A Kingdom of Holy Priests

And here at Shepherd’s Gate, we feel it is fitting and right to honor those that have served so that we could actually have the freedom to be here this morning gives me the freedom to be able to preach the word of God as well as to gather without fear. And so if you’re one of our veterans and you’re with us today, will you please stand so that we can show you honor this morning. On behalf of our church, thank you.

Thank you for your service. Thank you for your faithfulness in keeping us the land of the free and the home of the brave. Amen.

My father is a veteran, his brothers, my uncles are veterans, both of my grandfathers served as well. And I always get a kick out of my dad and his brothers because on Veterans Day, they go around to as many of the restaurants as they possibly can. It’s like a competition they have with each.

Does anybody else do that? Any of our other veterans do that? Just so you know, you deserve it, okay? And I hope that you take full advantage of all the restaurants that offer that. Today, we are continuing in a series of messages we’re calling Exodus Part Two. We started Exodus, we go through books of the Bible here if you’re a guest, chapter by chapter, verse by verse.

And we actually started this back in January up until March. We took a break and then we continued on in September. And so we’re getting toward the tail end of Exodus Part Two.

If you’ve missed any of these or you’re intrigued by this, you can go back and find them all on our website. And so today, we’re going to be looking at Exodus chapter nine. And again, next week as well, we’re dividing it into two parts.

And today can really be looked at it this way. It’s really the day of preparation. God is preparing his children to meet him.

And so that’s kind of the word that you’re going to hear repeated over and over again as we look at the text today. And so we always encourage people to bring their Bibles. If you have your Bibles and you want to grab that and open to Exodus chapter 19, you can do that at this time.

If you don’t have a Bible, we encourage you to grab one. We love giving these out for free. They’re available on a cart right there outside our worship center doors.

And in exciting news, we ran out of Bibles, so we just had to order a bunch more. So we’re so thankful for that. And because of your generosity, we’re able to do that each and every week.

And so Exodus chapter 19, let’s dig in. At the very beginning, it says this, on the first day of the third month after the Israelites left Egypt. And so now all of a sudden, the text has actually given us some definitive timeline that we haven’t had up to this point.

Some of your Bibles might even say the third moon. And so what they’re doing is they’re trying to create the timeline of what is actually happening with the children of Israel. And so it tells you that they’ve come to the desert of Sinai.

After they set out for Rephidim, they entered the desert of Sinai. Rephidim is where they won the battle when they went to war. And it says Israel camped there in the desert in front of the mountain.

So if you haven’t been with us, we’ve been following the children of Israel as they left Egypt. So they left Egypt. They went through the Red Sea.

They’ve encountered some obstacles along the way. And now finally, finally, finally, they get to the mountain here, the mountain that they are going to be spending a good amount of time at. In fact, this is kind of what it would have looked like for them to be here.

And what’s fascinating about Exodus chapter 19 is we still have a lot to go yet in Exodus. There’s 40 chapters in Exodus. Now think about this for a moment.

They’re not going to leave this location for the rest of Exodus. In fact, they’re not going to leave this location for the entire book of Leviticus, which how many of you want to do Leviticus after we do Exodus? Some of you. Okay, good.

Nobody at nine said yes, but some of you said yes. Okay. You have to go all the way into the very next book, which if you don’t know in the Old Testament, it goes Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus.

The next book is Numbers. You have to go all the way to chapter 10 of Numbers before the children of Israel actually leave this location. So just imagine how special this is.

And we’re going to continue on in Exodus next year. You’re going to see just how significant this location is and what it is that God uses in their time there. What I didn’t know, I just found this out this week, I didn’t know this, but there’s actually a place you can go and visit now.

It’s the world’s oldest continuous inhabited Christian monastery, which is where they believe is where the Israelites camped out for that extended period of time. This monastery, believe this, it was built between 548 and 565 AD. How many of you want to get on a plane and go check this place out? Anybody want to go with me? A good friend of mine, Chad Foster, he’s a pastor at Emmanuel in Macomb, and he does all sorts of trips like this.

And so I sent him a text. I said, have you ever led a trip to this place? He goes, yeah, it would be awesome. You can climb Mount Sinai, come down on a donkey ride afterwards, and go check out the monastery.

And there’s so many other fun things that you can do in learning about the Bible and bringing the Bible to life. So if any of you want to do that next spring break, let me know, okay? Maybe we’ll plan a trip. Real place, real location, at a real time.

Verse three, it says, Okay, so now he’s talking about one of the patriarchs, those of you that were with us in Genesis. There’s Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The reason he’s saying Jacob is because Jacob had the twelve sons, and each one of Jacob’s twelve sons represents the tribes that are now traveling in the wilderness.

So the descendants of Jacob, they would have known that because they all would have been according to their tribe, what you are to tell the people of Israel. You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt. Hey, don’t forget how I freed you from slavery.

Don’t forget how I brought you through the Red Sea and defeated your enemy. Don’t forget where you have come from and how I carried you on. And then there’s this whole new concept that God’s going to bring to Moses, eagles’ wings, and brought you to myself.

So why is God all of a sudden introducing us to a new concept? Why is he telling us about eagles’ wings? It’s very important in this culture, in this time, they looked up to the eagle, they respected the eagle, which is interesting given our country and the respect that we have for the eagle. These are beautiful animals, are they not? They’re majestic, they’re powerful, they’re incredible predators, but they’re also incredible protectors. Their wings, their wingspan, to not only be able to soar in the sky, but their wingspan is designed to protect their young from predators.

And so God is actually using this language to tell the children of Israel, this is what I’ve done for you. I’ve stretched out my wings, my arms, I have protected you, I have brought you to the foot of the mountain. And as you look back and you see the faithfulness of God, there is no reason to question that I will not still continue being your protector and your provider in the days and the months ahead.

Now God continues to say this, if you obey me fully and you keep my covenant, then all the nations, you will be my treasured possession. And so he’s introducing also this concept of a covenant. Now it’s not new to the Bible because their ancestors had received covenants, Abraham received covenants, other people had received covenants, Isaac received a covenant, and so now God is actually going to covet with these people.

He’s going to make a promise specific to them. In fact, if you flash back all the way back to the sixth chapter of Exodus, this is the first time that we see this and we hear this because God is actually telling Moses, I have heard their grumblings, I have seen them in slavery, and I am the one that’s going to cause the series of events that are going to take place in order to free them from the bondage that they’re in. The hard part is that they were in slavery for over 400 years and we’ve talked about sometimes this is the difficulty of the Bible of God, why do you let people suffer for so long and why is it that they have to go through generation after generation after generation? And we don’t always have the mind of God, we don’t always fully understand from a broader perspective when it comes to all of mankind the way that he is working and fulfilling his perfect will for all of our lives.

Whatever the case is, God made a promise that he was going to get them out of slavery and he fulfilled that promise and now he’s going to give them a new promise. He goes on to say to Moses, although the whole earth belongs to who? Me, it’s mine. And I love that this is included in here, God is telling Moses once again to tell the children of Israel, remind them everything that they see, everything that they touch belongs to me, I am the great creator.

And I think there’s comfort for us this morning in knowing that as well, that God is still the creator, did you know that? I don’t care what book somebody writes or what theory somebody comes up with, we go back to the Bible, the Bible is what gives us our instruction for life, God is the creator, he created everything on this planet and he has created every human being and he is still orchestrating the events of our lives to get us exactly where he wants us to be, amen? So stop fearing and stop doubting and stop getting so worked up on things that maybe we don’t need to be fixated on and just trust that God is going to work it out, amen? And then he says, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. I mean, these are some pretty encouraging words. How in the world are they going to become a kingdom of priests? They’re going to become a kingdom of priests because of what it is that God is going to do for them.

He is going to open the way for them to go in and claim the promised land and they are going to be a holy nation. Well, how do they become holy? Do they stop sinning? Do they stop complaining because they’ve been complaining up to this point? Do they all of a sudden figure out life and they just get everything right and so they make God happy and when God’s happy then they become holy? Somebody say no. All right, good.

Because there’s a famous sermon in Matthew 5 called the Sermon of the Mount and Jesus is teaching a crowd of people and at the very end of that sermon Jesus says these words, be holy because I am holy. Be holy because I am holy. Be holy because I am holy.

And here’s the caution that sometimes needs to be addressed. People will read that verse and they think that Jesus is telling them they need to try harder. They need to get their life together.

They need to stop sinning and they need to start serving more, going to church more, reading their Bible more, praying more, whatever those things are and then when they figure all of those things out all of a sudden they are now making themselves more and more holy. Some people even believe they can get to a state where they stop sinning and then all of a sudden they become like Jesus. Our church body and what we believe here at Shepherds Gate is the exact opposite of that.

When Jesus says the words, be holy because I am holy, it is not because there’s anything that you and I can do to make ourselves holy. In fact scripture tells us that we were dead in our sins and trench grasses when Jesus died on the cross. This is the Jesus that stretched out his arms and as people are mocking him he somehow has the ability in his pain and suffering to look down and to say to his heavenly father, forgive them for they don’t even know what they’re doing.

And so we live in the in the side of grace and saying no no when he says be holy because I’m holy that is not asking us to do anything. He is making a declaration of who we are because of the price that was paid on the cross by Jesus Christ who is our savior. Amen? Do you see the difference? It’s really important.

Now what’s really also good to know this morning is that Peter, one of Jesus’ closest disciples, knew this passage and he picked up on this language. In fact when he was penning his church or penning his letter to one of the churches he said it this way, you are a chosen people. That God chose you.

He loves you. He never stops pursuing you. You are a royal priesthood.

Why are you a priesthood? Because you’re the line of Jesus. You belong to Christ’s family. You are a holy nation.

We are a holy church. You witnessed a holy baptism. We receive holy communion.

The only reason it’s holy is because of what God has done in those moments for us. We are not only a holy nation, we are God’s special possession. Think of that.

Think of the things that you treasure. Think of the things that are important to you in your life and how you will fund that and you will defend that and you will spend time obsessing about that. Do you know that that is what God does for us? That our heavenly father sits on his throne and to the right of him is Jesus who intercedes for us and the Holy Spirit is what lives inside of us who also intercedes for the believer.

God’s obsessed with us. He loves us. He never wants to stop working out his perfect plan in our lives and so because of that we declare the praises.

We sing to God. We respond to him in our prayers in song because he is the one that has called us out of darkness into the light. Make no mistake, we don’t do any of this work.

God does it all for us. Again in Galatians it says it this way, Christ Jesus you’re all sons of gods and that word sons means sons and daughters through faith. The faith that the Holy Spirit has given us for because we have been baptized into Christ we can identify ourselves belonging to his family because of our baptisms and how awesome that you had the opportunity to see that today.

How awesome that Jameson didn’t come here this morning and have to figure out his life and tell us what his career path is or what he’s going to do from this day forward. He’s going to get everything right. No his parents will beat him, bring him to the waters of baptism and we watch God do his work in his heart just as he’s done it in the hearts of our children as well.

So make no mistake we are God’s treasured possession because he has claimed us and he has claimed us at his own through his one and only son our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Verse seven, Moses goes back and he summons the elders of the people and set before them all the words that the Lord had commanded him to speak. So he’s being obedient to what God is asking him to do and the people responded together, this is amazing, we will do everything the Lord has said.

Like all million plus people there wasn’t one person that was like nah I think I’m going to go a different direction. Now how do we know that Moses really heard from God? Remember it’s kind of been a bumpy road up to this point, things haven’t always gone according to plan and yet look at the miracle taking place. Something in their hearing, something in Moses’s voice, something in Moses sharing what it is that Lord has instructed him to share pierces their hearts and in their minds they realize that he is the one speaking for God.

This might sound familiar if you were here with us last week as we looked at Moses and his father-in-law coming into the camp and Moses was in a seat where he thought that he had to be the only judge for all the people of Israel and so morning and night people would line up and he would hear their problems and he would hear their struggles and if they got in issues with one another he would have to kind of judge the situation and he would pray about it and then he would go and give them advice about what they were to do. Until father-in-law comes and you remember what the father-in-law said? First thing he said is what you’re doing is wrong here’s a better way to do this you need to go recruit other men to come alongside you and to be a support to you and as I told you last week the miracle was first that Moses listened to his father-in-law and the second one was that he did everything his father-in-law told him to do and because of that everyone went away pleased. Now we’re seeing the same pattern played out in the children of Israel they are actually going to do everything that God has told them to do and it made me think about my own life like do I ever make promises to God and keep them or do I have a pattern of making promises to God and it’s difficult to keep them sometimes we fall in this other trap as well where life’s not going the way we want it to go and so we’ll barter with God would anybody admit that sometimes they barter with God and so we’ll say listen I’ll rev up my serving if I go out and and I serve at the church if I go out in the community and I do some serving stuff God can you relieve the pressure that I’m experiencing at work or God if I give a little bit more to the church or a little bit more to this non-profit is there any way that maybe you could help me you know financially flourish or God if I just spend more time on my knees in prayer and reading your word and I’m doing what you’re you know you’re asking me to do could you just make life just a little bit more convenient for me because it’s getting really difficult God and it’s this natural human inclination to want to do those things and yet God sees us he hears us he knows us he knows our thoughts before we think them he always knows what’s best for us he’ll even put us in difficult situations because more often than not he is testing our faith and he’s drawing us closer to him and getting us to rely on him just as he’s done with the children of Israel and I would submit to you today that our role is to come before God to to lay our agendas before him to realize just how awful and poor and miserable sinners we really are and how much we actually need God’s mercy and grace in our lives this is why we gather this is why we gather every week for church the world’s crazy out there did you know that it’s a little nutty and it’s not going to get any easier and yet as God’s children he calls us to corporate worship he calls us into the gathering into the assembly that we would sing his praises that we would offer up our prayers our petitions to him and when we’re offering our prayers we’re giving them our situations we’re giving them our hardships and we’re saying God you have to intervene God we need you to work on our behalf I mean I’ll admit this morning I’m not always good at keeping promises that I make to God and yet God always keeps his promises to us verse 9 the Lord says to Moses I am going to come to you in a dense cloud he’s going to tell him exactly how he’s going to show up so that the people will hear me speaking with you and will always put their trust in you they will know that you are still the appointed leader to lead them to the promised land and so Moses goes and he tells the people what God has told him to say to them the Lord says to Moses you are also going to go to the people and you’re going to consecrate them you’re going to set them apart you’re going to set them aside and you’re going to have them go through a couple things to prepare them to meet me and you’re going to do this today and tomorrow and you’re going to have them wash their clothes so now they’re going to have to you know do this act and be ready by the third day so how many days of preparation are there two two days of preparation because God’s going to show up on the third because on that day the Lord’s going to come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people have you ever thought about that before in your spiritual life how do you prepare yourself to meet God in other words if you knew that God was going to physically show up and you were going to hear the voice of God on Tuesday what would you be doing today and tomorrow to prepare for Tuesday doing your hair is that what I heard over here go to work just do the same stuff that you’ve always done would anybody take the day off would anybody spend time in prayer or reading the Bible what would you do if you were told you’re meeting God on Tuesday some of you you’re not following me this morning so maybe I got to take it a level deeper ready for this if you knew you were going to die on Tuesday what would you do today and tomorrow if you only had two days left on this planet and on Tuesday you would see Jesus face to face pray would you forego the lion’s game today ain’t winning the Super Bowl you’re going to be dead you’re going to go to your favorite restaurant you’re going to call somebody you’re holding on to unforgiveness because Jesus said if you don’t forgive others I’m not going to forgive you you’re going to call your family and friends why don’t we ever think about this do you know that Jesus could come back at any hour of any day and yet we spend zero time in preparation every time we gather think of this on Sunday morning it’s preparation every time we watch a baptism every time we receive holy communion what are we doing we’re preparing ourselves we’re drawing close to God we’re setting a time uh setting aside time to let God speak into us and remind us just how precious we are to him this next part I’m telling you it’s weird it’s going to get weird and you’re going to wonder why God puts these stipulations in here but this is what he also tells Moses you’re going to put limits on the people and everyone said great we love limits don’t we we love rules around the mountain and tell them be careful that you do not approach the mountain or touch the foot of it you know there’s kids there’s teenagers there’s animals now all of a sudden we got to make sure that over a million people not one person touches the foot of the mountain and by the way whoever touches the mountain is to be put to death they are to be stoned or shot with arrows remember this is God speaking bizarre isn’t it not a hand is to be laid on them by the way if you stone them to death or you shoot them with an arrow you can’t even go and get their body and bury them you are to leave them there no person or animal should be permitted to live man woman adult or child and only and only when that ram’s horn sounds a long blast may they approach the mountain why would he do this he is teaching them he’s instructing them that he is a holy God that they are to take this moment seriously that they are to remove all other distractions that they have in their life and they are to focus on seeing and hearing the one true God by the way he goes on to say that after Moses had gone down the mountain to the people and after they were consecrated and they washed their clothes this is the final thing that he said prepare yourselves prepare yourselves for on that third day in this last instruction abstain from sexual relations why would he tell them to do that so that there would be absolutely no distraction and no focus on anything else or anyone else that mentally and emotionally and spiritually they would be prepared to meet God again what are the stages and phases you would go through to meet almighty God this last Thursday as we were going over our service and we were planning the service and I go through my sermon notes with our team here I was asking them what are some of the things that we do to prepare like what are some of the things that that force us to actually have to pause our lives long enough where the only thing we can focus on is what is coming in the next day or two and for some reason the first thing that popped into my mind is this you ready for this is when you have to prepare for a colonoscopy think about it workaholics like me those of you that when you have to prep and by the way I had to get a colonoscopy early on in my life because of a history of family medical stuff in my family with my grandparents and my siblings even and so here I am at this young age going in for this colonoscopy it was one of the worst experiences of my life you really can’t do anything but lay in bed and wait and wait and wait and then when you get there and they do it you can’t really do anything anyways because they put you out and then afterwards even with the recovery or how about this when people are preparing for surgery do people you know spend all of their energy and keep working and keep doing all sorts of things right up until their surgery absolutely not people are very conscious of their diet they’re very conscious of their sleep patterns they’re actually not only physically preparing themselves for that surgery and depending on the scope of it they’re mentally and emotionally preparing themselves surgeries can be very mentally and emotionally taxing can’t they or if you’re walking this with a family member and you’re trying to you know figure out what what this is going to lead to and how serious this matter actually is these are the moments that cause us to stop and to pause our lives one of the people that was with me on Thursday they said this isn’t it interesting when you think about the culture that we live in and the love that people have for football any football fans in here all right I’m pretty sure all the Michigan fans stayed home today right because they didn’t want to run into their Michigan State so all of you that are watching online they don’t want to run into their Michigan State family and friends but think about this what do you do to prepare for a football game you tailgate and people will drive down hours before a game and they’ll bring food and they’ll bring drinks and they’ll connect with friends and there’s just it’s like a whole cultural thing here to prepare yourself to watch a game what about when it comes to any other area of our lives you can’t just wake up one morning and decide you’re going to run a marathon no you have to prepare you can’t just wake up and go and take a test and expect to ace it if you’re not willing to do the homework and put in the time to prepare for it all these areas of our lives and yet again I would submit so often our spiritual life is what gets left behind maybe God is challenging some of us today to kind of re-evaluate as we go into these next two months as we look to Thanksgiving where we actually hopefully get time off work and as we go into Christmas where we celebrate the greatest gift the world has ever received in the birth of our Lord and Savior maybe there’s an opportunity for us to slow our lives down spend a little more time focused on our spiritual relationship with the Lord but here’s what’s so interesting even if we screw it up even if there is no preparation work even if we don’t even think about these things look at what the text is doing it is God preparing his children to encounter him he’s giving him them the instructions he’s giving them the guidelines he’s telling them exactly what they should do and what’s so beautiful for us that are on this side of the cross because Jesus has died on the cross because he has risen from the dead because he is the one that has produced faith in our hearts and our lives there isn’t this set of standards there aren’t these rules or regulations if we touch something we’re going to die or that we’re supposed to you know take out somebody else if something else happens because he knew how how simple we would actually be in fact Hebrews gives us a beautiful picture of the confidence you and I can have in Jesus Christ and I want to read this to you it says this we have confidence to enter the holy places we get to go directly to our heavenly father because of the blood of Jesus because of his sacrifice we get to go directly there it’s a new and living way that was opened when the curtain was torn in two when Jesus had his arms stretched out on the cross and he uttered these words it is finished and that curtain was the curtain that only the priest was allowed to go into and as the curtain is torn now all of a sudden it gives the opportunity for you and I to go directly to our heavenly father you don’t need a meteor anymore you don’t need a priest all you need is Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross to go straight to your heavenly father amen it’s through his flesh because he’s the high priest because he is the house of God and so because of that we get to draw near with our faults and our failures with our sin with the blemishes that we carry in our lives we get to draw near full assurance that he loves us and he wants to connect with us and be in a relationship with us we have been cleansed because of our baptism we have been brought into his family because of his great love for us and so now our response is to give back to him in our worship and our prayer it’s a response to the mercy and grace of our heavenly father and so this time our worship team is going to come and we’re going to continue to worship our God this morning and I’m going to ask you to remain seated for the first part of our closing song but I wonder this morning that as we’re in this moment as we’re contemplating our own lives that maybe you’re here today and you haven’t been in church in a long time and God is using this opportunity to remind you how much you were loved and valued by him and that no matter what it’s looked like in the past that God has a bright future in store for you maybe you’re here today and you’re getting ready to go in for a surgery or you’re getting ready to get some news that maybe you don’t want to hear or there’s a situation in your life that just seems insurmountable can I just encourage you today hand that over to God watch what it is that he does as you release that to him because I can guarantee you he’s already at work he already is ahead of you and he’s already orchestrating all of the events to put you exactly where he wants you to be in your time here on on this earth and finally this morning I wonder if we could just for a moment have the mindset of what does that look like to prepare ourselves to meet Jesus face to face what if if every morning we woke up with this attitude what if today is my last day on this planet God what if you don’t give me tomorrow what if you don’t give me the next day and the next day and the next day what if I don’t make it to Thanksgiving and I don’t make it to Christmas God what would you want to do in my heart and in my life today how would that change the way that we live and approach our lives and so as we sing this song I pray that it is a response to that and that you connect with the one true and living God just as the children of Israel are preparing their hearts to meet the one true and living God so let’s sing this together