Worship:
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Transcript:
I’m sure glad you’re here. And if you want to open your Bibles line with me, we are in Numbers chapter three. But I want to mention that we have a prophecy conference coming up. It’s January 24 to the 25th. It’s a Friday to Saturday. So for a lot of people where it’s not during the week, it might make it easier for some of you to be able to get off and and be there for Friday and Saturday, it’s going to be a great conference. And we have a sign up sheet in the foyer. Now you can register online but the purpose of the signup sheet is if you would like to have a room to stay overnight. I worked out a good deal. I’m a wheeler and dealer when it comes to hotels and I try to give it get as good hotels for a good price. So sign up if you’d like to go to the conference. So I have your name down there. And you know we have new year coming up so we can make new year’s resolutions and my new year’s resolution Just to keep this year’s New Year’s resolution and you know, we normally keep them for at least Actually, we don’t keep them. It’s just, it’s just in our mind, we make these resolutions just where you know, in the new year starts, I’m going to do this and this and I’m not going to do that and that and usually anyway, anyway, so I encourage you to sign up. I agree. I agree. And I know most of you have enjoyed the longer daylight. I mean, on last Saturday was not yesterday, but last Saturday prior to that was the winter solstice. That was the shortest day of the year. And from that time on, we had been increasing 43 seconds of daylight. So you know, so I’m sure you’ve all noticed a great daylight hour we’ve had. Okay, let’s pray. Father, we come before you in Jesus name and there’s nothing more wonderful than to have the opportunity to handle your handle your word. And I pray, Lord, as we go through this portion of Scripture that it would speak to us and encourage us, that we might draw closer to you and realize the importance of following the living God and not the dictates of this world or even our own heart, because our hearts are deceptive beyond knowing beyond finding out. And so Father, I pray that you would anoint to use me to minister to these your precious people, I pray in Jesus, holy name, amen. Amen. You know, it’s interesting. Science has made almost a full circle. When science and the scientific method first came on the scenes. If you had true faith, it seemed to be taking us away. But as science has continued and continued and continued, it’s bringing us right back. Like for instance, the whole concept of evolution is becoming more and more even among academics. a fallacy you have Many very well known scientists that have accepted what they call
What do they call it? intelligent design? That of course, they don’t want to recognize who that intelligent designer is, but they call it intelligent design. But the reality is that there is a designer and his name is john Elway. You know, it’s so interesting. You have, like, for instance, Maxwell plank, he came up with Planck’s constant. And it which led to what is called quantum mechanics, and some of it is very accurate. Some of it’s very interesting, but a whole lot of it is just a bunch of bogus. Did you know science changes every 50 years? Look it up every 50 years science change. I mean, and not that many. Well, quite a while ago, maybe 150 years ago, 200 years ago, if if you had certain problems, you might go into see your physician and they drill a hole in your head and sometimes they bleed you In order to make you feel better, my point is that we can’t allow the outside world and all of their teachings and philosophies and thoughts to interfere with our relationship with the Lord. This is the word of God. This is true. And no matter what science or the philosophies of men might do to try to discredit this book, this book is the true Word of God. As a matter of fact, it is so accurate that you even have a group of archaeologists. I might have mentioned this before, who are not believers, but they know the Bible is true, and they’re called biblical archaeologist. And so when they look for certain finds and certain digs, they use the Bible in order to get to the proper location, but they don’t believe the Bible’s necessarily the Word of God, to man. So we have to understand this is God’s word. And so everything we read in it, according to its own teaching is for our benefit for our learning, that through endurance of what we’re reading and learning to the Scriptures, we might have hope. And what does that hope that hope is in Jesus Christ? Brothers and sisters, here’s the point, from the time you’re born, you’re moving towards death. You know what I’m saying? I mean, you get to be my age. And I know there are a couple people are older than me, that’s about it. But you get to be my age and you realize that your physical life doesn’t have that much longer to go. And if that’s all there was how sad it would be. But to understand that to be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord and have a whole new life in him is absolutely exciting. And even in relationship to the rapture, they’re taking from the Latin word wrap toast to be caught up. Even in relationship to the Rapture. Those of us who are left and remain and are alive, we’re going to be caught up together with the dead in Christ who are going to be raised to meet the Lord in the air. And the Lord is so gracious did he laid out in detail. The prophecies that we can look at the show the nearness of His coming, that we might lift up our head Scripture says, says to be ready. I mean, some of you probably read in the news about all the anti semitism that’s taking place in New York, and they had video of guys coming and attacking his stetic Jews and beating him. Well, last night. A fella broke into a rabbi’s home where there were celebrating Hanukkah with a machete and he stabbed and seriously injured a number of people then went to another house and then finally to a synagogue. anti semitism is growing rapidly in this nation and understand what did they do? What are the Jewish people do the cast such hatred? They’re just minding their own business doing Work, understand is spiritual. It’s satanic. And then you realize what’s happening in the world. Of course, we don’t realize what’s happening in the world because the only thing we see on news is politics. impeachment, impeachment, impeachment. That’s all you read about. Now, the reality is there are things happening. Did you know that they had to evacuate Netanyahu from escalon when he was giving a speech because of a rocket attack time take them out? was no, we don’t know about that. Do we understand that? China, Russia and Iran are having joint military operations? Do you realize that all the nations that are prophesied in the zekiel 38 to be gathered together to come against Israel from the north, there, they’re there, they’re ready to go. And the Scripture tells us that they’re coming in for booty and other words for material possession. Well, the thing is, Israel has the largest deposit of natural gas. And now they have found some of the largest deposits of oil.
And Israel denied Russia, the ability to run a pipeline to the Mediterranean Sea to Europe, which would have given them a great, you know, mark for their natural gas. And so everything is there. They’re on the mountains of Israel right now, all of her enemies, and they’re ready to come against her. And so we have to understand that we’re living in those days that the Bible talks more about than any other topic or any other event in history. Jesus Christ is coming back for his church, for us, for you and I. Now, here’s the thing. Knowing this, we cannot be like this. So lunians, Paul had to write his second letter to the Thessalonians because in his first letter, he was telling them about the fact that Jesus was going to One day come back for his church. And so they all went up on a hilltop waiting for him. And so he wrote the second letter to the Thessalonians saints down off the hilltop and do the work of the ministry. I’m paraphrasing it terribly, but that’s basically what it’s all about. So we have to understand that as believers, recognizing the newness of God’s return very near, it’s not a, you know, an opportunity for us to just sit around and say, Come to Jesus come to Jesus. It should motivate us to be off of the hilltop off of the mountaintop and sharing our faith and doing the work of the ministry that God calls us to who’s going to do the work of the ministry if it’s not us? We’re God’s chosen people, chosen since the foundations of the world relayed to be holy and righteous and to be his witness. Now, the question we almost asked her ourselves. And the reason I say ask ourselves because only we can give a truthful answer to this question. Is my faith simply a religious expression? Or is my faith in intimate relationship with my god? You know, a lot of people what they call faith, it just religious expression. Why go to church every Sunday? Well, I read four fingers of bite of my Bible, you know, every every night. And I do this, and I do that, and I do this. And I do that. And I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with doing those things. But if you’re doing it simply as a religious expression, because it makes you feel confident about yourself, you’re missing the whole point is relationship. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. But then the son sent the Holy Spirit to us to believers to dwell in our heart, our Cartier inner man for the very purpose purpose of being able to have communion with God. What a wonderful thing it is. And you know, we should be in communion with God all the time, every minute of the day. But the point is, it’s wonderful to take time, because God’s word, not only recommends it but commands it, to take time every day, to be alone with the Lord. To be some of us can’t be alone with our own thoughts. And here’s something that would be very difficult for you. I challenge you to take time, every day to spend time in prayer and in a word. Now, here’s the challenge. Without your cell phone. You realize what a disturber cell phones are. Have you ever ever been in a conversation with someone and you’re right them into the conversation? So here’s the point. When the phone rang, you just didn’t answer it. But when a text goes off, you have to answer It’s compelling. You’ve got to go to it. The point I’m getting at, is we need to spend time with the Lord. We need to be in intimate fellowship in communion with Him. He’s our father, he’s our Creator. He’s our Redeemer. And so we have to have that time with him. You know, the old timers used to call this full relationship with the Lord sanctification word. sanctify means to be set apart. But to be set apart, you have to be set apart from something to something. And you and I, as believers are supposed to be set apart from the world unto the Lord. Now, here’s the thing, it doesn’t mean that we’re set apart from the world in a sense, we don’t live in the world, we live in the world. You have to go to work, you have to pay your taxes, you have to buy groceries, you have to clean up you have to cut that that that we have worked, you know, so we have to live in the world. But that is what Scripture is teaching us that even though we’re in the world, we should be different than the world. We should live in such a way that people would see the light of Christ in us and everything that we do that would encourage them to make that turn of faith to realize how many people are depressed in the world. And the interesting thing is this, look it up online. You know, where depression has its highest rates, I’m talking about what they call what they call clinical depression. In the most economic privilege countries, the countries that have the most has the most depression. Well, wait, wait, wait, that doesn’t make sense. If happiness comes from receiving all kinds of material possessions and having this and having if that’s what brings happiness? Well, wait a second. Why would the most privileged countries have the greatest amount of depression? It’s because that’s not where happiness comes from. Happiness comes from Jesus Christ has Happiness comes from the indwelling Holy Spirit. And so, when we read portions of Scripture like this, we have to understand that the Old Testament was never meant to be a bunch of rules and regulations. People try to separate the Old Testament from the New Testament. In fact, you’re even certain preachers whose names I won’t mention that they believe that Christians shouldn’t even study the Old Testament, the Old Testaments for the Jews, the New Testaments for Christians. And then there’s some that even go so far to say if you’re a Gentile if you’re not a Jew, if you’re if you’re a Gentile believer, not a Jewish believer, you should only study the epistles of Paul because they were written to the Gentiles. He was the apostle to the Gentiles. What they’re missing the whole point, the entire Bible was written to believers, Jew or Gentile, it was written to believers. So if you look at the Old Testament, if anyone looks at the Old Testament as being a bunch of rules and regulations, you’re missing the point. It is a roadmap to every relationship with God. We know this to be the fact because that’s why the Pharisees and the Sagittarius but especially the Pharisees, has such a hard time with Jesus. Now, you know, we use that term all the time I’m going to explain it to the Pharisees would have been very legalistic. They stood on the Word of God, they believed every jot and tittle of the of the law should have been kept. They were really into the Bible. The Sagittarius would be like the liberals today. Well, you know, you can’t take it for this and can’t take it for that. The first is believed that there was life after death, this agencies Didn’t they just, you know, kind of like the liberals of today. But anyway, Jesus had a hard time especially with the Pharisees because he was telling him, Hey, you guys are missing the point. It’s not a bunch of do’s and don’ts. It’s about relationship. This is a roadmap to come into fellowship with your God. And so they had a hard time. You know, he didn’t wash his hands. No He’ll 5000 are fed 5000. You know what I’m saying? They were missing the point. And we have to be careful that as we study the Word of God, we look at what is God saying to me? What’s the Lord trying to show us? besides just what is written on those, you know, pages and those chapters? What’s he trying to show us through it? So let’s look at chapter three, starting off with verses one through four. Now, these are the records of Aaron and Moses, when the Lord spoke with Moses on Mount Sinai. And these are the names of the sons of Aaron, Nay, dabbe, the firstborn and Abba who always are and is smart. These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the anointed priests. They were the only ones that were the anointed priests at that time, whom he consecrated to minister as priests. Native an Abba who had died before the Lord when they offered proof profane fire before the Lord in the wilderness assign a we’ll talk about that in a minute. And they had no children. So la czar and it’s Mar ministered as priests in the presence of Aaron their father. So we know the first two nay dabbe and Abu were disqualified that they’re disqualified because they’re burn up a fire for because they disobeyed the Word of God. And so now we have EPu and, and le A’s are have taken their place. We’re told them first one did this is the account of Aaron and Moses. And yet we find that only Aaron’s sons are mentioned in this particular portion of Scripture.
Now, according to if you take notes, first Chronicles 23 and verses 14 and 15, you’re going to find that Moses sons were considered part The Levi’s tribe of Levi, but they were not considered priests. Only Aaron’s sons were priests. And the sons of Moses, the man of God, were counted This is in first Chronicles 2314, to be part of the tribe of Levi. And now Moses sons that are mentioned here are Gershom and Li ease are. And I say Li er because la czar is the son of Aaron. And now ESR is the son of Moses. They sound very familiar. If you look at your Bibles, they’re spelled different. Now Gershon was the oldest of the two sons born to Moses, in the land of the midians, buys the flora and lie there was the second son born to Moses, in medium by Sephora, and they were named because of Moses, despair of where he was. was, and yet also a praise to the Lord. In Exodus 18. two through four it says this. One son was named Gershom for Moses said I had become an alien in a foreign land. And grosser means dispossession. He was dispossessed from his land. And the other was named la Xur. For he said, My father’s God was my helper. He saved me from the sword of Pharaoh. And la zarn means God helps. And God does help. He helps us. Now, Gershon, and now he’s our head, they had no other rank. Among the lead bytes other than all the other Levi’s they were just one of the Levi’s. They weren’t like Aaron sons who were priests. There was a great difference. And the reason I’m bringing it up, is because we find in judge Because you notice there’s not a lot of mention of Moses sons in a positive way when we get through, you know, numbers and Exodus, I mean, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy means a second lots repeating the first law. But in Judges 1830 we find that Moses sons if you want to read all through judges 1830, so the tribe of Damn, the tribe of Dan had their inheritance in the south. And they decided they wanted to go to the north because there was better land. Now, inner and when they went to the north, you had a separation between the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom, the 10 northern tribes were separated from Judah and Benjamin, which were the southern tribes. And because the northern tribes didn’t want their people coming into the temple, to worship God, thinking that they might go on the side of Judah and Benjamin. They just They’d have their own God. And so in Dan, in fact, via night, I think Kevin Dunn and I know Frank was there at that time, too. We actually went to the idol of all in Dan. It’s it’s the site is still there. But anyway, they wanted to have priests to serve their idolatrous beliefs in the north. And so guess who they chose the sounds of Moses. They chose the sounds of Moses, thinking, well, it’s not Aaron son, but we have Moses sons. And so Moses sons, can you imagine Moses, great, great grandchildren, serving as idolatrous priests. And one of the things that shows us and we’re going to get into this a little bit later, we have to understand that our children can’t live on our faith. Our children have to have their own faith. And that’s why we have to instruct them and the way they should go. Now As far as native and Abu we know the day died because they offer an unauthorized fire before the Lord. See, God’s commands are not suggestions. God’s commands are not debatable. They are for the purpose of worship and fellowship with Him. All of God’s commands are to draw us closer to him that push us away. Oh, well, being a Christian, I gotta do this. I got that. No, no, that’s not what it’s about all God’s commands draw us closer to him. Wow. I’m in relationship with God. It’s so awesome to be is. Every day I wake up and I feel his presence. I have purpose in life. Now. That doesn’t mean you won’t ever make mistakes.
As pastor Frank Jr. talks about every one of us have those hours of self loathing where we’re saying, oh, but five done, Lord. I’ve been so faithful but for the most part, as a believer, you should sense belonging to God, you should sense his presence. You should sense your love for him and his love for you. His love never ceases and never fails, we should understand that. This is why, in Revelation 22, verses 18 through 19, it says, For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, talking about the book of Revelation, if anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in in this book. And if anyone takes away from your words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part in the book of life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. So what Aaron sons were trying to do is named Devin Abu, they were trying to repeat the work of God with their own hands. And as Matter of fact, Leviticus 924 it says fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed the burnt offerings, the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw they shouted for join a fell face down. And I believe that that’s one of the things that Abu and le A’s are we’re trying in a Devin and Devin Avenue we’re trying to do is they’re trying to repeat this work of God, you’re thinking of, well, Hey, you know what, let’s offer this incense on the altar. Because remember, you take calls and put certain kinds of incense on it, to put it on the altar, the golden, the brazen altar, offering up the sacrifice to God. And they wanted to have the same thing happen where fire would come down and consume everything and all that. So they say, Hey, I got an idea. Let’s add this to it. Maybe this is going to make it better. Maybe we’ll see God work and they work. consumed, fire did come down, but it consumed them. And the reason it did is that God doesn’t want us to try to imitate his work. He wants us to simply worship and serve Him and let God be God and do his work himself. You know, we are evangelical Christians. And that means that we have the responsibility of sharing our faith. That’s what evangelism is. But you can’t go out there saying, Well, I’ll tell you what, I’ve got the right ticket. Now I know exactly how to lead people to Christ. You know, I have this technique and I have that technique. I know exactly how, wait, wait, wait, wait. Are you going to be like a dab in Abu and try to offer your own fire to the Lord? The reality is this. Every one of us should be evangelists, but we should just be praying Lord, lead me. Lord, show me Lord gives me the words to say. Because you might think you have a certain technique that you’ve gotten down to share your faith with people. But it might be just your technique. Maybe that isn’t what they need to hear. Sometimes you can offer something to people, and it just blows their minds. And you think you’re thinking, What What did I say? It’s because what the Lord put on your heart, and it was what they needed. And I told you this accounts a number of times, but I remember walking into the mall some years ago, and this young woman ran up to me. She was pastor times past three times, that turned around and said, Oh, hi, how you doing? I had no idea who she was. I had no idea who she was, Hey, how you doing? She was telling me she said, You know that talk you had with me. She said it changed my life. She said just changed my life. And I said Praise God. Not really was praising God because I don’t even remember the talk. The point I’m trying To get at is sometimes the way you’re able to serve the Lord the most effectively is when you don’t plan things. You just let him do it. Let God be God, and try not to do his work for him. serving the Lord, we must be submissive to him, not doing it our own way. In Numbers, three, go to verse five. And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, bring the tribe of Levi near, and present them before Aaron the priests that they may serve Him. Notice they were not called to be priests, the rest of the tribe of Levi. They were called to serve Aaron and his sons. They’re called to serve the priests. And in the same way, all believers called to a particular fellowship are to serve in that fellowship. Might not be Sunday school, it might not be Bible study. It might be just doing projects around the church. You understand what I’m saying? What we’re looking at here is they were they were to serve the physical upkeep of the tabernacle, we’re going to find as we go on, that there were some that had this responsibility and that responsibility. And so the same thing is true of our church. This is where we gather together to worship the Lord. And we should be doing it together. We look around and we see all this needs to be done that needs to be done. little plug here on January 11, we’re having to work be Be there or be square. That’s an old 60 saying anyway, but you need to be there to help out. There’s so many things that need to be done. And john and Patrick are the two hours that are in charge of buildings and grounds so you might want to see them and talk about things that need to be done. We got a ton of stuff. Just a little advertisement here. Okay. Now, first seven, and they show a 10 into the needs and they should show can his needs and, and the needs of the whole congregation before the tabernacle of meeting to do the work of the tabernacle. Also they shall attend to all the furnishings of the tabernacle of meeting. Now, it’s interesting there to attend to all the furnishings. We’re going to find as we go on, that every one of the Levi clans had different responsibilities. There is some Levi’s whose total responsibility was the tent pegs. And you might think, well, I want to carry the Ark of the Covenant. I don’t want to carry 10 pegs. What a low job that is. Brothers and sisters, if you didn’t have the 10 pegs, the whole thing would fall down. So sometimes what we might think is the lowest position you can possibly have, maybe it’s the most important. I think that’s something we really need to think about. Okay, and to the needs of the children visit to do the work of the tabernacle, and you shall give the Levi’s the Levi’s to Aaron and his sons, they are, they are given entirely to him from among the children of Israel. So you shall appoint Aaron and his sons and they shall attend to their priesthood. But the outsider who comes near will be put to death. And you know, the thing is, we’re all Christians, We’re all called to be evangelists. We’re all called to be high praise to the Lord. But the fact is, God does set pastors aside for the purpose of presenting the work of the ministry in the sense of presenting the Word of God of preaching the Word of God. And this is the reason any pastor who does not take presenting the Word of God seriously shouldn’t be standing behind the pulpit. Let me share something with you Second Timothy, chapter two and verses 15 and 16. It says, Be diligent. And now have to understand that Timothy, Timothy and Titus, were written to pastors. That’s who Paul wrote them to those letters to to pasture. Be diligent to present yourself approve of God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, listen, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and idle babblings. For they will increase to more on godliness, and their message will spread like cancer. There’s so many things that have come into the church that have distracted pastors. Oh, you had the holy laughter movement. Oh, you had this movement? Oh, you had that movement. You know, you had, you know, all these different movements have come into the church. And it’s not what a pastor is called to do. He’s called to teach the Word of God. That’s our pastors. Call. If I’m not called to be your priest, we are a royal priesthood, you’re responsible to God. I’m not responsible for you to God. But I am responsible to present the Word of God to you, and allow the Holy Spirit to apply it to your hearts. You understand, and that is, it’s kind of like a college professor, college professor can get up there and teach. And you might have some people who just take down all the facts enough to pass an exam, but they, they don’t take it to heart. They don’t understand that they don’t, you know, dig into it. And so the same thing is true, I’m presenting the Word of God, but you have to allow the Holy Spirit to work it in your heart and in your life. Verse 11, then the Lord spoke to Moses say now Behold, I myself have taken the Levi’s from among the children of Israel, instead of every firstborn who opens a woman among the children of Israel, therefore the Levis shall be mine. Because all the firstborn are mine, on the day that I struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified to myself, all the First Born in Israel, both man and this day should be mine, I am the Lord. Well, as I mentioned, as a church, we’re all priests. If you take notes, First Peter, chapter two, verse nine, but you are a chosen people, this is talking to all believers, but you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. See, the purpose of priests is to be an intermediary, intermediary between God and man. Now we are intermediaries in the sense that we can give absolution and forgiveness of sins or anything like that. But how we are a mediator is as evangelists were able to go to people and say, This is what God teaches. This is salvation. God offers This is the way you. So in that sense we do mediate between God and man, bringing them to Christ. Now remember, the Lord chose the Levi’s because their obedience and zeal to him. You know why, in fact, if you take notes write down Exodus 32. And we’re looking at verses 26 through 29. I’m not going to read them, but what it was about is the children of Israel fell into idolatry. And so the Lord spoke to Moses and said, I want you to call volunteers to strap on swords, and go out and kill all those people that are committing idolatry. And the only ones that came to Moses for the Levi’s and they strapped on their swords, and they went out and killed thousands of their own who were fallen to idolatry because God knew the plague that it would take to the whole camp of Israel if they didn’t stop it as a cancer and so because of that, believe it were chosen. I know some of us when we look back on those accounts, and we think that’s so brutal. I mean, they went out with swords and killed their own people. You know, it’s hard for us to understand and I don’t know how to explain it to you other than at that time, it was the beginning of man’s relationship with God in the in the word being presented in a pure way, that when you had idolatry come in, it had to be cut out. And I can give you a little bit of an example. Like, for instance, in our fellowship, one of the responsibilities Not only do I have as it as the pastor, but all of you have is to root out any cancer that might come in. And for instance, some years ago, there was a fellow who came to church and and seemed to be loving the message and everything else. And he came up to me afterwards and he was a Jesus only guy. He didn’t believe in the Trinity. And I told him right out, I said, look at I said, the Bible clear teaches the Trinity. Our church stands on the Trinity, and we will not allow this kind of teaching to take place in church. He never came back. There was no fight, there was no arguing there’s no you know, uncomfortable encounter. He just realized he wasn’t going to be allowed to spread his false doctrine in our church, and he never came back. That’s the kind of Levi’s we need in the church today. to strap on the sword of the spirit and the Word of God, and to go out is to stop false teaching, not only in our fellowship, but anywhere we see it. We need to take a stand against it. Not in an arrogant way. You know, so many people died, and they just turn everybody off. What does the Bible say about a soft answer? turns away wrath. So you have people and you just give the soft answer the Word of God. But this is what the Word of God says. It’s going to turn away Because you have to understand the Lord doesn’t call us to come to him on our terms. His purpose is always reconciliation of sinful man to himself. You know how many people, the Lord desires to be saved and to come to him how many, oh, he wants us all to be saved and come to him, everyone, there’s no one excluded. And therefore we have that responsibility as his disciples, to share the truth to people might come into faith in Jesus Christ, because we have to understand anyone who experiences salvation experiences, a joy, and a peace, beyond understanding, and in the end, eternal life. And all the glories of heaven was God, read about the new heaven and the new earth is has slightly mind blowing. And when you read about the new heaven and the new earth and the end of Revelation, understand as a believer, you’re going to be there and you’re not going to be there in nervana, just part of the collective, no, you’re going to be there as you understand you will never lose your self identity. And that’s why Scripture says well known be known. Like, if vinings both were raptured or I died and then she was wrapped when we get to heaven, bias and going to come up to me and say, you know, you’re familiar to me. Just can’t quite place you know, lambs, we’re going to know and be known we’re, our self iden, you’re always going to be you.
Because understand the importance of that. You cannot truly worship God in spirit and in truth, even in heaven. If you’re not you. If you’re just part of a collective. You can’t have that individual relationship, which is what God desires of his people. Now, under the new covenant, the Lord doesn’t desire for us to dedicate our firstborn males, but to dedicate all our children to the Lord. And that’s an important thing because in our fellowship, and in a lot of Christian fellowships, we don’t baptize infants. Because baptism is for the believer, believe and be baptized every one of you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. So believing is a pre white prerequisite to being baptized. But what we do do is dedicate our children, which we find in Scripture, that that’s found in Scripture as as something that we as believers are supposed to do. Because our children are not capable of making decisions. You have a little baby in your hand, you have a two year old or a toddler, your Walker, they can’t make those kinds of decisions, but we can dedicate them to the Lord. And when you dedicate your children to the Lord, what you’re actually doing is making a commitment yourself to teach your children, the Word of God and the things of God to bring them up in this And the reason we do it in church when we have infant or child dedication in church is because the whole church is responsible. Sunday school Bible studies, you know, VBS all the children’s programs we have, plus your individual encouragement to them. How many of us even take time to talk to kids in the church that aren’t our grandchildren or children? You understand what I’m saying? And I’m not saying you shouldn’t be doing that buster. Get off don’t really know if you’re standing on the window ledge or something. Yeah, that’s one thing. But I mean, to just say, Hey, isn’t Jesus good? I’m so glad you come to church here. I hope Sunday school was great. I hope you’re growing the Lord. We need to encourage our children in the Lord. It’s our responsibility. In Jeremiah, we find out the importance of infant dedication. And Luke we find out that Jesus himself was dedicated on the day of dedication to the Lord. And we find that beautiful verse in Mark chapter two Verses 13 through 14, where women were bringing their children to Jesus, that he might bless them that he might dedicate them. And the disciples said, Oh, get those kids away. This is for big people. It’s one of the few times you find Jesus getting angry with his disciples. He said, prevent them not. Because he said, they are the ones who are going to receive the kingdom of God. Let the kids come to me let the children come to me. And as disciples were rebuked and we have to understand that God has no grandchildren, do you understand that? If you’re a child of God, your children or grandchildren, every child has to come to a place where they make a decision for the Lord themselves. Now, there is what we call an age of accountability or an age of responsibility. The Jews call it Bar Mitzvah. And it’s when a child reaches an age where they’re able to make their own commitment to the Lord. So, understand, you know, what did we read in Psalms? It says that he takes the lambs in his arms. David, when he was talking about his dead son, remember, he had a baby in a wrong way who died. And he said, you know, you can’t come to me, but I’m going to go to you, David was saying he’s in heaven. So any child below the age of accountability, now listen carefully, or any child who is incapable of making that kind of decision. When they die, they go to be with the Lord. There’s no limbo. There’s no purgatory. There’s heaven. And so that’s one of the reasons it’s so important for us, to raise our children and the Lord to encourage them in the Lord. You know, when I look and I see families and I see people bringing children into the church, it blesses me. Like if you You have a child and they say amen. At the end. You know what? Hallelujah, because they’re here. They’re praising God. Now we do have a quiet room, they get a little bit, you know, but you understand the point I’m making. We want our children to be here. We want our children to feel part of it. I love watching people come into church, and the kids are running up the ramp to get into the church. I mean, what a horrible sight it would be to look out and see the kids go. And that’s how it is in some churches, that we welcome our children. We want our children to be here. And so as you read a portion like this, understand, you are the Levi’s You are the royal priesthood. You are those that are set apart to do the work of ministry. And therefore, we have the same requirements to put on robes of righteousness. Not physical robes, but robes. of righteousness. And this is important. Listen carefully. I’m closing with his robes of righteousness we put on our not yours. Because how good I am now, I’ve been doing such good things. I’ve been reading the Bible, you know, and I’ve been doing my prayers every day and I look at how good I look in my robes of righteousness. No, those are filthy rags. That’s what the Bible says. It’s his robes of righteousness. Jesus, forgive me, a sinner use me, Jesus. He will. Because God is love. And in him is no darkness at all. And that love compels us to share our faith with everyone we come in contact with.
Father, thank you for this portion of Scripture and the encouragement that it gives each one of us and I pray, Father, that you would use it to not only minister to us, but allow us to minister to others. And so come by your Holy Spirit. Lord, if you’re Are any here who are not saved, were not born again of the Spirit. This would be the day of their salvation. All they simply need to do is say, God, forgive me a sinner take over my life. Simple as that. And Lord, those of us who are saved, but maybe we’re not really doing the work of ministry as we should. I pray that you would help us to surrender because even surrender is a gift from you. Help us to surrender totally que Lord, that we might serve you with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength. And so I pray this and ask your blessing on each one of us here in Jesus name, amen, and amen. God bless you, my dear friends.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai