Exodus 28:41Scripture
Exodus chapter, actually, let's turn to First Peter, chapter 2, and I'm going to connect it to one word. I'm trying to actually, let's see here, it's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven words I want to pull out of our two chapters to talk about, because there's way too much to talk about in chapter 28 and 29, right? So I want to really focus in on one thing. There's a connection point in First Peter; we'll start there, because we see all of these things happening in the tabernacle and the tent of meeting. We see all the stipulations on how to build the tabernacle, what should be constructed, the materials that should be used. We talked yesterday about the veil, or the curtain, in the temple, not yesterday but last week, and today we're kind of moving into the priesthood: what is to be prepared for the priests to get them ready, and things of that nature, and then their duties.
First Peter, I'm going to start there, because we get to see glimpses of how this transitions to us as believers a bit, okay, particularly the seven words I'm going to extrapolate out today. 1 Peter 2:1–10. Are you there? Okay, I couldn't remember if I said the whole thing or if I just said First
Point 1Long for the word or feed on the rest
Peter. So it says this: "So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy." Okay, Paul's not, or Peter's not entreating us to do this; he's saying do it. Just put it away. This has no place in the life of a believer. Put away all malice. That's hard to do, right? Put away all deceit "and hypocrisy and envy and all slander." That's a lot. I wish it would just list one thing to do, right? That's a lot. "Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation." I love this, because he's basically saying, if you don't long for the spiritual milk, you'll end up longing for all these things in the list before. You will feed on one or the other. You'll either feed on malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, or slander, or you'll long for the pure spiritual milk that comes from God. I would like to say it like this: you either long for the word and you'll feed on that, or you'll feed on the other stuff. When you don't feed on this, guess what? You're going to feed on the other stuff. That's the way it works. Now, I could give you percentages today of people who read the Bible once a day, people who read the Bible twice a week, people who read the Bible three times a week, people who read the Bible four times a week. When people read the Bible four times a week, they are 250 times more likely to share the gospel with someone. When they read the Bible three times a week, they are only 25% more likely to share the gospel with somebody. Is that not fascinating? When you read the Bible two times a week, men and women, but I'm going to hit the men, but now it's equal in the church, you are 75% more likely to not look at pornography. Two times a week. What are you feasting on? See, when you get full with one thing, it's hard to eat another. That's so, eat a plate this big of Brussels sprouts, green beans, and two big old pieces of chicken, and then go try to eat something else right after. It's not easy, because you're full of something. How many of you know that you can get so full with something, but you still feel like, because it's ice cream and it's liquid, by the time it gets in there it will melt around and make its way through to the bottom? So you think there's room, and you go ahead and you eat that bowl, although there's not room in there, because you had a big dinner. And then you lay down a little too quick. How's that work for you? It just doesn't want to go in; there's no room. And once you learn that lesson, you don't really want to do it again. When you're full, you just kind of, I mean, that's why people stretch and try to make room for more.
The reality is, when you're full of his word, there's not room for the other.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 4:54
So how do we put it away? Good question. Fill yourself up with something more better. "More better," that's bad grammar, man. Anyway, "if indeed," but "that by it you may grow up into salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone," he's speaking to who you are. You're not a stone that sits; you're a living stone that moves. "Rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood." Set apart. Priesthood, not priest. Priest-hood. It's a hood. You're a bunch of hoodlums in the priesthood. There's a bunch of you together, "to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
For it stands in Scripture: 'Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him,'" Jesus, "'will not be put to shame.'"
"So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, 'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,' and 'A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.' They stumble because they," listen to this, "disobey the word." That's why they stumbled. You clearly have it. You might be disobedient because you don't know it, although you have it. Are you with me? And do you notice that there's no excuse here, that you get a pass if you stumble just because you didn't know it, if you have it? It's just really important that we understand that the word is final. "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." This is good. This is good. This is good stuff. Now listen to this, let's transition here for a second. So that's that. I'm going to connect these two, because it's speaking to you now, post–Old Testament. Now we've come into the New Testament. It used to be there was a tent of meeting. It used to be there was an outer court, an inner court, and a holy of holies. There was a hundredfold, sixtyfold, and thirtyfold, there was thirtyfold, sixtyfold, hundredfold, and there's all of these things, and you see these wonderful layers of getting into God's presence. And then we see Jesus comes and dies and becomes a propitiation for our sins, that we might have direct access to get into the holy of holies, which means that's where the priests go. And so now we have total access into his presence. Now, so that means you are a priesthood and a holy nation, and we are made that not by what we do; we are made that because of what Jesus did, right? It is the sacrifice. It is the blood sacrifice. Salvation is a bloody situation, and it was in the Old testament, because they had to slay the lamb, the goat, the ram, and all of that, and they had to sacrifice it, and they did that, and they sprinkled the blood in the holy of holies, and they did that as a payment for your sin, for their sin, for our sin, okay? Jesus became the one-time sacrifice, once and for all, okay? And now we are set apart. We are holy because of Jesus, and we are a priesthood because of Jesus. So let's read this. Let's read, kind of out of these two chapters, let's read the one thing that I extrapolated out. What's the priest to do, then? Like, how do we take this and make it relevant for us today, post–Jesus Christ, right? So we're seeing imagery of Jesus, who will come and ultimately save and redeem his people.
God has provided provision for them in the desert, that he might cover their sins and sanctify them and keep them holy, and not come and kill them because of their sin. And he provides provision and covering for them in spite of their sin, and he tells them specifically what to do in the desert until Jesus comes. It's a provisionary move, preparing the way of Christ, foreshadowing Christ, the ultimate propitiation for our sin, the ultimate sacrifice for all mankind. But then Exodus 28:41, give you just a moment to look there with me. Exodus 28:41 says, hurry, little fingers, I hear them flipping. Exodus 28:41: "And you shall put them on Aaron your brother, and on his sons with him, and shall anoint them and ordain them and consecrate them,"
And this is the part, these are the seven words I want you to focus on today, "that they may serve me as priests." Priesthood is about
Point 2A priest is not self-absorbed
Service. It's about service. I'll start with point number one, for Brook: a priest is not self-absorbed. Now, this is troubling in our culture, because I don't think any of our aim is to be self-absorbed, but we live in a culture where we have been caught by the undertow of self-absorption and sucked back into its depths, and everywhere we go, everything is pointing back to us. Amen? We all struggle with it, not even knowing we struggle with it. We wrestle in a culture that really wants to make everything about us. It sells.
Let me just be honest with you: making something about you sells. You are being sold all the time.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 12:17
And honestly, that's why the Bible's not so attractive, because God's not interested in selling you about you. He's interested in selling the good news about him, and it ain't about you.
It's all about him. It's all about him.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 12:37
And it's not a good pitch today, because we are so used to everything being about us, everything being about us. And whenever you say "priest" in this modern culture, the only group that consistently uses the word "priest" today in our culture is the Catholic Church, so that's really what we think of when we think of the word "priest." But if our understanding of priest is only in the context of Catholicism, then we miss the greater meaning, I believe, because we discover here that God says you're a priesthood, and you're a priest-hood and a holy nation and a holy people, without catechism, without formal training. You're a priesthood. He assigns this through Christ and what Christ paid. And God has declared us not only priests but a priesthood. This moves us from the understanding of your role not in isolation but also as a collective. We're in this together. Amen? We need each other. You say you're a priest; go off by yourself, be priestly by yourself? The whole point of the priest was intercession.
The priest stood before God for the people, and then he stood before the people for God.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 14:12
We cannot contextualize priesthood for our lives, so we don't value ourselves as one. We know we are recipients of God's grace and mercy, and we rejoice in that, and we celebrate, and we're thankful for his grace and mercy, and we talk about it often. But when it moves to the conversation of "we are a priesthood and a holy nation," that gets lost. We just want to go back to shouting and cheering about grace and mercy. And that is wonderful, but that accomplished something, which was for you to be a holy nation and a priesthood, to be holy, to be set apart. That's the point of grace and mercy. That's what it accomplished. It was doing something. It's more than just the blood being slung. There is something being done in the presence of God, and there's something being done in the presence of the people.
There is something happening, and the priest is a part of the process. And notice that these two chapters go into great detail about what the priest should wear, what the priest should do, what should be used by the priest. It is all in there. The priest has a role. And today we should be asking ourselves, as we look, what is Jesus' role? And let's not try to do Jesus' role. And what is our role? Today the church gets convoluted. We try to do Jesus' role when we should be doing our role. We should be doing our role.
We know we're recipients of God's grace and mercy, but few seem to graduate from the pediatrics of theology, from being a recipient of grace to becoming a priest.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 15:53
And really, a priest has a duality of responsibilities. I mentioned it briefly just a moment ago; I'll mention it more clearly now. A priest goes to God to represent the people. A priest goes to the people to represent God. That was one of the priest's main roles. And this culture will suck you up into an undercurrent of narcissism. It puts out and produces what I have heard referred to by the younger generation as WIIFM people. "What's in it for me" people, because they abbreviate everything nowadays. WIIFM people. "So what's in it for me, Shawn?" And people are leaving anything that does not serve them. "This marriage, it just doesn't serve me anymore. I'm out." "This relationship, it just doesn't serve me anymore. I'm done." We have parents leaving kids and kids leaving parents and having nothing to do with them, because they're WIIFM people, and the moment they realize that there's nothing in it for them, they're done, and that person's dead to them. We have people picking churches based on what's in it for them. And the reality is, I get it. I get it, because we live in a world, I get it, we live in a world where everything is based on what's in it for you, and it's hard. Listen, it's hard to unchain yourself from a cultural sway that has such high- tide influence in our life. I get it.
This is why you're supposed to be rooted in Christ, rooted so deep that tides can't sway you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 17:57
This is why we should look different than the world.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 18:12
But people are leaving. People are like this because they are raised like this, because they are taught to. They are not taught, listen to me, to serve; they are taught to receive. Everything about what's happening in Exodus is giving and serving. Everything. And that's lost on us. We've become so soft in our parenting nowadays, me included. Actually, there are times I've been too hard, and there have been times I've been too soft, but I'm pretty certain that being too soft is more damaging than being too hard, I think. I'm not saying abusive. There's a difference between being hard, being too hard and too strict, and being abusive. I'm not encouraging abuse. "Well, he says I should just keep abusing, because that's better than being soft." That's not what I said. It's not what I said. But I do think there's something between being too strict and being too soft, and I think being too soft is more damaging than being too hard. I think so. I think you should try to let God help you find the happy medium, and you be Christlike. That's what I think. But at the end of the day, we have so softened up, and we don't expect anything. We don't require anything from our children. The reality is, we just want our kids to sit down in the chair, look at the iPad, and shut up. All right, just don't do anything, don't say anything, don't move. They aren't required to help around the house. This is what I hear. My kids are older, they're, I mean, and trust me, I tell them, "This ain't a roller coaster ride. You, I mean, you pitch in, man. You think you're just living here, just going for a ride? Help around here." Yeah, yes, yeah. I, listen, poor Ashton. Every day, at least twice a day, I ask him to take out the dogs. Probably takes him four minutes to do it, by the time he walks down, puts the leash on the dog, takes him out, puts the leash back, goes back upstairs. He never complains about that in front of my face, because I'm bigger than he is, man. You know what I mean? Never complains in front of my face. Never see him roll his eyes, never hear him go... None of that, because he might die. I mean, I'm not, I mean, I might be too hard, right? But he never complains, always helps. But listen, eight minutes. Listen, that's not too much to contribute for a kid. He does more. But there are parents who won't even ask that, because they won't inconvenience the kids. I don't care if you're in the middle of call of Duty; I'm calling. It's a duty. Take out the dogs. You with me? Okay, sorry. You like it? I didn't even write that down in my notes. I was just impromptu, right? But we don't ask anything of our kids. We ask nothing. We eat dinner, the kids leave their plates on the table.
They don't even help put it up, clean it, put it back in the dishwasher. Brook's like, "Can I get it?" Man, you know what I mean? Like, but our kids help. They clean it up. "Clean up your own plate. I wasn't born to clean up after you." Matter of fact, I had you to clean up after me. Anyway, why'd I have you? All right, we don't let our kids do anything. This is why people are like this: "What are you going to do for me?" They aren't required to even be nice, for goodness' sake. Like, they don't have to clean up the dishes, they don't have to take out the dogs, they don't have to take out the trash, they don't have to help around the house, they don't have to do nothing, and then they don't even have to be nice.
This is what happens when you don't teach your kids the art of giving but only receiving.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 22:37
You know how much giving is going on in Exodus right now? We're not teaching the kids to do what we even saw in the Old Testament, when they weren't even indwelt with the Holy Spirit. They did. You're a priesthood. They couldn't even get in and get access. You have his presence in you. It ain't in some ark between two cherubim with a fire and smoke and cloud that you can see on the outside of the tent. You can see he's in there, but you can't get access to him. He's in you as believers. And this is how we raise our kids: to not serve and not give. That's not what a royal priesthood and a holy nation is. Priests in 28 serve. Priests give. Everyone in the community gave of their resources and talents and skills. A priest is not self-absorbed. You can't give and you can't serve if you're too busy giving and serving to yourself. This is others-based, not you-based. And, oh, just track with me. I'm yelling, but I'm not mad. Listen to me, listen to me here. Have you ever run into, just, this is me. Let me just share from me, because it seems like I'm preaching at you, and sometimes I am, but now let's just talk. Let's just talk amongst us for a moment. Let's just share.
Have you ever caught yourself serving, thinking you're doing something noble, and realized that you benefit from that service? Track with me, right? I've done that a lot.
Matter of fact, as a pastor, I'm really careful about trying not to do that, but there are just times I do that. Amen? And I'm not saying that you can never benefit from service. That's not what I'm saying. But what I'm saying here is that there is a service that isn't about you. There is a service that is about others and about God, period. And that kind of service costs you something different. I'm not saying the other service where you benefit, has no place. I'm not saying there should never be reciprocity as believers. Not saying that. I'm saying that this service is very unique and priestly. It's different.
Jesus benefited little out of the price he paid. You benefited a lot.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 25:41
Are you with me? This is another kind of
Point 3A priest serves, and the tabernacle had no chairs
Service. A priest serves. That's point number two. But the Bible says we are a priesthood. We have a function: to serve. Notice, if you notice, there's a lot of furniture that's in the tabernacle. Tons of it. We've been reading about it; we're going to read more about it. But we've read about a lot: candlesticks and lampstands and altars and mercy seats, and I mean, man, the list goes on and on, and curtains and pillars and gold-plated plates, and guys, it's tons of stuff. I mean, I can't even recite them all. It's been chapter after chapter of stuff in the tabernacle. He's furnishing the Lord's house.
But other than the mercy seat, there were no chairs in the tabernacle.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 26:57
Ain't no priest, ain't no person sitting on that mercy seat. God's presence was. How is it that God can sit when there's work to be done? Because in the beginning, Jesus was slain before the foundation of the world. He's sitting on his finished work before the work had even happened. I don't even have time to theologically get into that. I don't even have time. I don't have time to get into anything. I'm just kind of, like, going boom and running, and then you guys got to figure it out, right? A crazy amount of stuff is going on right now. There are no seats for the priests to be sitting. There are no seats for anyone to be sitting. This is not a place to sit. This is a place where continual worship should be going up. The praise was to go up continually. The smoke and the incense were to burn continually. The service was to go on continually. God didn't believe in the priests sitting down. This is not a time for us to rest on our laurels. You're a priesthood and a holy nation.
You have all eternity to rest.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 28:23
We're living in a time where all we do is sit, but it's hard to sit and serve. Our first glimpse of a priest is God himself. Let's look at it. Let's see what God does when an opportunity to serve comes. Genesis 3:8.
And I'm going to go back to the beginning. And let me, I wanted to go through and show every account where we see priestly activity happen through the whole Bible. I just didn't have time. Time does not allow. So here's what I'm going to do: it's a homework assignment. I'm going to give you a couple. I'm going to give you one where we see God and one where we see patriarchal priestly activity happening, although they're not part of the formal Levitical priesthood.
We see patriarchal activity happening, but priestly activity happens from the initiation of sin, because priestly activity is necessary at the point of sin, because covering has to happen, and intercession has to happen on behalf of God and man, because of sin and death. And blood has to be a part of that sacrifice, and blood. And you see this priestly activity happen from the point of Adam and Eve's sin. God slays an animal, covers them with skin. Boom, first priestly activity. And he does it on his day of rest.
He comes out of his rest to intercede for men who are in sin. It's that serious.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 29:51
This priestly activity is so serious it moves God out of his day of rest to intercede. Track with me. How many of you are that moved for the people in your family who are lost, or friends who are lost, or those around you who are lost, that it will move you out of your seat to move on their behalf? Listen to what God does, and let's mimic and be like Christ. Genesis 3:8: "And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden." Here he breaks his Sabbath to save his servants. He goes to man because man could not come to him. Genesis 3:21: "And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them." Here we see priestly activity. We see sacrifice of an animal, we see the skinning, and we see sewing. God is busy in his priestly duties. Where else have we been seeing slaying of animals and sewing of skins? You've seen it in the curtain. Are you with me today? What's the point of the tabernacle?
This is where God's presence is, and we know that the sacrifice of animals has to be done, and specific protocol has to be followed to cover the sin of the people. "And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them." For the first time, we see the creator functioning as the priest. God is sewing. God is creating. God made, God looked, God found, God skinned, God served, God walked, God saved, God called. That's beautiful, right? Right in Genesis, right at the beginning, right when sin hit the ground, man was standing in a state of sin, waiting for God to function as priest, and God does it. Who's waiting in your life? We know God calls. Well, what is your role? Do you have one? What is it? We are a part of the priesthood. In Genesis 4, both Cain and Abel bring offerings to the Lord, Cain from the fruit of the ground and Abel from the firstborn of his flock. This indicates that they were acting in the role of worship and sacrifice, much like later priests would. However, the priesthood as an institution wasn't established until much later. We do see some behaviors here, even with Cain and Abel, of them acting as priests for their family. Some theologians suggest that in the earlier times, before the official priesthood, heads of households or individuals could offer sacrifices directly to God, and we saw this happening. I don't have time to go more into it, and I would encourage you to go look and see where we see priestly duties throughout the entire Bible, and just get a glimpse of what they're
Point 4A priest is marked by holiness
Doing, because you're a holy people. You're a priesthood and a holy nation. A priest is also marked by holiness. Three. And I just wrote here for myself, in my notes, "Go for it, bro," and we'll see what happens here. Holiness. That's challenging, right? Let me tell you the easiest way to know what holiness is.
It is when people see you, do they see Christ? I'm not talking about in church for an hour; I'm talking about outside. You know the number one complaint I get from people who are far from the Lord? Honestly, and here's the simplest summarized version: "Why am I going to come commit my time and energy into a community on my weekend, specifically my Sunday, to join a community, come sit with a community who is no different than the community I'm already with beyond one hour on a Sunday?" There's no difference. A priest is marked by holiness. Now, we are holy, track with me here, we are holy because of what Jesus did before God. But then we are challenged, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to live holy before men, that they might know the God we serve. So track with me here. So you're going, "Okay, Shawn, so the way I gather this is, I could never be holy before God by what I do, but only by who Jesus made me." Yes. "So I'm holy before men by what I do?" You're holy before men because of what the Holy Spirit, which indwells you, empowers you to do. Do you know him? For some of us, it's just about getting an understanding. "In all thy ways get understanding." Get an understanding that you're not like Christ in every other part of your life, just at church. Get an understanding about that, because getting an understanding about that helps you know that maybe your life is not marked by priestly activity, but ungodly ones. Are you with me now? You know what's shocking? When you go into a brier patch and all you see is thorns and thistles and whatever, and right in the middle of this brier patch you see a giant apple tree that's flourishing. What's weird about that apple tree? It doesn't belong. How has it survived? What is it doing there? See, we think the message of, and track with me here, because we try to take something scriptural and make it holy to excuse ourselves. We use Scripture to excuse ourselves from doing what we should. Just track with me here. There is a thing, there's a Scripture that says, be in the world but don't be of the world. We take that Scripture and we go, "See, I can't be in the world." You know, the command is twofold: be in it, be in it, but don't be of it. It doesn't say be in it and be of it. "Be in it, and make sure that when you're in it, no one that's of it can tell that you're not of it. So be of it too, so they can't tell the difference between you and them. So be in it; make sure when you're in it, you're of it." It's be in it. Why does he want you to be in it but not be of it? Because he wants you to be an apple tree among thistles and thorns, because that stands out and gives glory to God. So there are environments you can be in, but don't be of. Matter of fact, sometimes he commands us to be in it so that we can be a beacon of light and hope. When people see us, they go, "What manner of man is this?" Like they did with Christ. Are you with me? Because it just stands out. So how do we be in something and not be of something? Well, I'll tell you: it's about the fruit you bear. So if you're in something and you bear thistles and thorns, then you're the same as what's there, and you don't stand out.
What makes you different? The fruit you bear.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 39:01
So if you're bearing different fruit, you stand out. I'm afraid today we're too busy being like the world, because we don't understand this command. Look here at the command of what was expected of the priests. They looked nothing like the people. They dressed nothing like the people. Track with me here. Are you tracking with me here? Trying to make this simple. They looked goofy. Look it up. Look up what this is in 28 and 29. Look up what that made somebody look like: twelve stones, onyx, and something on their head. It was weird. You look weird too when you go out and you're in the world but you're not of the world. But let me ask you something: who do you love more, God or man? And I'll say something to you: you've got to get comfortable with your salvation. It's amazing to me, listen, the fact that we don't want to be holy and set apart in a world is like, and I don't mean to be insensitive here, but it's like somebody who used to have cancer, got set free of cancer, got healed of cancer, and decided to shoot cancer back in their veins again so they can have cancer again. You have been set free from the bondage of sin and death. And now, if I were to come to you and say, if you could even inject cancer and give yourself cancer again, if somebody did that, you would say they're insane. They need to be admitted to an institution. But you are holy, set apart, and saved and redeemed, and if you go and participate in the things of the world, it's like shooting cancer back in your veins again. That which you used to be enslaved to, you participate in. What kind of insanity is this? You need to be admitted. Are you with me? This is how extreme it is. Now, when you make a comparison to it here in the secular world, you're like, "Oh yeah, but I mean, but it's fine." Okay, listen, I'm going to say this: your family and your friends and the people you don't know and your acquaintances, they need somebody whose life is marked by holiness, because they're looking for a light in darkness. They're looking for a light. Why are they looking for a light? Because the light gives direction in darkness. It said that his presence would move and lift up and would go as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, and it would come, and his presence would rest, and they would build the tabernacle around his presence, okay? And then when his presence lifted and moved, they would pack up the tabernacle and they would move with him in the desert. Why? Because we need, and we follow, and we are led by his presence. Let me ask you a question: those around you in darkness, do they see a light? Do they see his presence? Because his presence, guess where it is now? It ain't out in some desert in a tabernacle, sitting on a mercy seat.
It resides in you. You are a priesthood, holy, set apart, and you carry his presence, and this is serious business.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 42:55
This is why we sing the song, I don't know how to sing it, like, "This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine. This little light of mine," this is kind of corny, "I'm going to let it shine. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. Put it under a bushel? No, I'm gonna let it shine. Put it under a bushel? No, I'm gonna let it shine.
Let it shine." Something about the devil blowing it out. "I'll punch you in the face." No, I'm just kidding. No, we don't let him do that. What are we saying there? What are we saying there? We're saying his presence, which used to travel in the Old Testament by a pillar of fire in darkness, is now in you.
How dare us go into the world and live as if we're in darkness too, because they need to see the light, because the light leads them to Christ, like a mosquito to a bug zapper. Notice that it's very behavior-based. Not saying words are not necessary, but notice it's behavior, light-based.
It's his light shining in you that draws people to him.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 44:15
Let me share this story and I'll close. There was once a small village nestled in the mountains where every night the darkness swallowed the land. Long ago, the village had been given a gift: lanterns with an eternal flame. Each villager was entrusted with one, and their task was simple, much like the task in the tabernacle to keep the incense burning all day: to keep it burning and to share its light. There was no time for sitting and resting on their laurels. At first the village was radiant. Every home, every street, every path was illuminated. Strangers who wandered in from the wilderness found warmth and welcome. The people lived with purpose, knowing their light had been given to them to push back the darkness. But over time something happened. Some villagers grew weary of carrying their lanterns. Others became distracted by their daily tasks and forgot to refill their oil. And some began to hide their lights, fearing they might stand out too much and look weird. Slowly the village dimmed. The streets became harder to navigate, and people stumbled in the darkness. They became lost in the shadows. This was no longer a place where people wanted to dwell. And one night an old traveler arrived in the village. Seeing the darkness, he knocked on doors, but no one answered. And at last he found a small child sitting alone on the steps of her home, clutching a lantern still burning. It was the only light in town. It was like a ghost town. The man said to the little child, "Why is your light still shining in the midst of this dark town? Where are your parents?" He asked. The child looked up and said, "Because I remember the story. We were given this fire not for ourselves but to keep the whole village from darkness. If I let mine go out, who will light the way?" You are a priesthood and a holy nation, and his light dwells in you. How are you shining in the darkness? Because you are an intercessor, and you stand before God for men; you stand before men for God. How are you standing?
Because there is no time to sit as a priest.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 47:15
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