So we are going through a series looking at the prophet Malachi
and what he has to say, what he had to say to the the Jewish
readers of his day and how that affects us now.
And I'm going to be reading today from Malachi chapter 2,
the 1st 9 lines. And so come up there.
But if you want to find that, we are going to get straight into
it. So, and now, you priests, this
warning is for you. If you do not listen and if you
do not resolve to honour my name, says the Lord Almighty, I
will send a curse on you and I will curse your blessed
blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them
because you have not resolved to honour me.
Because of you, I will rebuke your descendants.
I will smear on your faces the dung from your fest, festivals,
festival sacrifices, and you will be carried off with it, and
you will know that I have sent you this warning so that my
covenant with Levi may continue, says the Lord Almighty.
My covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and
I gave them to him. This called for reverence and he
revered me and stood in awe of my name.
True instruction was in his mouth, and nothing false was
found in his lips. He walked with me in peace and
uprightness and turned from from sin, so many from sin.
For the lips of a priest ought to be preserve, preserve
knowledge, because he is the messenger of the Lord Almighty
and and and people seek instruction from his mouth.
But you have turned from the ways and by your teaching have
caused many to stumble. You have violated the covenant
with Levi, says the Lord Almighty.
So I have cursed you to I've cursed you to be despised and
humiliated before all peoples, because you have not followed my
ways, but have shown partiality in matters of the law.
Let's pray. Lord Jesus, I ask God that you
would, you would speak to us. Lord Jesus, I pray Lord God, if
there's any, including myself, they've got a bit of a cold.
Lord Jesus, that you would, you would, you'd heal us this
morning, God, you'd, you'd revitalise us this morning.
Lord Jesus, I pray, Lord God, that as as we talk about
Malachi, as we talk about the priesthood, Lord Jesus, you
would mould us and shape us into being the leaders of your people
to be the people that you have called us to be.
Amen, Amen. Right.
So over the last few weeks we've been looking at the book of
Malachi and we've looked at that Malachi calls us a chosen
people. And last week I showed you that
Malachi says that we are chosen in our chosen us as chosen
people. We are chosen to worship the law
that we are chosen to sacrifice, to lay down our rights, to lay
down our our our stuff for him. And this week we're looking at
that Malachi starts to talk about the priesthood and then
then the priests, they are the the leaders of the nation.
They're the spiritual leaders. And what we're going to look at
is actually that that Malachi is calling us to be a people who
are chosen, who worship him, him and lead that every single one
of us is called to lead. Then actually the Bible is going
to go on to say that we are not priests in the order of Levi,
but we are priests. We are royal priests in the
order of Christ. See the in the in the Old
Testament, the priests were there to bridge the gap between
your average person, your average is right and gods.
You see in we see that when God called Israel and God called
Jacob, Jacob had his twelve sons and from each of those sons
became a tribe. They became the head of a new
tribe and that tribe went into Egypt and was enslaved.
But then in coming out of Egypt, God promised each one of them a
an allotment of lands. Modern day.
This is what is now Israel, Jordan, that area of the world
God allotted to the tribes. He said each tribe, Benjamin,
you can have this tribe. Judah you can have, you can have
this area. Simon, you can have this area.
He went through all the tribes, but Levi, he did not give a
single piece of land. Instead, he said to Levi, I the
Lord gods, I am your portion. You're not getting Hill Country,
you're not getting fields, you're not getting whatever
you're getting me as your portion.
See, they were called to be the spiritual leaders of the
community. The Levis were the priests of
the community and they, they were to end the temple, the
Tabernacle, the presence of God on behalf of the people.
They, they, they were to represent the people to gods and
they got to represent God to the people.
They were to learn, as it says here, they were to learn, they
were to study the scriptures, what God had said to them and
they were to pass that on and to be teachers to the people.
So as we read in Leviticus that so the people knew what was holy
and what was common so that the people knew how to live as a
called out nation, have lived separately from everyone else.
And so they were to teach and correctly teach the people.
So when we've looked at sacrifices and what sacrifices
are accepted to God and which ones weren't, it was the Levi's
who not only did the sacrificing, but they were the
ones to teach the people, this is what you bring.
This is what God wants. God wants complete heartfelt
sacrifice. But as we've seen in chapter 1
already, the Levi's, the priests of Malachi's time, they've
failed. They failed.
They can make a complete mess of it.
They put their own interests above Yahweh.
They put their own interests above of reading and studying
and being with him and in his words.
And we see that actually 400 years later, not much has
changed. You go 400 years on from
Malachi, you get to Jesus and what's recorded in the Gospels.
And in that time you've got these group of guys who the
spiritual high standard called the Pharisees, but they're no
different to the priests of Malachi's time.
You see in the the the Pharisees, they repeatedly, they
repeatedly are addressed by Jesus as have you not read?
Do you not know the Bible? Now these are people who could
recite whole scrolls of scripture.
You've had to say, what does it say in the book of Isaiah?
And they'd say which bit and just start repeating it.
Just start by rote say. But so these weren't people who
hadn't read it, who hadn't studied it, but Jesus saying you
don't understand it, you'd have don't see that.
It leads to me that it's pointing to me.
And that's the same thing for the priests of Malachi's time.
There were people who had refused to humble themselves
that their hearts had drifted away from gods.
And as we looked at last week, at best their worship was
pretending it was plastic, it was fake.
And we see this in the in the in the Pharisees day that they were
hypocrites. They would make long walks and
pray out loud so everyone could hear them.
But inside they were dead. Paul would say you're a white
washed tomb. Outside you look amazing, but
inside there's nothing but dead bones.
There's no spirit, there's no life there.
They turn worship, they turn leading God's people into a
business. They, they, they, they, they
used it as a profit thing that you know, we're going to
sacrifice the, the, the least expensive animals.
We're going to, we're going to, we're going to make money.
We're going to use our position. We're going to use our power to
make much of ourselves, even if it's at the expense of the poor
and lonely. And in Jesus day, exactly the
same thing was happening. This is what made Jesus mad.
He it made him furious. He, you know, he went into the
temple, the place where the common person wanted to come and
worship their gods. But the common person, if they
came to worship their gods, they might bring a lamb that might be
their best lamb that they've ever had and they're going to
bring it to sacrifice to God. But they've been met with people
saying that's not good enough. It's not good enough for this.
You're going to have to buy one of our special lambs, which
costs about 10 times the amount of your lamb.
But you can't use your money because your money is is
polluted. You have to use temple money.
So you're going to have to go buy our you're going to have to
exchange your money at an extortionate rate to, to to get
temple money, which then you can buy the lamb with.
And then obviously the temple and the priests got rich of the
average person who just wanted to to praise and worship God.
And that's why Jesus goes ballistic in all in the gospels
you read about and making a whip and starting shooing people and
letting animals out cages and, and going crazy in the temple
courts. You see, they had ignored gods.
They were hypocrites. They had they had they, they
positioned themselves, they put themselves in a position where
they were gaining at the expense of others.
But she also, what they were doing is they were making it
harder for everyday people to exit to come into contact with
gods, the priests through their, their port, through their poor
teaching. But the Pharisees in there,
they, they did a similar thing. They would put up barriers
because of their pride, saying, well, not everyone should be
able to come to God. You need to be like me.
You need to jump over these hurdles.
And rather than than teaching the people a way to come to God,
they placed barrier after barrier after barrier to stop
people coming to him in the 1st place, finding his grace and
mercy. And we looked at last week that
the one of the reasons why the the priests of Malachi's day
were doing this wasn't because they were evil people.
It wasn't because it was because it says they were tired, they
were weary. God says I've been good to you.
And they're like when where we've been here for 100 years.
We've been back from Exxon for over 100 years now.
And we expected things to be different.
We thought the Messiah would come.
We thought that, that, that, that people would no longer be
getting sick. We thought that the, the, the
oppressive ruling nations, they'd be defeated.
We thought that things would be better by now.
And they hadn't. So they've become weary.
Who's feeling weary? You don't need to put your hands
up. But who's feeling weary today?
Who's being weary? Maybe you're feeling weary
because of disappointment, just like the priests.
Maybe you're you're feeling weary because of constant
trials. It just feels like you're
hitting one thing after another after another after another.
It doesn't seem to stop. Maybe you're feeling weary
because of things that have happened to you or maybe things
that you've done. Maybe you're feeling weary
because really you're just a bit jealous of everyone else.
You're seeing what they've got. You're seeing their images on
Instagram. You're like, I should have that.
And living in that constant jealousy, that constant,
constant desiring is building up resentment which is just
wearying you and waiting you down.
Maybe you're feeling weary because you're lonely.
Maybe it's very real. Maybe you've lost someone and
who you confided in, who was so close to you, and now you've not
got them anymore. Maybe someone who was close to
you betrayed you, and now you've not got them.
They're still around, but you don't have them anymore.
Are you weary? Well, if you are, that's good
news, because Jesus said in Matthew 11, Come to me, all who
are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Notices. I will give you not.
I might give you not. I could give you it's I will
give you. Come to me and I will give you
rest. My yoke.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I for I am gentle
and humble in heart and you will find rest for your soul.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
And I don't know if anyone's ever put this connected this in
your head because we like to just kind of this is sort of
verse we might put on a mug or write in a card.
It's just like a nice thing to say.
But the context of this verse, if you go back a few lines, we
see we've got John the Baptist. He's in prison.
He is, he's cold, he's hungry. He's he's, he's uncomfortable
and he's starting to doubt Jesus.
Are you really the Messiah? And so he sends some of his his
disciples to Jesus and they come to Jesus and they, they ask him
his questions. And John wants to know, are you
the Christ? Are you the one?
Because because life doesn't seem to be going how I thought
it would go. I thought you'd come and you'd
deal with everything. But you know, I saw this Holy
Spirit come on you. I, I proclaimed it that you were
the, the Lamb of God that was going to going to sort out the
world. Was I wrong?
And if, if, if, if, if you are Jesus, you need to give me
something, you need to give me strength so that I can endure
till the end because I want to stay faithful.
And Jesus, his response is lean on me, find rest in me, take on
my yoke and you will find rest. You will find peace.
See, this is not just a nice quote, like I said, actually
this isn't just like something that you get to send in a text
message to someone. This is, this is life, church.
This is life. It's not about just having a
nice time, though that's amazing on a Sunday where we can just
soak in and rest in God's presence.
We need to practise daily, a daily routine of resting in
God's presence, of being with him, of letting him wash over
us, because actually the difference between doing it and
not can actually be the difference between finishing
strong and hearing Jesus Christ proclaim over you well done,
good and faithful, servant, servant, and shipwrecking your
whole faith. See the priests, they failed.
They didn't do what what God had called them to do.
And, and, and the reason why they didn't do it is because
they failed to rest in the Lord. You see, being the priest, being
the spiritual leader of the nation, it, it required first
encountering God on a daily basis, finding rest in him, and
then with that rest, the strength from that rest going
into the world. For them it meant leading the
people. For us it means leading
ourselves, leading the people around us.
So he says in verse 5, he said my covenant was with him.
That's him. Is Levi, a covenant of life and
peace? And I gave them to him.
So God, God made a covenant. He made an agreement with with
Levi, the people of Levi. And that covenant was a covenant
of life and peace, a covenant that brings peace, a covenant
that brings life. And he said this call for
reverence, and he revered me and stood in awe of my name.
True instruction was in his mouth and nothing false was
found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and
uprightness and turned many from their sin.
So this is what the priesthood was meant to be like.
This is who Levi the tribal leaver.
This is who they were meant to be like.
But they failed over and over and over again.
Every single one of them. I mean, you look back in Genesis
and you've got the real, you know, the, the, the, the man
Levi, who the tribe is named after.
I mean, he was a complete failure to this.
We really, he wasn't a man of peace or uprightness.
He was a man who was violent, impulsive.
He was responsible for the massacre of an entire entire,
entire people. And and he was one of the key P
conspirators who wanted to kill his brother Joseph.
Remember that story, all the brothers who wanted to kill him
until one of the brothers decided, no, no, we can't kill
him. Let's just sell him into
slavery. And that that did that.
That was OK. That's the sort of person he
was. And on on his father's deathbed,
Jacob said over him. He said cursed be your anger,
cursed be your not a man of peace, not a man who reflected
this wonderful person that that that God is is is proclaiming in
Malachi. But actually, you don't have to
look too far. If you read through the Old
Testament and you read the about the different priests, about the
priesthood, None of them lived up to this standard.
They all failed. They all failed every single one
of them. That the first proper true high
priest of Israel, Aaron, he's proclaimed you're high priest of
Israel. You're the one, you're the one
that is going to lead God's people.
You turn over the page, He's leading them all right.
He's leading them to worship a golden calf, not God himself.
He's he's completely foolish. He's an idiot.
See, Malachi is describing not a physical person in the tribe of
Levi, but he is describing the perfect high priest, the perfect
leader of God's people. And that perfect leader is
fulfilled in the man, in the God man, Christ Jesus.
See where human priests, human leaders fail, Jesus succeeded.
Jesus is the only one who succeeded.
Jesus is the true perfect priest of Levi, God's chosen leader of
his people. See it says true instruction was
it was in his mouth. Jesus spoke only what the Father
said. He it says he walked with me in
peace and uprightness. Jesus LED from a place of
perfect rest and intimacy with the Father.
It says he turned many from sins.
Jesus wasn't coercive or controlling, but because of his
leadership, billions of people have had their lives
transformed. So Jesus is the blueprint.
He's the blueprint of life. He's the blueprint of how we are
to be a leader. And that's why when we, when we
look at scripture, you know, last week, we, we appointed our
first diaconate team. And when we look at people to be
elders or deacons or oversee different types of ministry,
what we don't do is put an advert out there and say who can
do a job. It's not how we do it actually,
because in Scripture, you look at Acts chapter 6, they need,
they had a load of people who are hungry and needed to be fed.
The, the, the apostles didn't go right.
OK, who's good? We're feeding people.
No, no, no, it said. Let's find people who are filled
with the Spirit of God, who love Jesus, who do what he does, who
are servants. That's what we are called to do.
That's what we're called to be. See, the reason why the, the,
the, the, the Levitical priests failed to be like Jesus, to lead
like him, is because actually to lead like Jesus, to live like
Jesus is completely countercultural to the world.
That's why repentance means that you were going this way and you
don't just say sorry, you turn and go that way.
Everything about what you do is different to the world.
That's what Jesus says, you know.
You know how the rulers of the Gentiles, it's the nations Lord
over them and their high officials execute authority over
them. Not so with you.
Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your
servant, and whoever wants to be the first must be your slave,
just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve
and give his life as a ransom for many.
See Jesus. Whose song about this already?
Jesus. There is no name above His name.
He deserves the highest honour. He is the King of kings, the
Lord of Lords. He is the Creator of the
universe. He chose to take the lowliest
position. He chose to serve.
He chose to give himself. That's what it means to be a
leader. That means what it looks like to
lead ourselves is to give of yourself the benefit of others.
See, some of you, you may have heard the word leader and you've
kind of switched off because you're like, well, I'm not a
leader and I'm never going to be a leader.
But actually what we see in Scripture is that leaders aren't
just the Levis, They're not just the ministry leaders.
They're not just the elders, the deacons.
And some of you may have been brought up in traditions which
taught that there were special people.
There's special people in life. You know, we might call them a
priest, we might call them an apostle, or we might call them
Father Whoever, or we might call them them a prophet or
evangelist. And they're special people in
heaven. They've got a special stage set
aside for them right next to Jesus.
The rest of us are just minions who kind of just get by.
And that's, that's not just false, that's evil.
That is completely countercultural to what
Scripture teaches us. See, one Peter 2 tells us that
every single one of us, if you have been born again, if you
have been washed in the blood of Christ, if you're a Christian,
you are a priest, you are a royal priest.
Not just any priest, you are a royal priest.
That means you're a leader. You are called to lead.
You are called to rule and reign and that is your identity.
That's not something that once you are a Christian for so long
or you've ticked so many things, you've got so many badges as a
Christian. Then you get to, you get to say
I'm a royal priest. No, no, no, you just haven't.
That's who you are. You are a royal priest.
And one day Jesus says that we will all, all who are in his
name, all who bear his name, all who have bowed the knee to him,
will rule with him over heaven and earth.
You see, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus has works for us to do church.
He has stuff for us to lead in. He has given you gifts and
talents that he is calling you to step up, lead and do.
Every single one of us is called to lead ourselves in discipline
and good works. Every single one of us is called
to lead others in acts of service.
Terry Virgo, who founded our movements back in the 70s, one
of the things he's renowned to saying is that the Reformation,
the, the, the reclaiming of biblical truth, if you will,
isn't over until every single church member has become a
church minister. And that doesn't mean that you
all go to university and get a so you can put a doctor or
reverend before your name. No, no, no.
What he's saying is, is that the the Reformation isn't complete
until every single one of us realises that there's not doers
and receivers that we are all called to do and we're all
called to receive. Actually, we're all called to
do. We're all called to serve.
We're all called to leads. See, God has given each one of
us gifts. You have gifts.
You have been given special gifts from Christ, spiritual
gifts, natural gifts, strength, intelligence.
You know, some of you may be really good at making money.
That's great. That's a gift.
Others of you may be amazing at just putting people at ease and
making them feel at home. You've got a great hospitality
gift. Some of you are brilliant at
fixing heating systems. That's a spiritual gift.
Some of you are really good at putting together broken lives.
Not everyone can do that. But God has given you that gift
to use to serve the body, to serve the people around you.
You see those who teach that there are special people and
then there's the rest of us. They would say that, you know,
those of us who are elders or whoever we are called because we
are very important and the rest of you are there to serve our
needs. But Jesus says that's worldly
thinking. That's worldly thinking.
And actually it comes from a false sense of identity.
See if you're there going, I'm something because people look at
me, because they listen to me, because I posted a stupid image
on Instagram and it got 1000 likes, I'm obviously something.
We're placing our identity in the wrong thing, you see.
Instead, our, our, our, our desire, our role to be servant
leaders should be rooted in the fact of who we are in Christ, of
who he declares you to be. See, This is why Jesus, Jesus,
as we said, who was king of heaven, was able to come and
serve. See, many of us who aren't as
aren't as secure in our identity, We would leave heaven,
come to earth, may not, but if we were we, we would come and we
would, we would make sure that the people who saw us serving,
you know, they were the kings, they were the emperors, because
that would make us feel good, because important people think
we're important. Jesus didn't care.
That's why Jesus was able to serve that the poorest of the
poor. That's why he was able to feed
the hungry. That's why he didn't care.
You know, when Herod invites him into his palace and asks him to
do some party tricks for him, Jesus, like, no, I could perform
for you and make you feel like I'm really important that what I
can do or I could. He doesn't know because he
doesn't care what Herod or anyone thinks.
He knew who he was and therefore out of that he was able to serve
church. Do you know who your identity
is? Do you know who Christ has
called you to be? So if you know that you are
loved by Christ, that you are his child, that you are called
royal, that you are called his priest, it is out of that.
You can do what Jesus did Jesus who met 10 lepers, 10 outcasts,
10 of the the least important people of his day and serve
them, heal them even when only one turned back and said thank
you, it didn't matter to him. Jesus who was able to when the
world was saying leave the children alone.
They're useless, they're worthless.
There's much more important people around for you to see
Jesus Jesus like no, I want to spend time with children.
I'm going to serve them. I'm going to love them.
I'm going to spend time with them because his identity came
from who the Father said he was. Therefore he was able to love
and serve the least of these. See, if you are a, you are a new
creation church. If you have put your faith in
Christ Jesus, if you have surrendered your need to him, if
you have bowed down before him and said you are my Lord, you
are a new creation. You're a child of God.
You're a royal priest and he has commissioned you, every single
one of you not important people. He's commissioned every single
one of you to be a leader, to go into the earth and administer
his race to all. And we all know that's true.
We all know that deep down. But you know what?
Knowing it isn't good enough because we forget.
We forget. We doubt ourselves, we believe
lies of the enemy. And that's why we are designed
to constantly be in community with one another so that through
each other, like yesterday, like on a Wednesday night, we can
talk to one another and the Holy Spirit can speak to us.
You know, as Jeff speaks, I can, I can, I can hear God through
his words. God speaks to me through the
words that Jeff uses and that encourages me and spurs me on to
again to be more like Jesus. You see, being a Christian, I
don't know if if you've seen the the chosen series.
I love it. Apparently, like Cody Gapo, it's
one of my favourite programmes that you can, you can watch.
And in the title sequence, for those of you who've watched it,
it's, it's these fish swimming. These, these, these silhouettes
of fish swimming. And, and wonderfully, what
happens is these fish are swimming and then to signify the
chosen, some of these fish, they change colour, but they don't
keep swimming the same way. They bend back on themselves and
they start turning the other way.
Because that's what happens when we become a Christian, we repent
and we start, we turn the other way, which means these fish,
they're swimming against the current, they're swimming
against the tide, they're swimming against the world.
And that's exactly what it means to live for Christ.
You see, we, when we get, we go on holiday quite often in the,
in the summer down to Dorset and our kids, they love to, to take
our canoes and go down the river.
And we've never, the boys. Actually they did take the
paddle board on the sea this year.
But I was going to say, we never usually take the canoes on the
on the sea because the sea can be treacherous, especially in an
inflatable canoe if the tide changes.
I mean, there's no, there's no worse.
Well, there is worse places, but it's an awful place to be, as my
uncle and his friend found out this summer.
They decided that they were going to go on a on a kayak
kayaking trip around Weymouth Bay on the South Coast.
And they were doing great until the tide changed direction and
they're there doing the kayak, you know, as fast as they can,
as hard as they can, but they're just just just just just,
there's nothing they could do. And, you know, and they, they
could just keep going the whole time and, and eventually they
get weary and tied, tired out. I mean, they can push past that,
which actually my uncle did, he pushed past that and he broke
his all. So it was completely useless
once the tide did change. But that's that's, that's an
image of what it means to live for Christ.
You are going against the world and knowing what's right isn't
enough pure determination. It might be all right for a
while, but eventually you will get weary and tired out.
But Jesus hasn't designed us to swim against the tide of the
world on our own. He's in.
He's designed it that we would be filled with his spirits.
See, it is impossible to continually be rowing against
the current of this world. But actually, just like the
tribe of Levi, they were called to lead God's people not out of
their own strength. They were called to lead God's
people by being God's portion, by being by God, being theirs,
by spending time with God's. You see, and as the New
Testament church, we are now the new priesthood, every single one
of us. God is our portion.
So you have been commissioned, every single one of you to go
make disciples, use your gifts and talents for the benefit of
the church to build His Kingdom and the benefit of those out
there. And you cannot do that just by
putting on a positive front, good vibes.
It doesn't work. Eventually you are going to get
exhausted and burned out. You see, we must first dwell,
soak in the Holy Spirit. See the Levi's, they were called
to lead God's people, but first they were meant to be the people
that went in the Tabernacle, that went in the temple, that
spent time in God's presence and then LED God's people.
Even Jesus, the Son of God, He needed God's presence.
We read that Jesus doesn't start his earthly ministry until he is
filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.
But actually that wasn't it. He didn't get filled with the
Holy Spirit that three-year, three years later, he still had
the strength to go to the cross. Actually, we read constantly
Jesus taking himself out, praying, speaking to the Father.
He's singing songs and hymns and psalms with his disciples.
Ones twos, all of them. He is constantly building a
rhythm and showing his disciples how to build a rhythm of
spending time with the Father, of being refreshed with the
Father so that they can go and do good works.
We see constantly the church, see the church, it wasn't
birthed out of good works, out of trying hards.
Now Jesus said, go to the nations, but first wait for my
promised Holy Spirit to fill you.
And then after that you read all the stories that you might that
we love to highlight in, in, in the book of Acts.
You know, the healings or the, the people being set free from
prison or the them being able to speak with boldness and, and in
front of the Sanhedrin and all those kind of stuff.
But if you read back a few verses, you see it says they
were praying filled with the Holy Spirit.
They went and did. It wasn't in their own shape.
They weren't paddling against the current on their own.
They were filled with the presence of gods.
Do you believe that you need the Holy Spirit?
Do you believe you need the Holy Spirit?
Yes. Do you believe that the only way
that you can live for Christ is by being filled with the Holy
Spirit? Yes.
Now you're all saying that you know what's coming.
What, Why, Why do we try on our own so often?
Why do we try and live for him so often?
I mean, here's here's here's an example.
Why when we get the text message on Wednesday afternoon saying
see you at Home group, we go. I think I'm a bit too tired to
go to Home group. I think I'm a bit too tired.
I'm a bit too tired to go to church this morning.
I'm a bit too tired to meet, to meet with them, but you know
what that's like and I'm not getting anyone, but you know
what that's like. That's like, OK, you, you are
you, you just noticed over the last few months that you've
become, you've become more and more tired.
You know, your body doesn't seem to be working how it was.
And so it's becoming a bit worrying to you.
So you know, you, you bring up the Jeep, you ring up the, the,
your, your, your GP and you go and see Doctor Ollie and, and
I'm sure he's got a brilliant, brilliant bedside manner or
whatever you call it. And, and you know, you tell him
your concerns, you tell him how tired you've been over the last
few months. And, and he, he, I'm sure he
wonderfully would just say to you, don't worry.
I'm sure it's nothing to be concerned about, but I'm going
to book you in with the nurse. We're going to take some blood
and just just make sure there's nothing concerning.
And so you do, you take the, you take the bloods and then, then,
then whenever, whenever the bloods get back, you get a phone
call and it's, and it's, it's Doctor Ollie.
And he says, he says to you, right, good news, there's
nothing to worry about. But we have found actually that
you are your, your iron count is very, very low.
And that that can contribute to you being tired.
So it's OK, I'm going to prescribe to you some really
good iron supplements. And then within, within a few
weeks or months, you will feel much better.
I'm certain of it. So you go, you get the iron
tablets, you put them on your kitchen side, and then you go,
I'm too tired to take them. It's ridiculous.
You, you've got in front of you
on your kitchen side, what you've been told will make you
feel better, but you're refusing to take it because I feel too
tired. We do that every day when we say
I'm too tired to meet with God, I'm too tired to let him speak
to me through God's people. See church, we are called to
work hard, to be God's servants, to lead, but we're not called to
do that in our own strength. We're called to 1st be filled
with the Holy Spirit. You see, this is so important
because in the New Testament there is no such thing as a
spectator Christian. Everyone's involving, everyone's
giving, everyone's serving, everyone's speaking to people
about Jesus. That is what we're called to do,
not just watch everyone else do it.
If you're drenched in the blood of Christ Jesus, if you've been
saved, if you've not, I'd love to speak to you.
But if you've if you have been, then you are a royal priest of
God Most high. You have been commissioned as a
servant leader. And just one final thing as we
wrap up the priests of Malachi's day and the priests that one,
the Pharisees of Jesus day, they had another thing that they got
wrong and that was that the Pharisees, they set up these
these big roadblocks to stop people coming into the presence
of gods. And the priests, they did the
same thing. And it was all about trying to
separate themselves from the world, separate themselves from
the world because in my own strength, I'm going to get
contaminated by the world. I'm going to start doing what
they do. I'm going to start displeasing
God because I'm hanging around with people who don't love Gods
church. We are not separated from the
world so that we're not contaminated.
We are called out. We are a chosen people.
We have been separated. Every single one of you who have
called on the name of God, you've been separated from the
world for the world. That is who you are.
That is what has happened. You are a royal priest, a son
and daughter called to go into the world not in your own
strength, but the strength of the Holy Spirit, Malachi, 27,
says. The priests were called
messengers of the Lord of hosts. You are a messenger and when you
speak, you are leading. When you speak out, when you act
for Christ, you are leading. In your workplace, in your
school, in your neighbourhood, you are leading like Christ and
church. Don't wait for people to come
here. Go into the world.
As we say, we're here. We're called to bring the life
of Christ to this lost and broken world.
So I want to pray for us right now.
And there's two things I want to pray for us.
First thing is if you're weary, if you're tired, I'm going to
just ask for special grace right now from the Lord Jesus to fill
you so that you so that you don't feel so to the end of
yourself that you would be refreshed by God's Spirit.
And secondly, I'd, I want to pray that God would freshly
Commission us that some of you, you're thinking I'm new here.
I don't really know what to do where, where do I fit in?
As as I said at the beginning of the service, part of belonging
to this church means that you don't just turn up, but you
serve. Sometimes you serve in the ways
that you don't like, but you just do it because you want it
for the greatest body. And some sometimes you do things
actually, I've got a really good gift.
I can do XYZ and we'd love for you to be able to serve, release
you in that. So I want a fresh commissioning
to be able to use your gifts and talents for the Kingdom.
So let's pray, Lord Jesus, I pray right now that you would
come and you would fill us afresh.
Lord God, everyone listening right now will be filled afresh.
Lord God, that they will be refreshed by your spirits.
God, I pray for for those leading the children that they
be refreshed by your spirit. I pray for those leading the
crash that they be refreshed by your spirit.
I pray for the children that they be refreshed by your spirit
right now. The Jesus, I pray for those
listening to this online that they be refreshed by your
spirits. Lord Jesus, come refresh us
right now. And Lord God, I pray Jesus that
you would, you would come, you would reawaken dreams that
people have God and you would recommission some of us this
morning, God, you would show us the gifts and talents that we
have that you want to grab hold of for the building of your
Kingdom. Lord Jesus, I want to, I want
to, I want to especially ask that you would reveal those,
those gifts that people don't think are that important gifts
that they think, well, what what use does that have?
But Lord God, you would grab that and you'd say that is a
vital part of building my Kingdom.
I want to use you. I want to use your gifts more
than you've ever been used before for the glory of my
Kingdom, for the building of my church.
Lord Jesus, come do what you promised you would do as we've
been singing about you. You are a faithful God who
everything you say is true. And you say that those who come
to you will be refreshed, will not be weary.
Grown men will get weary, but Lord Jesus, those who trust in
the Lord will renew their strength.
Lord Jesus, renew our strength. Freshly commissioned us again
today. Amen.