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Today is one of the most important days for our church and one of my most favorite days. But, it is probably one of your least favorite days because I get to use as many persuasive techniques to convince as many of you as possible to get off the bleachers and begin plugging in to serving at your local church. They are locking the doors behind you, so there is no reason to try to escape. I want to convince you to get involved in your church. FBC Romeo is all about trying to connect people with God through his son Jesus Christ, and we believe the best way to do that is by creating relevant environments. Environments such as Kidstown, Mainstreet, Lightforce, The Awakening for young adults, and Marriedlife are environments that are connecting people with God in a fresh way to build them up as disciples and maturing believers. When we see people come to a faith in Jesus Christ for salvation, then come to church on a regular basis, and when we see people join a small group and develop relationships and find a group of people who cares for them…we celebrate this win. But, this cannot happen without you, this cannot happen without volunteers. It takes many, many volunteers to accomplish all that we are doing to connect people with Jesus and with one another. Many of you are already committing some of your time to serving here. They have agreed to give some of their time and overlay it on the strategic vision of the local church to help reach this community for Jesus Christ. You come to church because you are serviced by many people from greeters, to the worship band, to a warm and wonderful welcome, to the technical team with lighting, videos and sound, to a relevant message where the Bible speaks to you. You come because you have been serviced well by many volunteers. Now, we need you to help us.  Success for us is kids not letting their parents sleep in on Sunday morning but demanding them to get them to uptown and downtown kids worship services. Success to us is people appreciating the significance and necessity of not missing any worship service unless necessary. But, we need you to help us make these environments happen. At the end of the sermon, we will look over the Involved sheet to see the opportunities, and we will ask you to choose two areas.

We come to our third sermon on holiness as we study the 3rd book of the Bible – the book of Leviticus. Go ahead and turn to it.  During 2007, we are studying the Pentateuch; that is the first 5 books of the bible. We are also asking you to read through the first five books in your daily bible readings and devotions. The Romeo Peach has a bible reading plan and an explanation on the chapters you read. We believe that if you invest 5-10 minutes a day in reading through the Pentateuch and reading the devotions that you will experience some serious spiritual growth.

Last week, we studied Leviticus chapters 1-7 on the sacrificial system God instituted. The reason for the sacrificial system was God chose a way for an unholy people to approach a holy God. While the Israelites were sinful and unholy, as long as they obeyed God’s chosen sacrificial system, God permitted them to worship him. We learned that sacrifice is at the heart of true worship. Sacrifice is when we give something up of value because the one we give it up for is of greater value. You standout when you sacrifice to worship God.

Today, we come to Leviticus chapters 8-10. The focus is on who has the right to offer sacrifices at the Tabernacle; who has the right to serve in the tabernacle. The priests of Israel led the nation in its spiritual duties by teaching the laws and commandments, making intercession, and offering the sacrifices. The offering of sacrifices was most clearly reserved for the consecrated priests. The main functions of priestly service were designed to bring about sanctification by making the people holy before God so that God could dwell with them. It was the priests duty to help the unholy people approach a holy God. God set apart the tribe of Levi to offer the sacrifices and take care of the temple. The priests were the conduit between the holy God and the unholy people. The priestly responsibilities of the sacrificial system cannot be overstated. Because they obeyed God’s chosen ways, the Israelites could live in the presence of God. God set apart a people the tribe of Levi and chose them to be his priests. When you are one of God’s priests, you got involved and served.  No Levite priest could reject the calling, for it is God who issues the call. I The priestly calling was a massively significant calling to help unholy people approach a holy God. God identified a people to standout, as priests, and they were involved and served just as he called them to do.

There was a hierarchical structure of the people-priests-high priest. The high priest was the spiritual head of the nation and the representative of the priests. A similar pattern appears in the NT. All believers in Jesus the Messiah form a new royal priesthood; but yet the Son of God is the high priest who has gone into the very presence of God in heaven on our behalf. While the priests stood between the people and God in the OT to make an unholy people able to approach and dwell with God, Christ’s death on the cross credits his holiness onto us making us holy. Every genuine believer is holy and may approach and dwell with God. This incredible gift of God is accompanied by a significant responsibility. Priests are priests not because of a decision, but only because they obeyed God’s calling. God told priests what to do and how to do it. If the priest obeyed, then he continued as a priest. However, if the so-called priests failed to obey God’s calling, there were consequences. Leviticus 10:1-2 “Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD.” These priests did not obey the calling – they offered unauthorized fire before God. Obedience revealed the priest, but disobedience removed the priest. Any and all priests including NT believers or the holy priesthood don’t have the option to not choose God’s ways. When God calls you to serve as a priest, you must serve otherwise you are not a priest. “Holiness is dangerous unless approached by the proper persons and according to the proper rules.” (Snaith) Who are the proper persons and what are the proper rules expected of them?

I invite you to turn to 1 Peter chapter 2. We find the apostle Peter helping us to see the fulfillment of the Levitical Priesthood. No longer is it that we must be a slave to the hierarchical paradigm. Because of Jesus, all of us are now priests. We have direct access to God, we are called to help others worship God by the open invitation to all believers to be an important participant in the church. It used to be that only the priests could serve in the Tabernacle, but now all believers are priests and are not only permitted but are called to serve in the local church.

1 Peter 2:4-5,9-10 “As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ…9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

While the Levitical priests cared for the Tabernacle in the wilderness, a new group of NT priests care for God’s current spiritual house. This new group of NT priests are known as the holy  priesthood. God had previously set aside the tribe of Levi to serve in his holy house, and now because Jesus’ sacrifice has made all NT believers holy all believers are priests consecrated, set apart and who stand out to serve in God’s spiritual house. The Tabernacle is now replaced by the Christian church. The Israelites used to take their sacrifices to the priests who would go before God on their part, but now as we are all part of the holy priesthood of believers all of us may go before God to offer our spiritual sacrifices.

What do you bring to the table? As a NT believer, you are a member of the holy priesthood of believers. And, it is your calling to bring an offering of a spiritual sacrifice. Standout in what you bring to the table.

Giving a spiritual sacrifice or a spiritual offering requires us to make a sacrifice. Last week, we defined a sacrifice as that which costs us something to give up and we give it up only because the one we are offering it to is more highly valued than that which we give up. Is Jesus really more precious and more valuable than what you give up in your offering? v.7 “Now to you who believe, this stone is precious…” Is Jesus precious to you? Let me ask you the million dollar question – how precious is Jesus to you? Jesus is the only way to God. Jesus is the only way to be alive forever. Jesus is the only way an unholy person becomes holy. He is the only way to dwell with God. Jesus is the only way to become someone acceptable and significant for God. Ultimately, God desires you to realize that Jesus is more precious than anyone and anything else. This trust is built over time, and that is why it takes time for all of us believers or holy priesthood to give more and more of our our time to God. If you are a new believer or an immature believer, the sacrifice of giving God time is just too high a cost, too great a sacrifice. But, with time comes greater and greater trust and with time comes a greater realization of the preciousness and worth of Jesus. As Jesus becomes increasingly valuable to us, then we are freer to give up money and time both of which are less valuable.

What are spiritual sacrifices and offerings? v.5 “a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ…” What are these spiritual offerings and spiritual sacrifices? We are called to offer ourselves as a spiritual sacrifice / offering. In Romans 12:1, Paul says that we are to present our bodies as living sacrifices holy and acceptable to God which is our spiritual worship. The greatest commandment is to love God and love others. The great commission is to do whatever it takes to reach the lost at home and far away. We are called to become all things to save some. The primary way God does this is through the holy priesthood of believers in the NT church. The church needs a group of NT priests to help build it up, to help finance it, to help serve at it so that we can reach out to this community.


God set apart a people the tribe of Levi and chose them to be his priests. When you are one of God’s priests, you got involved and served.  No Levite priest could reject the calling, for it is God who issues the call. The priestly calling was a massively significant calling to help unholy people approach a holy God. God identified a people to standout, as priests, and they were involved and served just as he called them to do. Today, all NT believers are part of the priesthood, and we like the levite priests are called to serve in God’s church. The church is God’s primary means – just like the sacrificial system was the primary means – to reach people, to help unholy people become holy and draw near God. All NT believers have a godly calling – get involved. A genuine believer standsout as a priest when he/she serves in the local church.

Share stories of the importance of serving.

Somebody in your life has done something for you that has helped you connect to God better. Somebody invested a little bit of time in you, and God decided to do something with it. They did what they could do, and God did the rest. Randy Johnson was my fifth grade Sunday teacher. Randy shared his passion for God, and I as a 5th grader began to share what Randy taught me on Sunday about end times with my friends at my birthday party in Pizza Hut. Then there was Ruthmary Gillespie in my senior year of high school who introduced critical thinking to religion, and she engaged my brain into the Bible. Then there was James Paternoster in the college ministry, and on and on. God uses his people – the NT priests – who serve in the local church to love others, to teach, to encourage, to help others. Did you know that we successfully turned around our Sunday morning kids’ program from boring and stale to a kidstown program where kids love to come to church. My kids won’t let me miss Mainstreet. I hear this over and over – my kids love church. With small groups, I am hearing all kinds of stories about how people are learning, they are feeling more connected, and they feel like they have a spiritual family.

Involved ministry checklist.

In order to accomplish all that we believe God has called us to, we need most of you to say yes I will give some of my time because it is a sacrifice I am willing to make because Jesus is more precious; or because I am a NT priest and that is God’s calling on my life to be involved. God has designed this to a point where we need you to participate, to be involved. I appreciate that you are afraid, you are busy, or you had a bad experience in the past. We need you to say that you will do what you can do, and you will trust God to bless your time. We need people to join our host team – people who will welcome people on Sunday morning because we say that the sermon begins in the parking lot. That person may hate the sermon, but they like the church. We need people to join our production team to help us with audio, visual, lighting and video. We need people to help us with kidstown greeting the kids, patrolling the hallway for their safety, leading small groups. We are asking you to sign up for one ministry cycle. It begins in the fall, so we will begin to come along side you and train you in late spring.  What begins as an obligation often becomes a passion. About 70% of the people who sign up, desire to continue one.

Financial Offering – missions will freeze
Spiritual Offering – check off two areas of ministry