan, he will provide every need. Because everything is his, he gives us what we need just to have, and we give what he asks back, and everything works exactly right. If God manages the universe the way he does, and the stars and the planets don't bump into each other, he should be able to manage human life with our financial circumstances so that we don't face disaster all the time. The heavens declare the glory of God, and our stewardship of finances declare the glory of God. Let's pray. We're so thankful for the wisdom you have about how we handle things. Teach us never to resent you asking for the first of everything we have, for it's all yours. Teach us never to be afraid of giving you the first and the best. Teach us always to be confident. Give us the kind of faith that allows us to live in obedience to you, that the world might know who you are, the power you have, the wisdom you have, and the way you live. Teach us not to be afraid of giving you the first and the best, for it's all yours. The world might know who you are, the power you have, the wisdom you have, and the provision you make. This is our witness to you and to the world. Amen.