Mission of the Church

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I love Sabbath.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Isn't it fun to come into the house of the Lord and worship?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'll tell you a story to remind you what we talked about last week.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: So while I'm telling this story, you think about last week.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: This is a test.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: There was a small congregation that was in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: For those of you that don't know, that's out east.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The Tennessee area, Carolina area, and on up part of the east coast there.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: There's a small congregation that was building a church, and they uh a member had willed them

Pastor Dale Tunnell: A piece of property, and the church had gone up, and they were looking forward to the grand opening of their church.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: However, there had to be a final inspection that needed to take place

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And the inspector came out two weeks ahead of time.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And as he was there, he looked things over and it looked like everything was in order except

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He came into the pastor and he says, there's one problem.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: For a congregation your size and a church your size, you don't have enough parking space.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And I'm sorry, because of that, I have to deny your ability to open in two weeks.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The pastor looked around at the facility.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He said, You mean everything's ready except for the parking?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The inspector said yes.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The passenger looked around and said, So what do we have to do?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And the inspector said, You need to double the size of the parking lot.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The pastor looked around and is that even possible?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We just have a small piece of land here.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Well, except for the land there in the back that

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Has a mountain on it.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The pastor side and

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He made an announcement to the congregation.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Listen, folks, we cannot owe, we're not going to be able to open when we said we're going to open.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Unless God works a miracle.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: So those of you that have mountain moving faith, please gather together this weekend, 7 p.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: m.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We're going to have a prayer time and we're going to pray for God to move a mountain.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It was a congregation of about 300 people.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: 24 showed up for prayer meeting.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: 24 that had mountain moving faith.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And they prayed.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: They prayed till 10 p.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: m.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And the pastor said, okay, we're stopping after three hours.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He said the final prayer.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He said amen.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He said, now after that prayer time, I'm just going to tell you, we're going to open next weekend.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The 24 people looked at the pastor.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The pastor said, yeah, we have a God that can do it.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I know he can do it.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: What's the plan?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I don't know what the plan is.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Monday morning the pastor was sitting in his church office.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Somebody knocked on the door.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Pastor Hollered, come in.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Somebody came in, construction person wearing a hard hat.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: So excuse me, Pastor, I have a question for you.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You have a mountain out back and oh first let me introduce myself.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'm from the Acme Construction Company.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We're building a mall in the next county.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And we need some field dirt.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You have a mountain in your backyard.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We would love to remove that.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We will pay for your dirt.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: If we can just haul your dirt away and everything that we haul away, all the spots that we we mess up, we are willing to pave it free to you.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We'll pay you for the dirt and we'll pave.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: What we take away, what is flattened.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The pastor said, you're on.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You can have as much field dirt as you'd like.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Just as long as it doubles the size of our current parking lot.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The next weekend, the church was full of people that had mountain-moving faith.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Because they had seen what happens.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Now do you remember what we talked about last week?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Come on, just one, just one.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Ah yeah, it was on prayer, kinda, wasn't it?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Not just prayer though.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It was that God does his part.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: God has a part to play.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And there are some things that only God can do

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And we need to rely on God to do those things, right?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: God has a work to do, and you and I have a responsibility also.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Now I'm not going to apologize to you.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Today there's no slides on the screen.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It's a Bible study.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: So get out the Bible.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And I want to take you to some verses here.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We're going to begin with Matthew chapter 16.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Matthew chapter 16, and we're going to come down to verse 18.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And some of you are going to groan when I say that.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Those of you that are out giving Bible studies and meeting people, you

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Not sure why a pastor of the Seventh-day Adventist Church would take you to a text like this.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Because it's one of those that sometimes causes trouble for Adventists.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And the trouble is not what we're going to talk about today.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's for another sermon at another time at another place.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: But we're just going to go to verse 18 right now.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Notice what verse 18 says.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Says, and I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: shall not prevail against it.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Now some of you are thinking, why is that a problem?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'm going to read the rest of it.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's part of the problem.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Okay?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We're going to start at 17 this time.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Jesus answered and said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Barjonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Then he commanded his disciples that they should tell no one that he was Jesus the Christ.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Now, verse 18 is the verse I want to focus on.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The rest of that.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It's for another time and another place.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And if you cannot wait until we get to it at that other time and other place, you are welcome to come and talk to me about it.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: But verse 18 is what I want to show to you today.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I want you to see that that middle phrase there.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And on this rock I will build my church.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Today I'm pointing out to you, church.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Is God's idea.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Man did not come up with this idea of church.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Church is something that came up in the mind of God.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Church here, Jesus says, I will build my church.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Jesus has a church.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Now the Bible text that we looked at last week, I'm going to invite you to turn and to Acts chapter two

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We looked at it last week and we looked at it uh two weeks before that.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: So Acts chapter two.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Yeah, I'm keeping track of these things.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Acts chapter two last verse there, Acts chapter two, verse forty-seven

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Notice what it says here.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Praising God and having favor with all the people.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And the Lord added what?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: To the church, daily those who were being saved

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The church is God's idea, and he adds to it those individuals that were being saved.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Now you're there in Acts.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Turn over a couple of pages because I know some of you like uh

Pastor Dale Tunnell: A different way of looking at things.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Acts chapter 5, verse 14.

Acts 5:14

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Acts chapter 5, verse 14.

Acts 5:14

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It says, and believers were increasingly added to the Lord.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Multitudes of both men and women.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Acts 2 it says they were added to the church.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Acts 5 it says they're added to

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The Lord.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Notice Acts 14.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Sorry, wrong text.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Acts eleven.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Fourteen was the verse a while ago.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Acts 11, verse 24.

Acts 11:24

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Acts eleven, verse twenty-four.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Talking here about Barnabas.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Says for Barnabas, for he was a good man full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and a great many people were added.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: To the Lord.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: So we see this idea of adding people to the Lord and adding people to the church is a similar idea that's taking place

Pastor Dale Tunnell: In Acts.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Some people want to differentiate between, oh, I just baptized someone into Jesus

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I didn't baptize them as part of the church.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'm telling you, when they're added to the Lord,

Pastor Dale Tunnell: They are added to the church because the church is God's gathering place.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It's the the gathering place for those who are being saved.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Some of you are saying, what's he talking about?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Now, we can look around here and we see that our church is not completely full.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: With the new lights we have, we can see they're empty spaces.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You guys couldn't see that last week, could you?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: This week you can see.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh, don't you love these lights?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Well, I'm going to say hallelujah.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: For those of you that paid for the lights, for those of you, for the people that came and worked and putting them in.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It helps me so I can keep an eye on these people over here.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: They were in the dark for the last couple of months.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I was afraid there was a napping society over

Pastor Dale Tunnell: But I can see you now.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I can keep an eye on you, so no sleeping now.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: But the church is the gathering place.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: For people who are being saved.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's what we should be.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We should be a community that is bringing together

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Individuals that we know and love that are in the process of getting to know Jesus Christ, in the process of being saved.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's the purpose for the church

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We're going to continue on in this thinking place about the church.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I want you to look at the the ministry of Jesus here in John chapter 6.

John 6 · chapter mention

Pastor Dale Tunnell: John chapter six John six verse thirty-eight

Pastor Dale Tunnell: John six thirty-eight, this is Jesus talking

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Uh oh, let's just start at 35, kind of get a little context here.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: 35, Jesus said to them.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I am the bread of life.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe

Pastor Dale Tunnell: All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will in no means cast out.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The verse I wanted to focus on for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will

Pastor Dale Tunnell: but the will of him who sent me.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Jesus came to this earth for what purpose

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Yes, to do his father's will.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He came to do his father's will.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: What do you think is the purpose of the church?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: To do God's will, it should be the same, huh?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Matthew chapter 12 says that exact same thing.

Matthew 12 · chapter mention

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Matthew chapter 12.

Matthew 12 · chapter mention

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Told you it was a Bible study here, Matthew chapter twelve.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Verse 50.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He says, For whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my mother, my brother, and sister.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Those that do the Father's will.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Turn back a few pages.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Matthew chapter 7.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Matthew chapter 7.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I heard the commercial earlier, but I'll make it again.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: At prayer meeting, our midweek meeting, we're studying the book Thoughts from the Mount of Blessings.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You should come and read that book.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's from the Sermon on the Mount.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Okay, this Matthew 5, 6, and 7.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Matthew 7 here is part of that sermon.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: On the mount.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: So hope you can come on on Wednesday evening, 6:30.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Matthew chapter 7, come down to verse 21.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh, let's just read that whole section there.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: But he who does the will of my Father in heaven, many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Have we not cast out demons in your name?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And done many wonderful wonders in your name?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And then I will declare to them, I never knew you.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Notice that that first part there.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Who does he say is going to enter?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Those who do his will.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Now, Jesus is is countering here between two different groups of people.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The two different groups of people are those that do his will and those that

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I know you're thinking it's you're gonna say talk.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean you're thinking about uh s just talk in his name, right?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Yeah, we have a lot of people that are not doers.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: They are talkers.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: They are believers.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Sometimes they're out even working miracles, prophesying, casting out demons, doing wonders in the name of Jesus.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: But Jesus says, Depart from me you who practice lawlessness.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Prophesying is lawlessness?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Casting out demons is lawlessness?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Doing wonders is lawlessness?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: What's he contrasting with those that do the will of God?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Now, in my mind, I see I see church here.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I see people that are in church, individuals that are doing the will of God, and individuals that are acting like they're doing the will of God.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We don't know anybody like that, do we?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Because we're all doers, correct?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We want to be filled with a church of people that are are are doing the will of God.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: This week I heard on the Southern Gospel Radio a song that I said that says uh oh I gotta see if I can get it right.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I didn't even write it down.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Does your walk talk more than your talk talks?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Does your walk talk more than your talk talks?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: What's that mean?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you do it?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Or do you just talk about it?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Which one's better, your talk talk or your walk talk?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: La last or two weeks ago, I was in Tennessee and I saw a young man.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He was walking across the room I was in, and he was pushing a suitcase that was a bright pink suitcase.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And I made the comment to him, I said, that's a little pink for you, isn't it?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Knowing that he was taking his girlfriend's suitcase out.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: But he returned and he says, Oh, you like my shirt?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And then I noticed that his shirt had a little pink on it.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I hadn't noticed that before.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And he said, I wear this shirt because of you.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Me?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Yeah, he said, you used to wear that pink shirt to church, and I figured if anybody can wear a pink shirt, uh if any man can wear a pink shirt like you wear it, he said, I can wear it.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Now I'm not saying pink shirts gonna get you in heaven.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: But what I'm saying is people are watching the way you walk.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You can talk and say all kinds of things, but the way you walk is what people are watching.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And so our walk-talk needs to be in line with our talk-talk.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: According to what Jesus says here in Matthew seven

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The church should be a gathering place for those who are being saved and for those who are doing what God wants them to do.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Those who are doing what God wants them to do.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We need to be doers of the word

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Not just readers of the word, not just believers of the word, doers of the word

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Next Bible text is 1 Peter chapter 2.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Part of our scripture reading.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 9 and 10.

1 Peter 2:9

Pastor Dale Tunnell: First Peter chapter 2, verses 9 and 10 says, But you are a chosen generation

1 Peter 2:9

Pastor Dale Tunnell: A royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Who once were not a people, but you are now the people of God who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Isn't that a beautiful text?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Don't you like that text?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You are a chosen generation.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: How do you feel?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Chosen?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: God chose you.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You're not only a chosen generation, you are a royal priesthood.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Go ahead, sit up a little taller.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You are royalty.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: My parents used to remind me of that.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Would you act like royalty?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: When I was misbehaving.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You are royalty.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You are a holy nation.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Are you a holy nation?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: His own special people.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I want to focus on that word, word priesthood, okay?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The the church is is kind of a a a priesthood.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: If I were to ask you what do priests do, what would you say?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Go between God and man is what I heard.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Uh serve.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Think about the Old Testament there.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: When we think about the priests, we think about individuals who sacrifice.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: In fact, in Leviticus,

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh, I have it written down here.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Leviticus 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The priests are interceding for the people.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: In Leviticus 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, it talks about sacrifice after sacrifice and the different kinds of sacrifices.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The different ways that the priests were were interceding on behalf of the people.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The priests were the ones who would help the people, and they would would take the people, they would help them to to

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Cut the throat of the sacrifice, the priests were the ones who took the blood, the priests were the ones who took it into the temple and sprinkled it in the in the temple before the veil.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: This was the work of the priest, interceding on behalf of the people.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: When you think of offering sacrifice,

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Interceding for people.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I had an Old Testament picture come to my mind, one that I I really like, and that was Brother Job.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Now, a lot of times we talk about Job and we tell his story, but the introduction to Job.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Turn to Job chapter 1.

Job 1 · chapter mention

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We're going to come back here to the New Testament in a minute, but uh Job.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Chapter 1.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That yeah, Job right before Psalms there, Job 1.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We don't spend a lot of time talking about the this first part of Job.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Job chapter 1.

Job 1 · chapter mention

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Begin reading here, verse 1.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Job was a man in the land of us, whose name was there was a man in the land of us whose name was Job.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And that man was.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Blameless, some of your versions say righteous and upright.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: One who feared God and shunned evil.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He has seven sons and three daughters were born to him.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Also his possessions were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large household, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And his sons would go and feast in their houses, each on his appointed day, and would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them

Pastor Dale Tunnell: So it was when the days of feasting had run their course that Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: For Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Thus Job did regularly.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: What kind of father was Job?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: A concerned father.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He was worried about the welfare of his children.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: So much so that he was taking from his herds and he was sacrificing for his children and he was interceding.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: for them.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He was begging God to forgive his children.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I thought the children were supposed to confess their sins

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Are the children supposed to confess their sins?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Absolutely.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: If you confess your sins, we we kind of have this whole individualistic attitude about things.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: If you confess your sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And we we think of this as individuals and oh they can confess and oh they can confess and oh

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Yeah, he can confess too.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's his responsibility.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: But here Job was a righteous man, and what was he doing?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He was interceding.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He was pleading to God.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He was pleading God for forgiveness for his children.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh, parents, uh, those of you that had dedication today, y'all, that's the kind of parents we need to be.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Interceding for our children

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Those of you as parents interceding for our children and grandchildren.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Does it go further?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Moses interceded for Israel.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Does it go further?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, when was the last time that you on your knees pleaded for God for this Mesa Valley?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We don't care about them.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Those are sinners out there.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And there's a lot of them.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Sometimes that's the way we feel, isn't it?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: But we need to be interceding for them.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Pleading for them.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The same way Abraham pled for Sodom and Gomorrah.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Lord, if there's ten righteous, you want destroy it for ten, would you?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The priests.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The priests had other responsibilities as well.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you know what else the priest did?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Interceding?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Another responsibility they had.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I didn't hear that.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: They were also judges, weren't they?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'm not gonna deal with that one today.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Well I d I had it written down, but I took it off.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Time-wise.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'm gonna go to the one I had.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: They maintain the sanctuary.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Exodus twenty-seven.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Exodus twenty-seven, twenty and twenty-one.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Tells us that they were to maintain the sanctuary.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: They had responsibilities that they were supposed to do there.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Exodus 27

Pastor Dale Tunnell: 20 and 21, it says, and you shall command the children of Israel that they bring you pure oil or pressed olives for the light.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: to cause the lamp to burn continually in the tabernacle of meeting outside the veil which is before the testimony.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening until morning before the Lord.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It shall be a statue forever to their generations on behalf of the children of Israel.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Our responsibility as priests, the priesthood of all believers, our responsibility is to maintain the sanctuary, the temple.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I know you're thinking, oh, well, we did the lights.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: What else we need to do?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's not what I'm talking about.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Turn back to the New Testament, Ephesians chapter 2

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Yes, the lights needed taken care of, but that's not what uh Jesus here is talking about.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Ephesians chapter 2.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Nineteen and following Ephesians chapter two verses nineteen and follow to twenty-two

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It says now therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets Jesus Christ Himself.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Being the chief cornerstone.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh, that's part of the answer for the Matthew problem we had earlier.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: In whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple of the Lord.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Notice it says you also are being

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Grown fitted together, growing into a holy temple.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That you is not you, you, you, you, you.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It's you

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Yeah, you guys don't understand that, do ya?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You probably do.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: When I preach this sermon in the South, Tennessee, Georgia areas, I use the word they know y'all.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you guys understand that?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: This is plural.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Turn over a page.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: First Corinthians or turn back a page.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: First Corinthians chapter 3.

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Sometimes we use this one in the wrong way.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: 1 Corinthians chapter 3, but it says the same thing here.

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

Pastor Dale Tunnell: First Corinthians chapter 3 verse 16 and 17.

1 Corinthians 3:16

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Says, Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We often use that text.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: In fact, it's underlined, highlighted, and we use that in the context of health ministries.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Right?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'm gonna tell you the U in this instance is plural

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do y'all not know?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You got it?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That ewans are the temple of God?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And that the Spirit of God dwells in you.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: If anyone defiles the temple of God, if anyone defiles y'all.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do we understand that?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: If we are the priesthood and we're supposed to take care of the temple, that means we are supposed to.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Take care of each other.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We have a responsibility to each other.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean just look around.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You can see each other now, okay?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Look around, okay

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Look behind you.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you want those people in heaven with you?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I know they may sit across the aisle from you, but do you want those people in heaven with you?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: What do we do to ensure that that person, those people, are going to be in heaven with you?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We have a responsibility to one another.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Turn a couple of pages, 1 Corinthians chapter 6.

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

Pastor Dale Tunnell: 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 19.

1 Corinthians 6:19

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Those of you in health ministry that were afraid that I took away the verse you were using, don't fear.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It's still here.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 19.

1 Corinthians 6:19

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh, we'll start with 18 so you get the context, so you know I know what I'm talking about.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Verse 18 says, flee sexual immorality.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but you commit sexual immorality sins against his own body.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you

Pastor Dale Tunnell: whom you have from God, and you are not your own.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You were bought at a price.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You belong to God.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You individually, you individually are the temple of God.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You're a priest of all believers.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That means you need to maintain your temple

Pastor Dale Tunnell: As a priesthood of all believers, that means we corporately need to maintain God's temple.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We have a responsibility to one another.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Because we are the priest of God.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Now maybe that responsibility begins with self-care.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You know what happens when you get on the plane?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: They begin to give you instructions in case of an emergency.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The masks are going to come down from the ceiling.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: What do they tell you to do?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Put your mask on first.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: In other words, don't worry about your children.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Don't worry about your spouse.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Don't worry about your parents.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Put yours on first because

Pastor Dale Tunnell: If you are not breathing, you cannot help the people around you.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: So put yours on first so that

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That you can take care of the people around you.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Make sure that you have that relationship with God so that you can care for the people around you.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Make sure you are connected.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's part of the priesthood of all believers.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The third thing that the priests do that I wanted to talk about today was they were to teach the law of God.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: God.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Leviticus 11, Leviticus 10, verse 11 says part of their responsibility is to teach all the things that Moses recorded.

Leviticus 10:11

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That is part of the the the priest's responsibility.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That sounds an awful lot like Jesus, the text that we read last week.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The text that we had for our scripture reading today.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: What Jesus told his disciples, go you therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That means we have a responsibility to teach

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Baptize and teach some more.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you think we have this the the the Sabbath school class just for the fun of having Sabbath school?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: class?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's because we are teaching some more.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: This is so that we can encourage one another to grow up and in the fullness and the stature of Jesus Christ.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: At mid midweek service, we have small groups so that we can encourage people to grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We have this responsibility that we're doing because we are priests for God.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Revelation 14 are our main text that we have as Seventh day Adventists.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to go to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: How's it going to get there?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Somebody has to tell.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Somebody has to call them.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Says crying out with a loud voice, fear God and give glory to Him.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: him for the hour of his judgment has come.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: There I got that word in that you were wanted to for the hour of his judgment has come.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We're supposed to be letting people know.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We're supposed to be calling them.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Come and worship the Creator, the one who made the sea and the fountains of water.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's part of our teaching that we're supposed to do.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Teaching the law of God.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Teaching about what God's will is for their life.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Have any of you heard of God pods?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You know what god pods are?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Adventist World Radio uses the word god pods.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: God pods are not

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It's not a a normal name they use out in the industry, but it's an electronic computer-like device that uh has on their recording of the entire Bible it has evangelistic surviving

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Sermons on there, it has music on there, it has uh spirit of prophecy books on the one that Adventist World Radio is is handing out.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And the neat thing about these this this instrument that Adventist World Radio uses is that it is solar powered.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And so they distribute these things in places that where the electricity is not constant.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Places out in rural places.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: One of the places that they work was in Papua New Guinea, PNG.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Trying to get the the message out.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: A couple years ago we had a large baptism there, series of meetings, and we had baptism there of 300,000 people.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: They handed out some more godpods there and the people were were were sharing them.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Well, one of these godpods made it to the island of Siasi.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Populated island not far from Papua part of Papua New Guinea, but it's

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It's it's an island and there are lots of people there, but there are only two Seventh-day Adventists, and the rest of the people that are there are Catholic and Lutheran

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It just so happened that a Catholic family received a godpod, and they were excited to have the godpod.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: They enjoyed listening to the music, they enjoyed listening to the children.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Story.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: They enjoy listening to the prophecy seminars.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: They liked what they were hearing.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The problem is their neighbors next door is a Lutheran family.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And they didn't have a godpod.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And they were jealous.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And one night, while the Catholic family was sleeping, one of the family members

Pastor Dale Tunnell: From the Lutherans went over to the Catholic house and they stole the godpod.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Yes, well is right.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It was a terrible offense.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The Catholic family found it intolerable to watch their their rival family being exaltingly listening to the Godpod and calling members of the community to come and listen to them.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The God Pod.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And so the Catholic family decided to call the authorities, and an investigation ensued.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The judge was unable to reach a resolution that both parties were happy with, and so he took a Solomonic approach.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The Catholic family gets it for a week, and then the Lutheran family gets it for a week.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And then the Catholic family gets it for a week, and then the Lutheran family gets it for

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Weaker

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Despite the protest of both families, they finally relented and agreed.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Now I'm not going to tell you all the details of the story, just to sum it up here.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Right now there are 35 people requesting baptism on the island.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We serve an amazing God.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Who has called us to be ambassadors for him?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Friends, the truth of the matter is the church is Jesus' idea.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The church is the collecting place.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: for people that would be saved.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The church is a family, a community of believers, of individuals that are wanting to do the will of the Father.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Father.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The church is a collection of priests for God, ministering on behalf of God, interceding

Pastor Dale Tunnell: For the community, maintaining the temple of God, caring for the needs of the church, and teaching others what God

Pastor Dale Tunnell: God's will is.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Now is the time for the church to rise up and do what the church is supposed to do

Pastor Dale Tunnell: to do.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: God will do his work if we will do ours.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: At this time I invite you to stand as we sing together, Rise up, O Church of God.