Falaite Fepueli 6, 2026

LEVITIKO 16-18; PALOVEPI 7:1-27

God's laws are not only for his glory; they are for our thriving as well.

Ko e ngaahi lao ‘a e ‘Otua, ‘oku ‘ikai ngata pe ‘i hono fakae’a ai ‘a Hono langilangi, ka ki he’etau lelei foki.

You probably don't need me to tell you that we are living in a culture that has gone sexually insane. The anytime, anyway, and with-any-person culture of sexuality will not lead us anywhere good. The social philosophy of gender fluidity, based solely on spontaneous personal preference, must include the denial of biological and relational realities. Where we are as a society, when it comes to human sexuality, should remind us of the importance of God's wise and holy laws regarding sex. We should be grateful that God has spoken with such remarkable and memorable clarity about this important aspect of human desire and function. He has done so because he loves us.

Leviticus 18:5 introduces a list of laws pertaining to sexuality: "You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the LORD." First, this verse reminds us that the laws of God do not get in the way of the good life but are the tracks upon which the good life runs. "He shall live by them" means that life - abundant life - is found in a careful, life-shaping submission to the wise and holy laws of our Creator Lord. Second, this verse tells us that God is not sex-negative; in fact, the Bible makes it clear that God is not pleasure-negative. He has placed us in a world of glorious pleasures wherever we look. And he has created us with pleasure gates (eyes, ears, nose, etc.) so that we can participate in, absorb, and enjoy the physical pleasures that he has filled the earth with. But as an infinitely wise Creator, God knows that pleasure requires boundaries. A whatever-you-want, however-much-you-want, anytime-you-want, with-whomever-you-want approach to pleasure will always harm yourself and others in some way. A life controlled by the unbridled love of pleasure is a life heading for destruction. God wants us to enjoy sexual pleasure, and he wants our sexual lives to thrive, but he knows this will happen only when we submit our sexual desire to his wise commands.

Leviticus 18:5 reminds us of one final thing. As weak and wandering sinners, we have no power on our own to love God and his law more than we love the pleasure of sexual fulfillment. So our hope of thriving in this area lies with our God, who meets us by his grace and empowers us to desire and to do what is right in his eyes. Once again, we are pointed to Jesus. In Jesus, God not only reconciles us to himself, but he gifts us with his Spirit to guide, convict, and empower us, so that we can know the joy of living the good life, that is, living the way the Creator designed for us to live.

 Tu’apulelulu Fepueli 5, 2026

LEVITIKO 14-15; SAAME 139:1-16

No detail of your life is outside of the watchful and faithful care of your heavenly Father.

‘Oku ‘ikai ha mingimingi’i ma’e ‘i ho’o mo’ui ‘e ta’e ‘afio’i ‘e he fofonga tokanga mo ‘ofa ‘o ho’o Tamai faka-hevani.

Politicians on the campaign trail often communicate that they care for their constituents, but their care is distant and impersonal at best. They don't know you, they don't love you, and they have no idea what your personal life is like or what burdens you bear. So when a politician says he cares, you don't tell yourself you can let go of your burdens and rest in this leader's care. Because you hear his words of care in the most general sense, they make little difference in your emotional or spiritual state or in how you live your life.

But imagine what it would be like to have the most powerful person in the universe set his love on you, commit to unleashing his power to bless you, and deliver amazing promises of guidance, protection, and provision. Wouldn't the care of that person change the way you think about yourself, your life, your hopes and dreams, your potential, and the hardships and burdens of life? This is exactly what the book of Leviticus is about: it's about Almighty God, the Lord of heaven and earth, setting his love on his children and making covenant promises to bless them and, through them, to bless the peoples of the earth. What Leviticus pictures for us is how deep, detailed, and pervasive the care of God is for his children. The specificity and detail of God's laws for his children show just how much he loves them. In these laws we see how much he cares about every detail of what we deal with as we live in this fallen world. The one who created us cares for us, and, because he created us, he knows just what we need.

Leviticus 15 includes a series of laws about bodily discharges. Now, you may not have known that this was in the Bible, or you may be wondering why it is in the Bible. Perhaps you have never heard a sermon on Leviticus 15 and bodily discharges. But there is a reason for these laws, and a reason they were preserved for us. They remind us that no human experience, no matter how personal or embarrassing, is outside the Lord's care. God's care is so insightful and thorough that he even cares about our most intimate bodily functions. He knows what men and women go through, and he meets us with his loving care. I am glad for Leviticus 15 and what it communicates about the specificity of God's love for his children. If he cares so much about the little things in our lives, you can be sure he cares about the biggest danger to us: our sin. If he works in the little things, you can rest assured that he will deal with this big thing: he will send one who will conquer sin and death and reconcile us to himself forever.

 Pulelulu Fepueli 4, 2026

LEVITIKO 11-13; SAAME 51:1-12

By the loving miracle of God's grace, unclean hearts are made new and pure.

‘I he mana fakaofo ‘a e kelesi ‘a e ‘Otua, ko e ngaahi loto ta’e ma’aa kuo ngaohi ke fo’ou mo ma’a.

Leviticus 13:45-46 says, "The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, 'Unclean, unclean. He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp." These words remind me of David's prayer after committing adultery: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me" (Ps. 51:10). Although the laws surrounding leprosy had to do with God's lovingly and wisely protecting his people from a deadly infection, they also point us to something profoundly deeper.

Sin is the ultimate infection. No one escapes this disease. It renders us all unclean. It separates us all from our Maker. It cries out for the ultimate cure, one only the Messiah can provide.

Like a bad stain on white linen, like a black smudge on pure vellum, like wine spilled on a new dress, like paint drips on window glass, like mud on a new shoe, this stain won't just go away. It won't fade into nothing. You won't wake up one morning to discover it has suddenly disappeared. The deepest, darkest, most penetrating stubborn stains must be cleansed.

Denying that they're there never works. Doing your best to hide them doesn't remove them. Living with them is foolishness. Hoping no one will notice is vain. Worrying about them changes nothing. Whatever has been stained must be cleansed to be new again. So it is with the human heart. It is sad to admit, but no one has a pure, perfectly clean, unstained, pristinely beautiful, heart. No one. Every heart of every person comes into this world stained by sin.

Sin is immorality's permanent ink, sinking into the deepest regions of the thoughts, desires, motives, purposes, worship of the heart. This tragic sin stain is humanly unremovable. No matter what you try, no matter how many times you try, it is there to stay without something that has cleansing power. You can look at your stains with hope

because there is a cleansing stream. It flows through the righteous life, the substitutionary sacrifice, the victorious resurrection of Jesus. He came so that sin-stained hearts would have the hope of being clean again, new again, spotless in his sight again, ultimately pure again, forever.

If we confess that we are stained, he is faithful, he is righteous, he will forgive our sins, he will cleanse our hearts and thoroughly wash us from all unrighteousness. Step out from the shame of your stains. Refuse to put your hope in things that do not cleanse. Walk away from a life of denial. Confess that you have no cleansing power of your own. Quit blaming your stains on other people, other things. 

Humbly bring the garment of your heart to him. Put your stains in his hands. He will wash you in his grace. He delights in doing for you what you could never do for yourself. He delights in making you clean.

 Tusite Fepueli 3, 2026

LEVITIKO 8-10; LOMA 3:9-20

It is essential for us to take sin seriously, because Scripture makes it clear that God does.

‘Oku fu’u mahu’inga ‘aupito ke tau tokanga ki he mamafa ‘o e angahala, koe’uhi, ‘oku ha mahino ‘i he Folofola ‘a e mamafa ‘a e angahala ki he ‘Otua.

He was an angry, emotionally abusive, demanding, controlling, and physically intimidating husband. I have to admit that, when I sat with him in my counseling office, he intimidated me. He had destroyed all the sweetness, unity, peace, and joy in his marriage. His wife was emotionally broken. She had lived too long in fear of when she would anger him next. When she voiced her hurt, he mocked her for being weak and needy. The thing that struck me the first time I met with them was the smile on his face. His wife tearfully told me why she had begged him to come with her for counseling as he sat there with his arms folded and a grin of mockery on his face. He wasn't ashamed. He didn't feel guilty. He didn't think his behavior was that big of a deal. He surely wasn't in my office that morning because he thought he needed help. He was there to placate his wife, to get her off his back so that they could "move on." I wanted to think that he and I had nothing in common, but we did.

There are times when I too don't take my sin seriously. There are times when my pride and impatience don't seem such a big deal to me. There are times when I am defensive when approached about a wrong I have done. There are times when I work to make my sin look less than sinful to me. And I am sure there are times when you do the same. For most of us our problem is not that we take sin too seriously, feel its weight too much, or confess our wrongs too quickly and too often. No, for most of us our problem is that we often fail to see the seriousness of our sin and the gravity of its vertical and horizontal consequences. It is scary that we are able to call ourselves followers of Jesus Christ, and yet we minimize the very thing that led him to the cross. The whole content and motion of the grand redemptive narrative is a result of God's unwillingness to close his eyes to the pervasiveness and gravity of sin, which has infected every one of us. To God, no disease that has befallen humanity is more significant and destructive than sin.

That's why, immediately after Adam and Eve sinned, our God promised that this dark thing would be once and for all defeated and eradicated (Gen. 3:15). Sin is so serious that it gets that kind of attention from the Creator Sovereign King.

This is why the story of Nadab and Abihu, who made an unauthorized incense offering, should get our attention (Lev. 10:1-3). A fire from the Lord consumed them, and they died. That's how serious sin is: "The wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). Because God saw sin as serious, he set in motion a process to give us a Savior. The grace of new life is needed only if sin is as deadly as God says it is. Do you take sin seriously?

 Monite Fepueli 2, 2026

LEVITIKO 5-7; 1 SIONE 1:5-10

Sin leaves each of us guilty. The question is, What will we do with our guilt?

‘Oku ‘omi ‘e he angahala ‘a e ongo’i halaia ki he tokotaha kotoa. Ko e fehu’i leva, Ko e ha ‘etau me’a ‘e fai fekau’aki mo e ongo’i halaia ko ia?

My son had taken something that wasn't his. I watched him do it, even though he didn't know he was being watched. I called him over. He diverted his eyes as he walked toward me. His head-down walk was a picture of guilt. He knew that what he had done was wrong. He knew now that I had seen him. He knew he was in trouble, but, when I asked him if he had done what I saw him do, he denied it. I was an eyewitness, yet he would not admit his guilt.

My son, whom I love with all my heart, is not alone in his response. Since we are all sinners, we all stand guilty before God. We all deal with our guilt somehow, someway. Some of us live in denial, telling ourselves again and again that we are righteous. This is an exercise in self-atonement. Some of us deal with our guilt by comparing ourselves to others, concluding that we are not so bad after all. Some of us are good at minimizing our sin, working to make what we have done seem less than sinful. Some of us are skilled at pointing the finger and shifting the blame to someone or something other than ourselves. Some of us wallow in self-despising guilt, allowing shame to depress and isolate us. Some of us try to deal with our guilt by committing to a regimen of self-reformation, determining to set high, perfectionistic standards for ourselves.

All of these reactions to guilt are burdensome, dysfunctional, and disappointing. They simply never work. They turn us into either proud legalists or fearful depressives, but they never produce good fruit in us or in our relationships with others. Since we are all born guilty, our guilt can't be denied or wished away. Our guilt must be confessed; it must be borne; and it must be removed, so that we can live in the light and without shame. This is why the institution of the guilt offering is both an essential gift and a great relief (Lev. 5-7). God declares that he has made a way for our guilt to be dealt with so that we don't have to get up every morning and put that huge, heavy backpack of guilt on our shoulders once again. The guilt offering tells us where the redemptive story is going. Embedded in every animal guilt offering is the promise that there will be a final Lamb of sacrifice (1 Cor. 5:7). He will carry the full range of our guilt and shame.

Although perfectly spotless in every way, Jesus will take the heavy load of our guilt on himself. He will remove our guilt so that we can stand before God righteous and without fear or shame. Since guilt is inescapable, the guilt offering is essential. Jesus is our guilt offering, so we deny our patterns of denial and confess to our guilt, knowing we will receive mercy and grace when we do. Celebrate today the guilt offering that God has so willingly and graciously made for you. Come out of shame's darkness and live in the light. 

 Sapate Fepueli 1, 2026

LEVITIKO 1-4; HEPELU 7:11-28

No greater gift has ever been given than the gift of atonement for sin. We will be celebrating this gift of grace for all of eternity.

‘Oku ‘ikai mo ha toe me’a’ofa kuo foaki ‘e mahulu hake ‘i he me’a’ofa ‘o e huhu’i ‘o e angahala. Te tau katoanga’i ‘a e me’a’ofa ‘o e kelesi ko eni ‘o lau’itaniti.

A sad awareness eventually washes over every parent. At some point, early in the life of your little loved one, you see sin rear its ugly head. It is obvious and unavoidable. You had hoped your child would be the exception, but it turns out she's not. She might refuse to do what you ask. She might shout "No!" to a command you have given. She might display selfishness or anger. You know the reason: your child is a sinner. It's not just that your child does things that are wrong. No, you are confronted with something profoundly deeper and more controlling. If the problem were just an occasional behavioral problem, perhaps some system of behavioral modification would work. But, as we look at every human being, we realize our problem is not just a matter of behavior; we have a problem with behavior because we have a nature problem. Sin is not only a matter of what we occasionally do. Sin, apart from the restorative power of God's grace, is who we are. We are sinners by nature, and that is why we have no ability to escape its power and penalty on our own.

I love the good news of Leviticus. This book in God's word is like a finger pointing us to where God's great redemptive story is going. Leviticus alerts us to the fact that God, in glorious grace, is very serious about providing atonement for sin. He makes a way for sin's penalty to be paid, so that gracious forgiveness can be granted. If sin is our deepest, most destructive, and most inescapable problem, then atonement for sin is the best, most-needed news ever. If you understand that every sin is a direct rebellion against God, then the gift of atonement becomes even more amazing to you. Sinners offend God in innumerable ways, yet, with a love that is almost too wonderful for words, God moves to make atonement for sin possible.

Leviticus 4 uses a refrain three times: "The priest shall make atonement for him,... and he shall be forgiven" (4:26, 31, 35). These are glorious, hope-filled words. There is hope for us, no matter how strong the hold of sin is on us and no matter what dark hallways of sin we have walked. In these words we are assured that an utterly holy God makes a way for thoroughly sinful people to have their penalty paid and their record wiped clean. But there is more. In these words we find a promise of the coming of the Great High Priest, Jesus. He will be the final sacrifice, the complete payment, and the ultimate means of eternal forgiveness. What better news could you ever want to hear?

 TOKONAKI SANUALI 31, 2026

‘EKISOTO 39-40; ‘EFESO 1:15-23

By grace we are not just accepted into God's family, but the glory of his presence dwells in and among us.

Koe’uhi ko ‘Ene kelesi, ‘oku ‘ikai ngata pe ‘i hono tali kitautolu ki he famili ‘o e ‘Otua, ka ko e langilangi ‘o Hono fōtunga ‘oku nofo’ia kitautolu pea ‘oku ‘i hotau lotolotonga.

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the LORD was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys. (Ex. 40:34-38)

Reread that opening passage and let your heart be filled with the wonder that is captured here. Here is one of the most magnificent moments of divine grace in all of the Old Testament. We must never let words like these pass quickly through our minds as we move on to the next thing. This moment has been captured by God and written into his book so that today you and I would be stopped by it and left in awe. This has been retained for us in order to rescue us, change us, and produce in us a heart captured by a life shaped by God's glory.

It is hard for me to find words that properly express the wonder of this moment in God's redemptive narrative. The children of Israel have already proven themselves to be sinful, complaining, rebellious, and doubt-filled people. They have doubted God's presence and power, and they have questioned his wisdom. Shockingly, they have already erected an idol, giving this lifeless image credit for what only God, in his rescuing mercy, could have done (Ex. 32:1-6). Yet God had a plan for his people: out of them the Messiah would come. That plan depended on the Lord's constant presence with them. The Israelites were included in God's plan not because they had done things to deserve it, but because in his sovereign mercy he had chosen to place his love on them. It is humbling to understand and confess that what we need most in life and death we have no ability to earn or deserve. God with us, in us, and for us is always the result of one thing: grace.

The cloud and the fire were physical, visible symbols of God's presence with his people. The cloud and fire pictured that Israel had been sanctified by God. What do I mean by this? God had set Israel apart from every nation on earth for his will and his glory. These visible symbols were to remind them again and again that they were the children of God. If you're God's child, his presence and glory have descended on you not because of what you've done, but because of what Jesus has done for you. God's glory resting on you means not only that he is with you, but that you belong to him, set apart for his purpose and his glory.