Proclaim - Priest | Week 2

I always found Leviticus as dry as the burnt ends of a brisket—until now. Join me in a laughter-infused journey where ancient priestly traditions, from the aroma of incense to the heft of the altar, echo in our modern lives. You'll discover the unexpected joy in these practices and the surprising ways your daily actions can proclaim your faith.

In our latest sermon series, "Proclaim," we explore the depth of Jesus' role in our lives, drawing parallels between His time in the synagogue and our own spiritual gatherings. You won't just hear about Luke 4:16; you'll feel the inclusivity and connection fostered in Cornerstone's community. Our discussion navigates through the nuanced teachings of Jesus, emphasizing the transition from the letter to the spirit of the law, and our call to holiness. The insights on Jesus' sacrifice will likely challenge your personal relationship with faith—brace yourself for a transformative perspective.

Wrapping up, we tackle the summons of 1 Peter 2:5 to embody a priestly life. It's not just about the spiritual sacrifices we offer—it's about how we wield our gifts to uplift God's kingdom. As we conclude, expect a send-off that's both warm and empowering, inviting you to carry the love of Christ into all of your interactions. Tune in to feel blessed and loved, as we share the heart of Cornerstone with you.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Amen. Good morning church. How are you this morning? That was really good. Let's try it again. Good morning church. How you doing? There we go, you guys are awake. That's awesome.

Speaker 1: 0:15

It's because you guys didn't have to switch your clocks like, like Pastor Celeste said, huh, yeah, all right, I've got a question for you to start off. How many of you are who here has ever done something in history for the first time? Like you were the first person in history to ever do this. Okay, so no hands. All right, I was the first person in history recently to do something. Do you want to know what it was? Okay, so I was headed.

Speaker 1: 0:48

I had taken my kids to school, which I don't typically have to do because Annie works at the school, so she usually takes them, praise God. So I'm on my way home, excuse me and I'm sitting at a Traffic light and all of a sudden, I am the first person in history To get excited to read Leviticus. So Leviticus, if you don't know, leviticus is the book in the Bible, it's the law, and so it's great reading. If you, if the melatonin is not working and you, you need some sleep, grab Leviticus. Or numbers numbers works as well, but Leviticus it's it's very dry. There's a lot of detail in there, but I was. I found myself sitting at this traffic light as the only person who's ever gone. Man, I can't wait to read Leviticus.

Speaker 1: 1:45

But here's why, as I was sitting there, all of a sudden I just started to think of one of my favorite topics, which is smoking meat. I love to smoke meat, and as I was sitting there thinking about it, I made this connection that I had never made before the Levites, the priests, they were smokers. They smoked meat. You see, they would put meat on the altar and as the smoke would rise, it would be a pleasing aroma to the Lord. They smoked meat. You guys. I had something in common with the priestly line of Israel, but not only that. They also do a lot with incense. You guys, that's a roma therapy. I love a roma therapy. I have all kinds of essential oils and stuff. So now, not only do these guys like to smoke meat, but they also like aroma therapy, and I thought of this one last night. They also moved a lot of furniture. Okay, every time.

Speaker 1: 2:45

Now, the, the Israelites. They lived in the desert for 40 years and they wandered around. So how many of you like? How many of you, your favorite part of camp is packing up Nobody.

Speaker 1: 2:59

Well, there were some guys that that was their entire job. That's all they did. In fact, they were the only ones allowed to do it. They would pack up the tabernacle which carried the presence of the Lord and and they would move it and then they'd set it up. Some of these guys never even saw the instruments that they were moving. Isn't that crazy? Because Because the the priests, there were only certain people who could touch certain things and who could see certain things, and so they would pack it all up and then the movers would. They'd call the movers in and the movers just had to move the stuff. So they knew what they had in these boxes were of great treasure, but they couldn't even see it. That's off topic, but the thing is they moved a lot of furniture.

Speaker 1: 3:47

You see, pastor Jay and I we joke quite often that if this whole pastoring thing doesn't work out, we're gonna start a moving company, because we move a lot of furniture. We've moved a lot of furniture, these shit, we move these chairs all the time, and so. So now I'm identifying with all these Levites that they move furniture, they like aroma therapy, they smoke meats and there's there's other comparisons too. But what I didn't understand, or what I didn't know, is that, as I was getting excited to read Leviticus, god was preparing me for this message Because he wanted to speak something to you. So he had to get me excited about one of the more most boring books in the Bible. How cool is that?

Speaker 1: 4:31

So this, this new series that we just started, is called Proclaim. It is what are you proclaiming what? What is it that through your actions or through, through your life? What are you doing with your life? What are you proclaiming through the way you you live this life? If we haven't met? My name is Pastor Angus. I'm the family pastor here at Cornerstone. I help out with with our kids and youth team, doing an amazing job with with the kids. So thank you to our team.

Speaker 1: 5:05

And here, one of the things I love about Cornerstone is that you don't have to be perfect. That's what's so great about this, because, see, in my life I don't know if you've experienced this, but in my life whenever I fail, the people who aren't Christian love to point it out. They can't wait to wave it in your face and go oh, I thought you were a Christian. That's what I love about this picture that we use here all the time at Cornerstone it's the disciples walking with Jesus. What's so important about this picture is that none of these disciples have arrived, none of them are perfect. The only one that is perfect is the one they're following, and so that that takes a lot of pressure and a lot of stress off me, because, as a Christian, I don't have to be perfect, because there's only been one ever and it's not me. And so when I mess up, I can just say, hey, I'm just trying to be more like Jesus, which, if you spend any time in this church, you will hear. Let's be more like Jesus, and the way we do that is through our life groups. One of the ways we do that is through our life groups, where we can connect to each other, where we can grow in our relationship with Jesus and where we can serve each other as the hands and feet of Christ. If you aren't involved in a group yet, I highly encourage you to. We've got three weeks left in our current semester and there have been some incredible meetings, some powerful and and really interesting stuff too, so I would very much encourage you get into a life group. But we're gonna jump off here into our scripture. We're gonna start in Luke 4 with verse 16. This is kind of our base scripture that we're gonna be doing over this series and starting with verse 16.

Speaker 1: 6:45

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up and Was in, and, as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The original mic drop and the eyes of all the synagogue were fixed on him and he began to say to them today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing Proclaim.

Speaker 1: 7:43

What is it that we're proclaiming? You see, jesus fills many roles in our lives, or he should fill many roles in our lives. One of them is prophet, one is priest, one is king and one is Messiah. Today we're going to be talking about Jesus as priest, but before we get into Jesus as priest, I got to talk to you about Leviticus because I read it and I got to share. So I'm not going to get all into the details and the boring stuff, but I just want to give you a little bit of background so we all have the same foundation on which to work from.

Speaker 1: 8:20

So the law was given. We have in Exodus, we have the Ten Commandments right, those are the big ten that do not murder, don't commit adultery, the ones that hopefully should be fairly easy for most of us to follow. Then, a little bit later, in Leviticus, you have the laws. This is where God prescribes and really gets into the nitty-gritty of all the things that you can and can't and shouldn't and shouldn't, and what you can and can't eat and do and not do, and all of that stuff. There's a lot of it. There's a lot, especially when it comes to the priests, man. There's a lot of stuff that the priests had to do. Now, initially, god had given us the law because he wanted Israel to prosper and to thrive, and there's a lot of stuff in there to help keep them healthy socially and physically and all of that.

Speaker 1: 9:13

The problem is, as time goes on, man has touched the law and they've gotten their hands on it and they've figured out how they're going to practice it. And what happens by the time Jesus comes along is the people are really good at following rules, but not necessarily obeying the law, because the rules were set out with certain purposes in mind and so when Jesus comes along, he seems to be breaking all these laws because he heals on the Sabbath and that gets Him into trouble and he goes. Well, if you run your car out into the ditch, aren't you going to pull it out, even if it's Sunday? And that didn't fly for the Pharisees. You see, what he was trying to do is teach us the spirit behind the heart, behind the law, what it was that it was supposed to mean and what it was supposed to do in our lives, and that's kind of what got Jesus in trouble with the Pharisees. Has anybody ever had somebody come and tell you how to do your job? It doesn't happen here at all, but I have heard that it can be quite frustrating when somebody comes in and tells you how to do your job. Well, this guy not only was telling him how to do their job, but was telling them they were doing it completely wrong the whole time. So that made him pretty upset. So anyway, they ended up crucifying Jesus because he didn't agree with them in their practice of the law.

Speaker 1: 10:53

So the next thing is what is a priest? Okay, so now we've talked about the law and what is a priest. A priest is an intermediary, somebody who goes between the divine, or God, and creation, somebody who goes between God and the people. So Adam and Eve were the first priests because they were in the Holies of Holies in the Garden of Eden. They were the caretakers and all of that. When they sinned, they could no longer be the priests of the garden, so they were kicked out. So we are priests, you are a priest.

Speaker 1: 11:34

But what is the high priest? Because we've got the priest and they would do all sorts of different things. They would do the basic religious rites and all of that, but they teach proper reverence, they teach gratitude, praise, sacrificial giving, worship and the way of life defined by faith. But see, there's also a high priest and that's what Jesus is. Jesus is the high priest. Once a year, the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies and he would atone for all the sins of the people. But before he went into the most holy place this is where God's presence was he had to atone for his own sins, and so, in fact, he had to wear a bell around when he was in there, because if he didn't atone for his sins the right way, he'd die. God would strike him down, they'd drag him out by a rope and then they'd send the next guy in. So there was some pretty serious things, and all of that stuff that this priest had to do in order to not die in the presence of God was all prescribed in Leviticus, see. So the high priest would atone for the sins of the people and intercede on their behalf, and that's what Jesus does. He is our high priest.

Speaker 1: 12:54

In Hebrews 14 through 15 it says since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast to fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who, in every respect, has been tempted, as we are yet without sin. See, it's very important that Jesus came and was a human, that he lived in a flesh body like us and that he was tempted like us. Because if Jesus lived a sinless life but was God, you go well, yeah, you can do it because you're God. But see for us. We have to know that we, that it's attainable, that we can pursue what the things that Jesus pursued, and that there's something that's attainable. See, jesus, the high priest, would make sacrifices on behalf of the people.

Speaker 1: 13:59

When Jesus died on the cross, the veil that separated the Holies of Holies from the rest of the temple was torn in two. That was because God didn't need to be separated from his people anymore. Jesus' death made it so all people could approach God, lay the blood of Jesus on the altar and repent to their sins. I am so thankful I live in a time and a place where I don't have to go through an entire ritual just to come to God. I don't have to wash my feet and do all of these things and I don't have to make sure that I haven't done anything within the last 24 hours to be able to come and worship God. That's amazing that, because of the work Jesus did, we get to just walk right up. You see Jesus. Now he's interceding on behalf of his people, he's interceding on our behalf.

Speaker 1: 15:00

In some faith systems you've got you and then you've got to go to somebody. Who goes to somebody? Who goes to somebody to pray to God? We don't do that. We've got far fewer middlemen. We've got Jesus. We talk to him, he talks to God. It's a much faster way to get things done, trust me. Trust me, it's like playing telephone. You just want to get your message straight to the Lord. So God Jesus intercedes on the behalf of his people.

Speaker 1: 15:36

But another thing that I want to point out that the priests did was they determined what was unclean, what was clean and what was holy. See, because, again, in the rules, god put some different things in order to be able to limit the spread of sickness and disease. There were certain things that, if this happened, you would take your injury, you would take your wound, you would take whatever the sickness was to the priest and they would tell you whether or not it was something that you had to leave the community for until you were better. Okay, and so then, once you did, you were able to come back and be with the assembly. So the unclean stayed outside of the community, the clean could come closer to God's house.

Speaker 1: 16:23

And then you have the holy. So what that looks like in our life is more like sinner. So you start off as a sinner. That's all of us, everyone. So you don't have to feel alone. That's all of us. Then you have saved. That's the clean.

Speaker 1: 16:40

Jesus comes in, he cleans you up, he washes you of your sin, and then the step in between clean and holy is where most of us are, as God is cleaning us up, as Jesus is cleaning us up and getting us to a point where we can become holy and be like Him. So that's what Jesus does in our lives, he. What we have to do is we have to submit ourselves. We have to bring our wounds, our hurts. We have to bring that stuff that's in us and allow Jesus to identify it and tell us what's going on with it, and then we have to allow Him to treat it. That's the part that we really don't like. A lot of times we don't like.

Speaker 1: 17:30

You know, when you're sitting here, I'll be the first to tell you man, god would have a whole other message for me, as Pastor was up here because God was talking to me about all the things that I had done. So know that you're not alone, but the Lord will take those things in your life that are unclean. If you submit them to Him, he will clean them up and help you on your process of becoming holy. Hebrews 6, or 416 says Let us then, with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in times of need. Skipping forward to Hebrews 3, 1-3, it says Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus the apostle and high priest of our confession. Who was faithful to him, who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house, for Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. See, what this tells us is that Jesus is our high priest, but a high priest needs somebody underneath him. That's us. See, you are a priest. How many of you walked in the building today knowing that you were a priest? A couple? I hope to see more hands by the end in just a few minutes.

Speaker 1: 19:12

You see, we're called to be priests. We're called to represent God to the people around us. We're called to represent and steward the things around us. And so just because you didn't go to seminary and you don't have a degree does not mean you're a priest, not a priest. So when you come and say, pastor Angus, I need you to meet with so-and-so because they've got this going on in their lives, well, the reality is priest, you should meet them because you know their situation, they know your situation better than I do.

Speaker 1: 19:47

And see, the church grows a lot faster if we all become priests, if we take the responsibility, if the responsibility comes off of because the reality is, is that it's my job, pastor Jay's job, pastor Celeste's job to grow the church. If we're running the church, you should be growing the church right, because you guys are priests and we all had different functions. The Levites had different functions within the priesthood as a father, as a husband, you're to be the priest of your home. See that, though, I had a really hard time with when I came here, because when I showed up and I start hearing about the fact that I'm supposed to be the priest of the home, I'm supposed to be the head of this household, but I didn't know how to do it. It's because my dad didn't raise me that way, because I don't know that he knew. So now I get here and I find out that there's a job, that I've been placed, I've been created for this job and I don't know how to do it.

Speaker 1: 21:04

So if you, as a husband or as a father, or as just a person who's a priest, you don't know how to to be a priest, to be the priest of your home, it's really simple Be more like Jesus. That's it. You'd be more like Jesus because, as you're more like Jesus, you'll minister to your friends, to your family, to everybody around you. And so for me, what that looked like was life groups. Life groups was such a huge part for me Because you can, you can receive here in the main service, but this is like a shotgun blast of information that goes to everybody, but there's no question in answer, there's no talk back where you go. Okay, but, pastor, how does that work? What does that look like in my life? Because how do I get it from the book into practice? The way is life groups, because that's where you get to ask questions and get answers and go I here's the problem I'm facing and then you get a bunch of people around who've already been through those things and they can help you. And so it's because of life groups that that I made the progression as fast as I did and it was still really painfully slow, asked my wife. But it would have been even slower if I was only coming to church on Sunday.

Speaker 1: 22:43

So the next thing is if you're a priest, what does that look like? Be more like Jesus, okay, but 1st Peter 2.5 says this you yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. So what is a spiritual sacrifice? I didn't know. I had to look it up, I had to really go into it. So the spiritual sacrifices here are some of them Prayers. So, as a priest, we offer up our prayers and I'm gonna give this one to you. It's this is not mine, I stole it from another pastor and I'm giving it to you. He said if God answered every one of your prayers right now, would your world be changed? Or would the world be changed, man? That hit me so hard when I heard it Because I realized my world would be great. It was suck. I would have left you all out in the cold Because I realized I don't think we understand how small or myopic our prayers can be. We serve and we're talking to, we're asking from the guy who created everything, and all we're asking for is a good day. I'm guilty of it, but what do our prayers look like? Are our prayers gonna change the world?

Speaker 1: 24:24

Next thing praises. What does it look like when things are going on in your life? Are you a fair, fair-weather Christian? You see, whether you like it or not, because you're a Christian, people watch you. Because you're a priest, people watch you, and because you're a priest, people hold you to a higher standard. They put you on a pedestal and so, because of that, they're gonna watch you all the time, especially when things are not going well. So you're a fair-weather Christian. Do you praise God when things are going bad? On the other side, do you praise God when things are going good or do you take credit for everything?

Speaker 1: 25:08

The next one this one's really hard. It's the will Sacrificing your will, not my will, but yours, lord and it's because Jesus laid down His will that we have access to this freedom. If he had chosen not to lay down His will, what would things look like If you choose to lay down your will? What do the lives of the people around you look like If you start doing what God's telling you to do instead of what you're telling you to do? The body. The next thing that you can offer up as sacrifice is the body. What are you putting into it? What are you doing with it? Have you submitted to your flesh, or have you submitted your flesh to Him? Who's in control of this body? Is it you, is it your desires, or is it the Lord?

Speaker 1: 26:13

This one's really hard for me, for Americans, but it's time, time you sacrifice, give sacrificially of your time. Who's in charge of your itinerary? Is it you or is it the Lord? Do you allow God time to interrupt in your life? Do you have time for God or do you make time for God? Because there's a lot of things I don't have time for, but there are a few things that I absolutely make time for. I make time for my children. I don't have time for everything. Do you make time for the Lord? And as part of that, see, here's the thing with giving of your time. This is one thing that Annie and I found we've always been very busy. But just like in giving of your tithe, when you subtract from your money and you give it to the Lord, he blesses that, and I have found that he will do the exact same thing with time, that if you subtract and you give your time and service to the Lord, he will bless the rest of it. Try it, come, try Kids' Church. We'll take you and along with that is your talent.

Speaker 1: 27:32

Give sacrificially of our talents, because the reality is, is the talents that you have, that God gave you are not for you. Those talents were given to you for everybody else. See, I have, I like to juggle, I have a talent, I can juggle. Juggling is not for me. I don't just juggle because I've got nothing to do. I juggle for other people. When there's, when there's a group of kids who won't pay attention, who, who are just absolutely crazy, you pull three objects out, you start juggling and now you've got attention. That gift is not for me, that's for somebody else. Our talents, we need to use them for the kingdom, because are you using your gifts to build your sandcastle or are you using your gifts to build God's kingdom? It's a question we need to ask ourselves. So again, through all of these, these areas of sacrifice. What are you proclaiming? What does it look like? Is your behavior very priestly, just curious? Because I know like again, we don't have to be perfect, we just have to be on the way.

Speaker 1: 28:55

I'm going to ask the worship team if they would come. Let us then, with confidence, draw near the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. How many of you now know that you're a priest? A few more hands. Watch it again on YouTube. Hopefully you'll be able to raise your hand after a second viewing. But maybe you're here today and you go. That's all great, but I haven't even started the first step.

Speaker 1: 29:45

I don't know Jesus as my high priest. I don't know him as Lord. I don't even know him as Savior. See, our question to you is have you embraced Jesus? Because once you've embraced Jesus and you're in the family, you become part of that royal priesthood that we were talking about and you can allow him to pour into you, so that you can pour out into your world. It's not an easy journey, but it's an easy decision, and so I'm going to ask if you would stand with me and with every head bow and every eye closed. If that's you and you find that you're here and you go I don't know Jesus, if you would just raise your hand and as soon as I see it you can put it back down and we're going to pray with you to invite you into the priesthood. So if that's you, would you just raise your hand real quick and say, pastor, I need to know Jesus. Would you introduce me? And then you could put that, put your hand down. Thank you Jesus, thank you Lord, amen. So if you would, I'd like everybody, because well, let me do this first In Romans 10, verse 9 and 10, it says because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Speaker 1: 31:34

For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. So again, it's an easy decision, it's a simple prayer, but a difficult journey. The prayer goes something like this, and so I would ask that you would just believers in the room, if you would pray this prayer with us as we welcome in our new priests. It says Lord, thank you for loving me, thank you for sending Jesus. I believe Jesus died on the cross for my sins. I believe he rose again. Forgive me of my sins. I surrender my life to you in Christ's name, amen. Amen, friends, if that's you, we are, welcome you to the priesthood. Amen, and also we would love to have you. You can join us back there by the prayer banner, where we've got some resources that we would love to give you that have next steps in how to live this life.

Speaker 1: 32:50

But for everybody else who you've already been in the priesthood, you've had some time to kind of self-examine. As we open this altar, come and ask the Lord what is it that you're doing well and what is it that you need to improve upon? How are you showing the world the Lord, father, I thank you so much for this time that we've had together. Lord, I just pray that, as we come to this time of altar, that you would speak to us. Speak to us about the role that we have in the lives of the people around us. Speak to us about what it is that we do well, maybe what we need to work on a little bit. But, lord, I pray that as we get ready to go out today, that you would prepare us to be a priest to a dying world. We pray all this in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Speaker 2: 33:53

We are so grateful that you were here to join us today and worshiping the Lord, and I want to let you know that we are having a party with the pastor right after this. So if we have not met you yet, we would love to meet you. If you're new to the church you've been coming for the last few months you can join us, gather your children first, and then you can head over to the east side of the building. There is a room set up for you. We have some goodies in there, just really informal. Just want to say hi and introduce ourselves. And if you've been coming to the church for a while and we've never met you, please come join us. We would love to just say hello.

Speaker 3: 34:23

Amen. Such a powerful word today. Would you agree? Amen? Thank you, pastor Angus, for sharing that with us. What a challenge. I love it. It's really good. Amen, before we go, I want to pray this blessing over us today the Lord bless you and keep you. Lord, make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. Lord, lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Lord, I pray a blessing upon your church, your people. God, you're going to power us by your spirit to live your love unto those around us. We pray all this in the powerful name that is Jesus Christ. Amen, amen. Know this. We love you very much here at Cornerstone. God bless you and have a great week.