Lord, we look to You. We continue to look to You, Lord, to be our very life. And, Lord, as we look into Your Word, we pray that by Your Spirit we would know Your mind and the things that are on Your heart concerning us—those things that would honor You and glorify You.
We tell You from the onset that we need You, Lord, and that we are dependent upon You to speak. So, Lord, as we come under this anointing that has been given to us in Christ, we look for that anointing in this speaking and in the hearing as well, that You might be glorified in it all.
We ask this in the precious name of Thy wonderful and precious Son, the Lord Jesus. Amen.
That song had two lines in it: “We are a moment; You are forever. We are a vapor.”
I had a vapor experience a few days ago. I am putting siding on my house right now, and I had borrowed a big ladder from my neighbor. My son and I put this ladder up about thirty-two feet in the air alongside my house. We thought the ladder was secure—that those little bars that keep it from collapsing on itself were secure.
I had tools in my hand, and I proceeded to climb up the ladder to the roof. As I got to the very top of the ladder, my son Vincent was at the bottom holding it. I began to work, and all of a sudden the ladder started to collapse within itself and rake down the side of my house.
I reached for the roof to grab it, but it did not hold me. All that came off in my hand was shingles, and the ladder continued to slide down the house. Then it stopped. Praise the Lord.
Actually, I was quite calm, although my heart, as my wife would say, was beating within my chest quite vigorously. Sandy came out of the house in the front, crying, “Did he fall? Did he fall?”
I said, “No, I’m all right. I’m all right. I’m okay.” My sister-in-law came running around the house, and Vince was there saying, “Dad, you okay?”
I said, “Just hold the ladder.” I instructed him, “There’s a piece of wood on the floor. Get that wood and stick it between the rungs of the ladder so it doesn’t collapse any further.”
Really, what had stopped the ladder from collapsing was that my foot got caught between two of the rungs.
But the point of that little story is this: we do not know what is going to happen in our lives. We are a vapor. But we do rest in the hands of the everlasting God.
In one sense, though that ladder could collapse on itself, I am secure in the love of God. So regardless of what happens, whether in life—or it could have been in death—we pray that God would be glorified in it all.
That is what we are: just a vapor. But, oh, what a wonderful heritage. What a wonderful place we have in the Lord Jesus.
Today I want to share a little bit concerning one small aspect of our priesthood.
A couple of Mondays ago, among the young people and young adults, I shared a burden that is continuously on my heart. This is addressed to all of us, but especially to the young people.
Unless—and mark my words on this—unless we have this abiding relationship with the Lord Jesus, unless we have learned to live out of His life and not our own, we will not stand. We will not be able to stand, especially in the days that are coming upon us.
Unless we come to know the Lord Jesus in His character, for Who He really is, we may doubt what is going on in our lives. But when we know that everything comes from the hand of a God Who loves us, we can rest in Him.
Regardless of the situation, regardless of the trial you are going through, unless we know the Lord Jesus in His character for Who He really is, we might shake our fist at God. But when we know the Lord Jesus—for Who He is—that He is righteous and loving, that He cares for us, that He lives for us, then regardless of the situation or trial you are in, you will be able to praise the Lord.
Unless we come to know Him in His character, and unless we are living out His life, we will not be able to stand, my dear brothers and sisters.
So I would say this to all of us, but especially to young people: be diligent. Be diligent in wanting to know Him. Build a relationship with Him.
How do you build a relationship? Just like you do with anyone else. But no other relationship is more important than this one. Diligently look to build a relationship with the Lord Jesus. He certainly wants one with you and me.
We build that relationship by being with Him, speaking with Him, talking with Him about everything and anything, looking into His Word, and discovering Him in the lives of people who love Him and who live with us and around us.
If we turn to 2 Corinthians 5, there is this verse, the seventeenth verse:
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature;
old things have passed away;
behold, all things have become new.
Just as wondrously as God formed Adam out of the dust of the earth, even more wondrously Christ has made new creatures. For those who have called upon the name of the Lord, for those who have received the forgiveness of God in Christ Jesus, He has made us new creatures in Christ. We are a new creation.
Now, how do we know that? How do we actually come to learn from that experience we read about in the Word of God? Well, all I have to do—and I would suggest all you have to do—is look at yourself.
I knew where I was in the old man. I knew what my desires were. I knew where my lusts led me. I knew what my thinking was. I knew that when I picked up this Book, I could not make heads or tails of it. I knew that I could look at spiritual things and have no sense about them whatsoever.
But then there was that glorious day in my life—and in your life—when all of a sudden we saw that God loved us. In seeing God’s love, it brought us to a place of repentance.
There is always this issue of revelation before repentance. I need to see myself for who I am, and the great need I am in because of the depravity of my life; and then comes the revelation of the love of God.
That day, when that happened to me—as it happened to you—instantaneously, who could explain it? But instantaneously, my thoughts were other than they had been before.
All of a sudden, this Book that was just black print on white pages before became alive. All of a sudden, I would begin to read things that struck my heart, and I began to say, “Oh yes, Lord, that is what I want in my life. I see what You are saying.”
All of a sudden, my thoughts were different. Even when my mind would go places it should not go, there was now conviction. Before, it was just natural to me. This was the way I thought. This was the way I went. These were the things I did.
But now, because there was this other life in me, I was a new creature—a new creation. When I went to do those old things, all of a sudden there was a little shaking in my heart. When my mind went in directions where it should not be going, all of a sudden there was conviction, because God had made me a new creature in Him.
This is what it is about: we are new creatures in Christ.
Sometimes we just do not believe that. We think that we are going to become a new creature, either by doing things or trying to get ourselves straightened out so that we can really be good. But the truth of the matter is, according to the Word of God, the day you received Christ and I received Christ, we became a new creation.
God is in us, working through us, and working to change us. But we are a new creation, and it is something that God has done.
So often, after we have come to Christ, we live as though we have no sense of purpose and no sense of divine calling. But this life that we have inside is a divine life. God wants to bring us to a place where we begin to understand that we have this other life in us. It is a life of purpose and a life of calling.
When we come into this new life, it is a life that comes with responsibilities. One of these responsibilities—the one we want to look at today—is the responsibility of being a priest.
We have heard this over the years, most of us, but we are priests of the living God. In the heart of God, He always wanted a people to be priests unto Him.
If you turn to Exodus 19:3-6:
And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel:
Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto Myself.
Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people: for all the earth is Mine:
And ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
Notice again: “I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.” Then He says, “You shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests.”
Turn also to Revelation 1:4-6, just to see something of the heart of God related to this issue of priesthood:
Grace be unto you and peace, from Him Who is and Who was and Who is to come; and from the seven Spirits Who are before His throne;
And from Jesus Christ, Who is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
Unto Him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins by His blood;
And He made us to be a kingdom, to be priests unto His God and Father; to Him be the glory and the dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Again, in Revelation 5:9-10:
Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase unto God with Thy blood men of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation,
And madest them to be unto our God a kingdom and priests; and they reign upon the earth.
And in 1 Peter 2:9-10:
But ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light:
Who in time past were no people, but now are the people of God: who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
This priesthood is something we are born into. When you and I receive Christ as our Savior, along with it comes the responsibility of priesthood.
Oftentimes, we go about having good desires—good ambitions, if we could use that word. We think, “How can I serve the Lord?” Perhaps we have had a dream of being a missionary, a preacher, a teacher, or someone in ministry.
Then things come along in life—all kinds of things, good things and not-so-good things. Sometimes marriage comes, and that idea of being a missionary is suddenly out the door. Yet we lament it for the rest of our lives: “Oh, if only I could have been a missionary. If only I could have been a pastor. If only I could have gone on a teaching circuit around the world.”
Yet we miss what God has given us. He says, “You are a priest of the living God. Function as a priest.”
What a calling. What a noble calling.
Sometimes we are looking here and there, while it is right in front of our noses: living a priestly life. If that would grip us, if we would come to know that in a living way, it would govern all our actions. It would govern how we speak. It would govern how we interact with people.
We begin to see the Word of God coming alive to us again. This brashness in our character, the Spirit of God begins to address, because the priests of God are to be gentle, kind, merciful, and loving, like the High Priest.
By the Spirit, we begin to see that our priesthood is to be lived out every day. It is noble, and it is divine. What calling could be greater than being a priest of the living God? Kings and priests, someday to rule and reign with Christ.
Maybe we need to put our thoughts aside and begin to listen to the thoughts of God as they relate to us and to what He has given us in His Son.
We are not only children growing up into sonship, which is wonderful; we are priests of the living God. We are not only priests of the living God; we are ambassadors of Christ.
What a calling on your life and mine, my dear brothers and sisters. It is to be lived out every day—in your situation and mine, at work and in school, in our marriages, and in our relationships with our children. We are priests of the living God.
I have said over the years that I have to remind myself of that in different situations: “I am a priest of the living God,” so that the Spirit of God can address those things in my life that would line up with my priestly position.
If we turn to Hebrews 7, verses 14-17:
For it is evident that our Lord hath sprung out of Judah; as to which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priests.
And what we say is yet more abundantly evident, if after the likeness of Melchizedek there ariseth another priest,
Who hath been made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.
We know that the priesthood in the Old Testament came out of the tribe of Levi. It was the Levitical priesthood. It was a priesthood of the law, a priesthood of flesh and blood. But our Lord’s priesthood is something different.
His priesthood is after the order of Melchizedek. Melchizedek was king and priest of Salem. His name, translated, speaks of the king of righteousness and the king of peace. How that speaks of our Lord Jesus. Yet how far greater Jesus is than Melchizedek.
His priesthood is an endless priesthood. He never ceases to stand on our behalf before God the Father.
But we are part of His priesthood. He is the High Priest, but we are priests of the same priesthood. From the moment we receive Christ and become priests, it is throughout eternity. We will serve the Lord as priests throughout all eternity.
But He wants us to start now. He wants us to come into the understanding of our priesthood now, so that we can live as priests here and now. It is part of the very testimony of the Lord Jesus that we be a kingdom of priests.
We are a new creation. We no longer live in the kingdom of darkness, but we have been translated into the kingdom of the Son of His love. We are residents of a different kingdom.
Even though we are living here in the United States, Nigeria, or any other place we may be from, the truth of the matter is that we are sojourners here. We are pilgrims here. This is not our country. Our home is the kingdom of God.
Therefore, we need to live as priests of the kingdom even while we are here, because we are ambassadors of the Lord Jesus.
I was reading Joshua these past few weeks. In Joshua 13:33 it says:
But unto the tribe of Levi Moses gave no inheritance: the Lord, the God of Israel, is their inheritance, as He spake unto them.
And in Joshua 18:7:
But the Levites have no portion among you; for the priesthood of the Lord is their inheritance.
The other day, Jay and I were talking about a song we sing here. Part of the verse says, “I’m desperate for You.” It is a great song. But sometimes we sing these songs to the Lord, get goosebumps, and feel warm and fuzzy all over: “Oh Lord, I’m desperate for You.”
But the Spirit of God wants to teach us how to worship. He wants us to worship the Father in spirit and truth.
As the Spirit rises up in us and we begin to sing that song, if the Spirit of God is working in my life, He may bring something to my attention. Rather than merely saying, “Lord, I’m desperate for You,” I may be praying, “Lord, I am not desperate for You. I want to be desperate for You. So, Lord, please work this kind of work in me, that I would be one of those who are desperate for You, who are living for You.”
That is true worship. True worship is not necessarily goosebumps and fuzzy feelings. It is when the Spirit of God shows us something that is real and true, and inside we assent to it. We cry out to God and say, “That is what I want, because that is what You want for me, Lord.”
The priesthood had no inheritance but the Lord. Something of that needs to happen in my life and yours. That is where our heart should be.
“Lord, I want to be content with You and You alone. I want my inheritance to be You, Lord. I want to be satisfied with You, Lord, and You alone. No matter how much I have or how little I have, I want to be content with You. You are my contentment. You are the One Who fills me up, Lord. You are the One Who gives meaning to my life. You are my joy. You are my satisfaction.”
Somehow God wants to work that into our lives as priests: that He, and He alone, would be our satisfaction and our inheritance.
If we go back to Hebrews 2, verse 11:
For both He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren.
He is the High Priest; we are His priests.
Verses 14-15 say:
Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood, He also Himself in like manner partook of the same; that through death He might bring to nought him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
And might deliver all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
What does that mean to us? Before knowing the Lord, we were in fear of death. We may not have put it that way, but our lives showed it.
Oftentimes it was like this: “I’m going to go out and get all the gusto I can. I’m going to do this. I’m going to do anything I want. I’m just going to be a wild man.” I know, because I was a wild man.
In the back of my mind was this thought: “Let me get as much in before I die, because after that, it is over.”
In one sense, fear motivates how we live, even though we may not be very conscious of it. You have heard people asked, “What would happen if you heard you only had three more days to live?”
They say, “Man, I’m going to Las Vegas. I’m getting all my credit cards, getting as much money on them as I can, and I’m going to have a ball for those last three days.”
Why? Because they have no hope. And without hope, all there is is fear and the awful thought of judgment.
But Christ eliminates that because we have come to know His love for us, demonstrated on the cross. The Spirit of God has made that real to us. It became real, and because of that, the fear is gone. His perfect love casts out fear.
Hebrews 2:17-18 says:
Wherefore it behooved Him in all things to be made like unto His brethren, that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted.
The priesthood of the Lord Jesus was a priesthood of identification, not of separation.
The Levitical priesthood was, in one sense, a priesthood of separation. When Israel made the golden calf in the wilderness, Moses came down from the mountain and said, “Who is on the Lord’s side? Let him come unto me.” The whole tribe of Levi came and stood with the Lord. In that sense, they were separated from the people.
But the heart of God had always been that all the people would be priests. That is what He has accomplished in Christ. That is why we are all priests.
Hebrews 7:24-27 says:
But He, because He abideth for ever, hath His priesthood unchangeable.
Wherefore also He is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God through Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.
For such a high priest became us, holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
Who needeth not daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins, and then for the sins of the people: for this He did once for all, when He offered up Himself.
He is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him.
This salvation we are experiencing right now is just a part of what the Lord has for us. God is working in your life and mine through this principle of the cross, this principle of death and life. The cross works in us to bring to death those things that do not line up with the life of God. He teaches us more and more to live out of His life rather than our own.
We experience a greater and greater salvation—a freeing, a freedom—to be who we are as priests of Christ. But it is not going to end. There will come a day when the Lord returns, and this mortal body will put on immortality.
This is the salvation that Christ has won for us. It is great—greater than we can even imagine. I cannot imagine what it will be like, but that is His salvation. He saves to the uttermost.
Hebrews 5:12-14 says:
For when by reason of the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need again that someone teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of solid food.
For every one that partaketh of milk is without experience of the word of righteousness; for he is a babe.
But solid food is for fullgrown men, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.
I think what happens sometimes, brothers and sisters, is that we have food put in front of us, but we do not eat it. Unless you eat the food, it is not beneficial for you. Food is there for growth, nourishment, and strength.
Sometimes we have food given to us. We have the Word of God spoken to us. We have opportunities presented to us by the Lord Jesus to deny ourselves and live out of His life, but we do not take those opportunities.
That is why it says solid food belongs to those who are of full age, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Why do we not grow in the Lord? Why does it seem that we have been in the Lord fifteen years, twenty years, or five years, and we do not see growth? Oftentimes, it is because we do not put to use the things the Lord has presented to us as food to eat—lessons to learn and opportunities to take hold of.
We do not use those things. We are not exercised. If I do not exercise, my muscles atrophy. This stomach is an example of it. If I do not do the exercises that are necessary, this is what happens. We become atrophied through lack of use.
But through using these things, through exercising them, we can become strong in the Lord Jesus. We can learn how to live out of His strength. He becomes our very strength. That is the key: He becomes our strength.
Hebrews 6 begins:
Wherefore leaving the doctrine of the first principles of Christ, let us press on unto perfection; not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
Of the teaching of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
And this will we do, if God permit.
Sometimes, when we hear those things, some of us might say, “That is elementary stuff.” It is elementary, because God wants to bring us beyond that. He wants to bring us beyond the elementary things of salvation and into the fullness of His life.
Part of that is this issue of priesthood: learning it, understanding it, and standing in the good of it.
Hebrews 10:14 says:
For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
By one offering, He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. We need to understand this perfection.
We are called to holiness. God says we are to be holy as He is holy. The day we received Christ as our Savior, we became holy. We became separated, because God separated us unto Himself.
Yet there is a decision on my part: I want to separate myself from the world and separate myself unto the Lord. Holiness is something done for us, and yet, just as Christ has become our righteousness, He calls us to live righteously. The same is true of holiness.
When Christ came into my life, I certainly did not become perfect in the sense that everything I said and did was perfect. But God is perfecting us.
The life of an overcomer is not something that we accomplish and then declare, “Now I am an overcomer.” The life of an overcomer is one in which, every day, I choose to live out of the life of Christ. Every day I choose to live for Christ. Every day I take the opportunity presented to me and choose to live out of His life rather than my own.
That is the life of the overcomer.
Whether you are washing dishes at the sink, on the job at the post office, or working in construction, the life of the overcomer is the life of one who chooses to live out of this other life—this divine life.
In that, we overcome. Though we are weak, He is strong. That is the life of the overcomer: recognizing our weakness and inability, while at the same time recognizing that He is able. We choose to live out of that ability, out of Christ.
Hebrews 10:19-25 says:
Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus,
By the way which He dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh;
And having a great priest over the house of God;
Let us draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having our body washed with pure water,
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope that it waver not; for He is faithful that promised:
And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works;
Not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as ye see the day drawing nigh.
In closing, I want to turn again to 2 Corinthians 5, verses 14-21.
I mentioned that the Lord’s priesthood was a priesthood of identification. Do we do that? Do we look to identify with brothers and sisters? Do we look to comfort those with the comfort with which we have been comforted? Do we come alongside those who have stumbled and may be going astray?
I know I have stumbled, and I have gone astray. Therefore, I am able to identify with those who have stumbled and gone astray. Are we able to identify with them in their weakness?
Christ identified with us in our weakness. The Scriptures say He became weak for our sakes. He was tempted in every way as you and I are, yet without sin. He knows and understands just what you are going through.
What about the challenges at school? What about those days when you go to public school and feel all alone? Christ felt all alone. Christ felt friendless. Christ was misunderstood. He can identify with you.
He chose to identify with you and me.
Think of those Christ identified with—the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the sinners. He saw them. He saw beyond their flesh and blood. He saw what may have transpired in their lives to bring them to the place where they were.
I believe every person is made by God in such a way that God wants that person to come to know Him and to know His salvation. So what interrupts that?
Sometimes we come across people who are just cantankerous, hard to get along with. Not only that, but we see things in their lives that are outright sinful. It is very difficult to love those kinds of people.
But sometimes the Lord brings us to a place where we begin to ask, “What has brought them to this place where they are so mean, so hateful? Something must have happened to them—perhaps in their childhood, perhaps in their relationships with other people—that has turned them bitter.”
Then compassion begins to form, because we know that as they strike out at us, something inside of them has caused them to hurt so much that they would strike out in that way. Out of that compassion comes real caring and love.
There are things that have happened in your life and mine that were hurtful and have caused us, at times, to react wrongly. Can you identify with that? Christ has certainly identified with us in that way.
He saw that we were in bondage. Every time we read about this priesthood, it connects us with being freed from sin. Even in Exodus 19, God reminded Israel that they had been taken out of Egypt. They had been taken out of bondage. He bore them up on eagles’ wings, and then He spoke to them about being a nation of priests and a holy nation.
Every other place we read makes that same connection: this is where you were, this is what I have done for you, and this is where I have placed you—in this priesthood.
Why? Because it is a priesthood of identification, not separation.
“I am too holy. I am a priest of God. I do not eat with you. I do not talk with you. I do not have anything to do with you because I am a priest.”
No. The priesthood of Christ is a priesthood of identification. How do we work that into our lives, brothers and sisters?
2 Corinthians 5:14 says:
For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that One died for all, therefore all died.
The love of Christ compels us because we see that not only did Christ die for me, and not only have I experienced the benefits of the Lord’s life, but we realize that Christ died for others as well. The love of Christ compels us to love others for whom Christ has died.
Who has Christ died for? He has died for everyone. Some just do not recognize it yet, but He has died for everyone.
The love of Christ compels us because we realize that One died for all. Those who have come into Christ know that we not only live for Christ, but we died with Him on the cross.
The passage continues:
And He died for all, that they that live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto Him Who for their sakes died and rose again.
This is the key: that we no longer live for ourselves, but for Him Who died for us and rose again.
I find it interesting that it does not say that we should no longer live for ourselves but for the other people for whom He died. It says we should live for Him—live for Christ.
If we are living for people, we may live a scattered, dissipated life. We run over here trying to help this one, then run over there trying to help that one, and we try to do this and that because we have an obligation to help them all.
But that is not what He said. He said that we are to live for Him. If we are living for Him, and if we are in tune with the Head Whom we are living for, He directs our lives. He tells us where to go, what to do, and how to do it.
It is His life being lived out through us because we are in union with the Head. So live for Him, and we will not live scattered lives.
The passage continues:
Wherefore we henceforth know no man after the flesh: even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know Him so no more.
Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new.
But all things are of God, Who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation.
If we understand the God Whom we serve, then the things we encounter during the day can be received from His hands. Every good gift comes down from the Father of lights. He has good gifts for us.
It may not be the way you expect a good gift to come, necessarily. But there is purpose to everything that enters our lives. Every good thing, as we perceive it to be good; every trial; every difficult situation—these may be difficult, but they are good because they come from God.
Everything that comes from Him to His children is good. We can begin to receive these things from His hands and believe Him for them.
He has given us this ministry of reconciliation:
To wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses, and having committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
We are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God.
“We implore you.” This comes from a heart of love. I hear it in Paul’s voice, and I believe this is how the Lord wants us to feel: “We implore you.” It is out of love.
“What can I do to make you understand that God loves you?” Sometimes you have a family member, and you want to shake it into them because you do not know what else to do.
But this comes from a heart of love: “I implore you. Oh, if you only knew the love of Christ, these things would not hold you. You would not be bound by all these things. You would not be restrained. You would not feel the way you feel if you only knew the love of Christ.”
That is the kind of heart the Lord wants to put in us. It is the very heart of Christ. It is the heart of the priesthood. It is the heart of a priest who communicates to God on behalf of others, that they might come to know the love of Christ.
Now, brothers and sisters, in closing, I would say this: if we want to know about priesthood, there is only one place we have to look—the Lord Jesus.
Look at Him as our High Priest. Look into His character. Look at how He dealt with people: how gentle, how kind, how forgiving; how strong when He had to be strong.
Look at the Lord Jesus. We could talk about this all day long, but the truth of the matter is that unless the Lord brings us to a place where we actually begin to say, “Now, Lord, that is what I want for myself. I want to be a priest of Yours, an ambassador of Yours. Teach me how to do that, Lord,” it will remain only a subject.
I believe the Lord will begin to bring Himself before our eyes. We will begin to look at Christ and say, “Ah, this is how the Lord lived out His priesthood: with compassion, mercy, kindness, patience, longsuffering, and all these wonderful qualities that we find in the Lord Jesus.”
We find these qualities in His priesthood, and it is a priesthood of identification.
May the Lord help us.
Lord, again we so thank You for Your life. Lord, we thank You for this priesthood into which You have brought us. I pray for myself and my brothers and sisters that we would live this priesthood out in a worthy manner, in a way that would truly glorify You and represent You properly.
Lord, help us in our interactions with everyone else to remember that we are priests of the living God. We thank You in the precious name of Thy Son. Amen.