GOATS of the Bible

Have you ever wondered why there are so many goat references in the Bible? Brian Tome unpacks why those goats are vital to our relationships with God and others.

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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?
  • 00:17:40
    We all get frustrated when we go to Olive Garden
  • 00:17:41
    and she won't give us bread sticks to go.
  • 00:17:44
    Why won't you give us breadsticks to go?
  • 00:17:48
    Because that's the policy.
  • 00:17:51
    But when I feel entitled that I should have breadsticks
  • 00:17:54
    even outside of this place,
  • 00:17:56
    even though it's not part of the buffet anymore
  • 00:17:58
    and the endless soup and salad and I get an attitude,
  • 00:18:01
    it's because I'm selfish, it's because I'm sinful,
  • 00:18:05
    it's because I think I'm entitled.
  • 00:18:06
    It's because I think that
  • 00:18:08
    everything actually revolves around me.
  • 00:18:11
    And so once a year, once a year,
  • 00:18:13
    they would take one of these goats
  • 00:18:15
    for the communal guilt and they would sacrifice it.
  • 00:18:18
    Let's read about it in Leviticus 16:15.
  • 00:18:28
    This is for the people, for the community.
  • 00:18:53
    Here we have the toggle switch
  • 00:18:55
    is going to flick back and forth
  • 00:18:56
    between guilt and gratitude.
  • 00:19:01
    Guilty and grateful.
  • 00:19:03
    I told it's going flick maybe back and forth for you.
  • 00:19:06
    We see both of this in this passage.
  • 00:19:09
    So this is a goat.
  • 00:19:10
    The goat is actually slaughtered.
  • 00:19:12
    And then what happens in this specific offering,
  • 00:19:16
    the priest doesn't splash it on the sides of the altar.
  • 00:19:21
    He goes back in the Holy of Holies,
  • 00:19:23
    back behind the curtain, and there is the mercy seat.
  • 00:19:27
    The mercy seat was the golden lid
  • 00:19:30
    on the top of the Ark of the Covenant.
  • 00:19:32
    Ark of the Covenant is what held the law of God
  • 00:19:35
    when Moses came down with the Ten Commandments
  • 00:19:37
    and the Law of God from the top of Mount Sinai
  • 00:19:41
    and put them inside of this Ark of the Covenant.
  • 00:19:44
    He would take his bloody hands
  • 00:19:46
    and would go back on the lid of this,
  • 00:19:49
    which was known as the Mercy seat.
  • 00:19:53
    He would sprinkle the blood on top of the mercy seat.
  • 00:19:57
    Why is it called the mercy seat?
  • 00:19:59
    It's because these people were recognizing
  • 00:20:02
    that God is having mercy on me because I feel guilty
  • 00:20:05
    and I know if someone offended me
  • 00:20:07
    the way I've offended God
  • 00:20:09
    and I had the power to eliminate their life,
  • 00:20:11
    I would eliminate their life.
  • 00:20:13
    And God has the power and He hasn't eliminated his life
  • 00:20:16
    because He's passing it over.
  • 00:20:17
    And I'm so grateful for Him because He's a merciful God.
  • 00:20:21
    He's so good, He's so merciful.
  • 00:20:23
    And they sprung this blood on the mercy seat
  • 00:20:26
    because they never wanted to forget God is mercy
  • 00:20:29
    because us in our unenlightened culture
  • 00:20:32
    that's out of touch with reality
  • 00:20:34
    just sees the blood and the gore,
  • 00:20:36
    where the ancient culture would see the mercy of God.
  • 00:20:38
    Because I deserve to be slaughtered
  • 00:20:40
    and I have my spiritual sensibilities
  • 00:20:42
    recognizing that I have a problem.
  • 00:20:45
    And yet God chooses to pass over my problem
  • 00:20:49
    and take it out on another animal
  • 00:20:54
    and remind me that He's gracious and He's merciful
  • 00:20:58
    and He's not taking my life right now,
  • 00:21:00
    the same way that I would take vengeance
  • 00:21:02
    on people who have actually hurt me.
  • 00:21:04
    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.

Process, journal or discuss the themes of this article - here's a few questions to get the ball rolling...

Welcome to the Weekend-Follow Up This is the group part of the Bible Challenge, so your questions are based on specific Bible passages from the weekend message. Each week, your group will discover what God might be saying to you, and how you can respond through a group discussion.

  1. What was your favorite pet either growing up or now? If you didn’t have any pets, what’s the most outrageous pet you’d want?

  2. What stood out to you most from this week’s message?

  3. Think about this past week and any instances where your actions impacted someone else in a negative way. You don’t have to share specific situations, but how do you feel recognizing the frequency of that impact?

  4. How do you typically respond when you realize that you did something wrong, either intentionally or unintentionally?

  5. Why do you think that for most of us, it’s hard to take responsibility for our actions when we hurt someone else?

  6. How have you seen restitution modeled in your life?

  7. How might our relationships be different if we were quicker to own when we mess up?

  8. What would it look like to incorporate a system of accountability in your life? Make note of any people who come to mind as part of that.

  9. What’s one situation or relationship you can make restitution in this week? Share with your group what you can do to move in that direction.

  10. Let’s end with prayer. You can say something like, “Jesus, thank you for making the ultimate restitution for our sins. Give us hearts of humility, willing and eager to make restitution with each other. Help us face our feelings of guilt, and ultimately let them go.” Amen.”

More from the Weekend

Bonus Questions! Check these out if you’re on a roll and want to go a little deeper.

  • Read Galatians 5:15. Where have you seen a cycle of blame appear in your own life?
  • When you blame someone or something for your actions, what’s the usual result?
  • How would your life change if you consistently embraced accountability?

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Feb 26, 2023

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