A group of retired friends met every Saturday morning at a Salt Lake City deli, but they grew tired of the same conversation each week. Sure, they were solving the world’s problems, but they wanted to share their wisdom beyond their own group. So, as a lark, six years ago (2018), they set up a card table at the nearby Salt Lake City’s farmers market and told people they were dispensing free advice. They even made a large banner: “Old Coots Giving Advice—It’s Probably Bad Advice, But It’s Free.”
To their surprise, people started showing up and sharing their problems—a lot of them! “Where can I find someone to love?” “Have I put in enough time at my new job to take a one-week vacation?” They also fielded questions about how to keep romance alive. "I always tell people that the first thing you do is put down your phone and start talking,” retiree Richard Klein said.
Each Saturday the “Old Coots” took on the issues of about 30 to 40 people who came by seeking their advice. “It’s a way for a person to get an outside opinion from somebody who has nothing to gain,” said member Tony Caputo. “Somebody told us the other day that we're the most popular attraction at the market. We always listen carefully and don't give gratuitous advice.”
“To be truthful, I’m not sure that any of us can claim to have much wisdom,” said 69-year-old John Lesnan “but it sure has been a lot of fun. “Maybe all of us coots really do have more to offer than we thought” (Cathy Free, “Self-proclaimed ‘Old Coots’ offer life advice at farmers market. Their slogan: ‘It’s Probably Bad Advice, But It’s Free,’” The Washington Post, 9-27-18; www.PreachingToday.com).
To be sure, as a follower of Christ, young or old, you have a lot to offer to a world of people in desperate need of guidance.
The Bible says, “In [Christ] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ” (Ephesians 1:7-10).
God has lavished His grace on every believer, revealing the mystery of His will in all wisdom and insight. As a believer in Christ, you have everything you need to serve God well.
So how do you access God’s wisdom and insight to serve Him well? What do you have to do in your service to truly benefit people? What does God require of you in your ministry to Him as believer-priests? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Exodus 30, Exodus 30, where God gives directions for the first priests.
Exodus 30:1-6 “You shall make an altar on which to burn incense; you shall make it of acacia wood. A cubit shall be its length, and a cubit its breadth. It shall be square, and two cubits shall be its height. Its horns shall be of one piece with it. You shall overlay it with pure gold, its top and around its sides and its horns. And you shall make a molding of gold around it. And you shall make two golden rings for it. Under its molding on two opposite sides of it you shall make them, and they shall be holders for poles with which to carry it. You shall make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. And you shall put it in front of the veil that is above the ark of the testimony, in front of the mercy seat that is above the testimony, where I will meet with you (ESV).
God asks Moses to make a small little altar (just 1½ feet square & 3 feet high) and place it in front of the veil, which conceals the ark of the covenant where God meets with His people. This altar is for the burning of incense, which God prescribes that the priests burn every morning and evening.
Exodus 30:7-10 And Aaron shall burn fragrant incense on it. Every morning when he dresses the lamps he shall burn it, and when Aaron sets up the lamps at twilight, he shall burn it, a regular incense offering before the LORD throughout your generations. You shall not offer unauthorized incense on it, or a burnt offering, or a grain offering, and you shall not pour a drink offering on it. Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once a year. With the blood of the sin offering of atonement he shall make atonement for it once in the year throughout your generations. It is most holy to the LORD” (ESV).
This incense altar is most holy to the Lord. It is very special and important to God, so much so that the Lord also prescribes a special recipe for the incense. Skip down to verse 34.
Exodus 30:34-38 The LORD said to Moses, “Take sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum, sweet spices with pure frankincense (of each shall there be an equal part), and make an incense blended as by the perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy. You shall beat some of it very small, and put part of it before the testimony in the tent of meeting where I shall meet with you. It shall be most holy for you. And the incense that you shall make according to its composition, you shall not make for yourselves. It shall be for you holy to the LORD. Whoever makes any like it to use as perfume shall be cut off from his people” (ESV).
No one else may use this special incense, only the priests for burning it in God’s presence. Now, why is this incense and its altar so special to the Lord? It’s because it represents the prayers of His people (Psalm 141:2; Luke 1:10; Revelation 5:8; 8:3–4).
In Psalm 141, David says, “Let my prayer be counted as incense before you.” And Revelation describes angelic beings “holding… bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints” (Revelation 5:8; 8:3-4).
The earthly tabernacle in Exodus is only a copy of the true tabernacle in heaven, where the angels constantly bring the prayers of the saints before God on His throne. You see, God highly values your prayers. They are like a sweet-smelling incense to Him, so start there in your service to Him.
BE CEASELESS IN YOUR SUPPLICATION.
Bring your prayers to God every day and night. Offer the incense of your intercession continually before His mercy seat, the throne of grace.
Hebrews 4:16 encourages us, “Let us… with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” And 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, “Pray without ceasing,” or to put it another way: “Pray your way through the day.”
In 1982, the Today show in New York City scheduled an interview with Reverend Billy Graham. When he arrived at the studio, one of the program’s producers informed Graham’s assistant that a private room had been set aside for the reverend for prayer before the broadcast.
The assistant thanked the producer for the thoughtful gesture but told him that Mr. Graham would not need the room. The producer was a bit shocked that a world-famous Christian leader would not wish to pray before being interviewed on live national television.
Graham’s assistant responded, “Mr. Graham started praying when he got up this morning, he prayed while eating breakfast, he prayed on the way over in the car, and he’ll probably be praying all the way through the interview” (Skye Jethani, With, Thomas Nelson, 2011, p. 116; www.PreachingToday.com).
That’s the best way to pray. Just talk to God about everything as you make your way through the day. Thank Him. Ask for help when you need it. Intercede for others as God brings them to mind, or when you meet them along the way. Just pray your way through the day, coming to God with confidence that you may find grace to help in time of need.
A few years ago, Antonia Bundy, a 911 dispatcher, received a call from a young boy, who was having some trouble at school.
“You had a bad day at school?” she asked the boy on the line. “Yeah,” he said, “I just called to tell you that.”
Nine times out of ten, a 911 dispatcher might scold a child for wasting police resources with such a call. But for Bundy, something seemed different enough for her to take a different tack.
'”When he told me he was having a bad day,” she said, “and I asked him what was troubling him he told me that he had homework. And at that point,” she said, “I was able to determine that it was more of a ‘I need help with homework’ than an actual emergency.”
Fortunately, Bundy was cheerfully up-to-the-task. “I've always been good at math,” she said. “All the way through high school I enjoyed it, so it was something I was very happy I could help him with.” Bundy walked the young boy through an arithmetic problem, calling it a nice break in her busy day.
As it turns out, her decision not to scold the child paid off, as he seemed to be aware that his problem did not qualify as an emergency.
“I'm sorry for calling you,” he said. “But I really needed help.”
Bundy’s response? “You're fine. We're always here to help” (Caitlin O'Kane, “911 dispatcher helps child who called for math homework help,” CBS News, 1-29-19; www.PreachingToday.com).
God is always there to help you, as well. So, talk to Him about everything—the little things as well as the big. If you want to serve God well, 1st be ceaseless in your supplication. Then 2nd…
CELEBRATE YOUR SALVATION.
Show gratitude for your deliverance from death. Express appreciation for the ransom of your soul.
Exodus 30:11-16 The LORD said to Moses, “When you take the census of the people of Israel, then each shall give a ransom for his life to the LORD when you number them, that there be no plague among them when you number them. Each one who is numbered in the census shall give this: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as an offering to the LORD. Everyone who is numbered in the census, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the LORD’s offering. The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when you give the LORD’s offering to make atonement for your lives. You shall take the atonement money from the people of Israel and shall give it for the service of the tent of meeting, that it may bring the people of Israel to remembrance before the LORD, so as to make atonement for your lives” (ESV).
Now, leaders usually number their people to see what size army they can muster. But God has assured His people that HE would protect them, not their armies, nor their horses and chariots.
King David, in writing about God’s protection, would later say, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God” (Psalm 20:7).
Rather than trust in the size of their army, God wants His people to trust Him. So, if a Jewish leader ever counted the people, God would send a plague to reduce the number of people, forcing them to trust Him rather than their army. That’s what happened when David numbered the people toward the end of his reign. God sent a plague, which killed 70,000 men (2 Samuel 24; 1 Chronicles 21).
However, if every Jewish male, 20 years old and older, paid half a shekel, God spared his life. Now, the priests used this half shekel to maintain the tabernacle and its services. But God counted the half shekel as a ransom payment, which spared the lives of all the fighting men in the nation.
2,000 years ago, Jesus offered Himself on the cross as the ransom payment for you and me (Mark 10:45), so there is nothing left for us to pay for our salvation. Christ’s death spares the lives of all who put their trust in Him, assuring them of eternal life in heaven (John 3:16).
So, if you haven’t done it already, put your trust in Christ, who paid for your sins on the cross and rose again. Depend on Jesus to spare your life, so you can live with Him forever. Then bring your offerings not to save yourself, but to celebrate your salvation already purchased on the cross.
In his book Law and Gospel, William McDavid asks you to imagine you fall off the side of an ocean liner and, not knowing how to swim, begin to drown. Someone on the deck spots you, flailing in the water, and throws you a life preserver. It lands directly in front of you and, just before losing consciousness, you grab a hold for dear life. They pull you up onto the deck, and you cough the water out of your lungs. People gather around, rejoicing that you are safe and waiting expectantly while you regain your senses. After you finally catch your breath, you open your mouth and say: “Did you see the way I grabbed onto that life preserver? How tightly I held on to it? Did you notice the definition in my biceps and the dexterity of my wrists? I was all over that thing!”
McDavid says that would be a borderline insane response. To draw attention to the way you cooperated with the rescue effort denigrates the whole point of what happened, which is that you were saved. A much more likely chain of events is that you would immediately seek out the person who threw the life preserver, and you would thank them. Not just superficially, either. You would embrace them, ask them their name, invite them to dinner, maybe give them your cabin!
Gratitude is a natural response to salvation. It flows organically and abundantly from the heart (William McDavid, Ethan Richardson, Paul Zahl, Law & Gospel, Mockingbird Ministries, 2015, page 73; www.PreachingToday.com).
So, if you’re glad God saved you, express your gratitude to Him. Give for the ongoing ministry of His church. Tell somebody what Jesus did for you, or help somebody in need. Don’t give to get anything from God. Instead, give because God has already given you everything.
If you want to serve God well, 1st, be ceaseless in your supplication. 2nd, celebrate your salvation. And 3rd…
CONTINUE IN YOUR SANCTIFICATION.
Progress in becoming more holy and pure before the Lord. Grow in victory over sin in your life.
Exodus 30:17-21 The LORD said to Moses, “You shall also make a basin of bronze, with its stand of bronze, for washing. You shall put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it, with which Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet. When they go into the tent of meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister, to burn a food offering to the LORD, they shall wash with water, so that they may not die. They shall wash their hands and their feet, so that they may not die. It shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his offspring throughout their generations” (ESV).
Before the priests could serve in the tabernacle or at the altar, they had to wash their hands in feet with the water from this bronze basin. It’s a picture of the daily cleansing every believer-priest needs to serve God well. The altar points to our salvation through a sin offering. The basin points to our sanctification, our growth in holiness, which is progressive and continual (Hannah, Bible Knowledge Commentary).
Now, we don’t have an actual bronze basin to wash in today. But the Bible is very clear—Christ has provided His Word for our daily cleansing. In John 15, Jesus told His disciples, “You are clean because of the WORD that I have spoken to you” (John 15:3). Ephesians 5 says that Christ has sanctified the church, “having cleansed her by the washing of water with the WORD” (Ephesians 5:26). And Psalm 119 asks the question, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your WORD” (Psalm 119:9).
So, if you want to grow in holiness before the Lord, wash yourself regularly in the water of God’s Word. Clean off those dirty attitudes of the world by bathing in this Book (hold up the Bible) every day. Let its truths correct your thinking and straighten your path.
People like to think they control their own thoughts, but marketing professor Jonah Berger disagrees. He argues that “triggers” influence people much more than they’d like to think.
For example, Berger says, music triggers can change how you shop at the supermarket. In one study, researchers subtly replaced the store’s Muzak with music from different countries. Some days they played French music while other days they played German music. Then they measured the type of wine people purchased. When French music was playing, most customers bought French wine. When German music was playing, most customers bought German wine. By triggering customers to think of different countries, the music affected sales. The triggers spilled over into behavior.
In another case, in 1997, Mars candy bars experienced a sudden spike in sales. The company was surprised because they hadn't changed their marketing plans. So what caused the surge in sales? That was the same year when NASA undertook their much-publicized Pathfinder expedition to the planet Mars. The media attention on the planet Mars triggered people to consume Mars candy bars (Jonah Berger, Contagious, Simon & Schuster, 2013, pp. 70-71; www.PreachingToday.com).
The world around you subtly shapes your thinking and behavior. Now, in some cases, the “triggers” are harmless—you might gain a little weight by eating too much candy. But in many cases, the “triggers” can ruin your life—you can buy into the world’s lies that put you on a path to destruction. That’s why you need to immerse yourself in Scripture—to clean out those attitudes and actions, to clean out the world’s “triggers” that can ruin you.
Harriet Tubman was a spy who, even in moments of extreme danger, demonstrated nothing but raw, calm courage. Born into slavery in the 1820s, Harriet was nearly killed when her master hurled a metal object at her. She staged a daring escape in 1849, then spent years rescuing hundreds out of slavery and leading them to safety. Her code name was Moses, because she never lost a single escapee. During the Civil War, she became a secret agent for the Union Army, working behind enemy lines to scout out the territory. Despite a bounty on her head, she always managed to evade capture.
A devout follower of Christ, Tubman spent much time learning, memorizing, and meditating on various verses in the Bible… As she pondered the passages, she turned them into prayers, and in prayer she learned to practice God's presence. “I prayed all the time,” she told her biographer, “about my work, everywhere; I was always talking to the Lord. When I went to the horse trough to wash my face and took up the water in my hands, I said, 'Oh, Lord, wash me, make me clean.' When I took up the towel to wipe my face and hands, I cried, 'Oh, Lord, for Jesus' sake, wipe away all my sins!' When I took up the broom and began to sweep, I groaned, 'Oh, Lord, whatsoever sin there be in my heart, sweep it out, Lord, clear and clean.’” (Robert J. Morgan, Moments of Reflection: Reclaiming the Lost Art of Biblical Meditation, Thomas Nelson, 2017, pages 1-2; www.Preaching Today).
You do the same. Read, memorize, and mediate on various verses in the Bible. Then turn those verses into prayer, asking God to clean out the dirt in your own life.
If you want to serve God well, 1st, be ceaseless in your supplication. 2nd, celebrate your salvation. 3rd, continue in your sanctification. And finally…
CONDUCT YOURSELF IN THE SPIRIT’S POWER.
Live your life in dependence upon the Holy Spirit, and serve with the anointing of God’s Spirit upon you.
Exodus 30:22-33 The LORD said to Moses, “Take the finest spices: of liquid myrrh 500 shekels, and of sweet-smelling cinnamon half as much, that is, 250, and 250 of aromatic cane, and 500 of cassia, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, and a hin of olive oil. And you shall make of these a sacred anointing oil blended as by the perfumer; it shall be a holy anointing oil. With it you shall anoint the tent of meeting and the ark of the testimony, and the table and all its utensils, and the lampstand and its utensils, and the altar of incense, and the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils and the basin and its stand. You shall consecrate them, that they may be most holy. Whatever touches them will become holy. You shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests. And you shall say to the people of Israel, ‘This shall be my holy anointing oil throughout your generations. It shall not be poured on the body of an ordinary person, and you shall make no other like it in composition. It is holy, and it shall be holy to you. Whoever compounds any like it or whoever puts any of it on an outsider shall be cut off from his people’” (ESV).
God asks Moses to make a special anointing oil to pour on the tabernacle and its furniture, and to pour on all the priests to set them apart for God’s use.
Now, as I’ve said before, the anointing points to the Holy Spirit being poured out on believers. The Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 1, “It is God who… has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee”—literally, as a “down payment” of more to come (2 Corinthians 1:21-22). The Bible also declares to every believer, “You have been anointed by the Holy One” (1 John 2:20).
The Holy Spirit lives in every believer today (Romans 8:9), so live your life in dependence upon Him. Or as Galatians 5 puts it: “Walk by the Spirit”—literally, keep in step with the Sprit—”and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Gal.5:16).
Or to put it another way, Ephesians 5 encourages every believer to “be filled with the Spirit,” that is to live under the Spirit’s control and influence, with the result that you “address one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,” you “sing and make melody to the Lord with your heart,” you “give thanks always and for everything,” and you “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Ephesians 5:18-21).
Every day, when you wake up, ask God to anoint you with His Holy Spirit, so you can serve Him well.
On July 15, 1986, Roger Clemens played in his first All-Star Game. He was a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, not used to swinging a bat, because of the American League’s designated hitter rule. But in the second inning of the All-Star game, he found himself at bat. He took a few uncertain practice swings and then got ready for his first pitch. Dwight Gooden was on the mound. He had won the Cy Young award the previous year. He wound up and threw a sizzlin fastball past Clemens.
With an embarrassed smile, Clemens stepped out of the box and asked Gary Carter, “Is that what my pitches look like?”
“You bet it is!” replied Carter.
Clemens quickly struck out, but he went on to pitch three perfect innings and become the game’s most valuable player. He later said, “From that day on I pitched with far greater boldness than I ever had before” (Craig Brian Larson, Arlington Heights, Illinois. Leadership, Vol. 12, no. 2; www.PreachingToday.com).
Sometimes we forget how powerful our witness can be, especially with the Holy Spirit’s anointing. The Word of God and the Spirit of God, when they come together, are unstoppable. So serve and live in the Spirit’s power, not your own.
If you want to serve God well, 1st, be ceaseless in your supplication. 2nd, celebrate your salvation. 3rd, continue in your sanctification. And 4th, conduct yourself in the Spirit’s power. It’s the greatest thing you can do with your life.
Mark Pendergrass put it this way in a simple chorus:
The greatest thing in all my life is serving You.
The greatest thing in all my life is serving You.
I want to serve You more; I want to serve You more.
The greatest thing in all my life is serving You.
