You Can't Mean Me

A guest speaker once walked into a Baptist church and asked a question that made the room go quiet: “Are there any priests here today?” The punchline lands with purpose, because it forces a rethink of who God says we are. We talk about why every believer is part of a royal priesthood and what that means when you’re holding a coffee cup, heading to work, or bracing for a hard conversation.  God empowers more than sermons. He empowers skill, creativity, patience, excellence, and steady character in ordinary jobs. We encouraged you with a practical challenge: rise above negativity, fear, and frustration by leaning on the Spirit within you, and watch how that priestly attitude brings peace to your world. 

Transcript

Welcome To Starting Right

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Good morning and welcome to Starting Right. I am Danny Mack, and I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back and relax for the next five minutes as I help you start your day by starting right. One Sunday morning a guest speaker stepped into the pulpit at a fairly large Baptist church. He looked over the crowd and said, Just before I begin, I need to ask a question. Are there any priests here in the building this morning? The people looked around, thinking maybe that some Catholic priest may have joined them that day for something special, but nobody seemed to stir, nobody saw anything. The speaker once again said, Please everyone, let me know if are there any priests here this morning? I I really need to know before I can begin. Finally there were a couple of people that sort of very slowly began to stick their hands up, and the speaker stopped and laughed, and he said, Well, a couple of you get it. Every one of you should have raised your hands. We are all priests in the kingdom of God. Every one of us are called to be priests. Doesn't matter if you're male or female, you are called to be a priest in the kingdom of God. And he's absolutely right. God has called each one of us to be priests. In first Peter chapter two and verse nine, Peter says, You are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God's very own possession. Over in Revelation chapter 1, verse 6, he has made us a kingdom of priests for God. God has anointed us to be priests. Now I know that the initial response for many people is that's you know that's kind of scary. And the other response that's common is I don't understand that because I certainly am not a priest. Well, being the kind of priest that's described here in Peter and in Revelation, it doesn't mean that we are people who fulfill the ceremonies of the church. It means that we have the Spirit of God within us, and when the Spirit of God is within us, we are anointed by God to live under His direction, under His power, and under His authority. In the Old Testament, there was a man by the name of Bezilal. We find him in Exodus chapter thirty one. Now in the Old Testament to be a priest, first of all you had to be part of the tribe of Levi. They were officially the priests. The scripture tells us that he filled them with the Spirit of God, and the only place in the Old Testament where we read about people being filled with the Spirit of God is when they were to be priests or when they were to be prophets. Well, we come to Bezal in Exodus chapter thirty one, and he is described this way. The Lord said to Moses, I have specifically chosen Bezalel, the son of Yuri, the grandson of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, giving him great wisdom, ability, and expertise in all kinds of crafts. He is a master of craftsmen, expert in working with gold, silver, and bronze. He is skilled in engraving and mounting gemstones and in carving wood. He is the master of every craft. The Lord then goes on to tell Moses that he has also chosen a man by the name of Ohileab to be the assistant for Bezal. They are to make all of the furniture within the tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, the covering, the furnishings, the table, the lampstand, the incense altar, the wash basin, and the garments that Aaron and the priests were to wear, and even the anointing oil was all to be made by Bezal. God said that I'm going to fill Bezalel with my spirit so that he can do these jobs even better. Here we are in New Testament times. We come into a relationship with Jesus Christ, and his spirit immediately comes and lives within us. We have the Holy Spirit already there inside of us. So now when we go out to whatever job we have, we are never going alone. We always have that Holy Spirit within us to help us. And that Holy Spirit gives us the ability to do our jobs better than what we normally could do it ourselves. God's power in our lives is to help us to live exceptional lives. Jesus said, I've come that you might live life and live it to the full. Every day is a day in which we can experience the life to the full that God has for us. But we cannot live that life trying to do it on our own. We can only experience the full life that God has for us when we let His Holy Spirit within us guide us, help us to make the good decisions, keep us humble, give us wisdom, give us strength, help us to show love and patience and peace and kindness in every situation. We bring glory to God because of his love shining through us, but we will also find favor amongst people. We will be known as the peacemakers, we will be known as the patient ones, we will be known as the ones who don't fly off the handle and they'll wonder why. It's all because of that Holy Spirit that is within us has given us a priestly attitude that we can have to look at the world around us. Because of God's power and love within me, I can rise above the negativity, the anger, the criticism, the frustration, the fear, all of that negativity, I can rise above because of the power of God within me. Every one of us are priests in God's kingdom, and we can live every day knowing that that power and strength of God is always with us. I hope you have a wonderful day, my friends. God bless. We'll talk to you tomorrow. Thank you for listening today. And I invite you to join me Monday to Friday right here on Starting Right with Danny Mack.