Community Service

Introduction:

The past few weeks we have looked at several of the offerings that were presented to the Lord from the perspective of the worshiper. Now we are going to look at these same offerings from the perspective of the priest who offered them.

We see some of the same themes emerge in each of these sacrifices, so we are going to summarize them tonight by looking at what it means to be in fellowship with God. The priests were critical and performed a community service as they mediated between the worshiper and God.

We are called to be these mediators now. We are to take people to Jesus and let Him heal these people around us, including ourselves.

1. Be Devoted to God Morning and Evening (6:8-13)

As we go through these sacrifices, I’m not going to read every verse in order to make sure we can cover everything for time’s sake, but let’s do point out a few key verses.

In verses 8-9 we read,

Leviticus 6:8–9 ESV

8 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 9 “Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the burnt offering. The burnt offering shall be on the hearth on the altar all night until the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be kept burning on it.

And again in verses 12-13,

Leviticus 6:12–13 ESV

12 The fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it; it shall not go out. The priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and he shall arrange the burnt offering on it and shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings. 13 Fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it shall not go out.

Remember that here we are talking about the burnt offering that represented complete devotion to God. This is the type of offering that Samson’s mother offered whenever she was told she would give birth to Samson and he was to be devoted to the Lord all of his life.

This offering was to always be burning on the altar. It represented always being devoted to the Lord.

That is what life should be like for us as believers. We should do everything, whether in word or deed, unto the Lord.

Application:

Do you seek to serve God everyday, morning and evening?

Do you live your life in complete devotion to the Lord?

2. Give Thanks for God’s Blessings (6:14-18)

Another offering that Samson’s mother offered up when she was told she would have a child was the grain offering. Remember that this offering signified giving thanks to God for His blessing. Samson was considered a blessing from God. He would save his people from their oppression.

Not only did this sacrifice show the blessings of God on the people, but it also served to help supply the provisions for the priests. We should want to be a blessing to others. God uses our abundance to provide for the needs of others.

I was listening to a message by Jon Courson on this passage and he pointed out that as you serve the Lord you get fed. Think about that for a minute.

What does a priest do? A priest serves God on behalf of people and serves people on behalf of God. So the priest is a mediator. Now, we are called a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. We are supposed to be doing the same thing the priests did. As they served, they ate of the offering.

So when we serve God, we get fed spiritually. That is what Jesus said when the disciples went to find bread and he was left to speak to the Samaritan woman. When they came back, Jesus said that He had food they knew nothing about.

We have a lot of blessings in our lives that we often fail to give God credit for. We need to learn to be thankful in our lives for what God has given us. We need to serve God and minister to people and when we do, we will be fed and filled. Our soul will be satisfied!

Would you consider yourself a thankful and grateful person?

3. Dedicate Yourself to the Lord (6:19-22)

The next set of instructions are new to us. They are instructions for the ordination offering. We will look at this a little closer next week, but the call was for the priest to be devoted to the Lord.

The priests were prepared for a purpose. They had a job to do. You and I also have a job to do. We have been prepared for a purpose. Our purpose is to glorify God. It is to enjoy fellowship with Him. But it is also to share Jesus with others.

4. Live Holy Before the Lord (6:23-30)

Sin separates us from God. Remember that God is holy. God does not allow sin to be in His presence. When we go through all of these rituals and rules, we are confronted by the fact that we are sinful and God is holy.

Some of the things that we are going to be looking at later are is that there are statuses of clean and unclean. Some of the things that can make you unclean are normal everyday things in life that we can’t avoid. These laws are designed to make us stop and consider how different God is from us.

But in these sacrifices that we are looking at tonight, we realize that sometimes we sin and it is something that we could have avoided. We disregard God’s law and just go off and do our own thing. This is sin that must be repented of in order for us to return back to fellowship with the Lord.

Blood was required to make atonement. But we also notice a few other interesting things with this offering. Look down in verses 27-28.

Leviticus 6:27–28 ESV

27 Whatever touches its flesh shall be holy, and when any of its blood is splashed on a garment, you shall wash that on which it was splashed in a holy place. 28 And the earthenware vessel in which it is boiled shall be broken. But if it is boiled in a bronze vessel, that shall be scoured and rinsed in water.

The earthenware vessel had to be broken and the bronze had to be scoured. Why? It all had to do with the blood.

The blood was considered holy and none of it could leave the sanctuary, so the vessels were scoured if they could be and broken if they were earthenware because it could absorb some of the blood.

These two means may represent being broken by God vs being cleaned by scouring.

5. Fulfill Your Vows to the Lord (7:1-10)

6. Enjoy Fellowship with God (7:11-18, 28-36)

Conclusion: