Worship: Unblemished & Wholehearted (Lesson 10) - Aaron Cozort - November 21, 2026

Aaron Cozort teaches from Leviticus and related passages that worship is meant to be willing, wholehearted, and marked by giving God the best rather than leftovers. He connects Israel’s sacrificial practices and parents’ responsibility to teach faith at home with Christ as the firstfruits of resurrection, grounding devotion in the life and hope God gives.

Chapters

00:00 Leviticus introduces willing, unblemished offerings
04:57 Why worship cannot be forced
08:24 Teaching children to love God beyond the church building
13:19 Worship is not a tax
16:33 Deuteronomy’s call to love God with all your heart
19:10 Faith formation belongs in everyday family life
22:02 Circumcising the heart means cutting away self-interest
26:47 Firstfruits and the best of the harvest
29:06 Why God rejects defective offerings
31:37 Christ as the firstfruits of resurrection
37:32 Baptism as a picture of new life
41:36 Grace gives hope beyond what we can earn
44:20 Give freely because God gives abundantly
45:27 David’s costly sacrifice and the final lesson

Creators and Guests

Host

Aaron Cozort

What is Admonition Podcast?

The Admonition podcast brings you Bible lessons and sermons from the Collierville Church of Christ with host Aaron Cozort. Each episode focuses on interpreting Scripture in its original context, exploring the background of key passages, events, and teachings. Gain deeper insight into God’s Word as we study together, applying timeless truths to everyday life.

Aaron Cozort (00:00)
Take your Bibles, if you will, and open them to the book of Leviticus.

As we will be continuing our study concerning worship, Leviticus is one of the most fundamental books of the Old Testament in regards to the worship of Israel, because it is essentially the instruction manual for the priests. ⁓ So we'll spend some time jumping off from some concepts that we find in Leviticus.

as we ⁓ as we go through our study this evening. But let's begin with a word of prayer.

Our gracious Father in heaven, we come before you grateful for the day that you've granted to us, grateful for the opportunity that we have in this life to worship you, to praise your name, to bring words of glory to your name, to recognize you for who you are. Lord, we know that the world is continually involved in all of the things that the world cares about, in all of the

Things that the world focuses on, and we are grateful for the opportunity to step away from the world and all of its cares and all of its worries, to open up your word to fellowship with one another and consider what your word has to say. Lord, we pray and ask that we might always have a focus in our minds and in our hearts and our lives to do your will.

We ask that you forgive us when we sin and fall short of your glory. We ask that you be with those who are ill and those who are recovering from procedures, and we ask that you pro be with those who we are mindful of, who have lost loved ones. All this we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

So as we open Levi Tikus chapter one.

We find now the Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tabernacle of meeting, saying, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, When any one of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring an offering of the livestock, of the herd, and of the flock. It is his offering, ⁓ if his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd.

Let him offer a mail without blemish, he shall offer it of his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the Lord. One of the things that we discussed last week as we were continuing our discussion worship is this idea of the first fruits, the concept that God required of Israel that the first of everything belong to him.

The first of the things that came out of the field, the first of the things that came out of the flock, the first of the things that came out of themselves in the form of their ⁓ male children, all belonged to the Lord. But as Leviticus opens, you find here that one of the ordinances that God gives in regards to their worship, and specifically in regards to burnt sacrifices that came from the herd, that is from

the f the flocks and the herds that they had is that it must be a sacrifice without blemish.

God is going to emphasize that as you're considering your sacrifice, as you consider what it is that you're going to bring before the Lord, you don't look at the herd and go, well, that one over there is kind of limp, and that one over there was born blind. I'm going to give those two. And I got to give two. Got to give 10%. I've got to.

Give the Lord his due, I'm gonna get rid of the bad ones. I'm gonna get rid of the ones that you know what? That one over there, he's not selling for anything. I can't get somebody to take that one. I'll give him to the Lord. God makes it clear as he gives the instruction to Israel, specifically to the Levites, as

Moses here is delivering these things to the Levitical priesthood.

Notice he says it is to be a male, it is to be without blemish, and he shall offer it of his own free will.

There is never a point when it comes to worship that worship has any value if you're forced to do it.

Often there are discussions and considerations with parents as they have kids that are growing up. What do you do when your child reaches a point where maybe they're of a mindset, they say, I don't want to go to church. I want to stay in bed. I want to sleep. Do you make them get up? Do you make them go? What do you do in that regard? And there's two different things to consider.

Number one, sometimes the problem really doesn't have anything to do with church. It has everything to do with they're just being rebellious. And this is a this might be a particular point they know they could be rebellious on because it's something that has to do with their parents and not somebody else. I don't know if y'all have ever noticed that ⁓ children like to push their parents' buttons far more than they necessarily care about pushing anybody else's buttons.

⁓ but there are other factors that can be involved. But one of the things that I want to focus on is sometimes parents have the perspective, well, it's better off that they're there than they're not. Well, that can be true, but it's also something to be careful about. Because if you force someone to be

Worshiping, by that I mean present in the pew, you haven't really done them any good. Now, the Proverbs writer will tell us: foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. And the rod of correction will drive it far from him. There are times where what we do is we force them against their will when what we really ought to be doing is breaking their will. You know, when

It w I had the opportunity when I was in Alabama to work on a horse farm, and one of the things we got to do is break some horses. And you intentionally force that horse out of its comfort zone. You intentionally force that horse to do things that horse would never do. And and that in normal riding, you would never do. You do it because you you're

making a very clear point. The horse is supposed to learn to respond to the reins and to the person on its back. To the point where bef when you first start breaking the horse, when you first start working the horse, the horse, if you want him to turn, you have to yank his head and spur him forward, and half the time he still wants to go that way, even though his head's pointed over there. And you'll spend day after day after day

Trying to get in to realize that what you mean by this is go this way.

But if you continue to work that horse and you continue to do the work the process, you get a point, you get to a point where you can just lay the rein against the side of the horse's neck and it'll go that way. Because he now knows exactly what he's supposed to do. What is a struggle, as we go back to parenting, is when we've spend all the time not

Teaching the child why they should want to do this, why they should be invested in this, teaching them to love the Lord, and then they get up to the point where they're wanting to make their own decisions and we wonder why they don't love the Lord. The answer is because we didn't go through the process. We didn't start when they were four. We didn't start when they were three. We didn't start when they could talk. We didn't start when we said, you know what, you're gonna sit in the pew.

And you're not gonna get down and play, and you're not gonna yell and scream, and you're not gonna run all over the auditorium, you're gonna sit in the pew, and you're going to learn the function of worship long before you understand anything that's going on. And then you develop that through many things that never happen in the church building.

It was always an interesting experience as we got older to watch families that were really struggling with kids and their behavior and worship, and mom would end up having the child sit with her from this other family. And before long, the child knew how to behave in worship. But when

You constantly give them distractions. You constantly give them excuses to be thinking about everything else except sit still and listen. They learn in their brain, ⁓ church is where I get distractions, church is where I get entertained. And we would watch, especially families that you know they had no religious background, they would think, okay, the nursery is the outlet. I take them to the nursery.

Let them get some energy out and then bring back in. The child was learning, if I make enough noise I get to go play.

And so it was a challenging process and it is. And different children are different. You have some children and you just tell them sit down. They just sit down. They pay attention. They're just different children. If you any of you have spent any time with James and Micah, you know that they're different children. As about as far away from each other as you can get.

But of the two, James was the one we had to beat all the time. He got taken out of church three and four times every service when he was two and three years old. And he would take him out, spank his rear in, bring him back in. He was just unable to sit still and be quiet. But if you notice,

He's not still doing that as a 16-year-old. He hasn't been doing it for quite some time. The point is, you have to get children to the point where the child's brain goes, ⁓ I'm not in charge. I have something I'm supposed to do. And when I do it, the pain stops. It's the same thing that the horse understands. when I stop doing that, the pain stops. Why don't I just do the right thing?

It is a challenge for us to consider how we do what we do, and it's an experience thing as well. You do learn some tricks of the trade along the way by the time you get to the third child that you didn't know when you had the first child. But as you think about worship, as you think about what God is saying to the Levites, He's making it clear.

If you're not here by your own will.

You might as well not be here. Now, have we all seen occasions where someone was cajoled, forced, convinced to come to worship time and time and time again? And eventually, somewhere along the way, they actually started listening and they'd actually started clicking and that changed their perspective? Absolutely. So it's not a blanket rule. But the point is.

When you are looking at your actions and when you are looking at your decisions and you are looking at your life and you go, Well, I'll go because I have to. Have to never did any anyone any good when they show up before the Lord. Because the Lord knows what?

What's in your heart? He knows what's in your mind. And he knows whether or not you have any interest in being there for the right reason, in worshiping for the right reason. So God not only tells them, You're going to offer me nothing that is blemished. He also says, And you're only going to do it if you actually desire to.

So, what happens to the Israelite who's a good Israelite? And so they take the unblemished lamb and they go, Well, I got no choice. I gotta make my offerings, and that's the only one I've got that's unblemished. And they trudge off to the tabernacle and they take the lamb and they shove it in the arms of the priest. He goes, Here, here's my sacrifice.

Might as well have kept the lamb. 'Cause it didn't do them any good.

God is emphasizing something very different from taxes. You know, the IRS really doesn't care what you think about taxes so long as you pay the taxes. They don't, they don't honestly care if you are for the taxes or against the taxes. They could care less if you wrote out the check.

And submitted the transfer with all the animosity in your heart. The only thing they really care about is you paid the taxes. Now, are there individuals at the IRS that are different? Yes. But as far as an organization, as far as taxes go, that's all that matters. Did you pay them or not? Not your at what was your attitude when you did so. But worship isn't taxes. Giving isn't

Taxation. When we approach worship and we approach it from a mindset that says, well, I have to.

Then you'd be better off if you didn't. You would be in this exact same state as if you never showed up. God is emphasizing this idea. Now let's consider Deuteronomy chapter six.

We'll come back to Leviticus a little bit later.

Duterony chapter six.

We read in verse three, therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you a land flowing with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart.

With all your soul and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.

God, as he instructs Israel, this is specifically to the second generation that came out of Egypt, as he corrects their understanding from what their fathers did that came out of Egypt, that died in the wilderness, as they're preparing to go into the land that God is giving them. God says, I'm not accepting anything less than your whole heart.

I'm not willing to accept a half-hearted religion.

I'm not willing to accept a half strength religion.

He tells them that he is going to require of them their whole heart, all their strength, and their entire soul.

God doesn't share with other gods. God doesn't allow us to have a position of saying, well, I am semi-interested in worship.

Not accept.

Now, at the same time, God also makes it clear that it is a learning process. So notice what he says, verse 6, and these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.

When you spend as many years in congregations as I have, you invariably meet other children, you watch other children be raised, you meet other families, and sometimes you meet those families that the only time religion is talked about.

Is when they walk through the doors of the church building. The only time God is ever discussed is when they're at worship. The only kitchen table conversation that ever had anything to do with obedience to God is the one that was had at someone else's kitchen table.

And sometimes those parents even have the audacity to come in to the elders or the preacher of the church when their child leaves home and goes away from the faith and says, I don't know why they left the faith. I don't know why they became unfaithful. I got them to every Bible class.

I brought him to every service.

Now, it's not always the fault of the parent. Quite often it's the fault of the child. But if the parent said, well, my job is to bring them to church, instead of my job is to teach them to know the Lord, There's a big difference between those two.

And God tells Israel, your responsibility as parents is to teach them to know the Lord. Your responsibility as fathers and mothers, as grandparents and grand ⁓ grandparents and and and uncles and aunts, is to instill in the next generation a knowledge of who God is and of what he commands.

And it is not a responsibility that can be handed off to anybody else.

The church is there, the Bible classes are there, the sermons are there to feed you so you can feed them.

They're there to enhance what you know, to grow what you know, so you go up a level, and the child goes up a level. But they are never a replacement for parents being what they ought to be in the eyes of God. But consider as well as we look at this Deuteronomy chapter 10.

Deuteronomy chap chapter ten, verse twelve.

He says, And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways and to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and his statutes which I command you today for your good.

Indeed, heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, and the earth with all that is in it. The Lord delighted only in your fathers to love them, and he chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day, therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff necked no longer.

As Moses focuses the attention of Israel on their attitude toward God, he says, You are to fear God, you are to walk in his ways, you are to love him, you are to serve him, and you are to keep his commandments.

But in order to do that, in order to accomplish that, Moses addresses Israel and says, you're going to have to cut out part of your heart.

Did you notice the the statement? He says, circumcise the foreskin of your heart.

He's using an analogy from their act of circumcision that had to do with their ⁓ relationship to God, with the covenant relationship they had with God. And he's taking a visual example and he's saying, Listen, you've got to do this internally.

So if you've got a cut away a part of your heart, what part do you think you're supposed to cut away?

The part that clings exclusively to self.

Now take this back.

To the person who keeps a flock.

who's seeing the need to make a sacrifice and is looking across the flock as a good shepherd who knows his sheep.

And consider the difference between a heart that has circumcised self.

And a heart that is uncircumcised.

As the individual looks at the flock, he looks at it and says

My greatest devotion is toward God.

Let me find the best I can give him. Let me find the most ideal offering and give that to God.

But the heart that's uncircumcised has to fight with himself to say, you know.

I I was really hoping to make that one a really good sale.

I I I really wanted the best for me.

God is challengeing us.

With whether or not we're willing to give up ourselves, whether or not we're able to displace our self-interest.

To instead focus on devotion to Him. If you go back to Leviticus chapter twenty three.

In Leviticus chapter 23, beginning in verse 9, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land which I give to you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted on your behalf, on the day after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it.

And you shall offer on that day when you wave the sheaf a male lamb of the first year without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord. Its grain offering shall be two tenths of an epha, of fine flour with oil, an offering made by fire to the Lord, for a sweet aroma, and its drink offering shall be of wine one fourth of a hen.

You shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the same day that you have brought an offering to your God, it shall be a statute forever throughout your generation in all your dwellings. God, as He gives additional information on the feast of the first fruits that we discussed last week, makes it clear again, first of all, this has to do with what comes in the harvest.

But also this has what has to do with what comes out of the flock. It also what has to do with what comes out of the vineyard. It also has to do with what comes out of the granary.

First of everything. But it w when it comes to the flock, he says, But it better be unblemished.

We have occasions where God will address with the Israelites over in the minor prophets, where he says, You're robbing me. I believe it's Malachi. Am I right? Malachi or Micah? It's one or the other. I think it's Malachi. Malachi will tell Israel, You're robbing the Lord. And God gives in and pretty sure it's in Malachi, maybe chapter four.

⁓ that he's Israel's gonna answer, Lord, in what way have we robbed you?

And God says in reply, By offering me the lame and the blind. By offering me the lamb that you would never have offered to your governors. Matter of fact, God is going to say, take the sacrifice you keep bringing to me and go give it to your governor. See if he'll accept it.

If your governor won't accept it, why would you think your God would accept it?

And God says, you're robbing me. As we look at our lives, as we look at how we give, as we look at how we worship, God is not saying, well, if you don't turn into a professional song leader, you shouldn't lead sing. No, no, no, that's not it. If you don't turn into a professional preacher, you shouldn't get up and that's not it. What God is saying is if your heart is not in it.

You should sit down. And it doesn't matter how professional you are if your heart is not in it, you should sit down. You should shut your mouth. Because all you're doing is lying.

God is making the point to Israel that their first and greatest function is to love the Lord.

Jesus will make the point. As Jesus teaches his disciples and as he teaches the crowds, man shall not live by what? Bread alone.

But by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.

Jesus takes their their concept of what it means to be devoted to God and said, Listen, if you think you can get through your daily life with food.

You missed it.

Because what you can't live without is the Lord.

What you shouldn't be able to survive without is the Lord, not the food that you feed yourself. But notice if you turn over to First Corinthians chapter fifteen.

Paul is going to

Write to the Corinthian brethren concerning the resurrection.

In first Corinthians chapter thir or fifteen.

He speaks concerning Christ. And he says in verse 20, 1 Corinthians 15, but now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. He takes the analogy of first fruits. He takes the concept from the Old Testament feast. And he says, Christ has become the beginning of the

of the harvest. He's become the first fruits of those who have died. That's what falling having fallen asleep means. For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die even, so in Christ all shall be made alive, but each one in his own order, Christ the first fruits

Afterward, those who are Christ at His coming.

Paul's emphasis here is that we would be powerless to participate in the resurrection had it not been for Christ. Had it not been for Christ dying, for our resurrection being through his resurrection, we would be powerless to be resurrected.

Imagine if you would in your mind considering what the circumstance would be if Christ went into the grave and never came out.

What would that be a testament of?

He didn't have power over death.

If he didn't have power over death, he didn't have power over salvation. If he didn't have power over death, he didn't have power over Satan. If he didn't have power over death, then ultimately he wasn't God. Now notice what Paul's about to write. He says, for in as in Adam all die.

Even so in Christ all shall be made alive, but each one in his own order, Christ the first fruits, afterward those who are Christ at his coming. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when he puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. He for he must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

For he has put all things under his feet, but when he says all things are put under him, it is evident that he who put all things under him is accepted. Now when he come when all things are made subject to him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to him who put all things under him, that God may be all in all. Otherwise, what will they do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead do not rise at all, why then are they baptized for the dead?

And why do we stand in jeopardy every hour? I affirm by the boasting in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. If in the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage is it to me? If the dead do not rise, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Do not be deceived. Evil company corrupts good habits, but

Awake to righteousness and do not sin, for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. Paul, here in this text, as he is writing to the Corinthian brethren, makes the point here in verse 29, a passage which sometimes people are confused about, and which the Mormons are incredibly confused about.

He says, What will they do who are baptized for the dead?

And when was the last time you saw someone get dunked in the water back here for somebody who was already in the grave?

Never have? Why not? Paul says we're supposed to be baptized for the dead.

The word baptism means something.

And there are more than one type of baptism discussed in Scripture. The baptism that's discussed here in the sense of there's baptism of John, there's baptism of Christ, there's baptism of fire, there's a number of other baptisms that the term in the Greek baptizo is used for. The term in the Greek means to plunge, to submerge something.

But here Paul is saying that there are people who are being submerged in something on behalf of those who are dead.

Except the dead here aren't physically dead. They're spiritually dead.

Paul's making the point, if there's no bodily resurrection when this life is over, then how are you going to take a dead soul who's dead in his sins and bring him back to life in Christ?

He's taking the spiritual resurrection from dead in sins to alive in Christ. Remember what Paul would write in Romans chapter 6? Actually, notice that real quick. We'll get this analogy even better. Romans chapter 6.

Paul says, What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead.

By the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life. Paul says the physical act of baptism is representative of a spiritual act of resurrection.

And yet you have those in Corinth who are teaching there is no resurrection. Paul says, if there is no resurrection, then why are we getting beaten and persecuted and put to death on behalf of those who are spiritually dead? Because if there's no physical resurrection, then there's no spiritual resurrection either.

So the baptism that he is discussing here is actually in correlation with the suffering. They are being put through a submersion of suffering. Notice what follows his statement. And why do we stand in jeopardy every hour? I affirm by boasting in you, which I have ⁓ which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. Paul says, you want to experience some suffering?

Come join me. And then you ask me why I would go through this on behalf of people who are spiritually dead. And the answer is so they can hear the gospel, so that they can obey the gospel, so that they can be immersed in water, so that they can be resurrected back to spiritual life.

Paul says, I'm dying daily, so they can have life.

Now, as Paul describes all of this, he describes this in view of having said, Christ is the first fruits of our resurrection. He's the first fruits of life. The Hebrew writer will describe it another way as he describes him as the captain of our salvation, the author of our salvation, the originator of.

of our salvation.

So let's tie these things together. Here we have Paul using the analogy of Christ as our first fruits, as the one who causes it for us for it to be possible that we're not only resurrected to life spiritually through salvation, but we're resurrected from death to life when this life is over.

And now ask yourself.

Who should I be interested in?

When it comes to worship, when it comes to sacrifice, when it comes to obedience, who should I be worried about? Myself or the Lord?

Who should I be considering their interest myself or the Lord?

And God keeps pointing us back to this realization, you know, without me you'd be dead.

Without me you'd have no hope. In Ephesians chapter two

He says verse one, and you he made alive.

Who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit which now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of our flesh and of the mind, and we were by nature children of wrath just as the others.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

And Paul doesn't hesitate to say, for by grace you are saved through faith.

Paul wants it us to be incredibly clear, you didn't earn this. God didn't grant you this salvation, this life, this hope, this mercy because you deserved it.

He goes on to say, and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Now, as we wrap up this idea of the unblemished sacrifice and the offering toward God with one's whole heart.

Paul presents us a perspective that tells us why we can selflessly

And without concern offer the very best that we have to the Lord.

And the answer is because no matter how much we give to God, God has more to give us back.

Jesus will be asked by his disciples, by Peter specifically.

Wha what do we receive who have given up families and houses and and all of these things for the kingdom?

And Christ says a hundredfold in this life and in the life to come.

Paul says, You go look at the exceeding riches of God's mercy.

And then you go ask yourself.

How much could I have paid to receive it?

How much could I have given to have been made worthy of it?

How much could I have done to have been worth what God gives to me?

And you come to the realization

Never can.

Which is why David will say to the man whose threshing floor David goes to sacrifice at, and the man desires to give him the oxen for the sacrifice and all of the things pertaining to the thr to the sacrifice. David says, No, I will not offer to the Lord that which cost me nothing.

David understood what devotion to God meant. It requires sacrifice and it requires the best that we have. Thank you for your attention.