Sunday Sermon

     This past week I got to provide pulpit supply for a pastor friend of mine.  He had just started a series out of the book of Numbers, and to keep up with the flow of things and to challenge myself, I continued with the series.  This was the first time I preached out of Numbers 3:1-13 and it was a great experience.  Here are some of the highlights of my sermon.

     The first observation is that God not only called, but also consecrated the tribe of Levi to not only be His representation to the nation of Israel, but also for them to be the voice of Israel back to Him.  Among the tribe of Levi, there was the Levites, who were responsible for the day to day happenings with the Tent of Meeting.  Whether is was moving, the leading Israel in the worship of God, or the general care of the Tent of Meeting, they took care of it.  They were also the "Judge Judy" because they took care of disputes and acted as judges along with the keeping of records.  The Priest were not only the overseers of the Levites, but they were the ones responsible for performing the sacrifices.  Whether it was the sacrifices of the individual families, or the nation of Israel, it was their responsibility to perform these task.  They communed directly with God and God with them.  Not only were they the official voice of God to the nation of Israel, they were interceding for them and helping the Nation of Israel be in right relationship with God.  They were also the moral compass for Israel.  As moral and upright the priest were, so was the nation of Israel.  Or if the priest were immoral and broke God's commandments, so did the Nation of Israel.  God set the Tribe of Levi aside as consecrated for a particular purpose and a calling to be holy.  He has called us to do the same. 

   The second observation I made was this idea of what it means to be consecrated/set apart.  When I think of this, two meanings come to mind.  The first one is that I think of my mom's fine china where we only use it for holiday meals, and the rest of the year it sits in the china cabinet looking all pretty.   The danger with this is that we are set apart and holy, but we are not being that agent of Change that God has called us to be.  The second idea of being consecrated/set apart means that we have a specific purpose to go out and change the world.  I agree with this, but we have to be careful of the extreme that we forget that we are holy and set apart and we come away looking like the world. 

  My third observation and conclusion to this whole idea of being set apart/consecrated means that we are to take the Biblical commands seriously that we are to be holy as God is holy.  Being consecrated means that we are holy.  I tend to see holiness as perfection, not as I have done nothing wrong, but as maturity.  This means that we are living in right relationship not only with God, but with our fellow man.  It means that we are putting away things that hinder our relationship with God and others while continuing to grow in Gods grace and mercy.  In essence, its maturity or growing up and the end result is that we love God with everything we got and we love our neighbors as ourselves.  As the Apostle Paul states that we should not stay on spiritual milk forever, we need to grow up.  One sign of immaturity is that we continue to struggle with the same issues.  A sign of someone who is maturing is the over coming of those issues.Just as we need to grow up from teen to adulthood, we need to mature spiritually.  So how does this look practically.

     Since we are set apart and consecrated, we are called to be God's hands and feet in a very dark and broken world.  With Christ becoming the ultimate High Priest, He is inviting us to be apart of the Priest Hood of all believers.  Just as the priest of the Old Testament were interceding for the nation of Israel, Christ does the same.  If Christ is interceding for us on a daily basis, how can we not do the same for the world in which we live in.  It is being the dispenser of God's grace to this world.  It is more than just getting people saved (which is important), but it is bearing each others burdens, interceding for those who can't, it also is bring justice to a broke world.  Justice is not just bringing punishment, but it is bringing people back into right relationship with not only each other, but God too.  It is the dispensing of forgiveness and reconciliation not only with God and others, but ourselves as well.  As mentioned earlier, we need to put away things that hinder our relationship with God and others.  We can only change the world in ways we are willing to grow up and change.  This isnt meant to be works orientated, but as we grow in grace of the living God, it will change the world we live in. So in closing lets be the presence of God in a broken world interceding and being that agent of Change God called us to be and that Christ is working through us