Brick Priests
Our Church, God’s Home    Part 2
1 Peter 2:4-5        7-28-2012 & 7-29-2012

Summary: Like the ancient masons who used no mortar, God makes His Temple structurally sound by shaping each one of us to fit up against the others through conformity to the Cornerstone. This happens when we draw near to Him. We are also priests, as worship is an essential part of our mission (we are lampstands in the Holy Place). We are priests in the sense that we offer sacrifices (praise, prayer, repentance, ministry of the gifts, giving, generosity and good deeds in general, faith and love, and the souls of men). 
	
Introduction:
Review: The Importance of Knowing our Identity
Bricks
Built Together
Fitting together
Unity through Conformity to Christ
Makes you like Him
Connection to Jesus is what makes us a Temple
No Pope
Come to Him
Living Stones
Priests
Mixed Metaphors
Do not be a Slave to Metaphors
The function of a priest
Worship
Lampstands
Offering sacrifices
Conclusion: What about Women?
1:25 Questions

1 Peter 2:4 As you come to him, the living Stone--rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him-- 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." 7 Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone, 8 and, "A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the message--which is also what they were destined for. 9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 
Introduction: 
Review: The Importance of Knowing our Identity 

Last week I tried to make a case for the importance of knowing our identity as a church. What is it we are supposed to be? We are not at liberty to invent ourselves. If you start a business, that business can be whatever you make it. You can sell whatever you want to sell, establish whatever business 
model you think will work best – it is all up to you… unless it is a franchise. If you open an independent restaurant, you are free to do whatever you want. But if you are opening a McDonald’s franchise, you do not get to decide the name of the place or the menu items or the colors or the uniforms or the logo – all those things are already determined. Starting a church is more like opening a franchise than starting an independent business. The Church already has a pre-set identity, and the closer a particular congregation gets to that identity, the better that church is. And the farther we get from it, the less of a church we are. The way to develop a church mission statement is not to sit around and brainstorm about what might be most effective. We discover our purpose statement by opening up the franchise manual and reading what the Owner of this outfit designed it to be.
We found last week that one part of our identity is that we are to be the spiritual house of God. And throughout the Old Testament, the phrase “house of God” always refers to the Temple. Our identity is that we are to become the new Temple – the dwelling place of God on earth. And that is an identity that we are growing up into as the Lord builds His Church stone by stone. That is the most important kind of church growth. You know your church is growing when there is a greater experience of the presence of God than there used to be. If someone visits today, then comes back a year later and says, “Wow, it’s much easier to experience the presence of God and see His glory now than it was when I came a year ago” – then you know the church is growing. That is true church growth.
Bricks
Built Together
And it happens only when we are joined together with the other building stones.
Ephesians 2:21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.
This is a reference to the process they had for building stone structures. The masonry used in ancient times was amazing. In Israel, mortar was very expensive to produce, so when Herod built the Temple of Jesus’ time, he used no mortar. Instead of putting mortar between the stones to fill the gaps, he had the stones cut with such precision that there were no gaps. They call it the “dry construction” method. And it is amazing when you consider the size of the stones they used.

When Herod built the Temple of Jesus’ time, on the west side there was a giant retaining wall, and a portion of that wall still stands today. The first seven rows of stones in this picture are the very stones Jesus saw when He looked at the temple. They have been there for 2000 years. Some of the stones in this wall weigh 80 tons, and they were 100 feet up in the wall.

We have no idea how they lifted 80 ton stones 100 feet up and placed them with such precision. And those are not even the biggest stones. Over the years rubble has built up so that the streets of Jesus’ time are buried 43 feet down. So the stone this guy is standing by was 20 feet up in the wall.

And in some places they have excavated down to the street level to see the stones near the bottom of the wall.

This is a rendering of what it looked like in Jesus’ time, and that black rectangle, which was 43 feet above the street level, is that portion of the wall that we see above ground today. You can go there today and go down into the tunnels and see them. This one is the biggest one they have found so far.

It is called the master course stone, and it is 44 feet long, 11.5 feet high, and probably about 15 feet thick. That is almost the width of this sanctuary.

As a comparison, the larger stones in the Great Pyramid in Egypt weigh up to 15 tons. This stone weighs 570 tons. Josephus says some of the stones were almost double this size. Archeologists have not found those yet - they are limited on how much they can excavate because so much of it is controlled by the Muslims. This stone is cut and placed with such perfection that even now, 2000 years later, you cannot even fit a credit card between it and the next stone at any point around it or underneath. There are no gaps. We have no idea how they could cut it that perfectly. Nor do we know how it could be placed so precisely – every part is completely flush. You can see the decorative masonry at the bottom – looks like it was done in a factory. Each stone was cut with two inches of decorative trim so they looked like bricks.

Otherwise it would have looked like just a solid wall because of how perfectly the stones fit together. They were not all just uniform blocks. They were all different sizes, and sometimes they would even wrap around corners.

To protect against earthquakes they would cut different sizes and shapes to break up the lines.

And then cut the stones to fit perfectly together.

And these builders were not like me, when I cut the board three times and it is still too short. They knew what they were doing. In 1 Kings 6, we read about the process for the building of Solomon’s temple. 
1 Kings 6:7 In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built.
They cut these massive stones to perfection at the quarry, and no cutting tools were on site at the temple.
Now, with all that in mind – think of what was being communicated to the original readers when they read 1 Peter 2. Those ancient people saw these stone structures and knew about how this all worked. God is building us together like an ancient stone temple.
This is why I bless God for giving us archeologists! And it is also why it is ridiculous not to use commentaries. We live in a different time and different culture and sometimes a metaphor or illustration in the Bible that was simple for the original readers to understand is hidden from us unless we get a little historical background. But once you get that background, it really comes to life.
Can you see why I got all excited last week in the Q&A when someone asked the question about the mortar? They said, “If we are the stones, what is the mortar that holds us together?” Answer – there is no mortar. What holds us together is the cutting and shaping and placement of the Master Builder. That is why your dishwasher broke down. That is why your transmission went out. That is why the person you are working with in your ministry is driving you crazy. That is why your child brought home that F on the report card. God is chiseling and grinding and shaping you to be just the right size for your spot in the wall. One side of you has to fit up against me, and I am a stone with some pretty crazy angles.

	Fitting together  
The process of the spiritual growth of a church is the process of God building you right into those people seated around you. If our lives do not become entangled and intertwined together, then we are not progressing as a church. If our ministries are not interdependent, we are not functioning as a church. When you think about your ministry do not just think about what your gifts are. Think about how you can adjust the use of those gifts to fit the needs of the rest of the people in the particular church where you are. That is what building with stones is – taking individual stones and fitting them together. And the more that happens – where all the people are being shaped and chiseled to fit just right against the other bricks – the closer we will get to being functional as the dwelling place of God.
Unity through Conformity to Christ
That is not to say that you conform yourself to whatever other people want without qualification. All the stones of the building must be laid in line with the cornerstone, which was the stone they used to determine all the angles and lines. And Peter says the cornerstone is Jesus. We will fit together as we should only when we are aligned to the standard of Jesus Christ.
The cornerstone sets all the lines. That is why it is the most important stone in the structure. If its angles are off the slightest bit, you extend that error down a 100 foot wall and now you are way off. So the cornerstone has to be perfect. And if it is, as long as all the other stones are kept in line with it, the building is sound.
So what is the process going on at the quarry making us fit to be bricks in this building? God is chipping away at us to make us like the Cornerstone.
Peter 2:4 As you come to him, the living Stone… 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house 
He uses the exact same phrase to describe us as he uses to describe Jesus – living Stone … living stones. And look how Peter describes Jesus in verse 4 – rejected by men but chosen by God. Does that ring any bells? Remember the opening greeting in the very first verse of the book? Peter addressed this letter to the chosen strangers. Strangers and aliens and outsiders in this world – but chosen by God. We are the rejected elect, and here we read that Jesus is rejected and elected. The point is we are like Him.
Makes you like Him
Jesus is the living stone, and when we draw near to Him we become living stones. When you draw near to Him you become like Him. Isn’t it amazing how many titles Scripture gives to Jesus that are also given to us? 
He is the Son of God, and in Him we are sons.
He is the Holy One of God, and in Him we are holy ones (saints).
He is the Light of the world and in Him we are the light of the world.
He said His body was the Temple of God; in Him we are God’s Temple.
As we come to Him we are conformed to His dimensions, which makes us useful building stones.
Unity in the Church is not achieved by us trying to adjust to each other. When you tune an orchestra, you don’t say, “OK everyone, tune to the person next to you.” That would accomplish nothing. You set one pitch, and everyone tunes to that. When God uses your leaky dishwasher or your unexpected tax bill or a horrible disease or the loss of a loved one - when He uses suffering to conform you to the image of Christ, or when He uses your time in the Word and prayer and worship to mold you to become like Christ, He is bringing you in line with the Standard for the structural integrity of a load bearing wall in the Temple of the living God. Just like the building of the Temple in 1 Kings 6:7, when no sounds of chiseling or hammering could be heard at the building site. That is a good picture of what God does with each of us. The preparation is in secret. That is not to say He does not use the ministry of the Church to do it – of course He does. But the chiseling is done in secret – inside your heart in your personal relationship with God.
And He does the same work inside each of us – conforming us to the perfect standard, and the more He does that the more perfectly and seamlessly we fit together, and the more this place grows into a real Temple.
Connection to Jesus is what makes us a Temple  
The only thing about the Church that makes us the dwelling place of God is our connectedness with Jesus Christ. It is not the individual holiness or greatness of the people that makes us a holy sanctuary. It is not the wonderful things the Church does in the world. It is not our traditions or heritage or prestige or organization or leadership or anything like that that makes us the holy sanctuary of God. It is simply our close connection with and similarity to the Lord Jesus Christ.
No Pope
Last week someone asked me, if the average church member is a stone in the wall, what is my role as a pastor? The answer to that is, I’m a stone. The only special stone is the cornerstone. All the others are the same. In fact, if there was ever one stone that has been regarded as special, it’s Peter, right? The RCC teaches that Peter is the rock upon which the Church is built, and so he was the first pope, and popes are way above and beyond regular church members. And if the Bible were ever going to teach that doctrine, this would be the perfect opportunity, since it is talking about stones and the foundation of the Church, and the roles we play. But Peter says nothing about himself having any special role at all. The only thing he says about his role in this whole book in is chapter 5, where he says, “To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder…” He puts himself right down on the same level as any other pastor. We are all just stones, and our significance is found only inasmuch as we are conformed to the image of Christ.
Come to Him
And how do you become more Christ-like? What action do we take that places us in position to be chiseled by God into conformity to His Son? We saw it last week.
4 As you come to him … you all, like living stones, will be built up…
It happens when we draw near to Him. We seek hard after Him and strive all day every day to experience His presence. And as we do that – the more we experience His presence, the more we will be conformed to His image and become fit stones for the building.
Living Stones
And we also receive spiritual life. Like Him we become living stones. Once again we see Peter emphasize spiritual life. Jesus is a living Stone and we are living stones. This building – this temple structure, is not just an organization – it is an organism. The Church lives and breathes and grows and matures.
The Cornerstone is the Author of life, and as we are stacked on Him, His life gives us life. Right from the beginning Peter has been emphasizing life from God. Twice he has mentioned new birth. He talked about our living hope. He talked about the life-giving, living and enduring Word of God. He talked about the Father raising Jesus from the dead. And he does not want us to lose the emphasis on spiritual life from God, so he inserts it even when he is comparing us to stones. Spiritual life and health and vitality and strength and energy and growth – all the various aspects of life – those are all part of what it means to be a Christian.
And we get that spiritual life more and more as we draw near to Him. If you want to know more about how to draw near to Him and experience His presence, I would urge you to listen through the Loving God with all your Heart series. And I would also recommend the book, What’s so Great about God? But for now, let’s move on to Peter’s next metaphor for the Church. 
Priests 
Mixed Metaphors 
In English class they tell you never to use mixed metaphors. A mixed metaphor is when you start out with one analogy and then switch to another one - like, “That job is the low rung on a totem pole.” Mixing the analogy of a ladder with the analogy of a totem pole. That is a mixed metaphor – jumping from a ladder analogy to a totem pole analogy.
And many people would say the Apostle Paul is the king of the mixed metaphor. But I think Peter could give him a run for his money. We are nursing babies in verse 3, then we are stones being built into a spiritual temple where we serve as priests! You say, “Am I supposed to picture myself as a stone in the wall of this temple or as a priest serving inside the temple? And the answer is, “Yes!”
5 you yourselves, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God 
Do not be a Slave to Metaphors
This is an important lesson when it comes to interpreting the Bible. If you want to be skilled at properly interpreting Scripture it is crucial to understand that metaphors have meaning only as far as the writer intended. Even biblical metaphors break down when pushed beyond their specific, intended purpose. And when they break down – let them break down. Do not try to force the truth to fit every detail of the metaphor. The identity of the Church is so glorious and magnificent that no single analogy could possibly communicate all of it. We are like bricks, but we are not like bricks in every way – only in the ways the text points to. We are like the stones in that each one of us plays a crucial role, but our role only has significance in relationship to the other stones. And we are like the Temple structure in the sense that we are the headquarters for the presence of God in the world. But we are also like the priesthood. In what sense are we like the Old Testament priesthood?
The function of a priest 
What does the text say?
5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
We are similar to the Old Testament priesthood in the sense that our job is to offer sacrifices to God as worship. In Old Testament times, not just anybody could enter the Holy Place and offer a sacrifice on the altar. Only the priests could do that. Only the priests could get that close to God’s presence. In Exodus 19:22, the priests are referred to as “those who come near the LORD” to offer sacrifices. And now, in the time of the New Covenant, the Church has taken over that priestly role. The Church’s job is to offer sacrifices. That is part of our mission.
Worship
Now, of course this is not talking about sacrifices for sin. Not all Old Testament sacrifices were for sin – many of them were simply expressions of worship. The part of the sacrificial system that had to do with atonement and payment for sin is fulfilled in Jesus’ work on the cross. But the worship part is carried out through us in our priestly ministry. Worship is not just something we do to warm ourselves up for the sermon. Worship is as close to the center of our mission as anything else we do. Jesus died to make us a holy priesthood.
Lampstands
When I gave you that list of the various metaphors Scripture uses to describe the Church, one that I left out is the one used in the book of Revelation – lampstands. Each church is a lampstand. That term refers to the oil lamps used to light up the Holy Place in the Temple.
Does that surprise you? When God gives us an illustration of the mission of the Church in the world He says, “Your function is the same as the function of the lamps in the Holy Place in the Temple.” Nobody ever saw those lamps except God and the priests. The common people never even saw them.
Are we also supposed to function as the light of the world? Absolutely. However, if being a light to the world were our only function, then the lampstand analogy would make no sense. God wants us to understand that a church is to function as an implement inside the Holy Place. So much of our task involves worship that is just between us and God. A major aspect of our identity is the offering of sacrifices to God.

Offering sacrifices
What kind of sacrifices? Obviously not animal sacrifices. In this metaphor, what would you have to do this morning to offer God an acceptable sacrifice? 
That is a very easy question to answer. All you have to do is look up the word “sacrifice” in the New Testament and see what the writers of Scripture describe as being like sacrifices. One of them is right here in our text. Just peek ahead to verse 9.
Praise 
9 … you are a royal priesthood … so that you may proclaim the praises of the One who called you out of darkness 
That is why we devote a major portion of our time together on Sunday mornings to singing praises to God. That is part of our role as priests. 
Hebrews 13:15 Therefore, through Him let us continually offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of our lips that confess His name. 
If we are going to fulfill our mission as a church, Agape Bible Church must be a place where genuine praise is rising up to God. And so we sing every Sunday. The singing is not for the purpose of preparing you for the sermon. Just the opposite – I preach for the purpose of making us better worshippers. The singing (to the degree that it is a true expression of delight in God), is as much a high point of our function as a church as anything else we do. This is our mission.

Prayer
So singing and shouting and declaring praise is one kind of sacrifice that we offer as priests. But it is not the only kind of sacrifice. Sometimes people fall into the error of thinking singing praises is the only kind of worship. That is not the case. Prayer is just as much an act of priestly worship as singing. 
Revelation 5:8 they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 
So if we are going to function as a church and fulfill our priestly mission, we need to be filling up those heavenly bowls when we meet together on Sunday morning. That is why a major portion of every Sunday morning at Agape is devoted to praying together. People ask all the time, “Why don’t you have adult Sunday school?” We would love to, but there is not enough time to do that and also devote ourselves to prayer. But nowhere in the Bible does it say that Sunday school is an essential element of what it means to function as a church. Prayer, however, is. It is one of our sacrifices we offer as priests. 
This is why we do not want to take up the entire hour in our prayer groups with talking to each other. It is so important that we actually pray together! I know every prayer leader struggles with this because we never want to cut anyone off when they are giving their requests. But it is so important that we pray together when we gather as a church. For many people, the only time they ever hear another person mention their name to God is in those groups. If this is a struggle in your group, help your prayer leader out. Watch the clock, and make sure you do not take up all the prayer time talking about your requests, because prayer is our mission because it is an acceptable sacrifice.
Repentance 
A third kind of sacrifice we offer is repentance and brokenness over sin. 
Psalm 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. 
David said that in a time when the sacrificial system was still in place. Even in Old Testament times these spiritual sacrifices of worship were more important than the physical pictures. The offerings of the heart have always been what matters to God.
When we fall into sin, we should be broken. He uses the word “broken” twice and then the word “contrite,” which literally means “crushed.” We are to be broken, broken and crushed over our sin. God accepts that as a pleasing offering of worship if we offer it as worship, and doing that is part of our mission as a church.
Ministry of spiritual gifts
A fourth sacrifice is the ministry of our spiritual gifts.
Romans 12:1 Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship…
Then he goes on to talk about the ministry of our gifts. When you serve in a ministry in the church, no matter what it is, make sure to present that to God as a sacrifice of worship. Whatever your ministry role is at Agape, I hope you take it very seriously. If you work in the nursery or help with greeting or whatever you do – I hope you are never, ever offering shoddy work, or grudging work (where you are saying, “What a burden”), or half-hearted work. This is a priestly role! You are in the holy place at the altar, and it is something of cosmic, eternal importance.

Giving
A fifth sacrifice is giving. When the Philippian church gave a generous financial gift to support Paul’s ministry Paul referred to that as a fragrant offering, a welcome sacrifice, pleasing to God (Php.4:18). Giving is such an important part of what it means to function as a church. If you were not here when we did our series on worship (The Worshipping Church), I would urge you to listen to the message on giving. It is part 6, titled “Wallet Worship.” We found in that study that giving financially has been part of God’s design for worship right from the very first act of worship ever recorded.
That is why we do the offering during the singing time – so we do not forget that this is an essential act of worship. Lately the giving at Agape has been way down. I have no idea why that is, but I sure hope it is not a sign that our worship is cooling off. I hope we have not lost our first love to the point where we are saying, “God, I will honor You – just as long as it doesn’t cost me any money.” I hope He is still more precious to us than our cash. And I hope we still have the faith to trust Him enough to offer Him the firstfruits of all our increase, because we do not have offering boxes to raise money so that we can carry out our mission. Giving to the Lord IS our mission. Offering the firstfruits of all our increase with joyful hearts in worship IS an acceptable sacrifice, so as a holy priesthood, giving is right at the center of our mission.
Generosity and good deeds in general
So those are five things Scripture identifies as sacrifices. What else? 
Hebrews 13:16 Don't neglect to do good and to share, for God is pleased with such sacrifices
ALL good deeds – if done for the sake of honoring Christ, are pleasing sacrifices of worship. If you are doing it for the sake of Christ, then you worship God when you smile at a cashier, or take out the trash for your family, or take time to encourage a brother who is down, or pull some weeds out in front of the church to make this a more welcoming place - anything that you do that you ought to do, if you offer it as an act of worship, God is pleased with it and receives it as a sweet-smelling sacrifice. 
And remember God’s requirements for a sacrifice. 
Leviticus 22:22 Do not offer to the LORD the blind, the injured or the maimed, or anything with warts or festering or running sores. Do not place any of these on the altar as an offering made to the LORD by fire.
This is where the zeal of ministry should come from. That same passage in Malachi 1 that says God will not accept offerings that are given with the attitude that says, “What a burden” – that passage also explains that if we do offer God service with a “what a burden” attitude that is like putting an animal on the altar that is crippled and diseased and full of warts and festering, running sores. 
Faith and love
But if we offer our service eagerly and gladly to the Lord, every good work you ever do is an acceptable, pleasing sacrifice. And if you wonder what constitutes a good work, it is anything that arises out of faith and love. 
Philippians 2:17 I am poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith
Ephesians 5:2 walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave Himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God. 
The Philippians’ faith was a pleasing sacrifice, and Jesus’ love was a pleasing sacrifice that we are to imitate. Whenever you love and whenever you believe – offer the resulting actions to God as sacrifices of worship. That is why any job can be eight straight hours of worship every day. Whether you are flipping burgers or selling widgets or doing paperwork – do it in faith and in love, and it is pleasing, acceptable, God-glorifying worship, and it contributes to our mission as a holy priesthood.
The souls of men and women
Listen to how Paul described his ministry in Romans 15. He said, “I am…
Romans 15:16 … serving as a priest of God's gospel … that the Gentiles might become an acceptable offering
That applies not only to conversions, but also discipleship and bringing people to maturity in the faith. When you engage in whatever ministry God has called you to, you should offer the souls of those to whom you are ministering to God as a sacrifice of worship. The reason you are doing ministry is ultimately for their souls, right? When you talk to someone in the foyer or take care of a kid in the nursery or sit down across the circle from someone in your prayer group, as much as possible keep praying, “God, I am preparing this soul to be an acceptable offering to You.” Think of that person as a lamb that you are going to place on the altar as an offering to God. So you pray, “God, enable me to have an impact on this person’s soul in the direction of righteousness so that I can offer this person to You as a pleasing sacrifice.”
One of the greatest priests of all time was Phinehas in Malachi 2. And here is why:
Malachi 2:6 True instruction was in his mouth and he … turned many from sin. 
Persuade an unbeliever to turn from sin to Jesus Christ, or persuade a Christian to repent of some sin, and you are an excellent priest offering pleasing sacrifices to God. You can do it because God has made you a priest – each one of you who has been born again.
Conclusion: What about Women?
Oh, wait a second. Each one of you? Is that accurate? What about the women? In the priestly system in the Old Testament there were no female priests. Only men could be priests. So would it be a little more accurate if I said half of you are priests? Or does this include the women? I had better do some research on that. Let me take a look…Who is this book addressed to? Oh, that’s right – the chosen, aliens who have been born again. Peter is talking here to everyone who is born again! Every woman in this room who is truly saved is a priest. 
Sometimes women will get kind of worked up when they read the New Testament and see that eldership in the church is restricted to men. That is distressing to some women because they think, “I’m gifted, I’m capable, I’m intelligent, I have experience and talents and abilities to do ministry – why am I excluded? When they say that, it reflects an attitude that being an elder is greater than being a priest. It isn’t. Being a priest is a far greater thing. And it is really a delightful thing to be able to function as a priest without having to be weighed down with eldership responsibilities. We have a group of men, gathered in a room again and again, wrestling through things like whether the spiritual benefit of some expenditure is worth the money compared to the spiritual benefit of some other expenditure, or what to tell a woman whose husband believes in polygamy and is pressuring their teenage kids in that direction, or scouring through Scripture to figure out what position we should take on whether a Jewish convert to Christianity should celebrate the feasts – and we are grinding out these meetings three … four … five hours or longer – and meanwhile the women are free to be out there winning souls and healing the sick and helping the weak and encouraging the discouraged and doing all the things Jesus said that if we do them to the least of these we have done them to Him – and I just cannot imagine saying, “No, I’d rather sit in the meeting and then have to give an account on Judgment Day for the decisions that were made.” Ladies, you can go out any day of the week and lay your hands on someone and pray for them and they can walk away and say, “I was just ministered to by a priest of the living God!” There is nothing secondary about your role in the kingdom.
I hope this strikes you like it does me – with the gravity of what we are doing here. I hope you feel something of the weight of Aaron’s two sons – the first two priests, who did not take the ministry seriously enough, and a fire came down from heaven and burnt them to ashes in front of the entire assembly. Do not think that their priesthood – the Old Testament priesthood was the real thing and our ministry is kind of like that. Our priesthood is the real thing, and the Old Testament system was a picture of the greater ministry we are doing. May we never dishonor God or despise the mission He has given us by taking this priestly ministry lightly.

Benediction: Psalms 4:3 Know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord will hear when I call to him. … 5 Offer right sacrifices and trust in the LORD. 

1:25 Questions
1.	Of the seven different categories of sacrifices (praise, prayer, repentance, ministry of spiritual gifts, giving, generosity and good deeds in general, faith and love, the souls of men and women), which two need the most attention in your life? Why did you pick those two?
2.	Do you feel like you fit in at church? Peter says you do – you are being crafted by the Builder to fit in your place. If you feel like you don’t fit, what could be done to adjust how you feel with reality?