Kings and Priests, Part 2

When I was last here three weeks ago, I started a sermon series that I want to finish up here today that I had spoken on during the Feast of Tabernacles and have been thinking a great deal about. And so I wanted to finish what I began in talking about the responsibilities that God is preparing us for as kings and priests. We'll turn over to Daniel chapter 2 and just a brief review to set the stage for what I want to discuss here this morning. Daniel the second chapter, this well-known prophecy of the image that Daniel had or Nebuchadnezzar saw and Daniel interpreted, comes down at the end of Daniel chapter 2 to verse 44, where Daniel's interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream showed that this great image was going to be struck on its feet by a stone cut without hands, which pictures the kingdom of God and Jesus Christ. And in verse 44 it says, In the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people. It shall break in pieces and consume all those kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. As we go to the Feast of Tabernacles every year, we inevitably hear sermons that point us to the world tomorrow, to that time of God's reign on this earth, the millennium. This is one of those verses quite often read, and it does encapsulate the very purpose that God has called us and is training us, because that kingdom that will be established is a kingdom that will not be left to other people. This particular phrase in verse 44 has always intrigued me because it speaks directly to the preparation for God's people in this age prior to Christ's coming. It is at the heart and core of what God is wanting us to grasp and understand in our calling and why we are called now, because when this event takes place, as the prophecies clearly show will happen, the kingdom established will not be left to other people.

The other people will have had their opportunity. They will have had the generations of human existence to show, by example, by the fruits that man's government, man's systems do not work.

And God will have prepared a people to establish a different type of government, a different type of way of dealing with people and administering human affairs, one based upon the law of God and the way of God. It will not be left to other people, which means it will be left up to us if we endure, if we catch the vision, if we understand why God has in His mercy called us to this way of life and put us in this story. And it's quite a story. Do you ever wonder, talk to God and say, God, why did you put me in this story?

Why did you put me in this story?

We were talking about that coming up this morning. I often had reason to think, you know, I wish I had a different story sometimes. But then I stopped and think, well, what would that story be? Probably one with highs and lows, stresses, upsets, people, issues, life. Oh, yeah. Same story I'm in right now. Same story I'm in right now. And so I recognize you come back and you're thinking, and you realize God knows what He's doing. And you don't take your hand off the plow. You don't go back and you come back around. You realize this is the story God has put us in. And it is to prepare to take this place in His kingdom. And so the role that we are to play and to understand is to be that of a king and priest. Three weeks ago, I went through the kingly side of that and showed some scriptures. We turned to the scriptures in Revelation, chapters one, chapter five, chapter 20, that show our calling. We are going to be kings and priests in that kingdom. Now, the breakdown of a king and a priest is an interesting one to explore. And I spent just a short sermon on it last time and talking about what it means to be a king. And we talked about the qualities and some of the attributes of a king. We use the example of Queen Elizabeth, the most popular and well-known monarch that we have in our world today. But what's important to realize is that the role of priest and king is... There are two roles combined in one as we see them in Revelation. He doesn't say we're just called to be kings and he doesn't say we're just called to be priests. It's kings and priests. And when you explore what the Bible tells us about those roles, there's a great deal of understanding. We tend to talk about a king who is one sitting on a throne with a crown, ruling, making judgments, affecting people's lives, ruling. Have you ever heard that? You're going to rule. Boy, we've given a lot of sermons about ruling, haven't we?

Rule your family. You're going to be over five kingdoms, 10 cities. Rule!

Wear that crown. Snap that whip. Get everybody in line. Haven't we talked about that over the years? Yes, we have. How many sermons have you heard about being a priest?

How many times have you heard that explained? It says kings and priests, and you have to understand both of them to get the picture. The full picture from God's point of view. And at times we haven't always, and because of personalities, that we tend to hold up and exalt in the church and whatever, and emphasis that people have. We kind of run off down various roads and we start putting on crowns and waving an orb and a scepter around. Well, that's part of the story, and we touched on a little bit of that last time, but today I want to talk about the priestly side. The priestly side of being prepared for the role that God has for us in His coming Kingdom. And when we understand and are able to put that together, and I won't be able to touch on the whole subject here today, but let's look at that. Let's look at what it means to be a priest and to understand that. Now, the priests in the Bible were a group of people taken from the children of Israel. They were essentially descendants of one man. Do you know who that man was? Those of you that read some of the books, some of you ladies should know that. That was right. Aaron, the brother of Moses. He and his sons and his family were chosen as priests. And then one whole tribe, the Levites, were then chosen to be set aside as help with that particular priestly role. The family of the high priests came through the descendants of Aaron, but they were taken from the descendants of Aaron. And we have many, many chapters in the book of Numbers and the book of Leviticus that show how that all was set up and how it was accomplished. In Numbers 4, for instance, let's just turn to this one. Numbers 4.

And among the children of Levi, we are told that when they entered into their service by their father's house in verse 2, they were to be from 30 years old and above, even to 50 years old, all who entered the service to do the work in the tabernacle of meeting. This is the service of the sons of Coath and the tabernacle relating to the most holy things. So in this section of Numbers, they begin to describe the work of the priests around the tabernacle with the offerings and the work that they were to accomplish there. But we find an interesting thing that they were not to assume their role until they were about 30. There's one other scripture that says between 25 and 30. This one zeros in on 30. So if you took the two, you would have to realize that they were an older young adult. They weren't teenagers, nor were they in their early 20s. If you just took what it says here, they were 30 years old, and their years of active service would amount to about 50. And then they would presumably enter another class of semi-retirement, perhaps, maybe that of a kind of an older mentoring class of priests that would help to work with and mentor the younger ones, perhaps. Why 30? Why 30 before you would become a priest and offer sacrifices, teach the law, work with people? Why 30? Well, think about it. Again, you know, age 30 at the time of Moses is a far cry from age 30 today.

Age 30, 30-year-old today is a far cry from a 30-year-old 40, 50 years ago. You know, the generations will alter that. And in terms of maturity, the experiences from society that impact a younger generation, I was 22, 23 years old, and I was a minister pastoring a church. And today, we do not normally think about taking a 23-year-old and putting them into a pastorate over the responsibility over a congregation of God's people.

Times were different then. Were we any more mature? Yes and no.

I made plenty of mistakes in my 20s in working with people. I may have a lot of book knowledge, but I didn't have a lot of practical experience. And the people that I was trying to teach at age 25 every week, they had far more practical living experience than I'd ever had. They were grandparents, great-grandparents, and yet I was a spiritual teacher. Now, maybe there's some 25-year-olds today that we could put up and would do a better job than I did at age 25. I'm sure of that, but things change. 30 to whatever is an interesting thing to consider. A 30-year-old should have enough years of experience to be a bit more mature than a 20-year-old, to have had a few years of development, to meddle, to recognize that you don't get too rash, to be responsible, to know that if you've got a duty at 8 o'clock, 8 a.m., you show up. You don't show up at 8.30, or you don't call in sick.

A few weeks ago, I had a conversation at the fitness center where I have a membership. After my shower, I was dressing out, and there were a couple of guys near my age, probably, and they were talking. They both worked at the FedEx facility at the Indianapolis airport, the big carrier. They were working there, and one of them was talking about, man, said, you've got to be there at 8 o'clock, or you've got to be there on time if you're going to work for FedEx, because FedEx is on time, right?

The guy says, if you don't want to work, and if you don't show up on time, FedEx is not a place to work. The other guy said, yeah, I know. I said, you know, guys come in, they call in sick or whatever, and they don't last long out there. I'm listening to it as a third party, and I looked at them and said, you guys…and they were talking about how many younger guys don't do that.

I said, you guys are really dating yourselves, you know that? You're a couple of dinosaurs in today's age. We chatted for a few minutes while we were all dressing, but they were…we come today from a different approach to work, and they were just appalled as they worked at the FedEx facility that, you know, people don't show up on time, or they call in sick quite often.

And if, you know, if in a place like that, you don't do that too often. You're just…you're gone, because they cannot tolerate that. Now, other places may tolerate it more. Sometimes they don't, but there is…that speaks to a work ethic. Normally, you should, you know, get to a point where you understand. A priest serving in this exalted role for people and working with people had to have a level of seriousness about life to know that things that had to be exact.

And in the priesthood, things had to be exact. Make work wasn't good enough. It wasn't government work, folks. It was real work, the work of God. And if a sacrifice had to be given at a specific time, in a specific way, by a specific person, that's the way it was done. You couldn't work on the fly.

You couldn't change. You couldn't say, well, you know, that's good enough, and just kind of slop that sacrifice around. It couldn't be done that way. So the people who did it had to have a certain gravity and seriousness. That's one thing that you see about that role of a priest there. In Leviticus 6, just to look at another, let's say, a random scripture regarding the priests and their work, Leviticus 6, this gets into the detailed job description of the priests.

And someone once gave a sermon about the book of Leviticus and showed how the book of Leviticus is written really for the priesthood, and therefore for the church. You could give a whole priestly training course just out of the book of Leviticus and apply it to us today because the details of the job are all laid out here. But in chapter 6 of Leviticus and verse 9, it says, Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the burnt offerings.

The burnt offerings shall be on the hearth upon the altar all night until morning, and the fire of the altar shall be kept burning on it. Down in verse 13, A fire shall always be burning on the altar. It shall never go out. Interesting. On that altar, before the building of the tabernacle, the fire never went out. It was an eternal flame.

The only eternal flame we can kind of relate to today is the flame at the grave of the slain President John F. Kennedy. How many of you have ever been to Arlington and seen that flame? It's a spot in American soil and American history that all of us know about. The eternal flame that was lit there at the time of his burial. Still there. The flame always was in front of the burnt offering or on the altar of the burnt offering. You can learn a lot from that.

The priests and I think that overall that was to show something to the people of Israel that they were to be a light to the world. That flame was symbolic of their example. That they were to be a light to the world. And when Jesus later said that in the Sermon on the Mount, you are a light, the city set upon a hill. That altar with the flame going was something that you could see throughout the city. Were you to have approached Jerusalem from any direction when the temple stood, you would have seen that light. From the north, from the east, from the west, you would have seen that light. So it shows that as it never went out, the people of God were to be a light to the world. It's an interesting approach. It's an interesting thing. Many things that we can learn there. I'd like for you to turn over to Hebrews chapter 5, though. I want to zero in on this section of the New Testament where it talks about the high priest. And from this section in Hebrews 5, you and I can learn, I think, some key principles of what it means to be a priest.

Because a lot of Leviticus and Numbers is summed up here in Hebrews chapter 5 in these first four verses. Let's read them, then we'll go back and look at them. Verse 1, Hebrews 5, it says, And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who was called by God, just as Aaron was, the first high priest, the first of the priests, and then from that whole line. And the whole point of it being brought up here is to point to Christ because, as verse 5 says, So also Christ did not glorify himself to become high priest, but it was he who set. And then the remainder of the book goes into a lot of other things to point to Jesus Christ being the ultimate high priest. But let's take these first four verses, and there are some things for us to learn from that. Let's break it down a little bit and learn some lessons as to what we are to become as a priest in preparation for this role in the kingdom of God. First of all, it says in verse 1, that every high priest taken from among men, they were taken from among men.

That is something that every priest had to remember. They were chosen from among the people.

They were given a very important duty and responsibility for service, but they were human and they had to remember that they were there for the people because they were taken from among the people. And they could never forget that. In other words, if you're going to be a priest in the spirit of this principle, you've got to remember where you came from. And that requires a bit of humility to remember where you came from and not get uppity. That no matter how you progress in life, how much money you earn, how many titles you might have, how many jobs you might hold in corner offices one might set in, or you graduate from wearing jeans to suits. But of course, now they wear suits. I mean, jeans in businesses as much at times as they might suit. You always remember where you come from. I was making a comment to someone the other day about someone else. We were talking about where we grew up. And this other person came from a southern background, as did I. And I made the comment to them, I said, next time you see so-and-so, remind them that they were born near us too. And this person laughed and said, oh yeah, I didn't know that. I said, oh yeah, they were born right near what we're talking about here. Humble roots, in other words. Humble origins. What would we say around here in northeast Indiana that would be a town, county? I guess I could mention some from my knowledge, but I won't, because I'll I'm sure to offend somebody, so I won't do that. But, you know, there are certain places you come from, let's say Appalachia, just to use it, Kentucky, Appalachia, southeast Missouri, Arkansas.

And you can be the butt of jokes, or you can, you know, the jokes, the stereotyping that comes from that. And certainly, however a person progresses in life, you may move away from some of your origins, habits, thinking, as we should in some cases. But on the other hand, it's always important to remember where you came from. And don't forget that there are other people that you serve who you can help overcome, grow, put life in perspective. You never forget where you come from. Remember that though we might rise above our origins, in some way you always need to remember where you started from. And don't fall into the trap of denial or pride. One of the reasons God always reminded Israel that they were slaves in Egypt was so they would not forget and be lifted up with pride and think that their greatness had given them the wealth that they had, the land, the position that they now held. And you will read throughout the scriptures in the Old Testament, many times, on the holy days, and at various times, God says, remember that you were once slaves in Egypt and I brought you out of Egypt. He would never let them remember or forget where they came from. That was a key. That was so important. A priest was appointed for men in things of God, and a priest represents God to people. That's what he did. When he put on those robes, when he put on his vestments, when he offered to sacrifice, when he stood and read the law, he was representing God before the people. He was teaching God's way and word as well as indeed. And the robes of white and purple represented the various aspects of royalty as well as righteousness to the people. And so, as people literally, the reason for the priesthood was to stand in a sense before God for the people to make offerings and to do things that they themselves recognized they were falling short on. So there would always be the temptation for a priest to abuse his position or to forget where he came from, but he had to remember that. He was taken from among men. And so, he was appointed for men in things pertaining to God to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sin. Now, verse 2 tells us a second key.

Because of that, he can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness. A priest must have compassion on the weak. You must have that compassion. The priest has got to be at the heart, have a heart of compassion, because he doesn't forget where he comes from, and he recognizes that he too is weak. He's subject to weakness, subject to sin, making mistakes, letting his words get out of hand and hurting. And so, you factor that in as you teach. You factor that in as you would administer the role of a priest in preparing a sacrifice along with the the supplicant to make a proper sacrifice before God. When you really understood some of the ways that the offerings were to be given in the Old Testament, an offering was brought to the priest, and then the priest assisted the family or the individual in making that offering within the temple. And some offerings would involve actually taking part of it, and the priest and the person or the family setting down and having a meal off of a portion of that sacrifice. And so, as they would sit and talk, there was an opportunity to learn for a priest then to help in making the sacrifice and in doing so teaching them what they were doing and how that was absolving them of guilt, because that's why they would be bringing that offering. They wanted a clean conscience. And so, a priest would have to help walk them through to show, we'll do it this way, yes, we will take your offering and we will offer it at the appointed time in this way for this reason. And as we're doing this, Mr. and Mrs. so-and-so, for your family, this is what's happening. This is what's taking place.

And you can rest assured when you leave the precincts of this temple that God has heard your prayer, He forgives and you are guiltless. And can you imagine the family from 30 miles off who have brought in a lamb, a goat, or a young bullock, or a bushel of grain, which represented a portion of their wealth? Can you imagine their feeling of relief when they would walk away after whatever period of time it would take? This was the reality on the ground with this system as to how it would have functioned. And they would have walked away with a clean conscience. How important to you is your conscience? I had a recent letter from somebody, nobody here, so don't try to figure out who.

Asking my forgiveness, my forgiveness, for their attitude toward me.

And I didn't even know they had an attitude toward me, because they don't even attend with me wherever I am. So again, don't even try to figure out who it is.

And they said for years, this is how they felt. And they'd come to a conviction by the Scripture through time and their experience that this person realized their prayers were not being heard.

And they'd read that Scripture in the Gospels that Christ had said they had read and they were convicted that there was a problem. Is there a problem? Do we need to take care of anything? You're sure? Okay. All right. They were concerned that their prayers were not being answered. And so they were asking my forgiveness before they then could go back and make that sacrifice. It's quite humbling to get a letter like that. And so I said, look, I'm not even aware of what has transpired between us. But certainly, I accept your apology. And they wrote back and they said that their conscience was now clean. They felt better about it.

You know, when someone comes to you and they want forgiveness or they want to patch up the relationship, our role as a future priest is to have the humility to understand, yeah, I have to forgive. I have to make the effort to reconcile. I have to go beyond because their conscience is at stake and they're wanting it clean before God. Lest their prayers be hindered and whatever it may be. That's what a priest is supposed to do. That's what a priest is supposed to do.

And so with that, he has to have compassion on the weak to remember that we too are weak and susceptible to sin. Let's go back to verse 3. It says, because of this, he is required as for the people, so also for himself, to offer sacrifices for sin.

In the ritual of the Day of Atonement, the high priest, if you remember that very carefully, he had to first offer a sacrifice for himself before he could ever start through the process of the ritual of the Day of Atonement. His very first action after putting on the special garments of the day was to make a sacrifice for himself because he needed to be forgiven, because he had sinned. And so the priest had to recognize that before he could ask God's special blessing and forgiveness that day upon the people, he had to be cleansed himself because he too had sinned. So a priest has got to always remember to make a sacrifice for himself, to ask for forgiveness, to have a clean conscience before God as well, before he can ever start any type of ritual. So it takes an awareness there of the sin within the land and where we live and the responsibilities that we have. In verse 4, it says, and no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God just as Aaron was. No man takes this honor to himself.

There was no way that any other family could ever come to a point where they would assume the priesthood. It would always be forever within the family of Aaron. And because of that, if you were a descendant of that man, Aaron, you had to recognize that your life was a little bit different. It was a sacrificial calling. A priest had certain cities in which he lived. There were certain cities in Israel that were designated as the priestly cities and the environments around. If you were born into a priestly family, in many ways, your life was already lined out for you. It was already lined out for you. You knew what you were going to do. In essence, you knew what school you were going to attend. You knew what line of work you were going to be in. You even knew where you were going to live. I imagine that today, how that would impact your life and your role as a person today. If you didn't have that freedom of choice as to where you would even live and what you would do, you would have to recognize that your life is a sacrifice.

That you have to sacrifice your life for a higher calling, a higher duty, a higher cause. That's what a priest had to recognize. And so his life then became a complete and total sacrifice. If you were born into a priestly family as a male, you knew what you were going to do. It was a regimented—it would have been a regimented—life. And there was no other way to get beyond that. There's one example in Numbers 17—I won't turn and go through that entire story—but there was an example in Numbers 17 where there was a challenge to the decision that God made regarding Aaron and his family. Every head of a tribe was told to take a rod with their name and place it in the tabernacle. And the next day, if you remember the story, only Aaron's rod had butted with ripe almonds to show God's choice for the family of Aaron as the priests. Aaron was the only one God had chosen to be a priest before him for the people.

And so Aaron had to live with that. His descendants had to live with it. And that was the lot and duty of a priest. God chooses whom He will. This is the lesson for us to apply as we do this. If we look back at verse 4 and it says, no man takes this honor to himself but he's called by God.

To be a member of the Church of God is a calling. To be called now to prepare as a priest, to be among those people to whom the kingdom is going to be granted in that role of a leader, is to recognize that it is a calling determined by God, which is a very deep biblical truth regarding this age, the Church, the elect, and where you and I are right now. Again, it's a calling to a life of sacrifice.

And to an acceptance of that life. We all have to make that choice because it comes from God, just as Aaron's did. Aaron could have run from it, perhaps, but he didn't. He submitted to it. And God expects us to submit to it.

And therefore, our life becomes one of sacrifice. Over in Romans 12, in the 12th chapter of Romans, verse 1, it says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Present your bodies to God, holy and acceptable.

That's speaking of a sacrifice, because a sacrifice at the temple through the priesthood had to be holy. It had to be of the right proportions, fit all the requirements, to be acceptable before God. So Paul is saying here, present your bodies as a living sacrifice.

We're not dead sacrifices. We're living sacrifices. And as a priest, it's a sacrificial calling for all of us to recognize as to what God has chosen for us and offered to us.

And in that sacrificial calling and accepting that, we then accept the fact to be a part, to be separate, and to live holy lives, which means we have to make some discriminating, discerning judgments about how we live our lives. What we do, how we grow and develop, is the way we conduct our lives in holiness. Holiness is an abstract foreign concept today.

People usually live unholy lives. And the general course of the world around us is so coarse today, so rough, that it's as far from anything holy that it could ever be.

Melvin Rhodes and I were talking last weekend—actually, we were talking about it on—we were together this week, and he was talking about taking a bus trip between Cincinnati and Lansing, Michigan, sometime in the last few years, because for whatever reason, he couldn't get a flight out in one of the trips he was making between Lansing and Cincinnati, and he decided to take a Greyhound bus. I don't know if any of you have been on a Greyhound bus in recent years.

The last time I was on a Greyhound bus, I was 15 years old, and I took a cross-country trip from Missouri to California. Two solid days on the bus, and it was a hoot. It was really an adventure. Enjoyed it. I wouldn't do it today. I wouldn't do it today. But Melvin was talking about getting on this Greyhound bus a year or two or three ago and making the trip from Cincinnati up to Lansing, and the type of people that were on the bus, and what they started talking about.

Because they kind of everybody started talking, and they started talking about their most roughest moment or whatever, and you know, getting caught in crime, run-ins with police, other types of pretty absurd, illegal, rough behavior. And Melvin was saying, they're wondering, what am I going to talk about when it comes to my turn? Because he didn't live that lifestyle. But that was the normal course of everybody on the Greyhound bus at that moment. Now, you don't have to take a Greyhound bus to get exposed to that. Just turn on the television. Is Jerry Springer still on? Moripovich? And you see the type of lives that people revel in, or go to some places that perhaps we shouldn't go to, and listen to the conversation. Go to school and listen to the conversations. Holiness is not something that, you know, is just really understood. But that's what God says our lives are to be.

I find it a tragedy at times that so many people in God's church don't understand holiness, especially among our young adults, and even some of our older people who get caught up in situations and places that are far from holy places. But that's what God calls us to. That's what we're being prepared to. We have to submit ourselves to that to be prepared as priests, because a priest was to be set apart and was to be holy. Now, I said at the beginning, and in the sermon three weeks ago, kings and priests, why the two, why the combination of the two into this king-priest, or priest-king, however you want to turn it around, role that God's preparing us for, that He says we are to assume at some point. Why the two? If you just focus on the king, it's going to be unbalanced. If you just focus on the priest, the holiest aspect of it, you're not going to get the full picture.

I think at times in the past we just focused on the king aspect of it, and that's led to an unbalanced, sometimes even abusive approach to authority and relationships within our midst.

What Christ wants us to do is focus on the two and to learn something that He really brings out in Matthew chapter 20, because it is the key to understanding what He says here in Matthew chapter 20. You remember the story in Matthew 20 where the mother of Zebedee's sons, verse 20 of Matthew 20, the mother of James and John came kneeling down before Christ to ask a favor. This lady was a stage mother. She was wanting to put her two sons and promote her two sons out there, like a stage mother does with a child and getting them all prepped for whatever talent show or stage production because they want to sometimes live their lives through their child. Maybe that was one of the reasons that the mother of Zebedee's sons did this, but she came and she knelt down to Christ and he said, what is it you wish? In verse 21 she says, grant that these two sons of mine may set one on your right hand and one on the left in your kingdom. In other words, grant that they too become kings, king one and king two under you. And basically Jesus said, look, you don't know what you're talking about. You don't know what I have to go through, what I have to be drinking, and the baptism that I have to be baptized with. And they said, oh yeah, we're able, they said to him. He says, well, you will indeed go through that. But to give this role is not mine, only my father can do it, he says. And the other 10, verse 24, they heard this and they were displeased with the two. So it created some division and contention. Jesus called them all in verse 25. And he said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them.

And those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. You want to be great, serve. You want to lead, first serve. You want to be a king priest, serve. That's what he's saying. Whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave.

Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many. Right here sums up the dual role of a king priest. You want to lead, you want to set at the right hand of Christ, serve. Serve first, and then you will be great in the kingdom. You don't develop as a servant. You don't develop as a slave in a sense of submitting yourself.

You won't be great. You won't have that role. But if you follow the pattern of a king priest, and you marry those two into what God chose must be done, then you will be prepared to take that kingdom, to set in whatever position Christ gives to us, and do it well. Do it with humility, without pride. Do it with the ability to make sound judgments as a king, a good king will, because you've incorporated the best in all of both into that role. This is the great challenge before you and I, and it is a great challenge before God's church today. In many ways, we are at a crossroads, and the church of God needs to learn this lesson of Jesus, that if you're going to be great, be a servant. If you want this chief role, be a slave. Without that, we will not grow. Without that, God's church will not grow in grace and knowledge, nor do I think Christ will add to his church those whom he will.

This is the way forward. This is the way to the future. This is what sums up the whole role of being a priest king before God. It bears our thoughtful prayers, our study, and coming back to this on a regular basis as a church, as a congregation, and as individuals to understand the depth of Christ's statement here, that if you are going to be great, serve first. Don't lead, or don't approach it just from that. Serve.

How many books do you see on the shelves about leadership?

Quite a few. Leadership Secrets of Abraham Lincoln is the one I have on my shelf. Abraham Lincoln is the one I have on my shelf.

Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun was another one I used to have on my shelf, too.

Seven Steps to Leadership. How many books do you see on being a slave?

On being a servant? Go down to Barnes and Noble and look through the management, self-help, business section of the stacks there. And find out how, you know, just look at the titles. We focus first on leadership. And to be fair, many of the examples of books that you will find, they will bring in the need to be a servant. But all too often, the focus is upon leadership. We have leadership seminars. We have leadership classes. We have management training.

Do we have servant training? Or slave training? We would have slave training today because that wouldn't be politically correct, I understand. But look at what Jesus said. That is what has to be done first. Serve first.

Rather than try to lead at first. And then we will all be prepared as kings and as priests. And that's the whole key. That's the whole point that Christ is wanting to get us to.

This was a thought that struck me quite hard at the feast this year as I was thinking about the various needs and issues and where I am, where we are as a church. And the sermon was given that pointed this to me, that kind of turned a light on and inspired this sermon. So you may hear more about it. It's always timely for us to come back and learn and to listen to. God is going to give the kingdom to another people. It will be a people who are trained and catch the vision of a priest-king, a people who have learned to serve.