What-You Are A Priest.

What You’re A Priest—A Stewardship Of Our Occupations

10/18/98 Exodus 31:1-12 1 Peter 2:4-12

What would happen if your were in the army and your commanding officer told you, “we want to send you in on a mission behind enemy lines to rescue some of the prisoners who have been captured. You are to live in the enemy’s camp and gain their confidence, but you are to never forget your true mission. We’re sending you in to rescue others. But for us to be able to be able to identify you, we want you to keep wearing our blue uniform and not their green ones.” Now your know you’re going to fail, because the other side will recognize you immediately by the color of your uniform.

Well according to the Scriptures, we are soldiers in God’s army and God has sent every one of us on a mission to rescue some of the prisoners that He has determined to set free. Now as soldiers in the army of God we have a special place. For our Scripture text stated, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out darkness into his wonderful light.

Tell the person next to you, “we are God’s chosen people,” and “we are all members of the royal priesthood.” Now by making us members of the royal priesthood, God has made us all priests. Now a priest is a person who has been set apart for God’s use and who has open access to the presence of the God. A priest is one who acts as a representative before God on behalf of others. As believers in Christ, we have been set apart by God, we are able to approach the throne of God at anytime, and we pray on behalf of those around us.

However some of us shudder at the idea of being a priest and we know what it would do to our reputations if others thought of us as a priests. If you go to work tomorrow and tell your fellow workers, “I found out yesterday at church, that I’m a priest”, would they say, “You—a priest or would they say You a Priest.”

Have you ever been in a group and a minister walks into the room, and somebody says hello Rev. Jackson. By saying Rev real loudly, its an announcement to everybody else to watch what your language because a Rev. is in the room. Now being a priest is not something you get to stop being. Whether you’re in the church, at the dinner table, at the football game or whatever, your behavior points back to the reality that you’re a priest. It’s not your location which makes you a priest, but your calling by God.

Now God knows that if he sent us all out with the title of priest and a black suit and collar, most of us would have people running away from us left and right. But God still wanted us to carry out the mission of rescuing others from the enemy. So in order to equip us for the work He call us to do, God filled us with His Spirit to provide us with the wisdom and the knowledge which would be necessary to get the job done.

Have you ever gone to a mechanic and after telling them about your problem the mechanic said something like, “Well, it could be this, and it might be that, but then again this other thing over here might be problem. I’m just going to have to fool around with a couple of things and I hope to find out which one is what it is.” Yet there are other mechanics who you said the exact same thing to and the mechanic replied, “I can tell you right now, your problem is your fuel pump is not working properly.” There are some people with an exceptional ability to do a job well.

When we think of the outpouring of God’s spirit, we usually connect the outpouring with miracles, healings, people speaking in tongues and prophesying , and with people being slain in the Spirit. However, God’s Spirit fills a person to equip a person with the ability to do the work God has called the person to do. The work could be as a mechanic or as a counselor. When created each of us, God created us with a specific task in mind for the purposes of God.

The prophet Jeremiah was attempting to explain to God, why He could not carry out the mission God had for him to do. Jeremiah said, “Oh Lord, I’m too young to do this. You need somebody with more experience. I’m even afraid to try to do it. God told him, “Before I formed you in your mother’s womb, I knew you and what your potential was, Before you were born, I had already appointed you to be a prophet to the nations.”