We begin tonight in chapter 14 of Deuteronomy, verse 22. You know, by the way some preachers preach, you would think that this is the only verse they know, this is the only verse that they've committed to memory, because it's harped on all the time in many church services. "You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year." Giving is a biblical principle, there's no two ways about that. God doesn't own 10 percent, he owns 100 percent. He owns you. He lets you get by with giving him 10 percent, but God owns the rest of it.

The 10 percent is to serve a purpose: to keep the Levites going, and it was to keep the poor and the needy maintained, to keep the services of the tabernacle and the temple up to speed. But all that we have belongs to God. Yet, as much as that is true, I have often been accused of not preaching enough on tithing and I stand guilty gladly. There's a reason for that: I'm a biblical expositor; that is, I like to take a book and go through it, and deal with it paragraphically and homiletically and practically. And yet I like to do things in context, rather than waking up Sunday morning, and think, "You know, I think today I'm going to talk about tithing."

Or "You know, today I think I'm going to talk about the family." I like to talk about what God talks about, in his context, with the frequency with which God deals with it. So, if you teach through the Bible, you're going to teach absolutely every subject that is important to God. You'll deal with it in its context. You'll deal with it the way God deals with it. So when God talks about tithing, we'll talk about tithing. When God talks about the family, we'll talk about the family. When God talks about whatever God talks about, that's how we'll do it, then there's not an undue emphasis.

And when you teach that way, the preacher can't ride a hobbyhorse, some little pet thing that's just always on his heart, always on his mind, he's got to get it out every time he talks. It's best is to just let the Bible be the guide, let God emphasize what he has emphasized. So let it be written, so let it be done. When we first started our fellowship here in Albuquerque, I came into a town from California. I came into this town and I just had my ears opened. I listened. I listened to what people were saying about church, what they were saying about God, what they were saying about ministries.

And I soon discovered that being strategically located at the crossroads of America, I-25 and I-40, everybody and his brother and their pet blew through town in the name of the Lord, and set up a crusade or an evangelistic campaign or special service, and all of them asked for money. There's nothing wrong with supporting God's work. I'm all in favor of it. But I'd listen to people, and I'd say, man, you know---I'd listen to unbelievers especially. And usually their beef was, you know: "The one thing I hate about church, the one thing I hate about listening to Christian radio or Christian television, they're always asking for money."

The impression that it leaves with the unbeliever is that God is broke and that we support God; rather than God owns everything and God is the provider and he supports us. The message that the clergy, the evangelist, the media was giving to people is: "God can't make it without you. Poor God. God's in the poorhouse, would you please bail him out this week? Would you please make sure that his work is ongoing? God can't make it without you." So people thought, "Man, God's on welfare." [laughter] And I resented the fact that people had a misjudgment about the God of the Bible.

One family from our church told me of an evangelist that will be unnamed---not that all of you have heard of him, but some of you have---and he would come through town and he would take his offerings in trash cans. You know, he---not Colonel Sanders buckets, trash cans. He wanted them filled, and he told people that: "We're going to take an offering. I want these cans filled." And he'd harp about the offering and rant and rave on the platform. And this family at least had enough discernment to say, "This guy is whack hammer." And they got up, and they were in the back, and they just couldn't stand the fact that this guy was misrepresenting God and they walked out.

And this guy yelled out after them. He said, "You wouldn't leave a fine restaurant without paying, would you?" And had they thought, they would have said, "Well, I haven't been fed yet." But, you know, why be recalcitrant? Why not just vote with your feet? So they left. And I heard those kinds of stories, and so I thought, "You know what? I don't want to do that." Again, taking an offering, nothing wrong with that. Tithe is a biblical mandate in the Old Testament. In the New Testament it's far above and beyond the tithe, but that was the minimum. And the church that I come from in California and most of every church takes an offering, but there's nothing wrong with that.

And a church should never feel ashamed to take up an offering. It's biblical. It's scriptural. But because of the emphasis that so many placed on it I decided, you know what? I don't want to do that. And we had our Thursday night Bible study at the Lakes, people would come and say, "We want to give. You never take an offering." I said, "Well, you know, we don't have anything to give to. We don't have a way to keep a record of the funds, to distribute the funds. Don't worry about it." I just said, "Look, my friend and I will pay for the rent of this facility and for the coffee. Don't even sweat it, it's our gift."

But more people and more people started asking, so eventually we put up a little Folgers coffee can. And we took and cut a little hole in the lid and stuck it over by the coffee jar, over by the coffee carafe so that, you know, people would, you know, pay for the coffee at least. So they put in a buck or two or whatever. When we moved to a Sunday-morning format over here at the theater, which is now a bookstore not far from here, we were asked the question, "What are you going to do about taking an offering?" And some of the leaders were asking me, "Are we going to take an offering now on our first Sunday?" And so I thought about it and I got together with our small board of directors.

And they said, "You know, it would be a lot easier if we took an offering." And I thought about it and I said, "No. You know, we sort of set a precedent and God has been faithful. Let's just test the Lord in this. You know, it's worked so far." They said, "Yeah, but this is a bigger group. This is a theater now, it sits 250. The other thing sat 70, this will sit 250. How do we do it." I said, "Well, get two coffee cans, [laughter] one at one side, and one on the other. We'll get more." So we did. And I love telling the story. I told it this week in North Carolina to one of the board members who's a lawyer at a large church struggling for finances in Charlotte, North Carolina.

And he hears it and he goes, "Tell me that story again. How does that work?" [laughter] And then when we moved into our first building, again the leaders said, "No. I think we ought to take an offering." I said, "No. This time make boxes. We'll call them 'agape boxes.' It'll be like the boxes in the temple that were shaped like trumpets in the court of the women. And we'll just put a few of them in the church and as people feel led of the Lord they can give. We can make mention of them, but we don't even have to take up a formal offering. We can save that time and teach the Word in it and worship."

And so that's been our precedent, because we never wanted to be accused of---"You're just like the other radio or television or other church ministries always asking for money." We wanted to be free of that kind of an accusation. In fact, I've told people before, if you've given and you felt like it was out of, you know, "Gosh, they pressured me, and I shouldn't have given. You know, I could have bought that cool tape deck this week if I wouldn't have given that money that I gave to the church." Come see us, we'll give you a refund, because God doesn't need it if you give out of an impure motivation. Giving should be freely from the heart.

Now, the tithe was commanded in the Old Testament. It belonged to the Lord. It was taken off the top immediately. There was a tithe of the grain. There was the tithe that was given every two years to support the Levites. And then every third year there was another tithe to support the poor of the land. There were actually three tithes. It wasn't 10 percent; some scholars feel it was up to 30 percent of people's income. In the New Testament Paul said that we should not give out of constraint. "God loves a cheerful giver. Give as you purpose in your heart." People come to me and say, and they ask me, "How much should I give?" I say, "Don't ask me. I'm not God. What do you purpose in your heart?"

They go, "Well, I don't want to give anything." "Okay, if that's what you purpose in your heart, then that's what you should give." R. G. LeTourneau who started that big earth-moving equipment business, you see them right across the street some of those big pieces of equipment. He invented the whole idea of big-tired, engine, earth-moving equipment. R. G. LeTourneau was a believer. He was a Christian. He said, "Lord, I pray that you would prosper me in my business. I pray you'd bless me financially so much that I could give the money that you give to me back to you for your work." He started in a business venture and started giving 10 percent of his income.

As God continued to bless his work, he was a brilliant entrepreneur, he started giving 15 and 20 percent. At the end of his life he was making so much money, he gave 90 percent of everything he made to God's work and kept 10 percent. He turned the tables completely and just gave it all away. And still with the 10 percent he made so much. He just wanted to see God's work furthered. That's what he purposed in his heart. And so Paul said, "God loves a cheerful giver." In Greek the word is hilarious. I love that. That's how you ought to give, hilariously. "Lord, here's your money. Hoo! Hoo! [laughter] Use it, Lord."

Tithing was never to be seen as a burden, but as an expression of love, an expression of service, and as an expression of confidence. In other words, "I trust that though I am giving this away, God will add, God will provide, God will make sure that my bills are paid." Sometimes it is that step of faith. I've had people come to me and say, "I can't afford to give." And I'm not going to pressure them. I tell you what, though, I can't afford not to. Jesus promised, "Give and it will be given to you, pressed down, shaken together, overflowing, will men give into your bosom." In fact, it was the only time God said, "Test me," the only time God said, "I dare you, prove me in this."

It was with tithes and offerings. In Malachi 3 he asked a question: "Will a man rob God? Yet you, O Israel, have robbed me." "In what have we robbed you," they said. "In tithes and offerings," said the Lord. And then he said, "Now, prove me, test me in this, and see if when you give I will not open the storehouses of heaven and pour out upon you a blessing that you won't even be able to contain." So God said that he would. God will never be your debtor. You can't outgive God in anything: in time, in talent, in money. God will always bless. God will always take care.

"You shall truly tithe all of the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year. And you shall eat before the Lord your God, in the place where he chooses to make his name abide, the tithe of your grain and of your new wine, of your oil. And of the firstlings of your herds, your flocks, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always." Now this is the festival tithe. This is the tithe that they ate before the Lord. It was something that they weren't to sell or make profit on. It was something that was consumed in a very festive manner and in a celebratory manner. They were to rejoice and they were to do it at a specific place.

They weren't to go in the backyard and open the barbecue and invite a few friends, they were to go to the place where the tabernacle was erected, which was at Shiloh and later on in Jerusalem. And then the temple was built in Jerusalem. And so people would converge upon the city of Jerusalem for these feasts and they would celebrate. Now, at the same time God knew that for some people Jerusalem was far away. Today you can get on an airplane and be there in 24 hours. If you live in Israel, you can be there in a few hours by car, but back then you had to walk. Moreover, you had to go by caravan, because you had to take this produce to Jerusalem and it took several days.

There's a problem with that. For some it was just too long of a journey, they were feeble. For others because it was grain and some of it was fruits and vegetables, perishable items, by the time they got to Jerusalem the things would be rotten. So God has another plan. Verse 24, "If the journey is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, or if the place where the Lord your God chooses to put his name is too far from you, when the Lord your God has blessed you, then you shall exchange it for money, and take the money in your hand, go to the place which the Lord your God chooses.

"And you"---notice this---"you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires; you shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice." It's a command: be happy. I'm struck by that. In Deuteronomy over and over God gives the command through Moses to his people to rejoice whenever they worship him. "Oh, but church is to be solemn. Never smile. Never laugh." How boring. Rejoice in the Lord. You ought to be the most joyful people in this city. You've got everything to rejoice over. You've got every reason for joy. And the worship was to be filled with joy and rejoicing. It's to be happy.

"You shall not forsake the Levite who is within your gates, for he has no part nor inheritance with you. At the end of every third year you shall bring out the tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates. And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do." Proverbs 19 says, "He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord." And that you're not to mock the poor, because if you mock the poor, you're mocking God.

And God will take it personally and take up the cause of the poor and get after you. So, God's people are to be concerned about the poor. Remember Paul when he wrote to Galatians and he said, "I was checking with the church at Jerusalem and I wanted to go out and preach the gospel"? And they said, "Go for it"---I'm paraphrases it. "Go for it, Paul, but whatever you do, don't forget the poor, which very thing I was very eager to do," to care for the poor. It is a mandate of God's people to take care especially of their own. Israel was to take care of their own. If somebody was in their gates, even if they were a foreigner, but they came in the refuge of their community, they were to be taken care of.

And that's why we ask: hey, you got a box of cereal or a box of flour or canned goods? Bring it to the church. Put it in some of---not the agape boxes, but some of the big, huge boxes---you wouldn't fit it in the slot---the big boxes that we have. And we have a huge pantry over here on the west side. We've devoted a whole area of the church to a food pantry. In fact, Paul from McDonald's gave us this huge walk-in refrigerator and freezer. And I saw that, and I walked through his door one day. He goes, "Yeah, I'm going to get rid of it and give it to this guy or sell it to this guy." And I said, "I'll take it. I'll be a scavenger for God in this, if you're going to get rid of it. We can use it for our outreach to the poor."

He said, "Take it." So we set it up and now we can store perishable items, meat, and so forth. And people can come during the week to the church. They say, "I don't have groceries. I need something." "Come on in. We'd love to help you out." And then we're going to set it up downtown every week so people can come downtown as well. There'll be two locations they can come to, to get food and to be taken care of. Listen, God has just set us up with an organization, we'll be able to give. We'll be able to give out more than---well, we'll take in more than probably we will give out. We just hope that there will be that many people that can use it with all the stuff we're going to be able to take in and get it out to people.

So they were to do that within their own gates, that they may come and eat and be satisfied. And notice this: "That the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do." Again, God is saying, "You'll never be able to outgive me. I'll provide for you. Trust me. Give this tithe. Take care of the Levite who works in the tabernacle. Take care of the poor and the fatherless. I'll bless you. I'll take care of you." Sort of what Jesus said: "If you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness," what God wants you to do, "all these things will be added unto you." You say, "I don't know, that's scary." Try it. You want an adventure? Try it.

"At the end of every seven years," chapter 15, verse 1, "you shall grant a release of debts." Now this is wild. This is pretty awesome. The longest mortgage you could have in Israel was seven years, and there was no foreclosure. If you are unable to pay off your debt in seven years, at the end of seven years the debt was to be removed completely. In fact, if you had land that you had to get rid of so that you could pay off your debts, on the fiftieth year, the seventh marking of the seven-year periods, (forty-nine, plus one, fifty) the Jubilee Year, all of the land would revert back to its original family owner. You canceled the debts every seven years. Now, this brought equity.

This brought one-seventh of the time the rich and the poor, and landowner and the homeless, and put them on the same level for a seventh of the time. It wasn't a welfare state. It wasn't just a handout. It was for those who could not pay back their debt, to for a period of time put things on an even footing, and then business would go on as usual the next set of seven years. It was an equalizer of wealth. "And this is the form of the release: Every creditor who has lent anything to his neighbor shall release it; he shall not require it of his neighbor or his brother, because it is called the Lord's release. Of a foreigner you may require it; but your hand shall release what is owed by your brother."

They were to make a distinction between their Hebrew brethren and those who were not their brothers, not under the covenant of God. Now even Jesus talked about loving our brother. And he said, "By this shall all men know that you're my disciples, by the love you have one for another." Paul talked about "doing good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith." And so we're to take care of our own especially. So, "Of a foreigner you could require it; but your hand shall release what is owed by your brother, except when there may be no poor among you; for the Lord will greatly bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance---only if you carefully obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe with care all these commandments which I command you today.

"For the Lord your God will bless you just as he promised; you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; you shall reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you." Interesting: "You will lend." I have found it fascinating to look at history, history of the Jewish people and just see how God has given them, I think, a unique and God-given knack with finances. Now it's become a pun, it's become a joke, and almost a point of derision, but it's true. Some of the greatest bankers and financiers in the world have been Jewish. They, you know, look at how the Rothschilds have influenced the world and so many have been able to lend.

It's interesting, too, just to study of all the nations in the Middle East how prosperous Israel is, how the Jewish people from all over the world have contributed to that nation from America, from Europe, and poured money into that country. And how that country has just, you know, been a source of blessing even to the rest of world. God has put his unique hand upon them. But before we go on and---well, let's go on. Let's just do that, you know, we---let's go on. "If there is among you a poor man of your brethren, within any of the gates in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother, but you shall open your hand wide to him and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs.

"Beware lest there be a wicked thought in your heart." Boy, does God know us, or what? It's not just "thou shalt," "thou shalt not," but he says, "Now, I know what you could be thinking." "Lest there be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, 'The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand,' and your eye be evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing, and he cry out to the Lord against you, and it become sin among you. You shall surely give to him, and your heart should not been grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the Lord your God will bless you in all your works and in all to which you put your hand. For the poor will never cease from your land; therefore I command you, saying, 'You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy, in your land.' "

There would be that temptation. You got a poor brother in the land, a neighbor, you know, it's the sixth and a half year, and he says, "Man, I really need some money." You're thinking, "You know what? You can suffer for six months, because I know if I lend him this money, in six months, at the seventh year, at the end of this thing, I'll have to release the debt." And you'd be tempted to say, "Hey, man, just trust God." "I am trusting God, that's why I've come to you." "No." And the motivation for the no could be you don't want to release the money and give it freely; you might just have to give it completely away. Now this happened every seven years, six years business as usual, but the seventh year there was a release of the debt.

Interesting in the Bible how there is a pattern of six and one, six and one. There's a rest, there's a number of rests, there's a number of Sabbaths. I find it actually quite amusing to speak to those people who say that Christians ought to keep the Sabbath and worship on Saturday. The Seventh-day Adventists, the Seventh-Day Baptist, and there's some groups who are very, very pedantic and very legalistic about this. And they will say, "You gotta keep the Sabbath." And I love sort of to play along with the argument. "Really? We should keep the Sabbath?" "Yes." I'll ask them, "Do you keep it?" "Oh, yes, every Saturday."

I go, "Every what? There's not only a weekly Sabbath, there's a Sabbath every seventh year." What that means is if you own something, if you own a business, if you own land, on the seventh year you were to let that land lay fallow, rest it, not have any organized labor at all for a year. "You want a Sabbath? Fine, every seven years do nothing." Now, you know, frankly, that sounds pretty good. [laughter] That's what a sabbatical means, take a year off every seven years. Whatever would grow freely of itself, spontaneously, you could go out into the field and pick for yourself. Also the poor of the land, the homeless could find a field and go out anytime for that matter, but especially that seventh year.

You know, you're not harvesting, you're not organizing any labor force to go out and get the grapes, the crops, they just go out and pick them. Now Israel failed to do this, failed to keep the rest, failed to keep this year of release. And they did this, they sinned, for a period of 490 years, or 70 sets of Sabbaths they desecrated. They didn't release the debt. They didn't let the land lay fallow. So for 70 sabbath years, a total of 490 years, they sinned. God's response to their sin was to send them to Babylon in captivity for 70 years. They owed God 70 years. And for 70 years it says in the end of Chronicles, God let that land that they disobeyed him in lay fallow and have it Sabbath rest.

"So you really want to keep the Sabbath like that, huh? Have fun." Now in verse 11, perhaps you already had a little red light go off when I read it for the poor. Well, let's go back to verse 4, "Except when there be no poor among you; for the Lord will greatly bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance." Now verse 11, "For the poor will never cease from the land; therefore I command you, saying." You say, "There's a contradiction. I see a contradiction." No, you don't. You think God would be that lame to in a couple paragraphs say something that would be a contradiction? You think Moses would, you know, in writing that not have said, "Now wait a minute, God, you just said something and now you said the opposite"?

In verse 4 God is talking here about the release of the seventh year. And the idea is that you should release people's debt, so that no one remains in a continual condition of being poor. You release their debt every seven years. If you do that, no one in your land will permanently be poor. That's what that means. Now in verse 11 he's saying the poor generally will never cease from your land. Now that's one way to interpret that. The other way to look at that is God is saying, "If you obey me, you'll never have poor in the land." And then God says, "But you're always going to have poor in the land, because I know your heart. I know you're not going to completely obey me. The poor you will always have in your land."

Knowing their hearts, knowing their future, God could say this. That's another way to look at it. Of course, Jesus said the same thing in John, chapter 12, right? Remember Judas, he complained because he thought this woman was being very extravagant with a gift that she was using on Jesus. And Judas said, "You know, that money could have been taken and given to the poor." Jesus said, "Leave her alone; the poor you will always have with you, but me you will not always have," really reiterating and recapping this very verse. Now the law concerning bondservants; this is a really, really great portion of Scripture, and there's many lessons for us.

"If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. And when you send him away free from you, you shall not let him go away empty-handed; you shall supply him liberally from your flock, from your threshing floor, and from your winepress. From what the Lord has blessed you with, you shall give to him." The contract for the servant was this period of seven years. The seventh year was the year of release, he'd go free. I'll serve you for six, and then you'd been released on the seventh. Now, people went into slavery because they needed to pay off their debts.

They sold themselves to a master and they worked for that guy in order to pay off a debt that they owed. Maybe they were just---they didn't have credit cards to mess their lives up with, so they'd mess it up in other ways. And they'd get to a point where they had nothing left but themselves, their own work, their labor, so they would sell themselves into slavery. This wasn't because they wanted to, this was because they had to. Now it could be that after working for a guy for a period of time you think, "You know, I like him. He's fair. He's honest. He treats my kindly. And I've got a good setup. Chances are if I leave him and go out and start something and blow it again, I might get a horrible master. I'd like to perpetually be his servant."

You could become what was called a bondslave. You'd enter into a contract agreement with him. You'd say to him, "I like you so much, I want you to be my boss forever." That's being a bondslave. The first form of slavery is because you have to; the second is because you want to out of love, not out of poverty, but out of love. Let's see what happens. Verse 15, "You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this thing today. And if it happens that he says to you, 'I will not go away from you,' because he loves you and your house, since he prospers with you, then you shall take an awl," which is a sharp nail-like instrument, "and thrust it through his ear to the door."

You say, "That's horrible!" [laughter] Oh, come on, how many of you have earrings tonight? Some of you have already done this. Maybe not with an awl, but you've done it with some sharp instrument to put a piercing in your ear, to put a hole through your ear so that you could wear an earring---guys and gals. So, you know, don't be so taken aback by this. You're to do this in the ear at the door, "and he shall be your servant forever. Also to your maidservant you shall do likewise. It shall not seem hard to you when you send him away free from you; for he has been worth a double hired servant in serving you six years. Then the Lord your God will bless you in all that you do."

So you say, "You know what? I want to serve you forever." You put a hole through the ear and then they would usually put in something to keep that hole open, like an earring. The ear was opened and so they would wear the earring symbolizing "I'm a servant of this master." Just like a wedding ring says, "I'm married to this person," the earring would say, "I'm a servant of this master." By the way, that is what David meant in the psalms when he cried out to God and he said, "Oh, Lord, open thou mine ear." He didn't say, "I'm deaf, what did you say?" It meant, "Lord, I'm your servant, your willing bondservant. Put a hole in my ear. I'll serve you forever. I'll willingly serve you. Open my ear." It was to run it through with an awl figuratively.

By the way, this is our relationship to Jesus Christ, is it not? We're debtors because of our sin. We're poor in Spirit at first. He saves us willingly and then we become willing bondservants. "Oh, Lord, just use me in whatever capacity." Have you done that yet to God? Have you come, have you grown in grace to the extent where you said, "Absolutely, whatever you want from my life, that's what I want from my life. I want to be your servant forever. When you tell me to go to a place, to a country, to a city, I want to go. I'm your servant." You never know where God might take you. It's an exciting life to be a bondservant, and it's something that must be done willingly.

By the way, this is also a picture of Jesus Christ, right? He wasn't forced in coming to the earth. It says in Philippians, chapter 2, "He emptied himself and took upon himself the form of a servant," and went to the most shameful death, the death of the cross. And just as a servant in those days bore a mark on his body that he was a servant, Jesus bore marks on his body in terms of nail prints in his hands, feet, crown of thorns on his head, spear in his side. He bore the marks and I think he still bears the marks now of a willing servant of God by the crucifixion. For John in heaven sees the vision of the glorified Christ as "a Lamb that had been slain," bearing the evidence of being a servant to the point of death.

Verse 19, "All the firstborn males that come from your herd"---now beginning in verse 19 through chapter 16 God is giving brief regulations on functions that he wants them to do. He's basically saying, "I've got this place, it's a special place to me. It's the place that I've chosen to put my name in over all the places on the earth." It became Jerusalem eventually. "And at that place I want you to do certain things there." Beginning in this verse he tells what things he wants done in that place. "All your firstborn males that come from your herd and from your flock you shall sanctify to the Lord your God; you shall do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock.

"You and your household shall eat it before the Lord your God year by year in the place which the Lord your God chooses." So the owner could receive no benefit. You couldn't shear the sheep. You couldn't use the oxen to plow your fields. The firstborn was set apart. Why? What was so special about the firstborn? It was a reminder. In Egypt God protected and saved their firstborn in the tenth plague of Egypt, the last plague, by having the death angel pass over their houses saving the firstborn of Israel. God destroyed the firstborn of the Egyptians. And so now God claims the firstborn. It's a reminder: "The first, the best belong to me."

It could have no defect, it can have no blemish, the first and the best belong to the Lord. Notice how God puts it, verse 21, "If there's any defect in it, if it is lame or blind or has a serious defect, you shall not sacrifice that to the Lord your God." God knows his people. He really does. He know us. He knows that we love the path of least resistance and the path of most profit. He knows that we would be tempted to say, "Okay, I gotta give a lamb to God. Well, you know, I got this one that has a birth defect and a broken leg. I could never use it. It would never be profitable for me. Won't even make a good pet. I'll give it to God."

How much different is that from, "Boy, these things are all beat up and worn out, can't use them anymore, I guess I'll give it to the church. God can have it now that I've used and had the best use out of it." No. God says, "I want the best. No defect. No blemish. No spot. No castoff." Our service should be the best to God. The songs that we sing---how I thank God for our worship group. You know, they rehearse, and they listen to the harmonies, and they get the little musical parts, and the little da, da, da, da, da on the guitar, and the beat on drums, and all the little parts. They work so hard, because it's to God.

It's to be the best. Not to bring a sacrifice to God and just slap it on the altar: "Here's your sacrifice, God. See ya." It's to be meaningful. Give him the best of your time, the best of your effort, the best of your labor. You say, "Yeah, but I'm just so tired, I just can't." Rearrange your life then a little bit. Set some priorities. Make some choices. Do something radical maybe, and see what God does. Verse 22, "You may eat it within your gates; the unclean and the clean person alike may eat it, as if it were a gazelle or a deer. Only you shall not eat its blood," and we covered that already, "you shall pour it on the ground like water."

Now, God is going to talk about the feasts of Israel and we're going to touch on them. We've spoken about them already in the New Testament in the books of Exodus and Leviticus and in Numbers. And we get to them again, but, you know, I have a hunch that not all of you were here for Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. So it's a good thing that there is the repetition of the law in Deuteronomy, so that we can go through it. The observations are given, the feasts of the Lord: Passover in verses 1 through 8; the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost in verses 9 through 12; and beginning in verse 13 through verse 18 the Feast of Tabernacles is reviewed.

Now let me say this: there were a lot of different feasts, not just these, lots of them. But there were three feasts that were called "pilgrimage feasts." You know why? Because you had to make a pilgrimage, very good. You had to leave wherever you lived and you had to go to Jerusalem. This feast you had to pack up the camel and, you know, get the family aboard and gas it up and take it down to Jerusalem. You had to make the effort to be away from your home. You had to set up the business so that you could be gone from your neighbors. You had to do it in Jerusalem. These three feasts, especially the men were required to go to Jerusalem if they were in a certain proximity.

Again, there is this mandate to have a feast and a mandate to rejoice in the Lord your God. God is saying, "I'm going to command you to have a feast. I am going to command you to have a celebration here. So many of our forms of worship, you know, we can take the joy out of it. I tell you what, I think of Christmas. Our society has done more to destroy Christmas. I can prove it. Come November just start looking at the stress on people's faces. There's everything but rejoicing going on. Go in the malls, the only pseudorejoicing the world has at Christmas is when they're loaded, and they're forgetting about all the reality of what they have to pay off come January.

More and more I'm kind of---I don't like what we've done to Christmas. People feel compelled---"I gotta get those cards out. I gotta get those gifts." And you make the list, and you check it twice, and you go out and get it, and---"Did I forget anybody?" And, "Oh, will they be mad if I forgot them?" Man, why? How about just send them a note: "I love you." Call them up: "I'm praying for you. I'll be praying for you this week." That's a great gift. I understand your kids, you know, want stuff, but, you know, I even think of---after looking at all the Christmas cards I got this year, and a lot of them I even looked at how many were the same card, you know.

They obviously got them at the same store, and, you know, there's five, ten, twenty of them of the same card. And, you know, it's nice, it's wonderful, the words and so forth, but I'm even thinking of breaking the whole tradition and not even sending Christmas cards. I thought, how about Easter cards? The resurrection, nobody expects that. You know, everybody expects, you know---"Oh, Christmas cards from fifty relatives today. Great. How many tomorrow? Oh, thirty. Great." And you string them up. And you get one at Eastertime and nobody would expect it. It could be very meaningful. Or at Thanksgiving rather than Christmas.

So, I've been rethinking this whole Christmas stress thing and thinking, you know, you can go to the printer and get stuff printed around that time, you're not in line, nobody is at Easter or Thanksgiving getting a card done. So my wife and I, we usually go shopping for Christmas, not at Christmas, but in January, February, and through the summer. We see something, it's on sale, we get it for somebody. You know, listen, by October, November, there's not anything we have to buy for, or anyone. No stress, just enter in and rejoice. It's Jesus' birthday. What are we going to give him? Okay, rejoice. Three pilgrim feasts, first of all, Passover, observed in the month of Abib.

That's the first month, also called Nisan, not after the truck, but it was just called that. "Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. Therefore you shall sacrifice the Passover to the Lord your God, from the flock, from the herds, from the place where the Lord chooses to put his name." We're only going to make it to verse 8 tonight of this chapter, so we will talk about Passover and close. "You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, that is, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste)," in a hurry, "that you may remember the day in which you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.

"And no leaven shall be seen among you in all your territory for seven days, nor shall any of the meat which you sacrifice the first day at twilight remain overnight until morning." Passover was the deliverance. It's the great event that they retell year after year. It's the big E of the Jewish calendar. It celebrates the deliverance of the tenth plague. "God wiped out the firstborn. God took us out of Egypt. We're free, we're not slaves anymore." In fact, today it's the one feast that more Jews celebrate than any other feast in Israel. Ninety-two percent of all the Jews in Israel keep some sort of Passover seder every year in Israel.

Eighty-eight percent every year eat kosher foods and will not eat the forbidden foods during Passover. That's high compared to 44 percent who keep kosher most of the rest of the year, but it doubles to 88 percent during Passover time. Try to get a hotel room anywhere near Israel at Passover, good luck! They're all booked up. Jews come from all over the world to celebrate Passover in Israel. One time I was there for Passover, and it was only because I was living in the country at that time, and lived on a kibbutz. And it was exciting to see the excitement that they had to celebrate Passover. Again, this is one of the feasts that you had to come to Jerusalem for.

The minimum was one lamb sacrificed for ten people. And Josephus says that there were 256,000 lambs that were butchered one time for the Passover during one of the years he kept target of. So there was, you know, a couple million people that celebrated it. Tacitus the historian says that they counted one time over 3 million people that came to Jerusalem. Now Jerusalem today, well, the population of Jerusalem then was a few hundred thousand. So imagine what it would be like in Jerusalem when you have 3 million people. That's why people didn't stay in inns. You wouldn't want to stay in an inn back then anyway. They didn't have the Hyatt or the Holiday Inn.

The inns weren't holidays anyway back then, they were just rough places, and so people would stay with strangers. People would open up their homes and knowing that foreigners would come in from out of town: "Hey, stay at our house. Here's a bed for you and we'll take care of you for this week." When houses were taken, people would stay out in the Mount of Olives, and out at Bethany and Bethpage, and around the outskirts of the city, just sleep out under the stars. That's what Jesus would do with his disciples, or he would stay a little bit further out at the house of Lazarus, Mary, Martha. Anyway, it was a packed place. People would come from all over.

On the tenth of the month, the tenth of Abib, the tenth of Nisan the lamb was selected. You brought it home. The fourteenth day of the month you'd kill it, roast it, and eat it. Can you imagine how hard that would be. It'd be a lot easier the get the lamb on the fourteenth day and kill it the fourteenth day. But bringing a little lamb home, and having it around the house for a few days, getting used to it: "Oh, look at that cute little animal." The kids get attached to it, then to see the blood of that lamb shed, to see that lamb lose its life, and then to try to sit down and eat it.

A reminder of the fact that something else has been substituted to take your sin away, an innocent victim, a vicarious atonement, the atonement made by blood was the graphic reminder to the children of Israel. Now, we notice that they were to have no leaven in their bread. There were two feasts that constituted Passover season. There was the Passover feast formal that was called the chag/hag Ha-Pesach, that's the Pascal Feast of the Lamb. And then there was the chag Ha-Matzot, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, symbolizing the fact that they ate with haste in a great hurry, had to leave Egypt on the way to the Promised Land through the wilderness.

For seven days there was to be no leaven. A search for leaven went on prior to this time. Usually at night a candle was lit, you'd go through the house searching for leaven, opening up every cupboard, shaking every piece of clothing, taking every drawer and opening it up. Get rid of all the leaven, every crumb, every piece of bread. In fact, it was said that if a mouse ran across the house, the occupants of the house would, you know, get all upset because he might have a piece of leaven attached to him and bring a curse upon the house. It became ridiculous. It became so legalistic after a while. But the idea is remove the leaven from your land. So they would search for the hametz/chametz, the leaven.

They would get rid of it. Leaven is a symbol of evil. It's a symbol of sin. Jesus used it in the parables as such. I think we've talked about that enough. But they would eat, not leavened bread, but they would eat unleavened bread. And so at Passover you eat the matzah crackers. You don't eat Wonder Bread that's as spongy, but flat crackers. That's all you eat. And if you ever go to Israel and you're there that time, you can't get leavened bread. It ain't around. You have, you know, Manischewitz usually in this country, but there they bake it, square, flatbread with holes in it.

It's made a certain way, because according to Jewish law the process of kneading the dough to the time of baking, the completed act of kneading and baking it, has to take no longer than 18 minutes because that's when fermentation begins to set it. So there's a very exact process to get unleavened bread, and they still keep this to a tee. So they were to take the lamb, sacrifice it at "the place the Lord your God chooses." "And," verse 7, "you shall roast and eat it in the place which the Lord your God chooses, and in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents. Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, on the seventh day there shall be a sacred assembly to the Lord your God. And you shall do no work on it."

Now that's Passover. This new generation that Moses was speaking to needed to hear of the Passover just like we all need to always hear of our great Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ, who was shed for us. He's the center of church. Jesus is the center attraction of every meeting. Jesus Christ is to be glorified in our midst. The church is to be centered on him; everything else is peripheral. That's why we have communion often in remembrances of him, because it's that act of sacrifice upon the cross, his shed blood that brings us salvation. Never get tired of hearing the old gospel message. Never get tired of hearing the blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse a person from all sin.

And when somebody tries to be cute and clever and user-friendly, say, "Well, that's outmoded"---we know that people in the nineties don't take kindly to speaking about blood sacrifice---do what Charles Spurgeon said about those preachers. "Never go to hear them. There's no power in the gospel when you remove the sacrifice of Jesus Christ out of it." Let him be the center. That's why Peter called it the precious blood of the Lamb without spot and without blemish. "You were not redeemed," said Peter, "with corruptible things, like silver and gold, and those things you receive from tradition of your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, a Lamb without spot, a Lamb without blemish."

A perfect Lamb substituted for you so that you might have everlasting life. And you don't have to bring the lamb once a year. You don't have to bring a little lamb home and coddle it and get to know it and have the kids pet it and then kill it and eat it. You can just apply the once and for all shedding of Christ's blood to your life. That's how we're saved. The Passover spoke of the ultimate Passover. That's why Jesus at the Passover with his disciples said, "Take and eat; this is my body, shed for you for the remission of sins. This is the blood of the new covenant, shed for you; do this often in remembrance of me."