Deut 14:28+29, "At the end of every third year you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in that year, and shall deposit it in your town. And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance among you, and the alien, the orphan and the widow who are in your town, shall come and eat and be satisfied, in order that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do. 
We are at a point in our reading where the Lord is once again being very specific with respect to what His people may and may not do. This runs the gamut from cutting themselves for the dead to the food that they may and may not eat, to the places in which they are enabled to bring their tithe and their feasts before the Lord. We may look at all these elements thinking that the Lord was truly demanding a great deal from His people. However, we must never forget that He was dealing with His people with the grace and the mercy with which He would bless them if they so honored and obeyed Him. 
It is not just a matter of deciding for oneself what is right or wrong and what one will choose to eat and what one will choose not to eat. It is all the matter of what God ordains. Will we honor and obey Him because of His Word to do so? Or, will we try to make our own way in this life on this earth to the best of our limited and defiled means and thoughts and concepts. That is the core of what we have before us. Will man obey and honor The Lord God, His Creator? Or will he opt to be his own god? The choice of the Garden of Eden is put before us each day in our walk on this earth. 
Some may think that this is over stating the core aspect of this passage, and in fact this whole book and ultimately the entire Bible as it has been given to us by God, Himself. But it is that decisive and that definitive! We dare not try to minimize this or marginalize it as we are so apt at doing. When there is something that does not fit what we want to do, we tend to make fun of it or argue it away with our sense of greater social awareness and more keenly developed knowledge basis and intellectual capabilities. 
But the truth of the Lord stands firm and undeterred against the every self-seeking effort of mankind. What God demands of His people, fully in line with His Word, is eternal and will not be lessened nor will it be short-circuited by any human endeavor. The restrictions against the eating of certain foods have been loosened, but only because God so loosened them as an example of the full inclusion of anyone who would call upon the name of Jesus for salvation. This is regardless of tribe or nation or pedigree. 
As well, Our Lord Jesus fulfilled all of the restrictions and obligations under which the nation of Israel operated by His perfect obedience and sacrifice on the cross. This was necessary in part because of what man had done to those laws through every vile human manipulation and twisting and corruption. The Holiness of God was perverted by the religious institutionalism in this very conflict between gladly accepting and obeying the Lord or trying to twist and turn God’s Word into man’s means of lording himself over all others. 
What we are told in these passages detail what God expected from His people in their holy and righteous treatment of others. We no longer put people to death for the violation of God’s Holiness, because man was falsely using that as a means of dealing with those who were considered different and undesirable. Mankind abused the Word and thereby perverted the holiness of God. 
However, the consideration of the His Holiness is still the means whereby we honor God. As we so honor the Lord, we will honor those who are so in need of His manifested love. There is so very much that is set in the heart of God toward man’s treatment of one another with the dignity and with the honor that is required by The Lord as an expression of our love for and obedience unto God.
	Please open to Ex 22:18-24, so we can read this section of God speaking to the people through Moses. He makes it very clear what is necessary in obedience toward the Lord. It should be quite evident that mankind has grossly perverted and ignored this passage for the sake of his own vile means of seeking self-centered satisfaction at the cost of true and humble obedience to the Lord God Almighty. We have created so many of our own gods to worship with the actions of our own socially acceptable practices that utterly flaunt themselves against the Holiness of God. All the conceptions of right and wrong have been mitigated. Now we can treat anyone and everyone in any manner as long as we get what we want out of them.
	Ex 22:18-24, "You shall not allow a sorceress to live. "Whoever lies with an animal shall surely be put to death. "He who sacrifices to any god, other than to the Lord alone, shall be utterly destroyed. And you shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall not afflict any widow or orphan. If you afflict him at all, and if he does cry out to Me, I will surely hear his cry; and My anger will be kindled, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless. 
Now please open to Lev 19:30-37, where, once again, the Lord is very specific with regard to what is acceptable in His sight. There is a required treatment of others that should be at the forefront of our consideration and our demeanor because it honors the Lord God Almighty.
Lev 19:30-37, 'You shall keep My sabbaths and revere My sanctuary; I am the Lord. 'Do not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God. 'You shall rise up before the grayheaded, and honor the aged, and you shall revere your God; I am the Lord. 'When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. 'The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. 'You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measurement of weight, or capacity. 'You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt. 'You shall thus observe all My statutes, and all My ordinances, and do them: I am the Lord.'" 
	Please notice how crucial it is to act toward others in the manner in which God will be glorified and pleased. As we, even today, deal with other people, there should be a covering of all our transactions with the manner that would bring praise to God from the mouths of those with whom we interact. They should see a complete difference in the means and course of our dealings and operations. They may not know what makes us different, but there should be that complete distinction. When they are finished with us, either in the service that we provide or that we receive, they should be blessed because of how we have dealt with them. We are a living testimony of the Lord and that should be evident even in our financial and business dealings. We are to be honest in all our interactions and all our expectations. Those with whom we interrelate should be blessed because they have been in the presence of a witness of the Holiness of the Lord God Almighty!
	Returning to the Book of Deuteronomy for the remainder of this morning, we look to Deut 12:10-12, where the Children of Israel were given instructions as to how to honor the Lord after they had crossed the Jordan and conquered the Promised Land. God would honor them with peace and with rest if they would choose to honor Him with the manner of their bringing Him all that He required of them. It would show that all they had they accounted unto Him and as belonging to Him. They were the ones who were being given the opportunity to enjoy the fruit of the land as the blessing of the Lord’s provision for them. Accordingly, they were to rejoice and to teach and to include their children and their servants and the Levites who were in their midst in all the blessings of the Lord. 
	Deut 12:10-12, When you cross the Jordan and live in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in security, then it shall come about that the place in which the Lord your God shall choose for His name to dwell, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution of your hand, and all your choice votive offerings which you will vow to the Lord. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance with you. 
    	Again, hear the voice of the Lord instructing the people in the manner in which they were to celebrate and to rejoice in the goodness of the Lord’s supply unto them as we can read together in Deut 16:10-17. It was their responsibility to have that heart of love and joy in the Lord that would be in evidence to the whole of their community. So often we think of the laws of the Lord with solemnity and with a sense of dread at what we are not able to do, as if the Lord would withhold any good thing from us. The fact of the matter is that the Lord supplies all that is good and honorable and filled with the utmost of His blessing if we would but completely focus our hearts and beings upon pleasing Him.
	Deut 16:10-17, Then you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with a tribute of a freewill offering of your hand, which you shall give just as the Lord your God blesses you; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter and your male and female servants and the Levite who is in your town, and the stranger and the orphan and the widow who are in your midst, in the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish His name. And you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes. "You shall celebrate the Feast of Booths seven days after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and your wine vat; and you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter and your male and female servants and the Levite and the stranger and the orphan and the widow who are in your towns. Seven days you shall celebrate a feast to the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you shall be altogether joyful. Three times in a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses, at the Feast of Unleavened Bread and at the Feast of Weeks and at the Feast of Booths, and they shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed. Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you. 
    	Once more, the heart of the Lord for those who are less fortunate is to be central to our service unto Him. These guidelines to our behavior and our attitude are just as valid today as in the day given because they represent the very heart of God. They are to be the instilled manner of how we treat one another and interact with those in need. We are all in need of the salvation and the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Accordingly we are all in to be a means of help and assistance to those who are less fortunate and need the blessing with which we have been so blessed. We find this recorded for us in Deut 24:17-22, if you would please turn to it.
	Deut 24:17-22, "You shall not pervert the justice due an alien or an orphan, nor take a widow's garment in pledge. But you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and that the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I am commanding you to do this thing. "When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow, in order that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not go over it again; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow. And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I am commanding you to do this thing. 
    	God’s heart for those in need is the heart that caused Him to send forth His Only Begotten Son to bring salvation to us. As a direct result of our being so blessed by God, we are to look for those avenues in which we can bless others with the testimony of who we now are in Jesus Christ. We were in the same situation as the Children of Israel who needed salvation from the slavery of Egypt. As the course of their lives was to manifest their joy in the Lord their Savior, so is it to be true of our lives today.
	This is recounted for us in our final passage of this morning, Deut 26:7-19. Please turn to it so we can rejoice and receive more of God’s blessing together as detailed in it. 
Deut 26:7-19, 'Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction and our toil and our oppression; and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with great terror and with signs and wonders; and He has brought us to this place, and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 'And now behold, I have brought the first of the produce of the ground which Thou, O Lord hast given me.' And you shall set it down before the Lord your God, and worship before the Lord your God; and you and the Levite and the alien who is among you shall rejoice in all the good which the Lord your God has given you and your household. "When you have finished paying all the tithe of your increase in the third year, the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the stranger, to the orphan and to the widow, that they may eat in your towns, and be satisfied. And you shall say before the Lord your God, 'I have removed the sacred portion from my house, and also have given it to the Levite and the alien, the orphan and the widow, according to all Thy commandments which Thou hast commanded me; I have not transgressed or forgotten any of Thy commandments. 'I have not eaten of it while mourning, nor have I removed any of it while I was unclean, nor offered any of it to the dead. I have listened to the voice of the Lord my God; I have done according to all that Thou hast commanded me. 'Look down from Thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Thy people Israel, and the ground which Thou hast given us, a land flowing with milk and honey, as Thou didst swear to our fathers.' "This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. You have today declared the Lord to be your God, and that you would walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments and His ordinances, and listen to His voice. And the Lord has today declared you to be His people, a treasured possession, as He promised you, and that you should keep all His commandments; and that He shall set you high above all nations which He has made, for praise, fame, and honor; and that you shall be a consecrated people to the Lord your God, as He has spoken." 
      	We will continue forward next week, Lord willing, as we look at the difference between knowing the acts of God and knowing the ways of God. This whole of creation knows and can see the acts of God, as was so evident even to the people of Egypt. However, we need to come into the living relationship with God in which we learn the ways of God. It is the complete difference that our heart’s relatedness to God is in our course of fulfilling this blessed walk that we have with Him in Jesus Christ. So be it!    
"At the end of every third year you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in that year, and shall deposit it in your town. And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance among you, and the alien, the orphan and the widow who are in your town, shall come and eat and be satisfied, in order that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do. Amen.

	This morning’s benediction is Matt 6:33. "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you. Amen.