Speaker 1: It would help if I put my microphone on, wouldn't it? Yeah. Yeah. It's great to have you here. Today is, we're calling this sort of Vision Sunday, and this morning I wanna talk about how all of us have a part in what God is doing, and then, tonight, we're gonna have our annual meeting.
Welcome you to come. As, the guy said earlier, if you didn't sign up for the meal for 5:30, you're welcome to still be in this room at 6:15, and you'll just hear all about what God's done the last year, what we're looking forward to, and etcetera. Let me go back to a story about, when I was in elementary school, probably 3rd grade, I was at recess, which was my favorite subject in school, like for some of you. So we're out at, C. A.
Thomas Elementary, and, talk to some kids, and and one of the boys asked a question I think a lot of kids wondered about. And he asked this, he said, Hey, Jonathan, he said, your your dad like works at the church, right? And I go, yeah, yeah. And he goes, and and your dad and mom have 9 children? I go, yeah, yeah.
And he goes, well, here here's why I'm just wondering, like, if your dad's a priest, you know, how can he have like 9 kids? You know, he just didn't he didn't quite get that. And and that was a question that came up a number of times for me, like, how can your dad as a priest be married? How can they have kids and all the rest? My dad was not a priest in the way that that friend meant it.
But in reality, my dad was a priest. And so am I. And chances are that so are you. I wanna talk about that today. And how that can change your identity, the way that you see yourself.
Now, it might be the first thing from your mind, you go, what? Me? A priest? Like, that's crazy. I'm not a priest.
And yet when we begin to dig into the Scripture, we begin to see in this overview of the Bible that what happened from the old covenant to the what? To the new covenant that things really changed. I want us to dig into this. Could you really be a priest? And if that is part of your identity, it can shape I'm I'm sorry, it can shape the way that you see not only your life and your identity, but how you what your mission is in life and where you're going and what your role is every day.
And so let's take a look and see what the Bible says. Actually, very profound. Leviticus chapter 8, let's take a look, is the 3rd book of the Bible. And if you don't have a paper Bible, you you can turn to the Bible app, you'll see that on the screen there. I want to say welcome to folks at our other campuses.
Lorraine. Guys, great to be with you at the Walk Worthy Conference yesterday, and to be part of 2 different sites, and then Olmsted Falls, and then a number of you engaging online. Those of you who are available this evening wanna welcome you to our annual, meeting, And you'll see the annual report on our, website as well. Just go to our website and type in annual report. Also, hopefully, on your way in you got some notes, that are available.
Lorraine, it's the same thing there. If you're engaging online or you didn't go those on your way in, it'd be helpful to follow along. Just go to gracemay.org, click the bulletin there on the home page, and you'll see the notes for today's message. And there's an app that you'll see up there, that they developed some new resources based on today's message, and application questions and prayers, you're welcome to download that, for further study and just to continue to grow. So, a quick review so far.
Number 1, we looked at, we said Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice. And once for all, it's done. Thank God that you and I did not have to bring a lamb to church this morning. Right? Or a bull or something like, hey kids, you gotta, you leave a little bit early, gotta get that thing in the back, you know, the, of the minivan.
And, 2nd week, God is worthy of our worship. 3rd week, Jesus fulfills the old testament law so that you and I are no longer under the Old Covenant laws, regulations, all those instructions in Leviticus and Exodus and Deuteronomy, etcetera, unless they're repeated in what? The New Covenant. If they're repeated in the New Covenant, then we follow them, but otherwise, Jesus has fulfilled the law, those are His own words, And and and so, we we thank God that we live in the era that we do. But, what remains unchanged is that old covenant, new covenant that God wants you and me to be set apart, fully devoted to Him, holy, that it's not just that I have a sliver of my life that is like my walk with God, but it's my whole life.
He wants everything. And He wants me to be holy. And so today we're gonna talk about what does it mean in the calling that He has for us to priest. Now, just to get the context here of Leviticus chapter 8, here's the setting. They're at the tabernacle, and the smovable tent where people would worship God's spirit, and presence among them.
And in that day, when you see all the tents around there, about 2,000,000 people, if you wanted to offer a sacrifice or an offering, you would go to a priest. And and God worked through this, you know, these this priestly family as they were mediators between God and the people. So, Leviticus contains a bunch of detailed instructions and regulations concerning the priesthood. So let's just begin with verse 1, read the first 13 verses. There's 4 chapters in the book of Leviticus that specifically deal with the priests.
Chapter 89 and chapters 21 and 22. We're not gonna read all those, but this will give us, enough right here, I believe. Verse 1. Then the Lord said to Moses, bring Aaron and his sons, along with their sacred garments, the anointing oil, the bull for the sin offering, the 2 rams and the basket of bread made without yeast, and call the entire community of Israel together at the entrance of the what? Of the tabernacle.
So that's where they are, they're right there and Moses followed the Lord's instructions announced to them, this is what the Lord has commanded us to do. Then he presented Aaron and his sons and washed them with water. He put the official tunic on Aaron and tied the sash around his waist. He dressed them in the robe, placed the ephod on him, and attached the ephod just like this breastplate securely with this decorative sash. Then Moses placed the chest piece on Aaron and put the Urim and thumb him inside it.
He placed the turban on Aaron's head and attached the gold medallion, the badge of holiness to the front of the turban, just as the Lord had commanded him. I feel like I'm really underdressed compared to Aaron here. But then again, I'm not a priest, unless we view it the new covenant away more than that in a second. Verse 12, then he poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron's head, anointing him and making him holy for his work. Next Moses presented Aaron's sons, he clothed them in their tunics, tied their sashes around them and put their special head coverings on them, just as the Lord had commanded them.
That gives you an idea here that this was a very select group, right? Priests in the old covenant were set apart as like a special class of people. You were born into a priestly family. The tribe of Levi, which is where the book of Leviticus gets its name because you were expected to maintain a high standard of moral conduct and reverence for God, but here's the problem. Those priests were people just like what?
Us. And they messed up. They got impatient with their kids and they yelled at them. They broke the speed limit in their chariots, you know, they they had all kinds of things. They had wrong thoughts.
They had things that they they were They got jealous of somebody else, and so, they're supposed to be holy. So what do they do? They have to go through all these rituals for cleansing and forgiveness. How did that happen? Let's drop down to verse 30 and read the last few verses here.
Verse 30. Next, Moses took some of the anointing oil and some of the blood that was on the altar, and he sprinkled them on Aaron and his garments, and on his sons and their garments. In this way, he made Aaron and his sons and their garments holy. Verse 34, everything we have done today was commanded by the Lord in order to purify you, making you right with him. How were they made clean?
By what? By blood. By blood. Over and over and over again, sacrifice after sacrifice, not just for their own failures, but for the people too. Look at the next chapter here, chapter 9 verse 15.
It says this. Next, Aaron presented the offerings of the people. He slaughtered the people's goat, presented it as an offering for their sin just as he had first done with the offering for his own sin. So here is the deal. Priests in the old covenant, they served as mediators between God and His people.
Did you say the word mediator? Mediator. The in between. If you wanted to, you know, give a worship offering, if you had a sacrifice, you didn't just come and do it on your own, you had to go through a priest to do whatever religious, you know, kind of action you wanted to do. That is the system you had all the way through the Old Testament.
Only a select few were chosen as priests. So this book talks a lot about that. In fact, we've talked about how many times words are mentioned, and you'll see on the screen here that, the word priest is mentioned more in the book of Leviticus than any other time in the how many times is it there? You guys have that one, the number of words on the screen there? I think it was a 150 a 151 that they had.
So it talks a lot about that. That was then. What about what about now? What changed? Today, every Christian is a priest.
Would you say that with me? Every Christian is a priest. That's what the Bible actually teaches. When Jesus arrives on the scene, the religious culture gets turned like upside down, not only with the old testament laws and regulations that are fulfilled in Christ, and we only follow the ones repeated in the New Covenant, but he also starts making statements to normal everyday people. He look at them and say stuff like, you.
Yes, all all of you. You are the light of the world. He talked to normal everyday people in the presence of these professional, official priests of the old covenant, and you look at all the people and you go, you know what? You're you're my witnesses. To take the message to Jerusalem, this area, and Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth, all of you.
You're you all have a part in this. That was a huge paradigm shift that from this old covenant you had a priestly family to the new covenant that every follower of Christ is a priest, you go I don't really know, Jonathan, if can you support that from the new testament? Let's turn to first Peter chapter 2. First Peter chapter 2 is one of the last books of the bible. You have first and second Peter, then three letters from John, Jude and Revelation.
And, Peter here and company, they want to get out the message that every person who's a follower of Christ has direct access to God. You don't have to go through a priest. And and he's also saying, friends, you all have supernatural power of the Holy Spirit living within you. If you're following Jesus, you've been appointed and anointed as a priest. And and you get to carry God's love and His message wherever you go in your community and to the ends of the earth.
So look how Peter says it. This is from the new living translation. He says in 1st Peter chapter 2 verse 4, you are coming to Christ who is the living cornerstone of God's temple. He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honor. And you are living stones that God is building into a spiritual temple.
What's more, you are his what? Holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God. It's a new day, right? The temple, no longer did you have like a physical, like, building?
He says the temple is now Jesus and his people. And you didn't have, like, some priestly family. He goes, who are the priests? All of y'all, he goes. Every single person who's put their trust in Jesus.
He says it again in verse 9. He says, you are a chosen people, you are There it is again, what? Royal priest. Royal priest. A holy nation.
God's very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. Friends, let's pause a second. What if every Christian really believed this? Imagine a community in which every single member in God's family with a healthy sense of humility had this, you know, just said, I I'm a priest of God.
Like, I I'm a priest of God. Think of what would happen with all of the followers of Jesus representing Him wherever they go. Now, this might sound sort of strange because maybe you grew up in a religious tradition where to think of a priest was someone who wore, like, a collar, or they lived in a manse or a parsonage or something like that, and they were, you know, and you go, that that was like a special group of people. That's old covenant. Right?
That's not new covenant. That's the way it was in Leviticus. That's not the way it is after Jesus comes. When when Jesus comes and every single person is anointed with the Holy Spirit, He anoints us to be priests that you and I can serve others. We can pray with others.
We we can offer our best to God. Think about what this means for identity. It says in your notes, Jesus commissions ordinary people to be his priests. And you're made holy, just like the old testament priests. Thankfully, not the way they did it back then.
Imagine if you came to church every week and I said, okay, folks, now it's the time, and I stirred up the oil and the blood, and I started, you know, spraying. Everyone be sitting in the back row there going, I am not getting close. Because back then, you would have blood and oil sprinkled all over your thank God we don't have to do that. Right? Because we have the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, offered his life once for all so that my sins and your sins are forever gone.
Right? What a great salvation you and I have. Perfect sacrifice. You know what else it means under the new covenant? You and I have direct access to God.
We don't have to go through a human priest to get to the Father. Listen to what the way Paul puts it in 1st Timothy chapter 2, he says this, he says there is one God and How many mediators? One mediator who can reconcile God and humanity, the man Christ Jesus. He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. You and I don't need to go through a priest, we have direct access to God.
And there's more, under the new covenant, we all have a part in Jesus' mission. 50 days after Jesus comes back from death, He comes back from the grave, from death. 40 days later, He ascends to Heaven. 10 days after that, you have something amazing that happens, and it happened at a feast that the people of Israel would celebrate every year called Pentecost. And at that time, there's about a 120 followers of Jesus, and it's not just the 12 who receive the Holy Spirit, there's a little flame of fire over how many heads?
All 120 of them, right? Remember what it meant in the old covenant to have a flame over something in men, like the tabernacle, we saw the picture of men, who lived there? God. Right? A flame over the heads of every single one of Jesus' follower means the holy spirit lives in how many people?
All of them. He lives in you. God's plan is clear. Would you say this next line aloud with me? You see that God's plan is clear.
Let's read that last line. Ready? If you are a follower of Christ, you are a priest. Would you turn to your neighbor and tell them that? If you're a follower of Christ, you are a priest.
You should have that on your ID. I am a priest of God, right? You're a priest of God. Now, something happened in history. And you know what took place?
Without delving into all kinds of church histories, somewhere along the way, the followers of Jesus gave up the new covenant, every follower's a priest, and they reverted to what? The old covenant. The train got derailed. And they went back to the old covenant where there was a priesthood that was just a select group of people, and they started to dress them differently. And they put them in a upper echelon, and they said, these are the priests of God, and then there's the rest of us, and we're just lay people, you know?
So they sat on their hands, and they sat on their gifts, and they sat on the sidelines, And there became this great divide. You had a few hired and tired clergy who were doing all the work, and you had the rest of the people. Friends, that's not the new covenant. Right? And too many churches today, you still have maybe a measure of that, where there's sort of this like, you've got this group and you've got, you know, maybe the 1 or 2 who are higher and you have the rest of the people and and the church just sort of limps along ineffective in its mission.
You know what? There is not one ounce of biblical support for us to go back to that old testament model. Because today, you don't have to be part of the tribe of Levi, if you're a tribe of Jesus, you are a what? A priest. If you put your trust in Jesus, that's you.
And so, back about 500 years ago in 15/20, there was something that took place called reformation. They're like, you know what? The train went off the rails and we've got to recover what the new covenant teaches the priesthood of anybody know how it finishes there? The priesthood of all all believers. And it was something that that, they said we all have direct access to God, every one of us, we all have a part in His mission.
Look again what Peter says here in 1st Peter 2 verse 9, he says, but you are a chosen people, a kingdom of what? All of the all, he says, are priests. God's holy nation. Friends, when Peter wrote that, he was not speaking at a pastor's conference. He was writing to everyday followers of Jesus and he wanted them to know, you know what?
All of us who have claimed Christ as our forgiven, our leader, you're all chosen. You're all called. You're all forgiven. You're all redeemed. You're all priests.
So what if you live like that every day? What if you got up tomorrow morning and you said, God, I don't know exactly what this looks like, but but Jonathan told us yesterday from the Bible that that we're all priests, and I put my trust in you and so, God, I wanna be on mission with you today. You know what that would mean? That means when you're at home, you're a priest of God, you're on mission to represent Jesus in your home. When you go to school or to work, you're on mission with Jesus.
When you're at this waiting, you know, room or you're on a plane or you're doing whatever, you're at the PTA, you are a priest of God wherever you go. Every conversation, you get to represent Jesus. And you say, I get to be the hands, the feet, the ears, the eyes of Jesus because first Corinthians 6 says that I don't belong to myself. I belong my body is the temple of whom? The holy spirit, he says you're not your own, you're bought at a price, so honor God with your body in everything you do.
Peter, another chapter later talks about this in 1st Peter 4, he says, as priests, not only can you go directly to God, not only are you holy and set apart for Him, but he says you've got a gift. Every person. First Peter chapter 4 verse 10, he says, God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. What is a spiritual gift?
Sort of simply put, it's a special supernatural ability from God that he gives to all of his children, every single one of us. And he says, you all get to be a part of what I'm doing. And there's a great variety of gifts. Some people have the gift of hospitality, or administration, or encouragement. I You know, I get to lead and and teach God's word, but we're all full time priests of God.
Right? Because it's wherever you go. I happen to do it vocationally, you know, but but you're a full time priest just like I'm a full time priest and both of us, all of us have an extremely high calling. Friends, God has so much good stuff he wants to do through you. Now, you might go, okay, if I'm a priest, how do I know where to get involved?
A lot of you are already doing that. I can't I I'll sometimes drive by our facility here and I'll go: Wow, there's a parking lot full, I wonder what's going on at Grace tonight? You know? Or, or I'll hear about all kinds of stories about people who are, you know, doing a project at someone's house, or they took people to meals who were someone, or they visited someone at the hospital, or they're leading a small group, I'll run into people in a restaurant and go, hey, what are y'all? They're like, oh, we're doing a this happened at okay.
I'll tell you. It was at Mitchell's this week, you know, but, saw some people studying the bible there. It was for my wife, not for me. And But but saying, God, you're doing things through your people wherever they go. How do you know a direction to go?
Maybe you've heard of the acrostic shape, it's in your notes, you'll see it here on the screen, that God has shaped you from ministry. 1st, you have spiritual gifts, that when you put your trust in Christ, just like Peter says here, He gives, God gives you a gift, or multiple gifts. There's a survey link in your notes that helps you to identify gifts. You'll see that on the screen in a second here. And, but, it's, there's no like A, you know, level gifts and B level gifts.
Every single gift matters to God and and and is significant. It can make such impact on people. So, there's your spiritual gift. 2nd is your heart. What's the passion that God has given you?
What do you love to do? Some people love doing one thing and someone else will go like, I would never wanna do that. Because God is w You know, He's just given you a heart to do something else. Then you have natural abilities, A, that some of you, at a very young age, knew that there was just, there are certain things you could do well. You're like, someone told me this morning, they said, you know, hey, my my kids were part of this math thing and math just comes naturally to them.
Other people are very athletic, you can just tell. Some people are really gifted musically and they, you hear them singing and you're like, wow, you can just tell. Other people, you stand next to them, and you can just tell that they're not gifted, you know, and then you just sort of look straight ahead. Maybe you heard, by the way, about the poor guy that got up and sang a solo at church one time, and it was horrendous. It was just terrible.
Nobody knew what to say. They were all embarrassed for him. Finally, one older guy approached him at the end of the service, and he, you know, put his arm around him and he goes son, I just want to tell you I'm proud of you. You had a lot of courage to get up and do that today. And whoever encouraged you to get up and do that ought to be taken out and shot.
I guess that second guy had the gift of exhortation. At least that's what I remember him saying to me after that happened. Then there's your personality. We're all wired differently. Right?
God has made us in our own unique way, and and so some people are a little more outgoing, they like being, you know, to other people. But sometimes God will use you in a way that you go, you know what? Like, I, one, and I've, some of you have heard me say this, I, when I would get up for in the morning, and I knew I had a speech in speech class for Miss Scufka at Midpark High School, I was ready to throw up every single morning that that happened. I said, God, I will serve you in any way you want, but never make me speak in public. And here I am.
Today. Sometimes He uses you in your area of weakness, and then He'll use your life experiences. Your family experiences, vocational experiences, educational experiences, and maybe especially maybe some of the painful experiences from your life. Who better to help a person going through a divorce than someone who has experienced that in their own life? Or you your business failed, or maybe you've you've had the challenges of navigating a blended family or you've had some kind of addiction or you've walked through sexual brokenness or whatever it might be.
You know, sometimes the very experience that you regret or maybe even resent most in your life, maybe you'd want to cover up and forget, could be the very thing that God is going to use and say, I want to redeem that for you and I wanna take that or maybe you've lost a child or something and and a crushing blow and you think, God, I never knew what it was like, but now I do. And you're gonna come alongside another person in a similar circumstance and God's gonna pour out through you to that other person. He'll use even your pain, your experiences to make a difference. You might go, what are some of the opportunities? We have a page on our website called, the serve page.
You see it scrolling down there and, and and you can go, I know it's sort of scrolling fast, but you you can just go to that gracecma.org/serve, and you'll see all kinds of opportunities to make an impact. And and just as you look at that, just say, God, where do you want me to where do you want me to make an impact? Friends, here's what I I can say with confidence God made you exactly the way he wanted you to be. You have a unique set of experiences and gifts in your personality that's different than the person on your right and on your left. You are a priest of God.
He wants to make such an impact through your life, you know? What I love about grace is that we don't have the old covenant model. We have a new covenant model. You're all priests. And so often, when I, like, this week, you'll see the annual report up here on the screen.
What it looks like. You can just, I mentioned earlier, you can go to our website, just type in annual report in the search bar. As I read through that this week, I was just like, God, thank you for all the different ways you're using people. Many of them who have completely different gifts than mine and just go they're so good at that. Imagine if we all got that.
If we had everybody serving with the right gifts, in the right place, with the right people, with the right passions at the right time, and just people going, I I was made for this. You know, he passed around a microphone and and, you know, Natalie takes the mic and she goes, I just wanna tell you that God has given me the gift of mercy and I lead a bible study every week at a nursing home, and and I love it. Like, I've just developed such a relationship with the the residents there and they always look forward to it and and I'm a priest of God in the nursing home and and I was made for this. I love it. You might not be aware that Grace has Bible studies in I think 11 or 12 different residential places for, senior adults in, in the Cleveland area.
And then John stands up and he goes: You know what, I don't really like being with the mic, but I have the gift of administration, and I get to plan stuff for Grace Kids, and and I love that I get to be making an impact in this area and I just see kids, the lights turn on and they get really pumped and and it's been so cool. I found out this week by the way that, or a couple weeks ago that we have someone in Grace Kids who has been serving for 50 years in Grace Kids here at our church. Isn't that amazing? And you might go, do they have like plenty of workers? They could definitely use more people who just want to invest in this generation that's upcoming.
They have a table out in the lobby today, and you can make an impact, in that way. And there's a link in your notes as well. Then, Matt. Matt takes the mic and goes, you know what? I'm part of a group called Priority Projects.
Maybe you heard about this at Grace. It's a group of guys who, Mary will tell you if I tried to build something, it would collapse like within a week, I think. I'm terrible at that. But these guys are so gifted. And they build ramps for people who newly are like, in a wheelchair.
They're doing stuff for people in crisis. They'll go fix a plumbing issue. And they don't do it for everybody. It's like for, you know, a person who's a senior adult or a single parent or someone who's in a crisis. And people who go, I I I'm desperate.
And I and they're like, hey, let's come alongside where we can. And and they're making and they go, we're priests of God using the construction kind of gifts that God has given us, and we have found our purpose in serving in that way. And then Courtney takes the mic and Courtney goes, you know what? I have the gift of evangelism. I'm a junior in high school and I am a priest for God in my school.
And I'm leading a bible study and I'm talking to kids about their faith, about my faith and how they can know Jesus and so many of my peers are confused about their identity and what's going on, and and I just tell them, like, God sees you and he knows you and he loves you, and and I'm a priest for God in my high school. Way to go, Courtney. And then Martha. Martha's an older saint and, she says I don't get around as well as I used to, but God has given me the gift of intercession. And I'm a priest for God by praying for people, and and I I just I pray for people who are international workers serving in different places around the world, taking the good news of Jesus.
I I pray for people that come along the prayer list at Grace. If you're not aware, we have one of that and we pray for people every week and and and I think I'm making a difference and I feel like I was made for this in this season of my life. I'm a priest of God. Friends, wouldn't it be amazing if every single follower of Jesus so many of you are already doing this, but if every single one said I I know that I'm a priest of God. I'm not a Sunday morning only kinda Christian.
I am an everyday on mission with Jesus. I'm a priest of God, and I am serving him with all my heart. Don't you think heaven would just explode with joy over that? And God the father looks and he goes, you know what? There's a church that's getting it right.
They're not doing the old covenant priestly family kind of all the fancy dress, you know, they're doing the new covenant, every follower of Jesus filled with the Holy Spirit, a priest of God. So can we say it one more time? It's gonna be on the screen here. Let's say it and believe it. Ready?
God's plan is clear. If you are a follower of Christ, you are a priest. And all of his priests said, amen. Let's pray. Jesus, thank you today.
Thank you today that you've cleansed us, and you've you've taken away all the junk in our lives so that we can be holy. You've filled us with your your spirit. And Lord, you have a plan for us. And so Lord, today we want to just say, we agree with you that we are full time priests. Every single one of us.
This afternoon, wherever you take us, tomorrow morning, Lord, we will be card carrying priests of yours. And so, Lord, we belong to you. These eyes, these ears, our mouth, our hands, our feet, our hearts, Lord, everything. All that we have, the gifts, the finances, the time that, Lord, and we just want to say we're at your disposal. We want to be about your agenda.
And so, Lord, thank you for inviting us to be co laborers, co priests with you. You, the great high priest, calling us to to be on mission with you. We say yes to you today. Yes. And we look forward to what you have in store.
Thank you for inviting us, and everyone who loves him said, amen. Amen. This is a song we're gonna sing as an ancient song, an Irish hymn, and just a great prayer. Let's stand