GOATS of the Bible

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- Written at the base of Mount Sinai,

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Leviticus is set in between

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the Israelites' rescue from slavery

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and their deliverance into the Promised Land God set for them.

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They were literally camping between stops on their journey.

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On the surface, Leviticus might look like

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a collection of laws that no longer apply,

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but it's really a story of God pursuing

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His most beloved creation, us.

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Since the beginning, God has always wanted

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a relationship with His people,

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but they consistently turn their backs on Him,

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just like us.

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To make matters worse, their beliefs

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about God's character were being hijacked

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by the popular culture surrounding them,

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just like us.

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Today, like the Israelites, everyone is moving

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from something and towards something else.

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It's easy to look at the strictness

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of the Old Testament, the rules, wars and the brutality,

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and think that God is different than the one we worship.

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Leviticus actually proves the opposite.

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If God is anything,

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He's consistent in His pursuit of His people.

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Leviticus helps bring the Old Testament

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and New Testament together as it holds some of

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the deepest revelations about God's character

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and His intense pursuit of us.

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- Good morning. Welcome to Crossroads.

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Welcome to my two new friends, Elvis and Beyonce.

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Everyone welcome them to Crossroads.

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Yeah, we're going to talk about goats today.

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Not the greatest of all time.

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Not the actual Beyonce or not Tom Brady.

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We're talking about goats

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because in the book of Leviticus,

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which we're spending some time on,

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there is quite a good mention about goats.

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Specifically, there's two mentions

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I'm going to look at today.

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There is one time a goat gets slaughtered.

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We're going to do that today.

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And then -- [laughter]

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And then there is a second time

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where a goat is sent out of the camp.

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It's what we know as the scapegoat.

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We're going to talk about these things

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and how these things in the book of Leviticus

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are critical, in fact, I say this,

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you really cannot understand Jesus

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unless you understand the book of Leviticus.

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And that's the problem, most of us

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don't understand the book of Leviticus.

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We just judge it as this out of touch book

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that's archaic and seemingly pagan almost.

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But really it holds depth to our faith.

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So, I'm going to -- I'm going to bring --

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I'm going to bring one of you guys back out later.

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But for now, we're going to go back to Farmer Rob.

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Everyone, welcome for Farmer Rob.

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Come on, Rob, Come on.

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Let's bring your bring your children out here.

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There we go.

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I'll see you in just a little bit.

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Because one thing is, I know for sure,

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I can't compete with goats.

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You're not going to listen to anything I say.

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He's got at goat up there.

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Let's pray before I get into this any more.

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Lord, you are -- You are good to give us today.

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And you're good to give us, actually,

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the book of Leviticus, this book that has been judged

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and has been confused and has been actually slandered

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in many ways, just because we don't know any better.

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I'm asking you help us to see it, in not just the book,

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but we want to see your character

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in this ancient manuscript.

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I want to see you and I want people to sense you today.

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Lord, help me to fulfill that call.

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And I pray these things according to the character

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and identity of Jesus. Amen.

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The Book of Leviticus gets very, very judged.

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We're confused by it. We don't like it.

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It says things that we should do in there

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that we don't understand why we should do it.

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It's got a bunch of seemingly barbaric things in it,

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like animals that are sacrificed

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and a whole bunch of other things.

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And we have to recognize that here in America,

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we've been trying to improve as a nation

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of not judging other cultures that are our own.

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Not assuming that my culture is better than your culture,

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whether that's a whitest skin tone or a brownish skin tone,

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in America, assuming things of the other culture

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or our culture assuming that my culture is better

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than yours in another country,

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we're trying to recognize --

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we are recognizing greater that no culture is the best culture.

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And yet what we do is we look down on cultures

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that aren't ours, specifically the ancient culture.

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Like, it's okay to not judge other cultures,

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but we're all okay with judging this ancient culture

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in the book of Leviticus, which is a communal culture.

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All ancient cultures are communal cultures.

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Current cultures, many current cultures

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in undeveloped parts of the world are communal cultures.

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This is to say and recognize that we have to

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deal with this thing as a whole

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versus all about the rights of the individual,

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all about what I personally want.

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Many of us become Christians.

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You become a Christian.

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You're not born a Christian, you become a Christian.

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There's a moment where you receive Christ in your life,

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where you ask for forgiveness,

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where you get the Holy Spirit.

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There's a moment when that happens.

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You're not just born that way.

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And what we've done in America is made this a personal thing.

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My personal walk with God.

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Jesus died for me.

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And this -- there is an element of a person.

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God does know you personally,

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but Jesus didn't die for you.

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He died for the church. He died for a community.

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God is rising up a people.

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God's agenda is not you.

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I'm sorry to bust your bubble.

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You think that everything in the world

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is supposed to revolve around you

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and God supposed to revolve around you.

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So therefore, when you have any problems or pain,

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who am I going to blame?

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Blame God because things aren't going well for me.

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It's not about you. It's not about you.

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The Book of Leviticus explains this over and over again,

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because it's about the community,

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the community coming together and connecting with one another.

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We've got to get outside of our personal spirituality,

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get out of our culture of my personal spirituality,

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and get into the Bible's culture,

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which is about communal spirituality,

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which is also about a spirituality

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that isn't about our emotions.

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We say, "Well, I'm a very spiritual person."

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What that generally means is it's private,

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it's to me, and I have spiritual feelings

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and you can't question them.

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It's who I am.

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That's not the Bible's understanding

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of spirituality at all.

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In fact, for our form of spirituality in America,

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if I feel guilty, then you're doing something wrong

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because you're making me feel guilty.

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Today don't be surprised if you find yourself

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toggling back and forth between two emotions:

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guilty and grateful. Guilty and grateful.

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And I'm not going to make you feel guilty,

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but God may make you feel guilty.

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Whenever you feel guilty, you have to ask yourselves,

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you have self question, "I feel guilty. Am I guilty?"

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The book of Leviticus is very clear that we are all guilty.

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And in the midst of all these sacrifices,

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it gives us the gratitude, the gratefulness

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that God has made a way for me

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not to be stuck in my pity party of guiltiness.

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That He has gratefully and mercifully made a way

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for me to deal with my problems in my issues.

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Let's take a look at Leviticus 7:1, it says this:

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So there was a guilt offering.

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There was sacrifices for the guilt

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of the people of Israel, of the community of Israel.

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And they would take that animal, as we mentioned last week,

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they take that animal and they put it on top of the altar

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and you would put your hands on that animal

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and then the priest would kill that animal,

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which again, is very difficult for us to understand today

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because we're like the first generation

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in the history of the world that if you eat protein,

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you've probably never killed anything.

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That's really weird.

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Like no ancient people group would have ever thought

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you could feed yourself and not kill something.

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And if you're a vegetarian, it's really weird

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that no ancient people would ever thought you could

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actually eat by just buying food from somebody else.

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You would have to actually grow it yourself.

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We are so removed from the basic sustenance of life

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that we haven't killed anything to eat,

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we haven't grown anything to eat.

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We haven't weeded anything to eat.

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We haven't picked anything to eat.

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We don't understand all these offerings because

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our culture is making it actually difficult

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to understand God,

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because God was speaking to an ancient culture,

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communal cultural, where all of these things were normal.

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So when I bring out goats, like I just did

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when Elvis and Beyonce were here,

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all of you went, like, "Aww."

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That's a 20th century American thing.

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No ancient people go aww. [laughter]

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They would go, "I am hungry right now." [laughter]

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I mean, they would look at us,

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"You're aww-ing an animal?

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You're coo-cooing an animal? Goo?

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What is wrong with you people?"

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That is the entire history of the world,

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every corner, every time zone

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and still by the 20th century.

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So our cultural sensibilities

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really aren't spiritually sensible.

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And so when we look at this passage

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about our guilt offering, and I feel I recognize

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that I've done things wrong

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and there's things that are sacrificed,

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things that are killed, which they would always

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be around all the time.

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But now it's not about me eating,

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it's about me recognizing

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I'm transferring my guilt onto that animal.

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And as that priest, as that priest is cutting,

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cutting jugular veins and all that kind of stuff,

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he's getting bloody and he's got blood on his hands.

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And it says there in Leviticus 7,

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by the way, this is the Bible, this is not theater.

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This is the Bible.

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It's one of the reasons

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why you actually don't understand the Bible.

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You just breeze right over it.

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The phrase "We have blood on our hands,"

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this is where this comes.

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The priest would have blood on his hands.

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It would be representing the guilt

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and the sin of your life and my life.

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And then it would say

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to just get it on the sides of the altar.

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That's what I read there in Leviticus 7.

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Put it on the sides of the altar.

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So you'd have this altar that has blood stains all over it,

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reminding people of the problems in their life

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and in our life.

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A number of years ago,

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there was a really well known preacher,

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at least well known in my circles,

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who gave a sermon that passed through Crossroads for a while.

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I'm talking this is like 20 years ago.

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And it was -- and what it was it said --

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He said, "How much is your sin going to cost me?"

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See today we think that everything

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is just a personal choice that we make.

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We miss out on the communal nature of our decisions.

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We say, "Well, you know,

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it's only wrong if it's hurting somebody.

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If it's hurting somebody, then it's wrong."

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Well, okay, what's that defined by?

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Hurting somebody like shedding somebody's blood,

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or if you're emotionally hurting somebody,

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does that count?

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We think that our issues are our issues,

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but the Bible teaches that our issues are our issues.

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There's a communal issue to this.

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And so this was all done in community because

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they recognize your sin affected my sin.

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And as a pastor, it does.

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I mean, I've done all kinds of counseling

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with folks over the years.

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I've had church discipline situations,

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we've got to discipline somebody in the church.

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The most frequent level of pain is somebody

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you're actually paying on staff

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who gets out of line and wreaks havoc.

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And you've got to deal with that because of their sinfulness.

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This is not their mistakes.

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This is not your mistakes or my mistakes.

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Their sin.

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Sin is the things that we do to turn the stomach of God

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that God doesn't like, God doesn't want.

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We don't even want to say that word sin.

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When's the last time you heard a politician say sin?

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Probably never.

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The most a politician will say was,

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"Well, mistakes were made.

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Not by me. They were made.

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I can't even tell you what it is.

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It was mistakes, kind of, like, the wrong punctuation

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or something like that."

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No, it's sin.

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It's a grievous offense to the heart of God.

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It affects everybody.

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And we don't like to see that it affects everybody.

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When I leave the toilet seat down, it affects my wife.

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Up. Excuse me.

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Well, no, both ways, actually.

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Sometimes it's down and I'm just lazy

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and I just leave it the way it was and I leave.

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You know what I'm saying?

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While we're just getting real at it,

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up, down, whatever it is, that affects.

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That's a choice that I made that affects her.

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What was the last year, Adele?

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Adele came in and she had had that new special

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with Oprah releasing the album, which is awesome.

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Isn't Adele amazing?

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Her voice, her creativity, her, all that stuff.

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Just, just fantastic.

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And she was very open and vulnerable.

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And I'll just evaluate her words.

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If you saw that special,

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she had gotten a divorce from her husband.

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They have a son together.

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And she said, "I just hope that my son grows to --"

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See, she felt horrible about having a divorce.

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Her husband was a good man.

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So she said no fair, no, nothing like that.

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She said, "I just hope and trust that my son

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will come to see that I was trying to make myself happy

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and he'll understand that."

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What was she saying there without saying it?

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She said, "I sinned by having a divorce

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and my son is paying for it right now

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because he feels crappy.

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There's no kid,

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no kid who wants mom and dad to be divorced.

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None. Not a single one.

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Those of you had your parents divorce you or divorce,

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you know, you know that.

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That doesn't mean, by the way,

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that divorce isn't sometimes the right action.

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The Bible gives some leeway for it.

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But we all know a situation where that was the case

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and maybe it was yours, where it wasn't just you,

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between you and God.

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It affected a lot, a lot of people.

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I'm not trying to make you feel guilty,

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but you may be guilty.

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Have you ever wrestled with that?

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Our sin affects everyone.

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Our sin affects the community.

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And how do we deal with our sin,

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how do we deal with the blood on our hands?

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That's the beauty of the book of Leviticus

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and the beauty of Jesus.

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He gives us an out.

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Instead of internally navel gazing over and over

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and over again all about all our problems,

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all the ways that we've come up short, doing that over.

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Because there's probably two extremes in here.

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There are some of us who look internal

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and beat ourselves up over and over and over

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and over and over again and can't get over it.

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And then there's some of us who refuse to look inside

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and we just mouth the spiritual, flowery phrases of our days

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and refuse to allow ourselves to take any responsibility

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or see that we have problems or see that we have sin

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and recognize we actually need a Savior,

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we actually need saved.

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And the Book of Leviticus drives this home to us

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over and over again.

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Our decisions, our sins always affect others.

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They always affect culture.

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They always have and they always will.

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And that's why inside of community,

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these sacrifices take place.

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When we choose to take a paycheck

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and not give the amount of time

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that our employer is paying us, that is sin.

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It's sin, and it robs our employer,

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robs shareholders, or robs our other people

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who are in our business,

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because now they've got to do more.

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When we -- as the very controversial Elon Musk

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said a couple months ago, he said,

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"If you choose to not work from home,

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those of us who are working from home,

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are we working the same amount of time

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that we would work when we worked inside of an office?"

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Maybe you are. I don't know.

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But between us and God and seeing that

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as a spiritual issue, that's not a financial issue.

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That's not a business issue.

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It's a spiritual issue of not stealing from our employer.

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We all get frustrated with things in our world.

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What's our response to it?

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We all get frustrated when we go to Olive Garden

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and she won't give us bread sticks to go.

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Why won't you give us breadsticks to go?

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Because that's the policy.

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But when I feel entitled that I should have breadsticks

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even outside of this place,

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even though it's not part of the buffet anymore

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and the endless soup and salad and I get an attitude,

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it's because I'm selfish, it's because I'm sinful,

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it's because I think I'm entitled.

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It's because I think that

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everything actually revolves around me.

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And so once a year, once a year,

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they would take one of these goats

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for the communal guilt and they would sacrifice it.

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Let's read about it in Leviticus 16:15.

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This is for the people, for the community.

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Here we have the toggle switch

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is going to flick back and forth

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between guilt and gratitude.

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Guilty and grateful.

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I told it's going flick maybe back and forth for you.

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We see both of this in this passage.

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So this is a goat.

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The goat is actually slaughtered.

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And then what happens in this specific offering,

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the priest doesn't splash it on the sides of the altar.

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He goes back in the Holy of Holies,

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back behind the curtain, and there is the mercy seat.

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The mercy seat was the golden lid

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on the top of the Ark of the Covenant.

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Ark of the Covenant is what held the law of God

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when Moses came down with the Ten Commandments

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and the Law of God from the top of Mount Sinai

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and put them inside of this Ark of the Covenant.

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He would take his bloody hands

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and would go back on the lid of this,

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which was known as the Mercy seat.

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He would sprinkle the blood on top of the mercy seat.

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Why is it called the mercy seat?

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It's because these people were recognizing

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that God is having mercy on me because I feel guilty

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and I know if someone offended me

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the way I've offended God

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and I had the power to eliminate their life,

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I would eliminate their life.

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And God has the power and He hasn't eliminated his life

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because He's passing it over.

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And I'm so grateful for Him because He's a merciful God.

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He's so good, He's so merciful.

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And they sprung this blood on the mercy seat

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because they never wanted to forget God is mercy

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because us in our unenlightened culture

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that's out of touch with reality

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just sees the blood and the gore,

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where the ancient culture would see the mercy of God.

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Because I deserve to be slaughtered

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and I have my spiritual sensibilities

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recognizing that I have a problem.

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And yet God chooses to pass over my problem

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and take it out on another animal

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and remind me that He's gracious and He's merciful

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and He's not taking my life right now,

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the same way that I would take vengeance

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on people who have actually hurt me.

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Now, here's a bit of the problem with this

00:21:07

as we talk about this.

00:21:09

All of this stuff with all this blood

00:21:12

is foreshadowing Jesus.

00:21:17

All of this stuff is going to go away.

00:21:20

And it was always God's plan for all to go away.

00:21:23

He was using the cultural context of the time

00:21:26

to help them to understand that ultimately

00:21:28

there's going to be one sacrifice for sin,

00:21:30

one Lamb of God.

00:21:32

His name is going to be Jesus.

00:21:34

And when I start unpacking this for you in just a moment,

00:21:37

you're going to see, wow, you really can't understand

00:21:40

the sacrifice of Jesus, what He's done for us

00:21:43

unless you really understand the sacrifices

00:21:45

inside of the Book of Leviticus.

00:21:47

And here's the thing, people in Leviticus

00:21:50

and people today who have received Jesus

00:21:53

and have His sacrifice for ourselves

00:21:55

because I recognize that God is good.

00:21:58

He's poured out His wrath and the justice on Jesus

00:22:04

instead of on me for the rest of eternity.

00:22:07

And if you understand this, you can game the system.

00:22:11

And many people do game the system,

00:22:13

or at least they try to game the system.

00:22:15

And if you try to game the system,

00:22:18

then the communal threads of attachment,

00:22:21

they break down again.

00:22:24

Because God is about restoring community,

00:22:26

community to you and I and community to Him, us to Him.

00:22:30

And there's three things that have to happen

00:22:32

for there to be this full forgiveness

00:22:34

or the big word would be restitution for the --

00:22:38

for the relationship to be restored.

00:22:41

Restitution is something that you do

00:22:43

to restore the relationship.

00:22:46

One thing we have to do is we have to acknowledge it.

00:22:50

Acknowledge it.

00:22:51

That's why the phrase mistakes were made

00:22:54

is always just so disheartening, because it shows

00:22:57

that you're not really acknowledging

00:23:01

how tough things really are.

00:23:03

You're just saying the nice thing

00:23:05

to get off the hook.

00:23:10

Hebrews 10:26-29 says this:

00:23:36

So you can game the system.

00:23:38

You think you game the system

00:23:40

by you and I living however we want to live

00:23:42

and go, "That's okay. That's okay,

00:23:44

because the sacrifice is coming.

00:23:46

I'll put all the stuff on that goat.

00:23:47

It'll be fine. That's okay. It's okay.

00:23:49

I can live my life the way I want to

00:23:50

because Jesus died from my sin, so He's going to make it okay.

00:23:53

He's going be fine. That's okay. That's okay.

00:23:55

I can really do anything I want."

00:23:57

This is my experience in high school

00:23:58

as I toggled back and forth between

00:24:00

believing God and not believing God.

00:24:03

And I would never believe --

00:24:04

it was always one or the other.

00:24:06

I was always, like, in on God or not in on God.

00:24:09

I never understood people who are in the middle.

00:24:12

Like, when I was out on God.

00:24:14

When I was out, I was out. Out.

00:24:18

So Friday and Saturday night was out, out, out, out.

00:24:23

And then Sunday I was still out on God.

00:24:26

Where friends of mine,

00:24:27

they thought they'd game the system.

00:24:28

They'd be doing exactly what I did on Friday

00:24:30

and on Saturday.

00:24:32

And then Sunday they had a religious experience.

00:24:34

They would go to church

00:24:35

and have the religious experience

00:24:36

and they would be cleansed.

00:24:38

"Oh, I'm good because I just went to church. I'm good."

00:24:41

No, no understanding,

00:24:43

no motivation to do anything different.

00:24:45

But they felt like, "I'm good because I did this,

00:24:47

because I did the religious thing on Sunday morning.

00:24:49

I'm good. I'm good. Woo hoo."

00:24:51

No, you're not good. They're not good.

00:24:53

You're actually what Hebrew says,

00:24:55

"You're trampling under your feet the blood of Jesus."

00:25:00

Jesus shed His blood for you on a Cross

00:25:03

and you're ignoring it.

00:25:04

You're just using it as a get out of jail free card

00:25:06

and living your life however you want to live

00:25:08

and walking, you know, not only blood on your hands,

00:25:11

you have blood on your feet.

00:25:14

Blood is on your feet because you just walk right over.

00:25:17

You have no intention of fully giving your heart to Christ,

00:25:20

no intention of completely honoring Him.

00:25:25

Hebrews tell us this is not good.

00:25:27

This is very, very unhealthy.

00:25:30

We have to acknowledge, acknowledge where we are

00:25:34

right now and acknowledge

00:25:36

the unique, specific sins we've committed.

00:25:41

When I was out, I was out.

00:25:43

And one thing I was always out in high school, actually,

00:25:46

I was always out on studying.

00:25:47

I was all out on that.

00:25:49

It just never appealed to me.

00:25:51

Wasn't going to do it.

00:25:52

Especially, why would anybody waste

00:25:54

all that time studying when there's this

00:25:57

beautiful invention called cheat sheets?

00:25:58

I never understood that in high school,

00:26:01

especially in biology.

00:26:03

Because there's all these equations

00:26:04

and formulas you've got to do.

00:26:06

So where I was at that point in my life is, like,

00:26:09

"No, I'm just going to do a cheat sheet."

00:26:10

So, go into my test in biology

00:26:13

and I got my cheat sheet there

00:26:15

and I'm trying to figure out these equations.

00:26:16

I'm trying to look at it.

00:26:18

And my biology teacher, Mr. Burlbaugh, comes down to me.

00:26:21

He takes his student handbook

00:26:22

and he throws it on the desk.

00:26:24

I'm going, "What's going on here?"

00:26:25

Open up the student handbook

00:26:27

and inside he's got outlined in red

00:26:30

the policy for if a student is caught cheating.

00:26:33

And it says there will be automatic F,

00:26:36

on and on and on and on.

00:26:37

He has written down I saw the cheat sheet under your thigh.

00:26:44

I freaked out, right?

00:26:45

I don't know, what's -- if I fail?

00:26:47

I don't -- I don't want to fail.

00:26:48

What's this mean to all kinds of stuff?

00:26:50

My future, does it mean I'm not going to graduate?

00:26:52

I'm just kind of freaking out, right?

00:26:54

So after class, I go up and I, "What was it."

00:26:57

He said, "I saw it. I saw it." He was very stern.

00:26:59

I was like, okay.

00:27:00

I come out, I'm freaked out about

00:27:01

the thing that happened, the whole thing.

00:27:03

So I did what any person would do

00:27:07

who was in my situation,

00:27:08

who was in the current spiritual condition I was in,

00:27:11

I went home and I got my M-80s

00:27:13

and I blew up his mailbox.

00:27:17

And I went on with my life. [laughter]

00:27:25

About 20 years ago, God started to deal with me on this,

00:27:30

started to deal with me on this because I thought about it,

00:27:32

then when I came to Christ,

00:27:34

I started turning away from stuff.

00:27:36

I wasn't doing those things anymore,

00:27:39

but I recognize there were things that I had done

00:27:43

that I need to acknowledge and I make restitution for.

00:27:46

See, this is when it gets really, really real.

00:27:48

When you don't have a heart for God

00:27:52

and you don't have a heart for His ways,

00:27:54

you'll ask for forgiveness all day long

00:27:55

because it's just kind of your out.

00:27:57

But when you really want God

00:27:59

and you're blown away by His mercy,

00:28:02

you're blown away by His mercy,

00:28:05

you just do things other spiritual people won't do.

00:28:11

Just like, "Man, I need to make this right."

00:28:15

So I wrote Mr. Burlbaugh a letter.

00:28:17

I confessed my sin to it.

00:28:18

I acknowledged my sin to him.

00:28:21

And then I did some quick math.

00:28:22

And I felt bad, like, gosh, having your property blown up,

00:28:27

violated, that just feels like a violation.

00:28:30

Let alone I must have wasted a whole weekend

00:28:32

of his life having to go get concrete,

00:28:34

having to go buy, he had to have financial costs

00:28:36

to buy a new mailbox and figured out the post

00:28:38

and install, all that stuff.

00:28:40

So I figured out how much the materials

00:28:42

probably would have cost.

00:28:43

Then I forecasted forward, like, with interest,

00:28:46

how much would be interest for restitution.

00:28:49

And I sent him a check for it.

00:28:51

And then he sent me a really nice letter back

00:28:55

and he just talked to me about what had happened.

00:28:59

And he said he forgave me.

00:29:01

I found out he was a believer.

00:29:03

It's pretty awesome, really awesome that he handled that.

00:29:05

I've done that sort of thing a lot.

00:29:11

Because I sin a lot.

00:29:12

Now, I'm not blowing up mailboxes anymore. [laughter]

00:29:16

There's people at Crossroads

00:29:17

I've wanted to blow up your mailbox.

00:29:18

Let me tell you, if I knew where you lived.

00:29:20

Actually, I guess I do know where you live.

00:29:22

We have a database here.

00:29:26

But I still regularly have to acknowledge

00:29:29

the things that I've done.

00:29:31

And I've got have accountability.

00:29:34

I acknowledge it and take accountability.

00:29:37

Hebrews 12:14 tells us to strive to be at peace with everyone.

00:29:43

How do you strive to be a peace again?

00:29:45

Hebrews is interpreting in the New Testament

00:29:48

what the ancient Hebrews in the Book of Leviticus

00:29:50

had to live through.

00:29:52

The way we strive to be at peace

00:29:54

is we take accountability.

00:29:55

We make it right, however we can make it right.

00:29:59

When I gossip about somebody,

00:30:01

I've hurt their reputation.

00:30:03

When I cancel somebody

00:30:05

and I participate in cancel culture,

00:30:08

I've hurt their livelihood.

00:30:10

We really are allowed to detonate

00:30:12

somebody's livelihood for the rest of their life

00:30:14

because they step outside of

00:30:16

what is culturally acceptable

00:30:18

or they do something stupid and wrong.

00:30:22

How is that justice to ruin

00:30:24

the rest of somebody's moneymaking abilities

00:30:26

because they did one bad thing wrong?

00:30:30

But when I'm accountable, I take responsibility for it.

00:30:37

I take responsibility for taking Mr. Burlbaugh's mailbox.

00:30:42

Accountability.

00:30:43

And why do I do this?

00:30:44

It's for the third A.

00:30:47

It's because I want to be at one with this person.

00:30:52

I want to be a peace. There is atonement.

00:30:55

We read that verse earlier.

00:30:57

It mentioned the mercy seat and it mentioned atonement.

00:30:59

There is an atonement of sin.

00:31:01

Atonement means at-one-ment.

00:31:08

So when I acknowledge, when I take accountability

00:31:15

and therefore I want to restore the relationship,

00:31:18

I want to be at-one-ment with you.

00:31:23

And this is the problem with our culture

00:31:26

and our spiritual condition,

00:31:28

we're not unifying each other.

00:31:30

We're not unifying ourselves.

00:31:31

I'm treating it like it's my personal decisions

00:31:34

and God will figure it out in the end.

00:31:35

I'm not recognizing how I'm hurting you

00:31:38

and how you're hurting me

00:31:39

and how we need to come together

00:31:41

and how God is making a way for it.

00:31:43

It starts with me, because I get to take responsibility.

00:31:49

I get to apologize to somebody.

00:31:51

I get to tell somebody, "I've sinned against you.

00:31:54

I want to acknowledge it."

00:31:55

Now, let me just say this. Let me say this.

00:31:58

If someone doesn't know that you've sinned against them

00:32:01

and you actually haven't hurt them financially.

00:32:05

They don't know that you sinned against them,

00:32:07

it doesn't necessarily mean it's the right thing

00:32:09

to go and tell them you have.

00:32:11

Meaning -- I can't tell you how many people

00:32:13

have come up to me over the years and said,

00:32:15

"Hey, I just want you to know

00:32:16

I always thought you were just a pompous ass.

00:32:18

And I'm sorry for thinking that.

00:32:23

I just want to confess that to you."

00:32:25

Like, really didn't need to know that. [laughter]

00:32:32

Really not helpful for me at all.

00:32:33

And I think you just had

00:32:34

a little passive aggressive inside of you.

00:32:37

Now, if you're out, like, taking to social media

00:32:41

and trashing me, I probably know.

00:32:42

No, great.

00:32:43

That's just, like, this is not, like,

00:32:46

the ability for us to just vent on somebody

00:32:48

or offload something on somebody.

00:32:50

If somebody is hurt because of our words,

00:32:53

hurt because of our choices,

00:32:54

hurt because of our selfishness,

00:32:56

hurt because of our actions,

00:32:58

we have to acknowledge it and take accountability for it.

00:33:04

And we have to actually become at one with it.

00:33:09

Now, the second sacrifice coming down to the very end.

00:33:12

This isn't going to take too long.

00:33:13

This is maybe one of the most important things

00:33:17

that are going to happen.

00:33:19

One of the most important things

00:33:20

that can happen in your day today.

00:33:23

It's probably the most important thing

00:33:24

that's going to happen in your entire week.

00:33:27

And actually it might be the most important thing

00:33:29

that's happened in your life.

00:33:31

It's going to happen in our closing minutes here.

00:33:34

It's a reenactment of the scapegoat.

00:33:39

Leviticus 16:21.

00:33:44

Leviticus 16:21, it says this:

00:33:49

And when he has made an end of atoning

00:33:52

for the Holy Place, and the tent of meeting,

00:33:55

and the altar, he shall present the live goat.

00:34:28

There are so many things that are in Leviticus

00:34:32

that are all about Jesus.

00:34:34

Like, I mentioned earlier, when they go outside the camp

00:34:39

and they put the blood,

00:34:40

they put the blood on top of the mercy seat.

00:34:43

They're going outside, out where they live,

00:34:45

out of the Holy Place.

00:34:47

This is why Jesus is going outside the camp.

00:34:51

He goes outside of the City of Jerusalem.

00:34:53

The Bible is very clear, outside the city gates.

00:34:56

He goes outside and the Lamb of God is crucified

00:35:00

and crushed, and blood is all over the Cross

00:35:02

and all over the ground.

00:35:03

It's making a tie, it's making a link

00:35:06

back to the book of Leviticus.

00:35:08

We know what a scapegoat is.

00:35:11

We're upset, we're mad, we just blame it on somebody.

00:35:14

Well, the scapegoat was a way for people

00:35:17

to understand if they're upset,

00:35:18

if you're mad about your own iniquity,

00:35:22

about your own sinfulness.

00:35:24

God, in His mercifulness has made away.

00:35:28

He doesn't want you to exist as a person

00:35:30

who feels guilty all the time when there's a way

00:35:34

to not feel guilty and come under the mercy of God.

00:35:36

This verse says a man will bring --

00:35:39

a man will bring the goat.

00:35:43

Where's my former friend and Elvis.

00:35:44

Let's have Elvis out here, please.

00:35:46

Let's have Elvis. Where is Elvis?

00:35:49

Come on, Elvis. Come on out.

00:35:52

Thank you very, very much.

00:35:54

Sometimes Elvis is more cooperative

00:35:56

when she's just carried.

00:35:59

Thank you. Thank you very much.

00:36:01

All right. Okay.

00:36:02

So we have Elvis here.

00:36:05

Elvis is exactly what the ancient nation of Israel

00:36:10

would have seen, a goat.

00:36:14

And here's the thing.

00:36:15

What would it be like

00:36:18

if every person's guilt in this room,

00:36:22

every person's guilt in every Crossroads' room,

00:36:25

every person's guilt in every brewery,

00:36:28

every coffee shop right now

00:36:30

who didn't want to play with God anymore,

00:36:33

who wanted to be honest with God,

00:36:36

if we actually believe that our guilt

00:36:39

was placed on the head of this animal

00:36:42

knowing that this animal was going to get brought

00:36:44

and taken outside the camp instead of inside our mind?

00:36:49

You imagine how amazing it would be.

00:36:52

Or maybe it happens right now.

00:36:54

Maybe there's something God can lock in you right now.

00:36:59

I wish I knew everybody who was a part of Crossroads.

00:37:02

I know a lot. I don't know everybody.

00:37:05

But I want you to just allow me to be,

00:37:07

if you will, your advocate.

00:37:09

Let me just pray for you.

00:37:10

And I want you to put yourself up on this stage

00:37:13

mentally and spiritually,

00:37:15

and put your mind here in this goat.

00:37:17

So I put my hand on and said, Lord, I pray.

00:37:22

I pray right now, Lord, the guilt needs to go some place.

00:37:26

You and Your mercy, You and Your mercy

00:37:29

do not want us to carry the guilt.

00:37:30

You don't want us to think about it

00:37:32

and fixate on it and ruminate on it.

00:37:34

You don't want that.

00:37:36

You have made a way for the guilt to be gone.

00:37:39

His name is Jesus. His name is Jesus.

00:37:41

He has taken our guilt on His head, on His back.

00:37:47

And He's been crushed for our iniquities.

00:37:50

And God, we need to be reminded of that,

00:37:52

be reminded of that.

00:37:54

And God, I pray for the remnants of guilt

00:37:56

for what happened last night, last week,

00:37:58

last month, last year, last whatever they are.

00:38:03

I pray they now put on the head of this goat.

00:38:05

And as this goat leaves, so it leaves our mind.

00:38:09

It leaves our mind and leaves our heart

00:38:10

because You are not about us reliving all of our sin,

00:38:14

all of our problems forever.

00:38:16

You're about your mercy, mercy, God,

00:38:20

put your mercy here and leave it here, God.

00:38:22

We just make the decision that

00:38:24

when this goat leaves this building,

00:38:27

so it leaves our mind the things you've always dealt with.

00:38:31

In You name I pray, Jesus. Amen.

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