Numbers chapter number 18. There's a very short title for you. Reminiscent of maybe Jonathan Edwards if you've ever seen any of his sermons. I was maybe just a couple weeks ago privileged to be with Jim and Dee Hall at their house, and I was noticing all the little hummingbirds outside of the kitchen window where I was meeting with Jim and talking about membership, and I got to noticing that a lot of the hummingbirds are smaller than I remember from my time of really paying attention to them, and I was intrigued by how small some of them were. I didn't realize that they could be so small, and I got to thinking about Do they, you know, are they able to really tell where they are? Every now and then, I do my studying on Monday, well, Tuesday morning, Thursday morning, Friday morning in my garage. And I have a standing desk next to my model train. And every now and then, if I'm getting some unclear thoughts, I turn the train on and step back and think. Every now and then, across the garage will come a hummingbird. I think he's checking to see if I got any stuff for him. And then he moves on. I got to thinking about that, then I got a good look at them at Jim Hall's house, and they were right outside the kitchen window there, and I thought, I have got to get some hummingbird feeders. And I started thinking about, do they migrate? I mean, how does something that small migrate? How do they move at all? So I looked up some stuff on the internet, which is, of course, something you can trust without any questions. But I did find several websites that kind of helped me in my little thought trail. I was wondering, do they migrate? And they do migrate all the way to southern Mexico and Central America. Their heart rate. is 1,260 heartbeats per minute, which of course is a good number. 1,260 heartbeats a minute. And I found out that their wings flap up to 80 times a second. A second. 15 to 80 times a second their wings flap. And usually they increase their weight by 40% before they migrate because they need all the calories. They usually fly alone. They usually fly the same path every year. They usually fly just above the treetops for minimum wind resistance. during the day, usually is when they fly and they rest at night. They can travel as much as 23 miles a day, and at times, depending on the time of year and how much time they have left to travel, they can travel 500 miles at a time. They do fly during the day because that's when more flowers are open, and they can receive more nectar that way, and get more calories that way. Usually, they're experts at figuring out tailwinds, and that's how they can make it 500 miles in a given trip. Today, our passage begins in Numbers 18, verse 8. And I got to wondering, do they come back to the same feeder in the spring? In Numbers 18, verse 8, hear the word of the Lord. The Lord spoke to Aaron, here, I myself have given you charge of my heave offerings. All the holy gifts of the children of Israel, I have given them as a portion to you and your sons as an ordinance forever. This shall be yours of the most holy things reserved from the fire. Every offering of theirs, that's the children of Israel, you'll notice that from verse 8, every grain offering, every sin offering, every trespass offering which they rendered to me shall be most holy for you and your sons. So everything that they would bring in for the offerings in Leviticus 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, everything except burnt offerings, the priests, that is the household of Aaron, says verse 8, they get a portion of it. Okay. You'll notice in verse number 11, verse number 10 rather, in a most holy place, you shall eat it. Every male shall eat it. It should be holy to you. This also is yours, the heave offerings of their gifts. So again, a person brings a sacrifice to the tabernacle and they get a portion of it. And they would be allowed to have, they would stick a hook in that Cooked sacrifice and get a part of it for themselves we talked about this about a year ago about 10 months ago and Verse number 11. This is yours the heave offering of their gift that that sounds like they're throwing it It's kind of the idea you might have it in your translation of your Bible that which is devoted to the Lord or something like that verse 11 heave offering verse 8 heave offering verse 19 heave offering that means the the priest would really bring in the animal and then cut the throat and up, heave it before the Lord. And then they had a different kind of offering called the wave offering. They would heave the offering up over their heads and wave it before the Lord. Verse number 12, All the best of the oil, so you'll notice all the priests that are males in verse 10 can eat their share of the gifts. Verse 11, end of the verse, all who are in their household, if they're clean, can eat of those gifts. Verse 12, all the best of the oil, all the best of the new wine and the grain, their first fruits which they offer to the Lord, I've given them to you. Whatever first ripe fruit is in their land which they bring to the Lord shall be yours. Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it. Every devoted thing in Israel shall be yours." So there's a special kind of gift you could give to the Lord. It wasn't an offering that was prescribed. It wasn't a sacrifice that was prescribed. It was something additional. It was something you could devote. I promise I'll give the Lord all of my Saturday nights. Something like that, but a thing. And he says, everything that Israel devotes will be yours, household of Aaron. Everything that first opens the womb of all flesh, which they bring to the Lord, whether man or beast, shall be yours. So when they devote that firstborn, It is the priests to eat. Nevertheless the firstborn of man you'll surely redeem. So we don't want to be eating firstborn people. So they're going to redeem those. End of verse 15. The firstborn of unclean animals you'll redeem. Now how do they do that? Verse 16. Those redeemed of the devoted things you'll redeem when one month old. Now the word things is not in the originals. So verse 16, those who are redeemed of the devoted ones, you'll redeem when one month old. So you're only allowed to redeem firstborn sons. According to your valuation for five shekels of silver, if you want more information on that, that's first prescribed in Numbers chapter three. According to the shekels of the sanctuary, which is 20 geras. But the firstborn of a cow, the firstborn of a sheep, the firstborn of a goat, you'll not redeem. They're holy. You'll sprinkle their blood on the altar and burn their fat as an offering made by fire for a sweet aroma to the Lord. And their flesh shall be yours just as the wave breast and the right thigh are yours." That's prescribed in Exodus 29. We're not going to cover that again. All the heave offerings of the holy things which the children of Israel offered to the Lord, I've given to you and your sons and daughters with you as an ordinance forever. It's a covenant of salt forever before the Lord with you and your descendants with you. Then the Lord said to Aaron, you shall have no inheritance in their land. Nor shall you have any portion among them, I'm your portion, and your inheritance among the children of Israel. And that is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. So Lord, one more time, I'm asking for your help. I pray that you'd help me to serve this congregation well in this hour. And we'll thank you. Speak to our hearts in ways we didn't intend. Speak through me in ways I didn't plan. Speak around me if I'm in the way. But please feed your sheep. In Jesus' name, amen. So the roadmap, first of all, I want to encourage you that by the time we're done here, you're going to feel like that God has something for you, Christian. If you are not a Christian in here today, I invite you to become one. You were not born a Christian. You were born a sinner like I was, and you need to be saved because of your sin. But you can be saved today freely. Christ already suffered for your sins. There's no reason for you to suffer for your sin. So believe and be saved today. It's great news. All right. So here's our roadmap for this morning. Number one, In verse number 20, you see a little something about the portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance. We're going to talk about that this evening out of the book of Deuteronomy. I want you to notice the second thing on our roadmap today. Lift what you brought. So what are we getting into here? Well, you can see in verse number eight, he talks about this heave offering. And it's used in verses 11 and 8 and 19. In any case, all of the offerings that were covered in earlier Leviticus, except the burnt offering, was heaved up before the Lord. And it's understood that when an offering is brought to be offered, it's a way of presenting what you brought before the Lord. And in this way, we might understand why in the New Testament Christians are told that we should have prayers everywhere with hands up raised. You might remember our time in the Word about 15 months ago in 1st Timothy 2, where Paul said, I would that all men everywhere pray, lifting up holy hands. What exactly are we doing when we sing and we lift up our hands? Well, in martial arts, it means I surrender. In school, it means I have an answer or I have a question. In baseball, it means I need a timeout. In a situation that's not pleasant, it could mean you're about to be smacked. When we raise our hands before the Lord, we are bringing our best to Him. And in Lamentations chapter number five, it says that there are times when when we lift our hands before him, we're lifting our hearts before him. This is just one little example of how God is greatly glorified when we demonstrate our affections to him in a way that can be seen. Now I know that this is, I understand in this world of emotional, emotional abuse, people abusing emotions and manipulating emotions, I understand the idea that you don't want to show too much emotion. Nevertheless, behind every opportunity to sing to the Lord, you're going to find someone who's worthy, and his name is Jesus. God is greatly glorified when we demonstrate our affections to him, specifically here amongst friends. Now the problem with us is that we often seem to not want to do that. Sometimes we have legitimate groanings of the soul and we're not happy when we sing. In fact, sometimes we come to church and we're not happy about being here. I understand that that happens. It's understandable that there are things going on in your life And you're not always ready to show emotion to the Lord. You're not always ready to lift up all that you are and heave an offering to Him. I get that. There are times when though you're in the choir, you don't want to be. There are times when it's time to pray and you wish you didn't have to. You kind of say something like, God, I don't even know where to start with you. And the truth is, I think that He's big enough to take that broken heart that you'll exalt to Him. that you will heave to Him. And how do we make sense of long-term dissatisfaction with the One who saved us and gave us a heavenly home? Well, in the same way that we would be asked to give positive feedback after a competition as a judge, we're assessing the appropriateness of applause or positive assessment to Jesus Christ, hoping maybe later after we give him that assessment, we actually feel like doing it. There are times when we express our offerings to the Lord, and frankly, we don't want to. And we do it in faith that at some point we have applaused the one who is worthy out of faith that he was worthy and not because we felt like he was worthy. Sometimes when we lift our brokenness to the Lord, it is out of faith that he knows what to do with it. and that He is pleased when we do so. And that is so important, and every Christian in the room should be edified, knowing that when you wave your broken heart or your predisposed cheerfulness, whichever you are, because some of us, we just wake up in the morning and we're thrilled. It doesn't mean you're a better worshiper. We can still be selfish even when we're predisposed to happiness and cheer. And the Lord says, I want it all. Express yourself to Me, even if it hurts. Then we go to the third thing, the household of the priest. Now, there's no way really to tell you everything that can be done here. You'll notice at the end of verse 11, I just want you to write down this reference in the margin of your Bible. If we had an hour, I would tell you, we'd go there, but I want to give you the reference at the end of verse number 11. Everyone who is clean, how do you get clean? That is in the first half of Leviticus 22, if you'd like to write that down. Then you're going to notice in verse number 16, there is this flat tax, five shekels of silver. Here's what you're worth. At one time in your life, you're going to pay it again. You can find that in Exodus 13. If you'd like to write it down, Numbers chapter 3. We've already preached both of those chapters, so that's just onto the next yellow point. Rejoice in the unchangingness of God. When you get to verse number 16, you find out that we're, go ahead and look at there, you're going to find out that there is a salt offering. Verse number 19, forgive me, verse 19. I have, at the end of the verse, I give to you and your sons and daughters with you as an ordinance forever. It is a covenant of salt before the Lord with you and your descendants with you. What is the point of this passage? Okay, in Numbers 14, they were told to go to the promised land. They didn't want to. There's giants there. Numbers 15, you can't go to the promised land. They tried to, and many of them were killed. You had an uprising of certain Levites in Numbers chapter 16. And Numbers chapter 16, there was a portion of the Levites, Korah's household, put down. So Numbers 17, he expresses in both chapters 17 and 18, first through the budding of the rod, and then in the cataloging of what do the real priests get for serving me? And that's spelled out here. So this passage, these verses, is all about telling you what do the priests get? Pastor Bill, why are you talking about this on Sunday morning? Here's why. It's an act of faith. It's an absolute act of faith that God can feed Christians and evangelize lost people through Numbers chapter number 18. Expositional preaching means that somehow this is just as inspired as John 3.16. Somehow. Well, what do you get out of the end of verse number 19? You get a covenant of salt. What happens with salt is that you put it in water and it doesn't dissolve. At least not much. In fact, when I used to get a sore throat, it seemed like the cure for just about everything except a sore throat was go sit on the pot. But the cure for a sore throat was gargle with salt water. Now those were mom's two home remedies. She had a third one when I was younger. It was shut your face, go do something. That was the third remedy. Please be quiet, go play. That was the third remedy. I was told I would feel better if I would just go do something. gargling of salt water. You know how this is. You put the salt in the hot water, and you swish it around there, and it settles. You've got to hurry up and use it, or it'll all be at the bottom of the glass. Same idea, verse number 19. He says, I want you to sprinkle some salt on all of the sacrifices to remind you that my promises never dissolve. You can trust me. Your promises will never dissolve. God makes promises and keeps them. And he gives signs of his promises. I mean, if you need help with that, think about the Edenic covenant. He made the snake crawl on its belly. And every time you look at a serpent or a snake in this life, poisonous or not for some of you friends, you're reminded that God made a promise that he would one day crush the serpent's head. Every time you look at a rainbow, you're being reminded that God made a promise that he would never drown the earth again. I want to pause here for a minute. Larry, it's good to see you today. I visited Larry with, I think, Ian. Where are you sitting, Ian? We knocked on Larry's door earlier this week. Thanks for coming today, Larry. Anyways, he's in from... How many of you moved from California when you came here? I need to find Larry. We've got lots of ex-Californians here, Larry. You're among friends. All right, back to what I was saying. I'm thankful every time the Lord graces us with a visitor. So then what does He give as a sign of His promise to an ethnic people? Well, He gave them circumcision. Every time they look at that little boy on the eighth day and adjust his anatomy somewhat, that was a sign that God will not break His promises. In Exodus 20, when he wrote down his law on stone, it was a promise that God would make sure that he gave you a clear standard to follow there on Mount Sinai. And now for the Christian, what does he give us to assure us that he will not break his promises, that he is going to come and get us? He gave us the earnest money of his spirit. deep in us. And here, in this passage, the children of Israel were to be reminded that God has never broken His promises. And to remind us, He gives us salt. How interesting is that? God makes His promises, and yet when we get His promises after His faithfulness to us, oftentimes we ask for more signs. And unfortunately, we need to just buck up, and when Christ puts His blood on the line, which is what He's done, we should believe Him. In Revelation 1.5, he's washed us from our sins in his own blood. In 2 Corinthians 1, all of his promises are because of his cleansing blood. If you can't trust God for everything now, if Bill Sturm cannot trust God for everything now, I have no business trusting him for my soul's salvation. Usually it's twisted around. Hey, if you can trust Him for your salvation from keeping you from hell, surely you can trust Him for this, this, and this. I'm twisting it around. I should never trust Him for my soul's salvation if I can't trust promises that He gives me in His Word. But we most certainly can now this works a couple different ways if I start doubting his promises I start living a life that's void of faith and eventually I start questioning his character and Wanting to know if I can even trust what he says about the future Like 2 Corinthians chapter 5, he says, every man will give an account of the things done in his body, whether good or bad, at the judgment seat of Christ. See, it's not just that when I start out doubting God, it's not just that I start fearing, it's that I start getting complacent about the sure promises he's given, that he's going to hold me accountable for my actions. So what becomes a sort of frivolous lack of faith, becomes eventually a careless lack of faith. And I become sinful and I take people for granted because it starts out with me wondering, will God keep his promises? He keeps all of them. The ones that thrill me and the ones that chill me, the ones that scare me, the ones that harm me and the ones that alarm me. I am terrified if I don't trust his good promises. So every time I open his word, I'm looking for a little salt to remind me I can trust this God. Third, well the third, okay, continue to know what you know. Look at verse number 20. The Lord said to Aaron, you'll have no inheritance in this land that I have given you. Why is that at the end of the passage? Here's why. Here's why, friends. God is expressing his sovereignty. I want you to be aware, I hope that you'll be aware, that God reserves the right to give and take from us. All week long, we're reminded of this, and there are people in this room, you've been given a lot, and there's gonna be a season ahead of you where he takes. If he tarries his coming, if he stalls on his return, there will be seasons in which he not only gives, but, ask Job, he takes. And he does this after often giving us so much. I just wanted you to notice that the average, the overall tune of this passage is, Household of Aaron, I'm giving you this, I'm giving you this, I'm giving you this. You get this portion of the sacrifice, this portion of the sacrifice, this portion of the sacrifice. Now, I want you to know something, verse number 20, you're not getting a portion of the land. Instead you're gonna trust me. I'm going to be your piece of the pie end of the verse. I'll be your portion So the earth is the Lord's he has the ability to give or take give stuff give people At any time he can turn on the faucet because he bought us with a price and so we're to glorify him in our body and in our spirit it makes good sense that he can tell us what to do with or what we can do without and But just the fact that it makes sense doesn't make it enjoyable. Can I get an amen? Our forefathers in the garden don't want God telling us what we cannot have. In fact, Adam and Eve wanted a garden and the serpent. And as we look forward to ourselves in the story of humanity, we want special gifts and the inheritance intended for others. And we want, we want so much. But Christ has so ordained that in his Holy Spirit he gives us spirit power and spirit contentment as new covenant believers that we actually don't have within ourselves. And frankly, this is the message of Philippians 4.13. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. A lot of people don't realize verse 11 is a couple verses before that. I have learned in whatever state I am to be content. How can I be content? Well, I can be all things because of Christ who strengthens me. But he's taken so much from me. Paul says we can learn to be content in lack. I don't know how that's possible. The only answer I have is I can do all things through Christ. He strengthens me. He has made us content in difficulty and lack. He takes things from us. And our answer might be to run out of the room and try to get out of his presence. But the truth is, he has given us the gift of doing without. I know that in this room, there are those who wish to have the blessings of marriage and a flirtatious relationship. with someone else. We want to have a job that pays a lot and requires no extra hours. We want a church that meets our needs and does not ask us to serve. Christ is able to overcome the pollution that we receive from our parents, who are also kids of Adam, and to make us content with the imperfections of this world. And it's a world that's dying. And so I just want to encourage everyone in the room that while we're saying goodbye to some things, or maybe even some people, or maybe even some opportunities, or maybe even some phases in our life, there is a day coming that represents the best that is to come. We can have that perfect moment that actually doesn't vanish. I thought when I moved to Sandy Ridge, I wanted to grow old with people and bury them one by one right before I die. But man, saying goodbye is bitter to the soul, isn't it? How do we deal with that? We don't deal with it by cocooning up and becoming hermits. We deal with it by thanking God for the gifts of the day. And somehow through that power of his Holy Spirit, keep walking when he gives and he takes away. Keep walking when he delivers us from our sinfulness and gives us more goodness. Man, it's not easy. And so sometimes the world pokes at us and says, oh, okay, so you have a sweet buy and buy. That's so precious. Well, we expect them to make fun of us. They don't believe in that great world to come. We expect them to poke at us and make fun of our songs about a better world coming. We expect that. They can't see that world, but through the eyes of faith we can. And so for a little while we take and we give. We get parts of the sacrifice and we give up the portion of the land. But what I want to show you in the New Testament, look at verse 14 in this passage first. Every devoted thing in Israel shall be yours. Where does this fit into the life of Jesus? So far I've talked about Jesus, but I want you to see Jesus. Look at Matthew 15 as we close. Look at Matthew 15. Matthew chapter 15. Matthew is the first book of the New Testament. We have had some other visitors join us. I'm thankful that you're here. Thank you for coming. In case you don't have a Bible with you, I usually tell the page number. There's a copy of the scripture in the pew if you need it. Matthew 15, and that's page number 1201, 1201 if you need it. Matthew chapter number 15. I want you to notice how this comes back and how man can corrupt it and it gets us back to our title slide, which is give man a plan and put it in his hands and you'll see where you need Christ again. Notice how I messed with that to make it rhyme. Matthew 15, notice verse 1, the scribes and pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus saying, why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread. Jesus answered and said to them, why do you transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? All right, so here's what's happening. The disciples are supposed to be eating, but they've been given some additional rules. Now, these rules are not over here in the Ten Commandments. They're not even in the case law. They're over here in tradition. Things that were added so that people could kind of keep themselves from breaking the law. Well, you don't want to be ceremonially unclean, like the scripture says. So we're going to put some stuff before that, so that you don't make yourself ceremonially unclean. And they came up with some traditions. These traditions are what the disciples were transgressing in verse 1. They were not actually, verse 2 rather, they weren't doing the special prescribed cleansings. Okay, I don't know why. We don't know why. But you'll notice in verse number three, why do also you transgress the commandments of God, Jesus said, because of your tradition. So somehow the scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem were breaking the commandments of God with their tradition. Let's see how Jesus says they did that. Look at verse four. For God commanded, saying, Honor your father and your mother." Okay, that's down here. That is the first of the last six commandments of the Ten Commandments. Honor your father and mother, and he who curses father or mother, let him be put to death. But you say, whoever says to his father and mother, whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift to God, then he need not honor his father or mother, thus you've made the commandments of God of no effect by your tradition. So here's what was happening. Here's what was happening. You know that in the 10 commandments God gave, you have the first one, give God his right place. Have no other gods before me. Then you had a commandment, do not make any graven image. Don't do anything that disgraces God's face. Then God said, don't take my name in vain. Don't disgrace his name. Then he said, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Don't disgrace his day. Then the second table of commands, the green ones, love your neighbor. The very first command, honor your father and mother. These clowns, in verse number one, were doing something different. They had a little racket going on based on numbers 18. They knew that if anything was devoted to the priests, then it was off limits to the people of Israel. So what they did was when it was time to take care of their aged parents, they would go and devote a majority of their income to the priests. It became a part of the devoted things in Numbers chapter 18 and verse 14. And for just a little while, they became poverty stricken and couldn't take care of their parents. The parents would die and they would go back to the priest who had a racket that had been developed since Numbers 18. The priest would give back a majority of the wealth that was put in their trust accounts and keep a part of it for their trouble. And in that way, these people were developing traditions whereby they didn't even need to keep the commands anymore. So, back to my hummingbird. How do they find the feeder outside of Jim's window again? They've been all the way to Belize, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Southern Mexico, how do they find their way back to Jim's feeder? Birdsandblossoms.com says, young hummingbirds often return to the place where they were hatched. Hummingbirds have strong spatial memory to go where they found food before. All the way back to Hickory. Some of us in this room, we looked up and we thought, how did I get here? We have complicated following the Lord way beyond the intent. You might remember, we've talked about the law of God being kind of like the Bill of Rights. Instead of us telling each other what we deserve, God tells us what we deserve, and that is to serve him. And he gave us 10 commandments. When our country gets into trouble, it's because we've usually left the simplicity of the Constitution. We forgot the preamble and the Declaration of Independence about how we were created equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights. And then we go to those Bill of Rights to talk about what we're entitled to. And when we decide that we're no longer entitled to those things, I'm talking about America now, we start regulating. We start taking the freedom of speech, and it becomes something like you can take part in the freedom of speech so long as other people are not offended. We get to the second amendment, so you can own a firearm so long as you pay an extra fee and have a permit. And we just write on through those ten commands, those ten amendments. So it seems to be in the life of God. Everything that we can do relies on the preamble that says, you're my people, you're free to obey me, I love you and you're mine. And we, as grateful Christians, start looking then for the rudiments. What do we do? Well, it won't hurt for us to look at what God says we must do. One of the signs that we've made life a little complicated is that we have stuffed our schedules full, and then started explaining away opportunities to obey our Lord. In this passage, we see something simple. Honor your parents. Became something complicated. Give your money to the priest, they'll take care of it until you need it. Mom and dad are buried, and now you're ready to be wealthy again. And you go back to the priest and get your stuff. One of the signs that we've gotten too complicated in our Christianity is that we actually spend more time trying to get out of obeying God than it would have taken to just obey Him to begin with. May God help us. No doubt we've fallen short. What do we do? We remember where we first got food and we fly back there. even if it takes 1200 beats a minute. Heavenly Father, we come before